060406 How Do We Know God
HOW DO WE KNOW GOD?
June 4, 2006
A number of years ago an acquaintance of mine asked me to describe my God. I thought about it for a moment to allow myself time to get things set in my mind. Then … Well, before we go there, let me ask you: How would you describe GOD?
Some people call Him “The Grand Ol’ Man Upstairs;” or, “The Supreme Being;” or “The Grand Architect.” Some learned about God in Sunday School, or, they just believe that he is. Okay, but how do you really know God? Who He is? What He is like? What He expects? What He does? How do you even know that there is a God?
These are the questions people ask either because they really want to know, or they simply want to deny the existence of God and who He is. Sadly there is a growing confusion and ignorance about religion and why we Christians say quite matter-of-factly, that all religions are not the same.
Well, it all boils down to the simple question: HOW DO WE KNOW GOD? Today we will try to answer that question from God’s written Word. If there really is a God, then the book that purports itself to be God’s Word ought to provide us some answers. And it does! Let’s start with what is said about the existence of God and how His existence is proven. Oh yeah! I almost forgot.
Do you want to know how I answered my acquaintance? The best way I could think of to describe God is by reciting the Apostles’ Creed. It describes God as Three persons but one God. It speaks to what God has done with respect to Creation, Redemption and Sanctification. So that is how I answered because Scripture describes God that way. So HOW DO WE KNOW GOD?
1. Well, Nature itself proves the existence of God. To our physical senses God is invisible and intangible and indescribable. Some people never seem to get beyond their own physical senses, however. So, when the Psalmist writes: "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” he is testifying to the reality of God, and that it is a foolish thing to deny or otherwise try to ignore it. Even so, there are more and more people who would argue from the fool’s perspective, not hearing the message from those who truly do know God.
Perhaps the clearest biblical reference that all people have some knowledge of God comes from the witness of the Apostle Paul.
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20, ESV)
The point that scripture makes is this: Neither the origin nor the continued existence of this world can be satisfactorily explained, unless there is a Prime Cause that brought it into being, and that Prime Cause must possess All Power to sustain and govern it. So, even though we do not see God, we know of Him from His works.
2. Even the conscience of man proves the existence of God. St Paul says of unbelievers that "They show that the work of the law (Natural Law) is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them" (Romans 2:15, ESV) Conscience, by holding man accountable for his deeds to some Power higher than himself, also testifies to the existence of God. It is quite understandable then, that …
3. Belief in the existence of God is universal. Rational man seeks to establish some sort of relation between himself and this god, or, whatever is out there. So, following their own vain imaginations, man has always built systems of religion upon the foundation of the natural knowledge of God. These amount to nothing more than superstitious, idolatrous, and abominable worship in the eyes of God. Listen to these words of scripture from (Romans 1:21–25; and Acts 17:22–25).
"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." (Romans 1:21-25, ESV)
Then in Acts, Paul speaks about the God he knows to people without faith, but people who were none-the-less, very religious.
"So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." (Acts 17:22-25, ESV)
4. So, again the question: HOW DO WE KNOW GOD? I hope you all know God as revealed to us in nature, and in conscience. But, I pray that your knowledge and understanding of God goes much further. Nature does not reveal who this true God is. The Christian Church has always sent Missionaries out to make this proclamation loudly and clearly. After all, no unbelieving people ever learned from nature that God is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The sad result of what man knows of God from nature, and conscience is stated by the Psalmist this way: "For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols." (Psalm 96:5, ESV)
The real kicker for man is the truth that the natural knowledge of God is not sufficient for salvation. God’s Love and Grace and Justice in Christ Jesus are revealed to man only in His Word. But, to the natural man even the Word of God is nothing but folly:
"But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." (1 Corinthians 2:9-11, ESV)
Therefore, Paul speaks of the unbelieving Gentiles this way, saying that they are: "separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12, ESV) So, what good is this natural knowledge of God?
5. The purpose of this knowledge, especially as it acts through the conscience, is to provide for outward discipline and good order. This basic knowledge of the existence of God is also meant to motivate man to seek Him that they may learn who He is, and what His will is towards men as Paul says in (Acts 17:27). If they neglect to do this, then it is as Paul says: "they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20, ESV)
So where does that leave us who do believe the Word of God? How is it that we can and do hold such strong convictions about the existence of God and who He is? How can we be sure we have it right? There is only one way. And that way is poured out on Jesus’ disciples on the day of Pentecost. That way is still being poured out on people through the written Word and command of God. That way is the bestowal of God’s Holy Spirit on us.
If we could listen to the Apostle Peter’s Pentecost sermon just a bit longer, we would hear and learn that God’s Spirit and forgiveness of sins is given by God’s own promise in and through Baptism.
"And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”" (Acts 2:38-39, ESV)
6. So, HOW DO WE KNOW GOD? While nature tells us that there is a God, the Bible tells us who this God is. While nature and conscience reveal to us many of the attributes of God, the Bible not only reemphasizes them, but also tells us of His love and grace in Christ, and of the salvation He has prepared for us in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are, therefore, not permitted to have our own ideas about God, as unbelievers have; but our thoughts and concepts of God must be guided by the witness of the Holy Spirit working through the written Word of God. And if we are able to hear that, then we have what Paul indeed declares in Ephesians 1:13-14:
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14, ESV)
So, my dear friends, HOW DO WE KNOW GOD? We have come to know Him from the Holy Spirit who confirms God’s written truth to us. And this is the God we hope all people will hear and know. All praise be to God. Amen!
By the same Spirit of God poured out on that first Pentecost, we now confess the Christian faith.