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.

It is vital to grasp something of the truth that God is self-existent. Can anyone do something for God that He cannot do for Himself or that He must work in the human being first? Is Christianity really about doing good works for God as if He could not do them Himself? Is Christianity really about doing religious activities in a way that seems as if they are for God as if they do something for Him? In reflecting on the self-existence of God the nature of biblical Christianity comes out. Humanity was created for the purposes of God, yet man can do nothing for God and man cannot in an ultimate way serve God. Indeed the Israelites build a tabernacle and temples for religious purposes at the command of God, but God did not need those edifices at all.

In light of who God really is (self-existence) and therefore who man is (totally dependent), an important yet hidden aspect of sin comes to light. When men act as if they were not totally dependent upon God, they are acting like the Devil and buying in to the essence of the fall which is that men will think they are and try to be like God. Men act as if they are not totally dependent upon God for wisdom when they depend upon themselves for wisdom. Men act as if they are not totally dependent upon God when they try to determine right and wrong for themselves. This is to say that the very nature of sin is for man to live in what he thinks is an independent way from God. It is for man to determine his own way and to live in dependence upon self.

Daniel 5:22 “Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this,
23 but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.

In the passage above Daniel indicts Belshazzar for his sin of exalting himself against the Lord of heaven and while he was in the hand of God in terms of his life-breath and his ways, he did not glorify God. Belshazzar lived for his own glory and thought that the kingdom was in his hands and operated by his wisdom. The hand then appeared and wrote on the wall and indeed what it wrote came true. That very night Belshazzar was killed and his kingdom was given over to another. Living by our own wisdom means that a fall will come and it will come soon.

As can be clearly seen the absolute and objective truth is that God alone exists in and of Himself and that all other than God utterly and totally depends on Him. Sin is in this light man trying to be God and this independent spirit of man longs to be free of all restraints put upon him by God and to depend on self and the things of self. This great longing to be free of God and to depend on self is nothing but sheer arrogance and pride as it is a horrible pride to live and exalt self rather than God. It is a horrible sin for man who is upheld by God and given every breath by God to turn from God and live for self in what it thinks is an independent way.

It may be worse in some ways for people to use religion to deceive themselves and others as a way of independence from God rather than as the way of complete dependence upon God. Christ Himself told us that apart from Him we can do nothing (spiritual or truly good), yet man in his religion of self and independence from God (deceived about this) tries to live by his own good works and righteousness. What a horrible affront to the living God for man to live as if he depends on himself for good works and righteousness. What a despicable crime against God to live as if we do not utterly depend upon Him as self-existent for all things.

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.

The beauty and majesty of the self-existence of God shines in and through Christ. God has and does reveal Himself in and through Christ as the pinnacle or zenith of His self-revelation to man. This may not seem obvious on the surface of the matter, but it is Christ Himself who tells us that “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). For one to have life in Himself is to have a self-existent life to which no one can add to or take away. It is the Lord Jesus who spoke directly to the Pharisees and told them that “before Abraham was born, I AM” (John 8:58).

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

In light of the text just above, we can see that everything that there is or ever came into being was created through Christ and for Him. This is a profound truth that no finite being can explore the full depths of. God, the triune God, is self-existent within Himself, which is to say that He is self-existent within the Trinity. The one and true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the wonder, beauty, and glory of self-existence is beheld in Christ in an especial way. Self-existence shines in and through Christ both in His Person and in His works. If God is not self-existent and that does not shine forth in Christ, then how can heaven be so for all eternity? If God is not self-existent, then to whom do we look for life? That would also mean that He would have to trust in someone or something out that has the power of life.

Something or Someone holds the universe in existence and holds it in precisely the perfect way so that all things function and operate precisely as God has created it to do. It is in Christ that all things hold together. It is because all things are in Christ that nothing can function or operate outside of His sovereign power. It is in Christ that all things happen are according to the Divine plan and as such hold together in His Divine power and wisdom. It is in Christ that there is not one rogue molecule (quoting R.C Sproul) much less anything else that can possibly operate apart from His sovereign will. The self-existence of God in Christ declares to us that He alone can uphold the universe in Christ and He alone can sustain all things in Christ.

Would heaven be eternal and full of joy if there is no self-existent and self-sufficient One who upholds all things? Where does joy, love and life come from if not from Him? How can we know that we will have eternal life for eternity if Christ who is life does not have self-existent life? How will we know that He will love us for eternity if He does not have the power of life and self-existent life in Himself? Where can true joy and love come from if they are not part of eternal life and are not sustained by Him who has the very power of life in Himself? How can we ever know that we will have those things if Christ Himself does not have life in Himself because it is in Christ and only in Christ that we exist and move and have every breath? How can we ever be sure that we will have Christ forever and have all things from Him forever if He is not self-existent? This is another way of saying that we must know God in Christ and it is only in Christ that we will see and behold the exquisite glory of God.

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.

In beholding the glory of God in the beauty and wonder of His self-existence, there is nothing that can replace the spiritual sight of this with any degree of accuracy. It is helpful to read academic works on the subject, but when the Lord gives a spiritual sight of this or a spiritual understanding of this it is simply beyond description. However, we are to plow ahead and try to point others in ways of looking.

The glory of self-existence, while beautiful and beyond human words in its (shall we say) raw form in creation, is even more beautiful as we behold the glory of it in Christ. In one sense, even a major sense, God has revealed Himself in Christ in a far greater way than in any other way. He has spoken to people in the past in may ways, but in the New Testament and then to those that follow He has spoken to us in Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). The revelation of God, therefore, as has been said in John 1:14-18, is that God is displayed in the Son and the Son has put the Father on display. In reality, this is what the Gospel of John is all about.

In a very real sense the person of Christ and (as Stephen Charnock wrote) the cross of Christ is like a map in which the glories of God are set out and put on display. We tend to think so much of ourselves when we view doctrines of the Gospel that we miss the real point of God putting Himself on display. The Lord Jesus did not do miracles just to show off, but instead He was showing who He was and then pointing to the living and true God. We must learn to read Scripture and study Scripture humbled and in prayer that God would shine forth Himself in Christ and show us this indescribable beauty. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not self-existent, then He cannot shine forth the true God in this way and I would argue that the Gospel is compromised.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

The very beginning of John sets out the wonderful teaching that the Word already was when the world had a beginning. It then teaches us that this Word is with God and is God. It teaches us that everything that has ever come into being came into being through Him. Can it be that our Lord Jesus Christ needs human beings to serve Him since all things (including ourselves) have been brought into being through Him? Oh, how these verses must not only be intellectually grasped by us, but they must penetrate to the depths of our souls. The God that Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 66 as bringing all things in being is the same God that Jesus Christ (the Word) is with and yet is also that very God.

We can immediately dismiss most of modern Christendom that seems to have a needy Jesus and seem to want to do things for Him. Oh no, we don’t do things for Christ. In fact, He even tells us that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The Lord Jesus Christ cannot be served in the sense that there is nothing that we can do for Him that is not worked in us first. Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-6). This is so vital to who God is, who Christ is, and who the Spirit is, which is to say who the one and only triune God is. Let us behold the God who cannot be served by human hands as though He needed anything and bow to Him to receive all through Christ and in the name of Christ. But again, how beautiful it is to behold the glory of self-existence in Christ!

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.