Chapter 2: God

We are studying Pink's book, Profiting from the Word. And on your sheet I put a multifaceted, I don't know what it is, diamond, gemstone.

! Got it from my clip art gallery. But what I'd like to do is just try to position what Pink is doing in this book with that gemstone.

And each week as I have taught, the last three times I've taught, I have purposed to not create a handout. I have to confess that the reason I do this is because I need it.

It's my crutch. As I'm going through the final review of the lesson, I'm having a very difficult time tracking in my own mind how everything interrelates.

And I think, you know, if I'm having trouble tracking it, the people I'm teaching are going to be in trouble. So I end up with this handout to help you follow my flow. But what we're doing in the book, Profiting from the Word, is we are going through various aspects, or Pink is going through various aspects of God's Word.

He's putting glasses on us, as it were, to see certain aspects of truth and focusing in on that truth and then asking the question, as we go to the Word and we see this aspect of truth in the Word, how is it that we should be profiting from it?

How can we measure if we're profiting from that Word? So this morning, we're to the second. I got them numbered along the little stone there.

The second one is God. Last week we looked at the Scriptures and sin. Again, we're now looking at the Scriptures and God, and we will work around that as we continue in the weeks ahead, Lord willing. But first, some introductory words regarding God and the Scriptures.

We are on the Scriptures and God on your sheet on the left-hand side, for those that want to fill in the blanks. First of all, the Scriptures are supernatural.

The Scriptures are supernatural. Again, I want us to focus on the aspect we're dealing with, how we're profiting from the Word, specifically as it relates to God. So how is it that the Scriptures being supernatural relate to God?

Well, they relate to God because God is the one who inspired them. They're God-breathed. And also, it was God who chose to give them to us.

I've used this illustration before, but let me use it again. If we were to imagine, in a Hollywood-type setting, a science fiction movie in which some grand being comes to our Earth in a spaceship and parks it on the White House lawn and gets out and delivers to the President of the United States this manual, and he claims that he first created and put us on this planet a few thousand years ago, and everything that he thinks is important that we should know is written down in that manual.

I would imagine that probably the first hour that manual hit the Internet, there would be millions of hits on it of people wanting to go to it and find out what in the world is so great this person, this being that put us here, was here before we were here, who created us, is now telling us everything he thinks we should know.

I mean, this is big stuff. And I simply use the illustration to try to help us to get a little bit of the wow. I need help in getting some of the wow back of both what it is we hold in our hands in the Scriptures as well as the one who came to give it to us.

We need wow for both. So God claimed to create mankind on this planet several thousand years ago, and he revealed himself through this manual that he gave us.

So the Scriptures on your second point there are revealed. The Scriptures reveal a supernatural God. They're not only given supernaturally by God, but they reveal in themselves this God who gave them.

And he is a supernatural God. God cannot be known apart from the Scriptures. In Acts 17.23 we read, For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God.

Now what you worship as something unknown, I'm going to proclaim to you. Oh, they were great worshipers in Athens. But since they did not have the Scriptures, since they did not have God's inspired book to man, all they knew was maybe there's some other unknown God out there.

And from that we can also see that God cannot be known apart from the Scriptures. So God can be known only through the Scriptures, your third point.

Scriptures are supernatural. The Scriptures reveal a supernatural God. And God can only be known through the Scriptures. But then fourthly, God can only be known through supernatural revelation of the Scriptures.

By this we mean that the true God cannot become known through intellectual study, but only when He chooses to supernaturally reveal Himself through the Scriptures to the heart of man.

In other words, we need those glasses put on by God Himself, with the book that He has given us, in order to be able to supernaturally learn and understand about this God.

For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

And then Acts 13.48, When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. Why is it that only some believed?

The Scriptures, the supernatural book came to all, all the Gentiles spoken of here in Acts 13.48, yet only some believed, and the ones that believed were those that God had appointed for eternal life.

Why is this so? Again, because God must impart a supernatural faculty to discern the spiritual. In John 3.3, we read, In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless He is born again.

So what does all this have to do with profiting from the Scriptures? Well, I would submit everything. Please turn to John 5.20. John 5.20.

John 5.20. 1 John 5.20.

Thank you. While you're turning there, let me ask you a question.

This is for your answer. What is the ultimate profit a man can receive from the Scriptures? So you aren't afraid to answer.

I think there's multiple correct answers to this. It's depending on what the perspective is you're coming to the answer from. But what's the ultimate profit a man can receive from the Scriptures?

Roger. Okay. It would end in His salvation. That's profit. Isn't anything less or anything else become kind of meaningless if He lands in hell?

So the ultimate profit from the Scriptures is eternal life, right? Listen to John 17.3 and ask yourself as I read this, what is eternal life?

Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. What is eternal life?

It's knowing God. What are we studying this morning? We're studying how we can profit from the Scriptures specifically as it relates to what the Scriptures say about God.

So how are we going to profit from the Scriptures as it relates about God? It's by knowing God. Because when I know God, according to the Scriptures, that is eternal life.

Look at 1 John 5.20. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true.

And we are in Him who is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. God came and, as it were, put that manual on the White House lawn, delivered it to us.

Why? Why did He do it? What was the purpose? So that you may know Him who is true. That was His reason for delivering this book that we call the Scriptures to us.

So let me make the point here that it's possible to know the Scriptures, hold to them as God's Word, without knowing the God of the Scriptures.

Do you believe that to be true? I know we've heard it many times in recent weeks, even in our messages that our pastor has brought to us. I'm not going to take the time to go to the many examples in Scripture, but just think of the Pharisees in your mind.

They knew the Scriptures, but they didn't know the God of the Scriptures. Let me summarize this point from Pink himself.

Multitudes who believe in the Holy Trinity are completely devoid of supernatural or spiritual knowledge of God. And he then goes on and says this, supernatural knowledge, experienced fruit of God, is noticeably absent from the lives of perhaps 95 out of every 100 now professing to be God's children.

There is nothing in the life of the average professing Christian except what can be accounted for on natural grounds. But in the genuine child of God, it is far otherwise. He is in truth a miracle of grace.

He is a new creation in Christ Jesus. His experience, his life is supernatural. And I don't know when this particular chapter was written.

I know it is somewhere between 1921 and 1952, which is when he died. But that is what he said then. How would we feel today of where the church has gone?

Our churches are filled with those of us who know about God, who know the Scriptures, things in the Scriptures, but we do not know God.

So we're looking this morning, what are the supernatural effects specifically? This morning as it relates to God, what are the supernatural effects that I will be able to witness in my life as I go about this supernatural book that was supernaturally given by a supernatural God.

So the effects of spiritually profiting from the Scriptures, and if you didn't get it, number five above was profiting from the Scriptures. We know we are profiting from the Scriptures, first of all, if we have a clearer recognition and reverence of God's claims.

Let's cut to the chase. What is the root problem of everything bad in this universe? Anyone? Sin.

And where did sin come from? From the fall. We could say it originated in Satan, but originally came to us, to mankind, to this universe that God had created that was perfect.

From the fall, it came from man. And I've included Scriptures here, so I'm not going to read them all. You can go back and use them for your study.

But very quickly, man's problem. We want to rule. We want to rule. We want to be our own masters. Listen to Psalm 12.4.

We will triumph with our tongues. We own our lips. Who is our master? This describes man. This is what sin is. We will do our own thing.

In Jeremiah, why do my people say we are free to roam? Or literally, we are lords. We will come to you no more. We do not desire to know His ways.

Leave us alone. We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? What would we be gaining by praying to Him? And that leaves us ignorant of God and separated from Him.

Ephesians 4.18. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. So again, pink summarizing what is sin.

Sin is a species of high treason, spiritual anarchy. It is the repudiation of God's dominion, the setting aside of His authority, rebellion against His will.

Sin is having our own way. Or as 1 John 3.4 puts it, everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. Sin is a place of sin.

Sin is a place of sin. You know, as I read Pink's quote, I thought, I wonder in how many places that claim to be Christian places of worship this morning would such a description of sin be coming from the pulpits.

Be sure of this, wherever sin is downplayed or softened, reverence for God's Word is under compromise. Well, if that's the problem, in its raw form, that is what sin is, then what's the solution?

What is God's solution? If sin is lawlessness, then at its heart, salvation will return reverence for the law. If sin is rebellion against God, true profiting from the Word will result in growing submission to God.

And so how is it that we regain reverence for the law of God? Well, it starts with God. Hebrews 8.10, I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.

And if He writes those laws on our hearts and minds, that's going to result in our delighting in those very laws. Romans 7.22, For in my inner being, I delight in God's law.

God is the one who puts that delight there. And then the delighting in God's laws in turn produces obedience. We know we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.

1 John 2.3 Legally, this transaction's already taken place. Experientially, it's a work in progress. But it's clearly visible.

God is being set up as our portion and ruler. Our heart is being won to God. Our enmity against God is being slain. Sin's dominion over us is being broken.

Every idol is being torn down. The empty vanities of this world are being renounced. So then, how can we measure if we are indeed profiting from the Word?

The degree to which the remedy is alive within our hearts is the degree to which God's Word will be preeminent in our lives. Saying God's Word is preeminent is one thing.

But making it so is something completely different. How much time do we spend searching it out, studying it, reading it? Again, going back to my illustration.

If we really had that wow for God's Word, if we really had that love for God, how much would we be going into it, seeking to draw out of it, learn from it, wanting to know what the right way is, what God's commands are, do we respond to its correction and rebuke when we see it?

Do we translate those instructions into actions? This gets really practical. For example, from my own life, in reading God's Word recently, I came across the following rebuke in Malachi 2.2.

If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name, saying, the Lord Almighty, says the Lord Almighty, I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.

Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. And I was just struck with, how much am I setting my heart on honoring Him?

that I'm stopping, contemplating, meditating, on how I might honor my God. And as that rebuke came, I started thinking about, coming to mind was this difficult project that we've been in for a year, and how it has been going worse, and we've been having struggles with the customer, and it's been very evident that we're in desperate need of God's supernatural help, that He's the one that has the hearts in His hand, and He must control them.

And I'm thinking about this, and then the thought comes to my mind, how can I honor His name in this? I mean, if this all goes great, who's going to get the glory?

You know, the project manager. And then the thought came to mind, well, you know, you can really cut the legs out from under yourself, if you just stop and have some prayer, with at least somebody on your team.

And so for the next several days, this option was burning in my heart and mind, and the fear of man kept me from having that prayer.

And finally, with God's great patience, and in my faltering way, I approached one member of our team who's been an office mate, and blurted out, could we just stop and pray for God's blessing on this?

And he immediately accepted. And so I led us in prayer, and in that prayer was able to express our weakness, and our complete inability to do anything apart from Him, and God's greatness, and His glory, and that anything that happens is going to be honor to Him and to His name.

And in so doing, now any success that comes will honor His name, at least for the two that were in that room. But you see, it's an example of how coming from Scripture, we need to take those commands and bring them into our lives and see how we can set our heart on figuring out ways to honor Him.

That is what life is all about. That's what we've been placed here for. This, then, will naturally lead to a greater fear of God's majesty, which is our second point.

A greater fear of God's majesty. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the people of the world revere Him. In the counsel of the Holy Ones, God is greatly feared.

He is more awesome than all who surround Him. Again, I want to start with man's problem. What is man's problem? Well, man's problem is that he has no recognition of who God is.

It's gotten so bad that some in their self-delusion have even denied that He exists. Man's lack of fear comes out in many ways.

Thoughtless cursing of His name. Just complete thoughtless cursing of His name. You live in the same world I do. The insertion of His name in places that does not even make sense.

Desecrating His day. Trampling of His commands. A complete thoughtlessness of God. A complete lack of fear. Let me state man's problem as a question.

Why do we often not tremble at God's majesty? Why are we not terrified by His unfathomable power? Why are we not filled with horror for every wrong motive, thought, and deed?

If God's abhorrence of sin is infinite and His character is ineffably holy, I believe Romans 3.18 summarizes it very concisely.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Pharaoh also said it well, Who is the Lord that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

Man does not fear God because man does not know God. We will all fear Him one day from the least to the greatest because we will one day see Him as He is.

So God's solution to man's problem always begins with Himself. Jeremiah 32.40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

I will never stop doing good to them and I will inspire them to fear Me so that they will never turn away from Me. God's solution to our lack of awe of His person is that He will inspire us to fear Him.

And what will this God-imparted fear produce? They will tremble at His word. Isaiah 66.5 They will hate evil. Proverbs 8.13 They will depart from evil.

Proverbs 16.6 They will be as conscientious about private conduct as their activities, as their public activities. And we'll do that by realizing that the eyes of the Lord are everywhere keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

Proverbs 15.3 Again, Pink summarizing the truly regenerate soul is afraid of disobeying and defying God.

So how do I know if I'm indeed profiting from the word as I go to it especially as it relates to God and His majesty? Well, since God has said I will inspire them to fear me the obvious question that we can ask ourselves as to whether I leave the word with a greater fear of Him than when I first approached it.

Since it's God that must inspire me to fear Him don't I need to simply let go and let God? Well, while it's true that God is the source and producer of all fear and reverence for Himself it's equally true that God has chosen means for producing this fear of Himself within mankind.

And He speaks of that in Psalm 34.11 Come my children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Teaching implies it's something we must learn.

So while God is the one that must produce it within us He also says He produces it within us by our learning it and where is it that we learn that we're taught this fear of God and about His majesty and of course the answer again is in God's word.

Proverbs 2.1-5 My son if you accept my words and store up my commands within you then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

So it's as we approach the word and we store it up within us that we accept it how it applies to us then that will produce by God's supernatural power and grace an understanding of the fear of the Lord.

So how do I know that I'm profiting from the word in this point? Well how much is His majesty being elevated in my heart and mind which is then producing a fear which is then affecting the actions by which I live?

Thirdly we know we are profiting from the scriptures if we have a firmer trust in God's sufficiency. Man's problem woe to those who go down to Egypt for help who rely on horses who trust in the multitude of their chariots and the great strength of their horsemen but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord.

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust who does not look to the proud to those who turn aside to false gods. You may say to yourself my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me but remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

In our fallen state we will trust in anyone and anything and everything except God in our health and our wealth and our self and our friends. And again pink summarizing whatsoever or whomsoever a man most trusts in is his God.

Well God's solution results in man trusting in God rather than in himself. Biblical faith is simply trusting in God's sufficiency.

And where does such faith come from? It comes from God. For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God.

Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.

Simply put God solves our sin of self-sufficiency by granting us faith to look to the unseen resource count upon an invisible God lean upon a hidden arm again says Pink.

Again the application how can we know if we are indeed profiting from the word? Well time spent in the word should increase my trust in God's all-sufficiency.

As with the fear of God faith in God is apportioned to us by God through God-ordained means. What are the means by which he produces this faith? Well we all know this passage consequently faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

So the word of God is one means by which this faith, this ability to trust in his sufficiency comes. The second method is prayer. In Luke 17.5 the disciples or the apostles said unto the Lord increase our faith.

Again as we spoke we can come to the word but unless God empowers that word into our hearts and lives it's going to be useless for producing spiritual activity within us and so we must come to it in prayer and dependence upon God to produce the faith within us as we use the means of his word that he has ordained.

But then thirdly submission to his lordship fear of his person trembling at his word obedience to his word going back to some of the previous points we've already talked about I can pray all I want for faith but if I'm not shunning evil I will find the Lord shunning my prayers listen to how this familiar passage Proverbs 3 5 through 9 sums this up trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him fear of God and he will make your path straight do not be wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and shun evil it's a package it all goes together and if we're going to come to fear God we must go to his word to seek to know God better to see his glory more we must pray that he would enlighten that glory to our heart and our eyes and then we must submit ourselves to what he is teaching us in his word fourthly a fuller delight in

God's perfections we know we're profiting from the scriptures if we have a fuller delight in God's perfections starting with man's problem those without God seek satisfaction in everything but God our own pursuits our possessions our pleasures pink summarizing that in which a man most delights is his God God's solution is he causes us to delight in himself not only is this so but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ that as for me it is good to be near God the saints love for his God becomes most evident when everything else which brings him security and pleasure is taken away listen to Habakkuk though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet will

I rejoice in the Lord I will be joyful in my God and my Savior and I put the emphasis on those verses where I have because I know I have struggled with this light in everything but God and to even go to the scriptures and delight in the exciting new things we learn in those scriptures and what new aspects and new doctrines and new whatever this intellectual satisfaction taking pleasure in that rather than the delight being in God in the Lord in our Savior so how do I know that I'm profiting from the scriptures I will let pink summarize to the extent that we are being weaned from the empty pleasures of this world are learning that there is no blessing outside of God are discovering that he is the source and some of all excellency and your heart is being drawn out to him your mind stayed on him your soul finding its joy and satisfaction in him are you really profiting from the scriptures fifthly we know we're profiting from the scriptures if we have a larger submission to

God's providences a larger submission to God's providences the natural man is going to murmur when things go wrong he's going to have disappointment when plans He's going to be whining his way he's going to be rebelling when a loved one is taken from him God's supernaturally induced responses will be holding our peace when things go wrong bowing to his appointments saying not my will but thine be done saying from the heart the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of!

The application is that the degree to which I am delighting in God's perfections will largely determine the sweetness to which I am able to submit to God's providences again they tie together I go from a fuller delight in God's perfections to the ability to begin submitting to God's providences why are these connected what are the God ordained means for learning sweet submission to God's providences well again the answer is wrapped up in God himself I can only trust someone to the degree that I know them I can only trust someone to the degree that I know their character is honorable and their abilities and that they're trustworthy I can only sweetly submit myself to another to the degree that I really know that they know best the degree to which I know that

I am then able to submit myself sweetly to them in their will so how do I come to sweetly submit to his providences by getting to know God better after all they are his providences that's why they're in this chapter by pink they're the providences of God and so as I go to God's word and I learn about God I should be able to submit more to his providences by learning about and admiring meditating on his goodness his kindness his love by learning about his power and majesty and strength by coming to see his wisdom and knowledge in other words by keeping our mind stayed on him Isaiah 26 3 you will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast or in the King James stayed on thee because he trusts in you what is it that's going to allow me to trust in

God even in the most difficult providences! stayed on him focusing on who he is how can I not trust in such a being it's insanity to not do that it's insanity to trust in myself that knows so little is so finite so the only reason I struggle with trust is because my mind is not remaining stayed on him and really who he is so how do we know we're profiting from the word our Bible studies are teaching us that God's way is best we're able to submit to all of his providences without discontentment lowliness of spirit complaint or fretting we're able to give thanks in all things as it says in Ephesians 5 20 giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our

Lord Jesus final point for this morning we know that we are profiting from the scriptures if we have a more fervent praise for God's goodness a more fervent praise for God's goodness man's problem man's natural disposition is to do the opposite of Ephesians 5 20 that I just read why well because we have a high view of ourselves when one has a high view of self he believes the good that comes to him is deserved which such a spirit results in a lack of thankfulness I'm not going to praise God for his goodness to me if I think everything that's coming to me is deserved in other words and I'm going to think everything that's coming to me is deserved if I have a high view of myself God's solution is the very first step of salvation which is to show us that we are worthless and deserving of nothing but hell this leads to a thankful heart we become thankful for salvation we become thankful for forgiveness of sins and then we begin to become thankful as we realize that every single gift we have our very sustenance in everyday life our strength our health our mind is all from him it's all a gift and it's all undeserved the promise of eternal bliss as we dwell on these things our praise for God's goodness will become more fervent but God doesn't save his elect to be thankful for God's abundant mercy and gifts alone he saves us ultimately to be worshippers of himself

I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall be continually in my mouth yes Lord walking in the ways of your laws we wait for you your name and your renown are the desire of our hearts therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire and then Psalm 149 praise the Lord sing to the Lord a new song his praise in the assembly of the saints let Israel rejoice in their maker let the people of Zion be glad in their king let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and art for the Lord takes delight in his people he crowns the humble with salvation let the saints rejoice in his honor and sing for joy on their beds in other words the first aspect I talked about in bringing praise for

God's goodness could be illustrated of a little child around a Christmas tree that receives a bunch of gifts and that child becomes very thankful for these gifts because they're exactly what they had been wanting all year and they're immediately down playing with those gifts becoming worshipers of God recognizes the gifts are nothing the gifts are reflection of the heart of the one who gave them and instead of looking at the gift they look up to their God and they are in awe of him and they come to worship him as their maker and as their king and declare his honor and his praise Colossians 1 10 through 16 I'll read a few of these verses in application what produces such worship and we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way bearing fruit in every good work growing in the knowledge of God how is it that we know we're going to profit from the word as we grow in the knowledge of God but it doesn't end there for by him all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by him and for him that knowledge of God teaches us that he is the

Lord the king the maker the all good and great God which then causes us to worship him