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The mission of Church & Family Life is to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life.
Someone Who Really Knew God
Apr. 8, 2022
00:00
-02:12
Transcription

So, what's an example of someone in the Bible who really knew God and how did it impact their lives? There are many of course. I would just pick a surprising one perhaps, Caleb. I love Caleb. I preached a sermon on Caleb in my church and afterward there were a bunch of babies born in the next six months and almost all the boys were named Caleb because Caleb was such a wonderful example.

Caleb followed the Lord fully all his life. It was amazing. But he followed the Lord fully, Numbers 14, 24 says, because God put another spirit in him. God put the Holy Spirit in him to know the Lord in truth. So he feared the Lord with a childlike fear.

He loved the Lord, and he followed the Lord, and he hated sin. And you read that that was so strong, that knowledge of God in Caleb's heart that when Israel became angry with him that he said we should go in and conquer the Canaanites that Caleb would back down. He said we should do what the Lord said. He had knowledge of God and knowledge of God's will. He wanted to do God's will.

That's the fruit of knowing God. You want to do His will. If you know Him savingly, that is. Now, they took up stones to stone it. Now what would you do?

What would I do? If a whole group of people took up stones to stone us to death, well we might say, why don't we sit down at a table and negotiate here and see if we could talk through? No. Caleb was willing to die because he knew God and God knew him. And to him the knowledge of God was more important than life itself.

That's key. Thanks for watching!

What is an example of someone in the Bible whose life was impacted by the knowledge of God?

Caleb followed the Lord fully his whole life because God put “a different spirit in him" (Numbers 14:24). He feared God with a child-like fear. He loved the Lord and hated sin. You read that the knowledge of God was so strong in Caleb’s heart that, even when Israel became angry with him about entering the promised land, he would not back down. He had knowledge of God and His will and wanted to do it.

The fruit of knowing God savingly is that you want to do His will. Caleb was willing to die because He knew God. 

Speaker

Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as Chancellor and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics, as well as Academic Dean for students from the Heritage Reformed Congregations. He is currently a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a position he has held for thirty years. He is also editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, board chairman of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited 125 books and contributed over two thousand articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His PhD (1988) from Westminster Theological Seminary is in Reformation and Post-Reformation Theology. He and his wife, Mary, have three children: Calvin, Esther, and Lydia, and eleven grandchildren.

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