If you go to the section that we're in today, it's called Theology Proper, or what the Bible says about God. And this will just give you the overview of where we are going in the next whatever, this class period plus a little bit of next time. And we're going to study, first of all, the various notions of God. A real issue in Theology Proper, you'll find a lot is written on a knowability of God. Can you really know Him anyway? Is it possible to know God? And be careful how you answer that, because there's a yes to that and there's a no to that. But anyway, there are those who say that's a big issue. We're going to look at that. The nature of God, or sometimes we call them the attributes of God or the character of God. We'll be studying that. We're going to try to get through those three today. We'll hit the names of God, the number of God. Is there one or three? And then the necessity of God. So what? And hopefully that will help you. Now, we're going to go to nature in just a little while. But right now, let's go to the notions of God. I'd like to read a little bit for you. God is like. Bayer Aspirin. He works miracles. God is like a Ford. He's got a better idea. God is like Coke. He's the real thing. God is like Tide. He gets the stains out that others leave behind. God is like General Electric. He brings good things to life. God is like Sears. He has everything. He's like Alcazar. Try him and you'll like him. He's like scotch tape. You can't see him, but you know he's there. He's like Delta. He's ready when you are, etc, etc, etc. And that's kind of pretty neat, really, in some ways, but probably it's not the world's best theology, and probably not everything there is quite right on, but anyway, it does help you to understand what is God? What is God like? What is the notion of God? What comes to your mind when you think about God? What is a God? What's the notions of God? Well, we're going to think about some of those definitions later when we hit Joshua 24. I'd like to read a little bit from an article about a book entitled, The Trivializing of God, The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity. One of the great concerns of our day is we have remade God in our image. Voltaire, by the way, who was no friend of Christianity a long, long time ago, said, the Bible says God made man in his own image and we've returned the favor. Unfortunately, he's getting pretty close. In his day, that was pretty blasphemous to say the Bible says God made us in his image and we've returned the favor. In other words, we made God in our image. That's pretty blasphemous, but that's not so far from truth when you think about it. This is a book on the trivializing of God, the danger of an illusion, the dangerous illusion of a manageable deity. And we have domesticated God. We have put him in our box. We have somehow made him where we want him to be in our world. And this is a great article. We've created a tame, manageable deity that resembles us. He's not as wild, as powerful, as transcended as the God of the Scriptures. He's one we can understand. He's one we can control. He's one who we can explain. And so there's a real movement today in that. Here's another one. This is the Lord that the day has made, which is a misquote of Psalm 118, verse 24, which says this is the day that the Lord has made. This is the Lord that the day has made. A.W. Tozer said, Left to ourselves, we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get him where we can use him, or at least know where he is when we need him. We want a God we can, in some way, measure and control. And when you study the gods of all religions, in fact, the secular writers will tell you that's exactly what all religions have done. They've created a God who somehow resembles them. You ever study the gods of the Greeks and the Romans and whoever's? What are they doing? They're fighting. They have immorality and they steal other people's wives. And you go down the list and it's like reading a soap op and their gods are just like people. And then you got to manipulate them and maybe you can get them happy and he'll give you food or fertility or whatever it might be. And so we reduced God, very much reduced God to very manageable terms. I like this one. the church in the days of Acts was like seven up. It was fresh and clean and it had no caffeine. And in those days they had a different opinion about God than perhaps we do if we're not careful. So we want to think about the notions of God. What are the various ideas? I just wrote them down there so that you have them. I didn't want you to spend your whole life trying to write down what I'm trying to say, but let's just run through them quickly. Dynamism is probably the most Basic, if that's whatever the term is. It's a belief in an impersonal life energy that pervades all things. It can be tapped and used for both good and evil. And much of the world lives in the realm of dynamism. That's their God. Animism, all nature is alive with personal spirits which can injure or help man, the phenomena. of nature caused by these spirits. That's what animism is. And fetishism is a spirit takes abode in some inanimate object. When we lived in Africa, that was very prominent. Fetishism and animism. In fact, the Muslims of Africa, if you've studied the Muslims, if you've ever been with them, most Muslims in the world are not true Muslims. You know, maybe the Saudi Arabians and the Kuwaitis and so are true Muslims. But most of the Muslims in the world are not true Muslims. They're a mixture of Muslim and animism and fetishism. And if you go to Africa, for example, they claim to be Muslims and they bow down three or five times a day and pray and all that. And in the closets, they got all their little animistic things and all their little fetishisms and all that kind of stuff. So that's what the real pagan world is. And if you go to Africa or something like that, it's what you pretty much face, okay? A fetishism is where you have a little fetish, a little, might be a trinket around your neck. It might be something on your wall. It might be whatever. And there's a spirit in there and you believe there's a spirit in it. So, you know, you rub it right or speak to it or whatever, burn a candle in front of it. And that spirit really is nice to you. Now the spirit can move. In Africa, for example, where we were, they cut down all the trees. 120 degrees. It used to grow rice. Beautiful place. They cut down all the trees. You know why? Absolutely. They would never stand under a tree in the shade if you paint them, you know? And you realize how Satan has deceived them. So that's fetishism. And so, idolatry, of course, is where the spirit dwells in some object made by man. Atheism means there is. That's exactly what a-theism. Theism means God. A means no, no God. Agnosticism means a-gnosis. Gnosis is knowledge. A means No knowledge, which means agnosticism says, I have no knowledge of God. I can't come to a knowledge of God. I don't have a knowledge of God, something like that. Usually they'll say not only that they don't have it, but they can't. And they say, well, I don't know. And I don't think you can know. I don't think you can really know if God is this or that or whatever. So agnostics, there are many of them around who claim to be agnostics. You do not and cannot know the fact with any degree of certainty. I really don't really know. And I don't think anybody really can. Pantheism. Pan-theism. Pan means all. Theism, God. God is all. All is God. And so all reality is God. God's in this thing. He's in that thing. He's in the walls. He's wherever. He's in the air. He's wherever. Everything is God. God is everything. All that appears is only a manifestation of this God. Polytheism means there are poly gods, many gods. And so many. How many gods do the Hindus have? Anybody ever count them up? You can't count that high. Trust me. Is it a million? Something like that? Ten million? Whatever it is. It's unbelievable. And usually they have idols. Deism. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and the boys who started our country are pretty much all deists. They said there's one God. He started the world and then he backed off and let her go. It's kind of like, remember the tops that you used to spend? You start it and you stand back and watch her rip, you know? And God is somewhere, perhaps watching, perhaps not even watching. And he got it started. We believe he created it all. But after that, it's on its own. And we're really not sure where it's going to go. We're not sure if it's going to fall off the side this way or going to get better or worse. So that's deist. And most of the founding fathers were deist, or many of them. Dualism, he believes there's two gods or principles. One is good and the other is evil. They're both eternal and they're always in conflict. So dualist think there's a good and evil kind of thing. Tritheism is a perversion of Trinity. Monotheism, one supreme, personal, ethical, distinct from the world being, yet in the world as its source and preserver. And that's what we are. We're monotheistic. And so we're the Jews. All right. And theism is the same as monotheism with the added idea of self-revelation in a supernatural way. So we're basically theists and whatever. So hopefully those words will give you some various notions. Any questions on that? You bump into different people. Where are they? Where do you think most of the people are in our world? Lost. Good. That's not on this list. Okay, lost is somewhere in there. A lot of people around you are agnostics. They might not know it. They just think you can't know, don't know. How many are atheists do you think in our world? 10%? 100%? Yeah. What percentage of the population is atheist? Right. They believe there is no God. It was Francis Schaeffer who said you really got to work at becoming an atheist. And I think that's true. You really have to work at that to come to a conclusion. There is no God. And so it's very rare to find an atheist. There are some people who say they're atheists, but to really be an atheist, there is no God. Absolutely. You would have to say the Muslims don't believe that the Buddhists don't believe that the Hindus don't believe that on and on it goes. The Christians don't believe that. So percentage wise in the world is very, very small and you almost have to work at it, become one of those, you know? And so that's probably true. So those terms, you can just kind of tuck them away and probably some of them will be on a quiz, you know, some of the matching kind of things and try to remember Pan and Ah and Pali and all those kind of things. And if you know the Greek behind it or whatever, that'll be fine. So the real issue now is, can you know God? We believe there's one God. He's personal, eternal, and he has revealed himself to mankind in a book called the Bible. But the knowability of God is what we're going to look at next. Can God be known? Has God revealed himself? How does one come to know God? Et cetera, et cetera. Other questions that were there. There are two ways to approach it. One is philosophical. You can read Clark Pinnock and some great philosophers. And when you read the philosophers, they philosophize and they rationalize how you would come to know God. And if you get the right guy, he's probably pretty good. It's very impressive. Clark Pinnock is very good at that. And there are others who would be philosophers and end up with no God. So you got to be careful with that approach. One way is a philosophical approach. Seeing is believing. My rational mind can come to the conclusions. And I'm going to figure this out. Did God reveal himself to us? Can I know God really is the question. The other is the biblical approach. And what's the biblical approach? As you ask this question, how can I know God or can I know God? How would you approach it biblically? It's not a trick question. It's really simple. You'd read the Bible. All right. And what verse of scripture would be one of many that you could use from Hebrews chapter 11? By faith. By faith, you know. So the biblical approach is to say, I'm going to pick up this book and I'm going to read it and whatever it says, I'm going to believe, I'm going to trust. And by faith, I'm going to accept it. By faith, I'm going to say that I know that the world came into existence. For example, the creation debate, creation science, and so sometimes they leave the impression that they're trying to prove philosophically or scientifically about creation. And you have to be careful because I don't think any of them really are philosophical, rationalistic kind of presenters of truth. At the end of the day, Hebrews 11 is right. By faith, we believe that the world came into existence. It is not because some scientist tells me he's got some evidence that the Grand Canyon is only so many years old and there's coal here and whatever, you know. That may help me in some ways, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really help me. By faith, we believe in creation. By faith, we believe in God. By faith, we believe. And so we take God's Word and we accept it by faith. So, the knowability of God. Now, there are two answers to that. One is Can you know God? The answer is yes. And the answer is no. So tell me about that. That sounds kind of weird. How can it be? Yes. You said yes, Brenda. How can you know him? In his word, et cetera, et cetera. OK. All right. Why did you say no over here? I think Dave shook his head no. All right. And one of the key words is completely so we can know God, but we can't know him completely. So I you know, do you really fully know your dog? Well, I don't know. Do you really understand him? I don't know. You might be able to figure them out, but you will never be able to figure out fully God. We're going to see that. So the answer, it's not such a dumb question. Can we know God? It's a pretty good question. And so we have to think that through. How do we come to know God? First of all, in answer to the question, man can know God or the statement man can know God, that's called communicable attributes. I mean, it's communicated. It can be reviewed. It can be known. The other side of it is incommunicable attributes of God. There are some things about God that cannot be communicated to us. Eye is not seen, ear is not heard. Oh, the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God, etc, etc. There's some things that can't be communicated. It's like being somewhere that nobody has ever been. And they say, what was it like? And you say, I really can't tell you. It was kind of like, but it wasn't quite like that. I mean, it was hot like so-and-so or whatever the sun was shining like, whatever. But sometimes you You know, you can't communicate it. You can't really get to it. And so we have communicable attributes of God, the things that you can know, and then incommunicable, the things that you really can't know. Those are some distinctions. Psalm 46, verse 10 says, Be still and know that I am God. And we could stack up. In fact, some of you, I think it was Dave who said we got 10 pages. We're going to make it tonight. Those 10 pages are the reduction of all these. All right. So in seminary, when we studied this topic, that was a semester. We had a lot of hours every week and we went through all those things. So I took all of that and reduced it to 10 pages. We're going to rip right through this. This is going to be great. All right. But we could add up a whole bunch of verses, I think, that would say something like that. Be still and know that I am God. In other words, that Somehow say, you can know God. And it leaves you that impression as you read the scripture. The Bible says you can know God. How about Ezekiel chapter 20? Somebody got it? All right. Verse 12, they might know that I am the Lord. In fact, the theme of the book of Ezekiel and you know what the theme of Ezekiel is that they might know the Lord because it's repeated throughout that book. And you could find that in many other places. You just have those two listed on your sheet. But let's just think about it. Is there any other places in scripture where you have this impression that people came to know God? Or God says, please know me? Think of, I mean, there's a million of them. So just start throwing them out. Nineveh, okay. Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, chapter four, right? He came to know there was a God and at the end of it, he started telling everybody about this great God. All right. Noah did, right? Pharaoh, Paul, Namath, the Syrian, a member in first Kings, he came to know there was a God, and the God of Israel, the real God. There was a lady by the name of Rahab, who said in Joshua chapter two, we know. And part of what they knew is that your God is powerful, et cetera, et cetera. And so you could understand it. In fact, many times through the scripture, it says that you might know the Lord. You can know the Lord. So God is knowable. You will not know everything about him, but you can know your God. By the way, that eliminates the agnostic who says, I do not and cannot know God. He's too big for me, or it's not enough information, or there's not enough rational proof, or whatever his arguments are. You can know God, you just can't know him completely. And that's, we're going to see a kind of a neat thing. So how do you get to know God? We're going to have seven here. that are listed for us, the knowability of God. The first one is Psalm 19. Who can quote verse one? The heavens? Let's say it together. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. And so the heavens declare, they scream out, they communicate to us the glory of God. Just by looking up at the heavens, you know something about his glory. What's glory, by the way? What's another word for it? Magnificence? Wonder? The glory of this is here. The glory of this is here. It says that in 1 Corinthians. The glory of the moon is such. The glory of the sun is such. The wonder of it. The magnificence of it. The glory of it. The brilliance of it. The splendor of it. Something like that. The heavens declare the wonder of God. They declare something about what a wonderful God there is. And the firmament shows or displays what? His handiwork. What's handiwork? What he made, creation, what is another word? If I said, I want to show you my handiwork, what's that? Craftsmanship. If I said, I want to show you my handiwork and I took you to my basement where I have my saw and so on, showed you the blundering things I do with wood, you know, you'd say, Oh, that's, that's his level of handiwork. And then there's other guys like Don Stile, you know, he makes trains out of wood with wheels that turn and everything else, you know, his handiwork is a little better than mine. The firmament shows what God can make. Shows how good he can make it. And he did a pretty good job. He did a really nice job. So in material and animal creation, we have an ability for us to come to know God. Romans 1, 19 and 20 says what? Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Alright, so what is known of God has been clearly revealed and he goes into creation there. The two things that he points out is eternal power and his Godhead. His eternality and his divinity if you would. They are clearly evident, so they are without excuse. Nobody can say, I'm ignorant. You can't say that. Not one human being can say that. The heavens declare, the firmament shows, they're without excuse. So we have the revelation of God through creation. So why do we need this book? You know what Job said? Job says that the creation, as he stood back in wonder of it, he says, you know, they're but a whisper of God. They're but a whisper of God. It tells you about God as eternality, as divinity, and a whole bunch of things about God like that. But it's just a whisper. You can hardly hear it. In another sense, it's declaring it, shouting it out. But compared to what we have here, it's but a whisper. Besides that, according to Romans 1, verse 18, 19 and 20, what does man do with it? He suppresses it. And so man can take the same creation, look at it and say, Well, you can say a bunch of different things, right? And so the revelation in nature is partial, not complete. And it's been perverted by mankind and by the fall and a whole bunch of other things. So as great as it is, it is not complete, full, everything you need to know. But it's all right. It does teach you about God. So Linsky said this, and by the way, when you go to Romans 1, you go on, you've read that, and man, suppresses it, and then he makes idols, he perverts it, you know, he does all kinds of strange things, and finally it just says, you know, it's not that they couldn't know it, the man didn't want to know it. Linsky, the commentator, said this, whenever truth starts to exert itself and make you feel uneasy, especially in your moral nature, you hold it down and suppress it. That's just what men do, right? So as soon as you get too close, and we hopefully as Christians are a little bit beyond that, although maybe once in a while we have that same tendency, but remember when you were unsaved? Now that was true. Somebody was getting a little too close, man. You know, you're talking about moral things here and I got to live my life different. I'm not supposed to lie or whatever it is, you know, and boy, you just felt really uncomfortable in the presence of those people. And that's true. Material and animal creation. we find in scripture. The scripture says that that does reveal something about God and that's great. Let's go to another one. The second one is in the nature and constitution of man. Genesis 1 26 and 27 says we are what? created in the image of God, and we find out from other places, way down in the New Testament, that to some extent that's still a true statement. Now we can make a case that it's been a little marred because of the fall and whatever, but we're still the image of God. And so the case can be made, if I'm the image of God, I'm the reflection and the resemblance of God, somehow you could look at a person And at least get some concept of a God. You might not know enough to be saved or whatever, but you can have some concept. So most people believe the nature and constitution of man does that. In fact, Paul picked up on that in Acts 17. You remember where he was? Athens, Mars Hill, preaching to a bunch of pagans. And he says in verse 28 and 29, somebody got it? Brenda, you got it? Oh, go ahead. For in him we live and move and have our being, and also some of our own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art or man's devisings. Okay, and he picked up, your poets even say that. You guys have to recognize that you've come to some conclusion about this God, so let's come to the full conclusion of it. So that's the nature and constitution of man should somehow reveal something about God to us. The third one is the primitive and direct revelation to men. And primitive may not be politically correct terms. I don't know what other term to use. But anyway, in Genesis chapter 6, verse 13, it says, And God said to Noah, to live in. Rich. Then you kill him. I've got to talk to you here today. Why don't you build an ark? Right, what's an ark? You know that whole row. God said to Noah, in those days God spoke to him. Now, I don't know exactly how that worked because we have examples of dreams and visions and direct revelation in probably a lot of different ways, but God really revealed himself to people. Another one is Genesis 12, 1-4. Now, the Lord said to Abram. Well, you didn't have a Bible that had that verse in it. All right. So there was direct communication to man or revelation to man in those days. So that was a great thing. The problem is what? For us. When's the last time God talked to you on the shoulder and you heard this voice or, you know, he really revealed something to you? Well, I hope not recently. But that kind of direct revelation, even then it wasn't to everyone. I mean, if you add them all up, the guys that God really spoke to, or the ladies and guys that God spoke to, it would probably be a relatively limited number in all the history of mankind. It wasn't to everyone. Still isn't. It is not anymore. Hebrews 1.1. And besides that, 1 Peter 1.20 says we have a more sure word of prophecy. You got something even better than God tapping you on the shoulder and saying, hey, I want you to go. You know why that's true? What if God tapped you on the shoulder as you walked out here today and said, hey, I want you to go to Timbuktu and be a missionary. How many would believe it? How would you know that was of God? You see, I got a more sure word. I think I'd walk out and go, is that God? I think that was God. I'm not sure it was God. I don't know. I think I might have some questions in my mind, but I have a more sure word. So, but we do know that He revealed Himself in the older days, especially through Noah and all the rest, through direct revelation to mankind. Let's go to the next page. Ask me any questions as we're going, all right? And that is in the miraculous And providential works of God. What's the difference between a miracle and providence? Miracle is against nature, above nature, supernatural. Yeah. In other words, you can't explain it with, you know, the laws of gravity or whatever it is. It doesn't fit those. Okay. What's providence? Just the way life unfolds. By the providence of God, you're here tonight. It wasn't a miracle of God, it was a providence of God. It was just the way life worked out in the events of life, etc. So one is a supernatural thing and one is more of a natural. You can explain it naturally if you want to. And so there are miracles, direct, immediate, supernatural interventions of God in history, and others are providence, the acts of history. A couple verses. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 33 34 and 35 somebody got that did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and live or did God ever try to go and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation by trials by signs by wonders by war by a mighty hand and outstretched arm and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord Himself is God. There is none other besides Him." All right, let's stop right there. Do you see, has ever a people heard from God through, and then it goes down a whole list, signs and fires and you know spectacular miraculous things and it says also through what was it history or something like that it says you just read the last line there you read what was that? By war and a mighty hand and so they saw the Jewish people there the Israelite people saw supernatural, miraculous things. And they saw also the providential work of God in the war and the mighty hand of God and in the affairs of life. And it says, has there not been a people who has come to know God or understand God through that? In John chapter 10, the Gospel of John is one of the great gospel accounts that says Christ did signs and wonders, but signs. In other words, his miraculous things that he did were designed to communicate and reveal to people something about God. In John chapter 10 and verse 38, he says, Now, if you don't believe my words, what does it say there? Somebody read it. Verse 38, chapter 10. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. Believe the works. If you can't believe me because of the words I say from my mouth, watch this. And he's doing miracles. You ought to pick up on this, that this is from God. And I think you can show from a lot of other verses, such as Isaiah 45, Ezekiel 11. Through the miraculous signs, wonders, events of history, as well as the providential working of history, you should come to know There's a God, you should come to know that he's powerful. You ought to come to know he can do whatever he wants, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, Hebrews chapter two says God bearing witness in Hebrews chapter two, verse three and four, he says the apostles have given revelation. That's the book called the Bible. And he bore witness to it through signs and miracles. And so he authenticated, he communicated somehow knowledge through that. The problem with that one, if there is a problem with that one, is sometimes John 12 says they saw the signs and they didn't get it, which is kind of amazing. Jesus is doing all these miracles and they don't get it. You know, it's like, who are you? Finally, the Pharisee says, come to him. Tell us plainly, who are you? You know, it's like, how many of these things I have to do? How many miracles do I have to do before you get it? You know, if you don't already have it, he said. I mean, what can I say? What could I do that could possibly do more or say more than what I've already done? So a lot of times people didn't catch it or they didn't want to catch it or whatever it might be. Sometimes it was misunderstood. So that's number four. Number five is in the experience and the life of God's people. Before you even look up those verses, tell me some verses that tell you that somehow God is revealed through you. One of the ways is through nature. Look up there in the heavens. One is through the providential working of history. Look what's been happening. But part of it is you. 2 Corinthians 3, you are my epistle, known and read of all men. Right? You're walking around and you're an epistle of God to mankind. You are known and you are read. God is being known to people around you by you. That's almost scary when you think about it. Right? You're an epistle known and read. But let's go to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6 and then verse 11. somebody read that for it is the god who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ so there says god who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts why to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ god has done something in my life and in your life by which he plans to share the glory or spread the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You can read from verse, we're earthen vessels, verse seven. We're hard pressed in every side, but not crushed, et cetera, et cetera. How about verse 11? For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. All right. And he just communicates, we're going to die maybe or whatever, but it's so that the life of Jesus can be manifest. And so there's an indication that somehow through us, God's people, by our life, by our suffering, by our words, whatever, we are revealers of God to mankind. How about 1 Peter 2, 9, 10, 11, and 12? But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God. who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. What is it? We're a chosen generation, royal priest, holy nation, his own special people. Why? To proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness. And what he says is, you know, we're supposed to be revealers of God to people. Our life, our suffering, how we handle it, our words. So one of the ways God reveals himself to people is by you and me. Open the mouth, live the life, walk the walk, etc. etc. So that's pretty good. Is there any problems with that one, by the way? By the way, it also says in Matthew 5, you are the sod of the earth. You're the light of the world, etc., etc. We have a role in communicating to people something about God. So do we do all right on that? Do you think you still want some more revelation of God than the guy next to you? We're not real perfect on that one, but we're not bad. I mean, it is a way that God is communicating revealed in life. If you take the first five there, what would you say about all of them? We're very appreciative of them all, right? They're excellent. They're great. But what? They're incomplete. What else? Creation is marred. My life is marred. I'm not this perfect revealer of God. I wish I were, but I'm not perfect anymore. All right. It's incomplete. It's a little bit marred. It's probably inadequate, we'd say. Great revelation about God, but didn't tell me how to get saved. All right. maybe the words that I give to somebody would be the only one in that whole list that could really communicate. Now this is how you get saved, alright? But really when I do that, it's probably not just my words, and that's the next one. So the main way that we have God revealed to us is number six, and that's in the Holy Scriptures. How about some verses that tell us that? You can go to Hebrews 1.1 if you want. Somebody read it. God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophet. Alright. That one really covers the number six and number seven, but God in sundry times or various times, various ways, has spoken times fast to the fathers by the prophets. That's what we have here. It's called the Holy Scriptures, right? It's going to go on. We also have it through Jesus Christ, but God has spoken and he has recorded it for us and we have it inspired and air and infallible and word of God in our hands and that's there. How about 2 Timothy 3, 16? All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. All right. And we could make a, we studied scripture, so I just put a couple of verses there. But I think you would have to recognize the main way that we come to understand God and know God, probably, if I said, tell me all the attributes of God, you probably would start to list verses of scripture and things from the scripture. Verses saying, well, yesterday I woke up, looked at the sun and I said, wow, God's pretty powerful. So I know he's powerful. and whatever. Creation probably taught you a lot, but most of what you have is from there. So the scriptures, by the way, Christ would say in Luke chapter 24, when he's walking on the road to Emmaus, one of our favorite passages, you know, and beginning at Moses and coming all the way through the Old Testament, through the prophets, he just kept reading all about God and about himself in there. So the whole Old Testament tells us about it as well as the New Testament. The final one is in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1.1, in the beginning was the Bog us the word the word the log us that concept is the concept of the Greek is that as we studied there's a revelation either through rational study or philosophical study or through a God of something that's real and true and genuine and right and so God sent his son Jesus Christ to be that John 1 18 somebody do that one no one has seen God at any time the only begotten son who was in the bosom of the father he has declared him He's declared him. So Jesus Christ is a revelation of God to us. Now, he doesn't happen to walk with us. He did walk, though, on this earth with a bunch of people for about 33 years, three in particular. So he has revealed it. And how about John 14, 8 and 9? Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, Show us the Father? OK, so Philip said, I need to see the father. And he said, you're looking at him. Are you looking at me who reveals him to us? So Jesus Christ is a revealer of God to us or to mankind. In Colossians, chapter two, verse nine and ten, it says this, For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So in Jesus Christ, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. So he was visible. We had a chance in history to really see God walking on the face of this earth. Hebrews chapter one. And verse 2 and 3 says, as in these last days spoken to us by His Son. It says in verse 3, who being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person, exact replica of who He is. So when Jesus Christ walked on the face of this earth, we have a full, a final, personal, living, moving here on the face of this earth, revealing of God to mankind. And so, as you look at Him, God has made Himself known to mankind, and mankind can know God. There are seven ways from scripture that the scripture says he has revealed himself. The first five are very good, but partial, somewhat inadequate, and probably slightly marred or perverted through the curse and through our lives and whatever it might be. The last two are truly effective and full and final and complete. Any questions on that? Do you think you can know God? The real question is why would somebody want to know God? Well, hopefully you know the answer to that even better. All right. So let's go to the second item. Can you know God? Well, man can know God, but man cannot fully know God. These are the incommunicable attributes. How about some of you just read these verses. Psalm 145, verse 3. Someone look that up. Someone look up Romans 11, 33, 34, 35, I think it is. Go ahead, Mike. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised. Okay. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. I think that one goes on somewhere in there, how searchable are His ways. Is that Psalm 145? Yeah, you got it. And then does it go on to say, and His greatness is unsearchable. Excellent. So, anybody here know the unsearchableness of God? Have you ever fully understood Him? No. It's way, way beyond us. Then Romans 11, one of our favorite verses. 33, 34, 35. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid. Thank you for who has known the mind of God. It's how unsearchable his ways. First Corinthians to 16, which is a quote of Isaiah 40, verse 13, says, who has known the mind of the Lord? And it's just a challenge all the way through scripture. It's a challenge. Do you really know the mind of the Lord? Didn't you remember Job? Job one day was trying to figure out what was going on in his life and his buddies were trying to help him. They weren't doing too well. And he kind of, he did real well. Job did really well. He never really lost his faith in God. But once in a while, he said a few things that probably he shouldn't have said. And finally, God says to him in chapter 40, in verse, how about, is it verse chapter 40? In verse one, more of the Lord answered Job and said, shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Job answered, da, da, da, da. The Lord answered Job out of whirlwinds and said, now prepare yourself. I'll ask you a question. You give me the answer. So he threw a couple of questions at Job. He couldn't quite get them. They were a little bit beyond him. And finally, he says in chapter 42, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said I will question you and you will answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, and therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And Job finally realized, you know, God, I don't understand you. I don't fully understand what you're doing. I can't understand you completely, and I can't understand completely what you're doing. And I'm sorry that even challenged you on it. I'm sorry that I questioned you. I'm sorry that I said to you, explain this one to me. I really don't have to. I trust you completely. God is, he's knowable, but he's just not completely knowable. So where does that leave you? Frustrated or happy? Happy. Why? Exactly. He's way beyond me. Wouldn't you hate to have a God, this trivialization of God, a God that I can fully understand? He's in my box. He's kind of like me. Wouldn't you hate to have a God like that? Yeah, I'm not very good at being God and he's much better at it. So that's true. It would almost destroy what? Sunday morning, what do we do? We worship. Kind of destroy that, wouldn't it? You don't worship, you know, people. You might think highly of certain people and whatever, but at the end of the day, they're just people. You don't worship people. You don't obey people in the sense you obey God. And so I think really it's a wonderful, wonderful truth that we have a God who is knowable. Be still and know that I'm God. You can know me, God says. I want you to know me. I want you to have an intimate relationship. But I just want to tell you, you're never really going to know me completely. And I struggled with eternity prior to this last year, you know, the whole concept And I think one of you in here might help me with it. I just like, eternity is so long. And what am I going to do? I might go fishing for a hundred million years and then I'll be done with that. And I'm going to go golfing for a hundred million years. And, you know, eventually I run out of everything to do and I still have eternity left. You know, it's like just so long. So it's just, it's just bugging me a little bit. Like, and one of you, I think here pointed out to me, he said, well, we have an infinite God. And it's going to take you eternity to figure him out. And I think that's true, isn't it? In other words, I can outspend all of eternity. I'll never really fully understand God even yet, because he's infinite. He's well beyond that. So maybe that's the answer. All right. We have a great God. He is knowable. I hope you do know him, not just as your Savior, but you really know him. You know him as the Bible says, I want you to know me. You won't fully understand me, but as you get to know me enough, you're going to be with Job and say, you know, once I used to hear of you, but now I've seen you, seen you in action. You know, sorry I asked any questions. I really am. I won't ask any more questions. I won't ask, what are you doing and why did it happen that way? I won't ask those questions anymore. I will repent and sackcloth and ashes over that. The notion of God, the knowability of God. He is knowable. You're going to take a break and we're going to come back to the nature of God. And we're going to run through, I don't know how many are there, probably about 23, but hopefully we'll make through all of those. Take a little break.