How to Know God Through the Bible | Part 1

Why is it so important that we know God?

Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the real truth of the gospel presented in the biblical messages of Adrian Rogers. As we just heard, the way to be blessed is to obey God. And if we want to obey God, we must first trust in Him. And to trust Him is to love Him. And in order to love Him, we must know Him.

But how can we know God? If you have your Bible, turn now to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We'll begin in verse 1 as Adrian Rogers explains how to know God through the Bible. Take God's word and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

I think one of the great, great chapters in all of the Bible. I want to tell you tonight how you can be blessed. In order to be blessed, you must obey. In order to obey, you must trust. In order to trust, you must love. And in order to love, you must know. Now, this chain of events begins with the idea of knowing God.

The reason that many people are not blessed is they don't know God, that they might love God, that they might trust God, that they might obey God, and that they might be blessed. I want to talk to you really about how to know God through the Bible. How to know God through the Bible. How God can become real to you.

Not someone that you know about, but someone that you know. Because to know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him.

To obey Him is to be blessed. And it all begins with this idea of knowing God. And the entire second chapter of 1 Corinthians deals with this idea of knowing God. And really, it deals with the word wisdom. Because what wisdom is, is the knowledge of God. Wisdom is the knowledge of God. Wisdom is seeing life from God's perspective, from God's point of view.

That's what wisdom is. Now, he talks here in this chapter about human wisdom and its deficiency. And then he talks about heavenly wisdom and its sufficiency. Now, we're going to talk, first of all, about human wisdom and its deficiency. And then we're going to talk about heavenly wisdom and its sufficiency. How we can sufficiently know God through the heavenly wisdom that God gives. Now, let's begin reading, therefore, in chapter 2 and verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, nor of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

That is, He said, I didn't come like a man with a double PhD and a marvelous orator. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Now, when I think, first of all, about the deficiency of human wisdom, the first thing that comes to me is that this human wisdom, dear friend, is so superficial. You see, if you knew God just simply by human wisdom, if I could just begin to teach a course in systematic theology, I could tell you all of the facts about God, and you could get out your notebook and you could write them down, and you could say, God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, and God is this and God is that. And you could learn all of the facts about God. You wouldn't know God. I mean, if I were to be able to pour it on and use all kinds of flamboyant speech and clever phraseology and all of these things, that wouldn't help you to know God. You see, the apostle Paul said, when I came to you and when I preached to you, I didn't come this way with human wisdom.

You see, the people at Corinth had been swept away by worldly philosophy. Now, the apostle Paul, if he had wanted to, could have done it. The apostle Paul was mighty in intellect.

He was mighty in learning. But he was terrified at the thought that their faith should stand in human wisdom because it is so superficial. And I remember hearing Billy Graham say on one occasion, he said, I stay frightened. I wonder why Billy said that, and I listened more carefully. He said, I stay frightened.

And he went on to explain it. He said, I'm so afraid that I might do something or say something that would discredit my Lord or have people following me rather than the Jesus that I preached. That's what the apostle Paul meant when he said, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. I don't want people, he said, to follow me, and I don't want to be able to use human ingenuity and human philosophy and human wisdom to get any kind of followship because the deficiency of human wisdom is that it is so superficial. You can know about God and yet not know God. But secondly, not only is human wisdom so superficial, it is so transitory. Look again in verse 6, howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world. Now, the word princes, it stands for the intellectuals, those intellectual topwaters of this world, these people who have attained in their learning. He said, we speak wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world, not what the princes of this world know that will come to naught. Now, when he says the princes of this world, he literally says the princes of this age, that is for this time. There are certain people in this day and this age, and they're supposed to be the great, vaunted intellectual leaders. And Paul says, hey, all of that is just going up in smoke.

It's going to come to naught. I remember hearing Dr. R.G. Lee, who had the ability to express himself so eloquently, talk about philosophy. And he said that philosophy was a chunk of cloud bank buttered with the night wind. Now, that's what the apostle Paul is talking about here. It's the wisdom of the princes of this world.

Folks, it's just going to come to nothing. It is so superficial. It is so transitory, and it is so limited. Look again, if you will, in verse 7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Now, human wisdom is totally incapable of understanding or probing into what Paul calls here the divine mystery. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom.

What does he mean here by mystery? He's talking here about a sacred secret that you can only know as God reveals Himself to you. You see, human wisdom can never, never fathom God.

I don't care how smart you are. You don't have a head start toward God. You see, the finite can never probe the infinite. You can never fathom God.

The natural man can never know the supernatural God. Wisdom is so superficial, the wisdom of this world. The wisdom of this world is so transitory.

It is so passing away. The wisdom of this world is so limited. And then he goes on to speak of the wisdom of this world that is actually so dangerous and ungodly.

Go on in verse 8 and look. He speaks of the wisdom of this world, as compared to the wisdom of God. And then he says, Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If these smart alecks in this world had known real wisdom, they never would have nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. Here the classic proof of the bankruptcy of human wisdom is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And who crucified Jesus Christ? I want to remind you that Jesus Christ was crucified by the best minds of his day. It was not the rabble. It was the Jewish and Roman intelligentsia that nailed Jesus Christ up to the cross.

And I want to tell you something else. They did not do it casually. They did it carefully after they applied their minds to it.

Not a few of them, but many of them. And the Bible says they took counsel together. That is, they pooled their so-called wisdom and they crucified the Lord of glory. Well, why is all of this? Why is human wisdom so superficial? Why is human wisdom so transitory? Why is human wisdom so limited?

Why is human wisdom so dangerous? And why does a natural man, a man without Christ, why does he have such a difficulty understanding the things of God? Well, look in verse 9. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now, what Paul is saying is the reason these people don't know God is they don't have the proper equipment. They're trying to understand things with their eyes and with their ears and with their heart.

And you can't do it. I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now, when he talks about your eyes and your ears, he's talking about object of knowledge, things that you can read and see and hear.

And when he talks about your heart, he's talking about subject to feeling. And what he's saying here, whether it be object to fact or subject to feeling, you will never know God that way. Now, you may know Greek, but you won't know God. You may know Hebrew, but you will not know him.

Why? Because you don't have the ability to know him if you're a natural man. Look in verse 14 of this same chapter. He says here, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned or understood. Now, what does he mean by natural man?

The word natural is a translation of the Greek word sukikos, or soulish man. You see, when God made man, when God created man, God created man to begin with body, soul, and spirit. With his body, he has physical life and knows the physical world. With his soul, he has psychological life and knows the psychological world. His soul is his mind, emotions, and his will. And then he has a spirit, and with his spirit, he knows the spiritual world. With his body, he knows the world beneath him. With his soul, he knows the world around him. With his spirit, he knows the world above him.

Now, that's the way Adam was created. He was body, soul, and spirit. But when Adam sinned against God, Adam died. But how did he die? He did not die in his body. He did not die in his soul. He died in his spirit. His death was a spiritual death.

God said, in the day that you eat, you will surely die. Well, he ate and he died, but he continued to exist. But he was spiritually dead. That is, the spirit in him shriveled up. And now, rather than being a spiritual man, Adam became a natural man.

That's the same word that's used here in verse 14. He became a soulish man. And rather than knowing God through the spirit, he now has his soul as the organ of knowledge. His soul deals with what his eye can see. His soul deals with what his ear can hear.

His soul deals with what his heart can feel. And he lives by mind, emotion, and will, but he doesn't know God. Because, you see, it is the spirit that is the organ of spiritual knowledge. And you can only know God through the spirit. You can never figure God out.

You can never come to God intellectually and understand God. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. That is, when God wants to speak to you, when God wants to illumine you, when God wants to teach you, he is going to teach you in the spirit. And God's spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now, that doesn't mean that God bypasses your mind.

It doesn't mean that you have to crucify your intellect. But it means that you know God in your spirit, and your mind only analyzes, codifies, organizes, expostulates, expresses what you know down deep in your spirit. Now, if you're a natural man and never have been born again, and a natural man is a man who's only had one birth, he is born into the natural world. He is bound by the material world. He's only had one birth, and he can never, ever know the things of the spirit of God until he has a second birth. Look at it again.

The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God. Now, for example, if you were to come into a room and there's some music going on in that room, but you're deaf, and I say to you, smell that music. Well, some music, I think you could do that. But smell that music.

You say that's impossible. Now, that wouldn't mean that there was anything wrong with your nose. It just would mean that the nose is the wrong organ for perceiving music. You don't smell music.

You hear music. Now, there may be nothing wrong with your mind, your emotion, and your will, but that is the wrong organ for knowing God. The soul, you do not know God primarily with your soul. You know God primarily with your spirit, as we're going to see.

It is the spirit that is the organ of spiritual knowledge. The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. And so we see the deficiency of human wisdom. Human wisdom is so superficial. Human wisdom is so transitory. Human wisdom is so limited.

Human wisdom is so dangerous. You cannot know God through human wisdom. Now, let's just turn it over and tell you how you can know God. And remember, to know God, to know God is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to be blessed. And I want you to know God, not to know about God, not to know Him with your mind, your emotion, and your will, but to know Him with your spirit. That will affect your mind and your emotion and your will.

All right. Now, God has done three mighty acts that you might know Him. There are three things that God has done, and because God has done these things, you can know God. The first of these mighty acts is what we call revelation.

God simply reveals Himself. Now, we left off in verses 9, and let's pick up verse 9 and 10. Let's go back and read it again, verse 9. But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Now, remember, not by object of facts or by subject of feeling are you going to know God, but now notice verse 10.

Notice the word but, but. That is in contradistinction to what you perceive with your eyes, your ears, and your emotion. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. Now, the first thing that God has done that you might know Him is revelation, revelation. God reveals Himself.

The only way that you can know God is for God to disclose Himself to you. I want to tell you again, dear friend, that you can never take your mind and unpick the divine mysteries. The finite can never know the infinite. The natural can never know the supernatural until the infinite reveals himself to the finite and the supernatural reveals himself to us supernaturally. And so this is what we call supernatural revelation.

Look at it again. For God hath revealed them unto us, verse 10, by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now he's talking here about the Holy Spirit. Now we, verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might freely know the things given to us of God. That is, it takes the Holy Spirit revealing truth to you in order for you to really know that truth. Now, I've told you before, I can preach truth, but only the Holy Spirit of God can impart truth. You might want to jot these Scriptures down. John 3 and verse 27, John the Baptist said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Well, that is a phenomenal statement. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.

How that ought to cause us to lay our intellectual pride in the dust. You're never going to pry truth out of the Word of God. If God doesn't give it to you, you will not have it.

A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Let me give you again 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. Paul said, Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. Well, I think we would all agree to that, but most of us perhaps would not realize the rest of that statement, and no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. What he means is this, that no man can have Christ as Lord in his life, can know Jesus Christ as Lord so as to make a proper confession of faith that Christ is Lord until the Spirit of God gives him that.

No man can do it. No man can receive anything except it be given him from heaven. No man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. That's the reason the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 5, For our gospel came not in word only, but in demonstration of power and in the Holy Ghost. Now, what has God done that we might know Him? The first mighty act of God is what I call revelation. God supernaturally reveals Himself to us. Revelation is the communication of God's truth to man by God Himself. Now, the second thing, the second thing that God has done, not only has God given us supernatural revelation, but God has also given us supernatural inspiration. Continue to read now in verses 12 and following. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now, when Paul uses the word we, he's talking here about the Apostles, and he's saying that we have received this message.

And now he says we give you this message. Now, what is the difference between revelation and inspiration? Revelation is God disclosing Himself. Inspiration is those taking what God has given and recording it in such a way that it is absolutely without error. It is the very Word of God. Notice in verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teaches. That is, the Holy Ghost gave the words.

We believe in verbal inspiration. And coming up tomorrow on Love Worth Finding, you'll hear part two of this important message. But today, maybe you have questions about who Jesus is or what He means to you or how to start a relationship with God through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at our website.

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