I’m in the middle of preaching a short topical sermon series on sanctification at SCBC. This series came about after the last sermon from my series on the Gospel of Mark. My last sermon in Mark was about the benefits of belonging to the Kingdom of God, as well as our responsibilities of belonging to the Kingdom of God. The two responsibilities I mentioned were:
1. We are to grow in the knowledge of God
2. We are to share the knowledge of God
This morning I was reading the “Divine Life” by Richard Baxter, and was blessed by the clarity by which he taught! Once again, here is some “Baxter Balm” for your soul:
“The knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ the mediator, is the life of grace, and the necessary way to the life of glory. As James distinguishes between such a dead faith as devils and wicked men had, and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified; so must we here of the knowledge of God. Many ‘profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate’. There is a ‘form of knowledge’ which the unbelievers had, and a ‘knowledge which puffeth up’, and is void of love, which hypocrites have. But no man, spiritually, knows the things of God, but by the Spirit; and they that rightly ‘know his name will put their trust in him.’ Thus he gives the regenerated a ‘heart to know him’, and the new creature ‘is renewed in knowledge.’ Vengeance shall be ‘poured out on them that know not God’. This saving knowledge of God, which is eternal life, contains and implies in it all theses acts:
1. The understanding’s apprehension of God according to the necessary articles of faith
2. A belief of the truth of these articles; that God is, and is such as he is therin described
3. A high estimation of God accordingly
4. A volition, complacency, or love to him as God, the chief good
5. A desiring after Him
6. A choosing him, with the rejection of all competitors
7. A consent that he be our God, and a giving up ourselves to him as his people
8. An intending him as our ultimate end in the use of means, in the course of our conversations
9. A seeking him in the choice and use of means
10. An obeying him as our sovereign governor
11. An honoring and praising him as God.
12. And an enjoying him and delighting in him, in some small foretaste her, as he is seen by faith; but perfectly hereafter, as beheld in glory
The effective practical knowing of God, which is life eternal, contains or implies all these parts. Every Christian that hath any of this knowledge, desires more; it is his great desire to know more of God, and to know him with a more affecting, powerful knowledge. He that grows in grace, accordingly grows in this knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The vigor and alacrity of our souls live in it. The rectitude of our actions, and the holiness of them, flow form it. God is the excellency of our hearts and lives. Our advancement and our joy are here only to be found. All other knowledge is s fare desirable, as it conduces to the knowledge of God, or to the several duties which that knowledge requires. All knowledge of words or things, of causes and effects, of any creatures, actions, customs, laws, or whatsoever may be known, is so far valuable as it is useful, and so far useful as it is holy, subserving the knowledge of God in Christ…
1. We are to grow in the knowledge of God
2. We are to share the knowledge of God
This morning I was reading the “Divine Life” by Richard Baxter, and was blessed by the clarity by which he taught! Once again, here is some “Baxter Balm” for your soul:
“The knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ the mediator, is the life of grace, and the necessary way to the life of glory. As James distinguishes between such a dead faith as devils and wicked men had, and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified; so must we here of the knowledge of God. Many ‘profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate’. There is a ‘form of knowledge’ which the unbelievers had, and a ‘knowledge which puffeth up’, and is void of love, which hypocrites have. But no man, spiritually, knows the things of God, but by the Spirit; and they that rightly ‘know his name will put their trust in him.’ Thus he gives the regenerated a ‘heart to know him’, and the new creature ‘is renewed in knowledge.’ Vengeance shall be ‘poured out on them that know not God’. This saving knowledge of God, which is eternal life, contains and implies in it all theses acts:
1. The understanding’s apprehension of God according to the necessary articles of faith
2. A belief of the truth of these articles; that God is, and is such as he is therin described
3. A high estimation of God accordingly
4. A volition, complacency, or love to him as God, the chief good
5. A desiring after Him
6. A choosing him, with the rejection of all competitors
7. A consent that he be our God, and a giving up ourselves to him as his people
8. An intending him as our ultimate end in the use of means, in the course of our conversations
9. A seeking him in the choice and use of means
10. An obeying him as our sovereign governor
11. An honoring and praising him as God.
12. And an enjoying him and delighting in him, in some small foretaste her, as he is seen by faith; but perfectly hereafter, as beheld in glory
The effective practical knowing of God, which is life eternal, contains or implies all these parts. Every Christian that hath any of this knowledge, desires more; it is his great desire to know more of God, and to know him with a more affecting, powerful knowledge. He that grows in grace, accordingly grows in this knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The vigor and alacrity of our souls live in it. The rectitude of our actions, and the holiness of them, flow form it. God is the excellency of our hearts and lives. Our advancement and our joy are here only to be found. All other knowledge is s fare desirable, as it conduces to the knowledge of God, or to the several duties which that knowledge requires. All knowledge of words or things, of causes and effects, of any creatures, actions, customs, laws, or whatsoever may be known, is so far valuable as it is useful, and so far useful as it is holy, subserving the knowledge of God in Christ…
He is the best Christian that hath the fullest impression made upon his soul, by the knowledge of God in all his attributes. Thus it is our life eternal to know God in Christ. It is to reveal the Father that the Son was sent; and it is to reveal the Father and the Son, that the Holy Spirit is sent; God is the light, the life, and the felicity of the soul. The work of its salvation is but the restoring it to him, and putting it in possession of him. The beginning of this is regeneration and reconciliation; the perfection of it is glorification, beatific vision, and fruition."
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