God Loves… Himself

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Unless we worship God as the self-existent God we are worshiping an unknown God and worship in ignorance. This is something we must realize and know about God if we are going to adore and worship in spirit and truth. This God we worship is not one that we can serve or do anything for, but instead we must seek Him for all that we have and know that all comes from Him. This true and living God does not need us for anything at all, but we need Him for everything.

Even the Old Testament Israelites, the ones who had the inspired revelation of creation, seem to fall into the trap of believing that they could do something for God. If we would take but a moment of reflection, we could see that the God who created the heavens and the earth as He pleased and sustains them as He pleases is not a God that we can do anything for. He did not create us because He needed us, but He created us as instruments of His glory. He did not create us because of something He lacked, but He created us out of a fullness of Himself or an overflowing of Himself and His Divine glory.

Oh how we should wake up and realize who we are and who this great and glorious God is. In the fall we have fallen into spiritual death and as such we are blind to who this great God is. But how in the world could the Israelites really think that if they built a temple for God that they were doing something for Him as if He needed a place He could rest? Whatever they were going to build the temple with, they were going to build them with things that God had brought into being. This seems to have never entered their minds. Imagine the darkness and blindness of a group that thinks that they can build something that will help God when in fact God fills the heavens and the earth. Imagine thinking that the God who brought all things into being that are in being can actually have a need that they could meet.

What kind of a person does the living God look at (with favor)? He looks upon humble, the contrite, and those who tremble at His word. This is to say that He looks with favor on those who know that they can do nothing for Him and they know that they can do nothing in their own strength and power that pleases Him, but they bow before Him and want Him to use them as He pleases. These are those people who see the arrogance and pride of their own hearts in living their own lives and in thinking that their religious life actually pleased God, but now they are contrite and sorrowful over such wicked thinking. No longer do these people ignore or laugh at the words of God, but now they tremble when they read them because they see the greatness of God and His promises of wrath upon all who do not bow to Him.

The truth of the self-existent God should crash our little religious parties and destroy all of our self-righteousness and especially our religious righteousness. The truth of the self-existent God should teach us how utterly dependent we are upon Him and how we exist and have our every breath at His mere pleasure. We must learn that religion is not a way of doing things for God that He will reward us back, but true Christianity is really about Christ alone and grace alone. True believers are to live by grace that they cannot possibly earn the slightest part of but receive it freely. True believers must learn humility and nothingness before God. True Christianity is in some ways a declaration of the self-existent God who has no needs but is willing to show grace as He pleases to those He brings to the point of giving up all hope in doing for God but instead they receive all from Him. In this the glory of God shines through Christ and then through His people. In this we behold His self-existence, bow, and worship.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

When the Lord sent Moses to free the Israelites from Egypt, he was told that it was the I AM who sent him to them. As we reflect on what that might mean to a nation of slaves who possessed nothing to take them out of the land and to sustain them on the journey to another land, it means that the God who exists of Himself and all things have their existence from Him is the one who sent Moses. On the surface of it this may not seem like a terribly meaningful statement, but if one goes a bit deeper then one can see that the God who exists in and of Himself is the One who brings all things into existence that have existence and sustains all things as He pleases. It is precisely this God that could bring the people out of the land of the Egyptians and sustain them at His mere pleasure.

It is also precisely the kind of God that every believer needs as well, though it may not be so obvious. The believer must have a God who can obtain a perfect righteousness and also pay for his or her debt. The believer must have a Savior who will purchase a new life for him or her and then sustain that life for him or her for eternity. The believer has no power to obey God in him or herself so that believer has to be sustained by a self-existent power that comes to the believer by grace alone. As the Israelites were fed with manna that came to them simply and only by the ability of the self-existent God with no needs, so believers are fed with the bread of heaven (Christ) who comes to them and feeds them by grace alone. The self-existence of God feeds the faith of believers and on the basis of that their souls are fed with Christ.

Isaiah 43:10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. 11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. 12 “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. 13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

When Scripture uses the word LORD and all the letters of the word are in caps, virtually every time it is translating the word “YAHWEH” which is the personal name for God which comes from the “I AM” in Exodus 3:14. What is it that the LORD wants people to know and to believe? It was that they were to understand that the LORD is He and that before Him there was no God and there will be none after Him. This is to say that He is the one and only self-existent God and there cannot possibly be another God. Since YAHWEH is the self-existent God, there is no savior at all apart from Him. YAHWEH is the one and only God and that from eternity He is the I AM and since that is true no one can deliver from Him and no one can reverse what He has done.

Isa 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself & spreading out the earth all alone

This great LORD, as the self-existent God, is the One who formed them from the womb, which is to say that He is the Maker of all things. Since He alone is self-existent, nothing can come into being unless He brings it into being and all things that have being He is the One who gave it being. YAHWEH is the One who created the heavens and bends over and speaks to us in language that we can sort of understand by saying that He stretched them out by Himself. This is like a person who makes a blanket or a piece of clothing and stretches it out to see what s/he has done. It is the sovereign self-existent LORD who spread out the earth all alone. As such, we can see that He has brought the heavens and the earth into existence and also brings each human being into existence by forming them in the womb as He pleases. What beauty, what glory, and what wisdom. What sovereignty, what power, what a glorious self-existence this one and true God has. We should bow in utter submission and worship before Him.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

If we desire to know the true and living God, we must know what He is and how He is. The first thing to know about God is that He exists in and of Himself. This is known as His Aseity or self-existence. God is simply life and has the power of life. He exists in and of Himself without any help or need of help or need of anyone. God is life and not only does He have no need of help, He cannot be helped. As one meditates on this, it can be seen that this is utterly beautiful and glorious. God is God and cannot be helped. Oh how this points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone and the Gospel of grace alone. He who is life Himself brings this life to human beings and apart from any help that they can give Him He saves them from sin and gives them life by grace alone. This is utterly beautiful and glorious. Words cannot describe the beauty of a God who exists in and of Himself and yet He gives life to sinners by Himself without any help from anyone.

How hard it is for the wicked heart of a human being who thinks that s/he is self-sufficient and able to obtain what s/he wants by working hard for it to come to grips that every breath is given to it by Him. How hard it is for human beings to come to grips with the fact that God has no need and there is no way of helping Him. The God that Paul proclaimed in Acts 17 in the very next verse where he told them that they worshipped in ignorance says this: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.”

What a powerful shot at the people who thought that they could worship and serve the gods in their own strength and power. What a shot at those who thought that could actually feed God. It is also a shot at modern versions of professing Christianity as well. We do not service for God and our ornate buildings do not impress Him and do nothing for Him. Our good works add nothing to Him and our evangelism add nothing to Him. Regarding true believers, He has planned our good works and it is only when we are strengthened by grace can those good works be pleasing to Him. In other words, our good works do nothing for Him but when our good works are planned by Him and come from Him then we are able to behold His glory. It should also be said that it is not that our good works please Him because we have done them, but He is pleased when He beholds His own glory in and through us. We cannot please Him, but He pleases Himself through us.

Any human being that thinks s/he is helping God or doing something for God should seek the Lord immediately for repentance from such an awful pride. God exists in and of Himself and all things come from Him and He is self-sufficient, self-satisfied, and self-contained. The triune God lives in perfect love and has no need outside of Himself. This is basic, but hard for our hearts to bow to and submit to. This is impossible for our hearts to acquiesce to and see as beautiful and glorious unless by grace He works this in our hearts. We should seek the Lord to grant us a sight of the beauty of His self-existence and of how He has no need and cannot possibly be served by human hands. Our very breath is upheld by Him every moment and so how are we to do something for Him that He needs?

This breathtaking sight of God in His self-existence who upholds all things for Himself and His own glory at the mere pleasure of His own will is something that human language cannot describe. He alone is the living God who is life Himself. He alone is the living God from whom all that was created came and there is nothing that ever came into being that did not come into being by Him. All things were created through Him and for Him say the Scriptures about the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh what a Gospel we have to behold, admire, and worship the God of the Gospel of God in that He who is life Himself took upon human flesh in order that He may take the sins of sinners upon Himself and suffer for those sins that there may be satisfaction to Divine justice and life may be granted to those who deserve death. Behold the magnificence of God who has no need and yet saves sinners from grace alone. He had no need to save sinners, but He did so from His own beneficence.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

1 Tim 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart…

The point of the Scriptures is not to study them and in them find life, but the Scriptures point us to Christ Himself and teach us to go to Him for life. This is a vital point in terms of knowing God for the churches and for individuals. We cannot study the Scriptures and know the Scriptures enough to obtain life. We cannot obey the Scriptures enough to obtain life. The study of the Scriptures and obedience to the Scriptures were not intended to be a way of life and they cannot give life. Eternal life is found in Christ alone because He is life and He has the words of life. This is so vital and shows how an academic study of Scriptures falls far short.

This should also show us that regardless of how hard we study the Scriptures that alone will not give us the knowledge of God. We can know things about God in one sense if we study, but it must be the Spirit who operating under the offices of Christ teaches His people in the inward man. When Peter confessed Christ, He was told that it was not flesh and blood who had revealed that to him, “but My Father who is in heaven” (Mat 16:17). Surely, then, the knowledge of God cannot be obtained by diligent study alone, but it must be a study combined with seeking the face of God and prayer to reveal the glory of God.

The Scriptures were not written so that men could use them as a way of earning eternal life, but they were written to point to Christ who is the revelation of God. This should inform us of the way the churches and individuals should use the Scriptures and view them. The goal is not to know the Scriptures in and of themselves as the primary goal, but the goal is to know God. Preaching must not be to simply inform people of the meaning of Scripture, it must be to point people to Christ and to show people how they can know God in Christ. Preaching must not be just a lecture giving people information, but instead it must be a way of showing forth the glory of God in Christ and pointing people to Him as a way of life.

People can study the Scriptures and develop ways of study that make them very learned, even having several degrees in the study of the Scriptures. But unless they see the glory of God in Christ and know Him, they have yet to find the true purpose of the Scriptures. One can have an advanced or even terminal degree in hermeneutics (science of interpretation), but they cannot truly interpret Scripture apart from Christ who is the One that all of Scripture points to as the fulfillment of it all. Since that is true, the churches must take care not to just talk about Christ, but they must adore Him and point to Him and show the people that Christ alone can reveal Himself to them. This is not just another minor point, this is essential and in my estimation it is a major reason that professing churches are so weak. They preach the Bible as a book and preach Christ from that book as if all a person has to do is believe the basic propositions revealed. No, they must have Christ revealed to them by the Father who is in heaven. It is in Christ that people will behold the glory of God and come to know God.

The goal of Christian instruction is love, the love of God and our neighbor. The only people who truly love are those who are born of God and know God (I John 4:7-8). In other words, a study of the Bible as if there is nothing more than knowing the words it says will not help us find that goal. It is only in knowing God that we will truly love. This is to say the same thing in a different way, then, we must study Scripture, but we must study it with a higher goal. We must study and preach it with the goal of knowing God and then glorifying Him by His love abiding in us and then being manifested through us. Some may argue that this denigrates Scripture, but I would argue that it is what it is meant to be and what an exalted use it has. It has the intent that in the hands of the living God it can show us who God is and lead us to know Him and live to His glory. That is not denigrating, that is to show the real intent and that is far higher than just using it to gain knowledge which puffs us up if that is all we do.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

The professing churches worship in ignorance if they do not know God. Ministers preach in ignorance if they do not know God. The prayers of those who do not know God are to an unknown God. The congregations worship what they do not know and so they worship in ignorance. This is far from being an unimportant matter, but is really a vital matter of the greatest importance and consequence. If ministers study everything but the character of God, or spend very little time on it, then they will preach very little on the character of God and the God that people must know will not be known.

It is utterly vital for churches to focus on knowing God and for their studies to cover the character of God. It is utterly vital for ministers to preach about the character of God and hold Him up and exalt Him to the people. It is utterly vital for the songs to praise and glory in the true God for who He is and not just for what we think He has done for “me.” It is vital to pray to the true God rather than pray to a God we have heard hardly anything about, or at least we have not heard enough of Him to rely on Him and to seek Him above all things.

The content of modern “sermons” is focused on the so-called needs of the people or seems to be aimed at making them feel good about themselves. Some of these so-called sermons may try to get people to behave a little better, but where are the preachers who are setting out the truth of God who is utterly sovereign and glorious in His being? Where are the churches who want to seek the Lord as the main thing? Where are the people who are weary of churchianity and want nothing but to be in His presence and taste of His glory for the sake of His name? Where are those who are weary of moralism and of religiosity and just want to hear Christ proclaimed in His glory? Where are those who want nothing but Christ and Him crucified? Where are those who want to hear the freeness of grace and of God who shows it for Himself and for the sake of His own name? Perhaps there are so few with that hunger is why there appears to be few if any churches who are like that.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are very deceptive. Our hearts trick us about who God is, about sin, & about conversion. When you hear something of God or about yourself, you will have an inner response. Scripture must interpret these things rather than our own hearts. We all have deep aspects to our hearts that are hidden to us. The study of Scripture will bring those hidden aspects up. We must humbly study the Word for the truth of God and ourselves, or we will study the Bible and twist it to conform to us. One of the great battles we have with our own hearts is to twist what Scripture teaches about God. We would prefer to have God like us in our fallen condition rather than to have to repent and seek Him for grace to be like Him.

A basic truth is that the study of Scripture always leads to conformity. We will always be working to conform the revelation of God to us and our understanding or we will strive to be conformed by it to God’s revelation of Himself in truth. One or the other will and must happen. One is hardening the heart; the other is conformity to the image of God in Christ in softening toward salvation or growing in holiness. We are never the same after a true meeting with God. Hearing a sermon and Bible study is more than just gaining knowledge; it is an encounter with the living God and His glory. When we hear a sermon and are confronted with the attributes of God that can be thought of as a direct encounter with the living God. He is not separate from His attributes. Oh how people need to be confronted with the living God and to know what it means to live and worship in His presence! It is only as we come to know about God that we will know God and learn to worship in true knowledge and love.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

If it is utterly vital for the people know God and know about God, then the ministry should indeed make that a primary focus. But instead it appears that they are making great efforts at hiding the true God from the people. But again, we have focuses on raising money for expensive buildings, doing things about the physical things of a building, moral issues, political issues, and encouraging people to do good works. We have a great emphasis in our day on expositional preaching, but apart from teaching people what it means to know God those things are doing nothing more in the results than the results of the Pharisees. So what if people know many things about a text of Scripture if they don’t know God! So what if ministers can give the people vast knowledge about the text of even a book of the Bible if they don’t know God! Heresies can abound in a professing church while the minister is focused on preaching texts of Scripture in an expositional way that ignores the living God.

It is also true that orthodox ministers can preach orthodox messages from the Bible and miss the point of knowing God. Orthodoxy is no guarantee that a minister is preaching in a way where men can come to know the true and living God through the Gospel. Having a solid creed or confession is another way that men can hide their own hearts and hide the truth of God behind. Men can pursue doctrinal precision without knowing God. Men can pursue great academic knowledge about God without knowing the true God. Men can puff themselves up with knowing things about the Bible and not know God. Men can give great lectures on the history of doctrine and on the Reformers and not know God. Men can know many theological truths about justification and yet not know God and so not be justified.

It is also possible for men to give themselves to the academic study of Christ and yet now know Christ. It is possible to be strong on the creeds and confessions in terms of what they say about Christ and not know Christ. Only God can teach us about the true Christ and this is done in the inner man. The true knowledge of God is beyond the ability of men to teach, yet men must teach these truths in such a way that will point men to the truth of God as only found in Christ. It is utterly vital for men to know God in Christ if they are going to be saved. The true Gospel is all about the glory of God as found in Christ. One can be ignorant of a lot of things that people teach in the modern world about Christianity and yet know the truth of God as found in Christ. It is not through academic preaching that a person comes to know Christ. It is not in some formal way of expositional preaching that a person comes to know God in the Gospel. It is by preaching the living God as found in the face of Christ and using Scripture to point to Him that God uses as preaching which Christ calls men to Himself.

In order for men to come to know God, preachers must preach the living God in the face of Christ. It is not enough to do a ritual, no matter how orthodox it is, but men must know God. While the hearts of men are repulsed by the true God, yet they must hear about this God if they are going to be converted. God uses the preaching of His Word as a primary way He does this, but it is not just any old way of preaching. When Paul said he preached nothing but Christ and Him crucified, he was preaching the way to know the living God and he was preaching the shining zenith of God and His glory.

If ministers will not preach the true God, then how are men to come to know the true God? We can have social clubs, people with high morals, and we can have so many things to keep us busy in church buildings; but apart from the knowledge of God in Christ all those things are just ways to cast sticks on our own fires in hell. When will ministers wake up from taking ease and trying to please men and keep men happy in the professing churches so they can build edifices that honor themselves and begin to preach God to the people? When will ministers repent of the false Jesus they preach who is weak and can do nothing apart from the power of men and preach the sovereign God-man who can save to the uttermost those whom He will? The professing churches that are not dead appear to be so weak in the spiritual realm that they are truly on their last legs. Will they take their last gasp to cry out to God for grace that they may return to Him and proclaim His glory? If not, they will perish like so many before them. We must know God or we will perish.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

As one thinks of the importance of the knowledge of God, one cannot help but wonder why the knowledge of God is so ignored in the modern day. It is true that some people stress Jesus, but one cannot stress the true Jesus apart from stressing the knowledge of God. Professing churches have Sunday Schools where portions of the Bible are taught and perhaps many things are taught, but people must have the knowledge of God or they are unprepared for the least thing. People are unprepared to stand firm because they don’t understand God and they don’t understand the true nature of Christ, which means that they don’t truly understand the nature of the Gospel of God. How can these people understand the Gospel of God unless they have knowledge of God?

The true Church is the body of Christ and so how can people understand the true Church unless they have knowledge of God since Christ is the perfect image of God? Apart from some knowledge we cannot know God, know Christ, have eternal life, and we don’t have a proper understanding of the true Church. Yet people are satisfied with academics, knowing things about the Bible, demographic studies and so on. How can the hearts of those who have Christ dwelling in them not long to know the living God more and more? This simply cannot be.

People are satisfied with religion and the rituals of religion. People are satisfied with morality and/or taking moral stands. People are satisfied with good works and being nice. People are satisfied with doing what they think is evangelism. People are satisfied with building buildings. But they are blind to what it means to press on to know the Lord. They are blind to the fact that God delights in the knowledge of Himself rather than all the things people think they are sacrificing for. But we need to read Hosea 6:3 and the context: “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” “6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” What is it that God delights in? He delights in the knowledge of Himself rather than all the monetary sacrifices they think they are making. He delights in the knowledge of Himself rather than all the moral sacrifices they think that they are making. He delights in the knowledge of Himself rather than all the things they are doing to build bigger and better buildings and edifices in the name of advancing religion.

What must get through our hard heads and hardened hearts is that God delights in the knowledge of Himself rather than all the religious things that people do. Oh how people think that God is pleased if they “sacrifice” and give money to a nice edifice. Oh how people think that God is pleased if they go to “church” each time the doors are open and give ourselves to duties and activities. Oh how people think that God is pleased if we have beautiful music from choirs and bands and so on, but we never see from Scripture that is pleased with those things. He is pleased when His people know Him. God is pleased when His people “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10).

God delights when His people press on to know the Lord and when they know Him. He does not delight when the professing churches have drama and people think that they are in drama ministry or music ministry, but instead He demands that people know Him. He does not delight in wordy prayers or eloquent prayers, but He delights in the prayers of His people in the name of Christ when they know Him. He does not delight in their words that they sing or the tunes of the songs unless they know Him and desire to know Him. No one can love God apart from knowing the God they love and no one can do all to His glory unless they know Him and what that glory consists of and how He glorifies Himself through His people.

Malachi 2:7 teaches something of what is necessary for ministers: “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” Instead of ministers teaching men the knowledge of God, we get business principles from them, we get moral principles from them, and we get political things from them. We may even get forms of exposition from them. Yet the people are ignorant of God and they worship in ignorance of God. The ministry needs to repent of teaching the Bible without teaching the heart of the Bible. The ministry needs to repent of is exposition of Scripture until it learns to set out the true knowledge of God in the face of Christ. It appears that the ministry of this day has learned the art of hiding God behind learned expositions of the Bible. In that case, it is a violation of the Third Command. It is a vain use of the Holy Scriptures and a vain use of His name to pretend to teach the Bible and ignore the main message of the Bible which is the glory of God shining forth in the face of Christ. When that is missed, all is vain.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Why should anyone or perhaps a Bible study group or a local church study the attributes of God? It is because there is nothing that is more helpful for people to study and there is no doctrine that the attributes of God do not give light to and the doctrine consists of. It is because God is the main character of the whole Bible and in reality of every text in some way. The whole of creation was created to display His glory, the Lord Jesus Christ who was the tabernacle of His glory came to manifest that glory, and the Church is the dwelling place of His glory now. It is because eternal life consists in knowing God. It is because we grow spiritually by knowing Him. It is because apart from knowing God all we do is aimed at an unknown God and we will worship in ignorance.

Psalm 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Daniel 11:32 “By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action.

It is only those who know God who will trust in Him during hard times. We must know the true God so that the wiles of the devil regarding who God is and His actions and heart toward His people will not be twisted by the devil. How can we know the faithfulness of God if we don’t understand what it means for God to be faithful and what His actions toward us are? As John Owen wrote (in paraphrase), it is hard to see the loving face of God through the dark clouds of His providence. We must know this God and we must learn to look behind the circumstances and the hard things of life to see the hand of God behind them and still be able to hand on to the fact that He loves His people. The very reason for the hard things that come to us is His love as He will not allow us to go on in our sin (though hidden) that keep us from Himself and He is the very best for us.

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

It is not that it is only those who know the true God can and will stand for the true God and His glory in this world, but understanding and knowing God is far more valuable than the wisdom of men, the strength of men, and the riches of men. Oh how men boast of their wisdom, yet for those who know God they understand that the wisdom of man is futile and our wisdom is Christ Himself. Oh how men boast in their physical strength or prowess, but those things are given by God, fade as one ages, and can do nothing in terms of the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation and that is what we are to boast about. Oh how men will boast of their riches, but Jonathan Edwards said that God gives many riches to those whom He hates. True riches are found in Christ and the only thing we can boast about (said Paul) is the cross of Christ. Boasting in the cross of Christ is not conceptually different than understanding and knowing God.

The study of God, both in studying about Him and then knowing Him, is the most vital study that there is. We cannot know Christ apart from knowing the Father, yet we cannot know the Father apart from how He has revealed Himself in and through Christ. We cannot know the fruit of the Spirit unless we understand that the Spirit is working the character of God in us. We cannot know the Gospel of God unless we see the glory of God in and through the Gospel. Unless we know something of the beauty and holiness of God, how will we see His beauty and holiness displayed in a biblical teaching, especially the Gospel? We tend to look at theology in our day from a philosophical perspective or a strict and academic study of the Bible. We need to look at it as the display of the Divine glory and those He gives eyes will see that and those He gives taste to will taste of it.

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Apart from knowing the true God all worship is in ignorance and of an unknown god. Throughout the land of America today (and much of the world too), the world and those in the professing churches are like the Gentiles that Paul spoke about: “Not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:5). Men and women who live in lustful passion do not know God. There is little difference between those who attend and are members of professing churches and those who don’t. Becoming religious and joining a church does not mean that a person knows God, but rather it can harden people into thinking that they are converted and help blind them to the fact that they must know God.

The truth of the matter is that it is so hard for people to realize what it means to know God and the devastating reality of not knowing God. “However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods” (Galatians 4:8). Not only is it the case that people who live in lustful passion don’t know God, but those who don’t know God are slaves to their passions, the devil, and other people as well who know how to manipulate those passions. But again, people can be slaves to their passions, the devil, and other people and still be very, very religious or become very religious. A preacher with a lot of energy can excite the feelings of people while they remain ignorant of God. Music with energy can also delude people into thinking that they are excited about God when in fact the music moves them and gets their feelings going. Doing good works can make people feel good and they interpret that as being loved by God, yet the fact of the matter is that they are still driven by the feelings of self rather than by knowing God.

It is not religion and all the trappings of religion that deliver people from slavery and will give them grace that they may know God, but it is God alone who can deliver people from those things. We never read that people will be shown wrath by God for not being religious, yet we do see Him “dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:8). It is true that a true church is a great mercy of God to His people and it is the body of Christ, but that should never be confused with attending a place with “church” on the door and basic religious activity. In America it certainly appears that the knowledge of God is virtually gone and yet religious activity is still quite high. Oh how this should make believers go to their knees (though perhaps not literally) and fall on their faces and in utter helplessness cry out that God would have mercy on the professing churches in our day. We must have God or we will perish!

1 Corinthians 15:34 tells us to “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” It is a shame to our nation that so few have knowledge of the true God and it is a shame to the professing Church that so few have knowledge of the true God. Not only is it a shame, however, but unless we know God (again, not just know about Him) we will have the wrath and indignation of God poured out upon us. The Gospel of grace alone must be preached so that men and women will come to know God. The Gospel of grace alone must be preached so that those who know God will know Him more and more and grow in their knowing Him. After all, eternal life is to know God (John 17:3).

It appears that the professing churches of our day have simply lost what it means to know God and have resorted to religious activity and gimmicks in order to get people in the door. Others, while holding to the idea that being old-fashioned is better, are strict in their morality and hold to the old ways in their practices. Neither way, nor anything in between, can replace knowing God. Singing Psalms is no better than singing hymns if people don’t know God. Singing hymns is not better than modern praise songs if people don’t know God. Preaching hard morality is not much better (if at all) than easy preaching if people don’t know God. Preaching doctrine is little better than not preaching doctrine if people don’t know God. Where is God in our day? He is not known and it appears that few want to know Him. That is to our shame. Oh that God would awaken a few to what it means to know God and use them to arouse others from their sleep in order to pursue Him and His glory!

Acts 17:22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

It is exalted and biblical ideas of God will lead us to the truth about worship and living for God’s glory rather than stressing the need for good works. It is a fact that true faith will be accompanied by good works, but it is also true that the unregenerate heart which hates God can also do externally good works. Apart from union with Christ and Christ living His life in the soul, there is no possibility of truly good works done out of love for God. True worship is when people are drawn up in amazement and adoration of the living God, which clearly demands for people to know the truth of God and such a God is beyond our comprehension, though indeed we can apprehend more and more for all eternity.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, which clearly teaches us that the very goal and purpose of our being is to glorify God. But how can a person purposefully glorify God unless that person knows God and has tasted something of His glory? In order for man to live and love in such a way that he is pursuing the glory of God and actually glorifying God in truth and love, that man must know God and be acquainted with who God is and how He does all for His own glory.

It is not in the hands of men or in their power to know God. Instead, God must reveal Himself to man by grace. Man must know God by revelation instead of man devising his own ways to know God. The very zenith point of the revelation of God is in and through Jesus Christ, or one could even say Jesus Christ is the very revelation of God. John 1:14 teaches us that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” It is Christ Himself in whom we are enabled to behold His glory. It is in Christ that we can see something of the glory of God. It is Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” This teaches us that Christ is the way to the Father and the way to all the truth of God that we can know. It is Christ who is the very manifestation of the truth of who God is and He taught us the truth of who God is. It is Christ who is the very life that we must have. If we think of Christianity as the life of God in the soul of man (an old, old book by Henry Scougal), then Christ is that life as we are taught so many times in Scripture.

In Chapter 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, it speaks of Of Christ the Mediator. It tells us that “It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.” God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ as the Mediator. God has revealed Christ as Mediator and in doing so He has set forth His eternal purposes of Christ to be the only Mediator between God and man. It is Christ that God displays His glory in and through as the Prophet, Priest, and King of the Church. It is in Christ that God sets forth and shines forth His glory in Christ who is the Head and Savior of all things. The Gospel of Christ and the Gospel of the glory of Christ is also the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. The Gospel is primarily about the glory of God, the Church is primarily about the glory of God, and each saved sinner is saved to the glory of God.

God is only truly known when He is manifested and revealed in Christ. He is hidden to sinners apart from some basic attributes seen in nature other than in Christ. If we are going to know God and His glory, we cannot just study Him in some philosophical manner, but we must study Him as revealed in Christ. After all, it is Christ who is the perfect image of God and it is Christ who is the very shining forth of the glory of the Father. The wonder of eternal life is in knowing God and His Son, yet we can only know the Father through the Son and as revealed by the Son. When people want to know God and yet do not pursue a knowledge of Him through the Son, their methodology will only end in error. The evil one wants people to pursue a knowledge of God apart from the Son and according to their own wisdom and crooked hearts. He has them in his hands when they do that. They will worship and unknown God in ignorance apart from the truth of God found in Christ.