{"id":13065,"date":"2016-08-17T01:40:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/knowledge-of-the-father\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:40:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:40:20","slug":"knowledge-of-the-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/knowledge-of-the-father\/","title":{"rendered":"KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>JOHN 16:25\u201330<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>\u201c\u2026 the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(John 16:25)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Before our hearts are regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are blind to spiritual truths. While we can know something of God, His eternal nature, His divine attributes, and His worthiness to be worshiped, we do not know Him intimately (Rom. 1:19\u201329). It is Christ Himself who leads us into intimate knowledge of God. It is He who makes plain the plan of redemption and the purposes of God for us.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Jesus here declares, \u201cI will show you the Father.\u201d This is what Christ does for the believer, and it is the desire of every Christian: to know God, to see Him plainly, to be rid of the shadows that dim the glory of heaven. This is the greatest favor that Christ intends for His people. To know the Father and to see the Lord face to face is the happiness of heaven and the hope of every child of God. And this is exactly what is promised.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Until this point in John\u2019s narrative, Christ had spoken in proverbs and parables. His instruction had been general and full of shadows, but now He promised to speak to the disciples plainly. When the Spirit came, the apostles attained a much greater knowledge of divine truths than they ever had before. But there is a fuller dimension to Jesus\u2019 promise than this. It is only in heaven that we will see the Father as He is, for now we see \u201cthrough a glass darkly\u201d (1 Cor. 13:12). There is coming a day when all questions will be answered, when all shadows will be removed, and the glory of God will illuminate our minds and fill our hearts.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Before we became Christians, we did not understand anything of God\u2019s redemptive love. All was confused and distorted because of sin. But when the Spirit illuminated our minds to the truth, we began to see things more plainly. Christ\u2019s teaching made sense when before it seemed foolish. The Bible was not so disconnected and antiquated as it had before seemed. But even in this redemptive state, there is much that we do not understand. This can be frustrating and can cause conflict in our personal lives and in the church as a whole. But Christ has promised that we will \u201cknow God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d We will see Him as He is, and we will finally be completely content.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Proverbs 28\u201329<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Corinthians 7<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Even though we will not know things clearly until   we see God \u201cface to face,\u201d we can know Him through His Word, which is   illuminated by His Spirit. So, we cannot know Him if we ignore His Word. If   you do not already have an appointed time every day to read the Scriptures,   make one, and keep that appointment.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Prov. 1:1\u20137 \u2022 Hos. 6:3 \u2022 Mic. 4:12 \u2022 Rom. 10:3 \u2022 Eph. 4:18<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>tuesday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>september<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHN 16:25\u201330 \u201c\u2026 the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father\u201d (John 16:25). Before our hearts are regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are blind to spiritual truths. While we can know something of God, His &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/knowledge-of-the-father\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}