Can God Be Known? - Part A

I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. There's some component where they just don't have it right about the nature and character of who God is. So for example, if a person says, I'm lonely, it could be that they don't really understand the love of God or the accessibility of God.

Or if a person comes in and says, I feel worthless, I feel useless, I feel inadequate. Maybe they need a fresh dose of the fatherhood of God who sees his children as not only redeemed, but uniquely loved by him. Everybody has an opinion about God. But do you spend time in your Bible getting to know who he really is? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzen, Skip begins a series exploring the biography of God so you can get a clear picture of his character. But first, Skip wants to invite you to connect with him on social media. Hey, Pastor Skip here. If you want to stay up to date on the latest from this ministry, follow at Skip Heitzig on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. That's Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G.

Thanks, Skip. The Bible makes it clear that God wants us to know him and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. That's why we share these biblical teachings with friends like you as much as possible. And when you support this ministry, you help keep these messages you love on the air. Call right now to give. 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate.

Thank you. Now we're in Hebrews Chapter 11 as we dive into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. I've always loved the story about the kindergarten teacher who gave an assignment to her class and the assignment was to draw a picture of something that was important to them. So each of the students started drawing. Little Johnny sitting in the back of the classroom head down worked very diligently on his picture. Well everybody turned in their assignments except Johnny. He was still working feverishly on his drawing which caused the teacher to be a bit curious and she said out loud in the class having everyone else's assignment, Johnny what are you drawing? Without even looking up Johnny said I'm drawing God. And she said well Johnny nobody knows what God looks like. And Johnny without looking up without missing a bit beat said well they will when I'm through. Now I have a hunch that the reason we laugh at that is because of the confidence we would say overconfidence that Johnny had in thinking he knew exactly what God looked like.

If Johnny were an adult and were to have said that we would call it arrogance. Now I'm a little hesitant in giving this title to a series The Biography of God and I hesitate because I don't want it to sound presumptive like Little Johnny. I don't want you to think that well I and I alone know what God is like and now I'm going to finally divulge to the world what that is.

That's as far from the truth as is the truth. The truth is I am a fellow traveler on this same road that you are on and we have access to the same information the same documents but I hope to offer a fresh perspective on God himself. And this is the biography of God. And what I mean by that is the dictionary definition Webster calls biography with this definition. It's an account of someone's life written by someone else. Well that's exactly what we have in the pages of scripture.

The authors of the Bible speak freely and write freely about God about what God wants and doesn't want and who God is etc etc. And by their writings we have a verbal picture. We have in essence a biography of God.

Well we want to examine some basic questions in this next few weeks several weeks. Does God exist? How do we know God exists and what is he like? And what about others belief systems? There's a whole host of different beliefs people have from atheism to agnosticism to polytheism to deism to pantheism and there's a few other theisms that we'll probably find and throw in there.

And how valid are they or invalid are they? Another question why is God invisible to us? He's spirit we don't see him.

What's up with that? How do we have a personal relationship with a person you never see? Then there's the question about how powerful is God? What can God do? What can't God do? Or what does God choose not to do? Does God know everything? Is God really everywhere? And what about the holy character of God?

The holiness of God? What does that mean exactly and why is that important to us in our daily lives? Those questions and others we want to examine. Now why am I doing this? Why are why a series on God himself? Three reasons I'm doing this.

Number one because it's universal. There is not a person alive or who has ever been alive who has not grappled with the question of God. Does God exist?

How can I know it? Everybody at some point deals with it from children to adults to astute philosophers and even if they don't believe in God they want to make films or write books and write books and weigh in on why they don't. It's universal. Second reason I'm doing this series. It's inspirational. There's nothing more elevating to mankind than the study of God himself. Or for our purposes let me let me throw it this way. There's nothing more edifying to the child of God than the study of God himself.

And so we want to do that. I noticed something in the last series we did about heaven. It was a series where as you remember we followed what happens to a believer from the moment of death all the way through the eternal state.

17 weeks of dealing with that and I watched how elevating that was and comforting and encouraging because some of you have loved ones who are in heaven and you were able to at least for once a week escape the morass of the earthly, the taxes, the election, the problems, and put your mind on things above as Paul tells us to do in Colossians. Very edifying. Well all God-centered teaching and preaching will do that. It elevates us. That's theocentric teaching.

That's what we want to do with this series like heaven. I've seen the other kind of preaching and teaching anthropocentric man-centered preaching and it's all about me. It's all about my needs, my marriage, my children, my job, my life.

And the Bible has answers to all that but there is something uniquely elevating about focusing not on me but on God. It will do something to you. It'll do something to you.

The third reason that I'm doing this series is not only is it universal, not only is it inspirational, but it is third consequential. Now think about this. There's far more at stake if you get this wrong than anything else. There's far more at stake if you get the God issue messed up that can mess up everything.

It's far more at stake. There's a name I'm going to throw out. I don't know if you've heard of Mortimer J. Adler but if you've ever read Encyclopedia Britannica know that for years Mortimer J. Adler was the chief editor of that series of books. An astute thinker, philosopher. Well Mortimer J. Adler was also the co-editor of 55 volumes of what are called the greatest books of the western world. And in that series of 55 volumes that housed some of the greatest essays and writings of the greatest contributors to western thought. You know what the longest essay in those 55 volumes is about?

God. There's more space devoted to God. The longest essay is about God and Mortimer J. Adler was asked why. And so he stated simply because more consequences for life follow from that one issue than any other.

And that is true. It is consequential. Not just for the person who gets it wrong but I would say it's consequential for those of us who have it right. For the Christian. For the Christian it's consequential knowing or not knowing things about God. This is what I mean I've discovered as a pastor and I think that this would resonate with my pastoral staff. We get people in the offices week by week and we are able to counsel with them about life issues. It's a privilege.

We count it a privilege. But I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. There's some component where they just don't have it right about the nature and character of who God is. So for example if a person says I'm lonely it could be that they don't really understand the love of God or the accessibility of God.

Or if a person comes in and says I feel worthless, I feel useless, I feel inadequate. Maybe they need a fresh dose of the fatherhood of God who sees his children as not only redeemed but uniquely loved by him. Or for example if somebody comes in who's trapped by sin or by worldliness maybe they've lost sight of the holiness of God or the ultimate knowledge that God knows everything and sees everything. But you can trace almost every problem that a Christian faces from an inadequate view of God. So the biography of God is what we start to see. The biography of God is what we start this morning. And I'm asking you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11. I trust you brought your Bibles. We want to read a few verses together. Now I think most of you know about Hebrews 11. You know it's all about what? Faith.

That's the subject matter. In fact Hebrews 11 is called the hall of faith or the hall of fame of faith. It's a whole bunch of folks from the past all of whom have faith in God, walked with God, knew God and all by that component of faith. So verse 1 is faith described. Verses 2 through 31 is faith exemplified. And then verse 32 through 40 is faith summarized.

That's the whole chapter. The question before us is can God be known? And let's read together the first six verses. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts and through it he being dead still speaks.

By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

It's that sixth verse that we want to camp on this morning and unpack for you this morning. Two great realities, two great responsibilities, all in that one verse. The two great realities, God exists and God is personal and the two great responsibilities to acknowledge that, to come to grips with that requires faith and pursuit and I want to explain that. First of all the obvious first reality, God exists.

For notice in verse six, without faith it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is or you could translate it that God exists. The most fundamental question of the universe is, does God exist? Because if God doesn't exist then we populate this planet by chance.

There's no design, there's no purpose. If God doesn't exist then Sigmund Freud was right when he said God is an infantile illusion that should be discarded. If God doesn't exist then Ludwig Feuerbach, the philosopher, was right when he said God is a mere projection of our humanity. If God doesn't exist then Karl Marx was right. When he explained that God is a mere projection of our humanity. If God doesn't exist is right.

When he asserted that the material is all that matters, there is no heaven, there is no hell. If God doesn't exist then Friedrich Nietzsche who taught nihilism was right when he said that our existence is senseless and useless. So if there is no God and if they're all right and if we're in this universe all alone then there's a deeper question. The question is, what's the point?

What's the point? If we're not here by design, if there isn't a God then what's the point of life? Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky said, if there's no God everything therefore is permitted and the first thing that is permitted is despair. He's right, that's the logical conclusion if there is no God. Nicolas Cage, great actor but an empty one, admitted this, I wonder if there's a hole in the soul of my generation. We've inherited the American dream but where do we take it?

Let's turn the page now or turn the corner. If God does exist then there's a whole host of questions that follow like, okay, what's he like? What does he want? What does he require? What does he love?

What does he not love? And the great reality is, as we'll discover in the next couple weeks is, God does exist and the evidence is abundant, it's all around us. In fact, I'll even assert this, if you're an atheist you have way more faith than I have. It takes more faith to hold that position given the evidence for God than to not be an atheist and believe in Christ. So I congratulate you, you're a man or woman of great faith if you're an atheist this morning. I've met a lot of them and talked to a lot of atheists and sometimes when I speak to an atheist and they say they don't believe in God and I ask them why, some of them are intellectually honest as they grapple with the whole God question. But I found a lot of them haven't done their homework and I've discovered that a lot of atheists hold the position of atheism for moral reasons, not intellectual reasons. Because if now they're open to the possibility that there's a God, it means there's an accountability to that one. That means I have to stop certain things that I've done or am doing in my life on a moral level and so I won't even entertain the idea that there is a God for moral reasons, not for intellectual reasons. As someone well put it, an atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman, because he's not looking for him. And I aim to show you that you don't have to look very far to discover God.

I want to start on that next week. But even Albert Einstein said, certainly there is a God. Any man who doesn't believe in a cosmic force is a fool, but we could never know him. Now with all due respect to Albert Einstein, I know he's not here to defend himself, that's where I part with him.

He's a brilliant or was a brilliant man, far more brilliant than I would ever imagine to be, but I would contend with him on this point. There is a God, he is not a cosmic force, he can be known because he is personal. That brings us to the second great reality. Not only does God exist, but God is personal. Notice how the writer of Hebrews in verse six frames it. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Not only does God exist, God can interact with those that he has made.

He is able as a person to be personal, to love, to care, to reward, as it says those who diligently seek him. Years ago I found a book and I read it and I have since read it and reread it and reread it. It's so frayed, the cover has fallen off. It's a book I recommend to you called Knowing God. It's by J.I.

Packer. Now I'll admit to you it was the title that sold me. I remember walking by it in the store and seeing this huge print, Knowing God, and it was as if my heart lunged toward it because I longed to know God more personally, more intimately. And I discovered among even the most astute Christian, an active Christian, that there's this vast unfed hunger to know God personally that lies just beneath the surface of all of our busy churchly activities.

We want to know God because we read in the Bible how God walked with Adam, how God spoke to Moses, and we read stuff like that and we go, what about us? Listen to the words of a struggler, another great book that I found but written by Tim Stafford. He talks about this struggle. He says, I did not lack for intellectual satisfaction or for demonstration of God's power. I saw him changing lives. On a man-to-man level, Christianity was wonderful. It was the man-to-God level that I felt shaky about.

I wanted more. I have come to realize since that I was not alone in my longing. But whenever the conversation moves to the subject of knowing God, listeners grow suddenly quiet and attentive. For a long time, I thought this was a disapproving silence.

I know now that it's the silence that falls on a room of hungry people whenever someone talks of food. How do you have a personal relationship with God? Now just think about that. How can you have a personal relationship with the ultimate person, the unique one? There's no one like him.

He is invisible. How do you have a personal relationship with him? We'll discover how.

We'll discover how, as I said, his personality crowds the world around us. If the Bible carries one repeated message, it's the message that God wants to be known. Wasn't that the cry of Paul's heart? After 30 years, 30 years of ministry and life and sacrifice, even the great apostle, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. He prayed that.

So the two great realities. There is a God. He exists and God is personal.

He rewards. There's two great requirements that follow in the same text. The first requirement is faith. You'll notice in verse 6, faith is spoken about or alluded to three times. But without faith, that's the first one, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe, that's the second time, that he is, that he exists, and that, or that is believe that, that's the third time, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Okay, belief is absolutely essential. In your spiritual journey, at some point, it's going to require an act of faith.

And here's why. Because we are unable to see God, at least for now. We are unable to hear his voice audibly, like you're hearing my voice right now, for now. And because of that, as Paul said, we live by faith and not by sight. There will come a time when you don't need faith any longer, you'll be in heaven, you don't need to place your trust in God, you're there with him. But until then, we live in that realm, we live by faith and not by sight.

So there's plenty of evidence of God, and you can examine all of that evidence, but it's still going to require a level of faith on your part. And when I talk about faith, it's more than mere acknowledgement. That's Skip Heuthing with a message from the series, The Biography of God. Now, we want to share about an exciting resource that will help you overcome your struggles so you can experience faith-enriching transformation. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip resource, Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.

Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this. Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book released in hardcover, but it has a ribbon so you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.

It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book, Take Back Your Life, with a donation of $35 to connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right.

1-800-922-1888. We're excited to share how God uses support from friends like you to connect others to His Word. Listen to this letter one person posted, I cannot begin to say how much I've learned from listening to Skip's expository explanations of Scripture.

I'm legally blind and have never been able to study with commentaries, and now I feel like a whole new world has been opened up to me. You make stories like this one possible when you give to connect more people to God's truths. And we invite you to reach even more people by giving a gift today at connectwithskip.com slash donate and help reach more people with God's Word. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how you can have a more intimate personal relationship with the God of the universe. It's one thing to go, yes, I have all of the adequate information and I acknowledge that there is a God who exists somewhere out there, a cosmic force. That's not faith. Biblical faith is more than an acknowledgement or a mental assent. Look at it more like a receiving of the cure, okay? Biblical faith is when you bet your eternal life on Jesus Christ. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.