INTRODUCTION

1.      Last week I explained to you that “Following Jesus” is coming to Him to be saved and to give the rest of your life to Him. And, you can’t have one without the other. Both the first, conversion and forgiveness of sins, is important as well as the life of surrender by faith.

2.      I said that “Following Jesus” is the Spirit-initiated and Spirit-led process of becoming like Jesus.

3.      For the next 2 months we are going to look at 7 ways in which we follow Jesus. These are ways in which we imitate Jesus, obey Him, follow Him and become like Him.

• Understanding God and His Word Rightly

• Becoming a Worshipper/Lover of God

• Realizing Our Dependence on God and Trusting Him

• Being part of the body of Christ with Jesus as the head

• Growing in Godliness (becoming like the Father in our character)

• Becoming a suffering servant

• Becoming a Debtor/lover of people

4.      We see these things in the life of Jesus.

5.      These are things that He is working in us by His grace (by His Spirit).

6.      Why 7? – meant to be helpful – summarize.

7.      We see them as all interconnected (as the picture is meant to illustrate).

8.      We must see them as all important (you can’t take one out and not affect the rest).

9.      We are usually inclined or gifted towards one or a few but we need to grow in all.

10. Discipleship Groups have the purpose of Following Jesus Together in all of these.

This morning (and this week in the DGs) we are going to look at the First – “Understanding God and His Word Rightly.”

Read John 1:14-18 and then pray.

SEEING AND UNDERSTANDING GOD RIGHTLY

This morning I want to focus on the concept of our seeing and understanding God rightly (or appropriately). And in doing so I want to look at three areas that relate to this topic.

In regards to seeing/understanding God rightly I want to help you:

1.      See the Importance of It

2.      Embrace the Means to Pursue It, and

3.      Warn you of the Opposition to It

1.      SEEING THE IMPORTANCE OF IT – UNDERSTANDING GOD RIGHTLY

Last night I asked my 3 and 5 year olds – “What is God?” They answered according to how they were taught – “God is a Spirit whose being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, are infinite, eternal and unchangeable.”  (Q 4 of Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English)

That is good and all – but do they and I really get all that. Of course not – truly. Time will be needed and much more than the memorizing of a catechism.

A. W. Tozer writes on the importance of our view of God in The Knowledge of the Holy Preface:

The message of this book does not grow out of these times but it is appropriate to them. It is called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.

Later on he says:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

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 a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

• Jesus saw and understood God rightly (and we need to imitate Him). We see this in John 17:25-26.

John 17:25-26  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.  (26)  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

No one knew and understand the power, holiness, faithfulness, righteousness, justice, sovereignty, wisdom and splendor as Jesus did.

• Seeing God rightly is foundational to all the other aspects of being a disciple – Without a knowledge how can we truly know about dependence on Him, or how to worship, how to love others, what it means to be the body, why we should suffer and serve, what is godliness…

• Seeing God rightly is crucial to the life of true Joy and Faith as well as the fight against sin.

Knowing Him rightly is crucial to truly knowing His promises, believing them and finding the joy we ought to have because of them in all of our lives.

We need to know the God who says:               “I will never leave you”

“I am Your Shepherd”

“I am Your Rock and Refuge”

“Glorify Me”

“I Will Be Your Help”

“I Will Care for Your Needs”

“I Will Keep You from the Evil One”

“No One Will Pluck You from Me”

“I am Your God”

Charles Spurgeon preached (at the age of 20):

“It has been said by someone that, ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.  The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity.  It is the subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.  Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold, I am wise.’  But when we come to this master of science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, ‘I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.’ No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than the thoughts of God…

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it.  He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.  Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently, consolatory.  Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.  Would you lose your sorrow?  Would you drown your cares?  Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated.  I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”

(Charles Haddon Spurgeon, New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, January 7, 1855.)

2.      EMBRACE THE MEANS TO PURSUE IT – THE WORD OF GOD

• “The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.” (Q 3 of Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English)

• Dave VanAcker writes in “Follow Me”

The Bible is from God, it has no errors, it is a collection of writings inspired by God and written by man, it has principles which account for every area of life, it is necessary for our salvation, and a right understanding of it leads to a great longing for God and His Word.

• Jesus understood God’s Word as the truth and gave us truth so we could know God rightly:

John 17:14-17  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  (15)  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  (16)  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  (17)  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

• The Word of God gives us a knowledge of God and anyone serious about loving and knowing God will make the Bible foundational to their lives. The Bible will be the warp and woof of their lives.

“Warp and Woof”: The essential foundation or base of any structure or organization; from weaving, in which the warp—the threads that run lengthwise—and the woof—the threads that run across—make up the fabric: “The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are the warp and woof of the American nation.” (New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)

• There is no such thing as a joyful, spiritual healthy (and emotionally healthy) Christian who doesn’t make the Word of God central to His life. He must be Bible-saturated.

• Psalms 1:1-6  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  (2)  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  (3)  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.  (4)  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  (5)  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;  (6)  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

• We must always be careful here. Many wander with the Word of God when they think that the incorporation of Bible study, memory, a particular plan or program or method will do it for them. We must not miss the point – that is to know and understand and savor and delight in God.

3.      BEWARE OF THE OPPOSITION/OBSTACLES TO IT – SELF, WORLD, DEVIL

• Our Self

Our own self is our greatest opposition and obstacle in seeing God rightly (and His word).

Idolatry is rooted at the heart of each of us. We want to make our own images of God.

Jeremiah 17:9-10  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  (10)  "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

Romans 7:18-19  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  (19)  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

“Come Thou Fount”

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.  

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Do you naturally run to God and the Bible as your first inclination? So often I don’t!

This is why I must pray I, O, U, S (Incline, Open, Unite, Satisfy – See Blog)

• The World

1 John 2:16  For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.

We must be aware of the numbing effect the world has – through TV, media, internet, entertainment, amusements, hobbies, “family time” etc.

Good things in the world can distract us and become obstacles and opposition to the heart that must seek to know and understand God and His world rightly.

• The Devil

Beware to think that the Devil is not real and that He isn’t going about to devour us. (I encourage you to read the Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis).

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

John 17:15  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed  His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim,  we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. 

(A Mighty Fortress – Luther)

CONCLUSION

Pursue the knowledge of God!

Pursue the knowledge by going to the Word

1.      Read the Bible every day with the motive and prayer to know God and see Him rightly.

Les Ollila – Create a biography of God

2.      Make the Bible part of your home life – with spouse and/or kids

3.      Avail Yourself to Biblical teaching and preaching and books

• Systematic Theology (Grudem)

• Knowing God (Packer)

• Knowledge of the Holy (Tozer)

• The Pleasures of God and Desiring God (Piper)

• The Holiness of God (Sproul)

• Art of Divine Contentment (Thomas Watson)

• Sermons online by John Piper, C. J. Mahaney, Tim Keller, John MacArthur, and Phil Ryken

• Radio Podcasts of Paul Tripp

• Embrace the Church’s help in the Word

• Kids Sunday School – Desiring God Curriculum

• Berea

• Preaching of the Word – come with anticipation and prayer

• Discipleship Groups (point to Book)

Final Word

Psalms 34:8  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalms 119:103  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

1 Peter 2:2-3  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation--  (3)  if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.