"HOW GREAT THOU ART!" or
"GETTING TO KNOW GOD"

TEXT: Psalm 19:6

INTRO.:

A. 🙂Getting to know someone is one of the most rewarding, deeply personal experiences in life. We call it friendship. 1️⃣First we meet, 2️⃣then we get to know the person's name, some personal facts about them, 3️⃣then a personal relationship follows which generates the 4️⃣desire to know more facts 5️⃣which in turn deepens the relationship, & so on. So it is - or should be - w/our friendship w/God. A knowledge about Him should deepen our relationship w/Him, which in turn should increase our desire to know more about Him.

ILLUS.: If we were going to move in w/someone, we would want to know all we could about him. Since believers will "move in" w/God soon, we need to get better acquainted!

B. The Scriptures speak both about the...
✨Incomprehensibility of God (Rom.11:33-36) & the
✨Knowability of God (Jn.14:7-11; 17:3). Just as there are things about anyone which we cannot know, so it is w/the Lord. But it is also true that we can know many things about our friends and we can know many things about God. Because of both truths we can exclaim "HOW GREAT THOU ART!"

TRANS.: There are many ways of "GETTING TO KNOW GOD"; two of those ways are thru 1️⃣General Revelation (evidences for the existence of God) & 2️⃣Special Revelation (which assumes the existence of God & gives us personal information about Him)...

I. GETTING TO KNOW GOD THRU DEFINITION:

A. Theological Definitions:

NOTE:
👉It is humanly impossible to define the Infinite, i.e. there can be no complete definition of God, no more than a scientist, philosopher, Dr. or parent can define you. Like God we are multi-faceted & multi-dimensional.
👉But we can attempt to define God by summarizing what we do know of Him.

   1. "God is an eternal personal Being of absolute knowledge, power & goodness." John Miley
   2. "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal & unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power & holiness, justice, goodness & truth." The Westminster Shorter Catechism
   3. God is "The first cause & last end of all things." Andrew Fuller

B. Scriptural Designations:

   1. "God is Spirit." Jn.4:24
   2. "God is light." I Jn.1:5
   3. "God is love." I Jn.4:16
   4. "God is a consuming fire." Heb.12:29

ILLUS.: Knowing God by definition alone is surely inadequate. It is like saying "I have a son" or "My daughter is beautiful"; those statements are true but they are woefully incomplete.

II. GETTING TO KNOW GOD THRU INTUITION: Rom.1:19-21

A. Men Know of God Intuitively:

   1. Belief in God is universal.
   2. Men must be taught to NOT believe in God. (There are no uneducated atheists!)
   3. Men intuitively worship something.
   4. Men instinctively believe in life after death.

ILLUS.:
🖐A man's hand may become paralyzed to the sense of touch, but that is no proof that the hand of man is not normally the great organ of touch.
🧑Man's brain may be educated to not believe in God (agnosticism & atheism are products of education), but that is no proof that man does not intuitively recognize the existence of God.
👨‍🎓His views may be distorted by his education, his traditions, his culture, his religion, etc. but they are real nonetheless.

B. Men Know of God Instinctively: Ps. 19:1-6

NOTE:
1️⃣Man is a creature above all the animals in that his response to his environment leads him to a belief in One greater than himself.
🔅He is a rational being & senses that creation demands a Creator.

   1. David wrote of the continuousness of the revelation thru creation. v.1,2
   2. He also wrote that the center or arena of this revelation is the universe, or the heavens & the earth. v.4
   3. He says this revelation is clear though nonverbal. v.3
   4. He states that this information is available everywhere & to everybody. v.4-6 (even the blind can feel the suns heat)

NOTE: This should lead man to ask who made this sun, earth, heavens, etc. Rom. 1:18-32 reveals & explains God's wrath against those who reject this revelation.

III. GETTING TO KNOW GOD THRU ARGUMENTS:

​A. The Argument from Origin: (Cosmological)

VIZ: CAUSE: EFFECT:

💥Option #1 = Nothing WORLD
💥Option #2 = Something Eternal
     a. Eternal Matter
     b. Eternal Chance
     c. Eternal God

B. The Argument from Order: (Teleological)

   1. The purpose, order, & design we observe in the world calls for a Designer.
   2. You cannot have an effect w/out a cause. Ps.19:1,2

C. The Argument from Man: (Anthropological)

   1. Man is a moral, intelligent, & living being & cannot be explained part from a moral, intelligent & living God.
   2. Evolution cannot produce soul, conscience or religious instincts - lifeless idols do not generate living offspring.

IV. GETTING TO KNOW GOD THRU SCRIPTURE:
NOTE:

⭐None of the above arguments are absolute or infallible & may be explained as incomplete.
⭐They cannot prove whether this Being is the Original Creator or simply the Author of our existence; whether He is infinite or finite, etc.
⭐Only the Specific Revelation of Scripture can give us this additional information.

A. The Details of His Creation.

B. The Person & Personality of God.

C. The Work & Love of God.

   1. His work is His plan of redemption for fallen mankind.
   2. His love is revealed in His plan for man.

ILLUS.: "For us today the only canon for determining true truth is the written Word of god. Nature, though it does reveal some things about God, is limited & can be misread by mankind. The human mind, though often brilliant in what it can achieve, suffers limitations & darkening. Human experiences - even religious ones, lack reliability as sources of the true knowledge of God unless they conform to the Word of God." - Charles Ryrie

CONCL.:
💥In the end it is either ✔God's Word or man's ideas; ✔Theology or Philosophy; ✔Belief or Unbelief; ✔Revelation or Reason.
💥It is clear that theology rests upon a solid objective foundation, while philosophy rests merely upon the assumptions & speculations of the philosopher.
💥Reason is totally inadequate to solve the basic problems of existence, has no real evidence for origins, sin, salvation & a final consummation.
💥Instead of getting to know the theories of men we need to "GET TO KNOW GOD" & when we do we will declare w/the hymn writer:
"Oh, God, HOW GREAT THOU ART!"