Knowing God - Introduction

John Hoole February 22 & 29, 2004

Over the past four lessons, we have investigated what the Bible says about fearing God. We looked at what it is, and how to assess if we have it or not. We saw that we can learn to fear our Lord, and looked at the dozens of benefits from fearing the Lord. Today, I want to start by repeating a few of those benefits that come to a person who fears God. Listen closely to the results that come to a God-fearing person.
Proverbs 1:7 NKJV
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10 NKJV
10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 10:27 NKJV
27 The fear of the LORD prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 14:26 NKJV
26 In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.

Proverbs 14:27 NKJV
27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 15:16 NKJV
16 Better is a little with the fear of the LORD, Than great treasure with trouble.

Proverbs 15:33 NKJV
33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility.

Proverbs 16:6 NKJV
6 In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.

As you were reading through these verses with me, I wonder if something occurred to you.
o Did you notice that the fear of the isn't actually knowledge? It is only the beginning of knowledge.
o It is not actually wisdom, but only the beginning of wisdom.
o It doesn't give you an eternal earthly life, but it prolongs it.
o It doesn't make you infallible, but it gives you strong confidence.
o It isn't life in a literal sense, but it is a fountain of life.
o It isn't treasure, but it is better than treasure.
o And fearing the LORD doesn't prevent evil, but by that fear you can stay away from evil.

I hope that as we read these verses, you noticed that when you fear the Lord, you haven't arrived at where He ultimately wants you. You have only put yourself in a place where God cant take you the rest of the way. Whenever we show Him that fear, that respectful awe, that strong desire not to hurt Him, we are merely opening ourselves to being led from where we are, to where God wants us ultimately to be, one step at a time.
Something else to notice is that every result of fearing God requires some effort on our part.
o To continue in knowledge, wisdom and life, we must continue to fear the Lord.
o We may have strong confidence, but we must still choose to go into the refuge He provides.
o We may be provided a fountain of life, but we must choose to drink of it.
o We may be provided instruction, but we must still choose to study.
o We may be given the ability to keep away from evil, but we must choose not to walk where evil is.

So, where do we go from here? Today, I want to focus on a very important next step in our walk with God. In our first lesson in our series on Proverbs, I mentioned what is called the "key verse" of this great Book.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT PROVERB'S KEY VERSE IS? It happens to be the very first verse we read a few minutes ago.
Proverbs 1:7 NKJV
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

In that first lesson, I also said that this key verse has a corollary that echoes its teaching. It was the second verse we read a moment ago.
Proverbs 9:10 NKJV
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

From this verse we learn two aspects of our life with God.
1. Wisdom has its foundation and root in a proper reverence of God.
2. And insight and understanding, are a product of "knowing God."

Today, we are going to focus on the last half of this verse. I believe this is an important "next step," once we have learned to fear the Lord. Actually, fearing God and knowing Him must go together. And the result of these two is wisdom and understanding, both of which are critical in the life of a Christian. There are a number of verses that link wisdom and understanding. They point to the importance of possessing both.
Proverbs 4:7 NKJV
7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

While wisdom and understanding are the results, "fearing God" and "knowing Him" are the prerequisite, the condition for possessing them. We have addressed "fearing the Lord." Today, we are going to focus our attention on "knowing God, the Holy One."
Proverbs 3:5-6(NKJV) is familiar to most of us.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

The words "acknowledge Him" in verse 6 literally mean to "know Him." If we want to acquire understanding on how to live our life for God, we need to get to know God. Not just know ABOUT Him, but know him intimately. But, we will never get to know God unless we know things about Him. So let's begin with that issue first.
IF SOMEONE ASKED YOU TO DESCRIBE GOD, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM? IN OTHER WORDS, WHAT IS GOD?
I did not ask, "Who is God?"ЕЕ, but "What is God." Most of us have probably not taken catechism classes. But in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the fourth question raised is the one we are now addressing. What is God? The answer given in the catechism reads as follows:
"God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."

Allow me to approach the subject of knowing about God in a slightly different manner.
IS THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU A PERSON? HOW DO YOU KNOW THEY ARE?
o You say he is a person because he has a body. Is an animal a person?
o You say they are a person because they are visible. Is the devil a person? Is he visible?

DEFINE WHAT A PERSON IS.
A person is any being that can think rationally, feel, desire or act. A person is a self-conscious or rational individuality possessing self-directing power.
HOW THEN DO WE DESCRIBE A HUMAN BEING? JUST WHAT ARE WE?
o Are we a created physical being, which has been endowed with a soul and/or a spirit?
o Or are we a spiritual being who has been crowned with a body?
We are, in fact, a spiritual being which has been given physical substance.

Genesis 2:7 NKJV
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

BESIDES HUMAN BEINGS, DO OTHER PERSONS EXIST?
o Angels
o Satan
o Demons
o God

Most of these do not exist in the realm of the physical. That is, their normal state is without a physical body.
DO WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT ANY OF THESE NON-HUMAN PERSONS HAVE TAKEN ON A BODY?
o Satan took on the form of a serpent.
o God, at various times took on a human form.
o Moses saw the hinder part of God.
o God appeared bodily to Lot and to Abraham.
o The Holy Spirit took on the form of a dove.
o God was the 4th man in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew teenagers.
o And, of course, we have the Son of God in his humanity.

IS TAKING ON A BODILY FORM THE SAME AS POSSESSING OR INDWELLING A HUMAN PERSON'S BODY?
When any spirit being takes on a physical or visible form, it is not the body of a living person. But when a spirit being possesses or indwells a human's body, that body already belongs to an existing person.
DO THESE SPIRIT PERSONS COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER? IF SO, HOW?
o Satan communicated with God concerning Job (Job 1:6-12)
o Satan accuses us continuously before the throne of God (Revelation 12:10).
o Michael the archangel said "The Lord rebuke thee" to Satan. (Jude 9)

DO THESE SPIRIT PERSONS COMMUNICATE WITH US HUMANS? IF SO, HOW?
o Satan spoke to Eve.
o Romans 8:16 tells us that God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are a child of God.
o Jesus could receive communications from a person's thoughts. Matthew 9:4 - "Jesus, knowing their thoughtsЕ.."
o John 14:26 tells how the Holy Spirit will teach and guide us into all truths.
o Acts 5:3 tells how the devil filled the heart of Ananias and Sapphira to lie against the Holy Spirit.
o Angels sometimes have spoken audibly - for instance, to Mary, Abraham, Lot, Hagar, Peter, Gideon, Cornelius, Women at the tomb, those present when Christ ascended to heaven, etc..

The fullest, and most complete, communication of God to us humans is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. "In Him was the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (Colossians 2:9)
IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME AND GOD HAD NEVER SPOKEN TO US, AUDIBLY OR IN WRITING, WOULD WE KNOW HE EXISTED? IF SO, COULD WE EVERY REALLY KNOW HIM?
Let me answer the question this way.
1. When a geologist decides to study and get to know about rock formations, whose effort contributes to the knowledge gained - the geologist or the stone. The rocks have no input as to when or how this study is going to take place. It depends entirely on the geologist. He decides when to study, and what to study, and how to study. He must decide to go where the rock formations are. And when he does, the rocks just sit there. The rocks do not exert a will of their own which thinks and says: "We don't want to be studied today." So, if a person wants to get to know rocks, it is entirely up to the geologist's own will.
2. As one tries to get to know something that has a higher intelligence quotient, then the scene takes on some significant changes to that of the rock. When a zoologist desires to get to know a particular species of animal - say the deer, by-and-large, the result will depend greatly on the zoologist. Like the geologist and the rocks, the zoologist must decide when to study, and what to studyЕЕand how to study. But the problems he encounters begin when he goes to where the deer are. Unlike the rocks, the animal may not just sit there. He may decide to avoid the zoologist. He may even be fearful of him. So the zoologist must be clever if he is to thoroughly study this particular animal. In the final analysis, the results of his study largely depends on the zoologist, but the animal may exert a will of its own, which may affect the observation.
3. When a person tries to observe and get to know another person, the picture changes once again. The observer can watch another person and come to know: their habits, their mannerisms, the clothes they like to wear, the job they hold, the car they drive, the kind of friends they enjoy being around, the influence they exert on others. But can the observer, even then, say that they really know the other person? No! To really get to know another person, you must converse with them, asking many questions.
DOES THE OBSERVER YET KNOW THE PERSON?
Not even this is enough. WHY NOT? The other person can always decide not to disclose their innermost feelings, their "real" self, so to speak. In fact, you may be acquainted with a person for years, and never really get to know them. If I want to get to know you, I need to make myself available to you, and reach out to you in a friendly way, and show an interest in you. But that will accomplish very little unless you are willing to reveal yourself to me. You are the key. You decide whether or not I will ever get to know you. If you want me to know you, you will open up and tell me about yourself, what you are thinking, what you really believe, what you are feeling. So, the degree to which one person is known by another person depends not so much on the observer as the observed.
4. Now, when we finite human beings try to observe and get to know the infinite God of the universe, the scene takes a mega-change. Before proceding further, let's go back to our question.
IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME AND GOD HAD NEVER SPOKEN TO US, AUDIBLY OR IN WRITING, WOULD WE KNOW HE EXISTED? IF SO, WOULD WE EVER REALLY KNOW HIM? IF GOD HAD NOT COME DOWN TO WALK IN THE GARDEN WITH ADAM AND EVE, AND NEVER TALKED TO THEM, WOULD THEY KNOW HE EXISTED? WOULD THEY KNOW WHERE THEY CAME FROM? WOULD THEY KNOW THEIR ORIGIN?
People known as DEISTS have lived in all generations over the last 300 to 400 years. Do you know what a deist is? Deists believe there is a God, but that He does not interface with His creation. After creation, the universe was left to function solely on the basis of created laws. In essence, deists believe God "wound up" the universe, then disassociated Himself from creation.
I went out on the internet to visit web sites espousing the deistic position. Here is a quote from one of them.
The Calabash Interfaith Fellowship
"We believe that God designed and created the world, and governs it through natural laws that can be discovered through reasoning, observation, and experience. We feel that God does not reveal himself to us through inspired or revealed texts or by supernatural means, but through creation itself."

Members of the United Deist Community hold the belief that...
"God is discovered through Reason -- but the task of discovery is never over. We each pursue a lifelong intellectual odyssey; harvesting from the tree of knowledge all the wisdom that we can."

For the deist, they believe that we can know about God, but we can never really know God. I hope there are no deists here today, because the Bible tells us something much different. God is infinite, and we are finite human beings. Is it possible for the finite, on their own initiative, to ever really know or understand the infinite? How can the human ever truly know the divine?
Herbert Spencer, an agnostic, once pointed out that "ЕЕno bird ever flew out of the heavens and therefore concluded that man cannot know God." What Spencer is saying is that man in his finiteness, like the bird, can only go so far and no farther. There is a ceiling, a veil which separates us from God, and we are helpless to penetrate it from our side and find Him. According to this agnostic, the only way we accumulate knowledge is through experience (empiricism) or reason (rationalism).
That is the same way which the deists say gaining knowledge occurs. What both of these groups are saying is simply that if God does exist, man cannot make contact with Him through any effort of his own.
Our world is affected tragically every day by people who possess little or no sense of God's transcendence. Much of creation does not know - or care - that its Creator is unequalled, unrivaled and supreme. Transcendence when in reference to God means that He exists, not only in, but beyond our realm of reality. In other words, He is not like us - far from it. God is exalted far above His created universe, so far that even the brightest human minds cannot begin to fathom it.
As A.W. Tozer explains:
"The caterpillar are and the archangel, though far removed from each other in the scale of created things, are nevertheless one in that they are alike created. They both belong in the category of that-which-is-not-God and are separated from God by infinitude itself."

The fact of the matter is, when we finite beings try to observe and get to know an infinite God the result of that observation and the knowledge gained depends entirely on God. If He decided not to reveal himself to the human race, we would know absolutely nothing concerning His character. For both the agnostic and the deist, if knowledge of God is to be attained, it will come through the sheer power of human thought. It will come by rationalization and philosophic speculation.
There are obvious troubles there. For one thing, God is infinite, the mind of man is finite; and the finite can never grasp the infinite. Long ago Zophar asked: "Can you, by searching, find out the deep things of God?" (Job 11:7)
Both the agnostic and the deist have forgotten one very important possibility. If God does in fact exist, would He be able to penetrate the veil from His side, and, thereby, make His presence and person known. Of course, He could. The next question would logically be, "Has He ever done so?" The Christian would answer with a resounding "Yes!"
If this, in fact, can happen, then humans have an additional source of knowing truth, in addition to experience and reason. It's called REVELATION. If God is ever to be known, He must be known, not because man's mind discovers Him, but because he chooses to reveal himself. And, unlike trying to observe other humans, where the person being observed can put on airs, wear a mask, and thus hindering the observer from coming to know them, God is not like that at all.
The God of heaven, the Creator of the universe, wants to be known. He wants to open up and let you really get to know Him. God loves fellowship. He likes to be with people. He is "Immanuel" - God WITH us. He is confident that the more we know Him the more we will love Him, and the more we will trust Him, worship Him and serve Him. So He takes the initiative and opens up. He tells us about Himself. He reveals Himself to us
God has chosen a number of ways in which He discloses Himself to us. I have alluded to a couple of them already but let's make a list of how God discloses himself and speaks to mankind.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS GOD COMMUNICATED TO US SO WE CAN KNOW HIM AND HAVE AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM?
1. The written Word of God - The Bible
The Scriptures is a self-disclosure of God. If God hadn't given us the Bible, we would have great difficulty in realizing that Jesus was and is God's Son, and that He was sent to earth to secure our salvation. Near the end of John's gospel, John 20:30-31 (NKJV) says:
30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Behind and beneath this Book we call the Bible, above and beyond this Book, is the God of the Book. The Bible is all about God. It not only reveals things about God, but reveals the innermost feeling of His heart. We study the Word of God so we might better know the God of the Word. The better acquainted we are with God, the more we become like Him and acquire the skills we need for life and service.
The book of Proverbs reveals to us the wonderful God whom we should trust, obey, love, and get to know in a deeper way. As we grow in our intimacy with God, we will develop the wisdom and skills we need to be successful in making a life.

2. The Living Word - Jesus
Another way in which God has spoken and reveled Himself is through His Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV
1 God's Supreme Revelation (cf. John 1:1-4) God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

During the Old Testament times, God sometimes used dreams to reveal things as in the case of Joseph. Other times God used divine messengers (we call them angels) as in the case of Lot, when Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed. Sometimes God reveled Himself directly in the form of a person, Such as in the case of Joshua (Joshua 4:13-15). But most of the time, God spoke through prophets, men who preached His word to the people. Sometimes, these prophets also recorded their prophetic experiences.
According to Peter, when these prophets spoke, it involved the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21 says, "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
With Jesus coming to the earth, mankind had a very personal revelation of God. Jesus Christ is the out-shining of God's glory and the perfect expression of God's essential being. To know Him is to know God.
In John 14:7, Jesus made that claim when He said,
"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."

3. The Holy Spirit
John 16:13 tells us that one of the activities of the Holy Spirit is to guide into all Truth. This must include an unveiling of God so that we can know Him intimately.

4. The True Church
The Church is the Body of Christ. Because of that, the church is vitally linked to Christ the Head. We know the Head and are a reflection of God through the body. Hopefully, the world will take note that we have been with God, and thereby come to know about God and attract them into the kingdom. Our actions reveal our link to our Lord and Savior.
John 13:35 (NKJV) reads:
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Action in our daily lives can become an instrument for people to get to know about our God, or have the desire to also know God personally. The only Jesus some people see is those who walk with Him daily.

5. Nature - His creation
Psalms 19:1-2 NKJV
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.

God can be known, at least in part, by the world He has created.
Romans 1:20-22, 28 NIV
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

We can learn about God through what He has created. But this is not a perfect or complete knowledge of God. Nature may lead some to know there must be a Supreme Being, but creation does not reveal whether He is a loving God or a Barbarian. It does not reveal whether this God wants to have a relationship with us, or whether He cares less about us. Nature doesn't tell us the means of salvation nor does it reveal that we are sinners. Neither does it indicate that Jesus came to earth to die in our place. The knowledge about God we learn from nature is not gospel information about entering into a spiritual relationship with Him. But it is information that points to the existence of God.

6. Our conscience
God created us with a conscience. This conscience is the voice of God It speaks absolutely - with no ifs, ands or buts. That's the way God created us, but the Bible also tells us that our conscience can be seared, so that it no longer hears the still small voice of our Lord. And as such, like "nature," our conscience can be an unreliable source of knowledge about God. But, when in tune with the Holy Spirit, God can use it to disclose His truths.

7. Our Life's experiences
God works, at time, in mysterious way, to unfold His nature and will to us. How many times have you heard someone tell you of a very close call in their life, and then say, "even though I couldn't see Him, I know God or His angels were there." One of our greatest means of witnessing to the lost is to share your life story with them. They will see in you something different than the rest of the world, when they see how confident and calm you were in times of great difficulty. Our lives are an advertisement about God. This may be the most effective means for people to come to know God personally.

8. Prayer
Prayer is having a conversation with God. And that is one of the prerequisites of getting to know another person. We need to talk with them in order to know them. And the same is true with God. You may learn more about God from a few minutes of prayerful repentance than from a lifetime in the library of a Bible College.

God is knowable, and He does want to be known. As a matter of fact, He tells us that our eternal state depends upon knowing Him. In John 17:3, Jesus said: And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Just as we can know God only if He initiates the communication and reveals Himself, so also, we could not enjoy intimacy with Him, unless Jesus paid the full price for salvation. We would never have been able to either know God or save ourselves using our own reason. That takes God Himself and only Himself.
Of course, the spiritual faculties we need to know God are not operative when we are born into this world. Scripture says they are dead, according to Ephesians 2:1. They need to be made alive toward God. God does that for us when we acknowledge our guilt and put our trust in Christ's payment for our sins at Calvary. In a second birth, a spiritual birth, a birth from above, He gives us eternal, spiritual life (John 3:3, 16). He enters our being in the person of his Holy Spirit and brings us into a personal relationship with Himself. Then we can confidently say, "I know the Lord."
The knowledge of God begins at the cross of Jesus Christ. This is the knowledge He was referring to when He claimed that eternal life was a matter of knowing His Father and Himself. Knowing God in this sense means becoming a true Christian. From that point on, we have the Holy Spirit within us, Who will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). We are no longer blind in our spiritual eyes.
Knowing God and His Son Jesus is the heart of the whole matter of eternal life. The word know in this verse does not refer to a casual acquaintance either. It is the kind of knowledge that come through living contact and personal relationship. If knowing God is that important, maybe we ought to talk about how we can get to really know Him.
While knowing God occurs at salvation there are degrees of knowing God. Some people seem to know God more than others. They seem to have a greater intimacy with Him. We sing a song that has the phrase, "I want to know you more." As I said before, when we accept Christ as our Savior, we can confidently say, "I know the Lord." But that is only the beginning of this tremendous life with God.
Many Bible scholars believe as a result of their examination of Scripture that the Christian's most important occupation is getting to know God.

Questions, comments & suggestions to John Hoole