How You Can Know God Personally

From the Love Word Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Word Finding. Today, Adrian Rogers is in a message, How Can You Know God Personally? And Kerry, this is part of a series we're in during September, The Bible, The Book of the Ages.

What a great title. And I'll say this, you know, can we have a personal relationship with Almighty God? The answer to that is absolutely yes. We need to know that we can know the God of creation personally and intimately. The Bible tells us in Psalm 19 very clearly that the heavens declare God's greatness.

The vastness of the universe, along with its small intricacies, they all demonstrate His power. Well, what about this? That we were created to bring God glory. And so that, to me, says That's our job description. That's our job description, right?

Are we fulfilling our job description? But to know Him more and the power of His resurrection. Kerry, Adrian Rogers says, There's no laws of nature. They are God's laws that nature obeys. Science only discovers what God has already put there.

That's exactly right. He also said, Every sentence, every jot, every tittle, every syllable is put in Scripture by the mind and purpose of God. When we talk about getting assurance, there's nothing greater than having God's Word. And that's what we're finding this about, getting the Word of God in people's hearts. Yeah, and I think where the Word of God teams up with the Spirit of God, then we have transformation. And that's where that personal relationship comes to play, right? If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Kerry, that is exactly right. When we hand our control over to the Holy Spirit, He brings us into that communion with the Father. And this is the only way we can know Christ personally and intimately. But it is available to us, as you said, through faith. Through faith.

For by grace are you saved through faith. We can't work. We can't buy it.

We can't produce it. We have to receive it by faith. Well, we always enjoy hearing from our love. We're finding listeners. And I believe you have a listener who's recently written to us.

Absolutely, from Texas. It says, I've been listening to Adrian Rogers for many months now. I can only imagine the souls he has won and continues to win for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I will forever be thankful for his radio ministry. Well, that's just a stamp of approval.

I love these, right? And there's hundreds of these that we that we receive. And that is affirmation to my heart to say that we're doing exactly what God has called us to do. Well, getting the truth of God's Word is what we are called to do. And we have a project that we've been working on, Excited That September, Nothing But the Truth, a DVD that's available through the LWF online store.

We've been working on this several years into the process. But what is truth? What is absolute truth, right? We know it to be the Word of God. And so we've got this great documentary film that showcases the teaching and preaching of Adrian Rogers. But also, in addition to that, we have Dave Ramsey and Dr. Tony Evans and Lee Strobel, Dr. Robert Jeffers, and many more who are talking about what is truth in your marriage? What is truth in your workplace?

What is truth to the unbeliever? We need this today. It's a great tool. Use it for home Bible studies. Use it in the neighborhood.

Use it at church. But go to LWF.org and get this project and put it to practice. Kerry, I think it's also worth noting that a young man who grew up in the ministry of Adrian Rogers, John Sanders, this project has been on his heart. And this is something that he felt like there was a need, especially in the day we're living in right now, to get nothing but the truth out. John Sanders, LLC, grew up under the teaching and preaching of Adrian Rogers.

This is a labor of love. I'm telling you, it will bless your heart, but it will be also a discipleship tool that you can use. Well with today's message, how you can know God personally, here's Adrian Rogers. I want to tell you today how you can know God personally.

You don't have to guess about it. You can know Him personally. And that's so very important. You see, because to know Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him. And to obey Him is to be blessed. Now how can you know God? Well, the 19th Psalm gives us three ways in which God speaks to us.

And you don't have to guess about it. There can be no stutter, no stammer, no apology, no equivocation. You can know God personally, intimately, assuredly. You can say, I know that my Redeemer liveth.

Now here are the three things. Here's the three ways that God speaks to you. First of all, there is the convincing Word of God in the heavens. Look, if you will, here in this Psalm. The heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line is gone out through all the earth. And their words to the end of the world, in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth, that is the sun's going forth, is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there's nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now what he's talking about now is God's Word in the heavens, God's convincing Word in the heavens. As you look up into the starry night, as you see the vast universe that Almighty God has created, that alone is enough to confirm what the Bible has said, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

For out of nothing, nothing comes. What do the heavens declare? First of all, the glory of God.

Look in verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God. Go out some night, some starry night, and just look upward at that candelabra in the sky and think about all of that. You know, we've forgotten to look up, haven't we?

We're so busy running around. Some night, find a clear night and just go out and look up there and see what God has made and the heavens declare the glory of God. Amen? You're going to see God's glory. And when you see God's glory, you're going to see God's greatness. Look again in this Psalm, if you will, and the firmament showeth as handiwork.

Once you see the glory, you say, who did that? God did that. That is God's handiwork. What great power is demonstrated in creation. You know, man can't create anything. No man has ever created one thing. We talk about human beings with creativity. All you can do is rearrange what God has already created. God created in one great act everything.

People looking for the big bang, they better be trying to find out who is behind the whole thing. Light travels. I'm always impressed with the speed of light. 186,282 miles per second.

Now, how fast is that? Well, if you were going to hijack a light beam and go to the moon, you're at the moon. Two seconds, you're at the moon. But you have to travel at the speed of light four and one half years to get to the nearest star and, folks, to travel on out to the rim of our known universe. You would travel for 10 billion years to the moon in two seconds.

Ten billion years. And you still have not reached the edge of this vast universe. Who made all of that?

I want to tell you that God made it. But if you think not only about the vastness of this world, but think about the intricacies of this world. There's so many cells in the human body, three billion of them in your body. Some of us have more than others, but let's take an average person. Three billion of these cells.

And Paul Doty of Harvard University said that one of these cells, just one, is more complicated than New York City. You think of everything that's happening in a great city, just one of those cells, three billion of them in your body. Whether you look inward, whether you look outward, whether you see the vastness or the minuteness of this creation, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. The heavens declare the glory of God. The heavens declare the greatness of God, and the heavens declare the goodness of God. Look, if you will, again in verse 19, chapter 19, verse 2, day unto day utter speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.

Now, what does that mean? It means there is a fixed order in the universe, night and day, day and night. It is God who daily loadeth us with benefits. And his mercies are new every morning, and this knowledge is universal.

It is everywhere, any body, any place on the face of the earth that can see the sun like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and going across the orbit of the sky to feel the warmth of its rays, to see it fructify and cause the earth to blossom and bloom, and to feel the gentle rain that's a part of the hydraulic action of that sun, and knowing that God makes it to rain upon the just and the unjust, can look up and say, the heavens declare the glory of God, the greatness of God, and the goodness of God, and the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Now, we see God's convincing Word in the heavens, but there's another way that God speaks. Here's the second way, and it's God's converting Word in the hand. I have in my hand the Word of God. Not only is God's Word in the heavens, but God's Word is in my hand. Oh, the marvel of the Word of God.

Oh, the marvel of the Bible. Begin now in verse 7 of this same Psalm, and look, if you will please, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant worn, and in keeping of them is great reward. There's the convincing Word, and there is, my friend, the converting Word, the converting Word that I hold in my hand. Look again, if you will, in verse 7 of this Psalm. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. You cannot know God through creation alone.

You can know about God, but, friend, you have to have the Bible to truly know the heart and mind of God, not only what God has wrought, but what God has written. That's the reason I love the Bible. Think for a moment about the virtue of the Scripture.

First of all, He says in verse 7 that the law of the Lord is perfect, perfect, converting the soul. That's the reason we believe in the inerrancy of the Scripture. Every sentence, every jot, every tittle, every syllable is put there by the mind and purpose of God.

God wrote it. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and a God of truth could never inspire error. J.B. Phillips decided he would make a translation of the Scriptures, put it in more friendly language, more understandable language than the King James version of the Scripture, so he thought.

J.B. Phillips, when he began his work, did not believe in verbal plenary inspiration, that it was all verbally inspired by God. But as he got to dealing with the Scriptures, here's what he said. He was so impressed with the power of the Bible that he said that trying to do this was like trying to rewire a house without pulling the main switch. Just in there, dealing with the power of the Scripture, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Next, the law of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

It's the foundational word. Fred, when you understand the Bible, you have a place to stand. It is sure.

It is certain. You're not walking on eggshells in Jell-O in a wayfaring man, though a fool shall not err therein. Again, look in verse 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The word right has the idea of a straight path. The Bible will never lead you astray. Sometimes I hear people say, oh, it's so hard to be a Christian. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches the way of the transgressor is hard. This verse says that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The saints and heroes of the ages have found joy in the Word of God as I do continually day after day. And then next, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Do you see that in verse 8? When the Bible says it's pure, that means there's no mixture of error in the Bible. There are over 6,000 promises in the Bible, and not one of them of God's pure Word has ever been broken. Look in verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Why does the Bible live on? Because there are no seeds of corruption in the Word of God. It is the incorruptible, indestructible Word of God which lives and abides forever. By the way, the Scriptures are never out of date and never inappropriate. I've been preaching the Scriptures now for well over four decades, and they're as fresh to me as they've ever been. I'm not finding hidden flaws. I'm finding hidden beauties. I love the Word of God more today than I ever have loved the Word of God.

Why? Because the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. But think not only of the virtues of the Scriptures. Think of the value of the Scriptures. Look in verse 10. They're precious. They're more desirable than much fine gold.

I wonder how many people in this building really believe that. To a true believer, the Bible is precious indeed. You cannot love God without loving His Word. I say this, and I know that God is listening, and I'm thinking as I'm saying it. If you were to put all of the treasures in this world on this side and put the Bible over here and say to me, Adrian, you can have one or the other, I wouldn't have to think for a skinny minute. I would choose the Word of God. I mean that with all my heart. No stutter, no stammer. God is listening to me.

I would not have to think about it. Greater than gold is the Word of God. Oh, they are precious indeed. Oh, friend, the Bible is a treasure.

How we ought to love it. And not only are they, is the Scripture precious, it is protective. Look in verse 11. By them is thy servant warned.

You know, protection is far better than cure. There's so many hurts and so many harms and so many failures that you would be kept from if you would only let the Word of God lead you. If you would get up in the morning and bathe yourself in the Word of God, by them is thy servant warned. Let God turn his light on your path and say, walk this way and don't walk that way.

Not only are they precious, not only are they protective, they're profitable. In keeping of them is great reward, verse 11. You cheat yourself of an incredible blessing by not loving the Word of God.

Now, what am I saying? There's God's Word in the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God. There is God's Word in the hand, the Scriptures, the written Word given by inspiration of Almighty God as God speaks to us when we think of the virtues and the values of the Word of God.

But still, that's not enough. There's one more thing that we need, and that is the convicting Word of God in the heart. The Word in the heavens, the Word in the hand, but now the Word in the heart. Look, if you will, now in verse 12 of this same wonderful psalm, who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Now what he's doing now is praying.

He's speaking to God. Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. This is a prayer to the Holy Spirit. You see, we see objectively that God exists. Then we learn from the Word of God, the truths of God's Word, the converting Word of God, but the Holy Spirit of God must make all of this real in our heart.

Look in verse 12. There is the convicting Word of the Spirit. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Do you know why we have moral earthquakes? Because we have secret faults, and we don't know what's beneath the surface. And so he's saying, I can't understand this. You see, your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and so is mine.

So what do we need? We need the Holy Spirit of God to bring conviction of sin. And Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, when he is come, he will convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment. I can get you to nod your head that you've sinned, but you'll never understand the depth of your sin, nor will you ever truly be convicted of that sin. You'll only agree perhaps, but when the Holy Spirit of God speaks to you, that's the convicting Word of God. That's the reason this morning before I walked out here, I got on my knees and prayed. Friend, God wants to speak to your heart today. Don't you let your heart get hard. I've preached to some people it's like pouring water on a rock.

Nothing gets in. You can believe intellectually in God, and you can go to hell with a Bible under your arm. Unless you let my precious friend, the Word of God, come into your heart, there is the convicting Word of the heart. I hear people say, well, if I know my heart, ta-da, ta-da, ta-da.

Come up close, I want to tell you something. You don't know your heart. Only God knows your heart. Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

And a deceitful heart can never discern a deceitful heart. And so in verse 12, there's the convicting Word of the Spirit. And then in verse 12, there's the cleansing Word of the Spirit.

Thank God for that. Listen, cleanse thou me from secret faults. Cleanse thou me from secret faults. You cannot know God personally and intimately if there's sin in your heart and in your life. And how does the Holy Spirit cleanse through the atoning blood? First John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The conviction of the Spirit, the cleansing of the Spirit.

And then that's not enough. Look again in verse 13, there's the control of the Spirit. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous ends. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and then shall I be innocent from the great transgression. You see how the Holy Spirit works? First there's conviction, then there's cleansing, but that's not enough.

Then there's the control. Keep me, Lord, from presumptuous ends. Two things you better always be cognizant of, the possibility of secret faults and the danger of presumptuous ends. It's one thing to slip into sin. It's another thing to stumble into sin. But friend, pray God that he will keep you from presumptuous sin.

That is where you say, I know this is wrong, but you are in grave danger when you do that. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous end. Now this is God's word. This is the convicting word now in the heart where there's the conviction of sin. There's the cleansing of sin. There is the control from sin. There's the control of the Spirit.

And you know what that leads to? This is the bottom line, the communion of the Spirit. Look, if you will, now in verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

That's what it's all about. God put his word in the heavens. You hold his word in your hand. God sends his word into your heart.

Why? That you might walk with him and talk with him and the meditation of your heart would be acceptable in his sight. How sweet, how wonderful that is. God has put his word in the heavens. God has put his word in our hands and God has put his word in our hearts. And if you have questions regarding a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we'd love to offer you an insightful resource on our website. It's our Discover Jesus page. There you'll find answers you may need about your faith. We have a response section as well. You can share how this message or others have made a difference in your life. Just go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab at the top that says Discover Jesus. We can't wait to hear from you today. Do you feel far and distant from God today? Remember by the word of God in the heavens, in our hands and in our hearts, we can know God personally. We hope you'll join us next time for more profound truth, simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.