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.

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.

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.