979. To Know God is to Love God

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina today on the wood platform work, including a study series called loving God today speaker is Dr. Steven Hankins, a seminary professor at Bob Jones University.

When people know someone well there well appointed with typically a person of influence they will kind of jump at the opportunity to tell you about that.

I remember friend of mine that was on vacation at Hilton Head once and that he just was walking on the beach and lo and behold the president of the United States was walking up the beach. This is President Clinton and that he did become a personal friend of President Clinton's with the very fact that he ran into him and Clint stopped and talked to him was something he wanted to tell me about that was quite an event for him to share that with Matt, another friend whose uncle was had the distinction of being the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, and since it was his uncle.

When we were eating dinner together. That became a dominant part of the conversation because he was related to the first Jewish Supreme Court justice that out and I listens attentively and thought that was in on interesting fact was far more interesting to him that was timidity, but it was interesting nonetheless people we know and people we love our people were not ashamed to talk about. I've spent a good bit of time over the last several months in and out some of your where this thank you for praying.

I think last week in chapel about my dad. I know my father well my dad's not a famous man.

I don't think anybody in the room knows my father but me of course. And in my eyes and my eyes by virtue of my knowledge of him in our relationship. He's a great man when he was just a boy, he endured the difficulty of the family circumstance with an alcoholic father who later abandoned that alcohol. My grandfather was a wonderful man to me, but all my dad's green appears, he tolerated that and in some cases very difficult circumstances and circumstances of real personal shame at age 17. My dad convinced my grandmother to let them enlist in the military service in the Coast Guard during the second world war in a new service set out in the Atlantic.

He got the money at one point almost died in the service came back I went to college, married his sweetheart.

My mother and 67 years later there are still married there hanging in there other 90 years old and I'm fortunate to have both of them still here with me.

My father all his life is been a careful frugal good man, gracious father to me attentive to my concern supportive incredibly of of all that I've done throughout my life. You know what that does to you and your response to a person for me to know my father is to love my father. It causes me to love him. You know your God, your father and you therefore love him. This is the greatest aim of ministry and the greatest achievement really of life. I like to take you to a passage in Jeremiah chapter 9 and its two verses.

Jeremiah was in a sense, literally chronologically, the last great profit to Judah before their exile and Babylon. They were in trouble. They were tremendously distracted and evil in their international life in their culture individually. People had turned from God and actually go to verse 17, all the way through verse 26.

In this particular passage. This passage indicates for us the tremendous sin and at the risk of maybe underscoring this so with with bold underscoring and take a little time. I want to read this in the interest of context for 17 thus set the Lord of hosts, considering he and call for the morning women that they may come and send for cutting women that they may come and let them make haste and take up a whaling for us, that our eyes may run down with tears in her eyelids gush out with waters for voice of whaling is heard out of Zion.

How are we spoiled. We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land because our dwellings have cast us out yet here the word of the Lord, all you women and let your ear receive the word of his mouth and teacher daughters whaling and everyone his neighbor, lamentation for death is come up into our Windows and is entered into our palaces to cut off the children from without. Of the young man from the streets speak thus says the Lord, even the carcasses of men shall fall is done upon the open field and as a handful after the harvest men and none shall gather them assess the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom made about the mighty man in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches but he that glorious glory in this, that he understand if the knowing me that I am the Lord, which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth for these things I delight, set the Lord. Behold, the days come set the Lord when I will punish all them which are which are circumcised with the uncircumcised Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and my been all that are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness for all these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. 23 and 24 thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches but he that glorious glory in this, that he understand that the know of me that I am the Lord, which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, righteousness in the earth for these things I delight, set the Lord and I like to turn your attention. Also, please now to first Corinthians, to get full biblical context here and what I'm going to stress with you for a few moments this morning took first Corinthians chapter 1 the end of the chapter remarkable versus verse 26 for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called the gods chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things which are despised of God chosen, yeah, and things which are not to bring to not things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written, he that glorious let him glory in the Lord and this is going from Jeremiah chapter 9 and who we have in Jeremiah chapter 9 is the great I am the Lord Jesus Christ and we have in first Corinthians 1 is the great I am the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to be gloried in to be known and to be loved, to know him is to love him. Now back to Jeremiah 9 and I want to focus our attention in the remaining moments we have on this particular section at 23 and 24 so you see the powerful summation we have your you know, sometimes men and women.

There are sections in the Bible that are like an intense beam of light. If you've driven it around the front of the campus. He recently you see the crash and there is this beam of light that shooting up into the sky and many passages in the Bible the word being the lap of the light for us are like that. They tend at times to condense and intensify and focus us concerning truth.

I think Jeremiah 923 24 is one of those divinely created intense beams of light about being proud of and boasting about finding our self worth in our diet and our identity really as human beings and knowing God and therefore loving God above all else and so there's this magnificent summation that happens and it begins with a surrogate series of warnings about great distractions. The great distractions of human achievement like you look for just a moment. These keep in mind that Judah is on the precipice of just of exile terrible destruction. It's a sober context and the Lord is coming in saying look.

Be careful about what you focus on is the most important thing in life from which you drive your sense of self-worth.

These achievements under Proverbs 29, 23, where Solomon set a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit of Matthew 723 that warns that out of the heart comes pride that defiles and one of those achievements in which human beings typically the major achievements that cause their hearts to be distracted and focus away from knowing God while he begins with, let not the wise glory in his wisdom. This really is a reference to intellectual achievement. Wisdom is the acquisition of knowledge and the skillful use of it and call it not Paul. The Jeremiah in this case and Paul letter later in first Corinthians warns about the draw of this for human beings and finding their self identity. There worth and intellectual content acquisition and achievement is a will is what is a seminary for the University for this is what we're engaged in and what we do, yes, but there is a serious warning in every age and every culture.

This is always been a great threat and distraction, even for the people of God and Israel and Judah were a great model for us individually as believers is first Corinthians 10 tells us that all that happened. Israel is intended for our example, they were distracted and proud and boasting over there intellectual attainments.

They gained their solid sense of self-worth from the wrong thing. They were really brilliant and really accumulated knowledge and understanding and while we urge you. We encourage you when we commend you for the accumulation of knowledge that you're engaged in this always has to be subordinated is a stewardship in life and kept in subjection to the great thing in which we should glory.

There's also another distractor in the human achievement and is generalized here. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. The Scripture say in this really has the idea of ability just capacity of an unusual nature in some way. It's moving away from strictly the intellectual attainment of knowledge and the idea of just being able to do things in a remarkable fashion and no endurance in work and stability in a dark sheer strength in performance, astounding coordination athletically and ability to perform in a way no one else can or artistically or musically, or communicatively you know I'm looking at men and women. I know here who are amazingly gifted and in many ways you're called to the ministry, but I know many of you, and you have other remarkable capacities and abilities.

Isn't it natural and isn't it human for us to really take a certain sense of self-worth and identity and pride in those abilities. Those capacities, we know were all inclined to this in the Lord is graciously warning us about this that this isn't the primary thing we don't denigrate the giftedness that God has granted us were thankful for it but we are cautious about it that it not exalt our spirit and it not distract us. Isn't it interesting in that first Corinthians 126 and 27 passage that Paul wrote got the chosen many mighty a reference and allusion to this passage got chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and I don't think it means I gotta show good chosen the weak things necessarily in the sense that he doesn't choose people who have gifts and abilities because he clearly doesn't do that but for the person who is humble in spirit who is low in his own estimation who really does understand his human weakness in spite of whatever giftedness he may possess. That's the man that's the woman who God looks to. And God favors with his unusual grace and of all people be writing this in the first Corinthians in that passage that eludes this Jeremiah 9 passage. It was all this is not exactly a manner lack the ability in many many ways and yet here Paul in the way he says he glories in his infirmities he glories in his weaknesses he glories in his lack of strength. What happened to that guy. He got a clear view and a clear understanding of what he really was as a human being a weak earthen vessel. A man caring about in his body. This this nature of sin. And this desperate need for help in strengthening of any warns. Also, not only about being distracted away from them prideful about intellectual and physical ability or attainment but about wealth, about riches ministering to people who have remarkable ability to accumulate to themselves wealth. Many students are training in areas in medicine, science, engineering, other fields were getting ready for that and they're going to head out into American culture, life and and even you can be seduced by the desire to accumulate to your self well in other ways other directly, then ministry activity and gain pride in that.

Maybe you come from a wealthy family baby, you're going to be the inheritor of some great wealth and it's gonna put you in a very unusual position in life again. Jeremiah warns, and Jesus warned in Luke 1613 when he said no man can serve two masters. He will love the one and hate the other. A man cannot serve God and wealth. Isn't it a great mercy of God, that in all the hundreds of commandments. Hundreds of emphases in the Bible the complexity of the Scriptures and 66 volumes that we have this focusing of warnings about what in human thinking tends to elevate the human spirit inflate it and distracted from really pursuing the knowledge of God and the love of God. As a result of that knowledge well. Jeremiah shifts gears and he says now I've warned you about what can inflate your spirit and distract you and about what you should not be proud and then he turns her attention to the words of the Lord himself. After these warnings followed him that Gloria first 24 in this study understand that the know with me that I am the Lord, which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, righteousness in the earth for these things I delight, Seth. The Lord will find our worth in knowing God and therefore loving him in a prioritized way. There's a lot to know about God's there's more than a lifetime's worth of things to know about God. Again the mercy of God. Men and women think about how merciful God is God takes our small thinking our small minds. He demonstrates himself in magnificent in a revelation. That's incredibly complex, exposing us to a character in a person himself, which in many ways is incomprehensible, and he says let me help you with this, let me help you with this cure is our great God, condescending to our need to our inabilities to comprehend and in our inabilities really even to properly prioritize to keep things in order and he says I want to help you acquire this knowledge and we have to ask ourselves the question, how do we acquire this knowledge when we acquire it by exposure to this vast composite of revelation which God in his great mercy has given us to give us light we acquire it by humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God who opens our eyes and gives us illumination for Sprint first Corinthians chapter 2 teaches us that we may understand the riches that have been granted to us by God as he reveals those things to us through his Spirit, the deep things of God. First Corinthians 2 verse nine teaches and 10 and then by the accumulation of own experience as it intersects with the revelation of God, the light comes on for us as we come to understand God and his ways more fully as the word becomes our bread daily. Matthew chapter 4 that we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. As we see as Jesus said in John 663. The words that I given to you. They are spirit and they are life as a writer to the Hebrews taught in Hebrews 412 the word of God is alive and powerful, and sharper than a two edge sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints in the morrow and the soul. The spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. We are open and naked before him, with whom we have to do, he knows us and he's our high priest who understands our infirmities and says, to me, I'll give you grace I'll give you mercy. I will give you light that you can know me that you can understand me what mercy, what grace remarked God, that in our darkness in our human infirmity.

God says I will speak light into your soul and understanding of who I am and what is that knowledge he would have us focus on what are those qualities that were to focus on while there three major attributes that are presented here. Is that simplicity that magnificent organization for you.

Want understanding you want to know. And isn't it interesting that their two terms couple together there in Hebrew about no understanding and knowing and it's it's difficult to draw a great deal of distinction between those words, there is the sense of perception in that first term. Understanding the knowing may carry. Also, the idea of experience, but it's just I think a great emphasis the comprehensiveness is really give yourself to this and every way possible to understand, to know as you contemplate this is the understanding and you think how an act, and in all your experiences in life you seek to know the mind and heart of God. And what about indeed. Should you want to know what about him.

Should you want to perceive his lovingkindness is has said you've heard that thought about inner seminary classes. This is that loyal, merciful kindness use the word faithfulness. If you want to hear as the Lord is compassionate.

He has great petty and is constantly condescending, compassionately forgiving and cleansing comforting, restoring again and again and again and again. He never gives up on you are verse 24, one says the righteous man falls seven times and rise above. Again, why because we have a God of Hesse.

That's why and then we sneezed understand God's judgment spot is justice. His ability to make just the right decision about what is what is good and evil, and to command the one and I hate the other to elevate the one and judge the other. This is our God, a God who calls right right and calls evil people and we can trust him to be fair, to be fair, there is no evil which will go on rectified. There is evil now the wrath of God is being revealed even now against all suppression of the truth. Romans chapter 1 verse 18, there will be evil then at the great white throne is the small and the great stand before him.

That will be corrected that will be rectified that will be judged because he's a God of justice than theirs is righteousness is his sense of what is always right, ethically, morally, legally and in relationship to him and his standards. We enjoy righteousness imputed to us. We are justified by faith. Romans 51 and we canna do experience God's righteousness through sanctification as we trust in the working the spirit of us and we conform to the laws of God. Righteousness and that is an ever increasing and abounding righteousness. These are communicable attributes of God. These are things that can be true of us and should be drove us a minimum, the passage ends this way because it says we are to be those who demonstrate our knowledge of God for his glory were to model would you know snow versus as I am the Lord that exercises has had Mischa Miss spot, Seneca. These qualities of lovingkindness, justice and righteousness and how is it that God does that many women primarily sometimes directly through circumstance. Of course, but he does it through his people. He exercises these things through his people as they are conformed to his image and we can find great joy and rejoicing as we exercise these qualities and he has pleasure and delight in us because we demonstrate these qualities in the unit. For in these things I delight, the Lord says I hear an echo of these terms, the these words in Philippians 21.

Paul says, for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure, lovingkindness and justice and righteousness showing God magnifying God through our good works. Matthew 516 before other people to know God is to love God and reach the greatest achievement in ministry, as we demonstrate what it is of God. We know and what it is of God that we love for his glory of anywise.

Not many mighty, not many rich got a chosen data set you apart. God said you be my fences through Christ who is your wisdom and your righteousness and your sanctification and your redemption and find your boasting in him and him alone as he works these qualities in you, for God's glory, you've been listening to a message preached at Bob Jones University by seminary professor Dr. Steven Hankins, which was the final message in our series. Loving God. Join us again tomorrow for another chapel message on The Daily Platform