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Knowing God

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When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? Matt. 19:25

“Who then can be saved?” or “Who is really saved?” Over and over that question comes to our minds as we go through life. We all see so much. We see so much inconsistency in the lives of professing Christians. We see what the Bible says about salvation and then we see what is practiced in the average “Christian’s” life and we are confused. Any thinking person will listen to what is preached from most pulpits and end up trying to sort out all the contradictions and confusion.

These disciples were astonished that Jesus had made the way so narrow. They thought that surely no one was saved if it was really as narrow as Jesus had said it was. They were still in the realm that so many in the church are in today. They were trying to figure out all the things of God from the viewpoint of the “natural man.”

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14

Therefore, they couldn’t comprehend salvation outside of a set of rules to follow, or a set of truths to understand. This has to be one of the biggest traps that people fall into when it comes to finding God. “What must I DO?” “What must I pray?” or “What thing can I give?” So many think that it is the way you put the words together in a prayer. If you say it just right that is the key that unlocks heaven for you. Maybe that sounds silly to you, but there are multitudes of people who see it just that way.

There are MANY who think that if they just DO the things that real believers DO then that is evidence that they are also believers. If they go to church, pay tithes, have some responsibility in the church, witness or invite someone to church once in a while, they surely have DONE everything God could expect of them. How sad that the churches are full of people like this who DO all these things but have no reality of God in their lives! On the outside they appear to be the model Christian, but on the inside they are empty and have no real assurance at all. God is not a reality in their life and there is no river of living water flowing out of them. They have nothing to give but the things they can DO or the things of the world they possess.

It isn’t so much what you DO, but what you LOVE. How amazing that we can be blinded so easily to what Jesus said was the most important commandment of all!

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt. 22:37–40

People who are truly saved LOVE God! They love him supremely. That means they put him FIRST in everything. God, and his desires; God and his Will, gets considered FIRST in every decision and choice they make in life. This isn’t done because they pull out the rule book and see that is what they are supposed to do. They do it because God is the love of their life. If the affections of your heart are set on God your focus will be to please him. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) This makes his yoke very easy and his burden very light. “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) The key to loving God is to understand that He LOVES you. He loved you when you didn’t love him. When you KNOW that God loves you, and you love him, no one has to sit and counsel you with the Scriptures to “give you assurance.” You are then one of those that “hath the witness in himself.” (1 John 5:10) When you love God you will fall out of love with the world. Jesus said it is impossible to love God and love the world at the same time. (1 John 2:15)

Knowing God is not knowing about God, but knowing him in a personal way. Any sin or trouble that enters into your life is an issue between you and God before it is ever an issue with others. You cannot walk in sin because of this very personal relationship you have with God. To know God is to know the reality of his continual presence in your life. You are not just practicing religion. Those who practice religion do so to be seen of men. Their focus is to conform to the expectations of the religious authorities and those who have already been accepted by them. Those who walk with God seek to please God and will not turn their back on God to obtain the favor of people who are not walking with God. Enoch walked with God and had a testimony:

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Heb. 11:5

His testimony was that he “pleased God.”

Do you please God as Enoch did, or are you like Cain? God was not pleased with Cain’s offering because it was the product of his own works, and he sought to please God with “things” while keeping his heart from God. God wants our heart. He wants us to love him and walk with him. DOING things is not what pleases God – loving God is what pleases God. When we keep his commandments because we love him He is pleased. If we try to keep his commandments in order to please him and obtain his favor, while our hearts are still after the things of this world He is not pleased.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23

There is no greater mark of a true Christian than the fact that they truly love God, just the way He is presented in the Bible. You will find these people filled with joy and assurance in times of trouble and tragedy and the most severe trials of life. When it comes time to cross the river into eternity you will see them comforted and full of the blessed grace of God.

If you aren’t walking with God you are missing what life is all about. Seek his face and start walking with Him today.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:8
 

Mike Miller
7/17/2005

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