It’s Impossible to Know God – Lies of the Enemy #29– Purity 1041
Purity 1041 05/12/2023 Purity 1041 Podcast
Purity 1041 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s
photo of the silhouettes of waterfowl on a land bridge of what we believe to be
Onondaga Lake at the early stages of twilight time comes to us from a FB friend
who shared this photo on social media on May 9th rejoicing over their
completion of a Nature Hike/Walk Challenge on “the West Trail” just before the
sun went down.
Well it’s
Friday, thank God and as the sun goes down on another work week I am thanking
the Lord for all He has done as He has truly blessed and guided my path as I
began leading a new recovery/discipleship growth group, Celebrate Freedom at
Starpoint Church on Wednesday. Not
surprisingly, there was a little stress involved in launching the new group. The
church classroom facilities and the logistics of how we would operate were relatively
unknown to me right up until our first meeting but now that we have met and I
know how “we can do this!”, I am excited over what the Lord will do through
this group and am already looking forward to our next meeting. But before I get too far ahead of myself, I
am looking forward to the end of the work day today and spending the weekend
with my wife at our countryside home, and I also wish anyone who sees or hears
this message to have an awesome weekend and to make the most of the “free time”
you have over the next few days by appreciating what you have and giving thanks
to the Lord for it all.
This morning
as I was working out I was filled with joy and gratitude over what has transpired
over the last week and in anticipation of the day ahead of me and was thrilled as
the playlist I was listening to offered up Hillsong’s Came to My Rescue which goes:
“…My whole life I place in your hands.
God of mercy, humbled I bow down.
In your presence, at your throne
I called, you answered.
And you came to my rescue.
And I want to be where you are... “
And that
repeats for a few times until it goes to the triumphant bridge:
“In my life
Be lifted high.
In our world
Be lifted high.
In our love
Be lifted high.”
And of
course that repeats a few times. While I
was working out I enjoyed it, but I didn’t sing along and long after my work
out and prayer and meditation, I discovered the song had apparently grabbed
hold of me as I was just moved to sing it in the shower! I just love how the
love of the Lord can move us to explode in spontaneous worship sometimes. After looking up the lyrics, I realized that
I got some of them wrong as I could have sworn that “I want to know you more”
was somewhere in the mix but I guess I got that confused with the “I want to be
where you are….” Anyway as I thought about how I have been walking with the
Lord for the past several years, I remembered the skeptical idea or assertion
that some non-believing people or philosophers have made about how it was “impossible
to know God.” and how I know that to be a lie from the pit of hell because “I
called and God answered and came to my rescue and I know now that He has always
been there, waiting for me to come Him.
And this brings us to our current series the “Lies
of the Enemy”, which is
an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into
our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to
doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow
the Lord with the way we live our lives.
So today’s big lie is:
Lie #29: It’s Impossible to know God!
In my limited research this morning I found an
article on Crossway called Why It is Both Possible and Impossible to Know God (https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-its-both-possible-and-impossible-to-know-god/)
that addresses this paradoxical reality. I am sharing the link to it on the
blog so you can read it in its entirety, but for now I will borrow from it’s opening
to establish how supposedly “smart” men have been playing the devil’s advocate
by supporting the lie that it’s impossible to know God.
Beeke and Smalley’s article begins:
“… Skeptics and agnostics argue that it is irrational to speak of knowing
God.1 Some would say that if there is a God,
then he is so far above us that we cannot know him. Robert Ingersoll
(1833–1899) asked skeptically, “Is it possible for the human mind to conceive
of an infinite personality? Can it imagine a beginningless being, infinitely
powerful and intelligent?”2Others say that perhaps we might know something
about God, but we cannot know him personally. Aristotle said that friendship
requires a degree of equality, “but where there is a great gulf, as between God
and man, friendship becomes impossible.”3
As you may
suspect, this “wise guys” had a point philosophically and hypothetically, but Jesus
isn’t a philosophical question or a hypothetical situation to be pondered in
the recesses of our minds. Jesus was the
word made flesh. He is God incarnate. And when there was some doubt in one of
His disciples after His resurrection, He invited Thomas to “know Him more” by reaching
out and touching Him.
John 20:27 (NLT2) tells us Jesus said:
27 … to Thomas, “Put your
finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side.
Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
To which Thomas exclaimed:
John 20:28 (NLT2)
28 “My Lord and my God!” …
Thomas and all the other disciples knew God personally. They walked, talked, worked, and lived with God and through their accounts of their experiences with Jesus, and through the accounts of the Old Testament writers of their experiences with God, we can know God too.
That’s the first way we can know the Lord – through His word.
But God is Spirit as well and His is an ever present, living, and powerful Spirit that can be known when we seek His presence, guidance, and strength through prayer.
The point that the Crossway article
makes is that while it very well may seem that we could struggle to know an
infinite God, in theory,
“It is possible to know God because God has made himself
known.”
God revealed Himself to man from the beginning and He hasn’t stopped. He reveals Himself in history, in His word, in the person of Jesus Christ, and in the transformed lives of those who have put their faith in God.
While the skeptics may have a point that we can’t know everything about the infinite wisdom of God because our capacities are limited, we can know the Lord enough to be brought into an eternal relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. While we probably have “perfect knowledge” of everything about the Lord, we can know His love for us and His will for us as it is revealed in His word.
So don’t believe the lie that it is impossibility to know God. I and many others know from experience that if you seek Him, you will find Him and if you investigate the person of Jesus Christ, you like Thomas will discover that you can know the Lord and you too can exclaim: “My Lord and My God!”
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verse is :
Romans 1:16
(NLT2)
16 For I am not ashamed of
this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone
who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
Today’s verse speaks of the ability for people from all walks of life to know God and to be saved through the Good News about Jesus Christ and that the power of God is at work when someone believes.
It may seem overly simplistic, but I would suggest that if you enter into a theological discussion about the existence of God to just say: Jesus! As your opening and closing argument on the matter.
People have to answer the question of Jesus. Is He who He said He was or not? While I can imagine that there are all sorts of intricacies to the arguments against Jesus being the Messiah, God in the flesh, I know the one thing that doesn’t result from intelligently arguing against His Lordship: and that thing is peace. I have seen enough debates with atheists and heard enough of the “arguments” from skeptics to know that what ever pride may result from their intellectual ponderings, they certainly don’t seem to have “it all figured out” because they invariably seem to lack a convincing semblance of certainty or peace. And as much as they would seek to make Christians ashamed of the gospel they proclaim, whatever peace they may attempt to convey seems to be a demonic counterfeit as they have become mouthpieces for the kingdom of darkness that seeks to steal, kill and destroy.
Like a pedophile offer sweet treats to children, atheists, members of false religions, secular humanists, and the nihilist of the world - the things they offer are a trap from the pit of hell and they are all in desperate need of savior.
And so we speak the Good
News of Jesus Christ, and we pray the power of God will work to pull them into
the peace that can only be found in Christ alone.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister
Reality” By June Hunt.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own
private study and to support her work. This resource is available online
for $7.99 (https://june-hunt.myshopify.com/collections/keys-for-living/products/keys-for-living-on-satan-demons-satanism_ ).
Satan, Demons & Satanism
A
Sinister Reality
by June Hunt
IV. Steps To Solution
D. Discern the
Diminishing Role of Demons
Satan is not an impersonal force, but a distinct personality
commanding an unseen kingdom of evil. His demonic spirits possess
power—temporary power—but their doom is sealed.
• Demons know that Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God.
“A man … who was
possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of
God!’ ” (Mark 1:23–24)
• Demons shudder and tremble before God.
“You believe that
there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19)
• Demons must submit to Jesus.
“[Jesus] has gone into
heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in
submission to him.” (1 Peter 3:22)
• Demons cannot escape their final judgment.
“God did not spare
angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy
dungeons to be held for judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4)
• Demons know that torture is their destiny.
“ ‘What do you
want with us, Son of God?’ they shouted. ‘Have you come here to torture us
before the appointed time?’ ” (Matthew 8:29)
Q
“Can Christians be demon possessed?”
No. The Bible never presents even one believer as being
possessed by a demon. Christians can be oppressed, but not possessed. Instead,
they have been bought by the blood of the Lamb; therefore, their bodies are not
their own—they belong to Christ.
“Do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received
from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God
with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] June
Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Satan, Demons & Satanism: A Sinister Reality
(Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008), 16.
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