Study – Grow – Know

Know and Understand

August 30, 2022 at 12:40 PM 1 comment

Audio for this article here: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

Laughter used to be the “best medicine”…

The book of Jeremiah is amazing. I don’t know how many times I’ve read through it, but I’ve read through it at least once per year in my daily Bible reading. Two sections of Jeremiah jumped out at me that I want to go over in this article: Jeremiah 9:23-24 and Jeremiah 17:5-9.

Both sections have similar thoughts and it’s worth noting that God does this to emphasize His thoughts for us.

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NKJV)

and

5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:5-9 NKJV)

Ah…the “science.”

In the above sections, there are a number of things that are similar in thought, though stated in different ways. In the Jeremiah 9 section, God warns that people should not put faith in or boast in their wisdom, their might or their riches. The reason for this is due to the fact that people are not self-made. A person who becomes wise, may do so because they apply themselves to learning, but in reality, if not for God giving them some semblance of wisdom to begin with, they would not gain wisdom at all. The same applies to “might” or “riches.” These things are all transitory in life.

There are no guarantees in this life that any wisdom, might or riches we might have will remain with us or even grow throughout our life. Instead please notice the very important detail that God shows us is far more important than wisdom, might or riches. In essence, if we are going to “boast” or “glory” in something, God says we should boast in the fact that people can “understand and know” Him. We need to stop and consider the ramifications of that statement.

But what does it mean to “understand” and “know” God? Well, God takes the time to explain it, so there’s no guessing.

That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,

If this is not true, I’m sure the poster will be sued.

If we truly are understanding and beginning to know the Lord, we will recognize His attributes; that He exercises loving kindness over His Creation, but also sends judgment when necessary. Ultimately, this will lead to His righteousness in all the earth, but this is imperfect now from our perspective only because we still harbor our sin nature and create all problems on this earth. But there will come a time when all the earth and everyone living here will be of one mind in honoring and understanding God’s attributes.

God loves us and also disciplines, chastises and sends judgment on unrepentant people for their own good and as a last resort. Another aspect of understanding and knowing God involves wanting to be like Him in our character so that we desire to live the way He wants us to live.

We cannot say on one hand that we understand and know God, while we live in a way that denies His Lordship and authority over our lives. So it naturally follows then that to understand and know God means we will begin to appreciate His ways and act in accordance with His character. This creates increasing spiritual maturity and will bring glory to Him. By the way, understanding and knowing God is not a once for all thing. We don’t “arrive” to a place in this life where we fully understand and know God. That’s impossible. In fact, we will spend eternity understanding and knowing God in far greater detail than we ever will in this life. It is an ongoing process, but of course it will be far easier to accomplish this in the next life when our sin nature has been excised from us and as we are given new, glorified bodies.

His election campaign was sabotaged by lies. He is now vindicated but he still lost due to LIES.

However, we can prove to the world and to God that we have begun to understand and know God as we follow in the footsteps of His Son, who provided the perfect model for living. This is extremely important and once again, I will state without equivocation, if you are not reading and studying His Word every day, you are doing yourself no favors and actually making it impossible to begin to understand and know God. You may think God “speaks” to you throughout your day – a word here or a word there – but if it is not His written Word, then He is not speaking to you. It’s that simple. God gave us His Word to rely on, to read, study and memorize so that it is hidden in our hearts. From there, God can and will use it to motivate us onto good works.

As part of his message on a recent Sunday, our pastor stated without equivocation that if he ever stood up and said, “God gave me a word for you,” that we should run to another church. It was good to hear that and I would agree with him. It’s one thing to preach the Word. It’s another thing to make statements beginning with, “The Lord spoke to me and said…” I know some find this difficult to believe but there are no anointed prophets today (anointed by God, that is). Yet, too many people think there are and the New Apostolic Reformation is filled with those people.

Those who boast in beginning to understand and know God will see a natural outworking of God’s character in their lives and greater discernment. God says He “delights” in “…exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.” He takes great pleasure in these things because of their outcome.

As Christians, we also should delight in these same things. If we do not, then we have a problem and maybe our heart is not truly connected to God’s heart. We need to look closely at our own heart. Are we His or do we just think we are His because we may have been raised in an atmosphere where we went to church, sang hymns and heard preaching? Without being “born again,” none of that means anything eternally.

Now notice the Jeremiah 17 section above. While Jeremiah 9 notes that people should not boast in their own traits and abilities, the Jeremiah 17 passage actually says that a person who trusts in another person is cursed. That person who trusts in another person (or makes “flesh” his strength), has departed from a pure dependence upon God and their faith in a human being is ultimately a form of idolatry.

Note what the prophet says happens to that person. In spite of any and all outward appearances that might impress others, that person is no better than a shrub in the desert. They will be blind to the actual good that might come their way, unable to see it. They may think they’re fine, but in reality, they are not fine. They are parched spiritually. There are multitudes of people like that in this world. They boast in their abilities, wealth, jobs, family and more, but cannot see they really have nothing substantive or permanent. Many of these folks even claim to be Christians.

No matter how rich, talented or intelligent a person is, they cannot stop death, the great equalizer. Yet, we have globalist billionaires today who desire to physically live “forever” here on this earth. They actually believe that combining artificial intelligence (AI), with trans-humanism will bring this about for them. They seriously plan to avoid physical death. God says it cannot be done.

In our area of the USA, in the past month, a sheriff deputy was driving in his patrol car when a huge part of a tree simply fell on his car, killing him. In another case just a few days ago, a gardener was mowing the lawn of a church and a tree limb fell onto him. Though he did not die, he was injured. The trees around here are so very old and many of them constantly shed their branches. Before I mow, I often have to pick up many branches that I’ll turn into mulch for the garden later. Some limbs are so large that they have literally impaled themselves in the lawn standing up. I’m surprised nothing has fallen on me yet. Aside from this there are many ways to die, not just by falling limbs or even natural causes.

Globalists have every intention to physically extend their life into perpetuity. They believe Satan’s lies to them. It’s so absurd, as if God would allow that to happen. Their hubris is real, but they will be pulled up short when they realize that no amount of money, power, or science can give them “eternal life.” Satan is playing a very cruel joke on them and laughing all the while.

Starting with Jeremiah 17:7, God tells us that the person who is truly blessed is the one who does what? “Trusts the Lord.” How often do we read similar words as a command in Scripture? Hundreds if not thousands.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.

Trusting God for daily living once we receive salvation takes time to develop but we can and should start immediately. Our hope in God will also be firmly established. The person who trusts in the Lord will be the opposite of the shrub in the desert. He/she will be a tree planted by living waters and who will not fear when the heat comes nor be anxious during times of drought. In fact, they will continue producing fruit in spite of the drought! (v 8).

All of this is a process that is not developed overnight but is an integral part of our ongoing sanctification. We must not give up. We must persevere and we will be richly rewarded by God as our understanding and knowledge of Him grows.

In this daunting day and age, it is easy to become concerned, discouraged and defeated. But we do so because we fail to know His promises and how we can live by them. We went to church with our daughter and her family to a new church they were checking out in their area. Here is a sermon from the pastor, who is expositional and also one who places value on eschatology. Click on the link below to view.

Calvary Chapel Northside

Links for your research:

• Judge Permanently Blocks Biden Oil and Gas Leasing Pause in 13 States
• Unvaxxed mothers forced to pay back maternity leave in BC
• Bidenomics & Vilification of Trump
• Climate change has become the religion for pagans…
• News from Children’s Health Defense
• Restoring Health Post-Vax
• Rock Singer’s fatal brain injury caused by AstraZeneca
• The Four Horsemen Of The Pretribulation Apocalypse Are Making Stunning Progress With End Times Globalist Agenda
• DOJ investigates Southern Baptist Convention
• Who is the Antichrist, Part 3?
• Trending Toward the Tribulation: 7 Indicators
• They don’t want you to own your own automobile
• Canada is euthanizing its sick people
• Zoophilia is a real thing unfortunately

Entry filed under: 9/11, agenda 2030, Agenda 21, alienology, Atheism and religion, christianity, Communism, Cultural Marxism, Demonic, devil worship, Eastern Mysticism, emergent church, Emotional virtue, eternity, Global Elite, new age movement, Political Correctness, Politically Correct, Politics, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, Satanism, second coming, Shadow Government, Transhumanism, ufology.