I want to speak over this term on God. You might say, well, you do that every week. But I want us to look at who is God and what is God. It's been on my heart for a while to preach on the nature, the character, the attributes of God.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism, one of the documents that we confess we believe as a church, says this, what is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
And my plan is to basically take each word of that answer and try and expound them from scripture. We're going to really look at God on God, preaching God from the word of God.
We're going to do that because all of the Bible, all of scripture is given by the inspiration of God. And it's profitable for us. And it gives us all that we need to know concerning how to live righteously, about holiness, about correction and about proof.
All that we need for the Christian life is contained for us in the word of God. And the word of God, the whole of the Bible declares God to us.
The word of God doesn't simply try to prove God to you. One of the first words of the Bible, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
It doesn't pause at that point and say, before we go any further, let me give you the qualities of God, the characteristics of God, because you don't know him.
But the word of God does reveal God to us.
I've chosen a text for this morning.
It's Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6.
And I think it's a good summary statement to begin our series.
It says this.
It says,
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
It's a whole cluster of words put together in that verse that assume that knowing God and understanding God and seeking God is something that you want to do.
Now, this verse assumes that we as human beings have a desire within us to please God.
And it's telling us, isn't it, that you cannot please God.
It is impossible for you to please God without faith.
You cannot please God without believing that he is.
And that he is a rewarder.
He rewards those who seek him.
The verse speaks about drawing near to God.
Because that is what you were made to do.
And that God is the rewarder of all those who seek him.
Now, I think we are nervous of the word rewards, aren't we?
You might be sitting there and you think, well, are we to seek God for a reward?
And we don't do that.
We don't seek God for any reward.
But actually, the Bible says we do.
That's why we need to know God.
To know who he is and his character and his being and his character, his nature, his attributes.
And we are to seek God.
And as we seek him, he rewards us with revealing himself to us.
And so I want to ask the question this morning.
Why is it that you and I should draw near to God?
Why is it that you and I should seek God?
The first reason is this.
The Bible makes it clear that is what you were made for.
That is what we were made for.
We were made to please God.
To know God.
And we were made for his pleasure.
And we were made to draw near to God.
To worship him and to know him.
We were made to seek him and to be diligent in searching him out and knowing him.
And he has made us so that we would find our reward, our fulfillment, our happiness, our enjoyment in him.
It's the reason why you exist.
It's what you were made for.
You were made to know God.
To please him and to draw near to him.
To seek him.
To find your reward and your fulfillment in him.
And the Bible makes that plain in lots of places.
Not only here in this text.
The word of God makes it plain to us.
That we were made to know God.
But it also says to us that we will not find God by our own investigation.
We will not be able to figure out God by our own investigation.
Do you remember in Mark chapter 8, Jesus has done these great miracles.
And he says to his disciples that famous question, who do people say that I am?
And then he says to them, and who do you say that I am?
And Peter responds, doesn't he?
And he says, you are the Christ, looking at the Lord Jesus.
You are the Christ, you are God's King, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus turns to him and says, blessed are you Simon.
Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.
But my Father who is in heaven revealed it to you.
In other words, Peter, you didn't figure this out yourself.
In other words, coming to know God and coming to know the Lord Jesus is a gift of his grace.
And it is a revelation, a revealing of himself.
Knowing God, seeking God, is not something that you come to by logical proofs.
You'll find many great theologians have tried to set out the logical proofs that prove that God exists.
But Hebrews 11 is very, very clear, isn't it?
It doesn't matter how many logical proofs you set before someone, you need to believe.
It is a question of faith.
Faith is a response to what God has revealed about himself.
So how does God reveal himself?
First of all, God reveals himself.
He shows you what he's like by his created order.
His created world.
God reveals himself in the very nature of the world in which we live.
Isaiah 40 and verse 26 says to you, lift up your eyes and see.
Who created these?
Go into the night sky, look up and see.
He who brings out their host by number calls them all by name.
By the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one of them is missing.
He created these.
In other words, you go to the night sky and there is a voice that booms out of the stars when you look up.
And the message of the stars in the night sky is, look who made these.
Look at the one who made them.
They're all in order, not one of them is missing.
And he gives them a name.
The created world says there is a God who is great in might and strong in power.
Now that's a lot we learn.
And that's good, isn't it?
It's a start from the nature of creation.
And Paul takes up this theme.
And he develops it further.
He says in Acts 14 and verse 17,
Yet he did not leave himself without witness.
For he did good by giving you the rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
The heat wave.
And London and the parched ground.
And the rains came.
And it was so refreshing, wasn't it?
So delightful that again we had rain.
We've had this wonderful, wonderful spell of weather where the sun has been shining.
But everything was dry and arid.
And yet the rain came.
But the rain was giving you a message from God.
God says, do you look at the rain?
It is a witness to the fact that I am God.
God did not leave himself without a witness.
He sends the rain and the seasons and the fruit.
All these things say that there is a God.
A God who is great and mighty.
And he's revealing something of himself in the way that the world is created and put together.
Of course it's made much more explicit in that famous verse from Romans chapter 1.
For what can be known about God is plain to everyone.
Because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, his divine nature, has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
So that they, all of us, are without excuse.
What these texts are saying to us is that the first glimpse we have, or hint that we have, that there is a God, is in the nature of the world in which we live.
And a voice booms out of creation.
So that every direction you look, wherever you are, the order and the majesty of the created world shouts at you, there is a God.
But when you look at the pinnacle of creation, which is the creation of human beings, men and women, boys and girls.
The Bible tells us that we, you, are created in the image of God.
That in some sense, God has put a knowledge of himself inside of you.
The book of Ecclesiastes says, God has set eternity in our hearts.
John Calvin, a great theologian, when he thought about this, and he thought about the way that we've been created, the nature of God, that we've been created in the image of God.
He said that Satan is like one of those people that comes and, like a graffiti artist, and sprays over the piece of art.
But the devil is like someone coming along and finding an image of God, and he sprays all over it to destroy the glory of it.
And that's what's happened to us.
We are glorious, but we are glorious ruins.
There's something wrong.
The graffiti, the paint has been sprayed on us.
But the image of God has not been obliterated.
It has not been defaced.
So every single human being has a sense of God.
It's in your heart.
It's wired into you.
It is engraved into us because of the way that we've been made.
We've been made in the image of God.
And so the creation of the world is a magnificent testimony, and God has not left himself without a witness.
But you, yourself, are a statement of the nature of God.
And of the way that God is.
And of all that God has done.
The sense of divinity is on every single one of us, which means you matter incredibly, doesn't it?
And that you were made to know God.
Because you are part of his creation.
And the image of God, yes, it's been defaced.
It's been covered with graffiti.
It's been damaged.
The effects of sin have affected your mind.
They've affected your will.
They've affected your affections.
But the image of God is not totally lost.
Don McLeod writes,
If our understanding of Paul in Romans 1 is correct, there is no such thing as an atheist.
John Calvin said,
God has endued all people with some sense of the Godhead.
And the result of that is that a sense of deity is inscribed unto every heart.
And that sense of deity is indelible.
You can't get rid of it.
We never lose it.
And so that explains to us, isn't it,
that the Bible describes the person who says there is no God as a fool.
The fool says in his heart there is no God.
Why?
Because what's the fool doing?
He's suppressing the truth that he already knows.
The agnostic person, well, they're more honest, aren't they?
They say they don't know.
But they're suppressing the truth too.
Everywhere we look,
every single human being knows that there is a God.
And that means every single human being knows that they were made to know him.
Donald MacLeod, I've been reading lots of him this summer, he writes this.
He says,
So children,
the kids that you go to school with,
this week,
they know that there's a God.
The neighbors on your street,
they know that there's a God.
The people that you work with,
they know that there is a God.
The Apostle Paul,
when he went and preached in Athens,
he didn't try to make them religious.
Do you remember?
He said,
I perceive that you are very religious.
The evidence of their religion was all around him.
In their temples,
the paraphernalia of their city,
all men have a sense of the Holy One.
All men have a feeling of dependence.
All have God's law written on their hearts.
All know that they are answerable to God.
It is not our calling as a church
to instill those instincts into people.
Our responsibility is to build on that foundation,
to speak the truth that they already know.
that they've been made by God,
for God,
to know God.
I think that's an enormous help,
an enormous encouragement.
But it's only one side of the truth.
That's what we were made for.
Because the other side of this truth
is confirmed in the revelation of a book,
of God's own words,
that God has written down.
Here is the wonder of the glory of God,
that he chooses to reveal himself in creation,
yes,
and in human beings,
but also to reveal himself in a book.
He not only speaks the word and says,
okay,
and pass that on to the next generation
and to the next generation after that,
because when that happens,
we know that that gets distorted.
When I was growing up,
there was a game
that was called
Chinese Whispers.
I've tried to think of a more politically correct phrase.
Those of you who are Chinese,
I'd love to know what you called it in your culture.
But do you remember that game?
Let's call it Whispers, all right?
And you'd tell a message to the person at the front,
and then they would pass it to the person,
they'd whisper it to the person back,
and then they'd whisper it,
and they'd whisper it,
and they'd whisper it.
And at the end of the road,
do you remember,
there's a completely garbled message.
Some kind of game.
You all played it at some point,
I'm sure.
The transmission of words gets garbled,
doesn't it?
And gets altered.
And so sometimes,
the message from the start to the end,
it came out the exact opposite
from what the original purpose was.
Somebody's accent was different,
and they pronounced the words.
You know how it is.
Nobody's quite sure what was said originally.
But that isn't what happened with God's word.
That isn't what happened with the Bible.
God gives us his word,
and he puts it into print.
And he causes it to be written down,
and he watches over it from generation to generation.
And so the Bible that you've got on your laps
is trustworthy.
Don't fall for the Islamic lie
that it's somehow been corrupted.
He has revealed himself in his word.
But he's also revealed himself
more explicitly in the Lord Jesus Christ
that you might know him.
John 17 verse 3 says,
this is eternal life.
You want to know what eternal life is?
That they may know you,
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ who you've sent.
John 20 verse 31.
Why was John's gospel written?
It was written so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Son of God,
the Christ,
and that by believing,
you might have life in his name.
And that theme is picked up
in the Old Testament again, isn't it?
Jeremiah 9 verse 23.
Let not the man,
let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.
Let not the mighty man boast in his might.
Let not the rich man boast in his riches.
Let him who boasts, boasts in this,
that he understands and knows me.
One of the things Jeremiah is saying,
this wisdom, riches, might.
But more important than any of that
is that you might know God.
That's why you were made.
Hebrews chapter,
Hosea chapter 6 and verse 6.
God says,
I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.
It's an amazing verse.
I desire the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings.
I desire that you know me,
not just that you turn up on a Sunday morning.
They were coming in their worship
with all their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices
and God is saying,
I want you to know me.
That's what we were meant for.
To know God and the glory of his word
is that he's revealed himself.
But he reveals himself ultimately
in the Lord Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6.
God who said,
let light shine out of the darkness.
The God who said,
let there be light.
And there was light in the world
has shone in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
That God has made us to know him
and to know his glory.
And he says,
this is how you will come to know me.
Not simply through the rain
and the stars.
Not simply through the written word.
But what is written here
as it points to the Lord Jesus.
You will know me in my glory.
Do you know that's what you were made for?
To know God through Jesus.
John Calvin,
he wrote
that Calvin's Institutes
are some of the most remarkable writing
this world has ever known.
But the Institutes
actually started as a very small book.
He wrote it early on in the Reformation.
And it had just six chapters
in its very first edition.
He was a young man.
He was 26 years of age.
And he wrote it as a defense of Christians.
Because in France
they were being persecuted.
And in his introduction,
the preface to the king,
it's a very powerful document.
He begins by saying
that the sum of all knowledge
is to know God and ourselves.
And then he goes on to say,
I don't know which one comes first.
We can't know ourselves
without knowing God.
And we can't know God
without also coming to know ourselves.
It's very profound.
He wrote a little catechism.
When he was a pastor in Geneva.
And his catechism began in this way.
What is the chief end?
What is the most important thing
about human life?
And he says this,
that human beings
may know God
by whom they were created.
You see that
where the short catechism got it,
don't you?
That you may know God
by whom you were created.
We read in Hebrews 11, verse 6,
that those who draw near to God
need to believe that he is.
And so why should you
draw near to God?
Why should you study God?
Because that's what you were made for.
But there's a second thing.
Why should you draw near to God?
You need to know him
in order to worship him.
You need to know him
in order to worship him.
The more that we know God,
the more that we're drawn
to worship God
and to give glory to God,
the English word comes from,
the old English word of
worth-ship.
To worship God
is to know the worth of him.
It's to know and grasp
the value,
the honour,
the place,
the standing,
the person
and all that he is.
The worship of God
is knowing
the worth of God.
And the more that we know
the worth of God,
the more that will breed in us
an awe
and reverence
and adoration.
The prophet Isaiah,
when he saw
that vision
of the glory of God,
he hears in Isaiah 60,
angels crying,
holy,
holy
is the Lord.
And in John's Gospel,
Jesus picks that up
and Jesus says,
when Isaiah
saw that glory,
he was speaking of
my glory,
the glory of Christ.
And Isaiah
saw the angels
crying out,
he is holy,
he is holy.
And he cried out,
woe is me.
I'm done for.
I'm undone.
I'm a man of unclean lips
and I dwell in the middle
of a people
of unclean lips.
For my eyes
have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts.
And when he grasps
the sense of the worthiness
of God,
how much God is worth,
he sees his own
unworthiness
in the presence of God.
A similar thing happens
in the book of Revelation
when in Revelation 5,
the apostle John
hears every creature
in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth
and in the sea
and all that is in them
saying to him
who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour
and glory and might
forever and ever.
And the four living creatures
said amen
and the elders
fell down and worshipped.
Why?
Because
they had a sense
of the worth of God.
And that's what he's speaking of
in Hebrews chapter 11
when he says
draw near to God
of pleasing God
of seeking God.
It means
coming to know God
and to grasp
his worthiness.
How much he's worth.
So that we join
in the chorus
of standing
in front of a glorious God
and saying
you oh God
are worthy.
worthy is the Lamb
to receive honour
and glory
and dominion
and power
forever and ever.
Knowing God
breeds worship.
To know God
breeds worship.
In Hebrews
it uses the language
of drawing near to God.
If you've got your Bible
open let's just
have a look at this.
Look at Hebrews chapter 4
and verse 16.
He says to us
let us
with confidence
draw near
to the throne
of grace
that we may receive
mercy
and find grace
to help in our time of need.
What an encouragement
to pray.
But did you notice
the context?
We have a great high priest
who's passed
through the heavens
Jesus the son of God.
And we don't have a high priest
who's unable to sympathise
with us in our weaknesses
but in every respect
has been tempted
as we are yet
is without sin.
He takes you to Christ
and he says
look at your high priest
look at the gospel
of good news
you want to draw near
to God
draw near to him.
You need to know him.
Look at chapter 7
and verse 25
it's the same phrase.
Consequently
he's able to save
to the uttermost
those who drew near
to God
through him
since he always lives
to make intercession
for us.
He goes on
in that passage
to speak of the
priesthood
of Christ
and all that
the Lord Jesus
has done
that he's offered
himself
once and for all
and drawing near
to God
is through
the Lord Jesus.
Knowing him
we know God
through Jesus
and it breeds
our worship
and adoration.
Chapter 10
and verse 22
let us draw near
with a true heart
in full assurance
of faith
our hearts
having been
sprinkled clean
from an evil conscience
our bodies
having been washed
with pure water
the blood
of the Lord Jesus
has opened
up to us
his death
has opened
to us
a new
and a living
way
that we have
a great high
priest
over the house
of God.
I've been reading
this book
by Don Carson
it's got a little
essay on worship
he's a Baptist
sometimes we quote
Baptists
and he says this
although there are
things that can be
done to enhance
corporate worship
that's what we're
doing this morning
gathering together
to worship
there is a profound
sense in which
excellent worship
cannot be attended
by merely
pursuing excellent
worship
in the same way
that according to
Jesus
you cannot find
yourself
until you lose
yourself
so you cannot
find excellent
corporate worship
until you stop
trying to find
excellent corporate
worship
and pursue
God himself
despite the
protestations
one sometimes
wonders if we
are beginning
to worship
worship
rather than
worship God
sheep he says
lie down when
they are well fed
and they are more
likely to be restless
when they're hungry
feed my sheep
Jesus commanded
Peter
and many sheep
in Christ's church
are unfed
if you wish to
deepen the worship
of the people of God
above all
deepen their grasp
of his ineffable
majesty
in his person
and in all his works
what is clear
is that if you try
to enhance worship
by simply livening
up the tempo
updating the beat
you may not be
enhancing worship
at all
on the other hand
dry as dust sermons
loaded with cliches
and devoid of the
presence of the
living God
mediated by the word
do little to
enhance worship
either
what we must
strive for
is growing
knowledge of God
and delight of him
not delight
in worship
per se
but delight in God
why should we
study the
doctrine of God
why should we
seek to know
God
well first of all
because it's what
you were made for
secondly because
it puts vitality
in our worship
he's worthy
of our worship
but thirdly
because we desire
to serve him
I'd hope to get
them today
but I hope
that you will read
and if you've not
read it
J.I. Packer's
book Knowing God
it's a classic
it's a 20th century
book
it's rich
powerful
biblical teaching
teeming with
scripture
and one of the
most remarkable
points that J.I. Packer
makes in that book
is that he picks up
the text of Daniel
chapter 11
verse 32
and he says
the people who know
their God
will stand firm
and take action
or I think he is it
the people
who know their God
will do great exploits
we will not be able
to serve God
in the way
that he is worthy
of unless we
know God
in the way
that he's revealed
to us
and Packer says
this
those who know
God
number one
have great energy
for God
number two
have great thoughts
of God
number three
show great boldness
for God
and number four
have great contentment
in God
now children
those of us
who were at
Holiday Bible Club
we saw that
in Daniel
didn't we
that Daniel
was a man
who knew his God
so he goes
as a 13
14 year old man
and he's taken
off to Babylon
and he knows
God
and yet he's
strong
he stands firm
in the classroom
and he comes
out the other end
remember on day one
not simply smarter
than the others
but he comes out
at the end
of Daniel chapter 1
having stood
for God
escaping from
Nebuchadnezzar
full of the
spirit of God
and the grace
of God
and in this
Babylonian empire
hundreds of miles
from home
these men stand
and they stand
in the public square
and when
the population
is commanded
to worship
in a way
like everyone else
does
but it's not
appropriate
for those
as followers
of the living God
to worship
they refuse
and they will
not fall down
they stand up
and when
the persecution
invades
the privacy
of their own
home
it moves
from the public
square
into the private
home
and they're told
they can't pray
Daniel still
goes home
doesn't he
in private
and he prays
and when they
stand in front
of the fiery
furnace
they stand
boldly looking
at the king
and they say
well if our
God saves us
he saves us
but if he
doesn't
we want you
to know
oh king
that we
will not
bow down
to your
image
and where
do they
go
they go
into the
fiery
furnace
they're
thrown
in there
but who
is with
them
one like
the son
of man
who was
in the
fiery
furnace
with them
it's the
Lord Jesus
and when
Daniel goes
into the
lion's den
because he
kept praying
in his own
home
God sends
an angel
and so
Daniel was
able to
serve God
in his
generation
for the
best part
of 70
years
because he
knew his
God
and in
our
generation
in which
religion
is attacked
in the
public
square
and persecuted
in the
public
square
we need
to know
God
if we're
going to
serve him
and what
happens
if it
moves from
public
to private
well we
need to
know God
because at
that point
those who
know God
will be
able to
stand
because if
you don't
know God
you will
not stand
on that
day
let me
move really
quickly to
my fourth
and final
point
we need
to worship
God
we need
to know
God
not only
because
that's
what we
were made
for
it's part
of the
very fabric
of the
way we
are
not only
because
we desire
to worship
him
not only
because
if we are
going to
serve him
we need
to know
him
lastly
we need
to know
him
in order
to enjoy
him
he
who
comes
to
God
remember
the
verse
must
believe
that
he
is
that
he
is
a
rewarder
of all
who
diligently
seek
him
that
doesn't
mean
that
all of a
sudden
we do
something
good
because
we
want
the
reward
it
simply
means
this
that
when
we
seek
him
it
is
himself
that
we
are
seeking
and
it
is
himself
that
we
shall
find
and
the
reward
is
himself
that
we
shall
know
him
that's
what
the
apostle
Paul
wanted
wasn't
it
it's
all
the
apostle
Paul
wanted
do you
remember
to
know
him
and
the
power
of his
resurrection
it's
what
God
said
to
Abraham
in
Genesis
God
says
to
him
I
am
your
protector
and
I
am
your
exceeding
great
reward
and
God
gives
nothing
but
himself
and
all
the
other
blessings
that
you
have
in
life
they're
simply
small
things
in
comparison
to
knowing
him
and
being
found
in
him
and
so
this
morning
we
need
to
believe
that
he
is
that
God
is
and
that
he
is
the
reward
of
those
who
diligently
seek
him
and
my
prayer
across
this
term
is
that
as
we
study
the
doctrine
of
God
as
he's
revealed
to
himself
in
the
word
of
God
that
he
will
awaken
in
our
hearts
that
this
will
be
a
church
family
of
diligent
seekers
after
God
may
God
so
work
it
let's
pray
may