Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Knowing and Being Known" (Chapter 3)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer"Knowing and Being Known" (Chapter 3)
To Know God
What were we made for?
What should be our aim in life?
What is the “eternal life” that Jesus gives?
What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and contentment than anything else?
What, of all the states God ever sees man in, gives God most pleasure?
What “Knowing God” Involves
More complex than “knowing” another person.Abstract (like a language)
Concrete but inanimate
Living thing
Person
Knowing God Involves:
Listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself.
Noting God’s nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it.
Accepting his invitations and doing what he commands.
Recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into his divine fellowship.
Knowing Jesus
Jesus, “known” by the disciples.
Known by us now as Christians:
Spiritually not bodily.
Knows the full NT picture of Jesus.
Jesus “speaks” through the written Word.
Still a relationship of personal discipleship.
A Personal Matter
Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing.
Knowing God is a matter of personal involvement.
Knowing God is a matter of grace.
Being Known
What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - “The People Who Know Their God” (Chapter 2)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The People Who Know Their God” (Chapter 2)
“I’ve Known God”
⦁ Can we say without hesitation that we “know God”?⦁ Because we know God, do we have a “joy unspeakable and full of glory”?⦁ Because we know God, can we count life’s disappointments as gains and not as losses or “might-have-beens”?
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:7–11, NIV)
Knowing vs. Knowing About
1. One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him.2. One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.
Evidence of Knowing God
1. Those who know God have great energy for God.
“…the people who know their God will display strength and take action.” (Daniel 11:32, NASB)
⦁ In standing for God against the world⦁ In effectual, fervent prayer
2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God.
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.” (Daniel 2:20–22, NIV)
3. Those who know God show great boldness for God.
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13, NIV)
4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.
“There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death and on forever.” –J. I. Packer
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1, NIV)
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1, NIV)
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NIV)
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, NIV)
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, NIV)
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21, NIV)
First Steps
⦁ First, we must recognize how much we lack knowledge of God.⦁ Second, we must seek the Savior.

Knowing God - Intro and Chapter 1: "The Study of God"

Knowing God by J. I. PackerIntroduction & Chapter 1: "The Study of God"
Introduction
“Balconeers” & “Travelers”
“Balconeers” are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only.
“Travelers” face problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical—problems of the “which-way-to-go” and “how-to-make-it” type.
Knowing God is a book for “travelers.”
Ignorance of God
“The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God—ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him—lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today. Two unhappy trends seem to have produced this state of affairs.”
Two Trends:
Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit: the spirit, that is, that spawns great thoughts of man and leaves room for only small thoughts of God.
Christian minds have been confused by the modern skepticism.
Chapter 1: "The Study of God"
“The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.” –Charles Spurgeon
“I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.” –Charles Spurgeon
Who Needs Theology?
“Theology is boring, and we can live practically without it.”
Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.
We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.
Heading into the Storm
In a God-denying world, the study of God is like setting out into a storm.
If we postpone our journey till the storm dies down, we may never get started at all. 
Ignore the skeptics.
“Anyone who is actually following a recognized road will not be too worried if he hears nontravelers telling each other that no such road exists.”
5 Foundational Truths
God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.
God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.
God is Savior, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as his children and to bless them accordingly.
God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.
Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God’s Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.
The Basic Themes
The Godhead of God
The Powers of God
The Perfections of God
What Is God?
“God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” —Westminster Shorter Catechism
Knowledge Applied
What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it?
If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited.“There can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard.”“Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are…We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.”
Meditating on the Truth
How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God?
We turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God. “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.”
Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. 
Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us…