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.

All errors in theology or in practice in the Church come from a false view of God. Regardless of a person’s stated beliefs or even the professed creedal beliefs, a church will have errors in theology and/or in practice if they have a false idea of God. This is far from saying that we must have perfect ideas of God in order to worship, but it is saying that perverted ideas of God will inevitably lead to idolatry and false worship. True worship must be in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) and apart from that worship being in spirit and truth all else will be false worship. A.W Tozer has written about how men can have a creed and yet their real beliefs of the heart can be hidden from them, and apart from a real and perhaps painful searching of the heart they will remain hidden to the people themselves. This is frightening, yet also true.

Regardless of the creed that a person claims to hold to and perhaps even have a love (of sorts) for that creed, a low view of God leads to a high view of self and that is idolatry. It may be that the greatest form of idolatry within even conservative professing churches in our day is a low view of God combined with a high view of self. When people seek high views of self they will inevitably end up with a lower view of God. Worship then becomes about their own enjoyment and of how it makes them feel. Worship is to be focused on God and His glory and there may be joy that arises from that, but He is to be sought rather than anything else. A creed can be believed out of self-love and a desire to be safe or even exalted by a belief in the creed.

If our view of God comes from fallen self, true knowledge of God is not possible (Psalm 50:21). True views of God come through His revelation to us. This is utterly vital and when that is tied with the previous paragraph, we can see that what we believe about creeds is far more than an agreement to certain facts about God. Everything we read is interpreted in accordance with our fallen self or in accordance with the light that the Holy Spirit gives. Our creeds can give us an external idea of the truth, but when we view them and interpret them according to our sinful hearts and natures we will twist those truths into errors.

False theology and false practice cannot be separated with wrong ideas about God. This is something that should be written in stone and put inside and outside of every professing church. The standard of correct theology and biblical worship is not my own heart and desires and is not what makes me feel good about myself, but instead God is the standard and all is to be help up in the light of His glory. If what we believe and do is not in accordance with His character and glory, then it is simply false and an attempt to fit our theology and worship to that will be idolatry from beginning to end. Knowing God is not an option and yet we must be careful of how we strive to know God. All of our striving can lead to error in theology and worship, which is that the Pharisees ended up with. It is also what afflicts so many today.

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.

True Christianity is really the manifestation of the true and living God. True Christianity is all about the living God and how He in His sovereign love and grace shines forth His glory in and through His people. True Christianity is not about being radical, or about being given to good works, nor is it about morality and academic theology. It is about knowing God and shining forth the glory of the true God back to Himself, to angelic beings, to other believers, and then to the world. True Christianity is not about being rich in this world or being healthy in this world, but instead it is about knowing God and doing all to the glory of His great name. True Christianity is not so much being saved from sin and then going to heaven as it is about knowing God and doing all for His glory. Sinners are saved to the glory of His grace and they go to heaven to glorify Him forever.

While those without Christ, the perfect image and shining forth of God, worship in ignorance, the heart of the true believer wants God Himself and wants more of Him in truth. The heart that longs to know God does not just want to study in an academic way so that it may know more information about God, but instead that heart wants to know God by being in fellowship with Him and sharing in His eternal and infinite love for Himself in the Trinity. We must understand that perverted ideas of God inevitably lead to idolatry and false worship (John 4:24). Ignorance of God is not okay and it is because of this ignorance of God that many are deceived and are given to idolatry and false worship. Ignorance is not a virtue in any sense, but instead ignorance of the true God is what the devil uses to deceive people and lead them to hell.

It should also be said that doctrine can be studied as historical doctrine or gained from the fathers or many things like that and one can still be ignorant of the true God. Is this saying that studying historical doctrine or the old writers should not be done? Oh no, I would argue that those things are very important. But again, the study of those things do not teach us how to fellowship with God or to know Him in that way. We cannot know God in truth and love by our own wisdom and intellects no matter how brilliant we are, yet God will teach and fellowship with the most humble. We must study historical doctrine and read the older writers in a way where we search for the biblical truth and in a way where we fellowship with God rather than just in a way where we learn facts about God and so pump up our pride.

Exodus 33:15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”

The person and the church that truly desires to know God can learn a lot from Moses. He did not want to go forth and do anything without the presence of God. Today people make their plans, ask God to bless their plans, and then go out and carry out their plans. Seemingly, the important part is for Him to bless their plans as opposed to asking Him for His plan and presence. Moses was not like that, not like that at all. Moses did not want to go one step without the presence of God. Moses wanted to know and to see the glory of God. Moses was concerned about the name of God before all the peoples upon the earth. Where are the churches in our day who will not undertake anything until the presence of God is with them? Where are the churches in our day who are truly concerned about the name of God enough that they are unwilling to do anything unless He is present with them? Where are the pastors and elders in our day who have a single heart for seeing the glory of God and having that shown to them by grace? Moses did not set out in academic study to see the glory of God after he prayed, but instead He asked God to show him His glory. Where are the leaders or the people or the churches who want God, His presence, and His glory first and above all other things including building programs, their own salaries, and growing numbers?

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 with the greatest of solemnity and awareness that we should be aware and become more aware of our great need of the knowledge of God. If eternal life is to know God, then without question we must seek to know God. If there is no Christianity apart from knowing God and knowledge of God, then there is no option but to seek the knowledge of God. If all false religion, regardless of whether it says it is orthodox or not, consists in some way of a false knowledge of God, then it is absolutely and utterly necessary that we know God in truth. The glory of God consists in some ways in His people knowing Him and His glory and that glory shining through them. Not only must the people of God strive to know Him, but they must know Him and how knowing Him and His glory are related. It is a privilege to know God and knowing Him is the life of the believer and the joy of the believer.

I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

One important aspect of knowing God and not just knowing about God is that true and Divine love is from God and from Him alone. This is one clear teaching that knowing God is more than just knowing facts about Him because knowing Him includes being a child of God and receiving love that is then shown or expressed. Believers are to love each other because love is from God. This is a powerful and glorious verse because it tells us the source and origin of love. When we are commanded to love one another, it is not a kind of love that we work up within ourselves and it is not a kind of love that can come from our own strength. It is the kind of love that we must receive from Him first and that only comes by grace alone. Knowing God and His glory, then, is connected with loving God and His people. We know that without love all we do is worthless.

Since human beings are made in the image of God, and in fact the essence of a human being is the image of God, we do not know ourselves and our hearts as we should apart from a true knowledge of God. As we grow in knowledge of God, we will grow in knowledge of ourselves and our own hearts. The picture is something like looking at ourselves in a mirror. The more we know of God, the clearer the mirror will become and the clearer we will see ourselves. The more we know of God, the more we will see of how far we have fallen from what we were created as and something of the depths of our sin. The more we know of God, the more we will behold how much we need a sovereign and sufficient Savior and then of the glory of the Gospel in Christ who is a sovereign and sufficient Savior.

I would think that the point is so very, very clear. We must know God or we will perish. Apart from our knowing God we will perish and apart from knowing God any person and all persons will perish. This knowing God does teach us that we must pursue knowledge of God, but it also teaches us that we must know God by living in fellowship with Him. Apart from knowledge of God, all those who attend church or preach or teach at a seminary worship in ignorance and most likely are blinded in pride to their ignorance. Apart from fellowship with God all of our love and works come from our own sinful flesh and apart from that fellowship with God we are not born of God and we don’t know Him in any saving way. There is no option; we must know God and we must be in fellowship with God.

A professing church can be one that teaches great error about the character of God without realizing it. A professing church can also be an orthodox church but all of the doctrine, when boiled down, is really knowing about God. A professing church can thrive in terms of numbers and money and buildings, but the pastor and the leaders and the people still all worship in utter ignorance. Yet there can be a small group of people who are born of God and know God and as such they love the true God and they love His true people. These people feast on the preaching of the Word of God because they fellowship with God and don’t just hear words. Oh what a privilege it is for this small group (perhaps despised for their smallness) to know God and glorify 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.

Unless people know God and are known by God (in the biblical sense and not just know about each other) then all people either worship (in a manner of speaking) or ignore an unknown God. It is utterly vital that people know God and even pursue God in order to know Him more. There is no greater damage to a people than that of an ignorance of God. There is no Christianity apart from knowing God, there is no growth in the people of God apart from a growing in the knowledge of God, and there is no salvation apart from coming to know God. Men and women cannot escape the basic truth that God has made Himself known to them, but in their enmity to Him they suppress that truth and turn to other things to worship. This coming to know God includes knowledge, yes, but it also includes an intimacy with God. Knowing God means that a person knows Him as revealed by Christ and in Christ. Knowing God means that a person is receiving spiritual blessings from God and the person then shares in His holiness and in His love for Himself as triune.

II Thess 1:6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed– for our testimony to you was believed.

The text just above shows us how utterly vital it is to know God. Those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus are one and the same. These are twin things that they do rather than completely separate things. It is impossible to know God and not bow to Him in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is simply and absolutely no way to know God or please God apart from the Gospel and apart from Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not just some little message about how a person can be saved, but the Gospel is about how a person can come into living communion with God and can know God. The Gospel is about how a person may have fellowship with the living God both now and for eternity. The Gospel of grace alone is to be proclaimed so that God would be glorified and that men and women would come into fellowship with Him and be instruments of His glory to the world. Human beings were created for the glory of God and in the Gospel they now have a way that they may delight in being instruments of His glory in Christ Jesus.

Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

The text just above shows us that words are not the only things that matter in terms of knowing God. A person can make a profession very loudly, but the life of the person and the deeds of the person make a profession as well. If a person knows God, then the life of the person will show a certain quality or certain things that show that Christ is in the person. If a person does not know God, then despite the person’s being very religious something is quite wrong. It is not religious actions in and of themselves that demonstrate that a person knows God or not, but the love of the person (God or self) and the intent of the person are very important. While Jesus said it is what flows out of the man that defiles the man, we must not that this included the motives of a person. The motives of good deeds can be despicable as was with the Pharisees. The continued sinful deeds of a person shout far louder than a mere profession of words, which should show us that a true profession of Christ is by word and by life. Knowing God means that we have the life of Christ in us and that our lives and our words make a true profession of Him. Not knowing God makes a person detestable and worthless for any good deed. This should teach us that we must know God in order to be able to do one good deed. Oh how we must know God to glorify 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.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Why should the attributes of God be studied? There are many, many reasons that the attributes of God should be studied, perhaps far more than can be listed in a few pages. In one sense the whole of creation is the declaration of the glory of God and the whole of Scripture declares that glory as well. There is nothing that does not declare the glory of God in some way; even though sinful men fight this they will end up glorifying God in their very hatred of Him. Though God has made Himself clear in the hearts and minds of men, the depravity of man will turn and twist all things unless the Spirit who alone can illuminates men as to the true nature of God gives light.

In Acts 17:22-23 we see that there is a lot of worship of “god” that goes on and yet it is of an unknown God. If we do not study the attributes of God or study Scripture looking for truths about God, we will not know God and so our worship will always be of the unknown God. These were very religious people and yet they worshiped an unknown God. The Pharisees were very religious people and yet they worshiped an unknown God as well. If our worship (religious practice, church services, Bible studies, singing) consists of singing, praying, and preaching of the unknown god, then our very practice of religion is vile and wicked in the sight of the true God. While it may seem like an academic study to study the attributes of God, there is nothing that is more needed in the professing churches of the day. That should become clear in what follows below.

In John 17:3 we are told that eternal life is to know the one, true God and Jesus Christ. This is not to say that eternal life consists in knowing about God, but surely we can see that it must include some knowledge of God. No one can know another person apart from knowing things about them, so surely we can at least acknowledge the fact that a person must know the truth about God in order to know the true God. Now, if eternal life consists in knowing God and knowing God includes knowing the truth about God, then those who don’t know the truth about God should wake up to their great danger. It is one thing to be in ignorance of God and yet to be pursuing a knowledge of Him and about Him, but it is quite another not to know the true God and now want to know Him.

Surely it is evident that true religion consists of a true knowledge of the true God, yet it is also clear that all false religion consists of false ideas of God. There is no Christianity apart from knowing the truth of God, yet false religion can consists in many teachings about the god it serves and yet that knowledge be utterly false. One reason that there is no true Christianity apart from knowing the true God is that all true worship is in spirit and truth, so there is no true worship apart from truth. Another reason that there is no true Christianity apart from knowing the true God is that Jesus Christ Himself is the truth of God. Jesus Christ is the very shining forth of the truth of God and is the perfect representation and image of God. It is in Christ that we behold the wonders and beauties of the glory of God and it is in Christ that we behold the attributes or perfections of God.

It could even be said with a great deal of accuracy (from Romans 1:18ff) that God pours out His wrath upon those who suppress the truth of Himself in unrighteousness. The wrath of God is poured out upon those who don’t know Him and deny the truth about Him. This wrath is poured out regardless of how religious the people are, how outwardly moral they are, and of how many good works they do. This wrath is poured out upon them even if they are orthodox in doctrine in one sense and yet orthodox in a letter form without the knowledge of God. It is utterly vital for people in the churches to study God and to know Him in and through Christ, for apart from that they will be ignorant of God and worship and unknown God.