The Value of Knowing God “How You Can Really Know God” Christian Life Values series

Dr. Willis Dowling

Introduction: What I am about to share with you is some of the most important truth in all of

the Christian life. In my lifelong search for truth, I have found it in a personal knowledge of God

through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. I want to convey this to you in the best way I

can so that you can know Him too. Some of this may be familiar to you while other aspects may

be the first time anyone has ever explained the truth of the Bible in quite this way. But, in any

case, pray to the Lord as you read that He will reveal Himself to you through His Word. You can

really know God.

Our study on knowing God will be done as follows: 3 major headings and continuous

numbering 1-12 throughout the headings.

I. Coming to Realize the Truth about Knowing God

1) An unthinkable shock!!! "I NEVER KNEW YOU!"

2) “That I may know Him.”

3) The ultimate knowledge: Knowing God is what life is all about.

II. How Do We Know God?

4) God reveals the knowledge of His glory in nature.

5) Seek to know God personally. Love God - fear Him - believe in Him.

6) Know about God through His Word, the Bible.

III. Admonitions on the Life of Knowing God

7) Live like you know God.

8) Seek to know God’s will.

9) Remain in an intimate “knowing Jesus” relationship to be fruitful for God.

10) Help others to know God.

11) We can grow in our knowledge of God.

12) Knowing God will change you!

Now for our study:

I. Coming to Realize the Truth about Knowing God

1) An unthinkable shock!!! "I NEVER KNEW YOU!" You may be surprised

at the words of Christ when He declares that many will plead their case with Him on

Judgment Day that they were worthy by their good deeds to enter the kingdom of heaven.

But, in spite of doing great things for God, they did not know Him by faith. They will not

get into heaven....

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21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but

only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that

day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out

demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew

you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23).

These are the people you would assume would get into heaven. They assumed it. They

had done great things for God. They had prophesied in the name of Jesus; they had driven out

demons in the name of Jesus; they had performed miracles in the name of Jesus. But they were

not true believers because they did not know God by saving faith.

What do I mean by “saving faith?” Faith is defined in Scripture as follows: Now faith is

being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…. 6 And without

faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe

that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:1, 6). God

wants true belief and trust in Him. He wants us to believe what He has said is true. He wants us

to trust in His existence and presence in our lives. He wants us to earnestly seek Him for His

will. This is a “knowing God” relationship, not based on our performance, but on what Christ

did on the cross for our sins. It is based on His performance. The basis of our entrance into His

presence and into salvation is faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Our basis of salvation

is faith in Him and His righteousness, not our own righteousness.

Apostle Paul explains it this way: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through

faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one

can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:8-10). Salvation is all a matter of

God’s grace—His free gift of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the cross for our sins. Grace

is God’s unmerited favor toward us. Even faith itself is God’s gift of grace. The ability to

believe salvifically, i.e., to exercise the faith that truly saves you is itself God’s gift to us. So we

cannot boast before Him about a thing. We cannot boast about the grace or the faith. Salvation

is credited to God 100% in full. It is not from ourselves.

Then Paul, who has just given God complete credit for salvation, makes it clear that in

regard to doing good works, we ourselves are God’s good work—His craft, His workmanship.

What God saves us from is sin and condemnation that comes from our own misguided choices.

What He saves us to is a life of good works. In our relationship with Him, we find that even

those good works were themselves “prepared in advance” for us to walk in. They are general

good works of service in this world such as daily kindness and love to others exercised all the

time. They are also specific good works where we sense God’s calling to do particular things:

go on a missions trip, serve the Lord as a Sunday School teacher, visit the sick, give to a

particular ministry, etc.

But, getting back to Jesus illustration in Matt. 7:21-23 about those who boast about their

good works on Judgment Day, what was the problem there? It was about boasting of good

works before God as a basis of salvation rather than saving faith. They were establishing their

acceptance before God on the basis of prophesying in God’s name, driving out demons and

performing miracles. It reminds us of Simon the Magician in Acts 8: 9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and

amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all

the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is

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the divine power known as the Great Power.” 11 They followed him because he had

amazed them for a long time with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he

preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they

were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized.

And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of

God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that

they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any

of them; they had simply been baptized intoa the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter

and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he

offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I

lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could

buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because

your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord.

Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you

are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” 24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may

happen to me.” 25 When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John

returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Here we see a man who did not have a “saving faith, knowing God” relationship with the

Lord. He was not saved. He did not know God. He had learned magic tricks to impress people.

He thought that the power of the Holy Spirit could be bought with money. He wanted the

prestige that came from these magnificent good works. He had not dealt with the sin issue. He

had not repented of his sins. He did not understand the concept of grace and faith.

Again, getting back to Jesus’ Judgment Day illustration (Matt. 7:21-23), you might ask,

“But how is it that they could perform those spiritual deeds?” If they were not true believers,

how could they prophesy, cast out demons and perform miracles in the first place? The answer

is that in the name of Jesus, there is power to prophesy, demons will flee, and even miracles may

be performed. God does answer prayer according to His will even if the person asking might not

be spiritually qualified to ask. But without knowing God by saving faith, there is no salvation. It

turns out that these people Jesus is speaking of were false prophets (see the immediate context,

vs. 15). 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but

inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people

pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears

good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a

bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down

and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (Matt. 7:15-20).

God certainly knows those who are His and who are not. Even though God may use us to bring

others to Himself, He is not impressed with our good works to gain salvation. He wants us to

rely on Him completely; to believe in Jesus Christ by faith, be born again and repent from our

a Or in

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sins. The good works that follow will be based on His will; His power working through us.

Staying connected to Christ will produce good fruit. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If

a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Apart from Christ, we can bear no good fruit. Those who are false

disciples are bad trees that cannot bear good fruit. You have to know God and remain “in Christ

Jesus” to bear good fruit.

Jesus illustrates this with a parable of two types of people. 24 “Therefore everyone

who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built

his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and

beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is

like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose,

and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

(Matthew 7:24-27).

The crowd that followed Jesus wanted to know what they could do to please God. 28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus

answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29). Jesus called them to believe in Himself. Putting your faith and complete trust in Christ is the

only way to know God and be saved. This is the firm foundation Jesus is telling us to build our

lives upon. By this relationship with Christ, we can know Him and know His will for us on a

daily basis.

There is a difference between knowing God and being used by Him. Someone could

be used by God to accomplish God's purposes and still go to hell. That is obviously the case

with those false prophets who prophesied, cast out demons and performed miracles---all good

things. Yet, they were called evildoers by God. They were highly successful in ministry, but

they did not know God. They were establishing the basis of their righteousness upon their

successful ministries. Of course, they thought, God would receive them into heaven---on the

basis of their great works. But that will not stand on judgment day, Jesus says. It is more

important to know God than to be used by Him. If we seek to know Him, we will build our lives

upon His will—as firm as the rock in the parable. If we don’t know Him by faith then we are

disconnected from Him. We end up just doing our own thing for God. We then rest our

confidence in our own merit instead of the merit of the shed blood of Christ alone. There is a

huge difference.

When I was 19 years old and very zealous to do great things for God, I had an

opportunity to travel across the southern states and install Christian book racks in stores with a

Christian book company in Black Mountain, NC in the summer of 1976. Because I was a

student at Montreat College, I had opportunity on several occasions to speak with Dr. Billy

Graham who lived there in the town of Montreat, NC. We would see Billy and Ruth Graham

worshipping in the back of church on Sunday morning, trying to be inconspicuous. It was not

unusual to just turn the corner while going to the dorm and be walking alongside Dr. Graham on

the way to his car. I would always speak to him and treat him with the greatest of respect.

Because he had had such an influence in my life from the time I was a kid in my father's church

watching the movies of the crusades and also on TV, I knew the importance of this man. He was

a role model for me. In fact, I wanted to be just like him. At the age of 7, I had accepted Christ

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as my Savior and told the visiting evangelist at our church that I wanted to be a great preacher

like Billy Graham. He has preached to well over 2 billion people! Stadiums set records of

capacity crowds at his crusades that are, to this day, unmatched by sports events. And now here

I was, at the age of 19. I had my whole life ahead of me. I was sold out to the Lord! "OK, Lord,

I am ready! Let's do it!"

Dr. Graham had just published How to Be Born Again and the first printing was 750,000

copies! No publisher generally just does that on a first edition. I was delivering the first batch of

these to Roanoke, VA and would be driving the step van to meet a man named Tom there to

deliver these copies. I told this to Dr. Graham and that conversation gave me a rocket boost to

get those books to that man in Roanoke. I had seen this man Tom (his real first name) before in

Charlotte, NC at a very popular church there that was busting over with "Jesus People," former

hippies who had found Christ in the Jesus Revolution of the early 1970s. Tom had been on

Christian TV before as a co-host and I had seen him teaching at that church that I had attended

myself. He told me that he had been through changes in his life and career. For whatever

reason, he did not say, he was not with the TV program anymore and he had been demoted to a

janitor at the church where he was formerly a teacher (certainly a noble profession, don't get me

wrong, but not what this man wanted for his life). He told me this. He described to me the fact

that as he was sweeping the church, the Lord dealt heavily with his soul. He had gone through

some resentment about his demotions. He wanted to do great things for God. He described a

conversation with the Lord where God impressed on him, "What if I gave you a church of 50

people?" His response was that he was worthy of much more than that. He wanted a church of

1000 people. Then through the study of the Scriptures, God pointed out the Matt. 7 passage that

showed these men doing great things for God: prophesying in His name, casting out demons and

performing miracles. Then the jolting condemnation came, Then I will tell them plainly,

‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matt. 7:23).

Tom came to the realization that doing great things for God was not what God wants

from us. If God wanted him to be a janitor in the church, so be it. He learned humility which

helped him for the rest of his life in every way. (Not to mention the fact that janitors learn how

to fix broken things, a useful skill in the home and in church ministry with buildings and

property). God wants people to be humble. If God wanted him to work a job full-time and

pastor a little flock of 50 people that met in a Christian school on Sunday morning, that was just

fine, Tom finally decided. It was not about doing great things for God, but about knowing God

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and doing His will. It was all about building your house on the rock of Christ by doing the will

of Christ. It was not about being known or famous like Billy Graham.

I have always been the one who went right up to anyone I wanted to meet and shook their

hand. I could boast of meeting famous people in different places. I met former President George

Bush, the father, at a Republican rally at a college; also Bob Dole. In the end, the ones who had

the greatest impact on me where those who knew the Lord. Billy Graham is at the top of the list.

He spent hours in prayer about his crusades and what the Lord would have him to do next. He is

an example of a man who knew God and was used mightily by God. But the former comes

before the latter. We cannot and should not start with trying to be used mightily by God. That is

God's business. If He chooses to do that, that is fine, well and good. Praise be to the Lord! But

if not, that is ok too. It is not all about us. It is all about God. God wants us to know Him and

build our house on the rock of Jesus Christ. As we stand in the company of angels and saints

before the throne of the Lamb of God, it will not be about us—but about God! God will use

people mightily in this world who will never be known at all. They will never have their portrait

on TIME magazine. They will not be recognized for their labors on this earth. They will be

unsung heroes of the faith. But that does not matter. What matters is that they knew God, they

exercised saving faith and they lived it out in obedience to Him. And they helped others to know

God and make Him known! On that day of Judgment, God will say to them, “Well done, good

and faithful servant!” Isn’t that what you and I really want?

Insofar as being used by God is concerned, the Lord has used the most unlikely people to

accomplish His will. God even used pagan kings in the Old Testament to accomplish His

purposes: Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem and Cyrus the Persian to release captive Israel

from Babylon. These kings never converted to Judaism! That was the covenant people of God

and the only way to salvation before Christ. But in Isaiah 45:1ff, he describes Cyrus as His

anointed king who will subdue nations. In the previous verse, Isa. 44:28, the Lord, who says of

Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please. So God can use a pagan

king to restore captive Israel back to their land. God created an empire change: the Medo-

Persians conquered the Babylonians and the Lord put it in king Cyrus' heart to restore Israel to

their land. This would have never happened unless the Lord had orchestrated an empire change.

King Cyrus became known as Cyrus the Great, but he was not a Jew. God used him anyway to

accomplish His perfect will for the Jews.

In the name of Jesus demons flee and people can be healed, but, as we have seen in Matt.

7, those men were condemned for not knowing God. "I never knew you!" the Lord said to

them. God spoke through Balaam and even his donkey. Balaam was not a prophet of God, but

had mixed motives. He was described by Peter as being a false prophet restrained from his

madness by the Lord speaking through a donkey! Yes, there is a place where an animal talks in

the Bible! It makes great children's sermon material (Numbers 22:21ff; 2 Pet. 2:15, 16). Yet

Balaam prophesied over the nation of Israel and spoke a blessing on them in spite of the fact that

the pagan king wanted him to curse Israel (read all about it in Numbers 22-24). Thus, this false

prophet was used by God to bless Israel!

Similarly, a false teacher or preacher could speak the true gospel of Christ and people

could become saved by hearing it. A crooked evangelist could be embezzling funds and having

a secret affair with a co-worker all the time he is ministering the gospel. Yet people get saved.

The gospel message still is God's Word and God is mighty to save. God can use anybody or

anything to accomplish His purposes. In the book of Acts (2:23), Peter preaches the fact that

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God used the help of wicked men to nail Jesus to a cross. It was all within God’s set purpose

and foreknowledge. Obviously, being used by God does not necessarily mean that we truly

know Him. In the end, many on judgment day will claim great works as their ticket to heaven,

but Jesus will tell them plainly, "I never knew you." I do not want to be one of those people.

Perhaps we have encountered people who are seeking to be used mightily by the Lord, but it

becomes obvious that they do not know God. Let God bear the fruit through you. Don't try to

produce the fruit any other way than Christ flowing through you as Vine to branch producing the

fruit of new believers. Seek to know God and do His will. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1). Here we see the continuity of the knowledge of God with obedience

to the gospel of Christ.

Are you just interested in doing great things for God? What are your motives? Whose

glory are we seeking? God’s or ours? We should seek to always know God above all things.

This comes by saving faith in Christ. In the process, we will become obedient to be used by God

at His discretion and command, not ours. We will pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

Not, “My kingdom come, my will be done.”

This all may seem true to you and maybe a bit obvious; a no-brainer, perhaps. But be

sure of this, not everyone has this outlook. Not all Christians do. If you have this wonderful,

Biblical outlook on your life, you will be ultimately concerned for Christ and His kingdom in

this world. Otherwise, we just naturally tend to be self-centered, self-focused, seeking personal

significance in our accomplishments to be displayed before others for their approval. We can

become slaves to the approval of others. But when knowing God becomes your highest

ambition, it sets you apart from all of this other vainglory. If you are a pastor or an active worker

in the church or a parachurch organization, it could save you from making the ministry itself into

its own little idol; its own little tin god, with your name inscribed on it. We can easily drift into

the mode of serving the church as if it were God. We could do that with a denomination of

churches. But the church is not God, it is the body of Christ. We are His hands and feet. We

should do what the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, tells us to do. Jesus tells us to seek to

know God. If we know Him, we will be influenced by Him to put His will into practice in life

and ministry. I cannot imagine trying to serve the Lord in ministry any other way.

The blessing of this outlook is that we will be continually refreshed by this personal

relationship to Christ in our ministry. We may have times of difficulty, but He will see us

through. We will not go through the "burnout" that many ministers and Christian workers

experience if we are laboring for the expectations of everyone's definition of success. Christians

who are enslaved to the whims and expectations of others are constantly gauging their ministry

by the "ratings" as if it were a TV show. But, in reality, God might have you deliver a message

that will go contrary to popular culture and not be so well-received. Would you do it? When

you do it and it is not well-received, are you then a failure? No, you have known the Lord and

done His will. God will give us the quiet peace and confidence that we are serving Him and that

is what really matters. Let Him take care of the rest. If there is a not-so-gracious response to our

message that delivers the truth in love, then you have done the Lord's will. Let Him take care of

the results. On the other hand, if there are wonderful results and God chooses to use you in a

mighty way, don't let it go to your head! He gets the glory! The important thing is to know God.

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This is the stability in your life that will see you through the peaks and troughs, the ups and

downs of life and ministry.

2) “That I may know Him.” Apostle Paul had great Jewish credentials, but in order to

know God, he had to count his own righteousness as worthless and receive the

righteousness that comes by faith in Christ. His whole identity as a Jew had to be scrapped

and he had to come into a completely new identity in his faith-relationship of knowing God

through Jesus Christ his Lord.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:

5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the

church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is

more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I

may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that

comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that

comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his

resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his

death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:4-

11).

Previous to Paul's conversion, he was a devout Pharisee who lived in strict obedience to

the Old Testament law with its prohibitions. Add to that, the Pharisees built a hedge around the

law so that if the sign said to go 35 mph, so to speak, you went 30 or 25, just to be sure. (That

was back 2000 years ago when cars were first invented!). Jesus had major problems with this

aspect of hedging the law as the Pharisees did. It killed the spirit of the law and concentrated on

the letter of the law. All of this created a "righteousness of my own that comes from the law"

(Phil. 3:9). This was an external moralism that he thought set him in a right relationship with

God. But when Paul had his Damascus Road conversion (Acts 9), he came face to face with

Jesus Christ. Jesus told him that, in fact, by persecuting the new believers in Christ, he was

persecuting Jesus Himself. Paul was known as Saul, which was his former Jewish name. 3 As

he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute

me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he

replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9). Perhaps you know the story of how Paul was physically blinded by the light and

regained his sight when the Lord sent Ananias to heal him. But look for a moment at Paul's

question, "Who are you, Lord?” This is peculiar, isn't it? He knew it was the Lord, or he

would not have addressed Him as Lord. But he did not know the Lord! Then, of course, Jesus

responds by identifying Himself as Jesus whom Paul was persecuting by hunting down new

Christians and jailing them. At this moment in Paul's life, he started to come into a true

knowledge of God by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

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After this experience, Paul turned his back on legalistic righteousness as the way to gain

God's favor and salvation through perfect law-keeping and followed Christ. He exchanged this

human perfection for the perfection of Christ given to him by faith in Christ's death on the cross.

This is a righteousness that comes from God; it is imputed to us by faith. It obtains eternal

salvation for us through the justifying faith. This faith is God's gift to us which enables us to

understand the gospel message and believe it. It is not mental assent or agreement to the

message of the gospel that Christ died on the cross for our sins. It is, rather, where we put

ourselves at the complete mercy of God to forgive us and cleanse us and set us right with God.

Then begins the "knowing God" relationship. We come to know God through this faith-

relationship with Him.

Paul was one of the greatest Jews of his day with the highest ranking credentials. He says

that, as far as that is concerned, he outranked anyone else. He was 5 circumcised on the

eighth day which was require of Jewish males and this was the issue at stake, i.e., whether or

not new Gentile (non-Jewish) converts to Christianity have to circumcised or not. He was saying

that it was not necessary to salvation. He goes on to describe his other ranking credentials: of

the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. That is to say that he

was a "Jew's Jew." Benjamin was given the name that means "son of my right hand." Paul was

in that tribe. When it comes to the law of God, he was a ranking Pharisee who were the ones

who contested with Jesus over the law more than any others. When it came to fighting for

Judaism, Paul, then known as Saul, persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. 6 as for zeal,

persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. He had presided over the

stoning of Stephen in Acts 7:58. Saul/Paul guarded the clothes and money belts of those who

stoned Stephen. But after Paul was converted to Christ, he went through an identity crisis. Who

was he now? Before, he was persecuting Christians and counting that as part of his legalistic

righteousness. Now he was a Christian and it was a whole new identity. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Because

Apostle Paul laid aside all of his Jewish credentials, he was enabled by God to become the

greatest missionary to the Roman world of his day, both Jews and Gentiles. Because of his

concern to please Christ, he became willing to suffer for the Lord and even to die for Him. So

instead of trying to gain acceptance of the Lord by works of the Old Testament law, Paul now

sought the righteousness that comes only by faith in Christ. He had to seek to know Christ by

faith and reach forward for the goal of the resurrection from the dead. When Christ came again

in the clouds, he wanted to meet the Lord in the air!

The commentator elaborates for us here:

These verses contain an open and honest confession to the Philippians. Paul already knew

Christ as His Savior. But he wanted to know Him more Him more intimately as His Lord.

To know (vs. 10) means “to know by experience (gnonai). The noun (gnoseos) is used in

verse 8. The “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ” is now elaborated in verses 10-11.

These verses contain an open and honest confession to the Ps is how Paul wanted to know

Him. This is how Paul wanted to know Him. 1

Here are the meanings that are pertinent to our discussion on "to know."

1Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary :

An Exposition of the Scriptures (2:661). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

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γινώσκω (ginōskō): 1. know, recognize, be aware (Rom. 1:21);

2. learn, acquire information, implying personal means (Mk 6:38);

3. be familiar with, learn to know, through personal experience (Jn 17:3; 1Jn 2:3);

4. understand, come to know, perceive (Rom. 7:7);

5. acknowledge, to indicate that one does know (1Cor. 8:3); 2

So, we take it from the use of the word here, that this knowledge of God is a personal experience

where Paul is coming to perceive more and more about Christ daily; acknowledging Him as his

Lord and wanting to stretch forward in his life to know God more and more. One day he will

finish the race and cross the finish line and meet the One he had come to know.

There is an edifying contemporary chorus called "Knowing You" by Graham Kendrick

which puts these thoughts into music quite well. It is at the end of this paper. You should listen

to it on-line to get the full impact of the words and the music of this profound chorus. See and

hear it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGbuz8QuhmE&feature=related (or

just go to www.youtube.com and type in the song name and the author. You will get a couple

renditions of the song, some better than others.)

Paul came to know the Lord through his suffering for the gospel. He tells young Timothy in

2 Timothy 1: 8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his

prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done

but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus

before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of

our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality

to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an

apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I

have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to

him for that day.

Paul said, "I know whom I have believed." Or, "I know the one in whom my faith is set" (NET

Bible); or "I know the one I have faith in" (CEV). Paul is speaking of His relationship to God

and is saying, "I am not ashamed of the gospel; I know God. He is the One I am trusting in. He

is able to guard the message of the gospel and its preaching. He can guard me. I know Him. He

will take care of me." People who know their Lord can survive the worst of times with their faith

intact. They know God. They know that their God will see them through. This is where this

whole emphasis of "Knowing God" will lead to: a strong faith in God through the most perilous

and perplexing of times. It is as if you would say in the midst of suffering and hardship: "I

know God. He will get me through this. I trust that He will. I know it."

There is a beautiful old hymn that is entitled, "I Know Whom I Have Believed" which is

at the end of this paper for your perusal and edification. It is still in most traditional hymnbooks.

It is on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlJ0Yyol9wU

2Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic

ed.) (DBLG 1182, #5). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

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But I know Whom I have believèd, (note: sung as three syllables, be-liev-ed)

And am persuaded that He is able

To keep that which I’ve committed

Unto Him against that day. (see last page for rest of the hymn and credits).

3) The ultimate knowledge: Knowing God is what life is all about. 23 This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom

or the strong man boast of his strength

or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this:

that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,

justice and righteousness on earth,

for in these I delight,”

declares the LORD (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

The knowledge of God is to be sought above all human wisdom and intellect, above all

physical strength and worldly wealth. The passage here states that if you are going to boast, then

boast that you know the Lord. Once I heard a man describe how he was on a roadside digging

crew working for a construction company. When they dug up a boundary marker by mistake, the

property owner came out of the house furious. He told them of how he had paid to have the

marker placed exactly on the edge of his property. He was going to take them to court. Besides

that, he boasted that he knew the members of the town council, the mayor was his cousin's

brother-in-law, and on he went about all the important people he knew. "I know the city

manager, I know the…." The foreman interrupted him and said, "I know Jesus Christ, do you

know Him?" The man was flabbergasted and marched back in the house in a huff.

We can actually say that we know Jesus Christ if we are saved. Yet, in truth, when you

think of how eternal and vast God is, who of us could truly boast that we understand and know

God? In all humility, we can only say that He has revealed Himself to us in His Word, we have

been born again by His power and we have been granted supreme grace and forgiveness of our

sins through the death of His Son on the cross. How much of that can we take credit for? How

much of that can we boast about, really?

Jesus makes a profound statement in His high priestly prayer of John 17, that The knowledge of

God is eternal life. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3).

So, Knowing God = Eternal Life

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that

we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus

Christ. He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son. To know Him is to know the true God and to have

eternal life. In the next passage, Jesus speaks directly to Martha who is grief-stricken at the loss

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of her brother Lazarus. She tells Jesus that if He had been there, her brother would not have

died. Then Jesus tells her that he will rise again. She says that she knows he will rise again at

the great resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ response was as follows:

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live,

even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you

believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (John 11:25-27). From this we see that believing in

Jesus, the Messiah-Savior of the world is our way of enjoying the beginning of eternal life

immediately. We don’t have to wait to die to start enjoying eternal life! Knowing Jesus is the

beginning of eternal life. We will experience life even in death. Ultimately we will never die, in

the sense of eternal death-hell-separation from God. We will experience physical death, to be

sure. But that is actually the actual crossing of the bridge to heaven from this life. For the

believer, it is the continuation of the “knowing Jesus” relationship that is eternal life.

God desires us to know His ways. For day after day they seek me out; they seem

eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not

forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for

God to come near them (Isaiah 58:2).

God enables us to know Him as He reveals Himself to us; as He prepares our hearts to receive

this knowledge of Him. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will

be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart

(Jeremiah 24:7).

We know God only because He knew us first and chose to reveal Himself to us.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not

gods. But now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are

turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by

them all over again? (Galatians 4:8-9).

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I

appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of

heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,

and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. "All

things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except

the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the

Son chooses to reveal him (Luke 10:21-22)

Q: How does a believer know when he/she is NOT in this intimate relationship with

God? Before looking below at what I've suggested, give a few thoughts of your own?

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A: When it is summer, you take the warmth for granted, but you miss it when it turns

cold. In similar fashion, we will feel a coldness toward God if we are out of fellowship with

Him. If you ever fall into temptation and give into sin, you experience a distance from God.

(Have I ever sinned? Have you?)

You stop praying as much. Or you stop praying altogether.

You think less of spiritual things.

You nurture some sin in your life as more important than the presence of God

Himself.

You don’t care about the spiritual needs of others.

You don't care about what God thinks about what you are doing. You live in disobedience.

You become more judgmental of God.

You are in a serious situation and don’t know it. Are you saved? God knows that for sure.

You never want that to be something that is in serious question.

What then IS knowing God?

When you seek His will for your life instead of your own.

Then when you know what He wants you to do, you follow through with it even

when it may not be fresh guidance from Him.

You desire His presence and you find yourself drawn into real worship.

You recognize sin for what it really is and you resist the evil that comes.

You place the knowledge of God above all things: material wants and needs,

physical pleasures, career ambition, your family and intellectual wisdom.

You desire to know God more than even being used by Him (Matt. 7:21-22).

Advantages of Finding our Identity in Christ

1) Your self-esteem and self-image are centered in Christ and not yourself. If my life is defined

by a true “knowing God” relationship, I will never be a failure! My success is in Him!

2) By knowing God, I can understand my purpose for living.

3) I can go at life with 100% motivation that God will guide me where He wants me to be.

4) I will never outgrow my identity in Christ.

5) My God-given identity as a child of God enables me to come boldly before His throne.

6) Old things are passed away; I am clean in Him (2 Cor. 5:17; Acts 10:15).

7) My identity is not bound to the expectations and approval of others. I am not ruled by

peer pressure to conform. I can be the new me God wants me to be.

Before you came into a "knowing-God relationship," what did you consider your identity to be

founded upon? In some offices, you see photos of the person you are visiting standing next to a

famous person. Perhaps there is a wall with that business man posing with Ronald Reagan or

one of the Bushes. Perhaps a photographer was conveniently there to take the picture when they

met a famous rock star or movie star. But even with many such pictures and a wall full of

plaques and honors and degrees, what is the true identity of that person? Some people look to

their genealogy to find who they really are based on their ancestors. Others look to the

distinctive culture they came out of. Others follow a career track to achievements and

respectability in the community. But without Christ, it is just a summation of those things plus

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family and houses and money. All of these may go a long way in defining who a person was.

But there is much, much more. Can you swap all of the features of your identity which are so

important and lay all of these honors at the feet of Christ? Thank Him for them, but give them

back to Him. Does your search for significance end at the foot of the cross? On judgment day,

what will truly matter then? Ask Him to help you be the best servant to those He has given you

to serve. Then put Christ on the throne as number ONE and count your status as an adopted

child of God through faith in Jesus' blood as being the most important thing and WHO YOU

ARE AS A PERSON IN THIS WORLD. My identity is in knowing Christ. That

is it. Everything else flows out from that relationship in a continuous stream of love and

service to others because of my relationship with God in Christ.

II. How Do We Know God?

4) God reveals the knowledge of His glory in nature. Nature reveals the glory of

God, but wicked men suppress that knowledge and are without excuse.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day

after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge (Psalm 19:1-

2).

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and

wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19. since what may be

known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20. For

since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine

nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that

men are without excuse. 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as

God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts

were darkened. 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23. and

exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and

birds and animals and reptiles (Rom. 1:18-23).

There is a knowledge of God that is revealed generally to all of the world in the fact of

His eternal qualities shown in His handiwork of nature. This is called General Revelation. Just

take any leaf off a tree and put it under a microscope and see that it has individual cells with

reproductive parts to each cell. This is amazing. But what man tends to do is worship the tree

itself. Mankind has always from ancient times revered and even worshipped the sun, moon and

stars. God created all things. But He Himself is not nature. He is nature's God. Paul points out

the fact that mankind has no excuse in the fact that nature reveals God and that mankind has

suppressed this knowledge by their own wickedness. They have worshipped the creature rather

than the Creator. They have become fools in the process and it became a downward spiral of

idolatry and sexual perversion from that point on.

But, on the positive side, implied in that is the fact that God's invisible qualities and

divine power can be seen in nature so we should worship Him rather than nature itself. We are

without excuse to do any different. We see nature and we see God's incredible handiwork. How

can people look at nature and not see an Intelligent Designer? How can they suppress that

knowledge of God that is so plain to them?

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5) Seek to know God personally. Love God - fear Him - believe in Him.

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him

now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you

are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 17 Since you call on a

Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in

reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold

that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your

forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times

for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and

glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:8-9, 17-21).

When we read a passage like that, we are reminded of the fact that God is holy, that He is

the Judge of all the earth and He deserves our reverence and even our fear. We fear Him with

the reverence and respect of an obedient son or daughter, not with slavish fear of one who is

under punishment. In Him we live and move and have our very being (Acts 17:28). All that we

have and all that we are comes from Him. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things

(Rom. 11:36). As Augustine said, "Lord, you have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are

restless until they find rest in Thee."

We are just strangers passing through for a short time. We are not at home here on earth.

We are looking around asking God what we should do in the short time we are visiting this

planet. We have been redeemed from our empty way of life handed down from our forefathers.

We are those who have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ. We know that God

raised Christ from the dead and our faith and hope are in God.

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?

By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119).

The Psalmist David is concerned about his youth and the temptations in the world, and rightly so.

Later, he faced incredible temptations and we know from the Scriptures that he was far from

perfect. So at this young stage in his life, he asks the question, “How can a young man keep his

way pure?” The answer is to live according to God’s word. This involves seeking the Lord in

reading the Bible and asking God to help him stay on the right path and not stray from God’s

commands. This involves hiding God’s Word in his heart, i.e., memorizing it, meditating on it,

reading it on a daily basis.

6) Know about God through His Word, the Bible. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his

name, the LORD. 6. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD,

the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and

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faithfulness, 7a. maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and

sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished...(Exodus 34:5-7a). See in this verse God's compassion, grace, His slowness to anger (being patient and

longsuffering), loving and faithful, and forgiving sin. Yet none of this is inconsistent with His

justice in punishing the wicked. He could not maintain His righteousness without executing

justice any more than our government could have a solid justice system without punishing

criminals who break good laws. The Bible teaches us all about the character of God. Whereas

the revelation of God in nature is called General Revelation, the revelation of God through the

Bible is known as Special Revelation. Look at the word “reveal” from the Latin revelare, to

unveil. The Bible is God’s reveal-ation. We discover the Triune God in the unfolding of

Biblical revelation. We should learn all we can. Take the following as a starting point.

From Articles of Faith, Bible Fellowship Church

(footnotes for Scripture are at the end of the paper)

The Trinity There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son,

1 and the Holy Spirit.

2 These

three are one God,3 the same in substance, eternally equal in power and glory.

God The Father There is but one living and true God,

1 immanent, transcendent, infinite in being and

perfection, pure spirit,2 invisible, immutable,

3 eternal, almighty, all wise,

4 most holy, most

free, most loving, most gracious, most merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and

truth, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,5 the rewarder of them that diligently seek

Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin. He will by no

means clear the guilty.

God The Son - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Word,1 the eternal and true God who

is of one substance and equal with the Father.2 He took on Himself man's nature, with all

of its essential properties except sin: Being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the

Virgin Mary,3 He embodied two perfect and distinct natures in one person. He is truly God

and truly man, the only mediator between God and man.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of God to man.4 In the days of His humiliation

5 He

lived a sinless life, performed miracles, taught the will of God,5 was crucified, and died.

He was buried and arose bodily from the dead on the third day. The Lord Jesus offered

Himself a sacrifice for sins,6 satisfied the justice of the Father, propitiated the wrath of

God, reconciled God and man,7 and obtained an eternal inheritance.

The Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, from whence He had come, and was exalted,

taking His place at the right hand of the Father, where He makes intercession on behalf of

all who come to God through Him.8

God The Holy Spirit The eternal

1 Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son,

2 is of the same

substance and equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. By Him the prophets

were moved to speak the Word of God, and all writers of the Holy Scriptures were

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inspired to record infallibly the mind and will of God.3 He is the only efficient agent in

the application of redemption. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,4

moves them to repentance, and regenerates5 them by His grace, enabling them to embrace

Jesus Christ by faith.

The Holy Spirit indwells all true believers, baptizing them into one body, of which Christ

is the head.6 He, the divine Comforter, Intercessor, and Advocate, empowers the believer

for service.7

(End of quote).

This was a concise statement based on Scripture (with footnotes at the end of this paper to the

Bible) that describes the Triune God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is so much

to learn about the nature of God as revealed in Scripture. Did you learn something new just now

as you read about the Trinity? Do you realize that this is one of the most important doctrines

about God Himself and that a correct understanding of this can guard you from the false

teachings of many cults today (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons). All of the cults do not

acknowledge this doctrine. All other world religions do not. Christianity in its orthodox

(Biblically correct) form does so. We need to be able to understand this for ourselves and we

need to be able to explain it to others. A good systematic theology that is well written and clear

and, I believe, correct in its presentation is Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (Zondervan

Publishing Co.).

Knowing ABOUT God: Trying to Understand Evil & Suffering vs. a God of Love.

One aspect of this that deserves come consideration is how we can have preconceived notions

about God. We may think that we know God to be so loving in every way that it collides with

the justice of God. In order words, we accept the fact that He blesses the righteous, but cannot

conceive that He curses the wicked. Even harder to imagine is that He could send tribulation and

affliction on "righteous" people. So we have these preconceived notions about God and when

something bad happens to someone else or ourselves, our theology of a loving God goes into

becoming a theology of a loving God with His hands tied behind His back because there is no

way He would have allowed such-and-such to happen. Then we read Scripture and it sends us

into even more of a tailspin: Job is given over to Satan to be tested with God's full approval.

God doesn't come back and explain the situation or apologize to Job later. Job repents in dust

and ashes, even though he was not such a bad guy to begin with. God accepts his repentance and

restores him to his previous estate. Or we read in Hebrews 12 how the Lord disciplines those He

loves and "punishes" everyone He accepts as a son. That strikes against our concept of a loving

God. But we find out that this discipline produces a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who

have been trained by it and strengthens them (Hebrews 12:4-11). Read it for yourself: 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your

blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as

sons:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”a

a Prov. 3:11, 12

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7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not

disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes

discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all

had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more

should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a

little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share

in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on,

however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been

trained by it (Heb. 12:4-11).

If you are not already familiar with this passage, it may shed new light on your life as a

child of God. In fact, if you read the whole Bible, your stereotypes of God just get blown out of

the water! So here with all of this discussion about knowing God, do you think that you can

really know Him until you know His Word, the Bible? I have heard people say, "Now I have

heard it said that God is punishing so-and-so for their sin. I don't believe that. He would not do

that." But this is not a court of public opinion on what we think God would or would not do!

Who is to say? Read the Bible and find out what He already did. He does punish sin. He is a

just God. He will punish the wicked who curse Him and, like a good father who disciplines

those He loves, He also with punish His own children. If you do not think so, what about the

first generation of the children of Israel dying in the desert and not being allowed to see the

Promised Land? They did not believe God could cause the walls of Jericho to fall. But the

second generation saw it happen. Or what about the fact that He caused Assyria to come down

to Israel from the north and take 10 tribes away captive, never to return as a nation again? The

same thing happened to the Southern Kingdom of Judah (consisting of two tribes), though they

did return after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. In both cases, it was because of idolatry. Israel

and Judah were worshipping false Canaanite gods. God had to punish them. Punishment is not

always a bad thing. (It is worse, it seems, when we are on the receiving end of it. But, we must

admit, it has a purifying effect).

In the process, He purified His covenant nation and allowed them to survive to see the

time of sending His only Son Jesus as the Messiah. Would God allow His own Son to be

tortured and killed? We would think not. Yet, it was through this that we have redemption of

our sins. The fact is, the Bible is loaded with examples of God's ways that are not our ways and

thoughts that are not our thoughts. Of course, we think we are so righteous to begin with and

God is the one who will have to answer to us on Judgment Day! Once I heard a preacher say at a

funeral that when he saw Jesus Christ in heaven, he would take Him aside and say, "Young man,

I've got some questions to ask you." And then, of course, this man would meet the Lord of the

universe and take him to task on why He allowed this young mother to die. Listen, that pastor

did not know the Lord as the Scripture reveals Him. If He did, he would have never said such a

thing. Who are we to judge God? We are the sinners! He is the righteous One.

If we do not engage ourselves with Scripture to understand and know the Lord, we are

only going according to our own preconceived notions and will always be perplexed at Him and

things that happen all around us. On the other hand, if we just go to the Bible with a blank slate,

so to speak, and let Him write His own self on it, then we will know the God according to His

revealed Word. In the long run, we will not be so perplexed, because we will know the Lord for

Who He is and fear Him with a reverential awe and respect. So in the end we should learn all we

can ABOUT God by reading His Word. You may encounter more questions about Him. But,

remember, He is the Creator, we are His creation. He is the Potter, we the clay. He is the

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Savior, we the sinners. He offers us salvation from sin, we are the ones to be saved from sin.

That is the starting point.

The Bible is the revelation of God’s truth to us. Perhaps you have seen the bumper

sticker that says, “NO JESUS, NO PEACE;” then, “KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE.” The

same could be said in terms of seeking truth in knowing God: “NO JESUS, NO TRUTH;” then,

“KNOW JESUS, KNOW TRUTH.” Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. We are all in a journey of the truth. Our

post-modern culture has declared that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that it is all relative

to whatever we think is true for ourselves. We have asked all the tough questions: “Is there a

God?” “Why is there suffering in the world if God is in control?” “Is there more than one way

to heaven?” Since everyone cannot agree on the answers, we have settled for this muddled

concept that there must not be any answers; there is nothing that is true or certain and that we

can believe anything we want to believe. Not so. In that scenario, I could convince myself that

all the maps are wrong; there is no north-south-east or west. That there is no gravity. I can

believe that if I jump off a building, I won’t fall and die because I sincerely do not believe in

gravity. I could convince myself that things that are wrong and have been wrong since the 10

Commandments were revealed to Moses at Mt. Sinai—are now not wrong anymore! Why?

Because we are post-modern now! There is no such thing as absolute truth now! But that is

ridiculous. Of course, there is truth. It has not changed. God has not changed either. We will

still be called to account for our actions on Judgment Day based on God’s truth and His law. Do

we desire to know the truth? If you do, then you should desire to know God.

The point is this: If you are in a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ,

then you are coming to know Him who is true. He will help you make sense of things, even

the toughest questions, because He will lead you to live a life of faith and trust in Him. He

will reveal truth to you as you get to know Him better. As you read His Word, you are reading

His revealed truth. As you pray to Him, you are praying to the one living and true God. As you

study the Bible, the Holy Spirit will point you to a life of obedience and righteousness. His

principles are revealed in Scripture. They are true and holy and righteous. As you learn about

God in the study of His Word, you will recognize the truth when you see it. Having been so

instructed by God’s Word, you will see the invisible qualities and divine power of God in His

handiwork in nature. It is all a journey of faith in a relationship with God to know the truth and

put it into practice. You have to believe in Him and trust in Him to enter into this truth journey

and actually find the truth. Whatever doubts you and I may have about things we do not

understand, we have to relegate them to a category in our minds which we might call

“unanswered questions” or “truth not yet revealed to me.” We can be certain that one day we

will know the “whys.” We don’t have to know everything now. We just need to trust and

believe in Jesus.

So how do we know God? In short, we have said that we see Him revealed in His handiwork of

nature, we seek to have a personal love relationship with Him through prayer, worship and

obedience and we also seek to read His Word, the Bible, to learn all we can about Him. So many

good books have been written to help us there.

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III. Admonitions on the Life of Knowing God

7) Live like you know God! The mark of truly knowing God is obedience. We cannot

claim to have a real faith-knowledge of God while we continue to sin without repenting from it.

That is self-righteous hypocrisy. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his

commands (1 John 2:3).

But obedience is not a great burden. It is putting off the old self and having a new outlook--a

new mind! It is a great blessing to be unburdened by getting rid of sin! 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the

Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding

and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the

hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over

to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you

heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which

is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your

minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and

holiness (Ephesians 4:17-24).

Knowing God is acknowledging God in all your ways.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Prov. 3:5-6).

ac•knowl•edge \ik-ˈnä-lij, ak-\ verb transitive

-edged; -edg•ing [ac- (as in accord) + knowledge] 15th century

1 : to recognize the rights, authority, or status of

2 : to disclose knowledge of or agreement with

3 a : to express gratitude or obligation for 〈acknowledge a gift〉

b : to take notice of 〈failed to acknowledge my greeting〉

c : to make known the receipt of 〈acknowledge a letter〉

4 : to recognize as genuine or valid 〈acknowledge a debt〉

When we acknowledge God in all of our ways,

we are accessing the knowledge of God in everything we do.

We are applying His truths, recognizing His authority, expressing the praise that is due Him by

the lives we live.

Knowing God enables us to overcome the evil one (the devil) in our lives.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write

to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear

children, because you have known the Father (1 John 2:13).

Knowing God means that we are distinguished from the world by our obedience.

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How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of

God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not

know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not

yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for

we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he

is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know

that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one

who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or

known him (1 John 3:1-6).

The people who know their God can resist evil.

With flattery he (the Northern King) will corrupt those who have violated the covenant,

but the people who know their God will firmly resist him (Daniel 11:32).

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I

will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart (Jeremiah 24:7).

Let us contrast the characteristics of those who do not know God with those who do.

We live in the culture of self-worship. We are consumed with ourselves. I-ME-MY is #1. This

is a natural human tendency. It gets in the way of knowing God because we are consumed with

knowing self.

Learn a significant word: narcissism. This word comes from Greek mythology where a proud

youth named Narcissus looked into a pool, saw and reflection of himself and fell in love with it.

He could not stop gazing at himself and it eventually ended up in his death. This is a tendency to

self-worship or excessive interest in one's own personal features. In a word: SELF. At the

Greek Oracle at Delphi, a holy shrine to Greek mythology, there is inscribed on the wall,

"Knowing Thyself." This self-focus is really not a modern phenomenon, to be sure.

I – ME – MY Narcissism (Self-Focus) Vs. The Sufficiency of the Grace of God in Christ

Confidence in the human ability No Confidence in the Flesh

Glory in Accomplishments Glory in the Cross

Build Your Reputation Risk Reputation for Truth

Search for Self-Significance Find Your Significance in Christ

Focus on Self-Worth in the World Focus on God’s Love for Me

Be All You Can Be Be All God Wants You to Be

Self-Actualization God-Actualization of the Self

Seek Praise of People Seek the Praise of God

Justify Your Sins Realize Sin and Repent

Suffer Because of Your Sins Suffer for Christ's Sake

Justify Misdeeds by “Good Excuses” Crucify Sin and Pride

Find Yourself Find God

Know Thyself Know Thy God

To Thine Own Self Be True To Thine Own God Be True

Strive for Wholeness From Within Yourself Strive for Holiness from God

Work For Your Dreams by Will Power Work Out Your Salvation by Faith

Self-Righteousness Righteousness by Faith in Christ

Self-Justification Justification by Faith in Christ

Willpower Resurrection Power

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps Pray for God to move mountains!

Reform yourself Be transformed by God!

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Do you get the point here? The world would have us revel and lust after ourselves. In other

words, it is ok to be selfish! Look inward. Everything you need is all there. Just think about

how selfishness corrupts our whole outlook on life and creates completely dysfunctional people

who are concerned for #1. But on the opposite of that, (excuse the triteness of this) JOY: Jesus,

Others & You! Put God first. He will show you how to relate to others and help them. Don't

make yourself the top priority in life and then you will experience the joy of giving and blessing

others. Knowing God changes our whole approach to life. Instead of a self-focused life, we can

have a Christ-focused life. He will renew us everyday and give us His perspective rather than in

our wallowing our self and self-fulfillment. The blessing is that you will be fulfilled if Jesus is

the center of your life.

8) Seek to know God’s will. 15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of

every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but

understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to

debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:15-18). Notice here the drastic contrast between being unwise and wise; not squandering your time--

but making the most of every opportunity or “redeeming the time” (as it literally means); not

being foolish, but seeking to understand what God’s purposes are for you; and finally, not being

drunk with wine, but being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. This is living very

carefully...watching, waiting, then walking.

16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy,

and so all went well.

Is that not what it means to know me?”

declares the LORD (Jeremiah 22:16).

So when we know God's will in a given situation, we have great confidence that all our

hardship in accomplishing His will is worthwhile. We need to put His will into practice. 17 Now

that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them (John 13:17). God's will is

revealed in His Word. When we read it and pray, we come to understand, by the Spirit's

guidance, what we should do. Stay in God's Word. Know the Lord. Do His will.

Paul expresses this profound thought:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living

sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not

conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of

your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:1-2). In this we see that a personal relationship with Christ

through recognizing His mercy to us in sending Christ to die on the cross leads us to offer

ourselves wholeheartedly back to Him. We then become living sacrifices, desiring to be holy

and acceptable. We should seek to be clean before the Lord and useful to Him. We know God.

We know that He does not want us to live in ongoing sin and rebellion. He does not want us to

try to mold and shape our lives after the pattern of this world. Rather, we are to be transformed

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by the renewing of our minds. He renews us as we know Him. As we live in His presence, we

are always being renewed and filled with His spiritual power and energy. Then as God

orchestrates our lives, we can test and approve what His will is. This will be the good, pleasing

and perfect will of God which we learned as we lived before Him in a "knowing God"

relationship.

9) Remain in an intimate “knowing Jesus” relationship to be fruitful for God. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear

much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is

like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown

into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask

whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear

much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (John 15:5-8).

Instead of thinking that we should be trying to go out and do “something great for God”

to gain His favor, just realize that you cannot do a thing by yourself. You cannot save the world

for Jesus or save even one person. Simply rest in Christ, remain in Him, abide as a branch in the

Vine. Let Him work through you and He will produce fruit. He will draw others to Himself

through your steady witness.

In this branch to Vine relationship with Jesus, the sap of the Holy Spirit is flowing

through us! We can bear fruit for God! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). The fruit is what is growing on the end of our branch, those sweet, juicy grapes that others love

to pick and eat. They see Christ in us and say, "I want what he has!" Or, "I want to be like her!"

Then, when they accept Christ, we have borne the fruit of the Kingdom of God. We have

brought a soul to Jesus through our witness and example. The only way this can happen is if we

are remaining in a love relationship with God through Christ. We cannot step outside of that and

expect God to use us in a mighty way that is meaningful. We have to remain in Him, know Him,

be united to Christ. Then we can ask God for what we believe to be His will to happen and God

has promised to answer our prayers. It is mysterious how He does this, but stay tuned until

judgment day. It is not over until it is over. And then, it has only begun.

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are

really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves

of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave

has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets

you free, you will be free indeed (John 8).

Real freedom is found in a “knowing Jesus” relationship where you hold to the teachings of

Christ in your life and show that you are really one of His disciples. Then you are walking in the

truth and you will find real freedom. If you ask a child what freedom is, many times they will

say, “It is being able to do anything I want to do.” But then I ask them if that means they can kill

some other child if they want to do that, for whatever reason. They get puzzled at that point.

They know that there are things they must not do, like killing others. We all live in the confines

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of existing laws and yet we have freedom within those confines to live and conduct ourselves in

an open society. Our society is more free than most, it seems, yet we have to live within laws in

order to be free. Jesus is telling His disciples that they are truly free if they obey His commands.

If we live outside of the teachings of Christ, we put ourselves in bondage to sin. Only in Christ

are we free from sin and its control. If we are freed by the Son of God we are “free indeed.” We

need to remain in that freedom all of our lives and not allow ourselves to go back into bondage to

sin. In this freedom, we can bear fruit for God; real freedom, real fruit.

10) Help others to know God. The ultimate concern we should have for others is: “Do

others really know God?” This is no small question. It is not about external things such as

church membership or church-going, though those are important. It is about the true knowledge

of God. It should be our greatest desire, that others come to know God through His Son Jesus

Christ. In the end, it will be the eternal question that determines whether people go to heaven or

hell. I was sharing the gospel with a man who is slowly dying of lung cancer. We have a good

relationship and this extended conversation was meaningful to him. But instead of just talking

about his work of being a contractor, I had a handout I had written that laid out the gospel

message. I wanted him to read it carefully. I told him, "When it comes to going to heaven or

hell, don't rely on the fact that you have been a member of your church, been baptized, had great

Christian parents or were generally successful in business. No, the one thing you want to be

absolutely sure about is that you have repented of your sins and you have asked Jesus to wash

away your sins through His death on the cross." His response, was, "I know. You're right." He

responded well to all that I said and we prayed together. Knowing God is all about the most

ultimate thing for us: going to heaven or hell; being with God throughout eternity or being

completely alone and without Him.

8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of

our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the

presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be

glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you (2 Thessalonians 1:8-10).

You must be sure where you stand. Then you must help others be absolutely sure where

they stand. Our actions will reveal where we truly stand with God. 15 To the pure, all things

are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact,

both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God,

but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit

for doing anything good (Titus 1:15-16).

Which side do you want to be on here? To ask the question is to answer it. Of course,

we want to know the Lord and obey the gospel of God. We want to be the sheep on His right

and not the goats on his left (Matt. 25:31ff). We want to experience the eternal life of knowing

God and we should want others to do the same. It is the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to go

and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20).

If you already know the Lord, you can help others know the Lord. We are the fragrance

of the knowledge of God to others. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in

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triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him (2 Cor. 2:14). People should be able to see by our conduct, demeanor and

lifestyle that we know God. Hopefully, this is a “fragrance” that they will be drawn to and desire

for themselves as well.

But some will not like that fragrance. It will stink to those who are perishing, but be a

sweet aroma to those who are being saved. 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in

triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the

knowledge of him. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are

being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to

the other, the fragrance of life....

It would do us well to know this: not everyone will want to know God. The wicked will

not seek God. Those who live in darkness are not always drawn to the light. They hide from it.

But there are some whom God is drawing to Himself and to them our fragrance of the knowledge

of God is a sweet smell of honeysuckle and gardenia. We just need to be sure that the aroma we

spread is the true knowledge of God and that we are representing Him accurately to the world.

11) We can grow in our knowledge of God. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please

him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of

God...(Colossians 1:10).

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you

the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better(Ephesians 1:17). So we take it from this that we can grow to know the Lord better as the years go by. He

is a vast, eternal God. We may have read the Bible 20 times and yet He can show us new things

in His Word! There will be new situations and circumstances that are difficult and perplexing as

you grow older. Knowing God will meet the challenge of those vicissitudes, those changing

times.

Do you think you can know the Lord better? Have you said to yourself that you have

"been there and done that" when it comes to going to church, reading the Bible and praying?

Don't allow yourself to be deceived. God can renew your mind and heart. You can get a newer,

brighter perspective on life. You can grow in your knowledge of God. You can know Him

better.

What are you doing to know the Lord better? I would like to think that by reading this

paper, you will know God better. This paper is loaded with Scripture, God's Word! There are

good books that will be helpful in your devotional life. When I was in seminary, Dr. Royce

Gruenler told us in class, "Read the Greek in your devotions, the Lord will bless you." I took

him up on that and he was right. I have come to know the Lord better by better understanding

His word. It is not "Greek to me" anymore. It is understandable. But it was a great effort and

many hours of labor. (Can I say the same for the Hebrew? Oh well, moving right along,…. but

I'm working on it). You can study the Bible, study Biblically correct theology, become a

defender of the Christian faith by studying Apologetics, lead Bible studies and find out how

much you don't know! Get out of your comfort zone and grow! Grow in your knowledge of

God!!!

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Among all we have said so far there are a combination of some ideas that I want to highlight

before we close the study:

Knowing God

Acknowledging God

Knowing About God

Being Used by God

It just makes perfect sense that the Christian would seek to know God in this order. First we

should desire to know Him personally. Then we should acknowledge Him in everything we do.

Then, we should seek to learn more about Him as we get to know Him. Then finally, we should

see to be used by God.

But what if you started with the last one, being used by God, and just settled for that? That, it seems to me, is what the false prophets were doing in Jesus’ illustration of those who

prophesied, cast out demons, and performed miracles. Jesus told them on Judgement Day, “I

never knew you.” They didn’t know God. This does not just apply to the false prophets, but to

everyone. It is a general principle, followed by an illustration of building your house on the

rock versus the sand (Matt. 7:15-27).

What if you just wanted to know about God and did not seek to know Him personally? Is

that good enough? No, in fact some theologians know a great deal about God but fall short of

a personal relationship with Him. It is all a giant theological head-game of philosophy,

arguments and ideas. They have not acknowledged Christ as Lord and still want to maintain the

validity of many paths to heaven other than by Christ. Knowing about God is important, but it

does not replace knowing Him.

What if I just acknowledge God? If by this you mean you give lipservice to Him, so to speak,

and He is not really the source of your life, then you are not in a “knowing God” relationship.

To be in a “knowing God” relationship means that you truly know Him through being born again

into the family of God; you acknowledge Him as the Lord of your life and seek to serve Him;

you are hungry to know more about Him; and you desire to do His will in your life to be used by

Him as He sees fit.

12) Knowing God will change you! Knowing God will change our character so that

we will be more like God in love and holiness.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).

3: 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And

we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his

likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2

Corinthians 3:17-18).

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To know God in such a deep, personal way will have an embedded influence in our

personality, the way we treat others, our outlook. We will bear the fragrance of Christ Jesus

spiritually. We will reflect the glory of Christ. People will see Christ in us. We will be

transformed by His likeness with ever-increasing glory of Him in our lives. People will see

Christ in us and desire Christ. It will become apparent that we know the Lord.

For further reference: Knowing God by J. I. Packer, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,

1973.

Footnotes to Articles of Faith – Bible Fellowship Church

The Trinity 1 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God

descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well

pleased" (Mat.3:16,17). Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). 2 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for

yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the

money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:3,4). 3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let

them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that

move along the ground" (Gen.1:1,26). Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mat.28:19). May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the

fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor.13:14).

God the Father 1 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged

me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and

there is no other (Isa. 45:5,6). 2 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). 3 I the LORD do not change (Mal.3:6a). 4 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond

tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" (Rom.11:33,34). 5 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger,

abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not

leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth

generation" (Exo.34:6,7).

God the Son 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. The Word became flesh and made his

dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

(John 1:1-3,14). 2 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on

earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is

before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the

firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness

dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace

through his blood, shed on the cross (Col.1:15-20). 3 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a

son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us" (Mat.1:22,23). 4 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has

spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance

of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided

purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the

name he has inherited is superior to theirs (Heb.1:1-4).

God the Spirit 1 Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God (Heb.9:14b).

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2 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - But the Counselor, the Holy

Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you

(John 14:16,26). 3 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2

Peter 1:21). 4 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I

go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in

regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see

me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned (John 16:7-11). 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). 6 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one

Spirit to drink (1 Cor.12:13). 7 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea

and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

"I Know Whom I Have Believed" (1 Timothy 1:12)

Words: Daniel W. Whittle, in Gospel Hymns No. 4, 1883. Music: James McGranahan

1) I know not why God’s wondrous grace

To me He hath made known,

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love*

Redeemed me for His own.

(*Note: Because of trying to make the meter rhyme, it might sound here like the hymn writer

was saying Christ was himself unworthy, but that is not what is meant. It would be better

paraphrased as follows: "Nor why I was so unworthy, Christ in His love redeemed me for His

own.")

Refrain

But I know Whom I have believèd,

And am persuaded that He is able

To keep that which I’ve committed

Unto Him against that day.

2) I know not how this saving faith

To me He did impart,

Nor how believing in His Word

Wrought peace within my heart. Refrain

3) I know not how the Spirit moves,

Convincing us of sin,

Revealing Jesus through the Word,

Creating faith in Him. Refrain

4) I know not what of good or ill

May be reserved for me,

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Of weary ways or golden days,

Before His face I see. Refrain

5) I know not when my Lord may come,

At night or noonday fair,

Nor if I walk the vale with Him,

Or meet Him in the air. Refrain

All I Once Held Dear (Knowing You)

by Graham Kendrick

All I once held dear built my life upon

All this world reveres, and wars to own

All I once thought gain I have counted loss

Spent and worthless now, compared to this

(Chorus:)

Knowing you, Jesus knowing you

There is no greater thing

You're my all you're the best

You're my joy, my righteousness

And I love you, Lord

Now my heart's desire is to know you more

To be found in you, and known as yours

To possess by faith what I could not earn

All surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh to know the power of your risen life

And to know you in your suffering

To become like you in your death my Lord

So with You to live

And never die

(This song was based on Philippians 3:4-11) Copyright © 1993 Make Way Music. PO Box 263, Croydon, Surrey CR9 5AP, UK. International copyright secured. All rights reserved

The following is written by a dear, elderly African-American lady in our church who read this

paper and was inspired to write this poem.

“Knowing God” By Rosa Myrick

Knowing God’s Word is to receive it within,

If you do what it says, you will come out of sin.

Knowing God is an individual’s choice,

Accept Him today while you can still hear His voice.

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Knowing God will change your whole life.

It will rid you of all envy and strife.

Knowing God will help you not to go astray,

But keep you living holy for Him each day.

Knowing God will make you want to treat your brother right,

Instead of criticizing, lead him to the Light.

Knowing God is putting Him first,

Drink of His living water and you will never thirst.

Knowing God will give you all the fruits of love,

As you continue to seek Him from above.

Knowing God is letting you light shine aglow,

So that others may see that living for Jesus is the best way to go.

Knowing God is getting true salvation,

For everlasting torment is no vacation.

---to the glory of God!

Christian Life Values, “The Value of Knowing God” Copyright © 2013 by Willis Dowling; All Rights Reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version(R). NIV(R) unless otherwise indicated.

Copyright(c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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