The S.O.S. Lesson Materials
 Knowing God

INTRODUCTION
Matt 15:8-9 "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men”. It is very easy for an average Filipino to say he knows God. However, if you check his claim with the Bible truths, one can easily see defects in his concept of who God really is.

True knowledge is a life-changing experience. No one can truly know God without his life being affected by the nature and charac­teristics of God. (TIT 1:16) They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. (Illustration: The Philippines branded as the only Christian nation in Asia, yet the general picture of the Filipino morality and conduct is far from the Christian ideal).

WHAT IS GOD LIKE
God is far too great for us to fully understand. The Bible asks: (JOB 11:7) "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? Below are some truths about God which would lead us to understand more about Him.

  1. GOD IS THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING
    1. The belief that God is Creator is foundational in knowing God, HEB 11:3.
      QUESTION: What is the resultant life of one who denies the Creator-God. Creation points to a Creator-God.
    2. (NEH 9:6) You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
    3. (PSA 139:13) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

  2. GOD IS ALL-POWERFUL
    1. (1CH 29:11) Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
    2. (ISA 66:1) This is what the Lord says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting-place be?
    3. (EPH 3:20) Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

  3. GOD IS ALL-KNOWING
    1. (HEB 4:13) Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
    2. (1JO 3:20) For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

  4. GOD IS HOLY
    1. The perfect holiness of God speaks of absolute purity. He cannot sin nor tolerate sin. Holiness is His inward character, not something He got from the outside. He is perfectly holy in all He thinks, says and does.
      (1SA 2:2) "There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
    2. (LEV 19:2) `Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

  5. GOD IS A SPIRIT
    As a spirit being, God is immaterial, does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39), and He is invisible (Col. 1:15). That is why God forbade Israel to make any visible image or any similitude of Himself.

HOW CAN WE KNOW GOD
God is a person we can know. The Bible shows us that God is one who reveals Himself to His creation. God creating man with mental and spiritual faculties indicates God's intention for man to know Him. However, since the fall, these faculties have been dulled and man cannot by himself discover God. Thus, God in his grace and love has taken the initiative by giving progres­sive revelation of Himself. These efforts of God consummate in the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 1:1-3).

REVELATION - refers to God unveiling Himself to man. The following are the revelations of God of Himself to man:

  1. REVELATION OF GOD THROUGH NATURE
    1. (PSA 19:1) The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
    2. (ROM 1:20) For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

  2. REVELATION OF GOD THROUGH CONSCIENCE
    1. Conscience is an awareness of right and wrong, with the compulsion to do right - which God placed in man when, He created him.
    2. It is an inherent law within man that suggests the existence of a supreme lawgiver to whom man is also accountable.
    3. Conscience then is a revelation of God, as the Ultimate Law-Giver (Rom.2:14-15). However, because of sin, man's conscience has been corrupted and hence not sufficient to reveal God.

  3. REVELATION OF GOD IN SCRIPTURE
    1. The Bible is the written revelation of God. The study of the Scripture has for its goal knowing God.
    2. (JOH 5:39) You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.

  4. REVELATION OF GOD IN CHRIST
    1. The revelation of God in nature and conscience are insufficient in that they reveal only certain attributes of God, and not His person.
    2. This need for a personal revelation of God is met in Jesus Christ. Christ is the sum total of the revelation of God including His will, nature, person and character. To look at Christ is to look at God for Christ is the expressed image of God in human form. (COL 1:15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
    3. (JOH 1:18) No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. (NIV)
    4. (HEB 1:1-3) In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. Christ is the ultimate revelation of God because he is God.

    5. CHALLENGE: The purpose of all the revelation of God is that man may come to know Him in a personal and experiential way - a kind of knowing God that changes a sinner.