Eastside Baptist Church, Winfield, Alabama

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Heart of the Gospel" (Chapter 18, Part 1)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“If God Be for Us...” (Part 3)“The Heart of the Gospel” (Chapter 18, Part 1)
Pagan Propitiation
Many gods, none with absolute dominion
Believed to have power over various realms and could make life difficult
Uncertain, capricious, and easily offended
Gods manipulating circumstances to work against you
Mollified or appeased by means of gifts or sacrifice
The bigger the sacrifice the better, including human sacrifice
“Thus pagan religion appears as a callous commercialism, a matter of managing and manipulating your gods by cunning bribery. And within paganism propitiation, the appeasing of celestial bad tempers, takes its place as a regular part of life, one of the many irksome necessities that one cannot get on without.” - J. I. Packer
Biblical Theism
Not many gods, but one Creator God with all dominion
The source of all goodness and truth, detesting evil
No bad temper, no capriciousness, no vanity, not easily provoked
Propitiation?
Propitiation in the Bible
Propitiation in the OT:
Underlies the rituals of sin offering, guilt offering, and the Day of Atonement
God’s anger threatening to destroy the people for their rebellion assuaged by sacrifice
Numbers 16:46–48 NIV46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.
Propitiation in the NT:
The rationale of God’s justification of sinners
Romans 3:21–26 ESV21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The rationale of Incarnation of God the Son
Hebrews 2:17 ESV17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
The heavenly intercessory ministry of our Lord
1 John 2:1–2 ESV1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
The definition and expression of the love of God
1 John 4:8–10 ESV8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
“Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ’s heavenly intercession, the way of salvation—all are to be explained in terms of it...” - J. I. Packer
“And a gospel without propitiation at its heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached. The implications of this must not be evaded.” - J. I. Packer
Not Merely Expiation
Several modern Bible versions do not use the word “propitiation.”
“expiation” (RSV, NAB)
“remedy for defilement” (NEB)
“atoning sacrifice” (NIV, CSB, NET, NRSV)
“sacrifice that atones” (NLT)
“God’s way of dealing with” (CEB)
“What is the difference? The difference is that expiation means only half of what propitiation means. Expiation is an action that has sin as its object; it denotes the covering, putting away or rubbing out of sin so that it no longer constitutes a barrier to friendly fellowship between man and God. Propitiation, however, in the Bible, denotes all that expiation means, and the pacifying of the wrath of God thereby.” - J. I. Packer
“As our mediator he has obtained the full benefits of our whole salvation, beginning with an objective atonement for our sin. Refusals to acknowledge propitiation as the heart of his death and resurrection result from a misunderstanding of God’s love. It is God’s love that is the basis for his providing Christ as the means of propitiation. By Christ’s sacrifice a new relation of reconciliation and peace has been accomplished between God and humanity.” - Herman Bavinck (RD 3:419).
“The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched. How was this effected? Through the death of Christ. “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (5:10). The “blood”—that is, the sacrificial death—of Jesus Christ abolished God’s anger against us and ensured that his treatment of us forever after would be propitious and favorable… by his sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Anger
Not capricious, arbitrary, bad-tempered, and conceited anger as in the pagan gods.
Not sinful, resentful, malicious, infantile anger we find in humans.
God’s anger is a function of his holiness and righteousness.
God’s wrath is “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness”; it issues in “a positive outgoing of the divine displeasure.” - John Murray
“God is not just—that is, he does not act in the way that is right, he does not do what is proper to a judge—unless he inflicts upon all sin and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves.” - J. I. Packer
Propitiation Described
1. Propitiation is the work of God himself.
Paganism - man propitiates his gods; it becomes a form of commercialism and bribery.
Christianity - God propitiates his wrath by his own action.
“The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this: that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of His wrath.” - J. I. Packer
2. Propitiation was made by the death of Jesus Christ.
“When Paul tells us that God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation 'by his blood,' his point is that what quenched God’s wrath and so redeemed us from death was not Jesus’ life or teaching, not his moral perfection nor his fidelity to the Father, as such, but the shedding of his blood in death.” - J. I. Packer
“Paul always points to the death of Jesus as the atoning event and explains the atonement in terms of representative substitution—the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s judicial retribution.” - J. I. Packer
Galatians 3:13 ESV13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
3. Propitiation manifests God’s righteousness.
The truth of propitiation does not call into question the morality of God’s dealing with sin; it establishes it.
“to declare his righteousness” - “Paul’s point is that the public spectacle of propitiation, at the cross, was a public manifestation, not merely of justifying mercy on God’s part, but of righteousness and justice as the basis of justifying mercy.” - J. I. Packer
“...far from being unconcerned about moral issues and the just requirement of retribution for wrongdoing, is so concerned about these things that he does not—indeed, Paul would, we think, boldly say, cannot—pardon sinners, and justify the ungodly, except on the basis of justice shown forth in retribution.” - J. I. Packer
“Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgment has been inflicted for our ungodliness—but on Jesus, the lamb of God, standing in our place. In this way God is just—and the justifier of those who put faith in Jesus...” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Jealous God" (Chapter 17)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Jealous God” (Chapter 17)
How Can God Be Jealous?
Nothing is in the creature as it is in the Creator.
We must let the Bible speak for itself regarding God’s character.
Exodus 20:4–5 NIV4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 34:14 NIV14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“Clearly, this unexpected word stood for a quality in God which, far from being inconsistent with the exposition of his name that had gone before, was in some sense an epitome of it. And since this quality was in a true sense his “name,” it was clearly important that his people should understand it.” - J. I. Packer
The Nature of God’s Jealousy
How can jealousy be a virtue in God when it is a vice in humans?
1. Biblical statements about God’s jealousy are anthropomorphisms.
“The reason why God uses these terms to speak to us about himself is that language drawn from our own personal life is the most accurate medium we have for communicating thoughts about him. He is personal, and so are we, in a way that nothing else in the physical creation is.” - J. I. Packer
The Caution of Anthropomorphisms:
Man is not the measure of his Maker, so none of the limitations of human creaturehood are implied of God.
Those elements in human qualities which show the corrupting effect of sin have no counterpart in God.
“God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as a (literally) praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious.” - J. I. Packer
2. There are two sorts of jealousy among humans, and only one of them is a vice.
Vicious Jealousy:
“I want what you’ve got, and I hate you because I haven’t got it.”
Zealous Jealousy:
Zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken.
Married persons “who felt no jealousy at the intrusion of a lover or an adulterer into their home would surely be lacking in moral perception; for the exclusiveness of marriage is the essence of marriage” - R. V. G. Tasker
God’s jealousy is of this latter kind - an aspect of his covenant love for his own people.
Idolatry was viewed as an act of spiritual adultery against God, thus provoking his righteous jealousy for his covenant bride.
1 Kings 14:22 NIV22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done.
Psalm 78:58 NIV58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
“From these passages we see plainly what God meant by telling Moses that his name was 'Jealous.' He meant that he demands from those whom he has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty, and he will vindicate his claim by stern action against them if they betray his love by unfaithfulness.” - J. I. Packer
“God’s jealousy over his people, as we have seen, presupposes his covenant love; and this love is no transitory affection, accidental and aimless, but is the expression of a sovereign purpose. The goal of the covenant love of God is that he should have a people on earth as long as history lasts, and after that should have all his faithful ones of every age with him in glory. Covenant love is the heart of God’s plan for his world.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Ultimate Objective:
To vindicate his rule and righteousness by showing his sovereignty in judgment upon sin
To ransom and redeem his chosen people
To be loved and praised by them for his glorious acts of love and self-vindication
The Christian Response
1. The jealousy of God requires us to be zealous for God.
Titus 2:14 NKJV14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
1 Kings 19:10 NIV10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
2. The jealousy of God threatens churches which are not zealous for God.
Revelation 3:15–16 NIV15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:19 NIV19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Goodness and Severity" (Chapter 16)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Goodness and Severity” (Chapter 16)
Romans 11:22 NKJV22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
Santa Claus and Giant Despair
Modern Confusion about God
Private religious feelings instead of God’s Word
Mistaken notion that all religions are equal - so ideas about God are confused by pagan influence
Failing to recognize our own sinfulness, which distorts our view of God and our attitude towards him
The tendency to divide God’s attributes from one another - to disassociate God’s goodness from his severity
“To reject all ideas of divine wrath and judgment, and to assume that God’s character, misrepresented (forsooth!) in many parts of the Bible, is really one of indulgent benevolence without any severity, is the rule rather than the exception among ordinary folk today.” - J. I. Packer
“Santa Claus Theology”
No judgment or severity in God
A generic benevolence to all regardless of obedience to GodProblem: no need for the atonement of ChristLiberal solution: the cross of Christ isn’t about substitutionary atonement
Problem: "the problem of evil”Liberal solution: God is not omnipotent and omniscient, so can’t do anything about evil
“Thus he is left with a kind God who means well but cannot always insulate his children from trouble and grief. When trouble comes, therefore, there is nothing to do but grin and bear it. In this way, by an ironic paradox, faith in a God who is all goodness and no severity tends to confirm men in a fatalistic and pessimistic attitude to life.” - J. I. Packer
True solution: Associating God’s goodness and severity from the truth of Scripture
God’s Goodness
        Goodness
The moral qualities of God such as his perfection, generosity, mercy, grace, and love.
Exodus 33:19 NIV19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Exodus 34:6–7 NIV6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
“God’s truthfulness and trustworthiness, his unfailing justice and wisdom, his tenderness, forbearance and entire adequacy to all who penitently seek his help, his noble kindness in offering believers the exalted destiny of fellowship with him in holiness and love—these things together make up God’s goodness in the overall sense of the sum total of his revealed excellences.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Goodness as Generosity
“A disposition to give to others in a way which has no mercenary motive and is not limited by what the recipients deserve but consistently goes beyond it.”
The focal point of God’s moral perfection
Grace - every act of divine generosity, of whatever kindCommon - “creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life”
Psalm 145:9 NIV9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
Psalm 145:15–16 NIV15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
Acts 14:17 NIV17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”
◦ Special - manifested in the economy of salvation
Psalm 106:1–2 NIV1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise?
Psalm 86:5 NIV5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.
Psalm 107:1–3 NIV1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
God’s Severity
The Severity of God
God’s “cutting off” of the disobedient (Rom 11:22)
God’s decisive withdrawal of his goodness from those who have spurned it
He is “abounding in love” but he “does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Ex 34:6-7).
“The principle which Paul is applying here is that behind every display of divine goodness stands a threat of severity in judgment if that goodness is scorned. If we do not let it draw us to God in gratitude and responsive love, we have only ourselves to blame when God turns against us.” - J. I. Packer
God is patient in his severity - “slow to anger” and “longsuffering.”
1 Peter 3:20 NIV20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
2 Peter 3:9 NIV9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Our Response
1. Appreciate the goodness of God.
Count your blessings
Don’t take God’s gifts for granted
2. Appreciate the patience of God.
Learn to marvel at his patience with you
Seek grace to imitate it in your dealings with others
3. Appreciate the discipline of God.
Thorns which may awaken you from the sleep of spiritual death and lead you to repentance
As a believer, the discipline of a loving father guiding you to holiness and to “continue in his goodness”
Hebrews 12:5 NIV5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Wrath of God" (Chapter 15)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Wrath of God” (Chapter 15)
Wrath - “deep, intense anger and indignation.”Anger - “stirring of resentful displeasure and strong antagonism, by a sense of injury or insult”Indignation - “righteous anger aroused by injustice and baseness.”
Like the justice of God, the wrath of God, is either completely denied in modern Christianity or significantly downplayed.
Has God’s wrath against sin ever been a popular subject? Yet, both the OT & NT speak often of it.
“A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness” - A. W. Pink
Nahum 1:2–3 NIV2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum 1:6–8 NIV6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. 7 The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, 8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.
2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 NIV7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
“Clearly, the theme of God’s wrath is one about which the biblical writers feel no inhibitions whatever. Why, then, should we? Why, when the Bible is vocal about it, should we feel obliged to be silent?” - J. I. Packer
What God’s Wrath Is Like
Is wrath unworthy of God?
God’s wrath is not like our wrath.
God’s wrath is not capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable.
God’s wrath is his holy response to objective moral evil.
Is God’s wrath cruel?
God’s wrath is judicial - the wrath of the Judge administering justice.
Romans 2:5–6 NIV5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
God’s wrath is proportional - to what each deserves.
Luke 12:47–48 NIV47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
God’s wrath is something which people choose for themselves.
John 3:18–19 NIV18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
“Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less.” - J. I. Packer
Romans on Wrath
1. The meaning of God’s wrath.
God’s resolute action in punishing sin
The active manifesting of his hatred of irreligion and moral evil
An expression of his holy justice
2. The revelation of God’s wrath.
Romans 1:18 NIV18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
a constant disclosure, going on all the time
a universal disclosure, reaching those whom the gospel has not yet reached.
How is this disclosure of God’s wrath made?
It imprints itself directly on every person’s conscience.
Through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel.
There are tokens of the active wrath of God all around us in a broken, cursed world.
“If you want proof that the wrath of God, revealed as a fact in your conscience, is already working as a force in the world, Paul would say you need only look at life around you and see what God has ‘given them over to.’” - J. I. Packer
3. The deliverance from God’s wrath.
The law cannot save us.
Religious rituals cannot save us.
Only justification through the blood of Jesus can save us.
Romans 5:9 NIV9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
“Between us sinners and the thunderclouds of divine wrath stands the cross of the Lord Jesus. If we are Christ’s, through faith, then we are justified through his cross, and the wrath will never touch us, neither here nor hereafter.” - J. I. Packer
A Solemn Reality
This doctrine of the wrath of God must be handled with utmost care and sincere concern for the lost.
But we cannot ignore it. To ignore it is to lose the gospel.
“...if we would know God, it is vital that we face the truth concerning his wrath, ...Otherwise we shall not understand the gospel of salvation from wrath, nor the propitiatory achievement of the cross, nor the wonder of the redeeming love of God.” - J. I. Packer
We should meditate frequently on the wrath of God:
To remind us of sin’s hideousness and God’s abhorrence for it
To nurture within our souls a true fear of God.
Hebrews 12:28–29 NIV28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
To lead us to fervent praise to Jesus Christ for having delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 NIV10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God the Judge" (Chapter 14)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“God the Judge” (Chapter 14)
Unpopularity of the Justice of God
The Importance of God as Judge in the Bible
The Reality of divine judgment throughout Bible history
The Pervasive teaching on divine judgment in the Law, Prophets and Writings
Not Old Testament vs. New Testament
The emphasis on God’s action as Judge is actually intensified in the NT
Characteristics of the Judge
1. The judge is a person with authority.
God is judge of the world, because he made it.
As Creator, he has the right to make laws for us and reward and judge us.
He is both the Lawgiver and the Judge.
2. The judge is a person identified with what is good and right.
God, the righteous Judge, loves justice and truth.
He hates iniquity and deceit.
All judges should be modeled after the righteous justice of God.
3. The judge is a person of wisdom, to discern truth.
As all-knowing and all-wise, he is the perfect judge.
Nothing can escape him; he knows us, and judges us, as we really are.
God knows. His judgment is according to truth (both factual and moral).
4. The judge is a person of power to execute sentence.
God is his own executioner.
As he legislates and sentences, so he punishes.
All judicial functions coalesce in him.
Retribution
“The heart of the justice which expresses God’s nature is retribution, the rendering to persons what they have deserved; for this is the essence of the judge’s task. To reward good with good, and evil with evil, is natural to God.” - J. I. Packer
The retributive principle: all will receive according to their works.
Retribution is the natural expression of God’s divine character.
We know in our hearts that this is right. This is how it ought to be.
“Retribution is the inescapable moral law of creation; God will see that each person sooner or later receives what he deserves—if not here, then hereafter.” - J. I. Packer
The character of God is the guarantee that all wrongs will be righted someday.
God is the Judge, so justice will be done.
Why the Objections to God’s Justice?
Would we wish to live in a society where no wrongs were ever punished?
Would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable Being?
“Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. But not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world.” - J. I. Packer
The reality of divine justice and our view of life
Divine justice and the meaning of life
Divine justice and the victory of God
“Judgment means that evil will be disposed of authoritatively, decisively, finally. Judgment means that in the end God’s will will be perfectly done.” - J. I. Packer
Jesus the Father’s Agent
Jesus is the main NT authority on final judgment.
Matthew 25: “The Son of Man will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.”
John 5: “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.”
“God’s own appointment has made Jesus Christ inescapable. He stands at the end of life’s road for everyone without exception… 'prepare to meet the risen Jesus' is God’s message to the world today (Acts 17:31).” - J. I. Packer
Acts 17:31 NIV31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Index of the Heart
Final judgment according to works
2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
What does this mean for the Christian?
Are we saved on the merits of our own works after all?
“The relevance of our doings is not that they ever merit an award from the court—they fall too far short of perfection to do that—but that they provide an index of what is in the heart—what, in other words, is the real nature of each agent.” - J. I. Packer
Works will serve as a confirmation of the new birth - a work of grace.
Works may serve to distinguish levels of reward.
“The gift of justification does not at all shield believers from being assessed as Christians, and from forfeiting good which others will enjoy if it turns out that as Christians they have been slack, mischievous and destructive.” - J. I. Packer
1 Corinthians 3:12–15 NIV12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
Final judgment according to knowledge
People will be judged based on the level of light or knowledge that was accessible to them. “Where a man has been given much, much will be expected of him” (Luke 12:48).
No Need to Flee
The natural reaction to the holy justice of God is to flee (see Adam and Eve).
But we don’t have to flee.
Call on the coming Judge to be your present Savior.
“As Judge, he is the law, but as Savior he is the gospel. Run from him now, and you will meet him as Judge then—and without hope. Seek him now, and you will find him.” - J. I. Packer
Romans 8:1 NIV1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Grace of God" (Chapter 13)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Grace of God” (Chapter 13)
“Grace, far from being a personal force, …is a personal activity—God operating in love toward people.” - J. I. Packer
No Grasp of Grace
“The root of the trouble seems to be misbelief about the basic relationship between a person and God—misbelief rooted not just in the mind but in the heart, at the deeper level of things that we never question because we always take them for granted.” - J. I. Packer
1. The moral ill-desert of man.
“The thought of themselves as creatures fallen from God’s image, rebels against God’s rule, guilty and unclean in God’s sight, fit only for God’s condemnation, never enters their heads.” - J. I. Packer
2. The retributive justice of God.
“God is not true to himself unless he punishes sin. And unless one knows and feels the truth of this fact, that wrongdoers have no natural hope of anything from God but retributive judgment, one can never share the biblical faith in divine grace.” - J. I. Packer
3. The spiritual impotence of man.
“To mend our own relationship with God, regaining God’s favor after having once lost it, is beyond the power of any one of us. And one must see and bow to this before one can share the biblical faith in God’s grace.” - J. I. Packer
4. The sovereign freedom of God.
“Grace is free, in the sense of being self-originated and of proceeding from One who was free not to be gracious. Only when it is seen that what decides each individual’s destiny is whether or not God resolves to save him from his sins, and that this is a decision which God need not make in any single case, can one begin to grasp the biblical view of grace.” - J. I. Packer
Not Earned or Deserved
“The grace of God is love freely shown toward guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.” - J. I. Packer
“Grace and salvation belong together as cause and effect. 'It is by grace you have been saved' (Eph 2:5, 8).” - J. I. Packer
1. Grace as the source of the pardon of sin.
“The gospel centers upon justification—that is, upon the remission of sins and the acceptance of our persons that goes with it. Justification is the truly dramatic transition from the status of a condemned criminal awaiting a terrible sentence to that of an heir awaiting a fabulous inheritance.” - J. I. Packer
“Justification is by faith; it takes place the moment a person puts vital trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Justification is free to us, but it was costly to God, for its price was the atoning death of God’s Son.” - J. I. Packer
Romans 3:24–25 NIV24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
Ephesians 1:7 NIV7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
2. Grace as the motive of the plan of salvation.
“The New Testament sets God’s gift of pardon in the context of a plan of salvation which began with election before the world was and will be completed only when the church is perfect in glory.” - J. I. Packer
“We believers may rejoice to know that our conversion was no accident, but an act of God which had its place in an eternal plan to bless us with the free gift of salvation from sin (2:8-10); God promises and purposes to carry his plan through to completion, and since it is executed by sovereign power (1:19-20), nothing can thwart it.” - J. I. Packer
3. Grace as the guarantee of the preservation of the saints.
“If the plan of salvation is certain of accomplishment, then the Christian’s future is assured. I am, and will be, 'kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation' (1 Pet 1:5 KJV)… as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end.” - J. I. Packer
A Proper Response
“...in the New Testament doctrine is grace, and ethics is gratitude...For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure. And the revealed will of God is that those who have received grace should henceforth give themselves to 'good works' (Eph 2:10; Titus 2:11-12); and gratitude will move anyone who has truly received grace to do as God requires...” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Love of God" (Chapter 12)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Love of God” (Chapter 12)
1 John 4:8 NIVWhoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 NIVAnd so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
• A doctrine often misunderstood• One of the most precious doctrines in Scripture
Romans 5:5 NIVAnd hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
A Flood of Love
• Poured Out - “God’s love has flooded our inmost heart” (NEB).• Perfect tense - a settled state consequent upon a completed action.• A regular ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit to all believers.
“With a perversity as pathetic as it is impoverishing, we have become preoccupied today with the extraordinary, sporadic, nonuniversal ministries of the Spirit to the neglect of the ordinary, general ones.” - J. I. Packer
“a right-minded concern for revival will express itself not in a hankering after tongues, but rather in a longing that the Spirit may shed God’s love abroad in our hearts with greater power.” - J. I. Packer
Love, Spirit, Light
1. “God is love” is not the complete truth about God so far as the Bible is concerned.
• This statement presupposes all the rest of the biblical witness to God.• “God is spirit” (John 4:24).
- God’s presence is unlimited.- Worship is not localized but is receptive to God’s presence and his truth.- God’s Spirituality - “without body, parts, or passions”
“The love of God is… a spontaneous determination of God’s whole being in an attitude of benevolence and benefaction, an attitude freely chosen and firmly fixed. There are no inconstancies or vicissitudes in the love of the almighty God who is spirit.” - J. I. Packer
• “God is light” (1 John 1:5).
- “in him there is no darkness at all”- Light = holiness and purity
“The God who is love is first and foremost light, and sentimental ideas of his love as an indulgent, benevolent softness, divorced from moral standards and concerns, must therefore be ruled out from the start. God’s love is holy love.” - J. I. Packer
“God’s love is stern, for it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness for the beloved. Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love we may look to him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness, or to shield his loved ones from trouble when he knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification.” - J. I. Packer
2. “God is love” is the complete truth about God so far as the Christian is concerned.
• “God is love” means that his love finds expression in everything that he says and does.• The cross of Christ gives us assurance that we are beloved of God (Gal. 2:20).• In every circumstance, God is working out of love for our good (Rom. 8:28).
“Every single thing that happens to us expresses God’s love to us, and comes to us for the furthering of God’s purpose for us… Even when we cannot see the why and the wherefore of God’s dealings, we know that there is love in and behind them, and so we can rejoice always, even when, humanly speaking, things are going wrong.” - J. I. Packer
Defining God’s Love
“God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward individual sinners whereby, having identified himself with their welfare, he has given his Son to be their Savior, and now brings them to know and enjoy him in a covenant relation.” - J. I. Packer
1. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness.
2. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward sinners.
3. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward individual sinners.
4. God’s love to sinners involves his identifying himself with their welfare.
5. God’s love to sinners was expressed by the gift of his Son to be their Savior.
1 John 4:9–10 NIV9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
6. God’s love to sinners reaches its objective as it brings them to know and enjoy him in a covenant relation.
“You shall have as true an interest in all my attributes for your good, as they are mine for my own glory. . . . My grace, saith God, shall be yours to pardon you, and my power shall be yours to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you. This is a comprehensive promise, for God to be our God: it includes all.” - Thomas Brooks
Amazing Love!
1 John 4:11 NIVDear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Thy Word Is Truth" (Chapter 11)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Thy Word Is Truth” (Chapter 11)
Biblical Assumptions about God:
God is King.
God speaks.
“just as God’s relations with his world have to be understood in terms of his sovereignty, so his sovereignty is to be understood in terms of what the Bible tells us about his word.” - J. I. Packer
Like a King, God speaks...
By Divine Fiat
By Royal Torah
Torah’s 3-fold character:
Law
Promise
Testimony
“The word which God addresses directly to us is an instrument, not only of government, but also of fellowship.” - J. I. Packer
“God speaks to us not only to move us to do what he wants, but to enable us to know him so that we may love him.” - J. I. Packer
The God Who Speaks
Genesis 1: God Speaks to Adam & Eve:
Command (1:28)
Testimony (1:29)
Prohibition (2:17)
Promise (3:15-19)
“Here, within the compass of these three short chapters [of Genesis], we see the word of God in all the relations in which it stands to the world, and to man within it.” - J. I. Packer
“the whole Bible insists that all circumstances and events in the world are determined by the word of God, the Creator’s omnipotent ‘Let there be...’” - J. I. Packer
Isaiah 55:10–11 NIV10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
“The whole Bible maintains this insistence that God’s word is his executive instrument in all human affairs. Of him, as of no one else, it is true that what he says goes.” - J. I. Packer
In Relationship to us, the Word comes...
Sometimes as Law
Sometimes as Promise
Sometimes as Testimony
“the claim of the word of God upon us is absolute: the word is to be received, trusted and obeyed, because it is the word of God the King.” - J. I. Packer
Absolute Truth
“We are to believe and obey it, not only because he tells us to, but also, and primarily, because it is a true word. Its author is ‘the God of truth.’” - J. I. Packer
1. God’s commands are true.
because they have stability and permanence as setting forth what God wants to see in human lives in every age
because they tell us the unchanging truth about our own nature
“As rational persons, we were made to bear God’s moral image—that is, our souls were made to ‘run’ on the practice of worship, law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service to God and our fellows. If we abandon these practices, not only do we incur guilt before God; we also progressively destroy our own souls… One not only becomes desperately miserable; one is steadily being dehumanized.” - J. I. Packer
2. God’s promises are true, for God keeps them.
“How does God’s faithfulness show itself? By his unfailing fulfillment of his promises. He is a covenant-keeping God; he never fails those who trust his word.” - J. I. Packer
“A fixed, constant attention to the promises, and a firm belief of them, would prevent solicitude and anxiety about the concerns of this life. Christians deprive themselves of their most solid comforts by their unbelief and forgetfulness of God’s promises.” - Samuel Clark
Believe and Obey
“What is a Christian? True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the word of God… Their eyes are upon the God of the Bible as their Father and the Christ of the Bible as their Savior.” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God's Wisdom and Ours" (Chapter 10)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“God’s Wisdom and Ours” (Chapter 10)
The Attributes of God
Incommunicable Attributes
Communicable Attributes
When God made man, he communicated to him certain qualities corresponding to his moral attributes. This is what the Bible means when it tells us that God made man in his own image (Gen 1:26-27).
Moral Qualities of the Divine Image:
Lost at the Fall
Being Renewed through Redemption
Fully Restored at Glorification
Among these communicable attributes, the theologians put wisdom. As God is wise in himself, so he imparts wisdom to his creatures.
Where can we find wisdom?
We must learn to reverence God.
We must learn to receive God’s word.
What Wisdom Is Not
Wisdom is not “a deepened insight into the providential meaning and purpose of events going on around us, an ability to see why God has done what he has done in a particular case, and what he is going to do next.” – J. I. Packer
This incorrect view of wisdom from God may lead to:
Disappointment
Disillusionment
Depression
Realism Needed
Wisdom is like driving. “What matters in driving is the speed and appropriateness of your reactions to things and the soundness of your judgment as to what scope a situation gives you… you simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself. The effect of divine wisdom is to enable you and me to do just that in the actual situations of everyday life.” – J. I. Packer
What Ecclesiastes Teaches Us
The pursuit of wisdom does not provide an understanding of “the reasons of God’s various doings in the ordinary course of providence.” – J. I. Packer
“...the real basis of wisdom is a frank acknowledgment that this world’s course is enigmatic, that much of what happens is quite inexplicable to us, and that most occurrences ‘under the sun’ bear no outward sign of a rational, moral God ordering them at all.” – J. I. Packer
“God’s ordering of events is inscrutable; much as you want to make it out, you cannot do so. The harder you try to understand the divine purpose in the ordinary providential course of events, the more obsessed and oppressed you grow with the apparent aimlessness of everything, and the more you are tempted to conclude that life really is as pointless as it looks.” – J. I. Packer
“...the truth is that God in his wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives.” – J. I. Packer
What Is Wisdom Then?
“Fear God and keep his commandments”
Trust and obey him
Reverence him
Worship him
Be humble before him
Mean what you say when you pray to him
Do good
Remember God will hold you to account
Eschew things you will be ashamed of
Live in the present and enjoy God’s gifts
Seek grace to work hard at whatever life calls you to do
Enjoy your work as you do it
Leave providence and the measure of the worth of your deeds to God
Take advantage of the opportunities that lie before you
What grounds and sustains this way of wisdom?
The conviction that the inscrutable God of providence is the wise and gracious God of creation and redemption
We can trust him and rejoice in him, even when we cannot discern his path.
The Fruit of Wisdom
Wisdom consists in choosing the best means to the best end.
God’s gift of wisdom to us is part of the process of restoring the relationship between himself and human beings.
This wisdom is not a sharing in all his knowledge, but a disposition to confess that he is wise, and to cleave to him and live for him in the light of his Word through thick and thin.
Thus the effect of his gift of wisdom is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quick-sighted as to his will, more resolute in the doing of it and less troubled.
The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness—peace, and humility, and love—and the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God.
“Thus, the kind of wisdom that God waits to give to those who ask him is a wisdom that will bind us to himself, a wisdom that will find expression in a spirit of faith and a life of faithfulness.” – J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God Only Wise" (Chapter 9)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer"God Only Wise" Chapter 9
What does the Bible mean when it calls God wise?
Wisdom is a moral as well as an intellectual quality, more than mere intelligence or knowledge.
“Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.” – J. I. Packer
Wisdom is the practical side of moral goodness.
Wisdom is found in its fullness only in God.
Wisdom is his essence, as are his other attributes, integral to his character.
Wisdom: Ours and God’s
Human wisdom can be frustrated by circumstances outside our control.
But God’s wisdom cannot be frustrated because it is allied with his omnipotence.
“Power is as much God’s essence as wisdom is. Omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom, is a basic biblical description of the divine character.” – J. I. Packer
“Wisdom without power would be pathetic, a broken reed; power without wisdom would be merely frightening; but in God boundless wisdom and endless power are united, and this makes him utterly worthy of our fullest trust.” – J. I. Packer
God’s almighty wisdom is always active, and never fails.
But we cannot recognize God’s wisdom unless we know the end for which he is working.
God’s wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.
What is he after, then? What is his goal?To love and honor him
To praise him for his wonderful works in creation
To use his creation according to his will
To enjoy both his creation and him
“And though we have fallen, God has not abandoned his first purpose. Still he plans that a great host of humankind should come to love and honor him. His ultimate objective is to bring them to a state in which they please him entirely and praise him adequately, a state in which he is all in all to them, and he and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love—people rejoicing in the saving love of God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing in the responsive love of people, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel.” – J. I. Packer
This ultimate purpose will only be realized in the next world, in the new heavens and new earth.
Meanwhile, God is drawing individual men and women into a relationship of faith, hope, and love toward himself, delivering them from sin and showing forth in their lives the power of his grace.
God Dealing with His People
No clearer illustrations of the wisdom of God ordering human lives can be found than in some of the scriptural narratives.AbrahamWhat Abraham needed most of all was to learn the practice of living in God’s presence, seeing all life in relation to him, and looking to him, and him alone, as Commander, Defender and Rewarder.
JacobJacob’s whole attitude to life was ungodly and needed changing; Jacob must be weaned away from trust in his own cleverness to dependence upon God, and he must be made to abhor the unscrupulous double-dealing which came so naturally to him.
Jacob must be made to feel his own utter weakness and foolishness, must be brought to such complete self-distrust that he would no longer try to get on by exploiting others. Jacob’s self-reliance must go, once and for all.
JosephJoseph was being tested, refined and matured; he was being taught during his spell as a slave, and in prison, to stay himself upon God, to remain cheerful and charitable in frustrating circumstances, and to wait patiently for the Lord.
“Once again, we are confronted with the wisdom of God ordering the events of a human life for a double purpose: the individual’s own personal sanctification, and the fulfilling of his appointed ministry and service in the life of the people of God.” – J. I. Packer
Our Perplexing Trials
We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now.What do they mean?
Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly.
“Perhaps his purpose is simply to draw us closer to himself in conscious communion with him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest.” – J. I. Packer
“We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs. Always, and in everything, he is wise: we shall see that hereafter, even where we never saw it here.” – J. I. Packer
How are we to meet these baffling and trying situations, if we cannot for the moment see God’s purpose in them?Receive them as from a wise and loving God.
Ask ourselves what response to them the gospel requires of us.
Seek God’s face specifically about them.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
“because of these surprisingly great revelations… in order to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor. 12:7)
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
“Whatever further purpose a Christian’s troubles may or may not have in equipping him for future service, …they will have been sent us to make and keep us humble, and to give us a new opportunity of showing forth the power of Christ in our mortal lives. And do we ever need to know any more about them than that?” – J. I. Packer

"A Sacrifice of Praise" (Hebrews 13:15-16)

"A Sacrifice of Praise" (Hebrews 13:15-16)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchSunday AM, November 24, 201915 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews 13:15-16)
The Mediator of our Praise (“Through Jesus”)
The Endurance of our Praise (“continually”)
The Willingness of our Praise (“let us offer”)
The Declaration of our Praise (“lips that openly profess his name”)
The Practice of our Praise (“do good and share”)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Majesty of God" (Chapter 8)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Majesty of God” (Chapter 8)
Majesty = Greatness
Declaration of Greatness and Invitation to Worship
“In Heaven” - God is far above us in greatness, and therefore is to be adored.
God’s Majesty - diminished in the modern church
“We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God.” – J. I. Packer
“Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort as we are—weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible!” – J. I. Packer
“Like us, he is personal; but unlike us, he is great. In all its constant stress on the reality of God’s personal concern for his people, and on the gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, patience and yearning compassion that he shows toward them, the Bible never lets us lose sight of his majesty and his unlimited dominion over all his creatures.” – J. I. Packer
Personal Yet Majestic
Genesis 1 - God is introduced as both personal and majestic.
Not an impersonal force or principle, but a living, personal Being.
But an infinite Being, full of majesty, power, and sovereignty.
El Shaddai - “God Almighty”
No Limitations
How do we rightly think of God’s greatness?Remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small.Psalm 139 is a great example of how to think on God’s limitlessness:Limitless Presence
Limitless Knowledge
Limitless Power
Compare him with powers and forces which we regard as great.
The Incomparable One
Isaiah 40 is a good example of how to compare God with that which is great to help us think great thoughts of him:God greater than his works
God greater than the nations
God greater than the world
God greater than authorities (great ones)
God greater than the stars
Our Response to Majesty
1. “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One” (Is 40:25 RSV). This question rebukes wrong thoughts about God.
“‘Your thoughts of God are too human,’ said Luther to Erasmus. This is where most of us go astray. Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality of his limitless wisdom and power.” – J. I. Packer
2. “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, 'My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God'?” (Isa. 40:27 NIV). This question rebukes wrong thoughts about ourselves.
“He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep. It is as false as it is irreverent to accuse God of forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in, the state and needs of his own people.” – J. I. Packer
3. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom” (Isa. 40:28 NIV). This question rebukes our slowness to believe in God’s majesty.
“‘What is the trouble?’ he asks. ‘Have you been imagining that I, the Creator, have grown old and tired? Has nobody ever told you the truth about Me?’ The rebuke is well deserved by many of us. How slow we are to believe in God as God, sovereign, all-seeing and almighty! How little we make of the majesty of our Lord and Savior Christ!” – J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God Unchanging" (Chapter 7)

Knowing God by J. I. PackerPart Two: “Behold Your God!”“God Unchanging” (Chapter 7)
We believe that the Bible is God’s WordA lamp to our feet and a light to our path
Gives us the knowledge of God and his will
So, we read, but we get discouraged because the Bible is an ancient book from another world.
Two Different Worlds
Reading the Bible takes us into the ancient Near Eastern world.
It is intensely interesting, but it seems very far away.
How can God’s words and deeds in Bible times help us in the modern, digital age?
It is hard for us at times to see how the two worlds link up. What is the application for us?
The solution is not to resign ourselves to thinking that the Bible will always remain distant for us.
“…the crucial point is surely this. The sense of remoteness is an illusion which springs from seeking the link between our situation and that of the various Bible characters in the wrong place. It is true that in terms of space, time and culture, they and the historical epoch to which they belonged are a very long way away from us. But the link between them and us is not found at that level. The link is God himself. For the God with whom they had to do is the same God with whom we have to do.” – J. I. Packer
We worship exactly the same God.
God does not change at all.
God is immutable.
Not Two Different Gods
1. God’s life does not change.2. God’s character does not change.3. God’s truth does not change.4. God’s ways do not change.5. God’s purposes do not change.6. God’s Son does not change.
We Are to Be Like Them
“Where is the sense of distance and difference, then, between believers in Bible times and ourselves? It is excluded. On what grounds? On the grounds that God does not change.” – J. I. Packer
Fellowship with God...
Trust in his Word...
Living by faith...
Standing on the promises of God...
Are essentially the same realities for us today as they were for Old and New Testament believers.
“…amid all the changes and uncertainties of life in a nuclear age, God and his Christ remain the same—almighty to save. But the thought brings a searching challenge too. If our God is the same as the God of New Testament believers, how can we justify ourselves in resting content with an experience of communion with him, and a level of Christian conduct, that falls so far below theirs?” – J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "He Shall Testify" (Chapter 6)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“He Shall Testify” (Chapter 6)
“Christianity rests on the doctrine of the trinitas, the threeness, the tripersonality, of God.” – J. I. Packer
Another Comforter
• A Person - the Third Person of the Trinity• A “Comforter”• “Another”
› “He will care for you.”› “The Spirit of Truth”
“In the Old Testament, God’s word and God’s Spirit are parallel figures. God’s word is his almighty speech; God’s Spirit is his almighty breath. Both phrases convey the thought of his power in action.” – J. I. Packer
Genesis 1:2–3 NIV“The Spirit [breath] of God was hovering over the waters. And God said…and there was…”
Psalm 33:6 NIV“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath [Spirit] of his mouth.”
“The Father will send the Spirit, says our Lord, “in my name”—that is, as Christ’s deputy, doing Christ’s will and acting as his representative and with his authority (Jn 14:26).” – J. I. Packer
“Just as Jesus had come in his Father’s name (5:43), acting as the Father’s agent, speaking the Father’s words (12:49–50), doing the Father’s works (10:25; 17:4, 12) and bearing witness throughout to the One whose emissary he was, so the Spirit would come in Jesus’ name, to act in the world as the agent and witness of Jesus.” – J. I. Packer
Triune Relationships
1. The Son is subject to the Father, for the Son is sent by the Father in his (the Father’s) name.2. The Spirit is subject to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son’s name.3. The Spirit is subject to the Son as well as to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Son as well as by the Father.
Divine Yet Ignored
“…the person and work of the Holy Spirit are largely ignored. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of Christian doctrines. Comparatively few seem to be interested in it.” – J. I. Packer
“It is an extraordinary thing that those who profess to care so much about Christ should know and care so little about the Holy Spirit… But many Christians have really no idea what difference it would make if there were no Holy Spirit in the world.” – J. I. Packer
“How can we justify neglecting the ministry of Christ’s appointed agent in this way? Is it not a hollow fraud to say that we honor Christ when we ignore, and by ignoring dishonor, the One whom Christ has sent to us as his deputy, to take his place and care for us on his behalf? – J. I. Packer
Importance of the Spirit’s Work
1. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament.
John 15:26–27 NIV26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Acts 1:8 NIVBut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
John 14:26 NIVBut the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 16:12–14 NIV12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
“The promise was that, taught by the Spirit, these original disciples should be enabled to speak as so many mouths of Christ so that, [they might] be able to say of their teaching, oral or written, ‘Thus saith the Lord Jesus Christ.’” – J. I. Packer
“The Spirit testified to the apostles by revealing to them all truth and inspiring them to communicate it with all truthfulness. Hence the gospel, and hence the New Testament. But the world would have had neither without the Holy Spirit.” – J. I. Packer
2. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no faith and no new birth—in short, no Christians.
2 Corinthians 4:4 NIVThe god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
John 3:3 NIVJesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“Christ went on to explain that the inevitable consequence of unregeneracy is unbelief — ‘You people do not accept our testimony’ (Jn 3:11). The gospel produces no conviction in them; unbelief holds them fast.” – J. I. Packer
“Should we conclude that preaching the gospel is a waste of time and write off evangelism as a hopeless enterprise, foredoomed to fail? No, because the Spirit abides with the church to testify of Christ.” – J. I. Packer
“To the apostles, he testified by revealing and inspiring, as we saw. To the rest of us, down the ages, he testifies by illuminating: opening blinded eyes, restoring spiritual vision, enabling sinners to see the gospel is indeed God’s truth, and Scripture is indeed God’s Word, and Christ is indeed God’s Son.” – J. I. Packer
“It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity except the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart.” – J. I. Packer
1 Corinthians 2:1 NIVAnd so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
1 Corinthians 2:4–5 NIV4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
“And because the Spirit does bear witness in this way, people come to faith when the gospel is preached. But without the Spirit there would not be a Christian in the world.” – J. I. Packer
Our Proper Response
“In our faith: Do we acknowledge the authority of the Bible, the prophetic Old Testament and the apostolic New Testament which he inspired? Do we read and hear it with the reverence and receptiveness that are due to the Word of God?” – J. I. Packer
“In our life: Do we apply the authority of the Bible and live by the Bible, whatever anyone may say against it, recognizing that God’s Word cannot but be true, and that what God has said he certainly means, and he will stand behind it?” – J. I. Packer
“In our witness: Do we remember that the Holy Spirit alone, by his witness, can authenticate our witness, and look to him to do so, and trust him to do so, and show the reality of our trust, as Paul did, by eschewing the gimmicks of human cleverness?” – J. I. Packer
“He shall testify...” “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - “God Incarnate” (Chapter 5)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“God Incarnate” (Chapter 5)
Hard to Believe?          ⦁ Atonement          ⦁ Resurrection          ⦁ Virgin Birth          ⦁ Gospel Miracles
The Greatest Mystery“The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man—that the second person of the Godhead became the “second man” (1 Cor 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human.”
Who Is This Child?
1. The baby born at Bethlehem was God.
⦁ “In the beginning was the Word” - the Word’s Eternity⦁ “And the Word was with God” - the Word’s Personality⦁ “And the Word was God” - the Word’s Deity⦁ “Through him all things were made” - the Word Creating⦁ “In him was life” - the Word Animating⦁ “And that life was the light of men” - the Word Revealing⦁ “The Word became flesh” - the Word Incarnate
2. The baby born at Bethlehem was God made man.
Athanasian Creed: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man . . . perfect God, and perfect man . . . who although he be God and man: yet he is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh: but by taking of the manhood into God.”
Born to Die“the New Testament knows nothing of an incarnation which can be defined apart from its relation to atonement. . . . Not Bethlehem, but Calvary, is the focus of revelation, and any construction of Christianity which ignores or denies this distorts Christianity by putting it out of focus” - James Denney Made Less than God?
⦁ Philippians 2:7 – “emptied himself”?⦁ The Kenosis Theory⦁ A Better Explanation
He Became Poor
⦁ A laying aside of glory⦁ A voluntary restraint of power⦁ An acceptance of hardship and servanthood⦁ A death that involved physical and spiritual agony

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Only True God" (Chapter 4)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
"The Only True God" (Chapter 4)
Idolatry
What does the word idolatry suggest to your mind?
The Second Commandment
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” –Exodus 20:4-5
What is the second commandment referring to?
“idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images.” –Charles Hodge
The Dangers in Images
Images are not a matter of personal taste or preference or whether or not they are helpful.
The Bible forbids the use of images in the worship of the one true God.
No statues, images, or pictures of God or of Christ are to be used in worship (public or private).
Why such a strong prohibition against the use of images?
Images dishonor God, for they obscure his glory.
"A true image of God is not to be found in all the world; and hence . . . His glory is defiled, and His truth corrupted by the lie, whenever He is set before our eyes in a visible form. . . . Therefore, to devise any image of God is itself impious; because by this corruption His majesty is adulterated, and He is figured to be other than He is.” –John Calvin
“To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?” –Isaiah 40:18
Images mislead us, for they convey false ideas about God.
 Molten Images & Mental Images
The second commandment also prohibits false mental images of God.
"Imagining God in our heads can be just as real a breach of the second commandment as imagining him by the work of our hands." –J. I. Packer
How often do we hear:"I like to think of God as..."
"I don't think God is like..."
Often remarks of this kind serve as the prelude to a denial of something that the Bible tells us about God.
"...those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment... We were made in his image, but we must not think of him as existing in ours." –J. I. Packer
Purpose of the Second Commandment
Negatively, it is a warning against ways of worship and religious practice that lead us to dishonor God and to falsify his truth.
Positively, it is a summons to us to recognize that God the Creator is transcendent, mysterious and inscrutable, beyond the range of any imagining or philosophical guesswork of which we are capable...
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD."As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. –Isaiah 55:8-9
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" –Romans 11:33-34
"Through this revelation, which is made available to us in holy Scripture, we may form a true notion of God; without it we never can. Thus it appears that the positive force of the second commandment is that it compels us to take our thoughts of God from his own holy Word, and from no other source whatsoever." –J. I. Packer
"The mind that takes up with images is a mind that has not yet learned to love and attend to God’s Word. Those who look to manmade images, material or mental, to lead them to God are not likely to take any part of his revelation as seriously as they should." –J. I. Packer
"God did not show them a visible symbol of himself, but spoke to them; therefore they are not now to seek visible symbols of God, but simply to obey his Word." –J. I. Packer
Looking to the True God
How far are we keeping the second commandment?
Are we sure that the God whom we seek to worship is the God of the Bible, the triune Jehovah? Do we worship the one true God in truth?
How can I tell if I am worshiping the one true God?The God of the Bible has spoken in his Son. The light of the knowledge of his glory is given to us in the face of Jesus Christ.
Do I look habitually to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as showing me the final truth about the nature and the grace of God? Do I see all the purposes of God as centering upon him?
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” –John 17:3

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…

"O Lord, Heal Me" (Psalm 6)

"O Lord, Heal Me" (Psalm 6)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday PM, July 31, 2019
Psalm 6 (NIV)
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your angeror discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.How long, Lord, how long?
4 Turn, Lord, and deliver me;save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weepingand drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.