Known By God

          Knowing who God is, is important, but only those "known by God" truly
     know Him.  When the Bible says that God "knows" someone, it means that
     He has a close, personal, intimate relationship with that person.

          Of course, God "knows" every person who ever lived, because He created
     them, but He doesn't have that close, intimate, loving relationship with every-
     one -- only with His people.

          People can know many facts about Jesus but still not know Him as the
     unique Son of God, or as the only Savior of the world.

          In fact, Scripture tells us that even the ungodly "know" God, but they do not
     honor Him as God or give Him thanks for all the ways He blesses them.

          There is overwhelming evidence for the power and divinity of God that is
     seen by all people, but most do not respect and love Him for who He really is,
     and instead their hearts are darkened and they follow their own ways.


                             "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
                              all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by
                              their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can
                              be known about God is plain to them, because God has
                              shown it to them.
                            "For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power
                             and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
                             since the creation of the world, in the things that have
                             been made.  So they are without excuse.
                            "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as
                             God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in
                             their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
                                                                           Romans 1:18-21


          John MacArthur comments on Romans 1:18-21:

                              "Paul presents God's case against the irreligious, immoral pagan
     (the Gentiles), the religious, outwardly moral person (the Jews), and concludes
     by showing that all men alike deserve God's judgment.
                             "God's wrath is not an impulsive outburst of anger aimed capricious-
     ly at people whom God does not like.  It is the settled, determined response of a
     righteous God against sin.
                             "Although the evidence from conscience, creation, and God's word
     is irrefutable, men choose to resist and oppose God's truth by holding fast to their
     sin."


          KNOWN BY GOD

                             " ... knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.   ... if anyone
                               loves God, he is known by God."
                                                                                 1 Corinthians 8:1b-3


          Love is the proof of knowing God.


                             "We love because He first loved us."
                                                                                1 John 4:19


          Only those who do the will of God truly know Him and are truly known by Him.
     True faith will produce the fruit of good works.

                            (Jesus said), "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
                                                  will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
                                                  who does the will of my Father who is in hea-
                                                  ven.  On that day may will say to me, 'Lord,
                                                  Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and
                                                  cast out demons in your name, and do many
                                                  mighty works in your name?'
                                                "And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew
                                                  you; depart from me you evildoers."                                                                             Matthew 7:21-23


          John MacArthur comments:

                            "We can know God only because he first knew us, just as we choose
                              Him only because He chose us first (John 6:44; 15:16), and we love
                              Him only because He first loved us (1 John 4:19)."


                                                "But now that you have come to know God,
                                                 or rather to be known by God, how can you
                                                 turn back again to the weak and worthless
                                                 elementary principles of the world, whose
                                                 slaves you want to be once more?"
                                                                                      Galatians 4:9


                                                             **********


          J.I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, wrote:

                        "What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the
     fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it -- the fact that he
     knows me.  I am graven on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).

                        "I am never out of His mind.  All my knowledge of Him depends on
     His sustained intiative in knowing me.  I know Him because He first knew me,
     and continues to know me.

                        "He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment
     when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, there-
     fore when His care falters.

                        "This is momentous knowledge.  There is unspeakable comfort -- the
     sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates (weakens) -- in knowing that
     God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my
     good.

                        "There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly
     realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that
     no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disi-
     llusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me."


                                                     **********


                        "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we
                         shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall
                         know fully, even as I am fully known."
                                                                             1 Corinthians 13:12


          NIV commentary:

                        "The imagery is of a polished metal (probably bronze) mirror in
     which one could receive only an imperfect reflection, in contrast to seeing the
     Lord directly and clearly in heaven.  The Christian will know the Lord to the
     fullest extent possible for a finite being, similar to the way the Lord knows the
     Christian fully and infinitely. 
                         "This will not be true until the Lord returns."