Following Christ As A Saint & Sinner - Karlos Limtiaco - Session 1 - The Necessity of a Magnificent View of Christ

So I probably have a little bit more. I've bitten off more than I can chew, so we're gonna just move through this, at a fairly quick pace, but, the, the title of the class is Following Christ as Saint and Sinner, and the way we break down most of this year is into two segments. It's discipleship on one hand, And then it's counseling on the other, and we will cover counseling broadly and then nail down some particular counseling issues. So that, that comes after, at the new year, after Christmas and so for this first part, this first segment, if you will, we're focusing our attention on the topic of discipleship.

The application from this tract is twofold. We don't want to miss this. we are to apply the material to our own lives, however imperfectly we do, and then out of the overflow of that personal application as we've been nurtured and blessed and edified, we are to minister to others. This is not to say that we minister out of the overflow of personal perfection.

But from a position of personal progress marked by humility and brokenness with our feet planted firmly on the foundation of the gospel, of course, we minister as saint and sinner to those who are saints and sinners. the foundational themes, topics, passages to be covered have relevance throughout the entirety of our lives and ministry. So these are basically timeless truths that we're gonna be covering over the next several weeks, timeless truths. You can take these truths with you into eternity, OK.

so a foundational passage, that we, we cannot ignore is Matthew 28:16-20. If you have your Bibles, I do encourage you, whether it's electronic form or, or paper form, to turn in your Bibles to the passages, that we're going to be looking at. I want you to have your eyeballs directly on the pages of Scripture. So we're going to start looking at Matthew 28, very familiar passage.

Matthew 28, I'm gonna start in verse 16 and read all the way to 20. Matthew 28, beginning in verse 16. but the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated, and when they saw him, they saw Christ, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. Amazing.

Talk about saint and sinner. and Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so a few points I want to make from this passage, is that, we are commanded.

To make disciples. Let, let, let not that escape us, right? It, it is commanded. I know he's speaking directly to the apostles, right?

You go make disciples, but then he says teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. So if he's commanded them to make disciples, he therefore commands all those who would come to faith in Christ through the ministry of the apostles to go ahead and make disciples as well. So this is something to be perpetuated throughout. The lives of God's people from one generation to the next, to the next.

So it's a command, make disciples, and I just want to underscore the fact that making disciples does include baptism, OK, not that baptism saves us, but we know it is an outward expression of an inward change, and we also know from scripture that there were times, I would say that, folks were saved even in the waters of baptism, but not, not that the, the washing of the dirt from the flesh is what cleanses them. It is that appeal to God for a clean conscience, and there are times in which a person can, in the water of baptism, legitimately, sincerely.

Appeal to God for a clean conscience, be in repentance and be believing, and, and they may be born again while in the waters of baptism. We see examples of that in the book of Acts, but as a general rule, right, we are baptizing people who have made that profession of faith in Christ.

So it's an outward sign of an inward change is what baptism is, but we are called, as we're making disciples to baptize. OK, to teach, and Christ says teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you, and this leads to that other point, making disciples includes obedience. So it is a call that God places upon us to help others to be conformed into the image of Christ., we are accompanied by Jesus as we make disciples, and this is encouraging to know, like we cannot do this in the power of our own flesh.

We, we can accomplish nothing good whatsoever in the life of anyone apart from the work of the Lord.

It's like we need the Lord and, and what a blessing, to know where he says, I am with you. I am with you So when you're in the midst of coming alongside someone, discipling them, encouraging them, whether it's as a parent, as a spouse, or just as a brother or sister in Christ, God is with you. He's with you. I've seen that every time.

even in my own ministry as I'm, whether it's discipling or counseling, it's amazing. For example, in a counseling situation, which again, it's parallel to discipling, it's a more intensive form of discipleship, right? But even in the counseling room or in the, in the home of someone I'm counseling, I don't think there ever is a time where the Lord does not show up. He's just faithful that way, despite myself, right?

Despite my, I, I could have had a really bad morning. I could have had a really bad night the night before. I remember one time the Lord brought a a man separated from his wife. first time he had ever come to Cornerstone, he came for counsel and, and, and the night before my wife and I, we, we, we had a, a pretty good fight, an argument.

And the next morning, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was meet this man whom I had never met before and, and proclaim to him Christ, I just, but what? Wonder of wonders, this is no excuse for my sin the night before, but God saw fit to use a broken man. To minister to broken people. OK, so just to understand, you don't need to be perfect.

You do need to be a person in progress and if need be, repent of your sin and get yourself aligned up with the Lord and do the best you can in the opportunities God brings your way. what a blessing to know we are accompanied by Jesus as we make disciples. He's with us. Lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.

So this is a foundational passage, and so let's move ahead today's topic, the necessity of an exalted view of God. That's the subject for today, the necessity of an exalted view of God. we're gonna look at various quotes that are in front of us highlighting the necessity of a high view of God. All these quotes happen to be from AW Tozer, in, in the book, The Knowledge of the Holy, that's a primary source there.

There's a lot of good books out there. Well, I'll, I'll talk about those a little bit later, but let's just consider some quotes. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

Continuing on. For this reason, the gravest question, and, and these quotes aren't necessarily connected, this is another quote. for this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. What is your view of God?

How do you in the deepest parts of your heart, conceive your God to be like? We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. It's important that it's not our mental image, it's what God in His word reveals to us about who He is. And so what we believe is in conformity with what He has revealed to us about Himself in special revelation in the Word of God.

This is true not only of the individual Christian but of the company of Christians that composes the church. Always the most revealing thing about the church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him. Or leaves unsaid. For her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.

Perverted notions about God soon wrought the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the church confirms it. So necessary to the church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the church with its worship and its moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.

Again, before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere, there must be a corrupting of its simple, basic theology. It simply gets a wrong answer to the question, what is God like and goes on from here. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, its practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different than what he actually is, and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.

So again, these, these, these quotes underscore for us the necessity of a right view of God, that we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, that our understanding of God, is, is continuously developing. And so continuing. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian church today is to purify and elevate its concept of God until it is more worthy of Him and of it. In all its prayers and labors, this should have first place.

We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished that noble concept of God that we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. This will prove of greater value to them than anything that art or science can devise. It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God, current in these middle years of the 20th century, so we're going back, is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to moral calamity.

There is a danger.

In having a wrong concept of God or an idolatrous concept of who God is, there is a danger in failing to have a robust, clear view of who God is as revealed from the scripture. And then we see the danger playing itself out in, in the church and in our own lives. All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God that He is what He is like and what we as moral beings must do about Him.

The greatest need is that we know who he is, what he is like.

And what he calls us to do. The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of 10,000 temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters that at the most cannot concern him for very long. But even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled on upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God.

It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man's laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolts against the majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear. The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind. The gospel, and the gospel in and of itself is a revelation of God, who God is, specifically the, the second person of the Trinity, but it is a revelation of who God is because Christ says, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, we are one, right?

He has made the Father known through His own person. Again, the gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind-giving beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to the man. And until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden.

Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them. OK, so just some introductory thoughts I guess, but some powerful thoughts, some lofty thoughts, some noble thoughts. I want us to consider some passages again as we underscore the importance of an exalted view of God. I'm gonna start with Genesis 1, chapters 1 through 31, and we're not gonna read through the whole text, but I just want to highlight some things out of Genesis chapter 1.

We need to understand. That Moses is the author. More than likely, the Pentateuch, the 1st 5 books, including the Book of Genesis, was written by Moses as the Israelites were traveling on their way to the Land of Promise as they've escaped Egypt and they're wandering through the wilderness and they're gonna get their way into the Land of Promise. The Israelites needed instruction from God.

There's a lot that we can say about the instruction they needed, but I submit to you, part of what they needed, as they were gonna go into the land and conquer the land and take it as their own as God had commanded them, they needed a lofty view of God. And I believe the Pentateuch again, 1st 5 books seeks to accomplish that to some degree. I just want to consider Genesis chapter 1. OK, what God does or, or what Moses speaks about in Genesis, it's, it's God's work of creation, 6 days of creation.

You've got the 1st day of creation, and you've got the 2nd day of creation, but we get to the 3rd day of creation. I'm just going to read verse 9. God said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so A little bit later, verse 11, God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them.

And it was so Verse 15. We're at day 4 Let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth. And it was so We can skip day 5. We don't see that phrase here, but in day 6, it says verse 24, God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind cattle and creeping things, and the beasts of the earth after their kind.

And it was so We get on to day 6. And the reed beginning in verse 29, God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all of the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you and to every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which hath life. I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so. The power of God is on display in creation. We should be left utterly amazed. At God the Creator.

Who through the power of his words spoke. And almost as if it was very easy for him to do. And it was so We have a big God. Israel, as we go into the land to conquer, to take possession of the land that God has promised to us, let you not, let us not ever forget that we have a big God who created all things, amongst other things.

There's more as we continue in Genesis that unpacks the greatness of God, but I'm just, providing with just a little glimpse at say Genesis chapter one, OK? Again For God, creation was almost as it, almost easy. Right, you get the sense it was easy. In fact, there have been theologians in the past who have questioned the literal six days of creation.

On the basis of this, why would he take so long to create? how can we just didn't do it all at once? Well, he's got purpose. There's a reason, and we're not going to get into that, but like God saw fit to take as many as 6 days to get it all done.

It was by his design. We need to have a big view of God. Now Psalm 139, we're familiar with this song. Go ahead and turn there.

And, and these are the types of passages as you're doing discipleship, you can take people to as you try to help them to gain a big view of God, OK? you should be enamored with a big view of God and you should be very happy to want to pass that along as you are engaged in discipleship. So Psalm 139. I just love this, beginning in verse one, Lord, you have searched me and known me.

That's just a wonderful thought. He's searched me. He knows what I'm made of, he knows what's inside my heart, and yet he, he has known me. He has chosen to enter into a relationship with me.

He, he loves me. He knows me. when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from a point, everything, God. Nothing is hidden from you.

Again, this helps us as we develop a lofty view of who our God is. He knows everything, omniscient. He's, he's present everywhere. He's omnipresent.

You scrutinize my path, my lying down, like you are attentive to me, little old me. Like you give thought to me. You are intimately acquainted with all of my ways. There's not one of them that you are not aware of and acquainted with.

everything. Even before there is a word on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, it all. But there's absolutely nothing hidden from God.

Every single detail of your life from the day of conception moving forward until eternity, future, He knows everything. That's a sobering thought. And he had a comforting thought too. It's both ends.

It's scary but it's comforting too, like he knows everything. He knows everything. He knows all of the wrongs that I have done. He knows all of the bad thoughts.

He knows all of the evil deeds. He knows everything. with all You have enclosed me behind them before, and you laid your hand upon me. But why in the world would God see fit to lay His loving hand upon me?

After all, he knows everything about me. And then he blows a fuse here in verse 6. He says such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I am astounded.

I, I am blown. I, I, I almost cannot believe it. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high. I cannot attain to it.

And then you can continue to read on and just as you read on through this Psalm, just underscores again, just who God is. It helps us to, to get an exalted view of our God, like where can I go from the spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? No matter where I go, you're there, right?

verse 13, you, you formed my inward parts, you wove me to, in my mother's womb. Like you created me. You were involved in creating me at the time of the, the very beginning. We go all the way back to the time of conception and when the cells first started forming.

I'm not a scientist, I'm not a biologist. I don't know how to find the right words to explain it, but you get the idea like when I was inside my mother's womb, he was there knitting me together. So he's active, he's creative. and again, you just, you just keep, keep reading on.

Verse 16, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. He says verse 17, how precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God, how vast the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand when I awake. I am still with you.

And so I want to submit to you that in this Psalm and, and perhaps all of the Psalms. We, we, we read about our God and as a result, our view of God should, should be exalted. In fact, what's interesting to me in this particular Psalm, he is so overwhelmed. Such knowledge is too wonderful.

You've searched me, you have known me. and, and we get to verse 19, right? This is what happens out of the overflow of an understanding of who your great God is and your love for him, intensifies, it grows, it strengthens, and then you look around and you see the depravity all around you. This is a natural response of the Psalms.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Like his heart breaks for the glory of God. His heart breaks for the exaltation of God. And he looks around as he's meditated on him and he sees the depravity surrounding him, and oh, that you would just slay the wicked.

What's cool though is we get to verse 23 and he takes a step back from that and he's humbled and he says, Search me, O God. And know my heart, I need you to search me. Put the flashlight on my heart and show me who I really am. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way or, or wicked way in me.

And lead me in the everlasting way. We need so desperately for God in His grace to be at work in us, to make us what He wants us to be. And when we get to those places where we feel like maybe we're crossing the line, Lord, Help put that spotlight, search me, know me, test me, try me, lead me in the everlasting way. And, and again, the, the, you can go to all the other Psalms.

I think of Psalm 23, right? His view of God, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want I lack nothing How in the world do that you have no want, no need, no, like, because I've got the Lord. How do you get to that place?

Because I am so satisfied with my God and who he is in my life and what he means to me. He is my shepherd. I shall not want We get to Isaiah chapter 6. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 6 again, the necessity of an exalted view of God.

I love this chapter 6 verse 1 in the year of King Uzziah's death. He was a great king, a noble king. He reigned for many years. And we've got Isaiah, he's gonna see, see the Lord, he's gonna catch a vision of the Lord.

He says, I saw the Lord, sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted at the highest place with the train of his robe filling the temple, seraphim, fiery one stood above him. They're freakish creatures, they seem to be, right? These Each having 6 wings. It's a freakish vision of these creatures, but note this, that God, when he makes creatures, he makes them.

With design and purpose, and he's made these seraphims so that they can do what they were made to do so that they could fulfill the purpose he's designed them for, and they were to be in the presence of the Lord. And so they've got these six wings, and he says, would do, he covered his face, right, because the Lord is so pure and so holy. If you look at them directly, you'll disintegrate. You cannot see, and so they, they needed some, some form of protection like with two of the wings cover their face, otherwise they would disintegrate, these fiery ones in the presence of a holy God.

And with 2 they covered their face, with 2 covered their feet and, the, the, the, the ground upon which the Lord stands or sits is so holy that, and so covering their feet and with, with 2 they flew. And it says one called out to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy, set apart, exalted. In, in the league all his own, separate, holy, holy holy, in case you didn't get it the first time a 2nd time, and in case you don't get it the 2nd time, a 3rd time, holy, holy, holy. And all of His attributes and all of who it is that goes into the makeup of who God is, He is 100% holy, holy in His love, holy in His purity, holy in His omnipresence, holy in His omniscience.

He's absolutely holy. Apart separate, there is no one like him, and they're crying out one to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Now I would submit to you that that's prophetic in a way.

Because the reality is, the whole earth is not completely filled with the glory of God because of sin and brokenness. The glory of God is present, but there comes a day when the whole earth will be completely filled with the glory of God. There comes a day where sin will be completely eradicated. There comes a day in which the lion will lay down with the lamb.

The effect of the fall will be undone, and the whole earth will be filled with the glory of God. His creatures made in His image will reflect his image perfectly. That's us. That is us.

We will reflect his image perfectly in our relationships one to another, and the glory of God will be evident amongst us in the most purest form ever. I believe this is prophetic. The whole earth is full of his glory, says the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, and so see, he has this exalted view of God.

And he's hearing the seraphim cry out about the holiness of God. And we've got Isaiah, the holiest man in his day. What's his response? His immediate response.

Then I said, whoa, it's me, he pronounces a curse upon himself. As he sees Christ. Exalted, the Lord sitting on his throne high and lifted up. Whoa.

It is me, for I am ruined because I, you, how the spotlight shines directly on him. He's not like pointing the finger all over the place, and perhaps he could have, but at this moment as he beholds the glory. The beauty, the majesty, the holiness, woe is me. For I am ruined.

I am a man of unclean lips, and then he looks outward and he says, I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king. The Lord of hosts. That is a wonderful place to be, contrary to what the world will say. That is the best place to be.

Right? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth with it. He said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Total cleansing. Right S And we would be remiss if we don't remind ourselves of the fact that we have been sprinkled as well by the blood of Jesus, and every single last drop of sin in our life has been completely atoned for, and we stand before Him as holly, righteous, and without blame.

His righteousness has been placed upon us, and we are in Christ perfect, complete. And so we minister out of the overflow of these beliefs, right? We minister out of the overflow of our knowledge of who God is, and we build people up in a right view of who God is. That's what we do.

The greatest need, again, is to behold him for who he truly is. This is why I believe Paul when he's, in his letter to the Ephesians in his first prayer, he's praying for them, and he says, I pray that, that God would grant to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, that you would, that he would reveal himself to you. That you would be able to, to lay hold of who he truly is. As I've preached to you the truth about God.

I am praying that you will understand what I am telling you, and that through these proclamations, you will lay hold truly of who God is. He would give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. And so you'll know this after experiencing forgiveness for sins, verse 8, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us, right? The triune God is involved in this conversation, having this conversation, right?

And, and of course, Isaiah is able to hear the question. It's a question that perhaps was intended to be directed to him on some level and notice the response, and I said, Here I am, send me. He arrives at a place of absolute surrender on the other side of beholding who God truly is. You want to help people get to the place of obeying, obedience?

Well, you just paint for them a picture of who their God truly is. It's critical. Don't hammer them with doing this, doing that, doing the other. Don't hammer them with, with the law, hammer them with who God is.

Help them to understand who their god is, and that can prime them. For obedience. The obedience is just a, it's, it's a response of knowing their God. It's a response of beholding Him and being undone and experiencing forgiveness, and then you're at that place where I'll do what you want me to do, Lord.

Just say the word and I, I'll, I'll, I'll do it. Here I am. Send me. I want to direct your attention to Ephesians 4:20.

Ephesians 4:20. It is as it always is, helpful to, to read a verse within the broader context. And the immediate context of verse 20 is where Paul is praying for the Ephesians and, and basically he's praying for them. he says, In verse 14, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

He's praying for them to experience inner strength, strengthened with power by the Spirit in the deep parts of who they are, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts. be at home, be at rest, that, be welcomed, that, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, so that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend together with all of the saints, what is the height and the length and the, and the depth and the breadth of the love of Christ to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up with all of the fullness of God.

This is his prayer for them. That's an amazing prayer.

Yes. Did I say chapter 4? Oh, thank you. Chapter 3, my bad.

I threw you, you're like, man, this guy's got a different Bible. Chapter 3, you're right. So, so anyway, this, this prayer for inner strength and, and the indwelling Christ and the love and the fullness of God, a magnificent prayer, and, and, and I like to think of this prayer that on the other side of it, there's going to be some Ephesians who are kicking back and, yeah, but Paul, you don't know me. And Paul's gonna correct and say, hey guys, here's what you need to know.

Now to him who is able. To do Far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. We have a big God, guys. He is able to help you to be what he calls you to be.

You think you can never get to the place where you experiences fullness. I've got news for you. You've got a big God. You think that you can't experience inner strength, being strengthened with power by the spirit and the inner man.

You think you're beyond reach? No, you're not, to Him who is able. You think you can't get to the place where you experience the love of Christ and, and you begin to have a greater sense of, of, of just how great is the love of Christ, the height and the depth. You think you can't get to that place where you are basking in the love of Christ.

I got news for you to him who is able, right? This is a big God who is more than able to do. When you think that you can't, experience fullness, yeah, you can. But I'm telling you, not as long as you look at yourself and tell yourself, I can't.

But if you look to him, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. You look to Him, He is able. OK, 1 John 1:14. Let's go ahead and turn to 1 John 1:14.

I'm just gonna read, draw your attention to a few things here. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at our hands touched, what, what we have looked at, and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, and the life was manifested. We have seen and testify and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. With the Father manifested to us, of course, he's talking about Christ whom we have seen and heard and touched.

What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you. So that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed, our fellowship here, listen to this, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. I believe that wrapped up in these four verses is, is we, we, we, we, we can Infer John's view of who his God is, right?

He points to the Trinity, right, when he, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son. OK, so he's thinking in terms of the triune God, the, the two persons in particular, God the Father, God the Son. Our fellowship is with him, and then it goes on, we, we write these things to you so that you, our joy might be full. So I think what we have going on, again, we can infer this is his view of who his God is.

That which was from the beginning, the triune God of the universe, verse, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, existing in eternity pass before time began, before creation in perfect harmonious, loving relationship, the members of the Trinity one with another. The joy of God, I think John understood that in his presence was fullness of joy as his right hand, pleasures forevermore. And he's got this view of his loving. This is John.

God is love. God is love. Right? And so out of the overflow of his understanding of his triune God, loving God, joyful God, here he is, he's been brought into that relationship.

He's basking in the relationship, him and his ministry companions together, they're just caught up in that. It's like, I just want so badly for others to be brought into this. Oh, we write these things so that you may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. We write these things so that our joy may be full because God in His joy saw fit to bring us into His joy.

He want, we want for you too to become part of that. This is discipleship. This is the desire to see others being brought in and built up in, in God. This is a high view of God that fuels his ministry fire.

You got 2 Corinthians 3:18. I'll just refer to it briefly, as we behold him. We are being transformed. From one level of glory to the next.

This underscores the importance, the necessity of a right view of God. We must behold Him and we must behold Him rightly. First John 2:12, I'm gonna turn there the last verse to look at. First John 2:12 to 14.

It might not be the last verse. But I want you to consider. John says, I'm writing to you little children, because your sins have been forgiven for your namesake or for his name's sake. I'm writing you fathers because him who has been from the beginning.

I'm writing to you young men because you've overcome the evil one. I've written to you children because the Father, written to you fathers because Him who has been from the beginning. I've written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil 13 categories of people, right? And these are categories that help us to paint a picture of the path towards maturity, little children.

Young men, strong, they've been attacked by the devil, but they've overcome through the word of God. The children, they know their sins are forgiven. They know the love of the Father for them. The strong young men, they're battlers, they're warriors, they know that God loves them, but what, they've been around a while and they've experienced attack and they've come out at the other end and they have come forth as gold and you've got the fathers.

Him who has been from the beginning. You see what's going on. I think over the course of their life as they grow, that their view of God becomes increasingly magnificent. Him who has been from the beginning, an exalted, a magnified view of who their God is.

And so with these verses in mind, and there's others that you can think of, we must cultivate in our own hearts a high view of God, and we must help others to cultivate the high view of God. Always direct them to who their God is. We'll get to the gospel a little bit later. OK, we're not gonna omit the gospel, we don't omit Christ, but let us start here with an exalted view of who God is.

Resources to help cultivate the high view of God, the Bible, right, the Bible. So in your ministry to the people that you might want to disciple, utilize the word of God as the primary source. Take them to these passages and just say, hey, Reed, let's talk. What do you think?

do with them what I've done with you. It's OK to just stick their nose in the text and then just let them read, ask them questions, and just preach to them. We proclaim Christ, Colossians, end of chapter one. We proclaim Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man that we might present every man complete in Christ.

How do you get them to the place of being complete in Christ, proclaim Christ. Right? so the Bible reads, study, meditate, memorize. AW Tozer's book, The Knowledge of the Holy, I quoted from him earlier, that's a wonderful book to help us to develop an exalted view of who God is.

JI Packer has a good book called Knowing God. Any good systematic theology where all of the different doctrines are being covered and any good systematic theology, it, it's gonna cover who God is. Well, you're going to have a section usually closer to the beginning of who God is, and so you can go to a systematic theology, and I also want to submit to you natural revelation. You go out there and you just take a look at creation.

You slow down, you kinda, you let the worries and the cares and the concern of the world just, you, you just lay those burdens at the feet of Christ and you get out there and you just look at the flowers. And you think, God made the flower. One of the animals I love to look at, it's the butterfly. I love the butterflies.

And, and God is so good to give me a ton of butterflies in my backyard. I've been growing monarchs lately. We can talk about that on another occasion. I got this passion fruit plant and there's the viceroy butterfly that comes here and, and this time of the year, so often I go out there and I see 15 of them just hovering about my passion plant, 15 viceroy butterflies.

And it's just a good reminder to me because, what, I take those ugly caterpillars. I stick them in a jar with a little bit of the milkweed and then what it takes about 3 weeks or whatever and then one, one morning I wake up, I look inside the jar and there's this beautiful butterfly. That is the power of God. That is the creativity of God.

That is the goodness of God. That is the kindness of God on display. As I am being reminded of how ugly I was and how ugly I can't continue to be, and yet how God sees me as beautiful, like it's amazing. How would that, why?

For his own glory, that's it. Let us go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for who you are, Lord.

We pray that You would help us to grow in our understanding of who you are. And Lord, let us be a blessing to others because ultimately at the end of the day, the greatest need is to know you. Help us to that end as we journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.