Answers In Genesis - Sunday School - Week 9

Good morning. It's 9:02 and 25 seconds, so we need to go ahead and get started. We have a lot to cover today and so we wanna get into it. My name is Dan Whittaker, my wife told me last time I didn't introduce myself and I need to do that.

So, I'm substituting for Pastor Mike who is doing the sermon today. Today, we're gonna be looking at the topic of what is God like. And this is a topic that, of course, is way bigger than what we will be able to cover today, but we will be getting a taste of that. In our time this morning.

And let me get to Where we're going to start. All right. Just to set the stage and, and quickly cover how we got to where we are right now, we, view the scriptures being sufficient, meaning that it's, it's going to give us what we need to know for the life that we live. It is sufficient and it also is, something that's sufficient upon itself.

It bears witness to itself to be true. We use the literal historical grammatical hermeneutic. that's our, the hermeneutic is our method of interpretation. And so that's how we read the scripture.

We read it at in expecting that God who is, has revealed the scripture to us, says, has said what he meant to say, and he has said it in a way that we can understand it. And so, we use that method of interpretation. We do exegesis. Which means we let the scripture speak out to us rather than I of Jesus, which is us reading into the scripture and, and putting our own interpretations into it.

We, take out from it, and we affirm the inerrancy of scripture that God has revealed to it, a complete and without error. we believe that it's reasonable for God to swear by Himself. that God is his own authority because there is no authority that's higher than God. we believe the Bible is authoritative.

it means it, it speaks to us and we are to accept it as being, authoritative. We affirm the preservation of scripture. We've talked about that, that the Holy Spirit in giving the scripture also has preserved the scripture for us to have. And we've talked about last week, there, there is no neutral ground.

In the discussion of the scripture when people who, who are, say in the higher criticism camp have their points of view about the scripture, there isn't a neutral ground for us to go and, and say, well, we have these, the, this, this, this belief system or this, these beliefs in common. There isn't anything to do that. You're either right or you're wrong. and so we believe that with the scripture, there is no neutral ground.

We have accepted it as being The word of God. how do we prove the existence of God? Does the Bible try to do that? no, the Bible just states that God is.

in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's how it begins, and it starts from the standpoint of God's existence already being accepted, and that's, that's what the Bible does. It doesn't go about proving the existence of God. and it, it really doesn't see a need to.

And so we're going to either accept it or not. Why is clear evidence not always clear? We've talked about this in the last couple of weeks. It has to do with our point of view, what we come into this world with.

Everyone comes into the world, at least everyone that has an active engaged mind comes into the world with a bias. With a certain point of view. And that will affect how we see things. It always will.

you get 4 witnesses to a car accident, you're gonna have 4, different stories about what happened with that accident. All because of the different points of view and we all bring that to how we view the evidence of scripture. And so it's not always clear. Sometimes our glasses are foggy and what glasses do we need?

Well, we've talked about that, and then we need the gospel glasses. We need something that's made that our glasses clear and that is the Holy Spirit is the one who makes, things clear for us. Makes it, it makes it possible for us to see clearly. And so, from there, we get into today.

What is God like? when we did this lesson last year, Pastor Mike had a, an audio of, of Shay Lynn and, and his, song on what is God like. However, we've not been able to, to have the audio on that, so we're gonna have to skip it. Sorry to say, so if you were looking forward to Shi Lynn's, you'll have to download it for yourself and listen to it.

It's, it's really good. These are the words for it, but we'll just go through it. And we'll start here. All right.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. It's what Tozer said. And His point in this, in his book, Where he writes this. His point is that, that Our view of God is going to shape how we live and, and how we worship, how we do everything in life.

And he, when he wrote the book, it was first published in 1961. his concern was that the church had, pretty much abandoned a high view of God. In at least in, in most of, of the circles that are in our country and in fact in Western civilization. And so, What he was trying to do is raise awareness to the problem.

And he talks about this idea that what, when we think about what we think about God, We can tell what a person is going to end up like with what they think about God. It impacts us that much. This isn't just a casual topic. And so, what is God like is, is of paramount importance to us as a human being, to us as a church, to us as a community.

we need to know what is God like. And so we'll look at Exodus chapter 34. And here's what God was saying to Moses. The Lord, the Lord God is merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for giving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the 3rd and the 4th generations.

Now, this statement by God to Moses doesn't just come out of the blue, come out of nowhere. This is actually up on the mountain, Mount Sinai, where Moses is, has taken his second batch of tablets up. To get the law inscribed upon them by God. What had happened is Moses had been up there for 40 days.

Had, God had told him there's a problem down in the, in the camp of the people, you need to go down and check it out. And Moses said, OK, and goes down and he sees what has happened, that Aaron has built a golden calf, the people are, are in this major party, dancing around, singing to this, this golden calf. And Moses in great anger, throws down the tablets. They break into, into pieces and there's this huge confrontation and, over their, their worship of the golden calf.

After this is all taken care of, then Moses goes the 2nd time back up into the mountain to meet with God. And Moses is in this meeting, is in spending all this time with God, getting to know what God is like. And so God makes this statement to him. The Lord is merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands.

You see, after all this thing that has gone on with Israel, who by the way, God has rescued out of bondage and brought them to this place that they may get to know Him. And then they have done what they've done instead of just completely destroying them. God. rescues them and, and he is merciful and gracious and long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth.

And so one of the aspects that we look at is this idea that God is, is gracious. And I, I think of Moses, I think of him being up there for 40 days and, and what it must have been like for him. But a couple of weeks ago when Bill was, was, teaching, we were talking about the gospel glasses and, and so on. There was something that he said in, in the, the, the middle of, of what he was talking about that stimulated an idea to me of how there are times in our life where we can get lost in the glory of God.

Kinda like Moses was here. I'm, I'm sure that for Moses, being up there for 40 days probably felt like a couple of hours. because of, of what God is like, being with God this way. imagine getting lost, getting lost in something where you lose the sense of time.

the sense of troubles, the urgent demands that are upon you, And where that time just goes by so fast. for some people, it's a library, getting lost in a library or a garden or a mountain lake, any of those things where you just get so absorbed with what's around you that, that you lose all sense of everything else. It, it is the most powerful thing around you. What if that thing that you get lost in is the glory of God?

have you ever had a time with God? Where it felt as if everything else just melted away. And it was that way for a while that you were able to actually have that, that time with God and you, you begin to see how awesome he is. You're feeling his presence and, and what that's like.

Well, that's what Moses had been going through and, and was feeling and what an amazing thing that must be. You see, God is the most amazing being there is. He's the greatest mind. The most prolific artist, the most detailed engineer.

And the most faithful friend, and there's many, many more things you could say about God, and who wouldn't want to spend time with a person like that. That he's way more. Than the most interesting man in the world. he's, he's far greater than we can imagine and being able to spend time with someone that you can ask a question of and he knows the answer to and he's absolutely right.

That his, his point of view is always the right point of view. His wisdom is so great. Getting lost in that glory of God. But what does it take for us to get lost in the glory of God?

Well, God must condescend to man. That means that God has to lower Himself to man. You see, he's great. We're just his creation.

We're down here, and so he, he has to condescend to us. And he has to make a way for entry into that place. You see, our nature is to rebuff God. We learned that from the fall and ever since the fall, that's the way we by nature are.

We, we resist. We demean the value of his glory and substitute his glory for our own pitiful pursuits of our own glory. So we suppress the truth and unrighteousness and run after the idols of our own making, despising the genuine to take pleasure in the false. That's how we are.

And that's why for the most part, we miss the glory of God. We go through life. bumping and, and banging into all of the objects around us, trying to find What is good And resisting what really is there, what God has made available to us, but what God wants is for us to seek after His glory. That's what he's offering to us.

He is a generous God. He's compassionate, slow to anger, and he is abounding in goodness and truth, and he wants us to share in that. That's what he's like. And that's what he's offering to us.

So how do we get to see the glory of God? Well, by the grace of his gospel. And so we have, have looked in the last couple of weeks at, at what the gospel does for us and how it, it opens up our eyes and gives us acuity, gives us clarity, the ability to see. His glory.

Remember when Peter, James, and John went with Jesus up onto this hill. the New Testament translated a mountain, but there are no mountains really in, in Israel. They're all just hills. But up on this hill of transfiguration.

Jesus goes up there and the three of, of the disciples. And they see something that Peter talks about later. We saw his glory. And they see Jesus in his glory with Moses and Elijah, and their response is amazing to me, the, the way they responded because it, it describes them as being terrified.

So they fall to the ground. They're in terror. But They also don't want it to ever end. They want it to stay there.

This is so awesome. And so Peter's response is, well, can't we just build some tents for you here and, and just stay here? And of course, they could not. But that is what it would be like to be in the glory of God.

That it's, it's, it's a bit terrifying. But it's so good, you don't want to leave. And that's what God wants us to experience with Him. What is God like?

He's glorious. He is way above who we are and, and what we can imagine. But he wants us to share in that. He wants to share that with us.

He is a generous God. OK. And that's another thing that he talked, gives to us is we're gonna look in 1 John chapter 4 and so we don't have it up on the slide, but let's turn over to that and read it together. First John chapter 4.

And we'll read these verses together. It says, beloved, Let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us.

That God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation is an important word to understand.

That's an appeasement, that's the appeasing of God's wrath, that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given up his spirit. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears not is perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And by this commandment, we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also. So we see here that God is love.

And What that means. John, really clarifies here that What it means for God to be loved and how it impacts us, how it should change us, how we should respond to His love. And So this idea, what is God like? Well, we, we have seen already that he is compassionate.

He's willing to open himself up to us. He is patient with us, and he loves us. God is love. we do have to have an understanding of what that really means.

What does it mean that God is love? What is love? What is it that, that he's talking about with love? God's love is so great, and we have a such a great opportunity to receive it and give it to others.

why take it so lightly or forget that we have it? it's something that should be always a part of us. This is something that's part of God and it should be part of us if we are his children. I really like this quote by, it's actually on the cover of the, of the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and he says this, it's crazy if you think about it.

The God of the universe, the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E minor, loves us with a radical, unconditional self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. And the point of his book is that the impact of this high holy God is way too small upon us as Christians because we don't really see him as he really is.

We haven't really entered into His glory. We don't really get impacted by him. We just go through the motions and so on. And it should have a much greater impact on us.

We should be much different than we are. And so the love of God is to have this great impact upon us, because this is what God is like. But what is that love? In, in today's world, in fact, I was reading an article in the paper yesterday, that had to do with, with, not a, a Christian church, but a different organization.

It was there, Their response to homosexuality and some people who are part of that group were really having this negative reaction toward it. And it was, it was making them think that they weren't loving and they weren't, they didn't have God's love because they had this misunderstanding of what God's love is. And I think it's important that we have a, a have clarity on that. Because in, in our world, we have this, this idea of what a a misunderstanding of what God's love is like.

You see, The world's view is that God's love is supposed to be It's supposed to make my life nice. I'm supposed to have a good life. If, if I don't have a, a nice life, then God must not love me. And so there's this misunderstanding and confusion on God's love.

In, in JI Packer's book Knowing God. He says this, And he's referring to this, this passage of scripture that John wrote that God is love. He says this statement presupposes all the rest of the biblical witness to God. The God of whom John is speaking is the God who made the world, who judged it by the flood, who called Abraham and made him a nation, who chastened his Old Testament people by conquest, captivity and exile, who sent his son to save the world, who cast off unbelieving Israel and shortly before John wrote, had destroyed Jerusalem.

And who would one day judge the world in righteousness. It is this God, says John. Who is love And so we cannot separate, or we should not separate the character of God from, from who God, or from the, the love of God. He goes on to say this, under the point that, that Packer makes that God's love is holy love, he goes on to say that God's love is stern, for it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness in the beloved.

Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love, we may look to him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness or to shield his loved ones from trouble when he knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification. And so, the love of God. is something that's part of all of his other character qualities. His justice, his wrath.

The fact that he is a jealous God, the fact that he is compassionate and slow to anger. The fact that he is wise and he is all powerful. All those character qualities, have the love of God infused in them. And, and so his purpose that he, works to accomplish in all of his created order.

His love is, is part of that purpose, and he does it with love. So then, one of the ways we can apply this to our lives. is in our personal worship. We, we can make a list of attributes of God and say, in our prayers, make that part of our prayer, our worship to God, and make praise to him for the way he is, for who he is, for what is, for what he is like.

We're gonna go through. Some of those attributes. And as we go through these, I encourage you just to sit back and absorb it, take it in, and let the character of, of who God is, just fill your heart. He is always eternal, independent, omnipresent, unchangeable.

We've been looking at those. Particular ideas. God has no beginning. He has no end.

Or succession of moments in his own being, he sees all time equally vividly. Yet God sees events in time and acts in time. One way to picture this is, is imagining God. Holding all of his creation.

In his, in his hand. He is outside of it. It is in this universe that he has created that time operates. The, the planets, the, everything goes according to, is like a giant clock.

And it all keeps time within this thing. He's outside of it. He's not bound by it. But he has, he has created it and created this universe to operate that way.

And so, God looks at it, but there are times when he also enters into it. And he is involved with it. And so, He, he sees it, he knows it. He created it.

But he's not bound by it. He's outside of it. He holds it in his hand. He is timeless in his own being.

Psalm 90 says, before the mountains were brought forth. Or you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Before God created the universe, there was no time as we know it. When God created the universe, he also created time.

Time therefore does not exist in and of itself, but depends on God's eternal being and power to keep it existing. God sees all time equally vividly and, and again in Psalm 90, for 1000 years in your sight are like yesterday when it has passed, and like a watch in the night. By the way, Psalm 90, I encourage you to go and read it. It's a psalm written by Moses.

And it's amazing the flow that it has, is he, is he talks about these things. He goes on to talk about how God has worked in, in the people and so on and in the nation of Israel. And so I, I encourage you to read the whole psalm, but, but this is, of course, what Peter was quoting. When he talks about, one day is 1000 years with the Lord and 1000 years is one day, when he's talking about, The, the judgment, the coming judgment of God.

When is it gonna happen? it hasn't happened yet. Must not gonna be hap must not be going to happen. And Peter says, God isn't hung up on days, on time.

One day is 1000 years, see, he's outside of time. And so he doesn't, he doesn't do things according to our calendars. This is, is the quote, 2 Peter 3:8. Any one day from God's perspective seems to last for 1000 years.

It is as if, it is as if that day never ends, but it is always being experienced since 1000 years is a figurative expression for as long a time, as long a time as we can imagine or all history. We can say from this verse that any one day seems to God to be present to his consciousness forever. And so, Again, God being outside of time, he's not bound by it. He's not locked into the, the 24 hour periods that we are, He is eternal But God does see events in time and acts in time, some examples of that.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. So God does have a schedule that he sets in within time that we live in. Acts 17, truly these times of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. We will always exist in time and this is a verse talking about in, in the eternal state, they're actually being every month, 12 fruits.

It's the middle of the street on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And if you ask me to explain how time and eternity that goes together, that's above my pay grade, you'll have to talk to, to Pastor Mike. I'm sure he can explain it.

God is independent, we are not. God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything. Yet we and the rest of creation can glorify Him and bring him joy. So even though he doesn't need us, he didn't need us before creation.

He was not lacking and so therefore he created. However, his creation does bring him pleasure. He, he takes joy in what he has created. God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything.

God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives life to all breath and all things. See, he's the giver. We are the receivers. And so, when we actually, when we're giving worship, We're, we're only doing that with what he has given to us to use.

John 17, and now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. See, before the world was created, They existed and they had glory. Again in that prayer, Jesus says, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. We and the rest of creation can glorify Him and bring him joy.

Isaiah 43, Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed Him, yes, I have made Him. Zephaniah chapter 3, the Lord your God in your midst, the mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Part of what we should be getting from these scriptures is The desire of God for a relationship with us, that, that we come into communion with Him and that we share.

thoughts with God, that we hear Him and that, that, that we express to Him, what is appropriate. With our worship God is everywhere. We are not. God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being.

Yet God acts differently in different places. For instance, he chose a tiny little planet. In this great immense Of, of the universe. To put, to put life on, and to put human life on and to interact with that life.

Even though he is everywhere else. Jeremiah chapter 23. Am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him, says the Lord.

Do I not feel heaven and earth, says the Lord. Psalm 139, where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Shiol, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. God does not have spatial dimensions, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple when I, which I have built.

Excuse me. So Solomon in, in dedicating the temple that, that was built, which was so beautiful for that time. understood that God Wasn't limited to that place. And again, God is outside of, of creation.

He is in, he, he dwells within it. He's everywhere there. There's no place for us to hide. But he's also way, way bigger than that.

Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me and where is the place of my rest? And Wade Gruden says this, before God created the universe, there was no matter or material, so there was no space either, yet God still existed. Where was God?

He was not in a place that we could call a where, for there was no where or space, but God still was. And if at some point you in this study of who God is, you start to feel your head exploding. You're getting it. That, that's what should happen.

It, it, this is way bigger than, than what our minds can contain. And That's why at some points in our lives to have this time where we can get lost in the glory of God is so good for us. Because what it does is it helps us to have a perspective about our life. You see, we can get wrapped up and overwhelmed with the, the pain, the difficulties and, and the things that we go through, or we can get obsessed with our own goals and with, with the things that we're gonna do, we can end up using people and abusing people because we're, we're so obsessed with what we have to accomplish.

What we need to do to get our perspective in a healthy place is get lost in the glory of God. That helps us to understand who we really are. We get confronted with that, and we get also this, the idea That there's something way bigger than me, and I'm really good with that. I'm really good with that.

And so my goals, my targets, my disappointments, all those things are really gonna fade from importance to me. And I, I, I can actually then have a healthy perspective. About life, about what I go through. God can be present to punish, to sustain, or to bless.

He's present to punish. Amos talks about that, that, that where God says, I'm, I'm right here to punish Israel. To sustain, he's there to, to make provision and, and to uphold his people. And to bless, to give blessing.

God's presence is there. He he's not a God who's far away and not paying attention. but he is, he's observing. He knows where we are.

He knows what, what's going on, and he's there to take care of things. God is unchangeable. We are not. He's unchanging in his being, his attributes, his purposes, and his promises.

You probably remember, several weeks ago, Pastor Milton gave the quote from RC Sproll. What people hate the most about God. It is this. That God doesn't change.

See, God doesn't update. He doesn't conform to our humanity. He's the same always. And in a world where we want, our government to update, we want society to update and the clamor right now is for religion to update, to fit in with what society wants to be socially acceptable.

God never changes. God doesn't update. Again, he's outside of the world. He's the one who created it all.

Why would he update? He, he already is who he is. And for the, this puny little society, these puny little men. To be demanding that God would update.

It's pretty arrogant. And so, God doesn't change. He already is who he is. Psalm 102 of old you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, they will all grow old like a garment. Like a cloak, you will change them and they will be changed. But you are the same.

And your years will have no end. Malachi says, for I am the Lord. I do not change. James writes this, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

He is immutable. Yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations. So God is not a cold, unfeeling being who doesn't change. He actually is interactive with us.

And so he does have is impacted by who we are. there was Times where there's God is described to have, have changed his mind, but it, he's, he's described that way to, to help us understand that God is not immovable. However, God is also predetermined and His purposes always are consistent. But it was, these are some examples of that.

In response to the intercession of Moses, he added 15 years to the life of Hezekiah. In relenting from the destruction, he said, when you come upon Nineveh in his attitude toward making man. Genesis chapter 6. In his attitude toward making Saul the king.

And these are examples where God says, I'm sorry I did this. I'm sorry I made man. And it's not that, that God is, is saying, I wish I never would have done that. What God is saying, it grieves me.

I am in sorrow over this. I feel the, the, the weight of Of the rebellion. I feel the weight of this. And so, that is, is what God is expressing.

With those These instances should be, should all be understood as true expressions of God's present attitude or intention with respect to these situations as it exists at the moment. Personally, there is a change in relationship based upon circumstances, but there is no change in God's essence. The fact that God's sovereign program is different in different dispensations in that word no is not the right no, but in no way means that God has somehow changed in his person. And an example of that is that God was not really mean in the Old Testament and really nice in the New Testament.

If you think that God is really nice in the New Testament, you haven't read the New Testament. And one example, a quick example, Luke chapter 13. People, one of the common questions about God is if God is love, if God is, is good, then why does he allow bad things to happen to people? And Jesus' response to that question in Luke chapter 13, 1 and 2, is pretty enlightening.

Because he doesn't say, oh yeah, we missed that one. Oh yeah, yeah, we shouldn't let that happen. No, God, Jesus doesn't say that. What he says is, Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.

The point of life is to get right with God. And the troubles that we go through should be directing us to repentance. The, the, the calamities that come upon us, all those things that happen to us should be directing us to repentance. Jesus doesn't play nice with his answers there.

He's very direct and, and firm with it and He is very consistent throughout that, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, he's the same God. The importance of God's unchangeableness. If God is not unchanging, then the whole base of our faith begins to fall apart and our understanding of the universe begins to unravel. This is because our faith and hope and knowledge all ultimately depend on a person who is infinitely worthy of trust, because he is absolutely and eternally unchanging his being, perfections, purposes, and promises.

First John 1:9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need that promise, right? We really need it.

What is, is God described as it faithful. That word means trustworthy. We can trust in that He forgives our sins because he is faithful. And so we need him to be unchanging.

That's really important to us. So This is someone's easy way to remember some of the qualities of God. He's always, he's eternal, independent, omnipresent, unchangeable, A E I O U. And finally, I'm gonna quit a little bit early today, so that's good.

I just want to give two recommendations, Of, of further study, books that I think are really, really good to read. For getting to know what is God like. Number one is my favorite book. Of all books I have, and that's Knowing God by JI Packer.

I believe every Christian should read that book, more than once. And it should be something that, that is just, is part of your library and that, that you treasure. Packer in, in a very clear and easy to understand way, helps us to understand the attributes of God. And he takes you through them in a way that by the time he gets to the end, is so powerful to you because Of, of what he reveals at the end of the book, which is this in 1 John chapter 3.

You get to the pinnacle of what he says, which is, behold what manner of love is this, that we should be called the children of God. What an awesome thing that could be. When we understand who God is, what is he, what he is like. And that he would care enough.

To not only rescue us from our sins and from the penalty of our sins, but to adopt us into his own family. And to give us his name. His love is amazing. And we should treasure that.

And so, Packer takes you on that journey in a really, really good way, a very, very biblical way. so I really encourage you with that book, Knowing God. The second one is by RC Sproul called The Holiness of God. And he explains in a very, very good way, a, a very readable style of writing, but a very good way of, of what His Holiness is really like and why it's important for us to examine that and, and, and have that understanding.

Because having the understanding of the holiness of God impacts our worship. In our worship is important. Not just to God but to us. It's, it's important for us to have the right perspective and understanding.

So we come into His presence, we come in a reverent way, but in a way that's knowledgeable, that has some, some understanding of His holiness. And so I encourage you with those two books for sure. those books have, have been very beneficial. There is a third book that, that I've written down, If you really wanna mess with your mind.

It's a Desiring God by John Piper. that one will, will, well, it can, can mess you up a little bit, but it's really good. He's very provocative and, and I really like the way he lays things out in, in as far as a relationship with God. And, it's, it's a little bit longer read than The Holiness of God, but it, it is also a really good book.

But The, the idea of God is something that we should be pursuing. I once read In, believe it or not, in some discipleship material. It described theology. As dry and dusty, which made me want to then just take it to the shredder.

theology is not dry and dusty. Theology is the study of God, and there is nothing more powerful than that. There might be dry and dusty theologians. but theology itself is the most intense study you can ever undertake.

And the study of God is something that, that we should all be pursuing because we should be hungry for Him. It should be something that's inside of us that we're just burning to have more of. And so seek after that. Along with these books, if you are neglecting The law and the prophets.

The Old Testament You have no chance of getting to know God. God has revealed Himself amazingly. In his law and prophets. when we read the Old Testament, at least this was my experience growing up.

I get, sorry, I do great through Genesis, through most of Exodus, really good. I get to Leviticus and it just poo. you bog down and it's like, wow, this is hard and, and you get to To the, to Joshua and Judges and some of those, because those are the stories and they're really interesting. And then you get into the prophets and whew, again, it's like a bogged down.

But as I got older, I began to realize that these are powerful places where God has revealed Himself. If we want to know God, we need to be reading the law and the prophets. And by the way, when Jesus was explaining his ministry and his life to the disciples on the Emmaus Road, where did he go? The law and the prophets.

What did the disciples or the apostles teach to the, to the early church, the law and the prophets? And if we're gonna get to know God, we need to also be spending time in the law and the prophets, and not neglecting that. we need to be, giving good energy to that because we want to get to know this God. This God who is compassionate and who is loving.

Who is this God and who is this one who has condescended to this world to make a way for us to get lost in His glory. All right, let's pray. Holy Father, It's been truly an honor to Approach this topic this morning. And Lord, it's, it's something I, I, as just a finite man can only can only just barely approach.

The Lord, I ask by your spirit that you would awaken in all of us an intensity and a hunger for you. This, that you would arouse this passion that we're supposed to have, that we would be people who have not lost our first love, but our first love is to you and that we would know you. That we would know what you're like, know who you are, that you have revealed so much to us to know, and may we be passionate about this pursuit. Seeking after you.

And not letting other things distract us from you. Lord, may our, our lives therefore then glorify you because of this passion. In the name of your son, I ask this. Amen.

God bless.