The Benefits of Knowing God
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 26 August 2000 19:00
Let's begin with a simple, bite-sized question. What's the meaning of life?
Some of you, by the way you live, have demonstrated your belief that part of the meaning of life is acquiring things!
- This is the focus of your time and energy.
- Your daydreams, your thoughts are invested in getting more and better things.
Some of you, by the way you live, have demonstrated your belief that part of the meaning of life is getting your way!
- You love control.
- You hate not to be in the know.
- You don't want to be taken advantage of.
Some of you, by the way you live, have demonstrated your belief that life is a popularity contest! You need to be liked.
We don't have to reflect very long to acknowledge that none of these gets us very close to the meaning of life. But if the Bible is accurate, and I believe it is, then we get close to the meaning of life by knowing and being known. That's why Jesus said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) That's why the great Apostle Paul summarizes his whole life saying, "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord ? I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering." (Philippians 3:8,10) This same Paul looked into eternity and concluded: "then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)
- God created everything and all of it was good. Everything in the whole time-space continuum was pleasing to God, except for one thing: man's aloneness. "It is not good for man to be alone." We need community. We need relationship. We need to know and to be known.
- Your life cannot find purpose and meaning outside of relationship. And the starting point in our search for relationship is relationship with God. God knows us completely and loves us perfectly. Today we want to do two things: (1) we want to look at what the Bible says about God's knowledge of us, and (2) we will find from that, by implication, what the benefits are of our honesty with God.
The nature of God's knowledge of us.
Psalm 139:1-5
(1) O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. (2) You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. (3) You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. (4) Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. (5) You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
1. God is omniscience
- knowledge covers all directions
- that is, God possesses perfect knowledge of us
- but more, God has no need to learn. No info about our lives, our health, our future that God does not already possess
Psalm 139:7-12
(7) Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? (8) If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (9) If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, (10) even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (11) If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," (12) even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
2. Our initial impulse to this fact might be to hide or to flee. This may have been the Psalmist first impulse too, but fleeing is futile.
- God's knowledge of us covers all space, everywhere. And all conditions.
- David lived at a time when darkness was a comprehensive covering. But not from God.
- Hound of Heaven testimonial poem inspired by this passage.
3. Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve? After they had sinned they tried to hide from God. It was completely futile.
Psalm 139:13-16
(13) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (15) My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, (16) your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
4. God's knowledge of me covers all space. It also covers all of time. God knows even the unseen, preexistent moments of my life. And He does not know me simply as one who passively receives information. His knowledge of me is actively linked to His involvement in my life. In fact, He knows me so well precisely because He governs every moment of my life.
The benefits of being honest with God.
1. Understanding the reality of God's knowledge of us calls for more than acquiescence. God wants more for us than to merely break us under the inevitability of His knowledge. He wants us to accept His knowledge of us gladly, in fact to participate in it, but opening ourselves up to Him. Over the last 4 weeks we have called such openness "honesty with God."
2. It is scary to be honest with God. We can understand why Adam tried to hide. But there is great benefit in being honest with Him!
a. There is great comfort in God's knowledge of us. He cannot be surprised. He cannot be suddenly appalled at some dark secret which He accidentally uncovers. He knows already.
- Tozer quote p. 88
- No matter what it is, God already knows and loves you anyway.
b. There is great confidence in God's knowledge of us. No change in circumstances is going to drive Him away. His relationship to me will not suddenly be altered. He will not grow apart from me.
- I knew a girl in serious relationship. She had abortion in her past and was ashamed. She never had confidence in her relationships and always knew her relationships would end as soon as the other person found out her terrible secret. She thought her boyfriend would go away as soon as he learned. Finally, the burden of holding it in was too great. She told him, knowing it would drive him away. But he did not leave. He still loved her. He knew her secret and still loved her. She told me she never knew that you could live with such confidence in a relationship.
- When we experience God's knowledge of us, we experience the same freeing confidence. Our secrets do not threaten His love of us. Our honesty with Him only builds and strengthens our relationship.
Psalm 139:6, 17-18
(6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain... (17) How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (18) Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
c. There is great joy in truly being known!
Psalm 139:19-21
(19) If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! (20) They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. (21) Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?
3. But recognizing God's comprehensive knowledge of all things immediately raises the question of evil. If God knows everything, then why doesn't He straighten out what's wrong. Why doesn't he destroy the wicked? With characteristic honesty, the Biblical hymn is driven to this same question.
- God doesn't answer here, but typically when we ask why God does not end evil he says, "someday, but not yet."
Psalm 139:23-24
(23) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (24) See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
4. Having raised the question, David is also forced to recognize not only the evil without, but the evil within. Here David is so different from Adam. And here is the key to being honest with God. Honesty with God involves more than a searching inventory although that is needed. Honesty with God means that we allow God to show us the results of His inventory of us.
- This inventory is not for God's information. He already knows. This is for David himself.
- Final benefit of honesty with God. Leading an effective life that moves in the right direction. That's part of what David means when he says lead me in the way everlasting.(v. 24)