In today’s podcast, our subject matter in the book of First Corinthians takes us to the subject of knowing God. A.W. Tozer spoke out on this topic with the following thought. “The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.”¹ Is this a thought provoking quote to you? What about this citation from J. I. Packer? “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is demanding, but simple. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”² Tozer says there’s been a decline in the knowledge of God. Packer says that what’s needed to turn this trend around is turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God. We are headed out in this direction today. What You Need to Know about Knowing God. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#007: Are You Tuned into God’s Heart? [Podcast]

God is. Yesterday He is. Today He is. Tomorrow He is. God never changes. Click To Tweet

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

We must adjust our thinking to the fact that God is. Yesterday He is. Today He is. Tomorrow He is. God never changes. 

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a testimony on how knowing that God is unchangeable helped to stabilize you. Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life [Podcast]
2. Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive [Encore Podcast]
3. How You Can Demonstrate Powerful Faith in God [Podcast]
4. Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God [Podcast]
5. Faith and Prayer: Important Lessons to Know [Podcast]
6. Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain [Podcast]
7. Scriptures to Feed Your Faith and Combat Fear [Podcast]

We are currently teaching in the book of Second Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S11-006: How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth [Podcast]
2. #S11-005: Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace [Podcast]
3. #S11-004: Why God’s Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours [Podcast]
4. #S11-003: Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven [Podcast]
5. #S11-002:Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts [Podcast]
6. #S11-001: Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results [Podcast]
7. #S10-052: Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right [Podcast]
8. #S10-51: Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God [Podcast]
9. #S10-50: Why You Shouldn’t Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings [Podcast]
10. #S10-049: Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope
11. #S10-048: Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way [Podcast]
12. #S10-047: What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God? [Podcast]
13. #S10-046: Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 42 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Prayer

Well again, welcome. Let’s pray.

Father God, we have prayed this prayer about knowing you so many times. We pray according to this line because we desire it so. Grant unto us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you — that is our hearts desire. We want to know you more than we want stuff from you. We ask you this all in Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.

Podcast Notes

Knowing God: The Book of First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:1–8 (ESV)— 1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Paul doesn’t stop with a minimal greeting: Paul, To the church of God that is in Corinth.
• He wanted to make sure that the church at Corinth understood what it means to be the church at Corinth.
• Those who are in the church sanctified in Christ Jesus.
• Additionally, those sanctified in Christ Jesus are called to be saints.
• And, they are not alone — they are together with all those in every place — in every city where people have said ‘Yes’ to Jesus.
• They are joined in a body with those who have taken Jesus as Lord in the smallest of villages — in the most remote part of the globe — in the dingiest back alleys of Planet Earth.
• If you have said ‘Yes’ to Jesus, just know you are part of something way bigger than yourself.

Knowing God: Three Letters to the Corinthians

• So, in our Bibles we have two letters written to the Church at Corinth.
• They are known as First and Second Corinthians but, did you know that First Corinthians was not the FIRST letter Paul wrote to this church?
• First Corinthians is, in fact, the second letter Paul wrote.

1 Corinthians 5:9–10 (ESV) — 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

• Paul said here in 1 Corinthians “I wrote to you” — that means there’s another letter out there.
• No one has found this letter — it is lost.
• I imagine that this ‘first’ letter that’s lost followed the same format as the two letters we have — that is they both started out with a salutation and then got on to the crux of the matter.
• I mean it’s a letter.
• We know what one of the problems that Paul addressed in this lost letter is this do not associate with sexually immoral people.
• He’s talking about saved people and we know that because this was a letter to a church.
• So these who are sexually immoral are church people.
• The message is clear: do not associate with sexually immoral people.
• The word ‘associate’ is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
• The word ‘associate’ means to mingle with.
• Now, the word mingle is in the negative — you know put the word ‘not’ in front of associate — do not associate — do not mingle.
• What does do not mingle mean?
• Well, the word ‘mingle’ means to socialize.
• Do not socialize with sexually immoral church people.
• This avoidance piece is a message mentioned multiple times.
• We just got through talking about one these instances in the Second Thessalonians.
• As a refresher, here it is again.

2 Thessalonians 3:14 (ESV) — 14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.

Knowing God: The Torah

• You understand ‘avoidance, shunning — sending a message that immoral is not cool’ is a God concept.
• Do you really know God’s way’s?
• Are you sensitive to how He thinks?
• If you want to expand your understanding of God and put all of this into perspective, read the Torah.
• You know the Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
• When you read these books, do so quickly.
• What I mean by that is read large portions of these first five books at a time.
• Like try to read all five in one month.
• You’d have to average six or seven chapters a day to do it.
• What would smack you in the face is the holiness of God.
• You would be astounded at what permeates those pages.
• Now, don’t dismiss that.
• Don’t rationalize that away.
• It’s who God is.
• And, it’s still who He is.
• If you read these five books and then come back and read theses New Testament passages on shunning a brother or sister who is walking disorderly, you might get a different sense of what the Lord is trying to communicate.
• You might know God a little better.
• Here’s an example.
• I guarantee this passage will curl your toes.

Deuteronomy 21:18–21 (ESV) — If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

• Are you serious God? — take a rebellious child and stone him or her with stones?
• Yes, but I love my child — oh yeah?
• You mean you love them more than an Israelite loved his son?
• Are you sure?
• “Well, I can’t imagine doing that.”
• That’s not the point — the point is are you sure you know God?
• This is how God thinks about rebellions children.
• We want to pet them and console — and God is saying let them be turned over to their Maker.
• They don’t want to heed you as they stand before you on earth — give them an entrance to let them stand before me.
• Now, here comes the next thought we have to navigate through on knowing God.
• And, it’s this thinking, ‘Yes but that’s the Old Testament.’
• Oh course it is — we have modern day laws that forbid us from acting on Deuteronomy 21:21 in the way they were instructed.
• Now just because we have a better covenant established upon better promises, doesn’t mean that all of sudden the Lord has changed His thoughts about rebellious children.
• He is the same God — he never changes.
• Do you understand that?

Knowing God: Unchangeableness

• God is.
• Yesterday He is.
• Today He is.
• Tomorrow He is.

John 8:51–55  (ESV) — 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.

• This is what we are talking about — knowing God.

John 8:56–58  (ESV) — 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

• He am — that means He is.
• Time does not change God — He changes time.
• God just is.
• If God Is — If He am — then He does not grow.
• God is not growing into His true self.
• We know that because in order to grow, you must change.
• So since God never changes, that means He is full grown, has been full grown, will always be full grown all His days and in all His ways.
• Now, His ways are made known in scripture.
• You just read some of His ways in Deuteronomy and some of His ways in Corinthians — do not associate with sexually immoral people — the lost letter.

Knowing God: His Ways Are Full Grown

• We have Bible verses about God that show us what He’s like.
• Now, think about that.
• The Holy Spirit inspired and moved upon men so that these verses would be available to mankind.
• That means His desire is that we know Him.
• If God didn’t want us to know Him, he wouldn’t have made this truths available.
• The truth is He doesn’t want to stay hidden — the Lord wants us to know Him.
• That’s why He opened up windows that we might see Him.
• There are scriptures that show how man could approach God.
• Verses where He showed us how to talk to God.
• There are scriptures that reveal how we are to walk with God.
• Why do these principles exist?
• Because, God wants us to know — He wants you to know.
• These principles, if that is what you want to call them, are ‘full grown.’
• Theology is the study of God.
• God is not developing theology — He is the ‘Theo’ in theology.
• He is. — full grown — full out — God, period.
• Since God is, and we know that one of the things He is, is holy and you have the sin nature — we now get that there’s a problem.

Knowing God: The Incredible Effectiveness of Jesus

• Jesus solved this problem.
• It was a magnificent stroke of wisdom that completely took the spirit world by surprise.

Colossians 2:13–14 (ESV) — 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

• ‘With Him’ — God made [us] alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.
• These two words ‘with Him’ are so powerful — some of us haven’t yet understood it.
• When God made Jesus alive — He made you alive with Him.
• But there’s a comma there — read the verse!
• The Father made us alive together with him, [here’s what’s after the comma] having forgiven us all our trespasses, canceling the record of debt that stood against us.
• What’s He saying?
• At the very same time God raised Jesus from the dead, He also forgave you of your sins.
• The living reality of that changed everything!
• And, with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.
• N.T. Wright wrote the following in his book on Paul.

He said, ‘No wonder the theologians of the second and third centuries often emphasized, when speaking about the crucifixion of Jesus, their belief that on the cross he won the victory over all the dark powers. That wasn’t just a theological theory about an abstract “atonement.” It was the necessary foundation for the lives of the communities in which they lived and worked. The communities could exist only because the old gods, much as they might try to strike back, really had been overthrown. Mammon, Mars, and Aphrodite had been shown up as impostors. Caesar himself was not the ultimate Lord… These communities were demonstrating, on the street, in the home, in the marketplace, what it meant to follow a different Lord, to worship the One God.[Wright, N. T. Paul (p. 427. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.]

• Jesus obedience changed everything.
• When I say, changed everything — you know I don’t mean that God the Father changed.
• Jesus solving the sin problem didn’t change who God is.
• He didn’t become someone different in the New Testament.
• What changed is that now the sins of the whole world have been forgiven.
• The same Holy Father God when He looks at man now sees the veil of the Blood of Jesus.

1 John 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

• Propitiation, what does that big word mean?
• The word propitiation means atoning sacrifice.
• God’s Word translation has the word propitiation as ‘payment for our sins.’
• Listen to the Amplified on this passage.

1 John 2:2 (AMP)— 2 And He [that same Jesus Himself] is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world.

• So, there is no difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the new.
• He has not morphed, nor evolved into a different God.
• He is the same holy God as He always has been.

Knowing God: Same God As Always

Malachi 3:6 (ESV) — 6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

Psalm 110:4 (ESV) — The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Numbers 23:19 (ESV) — God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Knowing God: When God Repents

• What about those passages where God repents.
• Doesn’t that mean He changed?
• No it does not.

 Jonah 3:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

• Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.
• That was the message.

Jonah 3:6–10 (ESV) — The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

• God always declares how things will turn out when men take a certain course.
• In this case, Nineveh’s course would have led to their destruction within 40 days.
• When men change that course, what does God do?
• The same thing.
• He declares how things will turn out when men take a certain course.
• When Nineveh repented, the course changed.
• So, God didn’t change, the man did.
• Here it is again.

Isaiah 38:1 (ESV) — 1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.”

• God declared to Hezekiah how things would turn out for him because of his life’s course.

Isaiah 38:2–5 (ESV) — 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 and said, “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

• Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed.
• How come he was sick unto death — he hadn’t prayed!
• When he prayed, the course changed.
• God didn’t change, Hezekiah did.

Knowing God: An Example

• So how does all of this help us navigate life on Planet Earth?
• Well, for one, if you are praying and not getting an answer, then you might need to change something so that the end result can be achieved.
• Hezekiah was about to die.
• He changed — that change altered his course.
• God does not change because He is.
• So, what do I change?
• Well, there you go — I’m glad you asked.
• I don’t know what you need to change but God does.
• So, you should ask Him that very question — ‘What do I need to do to achieve the result I am after?’
• God knows the end from the beginning.

Revelation 21:6 (ESV) — 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Isaiah 46:9–10 (ESV) — 9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

• So, we’ve been talking about knowing God.
• We now know that there were at least three letters to the Corinthians.
• And, that the first letter was lost but not before we understood that one of the subjects Paul wrote about was sexual immorality.
• We understand that He’s the same God as He always has been from Ancient times even until now.
• And, as we conclude this podcast, we do so with this illustration and so let’s call this the Illustration of the Day.

Sir Charles Laughton was attending a Christmas party with a large family in London. Well into the evening, the host decided that each person in attendance should read or recite a favorite passage, one that reminded them most of the Spirit of Christmas. Laughton’s turn came near the end, and he recited, in his beautifully trained voice, the Twenty-Third Psalm. Everyone applauded his effort, [His voice was beautiful — His cadence was melodious — everyone was impressed with the ballet of words that came off his lips] — the process continued. Within minutes, all had participated except one elderly aunt, who had dozed off in a corner of the room. She was particularly loved, and they gently woke her, explained what was going on, and asked her to take part. She thought for a moment, and then began in her shaky voice, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want….” The room hushed as she continued, and when she finished, tears were dripping down every face. Upon leaving, one of the younger members of the family thanked Laughton for coming, and remarked about the difference in the response of the family to the two “readings.” In [Laughton’s] one case, appreciation; in the other, deep connection and involvement. “How do you account for it?” asked the young man, shaking his head. Laughton looked at him and replied simply, “I know the psalm… she knows the Shepherd.”³

• No, we don’t have the contents of this first letter but we know how He feels about immorality because we know the Shepherd.

Father God, thank you for your goodness and mercy — thank you that mercy runs us down and overcomes us. It does so because of Jesus — it does so because you love us so. Thank for this life that we live today — the breath that we have in our lungs everyday — for that is just opportunity to know you better. We thank you for all this in Jesus Name, Amen.

• What You Need to Know about Knowing God.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#035: Words Have Power [Podcast]

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