The Nature Of God's Knowing Series

The Nature of God's Knowing

KNOWN OR UNKNOWN

The Difference Between Heaven and Hell Week 2:

INTRODUCTION: THE WEIGHT OF BEING KNOWN

Amos 3:2

Good morning, Church. Before we go anywhere today, I need you to do something. I need you to put your phone down. I need you to look up from your bulletin. Because what God has for us in this room, on this morning, is not information you absorb passively. It is a word that will either confirm your standing before God or disturb your comfort zone until you do something about it.

Last week, we began this series, "Known or Unknown," and we set the stakes clearly. Matthew 7:23. Jesus, on the last day, looking at people who prophesied in His name, who cast out demons, who did mighty works, and saying to them: "I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Those are the most terrifying words in all of Scripture. Not because God lacked data on those people. He is omniscient. He knew their names, their addresses, their church attendance records, the exact number of hairs on their heads. The problem was not information. The problem was relationship. The problem was covenant. He never knew them in the deep, binding, intimate sense that Scripture means when it uses that word.

So this week, we are going to answer the question: what does it actually mean to be known by God? And I promise you, the answer is more glorious, more demanding, and more life-altering than anything you have heard before.

Look at Amos 3:2. God is speaking to Israel. He says: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

Now stop. Read that sentence again slowly. God is not saying He had no awareness of Egypt. He is not saying He had no awareness of Babylon, Assyria, or any of the surrounding nations. Of course He did. He is God. He sees everything. He knows everything at the level of raw data and fact.

But He looks at Israel and He says, "You only have I known." The Hebrew word there is yada. Write this down. Yada. And yada is not the word you use when you say you know the capital of France. Yada is the word used in Genesis 4:1 when Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived. Yada is intimate. Yada is covenantal. Yada describes a relationship where two parties are bound together in commitment, affection, and mutual self-disclosure. God was aware of Egypt, but He covenanted with Israel. He chose Israel. He set His affection upon Israel. He made Himself known to Israel in a way He did not make Himself known to other nations.

And then comes the second half of that verse, and Church, this is where it gets serious. He says: "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Being known by God is not just a privilege. It is a responsibility. The intimacy of the relationship raises the stakes of accountability. When God knows you, when He has called you, when He has covenanted with you, there is no such thing as casual sin. There is no such thing as comfortable compromise. To whom much is given, much is required.

That is the weight of being known.

And in Jeremiah 1:5, God says to the prophet: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Before Jeremiah drew a breath. Before his mother felt the first kick. Before the word "Jeremiah" existed in any language, God knew him. God set His affection on him. God consecrated him for purpose. Jeremiah did not apply for the job. God did not post the position and wait for qualified candidates. This was entirely, completely, overwhelmingly God's initiative.

That is what we are talking about today. That is the nature of God's knowing.

I. ELECTING LOVE DEFINED

(Turn with me to Romans 8:29.)

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

Now I know some of you heard the word "predestined" and your shoulders just tensed up. I want you to relax. I am not here to turn this pulpit into a seminary classroom. I am here to preach the grace of God, and this verse is one of the most grace-saturated sentences in the New Testament.

The Greek word translated "foreknew" here is proginosko. And just like the Hebrew yada, this word does not primarily mean "to know about in advance." It means "to set one's love upon beforehand." God, before the foundation of the world, set His love upon you. He did not look down the corridors of time like a man scanning a crowd, waiting to see who would raise their hand first, and then respond to their initiative. No. He chose. He loved. He called. First. The entire movement of salvation begins with God's love moving toward you before you ever had the capacity to move toward Him.