Alright, let's go ahead and start, if we might. Let's begin with prayer. Father, I feel a special burden tonight to begin this study on the doctrine of God with prayer. It is clear, O Lord, that we can know nothing about You unless You reveal Yourself, O Lord, to us. And Lord, we need that revelation. We need it consistently. O Lord, we need You to speak Yourself to us through Your Word and through Your Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, that we might know You rightly. This is eternal life, that we may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. Lord, we want to know You. We were created to know You and to follow You and to be conformed to You, Lord. And I pray that the study of God would be deeply and richly satisfying to us, that we would feast on the Word, that we would enjoy one another's insights from the Scriptures, that we would have our hearts lifted up somewhat into the heavenly realms, that we would realize that our future inheritance is You, Yourself, and an eternal experience face-to-face with God. As the Scripture says, they will see His face, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And Lord, I pray that we would have a greater taste for that, an attraction to that, as a result of our study tonight. And pray, O Lord, that You would just open up the Word of God to us tonight. I pray that we would sense that the Spirit of God is in this place tonight, and that we would be motivated to further and deeper study of the person of God as revealed in Scripture, and specifically revealed through Jesus Christ, that we would know You in this way. So, Father, I pray that You would take just the homely means that You have ordained. As You said, we see through a glass darkly, and then we will see face to face. These are just homely means, O Lord, of studying words grammatical constructions and definitions of words and putting concepts together in our minds. And yet, just like happened in the time of Elijah, the fire falls down from heaven on these homely, earthly type things and it becomes an experience of the living God. And I pray that that would happen tonight and that you would bless our study. Father, I pray that you would open our hearts, help us to set aside the cares of this day Help us to put to death the sins that would block our vision of God. Help us to put aside our idols that Satan has been proffering to us, O Lord. Help us to instead focus on this one thing. I want to know God. I want to know Him better than I ever have before. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so we begin our study of the doctrine of God tonight. And everybody was waiting for me to finish praying. Well, I'm done praying now. Come on in. Appreciate that. We're studying the doctrine of God, and I want to begin by reading from a book familiar to many of you, I'm sure, A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, a great book. And he begins very famously, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Isn't that an incredible statement? What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. If we think rightly about God, then that says one thing about us. If we think inaccurately about God, something else. Tozer goes on to say this, without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God. And the weightiest word in any language is the word for God. And he says that our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. A real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple. Where it is inadequate or out of plum, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe that there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God. So he's just making a case saying that this is the greatest study we can ever embark on. For us to study God. So you've spent your evening, I hope, well when you leave this room an hour from now. And my desire is that God would use the Word of God and the Scriptures that we're going to study to strengthen your understanding of who God really is. And our desire is that we would take that knowledge that we have of God and translate it into right living through obedience. So all of those things are are vital. So we're going to start with this. This is systematic theology and so we're going to go in a systematic way. We've already just skipped the first major topic in Wayne Grudem's systematic theology because Flynn did such a great job with that and that's the doctrine of scripture. It's foundational to everything we're going to do is that God has spoken to us through the prophets. He has spoken to us of himself through the scriptures and this is how we can know him rightly. And so Flynn did such a fine job with that there's no need to go over that again. But the second major topic then really is the first in importance, and that is the doctrine of God. And so we're going to start with the existence of God. And it's, I think, a relevant study. You know, there's a group of atheists that were very aggressive this holiday season, selling atheism. Have you heard about them? There is this, these posters, the slogan was, be good for goodness sake. You know, out of, you better watch out, you better not, you know. Santa Claus is coming to town, and to them, God and Santa Claus are basically equivalent. that morality stands up just for its own sake. You don't need God. You can do better without God. I don't know who was funding this and what motivated them, why it was important to spread atheism, you know, but that was, be good for goodness sake. There is a valid reason to be a moral individual apart from the existence of God. So we have to start with this, the existence of God. How do we know that God truly exists? All right. whoever would come to God must believe what two things that he exists that he is and that's right I hope you're all here expecting to get something good tonight that's that's pleasing to God that you came here tonight expecting to be pleased expecting to be made happy and joyful in some way to get something out of this time there's nothing wrong with that everything right with that you should be here tonight expecting to be rewarded in your diligent search for God, to know Him a little bit better. And that's a worthwhile reward. And so, we must believe that He exists. Well, how do we know that He exists? That's what we're talking about here as we just begin. The existence of God. There are two great categories of evidence for the existence of God. Internal evidence, in that every single human being has within themselves evidence of the existence of God. And secondly, external evidence, And that is that God has revealed himself external to us in two great ways. In physical creation and in the scriptures. These are the two great ways that God communicates. So these three things taken together make up the evidence for the existence of God. The internal testimony that God exists just within ourselves. That's discussed in Romans chapter 2. That we have within our hearts this conscience. He doesn't use the word there, but you know, testifying concerning the existence of God. these external things. So, throughout the world, the human race exemplifies and displays some sense of the existence of God. You can see this in the book of Acts, as Paul is in Acts 17 at the meeting of the Areopagus. Remember how he'd been taking a tour of the city of Athens? And he sees that they're incredibly religious. He sees evidence of their religiousness by the idols that were all over that city. For me, I think sometimes the idols of our culture are more easily seen by someone from another culture. You know, we have a hard time seeing our own idols, but we have them. We definitely have them. But when I was in India, I could see very clear evidence of their idolatrous worship systems. When I was in Japan, the same thing. There were literally shrines on every corner and you'd see little school children stopping and clapping in front of the shrine and making offerings to the god of that block before they would go on into the into school and take a test or something like that. And so you could just see it and there it is. But we have our idols too. At any rate, Paul's touring around in Athens and he sees evidence of their religiosity. They are religious. They believe that there is some unseen being. And so he says, men of Athens, I see that in every way you're very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God. Now, what you worship is something unknown. I am going to proclaim to you. Well, I'll tell you what, what an arrogant statement if Paul weren't actually an apostle of Jesus Christ. You know, you have no idea this God you worship. I'm going to proclaim him to you now. What a great thing that we have the apostles and prophets so that we can know this God who would be otherwise unknown. But the point I'm making here is there's this religious impulse in the heart of the human race. So atheism really goes against the grain. It's something you kind of have to talk yourself into and force yourself to. It's really a forcing. I think it's evidence, as we'll talk about in a moment, of suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. People are inherently religious and they're looking for ways to worship God. Human beings do, in some sense, know God internally. Romans 119 says, What may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. Romans 121. Although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Clear statement that there is an innate knowledge of God. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Romans 128, they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God. Again, that sense that they had it to begin with. Verse 32 in Romans, although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, Etc. So many statements in this section about what they know, what they know. They know this. They already know it. They didn't think it worthwhile to retain this knowledge. So there is this innate knowledge of God and of his ways. Ecclesiastes 311 puts it this way. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also said eternity in the hearts of men. And Don Richardson in his book Eternity in Their Hearts says that there's evidence in comparative religions, cultural anthropology and all that, that that God has left what he calls, what Don Richardson, as a Christian missionary, calls redemptive analogies, that he's left in cultures around the world that help missionaries preach the gospel. There's something there in every culture. If you study the cultures, you can find something that you can begin your message, just like Paul does, to an unknown God. That's a redemptive analogy. You know, there's a sense of, you know, this isn't enough. There's got to be something better, something bigger, something higher. Paul just jumps on that and uses it. But Don Richardson says, you know, for him it was the peace child in Irian Jaya. And there was just that redemptive analogy there. But there, he found that it's a marvelous book. You really ought to look at it. But he found them all over the world. Human beings, however, sadly, suppress this knowledge. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. As though the fool is trying to talk himself into it. There's no God. There is no God. There really is no God. There isn't any God, is there? There can't be a God. This kind of thing, as he's talking himself into it, the fool saying in his heart, there is no God. Says it again in Psalm 53 verse 1. And so Romans 1 18 through 23 says, the wrath of God, top of page 2. We're moving at a brisk pace. I hope you know you have two handouts in one. Well, you can read that at the bottom and you can get whatever joy you want out of that National Atheist Day, April 1st. So do what you want with that at any rate. There's there's more here than we're going to cover. All right. So we're just going going on. But the wrath of God, it says, is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. What this implies to me is that this is a conscious effort that they make. That the truth is somehow some hideous green subterranean monster pushing itself up out of a sewage system. And if they could just hold it down, that's literally the Greek word, they hold the truth down in unrighteousness. So it's an ugly thing, the idea of the truth. They're afraid of it and they don't want it up. And so Richard Dawkins, who's doing tremendous damage all over the world, and my goodness, if he doesn't get converted, I can't imagine having to stand accountable for the effect he's having on people's faith. Very brilliant man, brilliant scientist, and just seems to enjoy spreading the gloom of atheism everywhere he goes, and the delights of Darwinian evolution and all these kinds of things. This is what he does. And he loves to debate people and kind of do what he can with them. I mean, there have always been people like that, you know, Voltaire and others, you know, these clever debater types who are very, very tough to take on. I always thought Spurgeon would be a good debating partner. Run Spurgeon out and see how it goes. I think he would do just fine. But at any rate, Dawkins said this, biology is the study, look at this, Biology is a study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. That should worry you, Richard Dawkins. You know, we're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. We have to buck the trend all the time. It just seems so purposeful all the time when you're studying these things. But we all know it really isn't. Unbelievable. Francis Crick, again, just as bad as Dawkins, co-discoverer of DNA, said, biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed but rather evolved. Now, why do they have to constantly keep it in mind? Because it just seems obvious that it was designed for a purpose. These are plain examples of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, you can find others. You have to work at it. It must be exhausting. Saul, it's hard for you to kick against the goads, isn't it? I mean, Mike, won't you give up? Can't you just see, here I am, all of the wisdom that God has woven together, but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. I think in this study we may have opportunity to talk about creation and evolution down the road. The whole thing is, the reason they do it is because there are really only two logical explanations for how all this stuff came to be. There are really only two, an intelligent creator or mindless, godless, atheistic evolution. These are the two options you have. To one of them, one of them just seems hideous and awful. And that's really the perversion right there, isn't it? That that seems hideous and awful, which is to me incredibly attractive and wonderful. that the universe is a home where God lives and he made it for his own glory. That's to me warm and attractive, but to them repulsive. At any rate, there is this internal evidence. Secondly, there is external evidence of the existence of God. Scripture testifies to it. John Calvin calls creation the theater of God's glory. You can see God's glory. It's like you're sitting down in the seats and the curtain goes up and there's the glory. And it's around us all the time. Isaiah 6. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. And so the earth is just saturated with the glory of God. It's everywhere you can look. Everywhere you see the glory of God, it's already there. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. There is no speech or language or their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth. They're words to the ends of the world. So, in other words, the cosmos, the heavens, just speak of a glorious Creator. And it's a universal language of glory, isn't it, as you just look up there. And it's so tragic when these pagans then bow down and worship the starry host, as happens often in the Scriptures. But that's not what they're for. They're pointing to the existence of a Creator. And again, Acts 14, Paul says this, verses 16 and 17, God let all nations go their own way. And yet he has not left himself without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. So this is just evidence of the physical creation and how it testifies to the existence of God and to his nature, his attributes. I love that statement. He has not left himself without a testimony, without a witness. You realize that God is a jealous God. He is a jealous God. I was reading to my kids recently that story in 2 Kings chapter 1, where this wicked king falls through this lattice work and is mortally wounded but doesn't know it yet. And he sends messengers to Baals above the God of Ekron to find whether he's going to survive the fall or not. You remember what happens. Elijah intercepts the messengers and said, this is what the Lord says. Is it because there's no God in Israel that you're sending to find out whether you're going to live or not, to Baals above the God of Ekron? Therefore, this is what the Lord says, you will die, you will not recover. If that's what you're looking for, I'll give you the answer. You don't need to go any further. So they turn around and go back and say, you know, a man intercepted us and said, you know, we don't need to go any further. You have your answer. Is it because there's no God in Israel? But what is motivating God there? Why did he do that? Why did he go forth through Elijah and said, is it because there's no God in Israel that you're doing this? He's jealous of what? to some idol. He is a jealous God. And it's like, is it because what? You know, like he says in Jeremiah, what fault did your fathers find in me? What did I do wrong that you're running off to Beelzebub to ask this information? So it's just remarkable. God has not left himself without testimony. They know. They are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. You know, there will be nothing that they can say on Judgment Day. And so scripture, sorry, external evidence, the general creation testifies and then scripture itself reveals God. And we've already discussed it in the doctrine of scripture. This is the clearest testimony that there is the Bible. You know, I'm doing scripture memorization now in Zechariah and, you know, in Zechariah one, he says, you know, do not be like your forefathers who, in effect, did not listen to the words of God. They didn't listen when the prophets of earlier times prophesied to them. Don't be like them. Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? But does not my word stand forever? That's what he's saying. The word's still here. Both the prophets and the ones that they preach to, they're gone now. God's word is still here. And so the word of God also stands. Generation after generation testifies to the existence of God. There can be no, I think, no other explanation for the Bible than that God exists. And so the proof to me of the existence of God is the scripture. It's a miracle. And it testifies plainly to me of the existence of God. OK, so these are the proofs. Now, there are traditional proofs for the existence of God. I think that they are helpful as far as they go, but they don't go very far. There is the cosmological argument, the argument from cause everything in the universe has a cause. This argument goes thus. The universe itself must have a cause. And the cause of the universe can only be God. Well, Stephen Hawking in, you know, his brief history of time says, you know, why can't it be the universe? Why can't the universe be the uncaused cause? That's what they do with that. And they just dispense with it quickly saying you have to have something that has no cause for you. It's God. For me, it's the universe. That's how they do it. Okay. Secondly, the teleological argument. This is the argument from purpose. The first, an argument from cause something had to have an origin, a cause. Now, it's a matter of purpose. We've already seen the quotes from Dawkins and Crick, but this is how the argument goes. The universe gives immense evidence of harmony, order and design. Design gives evidence of intelligent purpose and therefore of a creator, an intelligent and purposeful God who created it to function this way. That's the teleological argument. So the pagan version of it is what nature intended. I love that. Just meditate on that. What is nature? I mean, nature, you know, it's the way things are, okay? What the way things are intended. It doesn't make any sense at all. Do you mean what God, the Creator, intended? Now, that makes sense to me. A person, a being, can intend. He can put some purpose into something, and so we believe the teleological argument. But again, they are able to dispense with it. Then there's the ontological argument, the argument of an imagined being. This one's more clever than anything else. I don't find it very compelling, but here it is. begins with the idea of God defined as a being greater than which nothing can be imagined. So there's your God. You can't imagine anything greater than this being. But then it argues the characteristic of existence must belong to such a being because it's greater to exist than not to exist. And that's how it works. So I always had a hard time just even understanding it. So never mind finding it compelling. But there it is. There's an argument for the existence of God. And there's a moral argument The innate sense of morality, this is what be good for goodness sake is attacking here. That's their answer to the moral argument. Begins from a man's sense of right and wrong and the need for justice to be done and argues that there must be a God who is the source of right and wrong and who will someday mete out justice to all people. So that's how the moral argument goes. Immanuel Kant found it the most compelling of all of the traditional arguments for God. But again, it apparently isn't compelling for the atheistic group that's saying, hey, look, it's just enough to be moral because morality is better than immorality. So that's about how they work. Now, Roger Nicole said, he was my systematic theology professor, he said, in all these arguments and all of the evidence for his existence of God, God has not left sufficient evidence for his existence so that belief in his existence is logically inescapable. That's not what he's done. He's not put the human race in some box with no window or door out and say, what can we do? He exists. But it is morally inexcusable to not believe in God, as they will find out on Judgment Day. There's a big, big difference between logically inescapable and morally inexcusable. And so as witnesses, as evangelists, we come from that point of view. It is morally inexcusable for you not to believe in God. And so we ought to take the role that's been given us as witnesses, as those proclaiming a message from the king. We don't have to be shy. You don't have to be rude. We should be loving. We should be gentle and patient. But we are coming from a king saying, I exist. This is what I require of you. And then if they go and twist it and suppress the truth and unrighteousness, still the truth stands over them. That's what it is. All right. Go ahead and try to argue. these atheists or whatever into believing that there is a God based on one of these four arguments, and you'll see how well it works. It's better to say, he exists, you'll find out. I hope you find out in this life. But you will certainly find it out in the next world if you don't find it out now. Okay, these are the arguments for the existence of God. Bottom line is, only God himself can overcome this suppression of the truth. It's something that only God can do. He's the only one that can fix this problem. 2 Corinthians 4, 4 through 6, says the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They cannot see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. This can only happen from the preaching of the gospel, the direct work of God by the spirit. First Corinthians two, four and five. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power so that your faith may it might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. So through the spirit, the veil is pulled back, not just from the Jews who can't see Christ in the law of Moses, but from the atheist pagan who can't see God in physical creation. The veil gets pulled back only by the spirit of God, and then they can see at last, finally, the glory of God in creation. So this is the doctrine of the existence of God. Any questions? Susan? I don't know if you want to do this. This is kind of like apologetics. But the atheist that speaks of a universe of cosmos developing at random or whatever, how would he or she explain physical laws? Would they say that those are just illusions, or they appear to be true today and may change tomorrow? It does seem like laws would stimulate as a refutation. Yeah, I see your point, you know, but you and I are speaking as Christians and believers. I just think that unbelief is irrational and stupid. And so when you look at that and it's like, you know, they don't live that way, they don't function that way, you know, and they can come up with clever answers to the, you know, wristwatch or pocket watch found suddenly in the woods and all that, but they would never function thinking, boy, isn't it amazing how nature just made this pocket watch here or wristwatch here in the woods? They're like, boy, somebody drop this, you know, or something like that. They're not, they don't live the way that they theoretically can dismantle the argument. They just don't live that way. Yeah, go ahead. Well, Paul was talking about a veil, says to this day, you know, whenever Moses is read, he says a veil covers their hearts. Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, 2 Corinthians 3, the veil is removed. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit is able to pull that veil back. He did it for Paul, for Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. It was really Jesus that did it when Jesus appeared to him, resurrected and said, you know, he said, Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus. That settled it right there. And the resurrection of Christ. And he said, I now need to reinterpret Messiah because apparently the Messiah can die on a Roman cross. And then it made sense to him. That's where Galatians came from when he said, OK, he became a curse for us. He was cursed, but he was cursed for us and all that. But that veil had to be removed. It's a hardness of heart. Romans 9 through 11 describes that the God himself has hardened their hearts. And only by his sovereign power can it be removed. All I'm saying is I'm extending it to the pagan, too. He's got a veil or she's got a veil, too. Very, very similar. Only in this case, it isn't the law of Moses. It's just physical creation. And they just can't see the glory that we all can see as Christians. We see a beautiful sunset, we say, God made it. We see a little baby that's born, a newborn, just God made that, knit that baby together in his or her mother's womb. We see it that way, but a non-Christian doesn't. But when they come to Christ, just like the Jewish person with the law of Moses, all of a sudden things make sense. All of a sudden it's beautiful. They used to be idolaters in pagan religions, worshiping and serving created things, but not anymore. Now, instead, they give glory to God for those created things. It's a big change. I think it's exactly the same for the Jew and for the Gentile. The same thing happens. The veil gets removed by the Spirit of God and they can see the truth. That's what I say. But 2 Corinthians 3 is the chapter in which that's discussed. Anything else on the existence of God? It's always thought it was amazing that the communists who don't believe in God would start off in their spaceships navigating on stars that are there by happenstance and figuring they're going to get back. I think that's great. They've got a lot more faith. Yeah, they rely on laws. Yeah, that's a good point. I've often thought that the American astronauts that walked on the moon had remarkable faith in human technology to get them home. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there's this little thing sitting there, and I sure, sure hope it works, you know, because that's an awfully long wait for the next taxi that comes by. It's not coming. So at any rate, yeah, there's that kind of faith. Very, very good point. Let's keep moving. The existence of God. To me, I just think this is the great issue of life, that God does exist. But let's understand, it is by faith that we know that. It's in the faith chapter that the statement is made. Because whoever comes to Him must believe that He exists. So it's a matter of faith, believing that He exists. Alright? Alright, well let's talk about the knowability of God. Can God be known? Can we know God? And just simply put, the answer is no, we can't know God if He doesn't reveal Himself to us. It is the privilege of God to hide Himself. And He must reveal Himself, but the beauty is He has chosen to do it. He's chosen to reveal Himself to the human race. So, God must reveal Himself to us. In general revelation, we've already covered this, what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. That because is key, that's what I'm saying here. Only because God has revealed Himself can He be known. Personal revelation, it must happen, just going back to what I was sharing with my dear sister here. I'm sorry. Please remind me your name. We met last. Lisa, what Lisa was talking about. Only if God specifically reveals himself to the individual heart, can that person know Christ? That's the removal of the veil. And so it says in Matthew 11, 27, this is what Jesus said. All things have been committed to me by my father. No one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. In other words, Jesus, in effect, is saying, for the whole human race, it's up to me to reveal the Father to you. And if I don't choose to reveal the Father to you, you won't know the Father. It's a marvelous thing, isn't it? So Jesus is sovereign in the issue of the revelation of the Father to the human race. If he chooses to reveal the Father, then you'll get to know the Father. And if he chooses not to reveal the Father, you won't. And so it's a beautiful thing. By the way, we shouldn't be confused or stumble over this. When Jesus said, blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven. The father does his revelation too. The father, the son and the spirit are always working together. So the father reveals, the son reveals and the spirit reveals as well. They all do that. So this is what we must have. And I would say, if you come to the conclusion that your knowledge of God is inadequate, if your knowledge of God is insufficient, Speaking a little more positively, you'd like to know God better? Okay. What do you need to do based on what we're talking about right now? Pray and ask God to do it. Say, God, reveal Yourself to me. Show Yourself to me, as Don was saying, by the Scriptures. Show Yourself to me. I want to know You better. And He will do it. I mean, I can't imagine, based on what I know of God from Scripture, a prayer that would be more delightful to Him than that. That you would come and say, there's one thing I want. in 2010. Just one thing. If I could have this, I'd be happy. I want to know you better. I want to know you better. And, you know, since that is eternal life to know God, then that's something that God will answer. But he doesn't give it cheaply or lightly. He will test us. He will see if we'll be obedient to what he's already revealed of himself, that kind of thing. All right. So God must reveal himself. God dwells in unapproachable light. In that hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible. hid from our eyes. It's an interesting statement if you think about it. I don't want to exegete a song or a hymn, but in effect saying that you really can't see God with the naked eye. You can see that he exists and you can see something of his invisible attributes and his nature, but that's not how God can be seen. It's with the eyes of the heart. You know, as Paul prays, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. God isn't accessible that way. It's not the way we're going to see God. All praise we would render, the hymn writer says, O help us to see, tis only the splendor of light hideth thee. In other words, you know, kind of like close your eyes to see Jesus. That's what you kind of have to do to some degree. God dwells, it says, in unapproachable light, 1 Timothy 6. God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one ever has seen or can see. To him be the honor and the might forever. Amen. So this is the God who dwells in unapproachable light. And so I'm just giving you that sense that you can't know God if he doesn't let you come close. You know, that's just the greatness of God. And we cannot figure God out. Can't sit in a think tank somewhere and just figure him out. Let's think about God and try to figure him out. First Corinthians 1, 19 through 21, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate. It'd be worth pondering how God has done that. How has God chosen to frustrate the wisdom of the wise? Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. God is in the business of frustrating independent inquiries into his nature and existence. He's in the business of frustrating that, shutting it down. And it says, notice it says, it's in the wisdom of God that God couldn't be known that way. Why is it very wise of God that we must have him reveal himself to us by the Spirit or else we won't know him? Why is it actually very wise of God to set it up that way? Yeah. I think that's some of the things. You look at children or even ourselves, the things that have made you proud of sometimes are your intellectual achievements, the things you have worked out. You know, the way you were able to figure out a difficult math problem or to solve a crossword puzzle that no one else could do in some record time and all that. God will not have it. He just will not have it when it comes to Him. And so He gives it to the little children. I thank you, Father, that you have revealed yourself to little children and hidden yourself from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. It made you happy to do it that way. So if you want to repent and become like a little child, then you'll get to know me, God is saying. Humble yourself and come and say, I don't know you. I want to know you better. Humble yourself. That's what he's saying. All right, John 118, no one has ever seen God, but God, the only begotten God who is at the Father's side has made him known. So through Jesus alone can we know God. And we're on the question of the knowability of God. No one can ever fully understand God. Here's the word fully. In other words, it's kind of like we're used to this now, the computer download. We're seeing the line go across 10 percent, 20, 30, 40, 50 percent, 60, 70. You're never going to get to 100 percent. I don't care if you've been there 10 million years. Bright shining as the sun. You're not going to get to 100 percent. Never. OK, seriously, I mean, just think of, I mean, that cannot be. I now comprehend God. I've taken him completely in now. What do we do now? New topic. Topic number two, we've done God, now what do we do? That will never happen. God is an infinite being and you will always be a finite being. Always. And so, therefore, we can't fully comprehend God. Sounds like mathematical reasoning, I don't know. To me, I think we're going to get up if we use... I guess we're not going to sleep in the new heaven and earth, but we will begin the new day. Will there be a new day? I don't know. Whatever. We're going to... Whatever. We're going to embark always on a new study of God. I think that's the way I look at it. That's the business of heaven. And so, I think we will always be excited that there's still some journey to travel. So, that's the way I look at it. I don't know. I'm looking forward to that. And really, meditating on the dynamism of heaven has been one of the most satisfying meditations to me in the last five years. the fact that it is not a static place. I keep delighting in just going back like God saying, behold, I am making everything new, not behold, I have made everything new. And that there's this river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God. So stuff's being made, water, just endless. Where's it come from? It's coming from the throne. Like what, under the throne or out of one of the legs or something? I don't know. It's just coming from God. Stuff flowing from Him. It's just a symbol, dear friends, of the creative effluence that's going to come in the new heaven and the new earth. It's not a boring place. And it's not a set, static place. It's a dynamic place. And so, I think the study of God is it. Great is the Lord, Psalm 145, verse 3. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise is greatness no one can fathom. What does that mean, fathom? Go ahead and read on the bottom of the page. Or look up and give me your answer. His greatness, no one can fathom. There's no bottom. It's like we've reached the end. This is how deep God is, etc. He is infinitely deep. Psalm 147, verse 5, Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding has no limit. Psalm 139, Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in behind and before. You have laid your hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. You know what David's saying? It's just, I just, it blows my mind. I just can't get my mind around this. Just you and me, God, just how you deal with me, how you know everything I'm going to do before I even do it and how you put your hand on me and how you hand me in and guide me through life. It's just amazing to me. It's too high for me. And that's just me, just one individual. God's doing that for millions of people all over the world at the same time. It's just too much. It's a marvelous thing. Thus, we will never know too much about God and we should never stop growing in knowledge. That's why I think, why you're here tonight. That's why you're here tonight. You should have and do have a thirst, a renewed thirst for God, to know Him. You know, it's a weighty thing for me to deal properly with that as you came here tonight. and that I really would desire that you go away satisfied. And say, boy, that was delicious, I'd like more of that. And you go home and study some more on your own. Because this is a limitless topic. You're never going to say, I have enough of God there. I've got my God-fill right in the middle of the week, Wednesday. It's never enough. We want more. More of God. Alright, so the bottom line here in this subsection of the outline is we can't know God fully. There's no end to what may be known about God. But that doesn't mean that we can't know God truly. In other words, we can actually make progress in our knowledge of God. We can learn things that are true of God and they'll be true 20 years from now and 500 years from now. We can actually make progress. We can know God better and better. And that's worthwhile, isn't it? To have what I call in the book I wrote on sanctification, the city of truth being erected brick by brick within your own hearts. You know, and just little by little, more and more insight comes, more and more knowledge of who God is is revealed in scripture. That's a worthwhile endeavor to have that beautiful city of truth coming up in you. So we can make God is statements, can't we? God is light. God is love. God is spirit. God is gracious or the Lord is compassionate and gracious. OK, so we can know facts about God. We can we can know and we can make true assertions about God. They're true and they'll be true, you know, forever. But even more, it is God Himself who we know, and not merely facts about Him. It is good to know facts about God. Please don't be among those Christians that denigrate head knowledge. We must always be those that delight in head knowledge. We want it to be just true. I want to be sure that the things I know about God are true. But we know that that's not enough. You can have facts about God and not really know Him, as the Pharisees did. You know, you don't know Him, Jesus said in John 8. You don't know Him. If you knew Him, if He really were your Father, you wouldn't try to kill me. Jesus says. You don't know him. So we can know a lot of facts about God and not know him. We need to go beyond that. But never less than that, however. Knowing God is the essence of eternal life and the most precious thing that we can possess. Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows and understands me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. For in these I delight, declares the Lord. And then, as we've already quoted tonight, Now, this is eternal life, John 17, 3. This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. However, a perfect knowledge about God is promised for us in heaven. It's something we can look forward to. As it says, this is the covenant, Hebrews 8. This is the covenant I'll make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, a man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest. There's your inheritance right there. That's what you get. They will all know me from the least of them to the greatest. And by the way, there will be least in heaven and there will be the greatest in heaven. I read about heroes that are serving the Lord in Sudan or in other places and all that. I can't carry their shoes and I know it. But I'm going to be in the same heaven as them. And I'm going to know him, I who would be compared to them the least and they the greatest. But we're all going to know God. That's going to be the treasure given to everybody from the least to the greatest. And then again, First Corinthians 13, where there are prophecies, they will cease, where there are tongues, they will be stilled, where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I taught like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, and then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." So, that's our future. The seeing through a glass darkly, or this poor reflection, I think has to do with the Bible. I think it has to do with the written word of God. I'm not in any way denigrating it, but it is superior to stand in the presence of God to reading this book. It just is. It's better. And I think 1 Corinthians 13 says, that's going to be better than this. I don't think there's anything wrong in saying that. There's nothing inadequate about what the Bible is. The Bible is going to do everything it's supposed to do. But this is just supposed to be a foretaste of our future heavenly inheritance. We're just getting a deposit, a down payment, guaranteeing the final. This isn't it, guys. We're not in heaven yet. And so, we get the Bible now, and you get teachers of the Bible, and you get preaching, and sermons, and Acts classes, and books like Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. That's what you get now. But then, face-to-face, and that's just better. So, we will have perfect knowledge of God in heaven, just not exhaustive knowledge, as I've already said. There's always going to be more to learn. All right, that's lesson one. How are we doing on time? Phenomenal. We're doing great, all right? Any other comments on how we may know God, the knowability of God? Seeing none? Sorry, Susan. Seeing none? All right, go ahead, real quickly. Go ahead. Okay, okay. Let's go on to the beginning of an attribute study. Okay? And this is where theologians go. This is where systematic theologians go. Once they go into these initial conversations about how we may know God, the knowability of God, and all of that stuff, they then go into what's known as an attribute study. Now, what do we mean by an attribute? Well, Herman Bobbink said, Scripture never discusses God's being apart from His attributes. According to the Bible, God is what He reveals Himself to be. That's not a great definition. So I went to A.W. Tozer, and Tozer gives us a definition of attribute. The chapter title is A Divine Attribute, Something True About God. I don't really think that's a great definition. I think it's okay. For the purpose of this book, an attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself. That, in my opinion, is too broad. Okay? Because God, that would include all the history of God too, all of his actions in redemptive history, and I don't consider those attributes. So what is an attribute? It's something that answers the question, what kind of God is he? Or what is he like? It answers that question. What kind of God? He is a blank God. That's the kind of God he is. That's what an attribute is. Anything that answers the what kind of question, what is he like? That's what I think of as an attribute. Our God is a this God or a that God or the other God. That's how I would define it. Scriptural words to describe attributes. I like 1 Peter 2.9. This is the NAS version of it. It says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Note the plural word, not the excellence of God. but the excellencies of God. And I think other people use the word perfections. The attributes of God are the perfections of God. I don't actually like the other two verses in terms of, they're good verses, but I don't know that they directly are talking about attributes. So God's attributes then are His perfections, His excellencies, descriptors of His person, His character and nature based on scripture. So it's a quality or characteristic belonging to a person or a thing. a way you can describe that person or thing, right? What kind of God is your God? What is he like? My God is such and such God. That's the attribute. Now, verb form is spelled a different way, but with a different pronunciation. Attribute is the way we say, you know, we attribute something to somebody. That's a verbal form. Isn't that weird how English does that? English is a very difficult language to teach overseas. It's like people are like, that makes no sense. So the noun form is attribute and the verb form is attribute. Okay? We attribute an attribute. Okay? You get it. And there are lots of words like that in English. English is interesting and very fun. It's kind of a mongrel language. I don't know if I should even go off the prepared notes, but it's that way. It's a borrower language, and therefore, spelling is lots of fun. Teaching spelling. In Japan, spelling is, they would never have a spelling bee. Okay? Because everybody would always get the words right. Their words are incredibly phonetic, and you can just work it out immediately. Like, you know, Well, I won't even give you examples, but this is obvious how to spell it. English, not so obvious, all right? And so very, very tough. At any rate, though, attributes, all right? Ascribe to the Lord, Psalm 29, 1 and 2. Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord that glory do His name. Okay, when you're doing that, I think it's the attributes that would come into your mind. God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, bounding in love. He is mighty, He is powerful, God is omnipresent. The things that flow in your mind, these are the things you can ascribe to God. The glory that's due His name, that's what's going to come up. So, notice that the scripture is telling us what to ascribe to Him, by the way. Glory and strength. It's like, oh, here I am, I want to worship. Here I am to worship. Okay, then here, ascribe this to God. It's like you're handed something as you walk into the worship hall. Here, ascribe glory and strength to God. Okay, that's my job. I'm going to ascribe glory and strength to God. Someone else may be assigned with the task of ascribing omnipotence or omnipresence to God or something like that. The bottom line is, Scripture's telling you what kind of God He is. He's not waiting for you to tell Him what kind of God He is. You don't know, as we already made it plain. He's telling you what He's like and then you tell it back to Him. It's a beautiful thing. Very much like at Christmas time, parents of young children give them money to buy them Christmas gifts. Okay? So that's what you do. Maybe you don't do that. That's what we do. I don't know what you do. But, you know, Daphne's four years old. We gave her resources so that she could buy gifts. Okay? And so I think that's what worship is like. God gives us what he wants back from us. For from him and through him and to him are all things. So God gives us the concepts and we give them back to him. We parrot them back, but from the heart, that's all. And if it's genuine worship, you're saying, oh God, this is what you've told me about yourself. All glory to God for being that kind of a God. That's what we're saying. So this one, Psalm 107, verse one, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. OK, his love endures forever. Let the redeemed to the Lord say this. Dot, dot, dot. All right. In other words, I'm telling you what to say. If you're the redeemed of the Lord, here are your lines. Now go say them. You know, the playwright is not looking for innovation in terms of the actors and actresses. He's saying this is what I'm telling you to say. Now say this to me and it will please me. All right. Or Psalm 118, verse four. Let those who fear the Lord say, His love endures forever. Okay. So you're like, Oh man, I, you know, I like to freelance, you know, well, just know that the Bible is a big book. He's given you lots of lines to say. So if you want to say, Hey, compared, nobody's brought this one up in a while. I can think of myself as freelancing. I would urge you not to think of yourself that way. Just say, well, here's a verse we haven't considered in a while. Bottom line, if it's genuine worship, God told you first, isn't it true? If it's genuine, true worship, God told you first, and then you're just telling him back what he's already told you. Okay? So, now a key concept on the attributes. The attributes must be taken together. When one attribute is held in preeminence over the others, idolatry, I don't say could occur, will occur. You must have all of the attributes together in your mind, and you must never, we're going to talk about this, we're running out of time tonight, but next week, God willing, you should never pit one attribute or a cluster of attributes against another. You know, never do that. God's attributes are in perfect harmony with one another. And just because you can't work that out just shows your limitations. We're going to talk about the simplicity of God or another way of looking at it is the unity of God. There's no confusion within God. There's no struggling. It's not like God is a Congress and certain attributes vote for one action and other attributes vote for another action. And in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, look what happened. But at least in the case of such and such, the other attributes won out. It's never like that. There's a perfect harmony together in everything that God does. So we must take these attributes together. Now, there are generally two categories of attributes, what they call communicable and incommunicable attributes. Incommunicable attributes are those things that God does not communicate to his I'm not saying He doesn't teach us about them, I'm saying He doesn't give those to us. They aren't ours, they're His. And then the communicable attributes are those things that God communicates to His created beings, especially to the human race. In some regards, only to the human race. I guess you could say angels too, but the point is these are attributes such as love, mercy, compassion, these kinds of things. Limitations of this classification. Classifications are not found in scripture, okay? Incommunicable, uncommunicable. Those are the words of systematic theologians. If it's helpful, use it. If not, it isn't. Don't use it. I'll give you an example. Self-existence. God just cannot and will not, did not, can't, I guess, in one sense, communicate that to us. There was a time there was only God and nothing else. So everything else in the universe derives its existence from him. So everything in the universe is a created being, except God, right? So that's an incommunicable attribute, self-existence. The rest of the universe derives its existence from God. So he can't and won't, didn't communicate that to created beings. That's a good example. I hope that answers it. All right, how many... I'm trying to think. Oh, all right. There's this great statement in here. from Tozer on how many attributes there are. How many are there? Religious thinkers have differed about this. Some have insisted that there are seven attributes. Seven. Faber sang of God of a thousand attributes. I'd like to see him do that. I don't think it can be done. I came up with 26, and it's not my list. I just went through seven different systematic theologians and put together, and they've been working on it for centuries. Charles Wesley said, uh, glory, thine attributes, confess glorious all and numberless. So that's even bigger than a thousand. Um, I just think, don't think that's true. I think that the list of 26 is pretty good. If you can come up with five or six more that aren't included, I'd be interested to see you do it because Herman Bovink and Burkoff and others have been thinking about it and they didn't come up with those. So if you want to do it, but I'm just saying it's at around in the twenties. And if you can come up with another five or six, I'd be astonished, but go ahead. You sure can't come up with another 50. All right? The bottom line is that those attributes themselves are limitless studies. You could just take one, like the compassion of God or the mercy of God, and spend a long time on that. So don't misunderstand me when I say there's only 26. I'm not in any way limiting God. And I'm not sticking everything on the number 26. I'm just giving you a sense of probably about how many there are. You know, if you start coming up with, you're really just going to come up with synonyms. And after a while, language itself won't matter, won't mean what it does. So there's a finite number of ways that God's revealed himself to us in that. But each of those categories is huge. And the way they relate to one another is just almost, you know, it's fathomless. You really just can't get to the bottom of it. So those are the attributes. And yet for all of that, I think these classifications are still helpful and beneficial. All right. We have one or two more minutes. Let's go ahead and make the use of the time and then we'll be done. Let's, yes sir, Horace. Before we close, I've got a request. I didn't get here for prayer, but I'm going to Raleigh tomorrow at Rebs Hospital for some tests. And then again, yesterday, my doctor called me. When I get that done, he wants to see me because the last time that I was at Duke, they found a spot on my line. They want me to see a surgeon for that operation. And I just want to thank God for these children, to thank God for being here. Could I get somebody, I'll pray for you, Horace, but if I could get somebody to pray for Horace right now. Go ahead. I'm sorry, were you going to say something else? Thank God for the rest of your life. We'd like to pray for Horace, and I will too. Okay, Rick, would you do that, and then I'll pray. And after I pray, we'll be done for the evening. So go ahead. Lord, thank you that we can pray for our brother Horace. We share the burden that he faces to the best of our ability, Lord. We hear somewhat of the fear that our brother has, and I pray that even tonight, that you might grant him much peace, because you are the God of peace. You are the God of power, and you are the God of comfort. You're a sovereign king. It's not any surprise to you, Mr. Fox, that for us as well, we know you're a God of purpose. And so we know, Lord, that you're a God who purposes to bring great glory to yourself. And that your name might be made great in Rex Hospital, in Durham, in First Baptist, and indeed in Horace's life. Comfort our brother, encourage him, Lord, might he look to you, and might he find in you the strength that he needs. I pray that you give great wisdom to the doctor, to the nurses, to all those who will be treating x-rays, all those who will be looking at biopsies, everyone, even those who receive him at the desk for a further appointment. We'll give them all wisdom. And Lord, we commit our brother to you, knowing that you will take way better care of him than we could ourselves. Lord, we'd like to go with him and make sure he's cared for properly. We give him to you. Thank you, Father, for your presence. Thank you for how great you are. And we anticipate learning more and more about how great you are through our times together. Father, I agree, and I just pray right now for my brother Horace. I'm grateful for all the many ways that you have expressed love to me personally and to others in this church, to Horace. And I just want to agree with Rick that he would have a sense that this God that we have studied tonight will be with him tomorrow. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you go through the fire, the flames will not hurt you. But Lord, I pray that he would have a sense of the presence of God calming him, and assuring Him through everything that He goes through and bring healing to Him, O Lord. We know that it is not Your will that we should spend forever in these bodies in this world, O Lord, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. I pray that He would set His heart fully on the grace to be given Him when Christ returns, namely, the grace of resurrection and eternity in the new heaven and the new earth. In Jesus' name, Amen.