The Knowability of God
The Doctrine of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Knowability of God
v The Necessity for God to Reveal Himself to Us
Ø The Bible alone tells us how to understand the testimony about God from nature. Therefore, we depend on God’s active communication to us in Scripture for our true knowledge of God.
§ Grudem, 149.
· It is necessary for God to reveal Himself to us in order for us to understand Him rightly.
Ø John 6:44
44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Ø Matt 11:27
27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Ø 1 Cor. 1:21-24
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Ø 1 Cor. 2:14
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
v We Can Never Fully Understand God
Ø God is infinite and we are finite, it is therefore impossible that we will ever be able to fully understand Him beyond what He chooses reveals to us.
§ Ps. 145:3
3 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
§ Ps. 147:5
5 Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite.
§ 1 Cor. 2:10-12
10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
§ Rom. 11:33-34
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
Ø The doctrine of God’s incomprehensibility assures us that we will never be able to “outknow, outsmart, or outmanuver” the God of the universe. We will never run out of more God to learn about. We will never run out of new depths to explore in God.
Ø We have all eternity to delve into the magnitude of God and for all eternity, we will never reach His end.
v Yet We Can Know God Truly
Ø Even though we will never know God exhaustively, we can know true things about God. All the attributes revealed in scripture about God are absolutely true and will not change.
Ø More significantly, we can know God Himself, not simply facts about Him.
· Jer. 9:23-24
23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.
· John 17:3
3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
· 1 John 5:20
20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
· Phil 3:7-11
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
§ We can know Him truly and we will continue to learn of Him eternally.