Theme: The Lord Knows Those Who Are His
1. By a relational knowledge
2. For a saving faith
Out text for study this weekend is Galatians 4 but we look
intently at verse 9:
Galatians 4:9 But now
after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn
again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in
bondage?
Can you imagine losing everything you have or know
overnight? Going from prosperity to poverty; from educated to illiterate; from
famous to obscure? We all have fears of losing the things which are most
important to us in life. Most people would shudder to think about losing the
things I just mentioned. Sometimes the idea of hitting the reset button on life
is spoken of positively; in times when we’ve cornered ourselves into a bad situation,
or when plans haven’t worked out the way we wanted. But, we don’t often think
of the other end of the reset spectrum, namely losing what we have. That’s
probably because it hardly ever happens. You can lose a lot in life without
losing everything.
If it’s difficult to imagine the total loss of your
knowledge, it’s well-nigh impossible to imagine the loss of God’s knowledge.
Think of God, the eternal One, the all-knowing One, the righteous One. How vast
His knowledge is! What if you had that and lost it all? It would be devastating
to say the least. Yet, when it comes to people’s fears of loss in life, they
often ignore losing out on God’s knowledge.
Maybe that’s because people have a hard time thinking that
they could have the same knowledge of God. The honest truth is that even in
perfection we will never be fully the same as God. He will always be Creator,
we will always be the creation.
But, here in verse 9 of Galatians 4 Paul peels back the
curtain of faith and talks about the danger of losing God’s knowledge; not in
the sense that we change who God is but that we change who God intended us to
be. Paul’s fear for the Galatians was that they would return to the “weak and beggarly elements” from which
they came and thereby lose how they knew God and how they were known by God. Paul is describing the gift of
faith. It is both a knowledge that we possess and a knowledge that God has of
us. But, just like the many fears of people in the world, this aspect of faith
is often overlooked by Christians, yet it is the very reason we have hope of
life with God.
This is why I want to single out verse 9 today. It is
simply too profound to gloss over and its implications are far-reaching in our
lives. In a way, verse 9 encapsulates the entire purpose of the book of
Galatians. This is the cliff-notes version, the one sentence summary.
Everything we’ve covered so far in this sermon series is contained in these
words. Paul wrote this letter because the Galatians had brought their faith in
Jesus under fire by allowing false teachers to sow lies. These lies, if not
checked and destroyed, would bring them back to the same place there before
Paul met them – unbelief.
To show them the seriousness of this prospect, Paul reminds
that what they would be losing. First – their knowledge of God. He
describes faith as knowing God and that certainly fits. This is the primary way
we think of faith. It is a conscious, relational trust with God. Here, the word
“know” is used to describe faith’s connection. But, there are always different
levels of knowledge. I may know about something, say open heart surgery, but
not have a deeper connection than simply knowing it is a medical procedure.
Likewise, there are many people who “know” of God, but they don’t have a
relationship with Him. Paul writes in Romans 2 about how people know God exists
because He was written His law in their hearts. Because of that very fact, Paul
says there is no excuse for unbelief. Even more advanced knowledge of God
doesn’t guarantee truth faith, either. The Pharisees knew a lot more about God
than the average person but they didn’t have faith.
The key for us is in the word itself. The Greek has two
words for knowledge. The first indicates head knowledge of facts. The second
indicates a more intimate knowledge by association. In verse 9 I’m sure you can
guess that the second word is used for both our knowledge of God and His
knowledge of us. One commentator describes the difference as knowledge by
perception vs. knowledge by relationship.
There are two important distinctions about relational
knowledge:
1. There is ownership involved. If I go over to a friend’s
house and help him with some yardwork, I may know the ins and outs of his
lawnmower or hedge-trimmer better than he does. I may be able to use them more
skillfully than he can. But, at the end of the day, they are both his. I do not
know them as owner. The first part of chapter 4 talks about God’s ownership of you.
You are like a servant to the Master. You are a child to the Father. One of the
troubling areas of the Galatian church was that they were excluding Gentiles
from this ownership aspect. They had been led to believe that only Jewish
people were important to God so if someone wanted to be God’s child they had to
live and act Jewish. That was wrong. Christ is the binding link for all people
to God.
2. There is an effect to relational knowledge. Ownership
sounds like an oppressive thing, but God tells us it’s actually the key to our
liberation. Eventually, that servant who becomes an heir receives the
inheritance. The free gift of life eternal is something that all believers are
waiting for. It is the effect to our faith and only a relational knowledge of
Christ allows that effect to happen.
Okay, so heart knowledge is better than head knowledge –
that’s easy enough to understand. But, the next question is the one where
Christians go in different directions. Once our knowledge of God is introduced
the logical thought is, how much? How soon can we start knowing God? How much
do we need to know about God? Essentially, these questions all boil down to one
– How
can I be assured that I am saved? And make no mistake, that is an
important question and it’s one that every Christian wrestles with.
When facing these questions, it’s the relational, effective
knowledge that God has of us that
makes the difference. There’s more to faith than what we know. The knowledge of
faith is not one-sided. Knowledge is required, to be sure, but not ours. It
is being known by God that is most important. As Paul writes, it’s almost
as if he catches himself. He says, “But
now after you have known God, or rather are known by God…” It’s so easy and
natural to think that faith is all about what we know about God. But, that’s
not even the most important aspect of faith. The word that separates these two
realms of knowledge, “rather”, more
fully means “to a greater degree” or “for a better reason.” This is not a truth
that only applied to the Galatians in their setting. God’s knowledge of who we
are is better, more superior reason for believing than our knowledge of Him.
This is the great treasure that Paul warned the Galatians
about losing. It is the treasure that he explained in the chapters 1-3 as being
created and sustained by the gospel. If they fell from faith it would not mean
a loss of perception knowledge. They would still know all the facts about God
that they knew while they believed. It would be a loss of relational knowledge,
and not only their knowing God, but God knowing them. Ask yourself, what’s the
bigger loss?
Go back to that question all Christians wrestle with – how
can I be sure I’m saved? If we only think our knowledge of God we will always
fall short of full confidence. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not calling for
ignorance among believers. Knowing God is absolutely a part of faith and as
faith grows that knowledge is also meant to grow. But, our knowledge of God is
not the key to our confidence of faith. The Bible is clear in a number
of other places on this matter too:
As our Great Shepherd Jesus says this: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John
10:27)
To false believers Jesus says, “And then I will declare to them,`I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:23)
Paul told Timothy that “the solid foundation of God” is
this “The Lord knows those who are His.”
(2 Timothy 2:19)
And perhaps most telling of all is Paul’s description of perfect
love in 1 Corinthians 13, “For now we
see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I
shall know just as I also am known.” Paul’s great hope was that in heaven
he would know as God knows now – how God knows him now. That is the completion of faith - that is the pinnacle of our hope. We know
some now. God knows all now. One day, we will be with Him. As great as our
knowledge may be in this world, it is nothing but a dim mirror when compared to
God’s. What then, should be use to encourage one another in that faith?
According to God’s Words, the answer is abundantly obvious.
As I said before, the implications here are far-reaching.
The basis of our faith is God’s grace in Christ. This is almost universally
accepted by all Christians. Grace is, by nature, a passive thing from our
perspective. We are on the receiving end. Most evangelical Christians will not
disagree on this point. However, a great divergence exists when it comes to
faith. Christians talk about the same Bible, the same Savior, the same grace,
yet there are vastly different teachings and applications when it comes to
faith. Why?
I believe that modern Christianity has taken the passive
nature out of faith. If we wouldn’t do it the same to grace, why would we when
it comes to faith? It makes no sense to emphasize our passivity in grace and but
then shift the emphasis to our activity in faith. Not only is the intrinsic
nature of faith always the same as grace, namely passive from the human
perspective; they are more importantly both the gifts of our Savior Jesus. He
fought and died to share His grace and to lead us to faith. He promised the
gift of the Holy Spirit to help make that possible in our lives. That is why we
confess, “I believe that I cannot by my
own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, nor come to Him, but
the Holy Spirit calls me by the gospel…”
The pressing question of how can I be secure in my faith
has created a rift in Christianity. Therefore, it still matters that we
emphasize true faith. It still makes a difference that we trust in God’s
knowing over our own. And it is still important that we practice our faith
according to these truths.
The profound truth in this single verse is that God’s
relational knowledge of you is greater than your relational knowledge of Him,
even though both are involved in faith. But when we apply this to our lives, we
understand even more. Our perception of God follows our relationship with God.
Therefore, is it really too hard to believe, then, that a 1 or 2 day old infant
could believe in Jesus? Is it too much to shower the deathbed at the nursing
home with promises of grace and life eternal? In those setting the perceptional
knowledge of the individual is absent – but the effective, relational knowledge
is ever present in His Word. If nothing is impossible for the eternal God, let
us never relegate faith to our realm of knowledge alone. And when we look for
something to trust, let us turn to Him, and the fact that He knows us today as
we hope, one day, to know Him in heaven.
To close, I’d like to share a quote about faith with you
from prominent American pastor. He says, “Imagine you are on a high cliff and
you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a
branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it
is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If you
mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you but
you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead
filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach
out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your
faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a
weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
Would you reach out and grab the branch? I propose even
asking that question is wrong. What you should ask is, Has God reached down, of His own accord, and grabbed you hand? Has
he entered time and space and conquered the very pit of hell for you? Is Jesus
strong enough to save you? Does God know those who are His? Any of those
questions are much more appropriate, for if you truly believe everything about you
sin yet and then are led to trust that you must reach out and grab salvation, you
are just as lost as when you began.
The truth is this: “Jesus
loves me this I know, for the Bible
tells me so.” Jesus is my hope, my strength, my defense, the sole object of
my faith. This matters not only when it comes to how He saved me, but also when
I receive that salvation in my heart. This is my boast, not that I have known
God, but that He has known me, long before and long after… Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Preached at Redemption, 9-17-17
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