Sermons and Biblical Studies

Many … apparently overlook the fact that the Spirit of God never promised to fill a man’s head. The promise is that God will fill the heart, or man’s innermost being. The Word of God makes it very plain that the church of Jesus Christ will never operate and minister and prosper by the stock … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE:
INADEQUACY OF”

In every generation, the people who have found God have been those who have come to the end of themselves. Recognizing their hopelessness, they have been ready to throw themselves on the mercy and grace of a forgiving God. Men Who Met God, 62.

We must be concerned with the person and character of God, not the promises. Through promises we learn what God has willed to us, we learn what we may claim as our heritage, we learn how we should pray. But faith itself must rest on the character of God. Is this difficult to see? Why … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: SUPREME VALUE OF; PROMISES OF GOD; GOD: HIS MAJESTY”

Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: SUPREME VALUE OF; EARTHLY THINGS; PRAYERS”

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: SUPREME VALUE OF”

To get acquainted with God is one thing; but to go on to experience God in intensity and richness of acquaintance is something more. Paul said, “I want to know Him in that depth and rich intensity of experience.” As I have said many times, personality can’t be fully known with one encounter. You may … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: PERSONAL, INTIMATE; JESUS CHRIST: INTIMACY WITH”

What does the divine immanence mean in direct Christian experience? It means simply that God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not.… Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.… It will … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: PERSONAL, INTIMATE; GOD: HIS IMMANENCE”

Without doubt the greatest need of the human personality is to experience God Himself.… All this is such a familiar part of evangelical theology that it may safely be assumed that the majority of my readers know it already. That is, they know it theoretically, but the experiential aspect of the truth is not so … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: PERSONAL, INTIMATE; COMMUNION WITH GOD; PRIORITIES”

It is possible to grow up in a church, learn the catechism and have everything done to us that they do to us, within reason. But after we have done all that, we may not know God at all, because God isn’t known by those external things. We are blind and can’t see, because the … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: PERSONAL, INTIMATE”

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or … Continue reading “KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD: NEGLECTED; LONGING FOR GOD; SPIRITUAL GROWTH; COMPLACENCY”