Knowing God: Chapter 9

Knowing God – Week 10:

Chapter 9: God Only Wise

Review

• Our Response to majesty

  • Right thoughts about God

    • Isaiah 40: 25

  • Right thoughts about ourselves

    • Isaiah 40: 27

  • Eagerness to believe in God’s majesty

    • Heidelberg Catechism

      • Question 34. Why do we call Jesus Christ "our Lord"?
        Answer: Because he hath redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins, not with silver or gold, but with his precious blood, and has delivered us from all the power of the devil; and thus has made us his own property

Wisdom

? What is wisdom?

• Webster

  • Knowledge, insight, judgment

• Biblical

  • Understanding, discernment, skill, prudence, sound knowledge

  • Distinction (Proverbs 21: 30)

    • wisdom that belongs to man

    • supreme intelligence that belongs to God

• Packer

  • The power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it

  • Practical side of moral goodness

  • His character

• Trust & Obey

? Why is God “utterly worthy of our fullest trust”?

• 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.”

? Why is the Lord Jesus central to the fulfillment of God’s purposes?

• Packer, “God has set him forth both as Savior from sin, whom we must trust, and as Lord of the church, whom we must obey”

God dealing with his people

• Abram

  • Genesis 12: 10 – 20

  • Genesis 22: 1 – 19

  • Packer

    • “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.”

    • “From being a man of the world, Abraham becomes a man of God.”

? What was Abraham like when God began to work with him? Who did he become?

• Jacob

  • Genesis 27: 1 – 40

  • Genesis 32: 22 – 32

  • Packer

    • “But God in his wisdom had also resolved to instill true religion into Jacob himself.”

    • “…he clung to God through all this painful humbling, till he came low enough for God to raise him up by speaking peace to him and assuring him…”

? In what ways did Jacob need to be changed? How did God change him?

• Joseph

  • Genesis 37: 13 – 36

  • Genesis 45: 1 – 15, 50: 19 – 21

  • Psalm 105: 16 – 19

  • Packer

    • “Joseph was being tested, refined and matured; he was being taught…to stay himself upon God, to remain cheerful and charitable in frustrating circumstances, and to wait patiently for the Lord.”

    • “…the wisdom of God ordering the events of a human life for a double purpose: the individual’s sanctification, and the fulfilling of his appointed ministry and service in the life of the people of God.”

? For what double purpose did Joseph suffer?

Our trials

? What are some of the reasons God allows us to endure hardships? Which of these have you experienced? Give examples.

• Packer

  • List on page 97

  • “…that fellowship with the Father and the Son [and Holy Spirit] is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest.”

• Chapter 2 – The People Who Know Their God

  • Russell Sukhia – Liberty Reformed PCA

    • Take up Your Cross – Deny Yourself

      • Christ Life – focus on the needs of others

    • “… we are unwilling to deny ourselves and take up our Cross. And the world cannot discern any difference between the average Christian and the average non-Christian.”

• “…we must not be surprised if he calls us to follow in his steps, and to let ourselves be prepared for the service of others by painful experiences…”

? How should we meet trying situations when we can’t see God’s purpose in them?

• Packer, “First, by taking them as from God, and asking ourselves what reactions to them, and in them, the gospel of God requires of us; second, by seeking God’s face specifically about them.”

? Share changes God has brought about in your life. How has he done this?

? How can our confidence in God’s wisdom be a comfort to us?

open discussion

• Romans 16: 25 – 27
  25Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- 27to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.