That You May Know

THAT YOU MAY KNOW

Today I want to speak to you about knowing the Lord, and I will begin by having us to consider how well we know those who are closest to us. If you deeply love someone, such as a spouse, you make sure that you are genuine with that person so that they know beyond a shadow of doubt how you feel.

God sees it that way, as well. He wants you to know and understand how much you mean to Him. But in reality many people (both Christian and non-Christian) do not understand how much God loves them.

Our spiritual live will become so much greater the more we know and understand Christ.

One of the most common phrases found in the Bible is,

“THEN THEY WILL KNOW…”

Repeating this phrase over and over is God’s way of trying to get us to understand one of His greatest desires. I have chosen one of those great passages…

TEXT: Isaiah 43:10 - 11

Perhaps for some people - this kind of verse reading can be lumped together with all of the other verses from the Book of Psalms. You know, those verses that seem to just keep repeating themselves over and over whenever we read them. Nice melodic verses of poetry… Not everybody out there is a Bible Scholar, and they may not quite understand what God is really trying to say.

I can almost see the look on people’s face sometimes, and I almost hear them say, “Ah-h-h, the preacher understands God and the Bible, but I don’t…”

Nevertheless, this statement (found in our text) had to be important for God. I say that because there are 21 times in the Book of Ezekiel (alone) that we find this common phrase, “Then you will know.”

And many more times in the Books of Jeremiah and Daniel. Three different prophets in three different times.

How many know just enough about God to know that He is going to get His way…one way or another…???

Especially whenever He declares it?

During each of these times (God declared this statement), we can see that God had His reasons for being so persistent. As it was, the children of God were wandering away (one family at a time) and began to worship false gods and idols.

Well God got jealous of this, and was determined to get His people’s attention back. The people were faced with certain judgment if they didn’t get their eyes and their hearts back on the Lord God Jehovah.

God was so desperate one time in Ezekiel 12 that He had His prophet dress up like someone who had been captured and was being taken away by the enemy.

It was a great illustration to use at the time and God said in verse 3, “Perhaps the people will understand.”

I have to believe Ezekiel felt really foolish trying to be an actor before the people.

Then God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah who was known as the “weeping prophet”. Over and over again, Jeremiah warned the people of harsh and unusual and unspeakable judgment if they did not repent. Terrible and unimaginable things were going to happen, but then God said in Jeremiah 23:20,

“In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”

What God was saying was that when the time came for God to judge the children of Israel, they would be so miserable and so lost in their sins that they would have no other choice but to “know and understand” God and His righteousness. In their despair and wickedness, they would have to realize that God has something better for their lives.

Isn’t this what happened in parable of the prodigal son? It wasn’t until he was sitting in all of the pig slop that he realized how good he once had it when he lived in the comfort and care of his father.

Indeed –

“In those latter days you will understand it perfectly.”

My friend that is exactly where we are living in the 21st century. That is, in these “latter days” we will become so disgusted with what we see taking place all around us that we will find ourselves knowing and understanding the Lord in much greater ways.

In all of the filth and perversion that surrounds ourselves and our families, we will have to look to God’s righteousness. The despair of living in a world of corruption and idolatry is happening so

THAT YOU MAY KNOW HIM!

As verse 10 says it, we need to know and believe and understand God and how righteous He is. In a day and time when the only righteousness many people see is what people may try to make of themselves.

But Jesus has told us that we are to “hunger and thirst for righteousness”. We cannot possibly know and understand God without doing just that…