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Wishing to Reach God
Desiring to Know God
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)
Desire = aspiration, hope, yearning, longing, craving, fancy, inclination, want, wish
With the very zeal that God has for his own glory he pursues us with goodness and mercy.
All the all-powerful (omnipotent) energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory, also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him. The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all unwilling to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us most happy is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.... I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul" (Jeremiah 32:40-41).
With all his heart and with all his soul God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy, because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth. All who cast themselves on God find that they are carried into endless joy by God's omnipotent commitment to his own glory:
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another! (Isaiah 48:11)
Omnipotent Joy pursues the good of all who cast themselves on God! "The Lord takes pleasure in those who . . . hope in him" (Psalm 147:11). .. But this is not everyone.
"All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28)-but not for everyone. There are sheep and there are goats (Matthew 25:32). There are wise and there are foolish (Matthew 25:2). There are those who are being saved and those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18). And the difference is that one group has been regenerate or renewed (Titus 3:5) and made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in Christ… and the other hasn't.
1. If one desires to know or reach God… w hy not just say "believe"?
There is a biblical command , Acts 16:31 … `Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved'…
Mark 12:29 Jesus answered (quotes: Deuteronomy 6:4) him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
James 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe--and they shudder.
We are surrounded by unconverted people who think they do believe in Jesus. Drunks on the street say they believe. Unmarried couples sleeping together say they believe. Elderly people who haven't sought worship or fellowship for forty years say they believe. All kinds of lukewarm, world-loving church attenders say they believe. The world abounds with millions of unconverted people who say they believe in Jesus.
2. Decisive truths summarize our need and God's provision
Transfer or conversion of the heart is crucial? What is there about God and man that makes it necessary? And what has God done to meet our desperate need? And what must we do to enjoy the benefits of his provision?
3. Where is the failure of true desire and belief?
God created us for his glory.
"Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory. (Isaiah 43:6-7)
We were made to be prisms refracting the light of God's glory into all of life. Why God should want to give us a share in shining with his glory is a great mystery. Call it grace or mercy or love… it is an unspeakable wonder. Once we were not. Then we existed -- for the glory of God!
Therefore it is our duty to live for his glory.
So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Our duty comes from God's design.
What does it mean to glorify God?
A cknowledge His glory, and to value it above all things, and to make it known. It implies heartfelt gratitude: "He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me" (Psalm 50:23). It also implies trust: Abraham "grew strong in his faith, giving glory to God" (Romans 4:20).
4. How Desperate Is Our Condition?
A ll of us have failed to glorify God as we ought
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
What does it mean to "fall short" of the glory of God? It does not mean we were supposed to be as glorious as God is and have fallen short. We ought to fall short in that sense! The best explanation of Romans 3:23 is Romans 1:23. It says that those who did not glorify or thank God "became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images." This is the way we "fall short" of the glory of God: we exchange it for something of lesser value. All sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God… this is the very essence of sin.
And we have all sinned. "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3 :10) . None of us has trusted God the way we should. None of us has felt the depth and consistency of gratitude we owe him. None of us has obeyed him according to his wisdom and right. We have exchanged and dishonored his glory again and again. We have trusted ourselves. We have taken credit for his gifts. We have turned away from the path of his commandments because we thought we knew better.
In all this we have held the glory of the Lord in contempt. The exceeding evil of sin is not the harm it does to us or to others (though that is great! ) . The wickedness of sin is owing to the implicit disdain for God. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and even had her husband killed, what did God say to him through the prophet Nathan? He did not remind the king that marriage is inviolable or that human life is sacred. He said, "You have despised me. . . . You have utterly scorned the Lord" (2 Samuel 12: 10,14).
But this is not the whole account of our condition. We not only choose to sin, we are sinful. The Bible describes our heart as blind (2 Corinthians 4:4) and hard (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26) and dead (Ephesians 2: 1,5) and unable to submit to the law of God (Romans 8:7-8). By nature we are "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3).
Therefore, all of us are subject to eternal condemnation by God.
The wages of sin is death . (Romans 6:23)
They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might . (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
Having held the glory of God in contempt through ingratitude and distrust and disobedience, we are sentenced to be excluded from the enjoyment of that glory forever and ever in the eternal misery of hell.
The word "hell" ( gehenna) occurs in the New Testament twelve times-eleven on the lips of Jesus .
Another evidence that hell is everlasting is the teaching of Jesus that there is sin which will not be forgiven in the age to come. "Whoever says a word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:32). If hell is remedial and will some day be emptied of all sinners, then they would have to be forgiven. But Jesus says there is sin that will never be forgiven.
Apostle John sums up the terrible realities of torment and endlessness in Revelation 14:11-"And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever: and they have no rest, day or night." Therefore hell is just because the seriousness of our sin is infinite.
Job 21:7 "Why do the wicked still live, Continue on, also become very powerful ? 8"Their descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes, 9Their houses are safe from fear, And the rod of God is not on them. 10"His ox mates without fail; His cow calves and does not abort. 11"They send forth their little ones like the flock, And their children skip about. 12"They sing to the timbrel and harp And rejoice at the sound of the flute. 13"They spend their days in prosperity , And suddenly they go down to Sheol (Hell). 14"They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways.
Psalm 52:7"Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, But trusted in the abundance of his riches And was strong in his evil desire."
Our obligation to love, honor, and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, honorableness, and authority... But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he has infinite excellency and beauty....
So sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely wicked, and so deserving infinite punishment.... The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders it infinite . . . and therefore renders no more than in relationship to the heinousness of what they are guilty of.
What Has God Done To Save Us From His Wrath?
, …in his great mercy, God sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to save sinners by dying in their place on the cross.
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, …
Over against the terrifying news that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin, there is the wonderful news of the gospel. This is a truth no one can ever learn from nature.
The good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his justice without condemning the whole human race. Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice. But there is another way. The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.
And what is this wisdom?
The death of the Son of God for sinners! "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
The death of Christ is the wisdom of God by which the love of God saves sinners from the wrath of God, and all the while upholds and demonstrates the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:24-26 may be the most important verses in the Bible:
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation (effected a reconciliation between God and humankind ) by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
If the most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out his wrath on our sin, then the best news in all the world (the gospel!) is that God has decreed a way of salvation which also upholds the worth of his glory. He has given his Son to die for sinners.
5.Since I have this desire to know God… Since I wish to reach God… What must I do to be saved?
Turn from sin and trust the Savior. The benefits purchased by the death of Christ belong to those who repent and trust in him.
Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out . (Acts 3:19)
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved . (Acts 16:31)
6.By pure grace, God grants us the inclination or desire we need. A gift of God. We cannot work for this grace.
"God has granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18). "God exalted Christ at his right hand . . . to give repentance to Israel" (5:31). "God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). "The Lord opened [Lydia's] heart to give heed to what was said by Paul" (16: 14).
The Scriptures promised long ago that God would devote himself to this work in order to create for himself a faithful people:
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6). I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. (Jeremiah 24:7)
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God . (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances . (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
We Are "Called" The Way Jesus Called Lazarus: Death To Life (John 11: 1 – 57)
In the New Testament God is clearly active, creating a people for himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk in the light. John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith.
What must I do to be saved?
The answer in Acts 16:31 is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."
The answer in John 1:12 is that we must receive Christ: "To all who receive him . . . he gave power to become children of God."
The answer in Acts 3: 19 is, "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out."
The answer in Hebrews 5:9 is obedience to Christ. Christ "became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." So also in John 3:36, "He who does not obey the Son shall not see life."
Jesus himself answered the question in a variety of ways. For example, he said in Matthew 18:3 that childlikeness is the condition for salvation: "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never see the kingdom of heaven."
In Mark 8:34-35 the condition is self-denial: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."
In Matthew 10:37 Jesus lays down the condition of loving him more than anyone else: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." The same thing is expressed in 1 Corinthians 16:22-"If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed."
And in Luke 14:33 the condition for salvation is that we be free from the love of our possessions: "Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
Translation of heart from sin to salvation is what happens to the heart when Christ becomes for us a Treasure Chest of holy joy. Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction that Christ is both solidly reliable and supremely desirable.
The newness of a Christian convert is a new spiritual taste for the glory of Christ.
7. The Creation of a New Taste
H ow then does this arrival of joy relate to saving faith? The usual answer is that joy is the fruit of faith. And in one sense it is. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing' (Romans 15: 13). It is "in believing" that we are filled with joy. Confidence in the promises of God overcomes anxiety and fills us with peace and joy. Apostle Paul even calls it the "joy of faith" (Philippians 1:25).
But there is a different way of looking at the relationship of joy and faith. In Hebrews 11:6 the writer says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him." In other words, the faith which pleases God is a confidence that God will reward us when we come to him. But this does not mean that we are to be motivated by material things. The reward we long for is the glory of God himself and the perfected companionship of Christ (Hebrews 2: 10, 3:6, 10:34, 11 :26, 12:22-24, 13:5). We will sell everything to have the treasure of Christ himself.
So the faith which pleases God is the assurance that when we turn to him we will find the All-satisfying Treasure. We will find our heart's eternal delight. It implies that something has happened in our hearts before the act of faith. It implies that beneath and behind the act of faith which pleases God, a new taste has been created. A taste for the glory of God and the beauty of Christ. Behold, a joy has been born!
Once we had no true desire or delight in God, and Christ was just a vague historical figure. What we enjoyed was food and friendships and productivity and investments and vacations and hobbies and games and reading and shopping and sex and sports and art and TV and travel . . . but not God. He was an idea… or maybe an ideology… and a topic for discussion; but he was not a treasure of delight.
For the Christian something miraculous happened. It was like the opening of the eyes of the blind during the golden dawn. First the stunned silence before the unspeakable beauty of holiness. Then a shock and terror that we had actually loved the darkness. Then the settling stillness of joy that this is the soul's end. The quest is over. We would give anything if we might be granted to live in the presence of this glory forever and ever.
And then, faith… the confidence that Christ has made a way for me, a sinner, to live in his glorious fellowship forever, the confidence that if I come to God through Christ, he will give me the desire of my heart to share his holiness and behold his glory.
But before the confidence comes the craving. Before decision comes delight. Before trust comes the discovery of treasure.
8. Christ Died To Give Us Our Heart's Desire: God
Saving faith is the cry of a new creature in Christ. And the newness of the new creature is that it has a new taste. What was once distasteful or bland is now craved. Christ himself has become a Treasure Chest of holy joy. The tree of faith grows only in the heart that craves,desires, aspires, hopes, yearns, longs, fancys, given inclinations, wants, and wishes the supreme gift that Christ died to give: not health, not wealth, not prestige, but God!
"Christ died for sins once for all . . . that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "Through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2: 18). "Through him we have obtained access to grace . . . and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God . . . we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:2,11).
9. A New Passion for the Pleasure of God's Presence
Psalm 37:4 - Delightyourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Negative warning:
Matthew 13:14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.' 16 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Positive pronouncement
Matthew 7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
A person discovers a treasure and is impelled by joy to sell all he has in order to have this treasure. The kingdom of heaven is the residence of the King. The wishing to be there is not the desire for heavenly real estate, but for companionship and solidarity with the King. The treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ.