The God of Grace
Who is God? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewOur pursuit of knowing who God is will lead us to have a relationship with the God of Grace
Notes
Transcript
In recent conversations and other media posts I have noted a shift occurring it is a people who seem to think God is actually the bad guy in the Hx of creation.
It is no longer God does not exist but rather that God is real and he created humanity to satiate a penchant need to rule over something.
The Devil rebelled to bring to humanity salvation after all why would God deny humanity access to knowledge.
You see… the serpent actually did what was good in giving humanity the key to making them masters of their own destiny.
Besides what kind of a loving God would condemn you to hell…NVM Matt 25:41 that states Hell is made for the devil and his angels.
When we fail to know who the real God is and only see Him at a distance all we will come to know is a distorted version of who He is. In this we fall for whatever platitude sounds best…even when it denies the very essence of who God is.
What we have to come to terms with is in His Grace God will do whatever it takes to reveal Himself to you that you would not perish. What He longs for is to have humanity to move from knowing about him to knowing Him
Our pursuit of knowing who God is will lead us to have a relationship with the God of Grace
Our pursuit of knowing who God is will lead us to have a relationship with the God of Grace
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
For everyone will be salted with fire.
The reference is related to the rebellion spoken about in Isaiah.
There is such a thing as our eyes being led astray to believing in a god that will lead us to a rebellion against Him
here we carve an image of God of creation and begin to worship a God we know about but do not know
here we fall to believing far off philosophical thoughts of who God is as opposed to believing in the One true God
The severity of Gehenna is made real with a worm that is of their own.
Maggot real or conscience it is now theirs
Shaking and shaping that must take place to both believer and unbeliever
Salted with fire
just because their is a storm is not in itself a bad thing
indicator that in the fire we are being purified, we are being cleansed, we are being brought to an awareness of a God we have not known (Yes in the fire we are going to encounter a facet of God He desires us to know)
The encounters in the fire regardless produce a greater understanding of who God is… “Salt is Good”
Joban Encounter
Joban Encounter
Known to many as the righteous sufferer
Faulty theology leads us to believe God is playing a sick twisted game
Opening tells us he
Blameless (not perfect)
Upright (stretched; made straight)
Feared God
Avoided not just bad but things of small worth
simply stated Job does not entangle himself with the things that are poorly made or have no worth (things of the world around him
The sons of God had gathered in what appears as a judgment scene and along with them is Satan
Was Satan looking for someone to test? Why then would God offer up someone He considered upright?
And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
God appears to serve up Job for no apparent reason.
These spaces we may ask what did I do? Why me? I do… I give… I I I
Satan recognizes the favor and brings to surface just how much Job has been shielded from
Twice Satan makes a similar response
Read on you will find God is up to something
He has likely been trying to get Job’s attention
More than a righteous sufferer Job’s journey is about to take him right through a “salting of fire”
This will cause him to either walk away from his faith or the encounter will help him to see who God is.
Broken Theology
Broken Theology
His friends arrive and sit with him in the agony initially
7 days and 7 nights later he opens his mouth… while initially he did sin with his mouth listen to what he has to say…
Desires to die… desires to check out… “ why would God not take me out”
Appeal to witches and sorcerers
Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
His theology no longer fits… He knows so much about God but right now none of that is working…
Eliphaz
Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
Your way of thinking about God has helped so many
Now its reached your house will you change what you believe to be true of the Lord?
BTW according to our theology when has someone blameless ever perished?
God is just being mean to me for no apparent reason
For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
I am innocent…I am a good person…
Struggling to keep God contained into the box I made for him
Who is God when He no longer fits your theology?
Holding Fast God’s Nature
Holding Fast God’s Nature
I do not have the answer my theology has failed who do I know God to be? Where can I place my hope?
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
My redeemer lives… I will see God face to face…
He is not denying the existence… he knows he exists and is real…he is simply coming to terms with not really knowing who He is
This should be our heart posture “I will see for myself” “I need to know for myself” The who of God matters to me more than what He can do for me.
The years came and went for Job… we are unsure of just how long Job endured this condition though some have assumed it to been 42 months of suffering…
The God Encounter
The God Encounter
It is not asking God questions or challenging God that is the issue
In the encounter we need to come expecting a response
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
So much for Job not sinning his words were causing others to stumble
Dress for Action…now I will question you…
77 questions of which Job cannot answer 0 of them
Knowledge Without Relationship
Knowledge Without Relationship
Where were you when I laid the foundation? Where is the way to the dwelling of Light?
Job has so much knowledge of who God is, or what He is supposed to be like…just how much did he know
You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
The entirety of his complaint is undone in this space… You should know me but you don’t you have been here since the foundation of the earth…Job you watched me do this.
Sudden Realization
Sudden Realization
Then Job answered the Lord and said:
“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job now feels small and unable to answer
In the expectation of the answer one may realize just how much we had not yet encountered God in a relationship
In the subsequent response Job finally realizes just that he knows so much about God but doesn't know Him
This is where humility must set in
Lord I Want to Know you not just know about you
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
The entire encounter is about the ultimate grace God has in not wanting to lose Job but to save him from himself.
Theology was not going to save him even knowledge of God was not enough.
In our pursuit to know God we must build a relationship with Him that we would have an encounter with the God of grace.