What is God Like?

Alright. That's a mirror today. So alright. Praise the Lord. Take your bibles if you would.

Turn to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. We're going to begin this morning by reading verses seven through 11. Philippians chapter three and verses seven through 11. Paul writes, but what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly Father, thank you, Lord. Testimony of Paul.

We thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior, the opportunity to be here today to worship you, to testify the grace and goodness of our God, of his offer of salvation to all to come who come in faith. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that was given us today to testify from your word. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would use it in our life to make us more like you. In Jesus' name we do pray.

Amen. Paul writes in verse 10, that I may what? That I may know him. That I may know Him. What is God like?

What is God like? Is finding out a worthwhile pursuit? How do we find out what God is like? We look to scientists to tell us about the world, what the world around us is like, how it works, what it's composed of. But science alone cannot give us a meaningful answer to the question, what is God like?

We look to psychologists a little to tell us what man is like, how he thinks, what makes him tick. But the psychology alone can't give us the answer to this question, what God is like. So if science can't really help us, if psychology can't really help us, how can we know what God is like? This question, this is a question brought forward enthusiastically by many agnostics today. The word agnostic means not know.

That's those who believe that, well, there might be a God, but you can't what? You can't know him. You can't know him. Gnostic means to know. Agnostic means not know.

And agnostics enthusiastically answer the question with you can't. Therefore ending the entire search and any obligation on their part to God. Say, well, you know, I can't I can't know God. Maybe there is one. But seeing I can't know, then I'm under no what?

No obligation to him. But is that the right answer? No, it's not. It's not the right answer because the fact is there is a way that you can know not only about God, but know God. I have it in my hands.

The main purpose of this book we call the Bible, we call the scriptures, we call rightly the word of God, is to reveal God to us. That's why God has given it to us. That's why he had a myriad of people, 40 different authors over the course of couple thousand years to record it for us, who despite living at different times and different places and in different cultures, all agree and fill in the blanks to a story, the most important story that's ever been written, the story of the redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us they are God's love letter to us about him and his plan for those he created and those he loves. They reveal God to us so that we might come to know him, not only as a subject of study, but also personally and experientially.

That word know doesn't mean just to know a fact, but to know in a deeper way. Paul's pursuit as he states here in Philippians, that he has left all those great accomplishments that he has achieved in life behind him. Nothing to brag about, nothing to trust in, but all secondary to the pursuit of the knowledge of God, Jesus Christ, his savior. We cannot see God, hear him, taste him, touch him, smell him. That's why science can't help us out a whole lot because God is a spirit.

We can know him through the revelation he has given us and a sixth sense he provides to us, something called faith. Now faith is the what? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things what? Not seen. Now I can't see God at the moment, neither can you.

But I can know him and I do know him through faith, through eyes of faith, through his word that he has given me in which I have put my trust. We'll get back to that in a moment. We typically divide revelation into two categories, that is God revealing himself. The first is general revelation. General level general revelation is evident testimony to both the existence and nature of God.

Several scriptures talk about general revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God. What does that mean? You look up at the sky at night, you look up at the sky in the day, and you see all those incredible things up there. They have a designer and a creator.

He is God. He is almighty and all powerful to have made all this that we see before us. He is a God of great wisdom and complexity for he created a world of great complexity as science shows us. He is an incredible God. Creation bears witness to who he is.

The nature of man he created in his image bears witness to who he is. We're different from all the other animals by far because we were created in the image of who? In the image of God. We think differently. We have a moral consciousness that is more than a cultural or societal construct.

It is a conscience given us by who? God that reflects his own. The existence of Israel. And we could go on, bear testimony to the existence, the power, the love of a God who made it all and who is still involved in it each and every day. General revelation because it is less revealing and more general in nature.

General because the lack of specificity boy, I wrote that word. I don't know if I could get it out. Specificity. The lack of specificity leads to misinterpretation and confusion, particularly as Satan is hard at work trying to thwart it, trying to hide it, trying to deceive people so they not see it. Thus, misleading scientific theories that try to teach us that somehow all this came to be without who?

Without God. Or worldly philosophies or false teachers and try to teach us and turn us away from what our eyes naturally reveal to us about the God who made the world and all that live therein. It is enough, however, to condemn mankind for their willful ignorance of it. We're reminded in Romans one twenty, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal in power and Godhead, so that they are what? Without excuse.

God will hold mankind accountable because we should be seeking for the God that we see in nature, for the God that we see in one another. There's enough there that should draw us to know him further. However, God and his mercy and grace gave us more. He gave us more. Romans ten seventeen says, then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

God has revealed himself more to us in his what? In his word that we might know him. We call this specific revelation. So general revelation, the world around us, specific revelation, particularly the word of God. Specific revelation is direct communication with man, which is more personal, more specific, and more difficult to twist.

How did God reveal that specific revelation to us? Through prophets, prophets, all throughout scripture, we read about the what? The prophets, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. We can go through the rest of the minor prophets in the Old Testament if you like. But those are just a handful of the prophets that God sent to Israel in Old Testament times.

And at times to other places like Jonah to where? To Nineveh. God sent his prophets into the world to speak his message, to speak in his behalf. He gave them his words for them to repeat. To a world that needed what?

That needed more. Who had been deceived by Satan, who had been led astray, and who needed more. God gave them more by By the voice of the prophets that he sent. Those prophets wrote down many of their prophecies. They make up the Old Testament scriptures.

And after Christ, the New Testament scriptures. And we have them recorded for us, preserved for us so that we too might know him because we need more than just general revelation gives us. Second Peter one twenty and twenty one, Peter writes this, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. In other words, men didn't simply make these things what? Up.

What we have in our hands is not merely the opinions of men. Now, I can go to a bookstore and I could spend the next year sitting at Barnes and Noble's reading the opinions of men that contradict each other a whole lot because none of them know everything because they're not who? They're not God. But God, he does because he's God. And he spoke through the prophets who wrote down not just their opinions, but whose opinions?

His opinions. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved, carried along by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. So that what we have is God breathed or inspired, as second Timothy puts it. But God didn't stop with his word. He also gave us his son, Jesus Christ himself, God in human form.

We're told in Hebrews one, it says, God who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in times past under the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. John one fourteen says, and the word, that is Jesus, was made what? Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory, beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. When the time was right, God sent forth his son into this world that men might have the opportunity to walk with him, to talk with him, to see him, to handle him as John puts it in first John.

Specific revelation, God in human form. Now you and I weren't there then, so what did God do? Well, he chose Matthew and Mark and Luke and John to do what? To record for us the things that he wanted us to know about who? About Jesus so that we could know him so that we could know him too.

The scriptures tell us that God is a spirit. Therefore, that's, well, that's why you don't see him. The scriptures tell us that God is a trinity, father, son, and holy ghost. He told his disciples to baptize the converts, the believers in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost. Why?

Because God is a trinity, three in one. The Bible reveals to us that God is supreme. He is sovereign. No one higher than who? Than God.

He is eternal. He has always been and He will always be. And you say, well, how can you believe that that God has always been? Well, if you're an evolutionist and you believe in the Big Bang Theory, then you must believe that there was something that was always been that went what? Bang.

Okay? I choose to believe in eternal God over eternal antimatter. The Bible tells us God is all powerful, all wise, all knowing. He is everywhere present. He is all loving, all merciful, all just and true and holy.

We don't have time to spend much on those things this morning, but we'll come back to to some of them later on. But I'd like to ask a second question, not just how do we know God. How can we know God? We know him through the revelation he has given us specifically through his what? Through his word that he has given to reveal himself unto us thus we can know him.

Number two, has God changed? Does he change? Will he change? Is that important? What if God is different tomorrow?

What if God changed his mind? What if God was holy and now he's not? What if God would that be a problem? Yeah, it would be cause we're told to trust Him. We have a hard time trusting each other sometimes.

Why? Well, for one, we're selfish. For two, we're forgetful. But for three, sometimes we what? We change.

We're not the same person we were ten years ago or or forty years ago. We mean something and promise something one day and thirty years later, we've we've changed. The Bible tells us, very importantly, God does not change. For I am the Lord, I want, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

What did God mean? Well, the sons of Jacob, those were the children of Israel. God said to the children of Israel, to Abraham, Jacob's great grand Jacob's grandfather, he said, if you'll follow me, I will make of you a what? A great nation. There'll be in number as the sand of the sea and I will give them the land of Canaan and I will bless them and they'll be a blessing to the world.

Abraham followed God. God keeps his what? God keeps his promises. He gave him a son, Isaac in his old age. He gave Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau.

He chose Jacob, changed his name to Israel, Israel. He had 12 sons, became the 12 tribes of Israel, and were given the land of Canaan when they came back with Moses and Joshua. And some of them are in part of that land today after nineteen and hundred and some years of not possessing it. They're back there though. There isn't peace and there won't fully be peace till who comes?

Till Jesus comes. But did Israel was Israel always were they good obedient children? Did they always do the right thing? No. No.

They were they were difficult children. They followed him and then they didn't. And then they did, then they didn't. And then they repented, then they didn't. And back and forth and back and forth.

And God at times had to step in and say, hey, if you're gonna go after idols, I'm not gonna leave you in the land. I'm gonna scatter you. But one day I will what? I'll bring you back. Why?

Because God made a promise to who? Abraham. And God always keeps his what? Promises. He does not change.

And because God does not change, though Israel had to be chastened time and time again, they always came back because God always had a remnant because God had to keep his promise because God does not want. God does not change. So they came back after they were taken captive by Babylon seventy years later and rebuilt Jerusalem. And they were destroyed in seventy AD after they rejected their Messiah. But in 1948 or '49, God brought some of them back again.

Though they haven't been brought back in their heart, one day that will happen too. Because God does not what? He does not change. Therefore, his word, his revelation, his promises, his actions, his judgments can be trusted so that we can respond to them with full assurance that God will do as he said and respond to us as he said. What he was yesterday, he will be tomorrow.

He is always the same. Yesterday, today, forever. Another song in our hymn book, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to his name.

Now he does interact with mankind in different ways at different times. The theological word for this is dispensations. During different time periods, God interacts with man in different ways. As the writer of Hebrew points out back here, And God who at sundry times and in what? Diverse manners spake in times past under the fathers by the prophets hath in these times spoke unto us by his what?

By his son. So in the Old Testament, he spoke through the prophets. In the days of Christ, he spoke through his son. And then his spirit and his word that he has recorded and reserved for us. In the Old Testament, He testified to the world through a nation, the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Today, he testifies the world through his people, the church, the redeemed in Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, they had to bring sacrifices when they sinned. Aren't you glad we don't have to do that today? Because Jesus Christ is our what? Is our sacrifice.

You see. The day is coming when Jesus will return to this earth and he'll rule and reign for a thousand years. How do I know that? His word. He's told me.

And as his word has been true in the past, so too his word will be true in the future. As we'll study tonight in Daniel chapter nine, we will look and see the prophecy in Daniel nine that came to Daniel in about May, came to pass on the day that Daniel prophesied almost five hundred around five hundred years later. And so too, as Christ has kept his promises in the past, Christ will keep his promises in the what? In the future because God does not change. God does not change.

But he does interact with us in different ways at different times. But his character and his purpose remains the same. The purpose to defeat the enemy who is Satan and to redeem human redeem fallen humanity, which is who? Which is us. That remains the same.

So how can we know him? Through his word. Has God changed? Will he change? The answer to that is no.

And number three, why does it matter? Why does it matter what God is like? Why does it matter? Why why spend the time here today? Why study his word?

Why per Paul's pursuit to know him? Why does it matter? While God's plan will continue regardless of the choices you make, and it will, God's plan will continue. But your response to him your response to him, guided by your knowledge, faith, and love, and his calling of grace will determine your eternal fate and your part in his plan. Let me say that again.

While God's plan will continue regardless of the choices you make, your response guided by your what? Your knowledge, faith, love for him and his grace will determine where you are going to spend where? Eternity. And what part you can have in his plan today. In in John one eleven and twelve, it says, he came unto his own and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that what? Believe on his name. Now in order to believe on his name, do you need to know something about him? Yeah, you do. Matter of fact, it tells us in Romans 10 let me turn there quickly.

In Romans 10, it tells us this. It says in verse 14, verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed? Okay? Not going to call on him to save you if you don't what?

You don't believe in him. I'm not gonna call on you to come over and fix my car if I don't believe you exist. I'm not gonna come over and ask you to fix my car if I don't think you know how to fix a car or that you have any intelligence about you or that you're physically capable of getting over there or doing something with it. There are several things I need to know before I'm gonna what? Call on you to come fix my car.

So how are you going to believe in a god? How are you going to call on a god in whom you have not what? Believed. And he goes on to say, and how can you believe in him of whom you have not heard? In other words, if nobody's told you, if you've not read it, if you don't know anything about him, if you don't know who he is, if you don't know what he's done, if you don't know what he's capable of, if you don't know what he's promised, then you're not going to believe in him and you're not going to what?

You're not going to call on him. Thus, the reason for all of what? For all of this. Because the God who made me loves me and he wants me to spend eternity with him. He wants me to have a part in his plan.

He wants to know me as I know him. Or me know him as he knows me. So he gave me his word so that I might what? As Paul said, that I might know him, that I might believe him, that I might call on him. Verse 17, we cited earlier.

So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the by the word of God. There are people today that say I'm a Christian but I don't exactly believe this is the word of God. You've got problem because if you don't believe this, if this isn't God's word, then how do you know him? How do you know what he's like? He reveals it in here.

How do you know what he's done? He reveals it in here. How do you know what he's gonna do? He reveals it in here. This is vital.

You don't believe this, then, what is your faith based in? Where do where do you get your knowledge if not from the revealed word of God that he has given to us? It matters greatly. Let me skip ahead here to John twenty thirty one. John writes, but these things, but these are written, the things that John wrote in his gospel, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you might have what?

Life through his name. The Bible is a love letter. God gave us this that we might know him. That we might know what happened in the past, what put us in the pickle we're in, that what of his love that that that led him to send his son to take your punishment mine on the cross. So that we might by faith receive him as our Lord and savior and be saved from sin and hell.

That's why it matters. It matters for you. It matters for me. It matters for the world. God gave us gave his word to us.

Your life, your happiness, your success, your eternal reward is dependent upon your response to God. In order to know how to respond, you need to know who he is. In order to make the right choices in life, you need to know who he is, what his plan is, what your place is, how to find it, how to succeed in it. It does matter. Why come to Bible study?

Why come to church? Why come to Sunday school? Because above every other thing in life that you need to know, this is the most important. The fear of the what, of the who, of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. All those other things, some of them are important.

Yes, very important. But the most important thing is to know him, to know about him, but to know him personally through faith, through trusting in his word because your eternity beginning today depends on that knowledge and your response to it. Erase God from the minds of men or construct a false god in his place, and man will respond in ignorance resulting in terrible consequences. We see many of those consequences around us. The Bible said that those who forget God are ungrateful and turn from him to worship nature and images made like the corruptible man.

Give themselves over to foolishness. Thinking themselves to be wise, they became fools, calling good evil and evil good. And I don't know about you, but I see a lot of that today. And why is it? People don't know God.

They don't know about God, and they don't know God. They don't take the time for the pursuit that Paul did that he might obtain eternal life in Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about when he says the resurrection. This is why God gave us his word. That's why he sent his son that we might know him as Paul.

Most importantly, that we might gain eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What did John write here? But these things have I written unto you that you might believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God, the believing you might have life through his name. Jesus said, I came not to give the just to give them life, but to give them life more abundantly.

Can you know God? You can. He's written you a letter, a long one, because there's a lot to know about God. Does he change? No.

He doesn't. Doesn't change. Same character, same nature. All those things that we read, spirit, trinity, supreme, all powerful, all wise, all knowing, everywhere present, all loving, merciful, just, holy, true, they don't change. They don't change.

And why does it matter? Well, because how you can believe in him of whom you have not heard or you do not know. And what you believe about him, that matters because your eternity hangs in the balance. And so God loves you so much he sent his son. And God sends you so loves you so much, he gave you his what?

He gave you his word. He wants you in heaven as we talked about last week because he loves you so. That is important for you to know. He sent his son to die for you. And he will grant you eternal life if you will in faith choose to believe and trust in him to receive his invitation to be your Lord and forgive your sins.

This is why God sent us a letter to tell you not only about himself but about yourself and about his offer of salvation. Will you believe? Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word today. Thank you Lord that you do not change.

Thank you that you are a god of righteousness and justice, but also mercy and love. That you suffered in our place to redeem us so that we might not be lost forever. And we pray, Lord, if there be one here today that is yet to choose by faith to receive you as the Lord and savior of their life, I pray, Lord, that as they have heard your word, as they have grown in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that you would bring them to a point where they might choose by faith to trust you and to call upon your name to be the Lord and savior of their life. We thank you, Lord, for your word that you've given to us. May we study it, read it, and draw closer to you each and every day through it.

May we get to know you more as Paul. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.