Known by Him 1974

One verse that I can read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 12, basically from King James. Now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as also I am known.

While it is true that God knows the number of hairs on every head, and the location of every blade of grass in his universe, and every thought going through every single mind, including the mind of Satan, nevertheless, of only a few people walking this earth, can it be said that they are known by God. To be saved is to know God in such a way that you know that God knows you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

And to be damned is to be not known by God. Depart from me, I know you not, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. Lord, Lord, open to us, truly I say to you, I know you not.

Now we talked a lot about having faith. See, but what is faith? You know, is it a matter of believing that God will give me a Cadillac if I ask him? That he'll cure your sniffles, and change the weather, and make you a big success? Of course, if we have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, being able to move mountains is really a minor byproduct. But to have faith in God basically means to know that God knows me like a father knows his little child.

To really know that all the time, no matter what I'm going through. And sometimes when we're sitting in church, or fellowship, or prayer meeting, and we're, you know, lifted up on cloud nine, we have that awareness. But when we're out in the midst of the soup, we don't.

And when the disciples panicked on the boat that time, on Galilee, and Jesus said, where is your faith? See, was he saying, why didn't you guys snap your fingers and make that storm end? I don't believe so. I believe that he was saying, when will you learn that God knows you, even when you're flopping around out on the lake, even when the storm is there, no matter what happens, even if the boat sinks and you drown? At the time, the distraught father of this demon-possessed boy came up to Jesus and was just upset because the disciples weren't able to cast the demon out. And Jesus says, oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long am I going to be with you? How long am I going to have to put up with you, bear with you? He wasn't talking about the father or the boy.

He was talking about his disciples. Because they were faithless, not because they blew a miracle, but because they were, they were, as soon as Jesus is asleep in the boat, they're helpless. As soon as he's up on the Mount of Transfiguration and they're down in the valley, they're helpless.

Because they will not believe that God knows them there, right there, they have his presence, even though nothing seems to make any sense. And this is the question that God puts on us constantly when we're out there in the middle of our jobs and confusing situations and disturbances in our homes or whatever it may be. Do you really believe that I'm there? Do you realize that I know you and I know exactly what you're going through? And the message of the Spirit of God to this flock, at least, consistently has been that we are to concentrate our efforts on the very people that the world, particularly the religious world, the so-called Christian world, has ignored and forgotten.

Lazarus, who sits by our gate, waiting for a few crumbs. The man who comes out of the tombs, you know, with a tormented mind, possessed by a demon, crying out for some attention and nobody bothers with him. The poor that everybody walks by.

And this has been coming to us through the Word and it's been confirmed in the Spirit again and again. Hardly a day goes by that these very people aren't knocking at our door, ringing our phones, stopping us on our way to the store. It's as if God has already made these people somehow to understand that if anybody in all the world is going to do anything for them, it is we.

But how in the world are we going to make these people know that God knows them? How are we going to woo them across the threshold into the kingdom so long as we are so unsure of our own closeness to God, of God's presence with us, that we're forever trying to fill the void inside our hearts by trying to get attention and recognition from each other and from man? How can you believe, says Jesus, who receive honor, one of another, and seek not the honor which cometh from God only? So long as we're chasing around trying to be recognized, trying to get some kind of credit, trying to be known, this is a sure sign that we do not believe, and as long as we're in that shape, cannot believe in God. If we have faith in God, then our hearts are going to be full enough of God's presence that we aren't going to have to forever be trying to fill up this emptiness, chasing around trying to be recognized by each other. We'll be satisfied that our Father knows us and our Lord Jesus knows us, if nobody else knows us at all.

Now, we all know the theory of that, and we've been over this many, many times. And if we were to get to the place where it's like that, the basic lesson that we have to learn, and not just in our heads, but in our lives and hearts, is that if we're going to accomplish the work that our God has given us to do here, if we're going to minister life to the people out there in the world that have been forgotten, then we're going to have to, first of all, realize, know, that we are in the same shape those forgotten people are. We're no different.

We also, like they, are forgotten. And we are really only known by God. It's utterly impossible to be known by God and known by the world at the same time.

I don't care what you can read in Christian literature that would say the opposite of that. If you're going to be known by God, then immediately you're going to be shoved in the same group of the rest of the rejects of this world, because that's what you are. And the world is going to laugh at you.

And sometimes it's going to turn away and shudder as if you're some kind of cockroach. And sometimes it's going to simply despise you and want to stamp you out as if you were a disease. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you.

Remember this passage in, I believe, 2 Corinthians, where Paul says, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich. And it's quite simple how this fits. We're deceivers as far as the world is concerned, and we're true as far as God is concerned.

We're unknown to the world, we're known to God. We're dying to the world, we're alive to God. We're sorrowful as we look out over the world and see its destiny.

And we're always rejoicing as we look to the face of our Heavenly Father. We're poor in this world's goods, yet making many rich. Now, who of us can say that that's where we really are? Can we honestly say that that's the way it is with us? And that we're satisfied to be forgotten and unknown by the people that we've always admired, and our loved ones and our friends, you know, that have had such high hopes for us, and the people who have stepped on us and never even looked back to see what damage they did.

That we're satisfied to be like that as long as God knows us. Most of us, if we're honest, will have to say, that's where I want to be, but I'm not there yet. Lord, show me the way.

And I believe that if we're going to be set free from this bondage to man, so that we no longer really worry about it anymore, it doesn't matter to us, and we're free, willing, you know, to be utterly swallowed up in oblivion as far as man is concerned. You know, hidden from the eyes of man, wrapped in the hand of God the rest of our lives. To get to that place, there are three things that we have to do.

First, we have to burn our bridges to the world. Now, we know there's nothing back there. Already we know that.

There's nothing there for us, there's nothing to go back to. And yet, we all maintain a couple, two, three, or four, maybe more, bridges back to the world, just in case. You know, and these bridges become like holes in the jar, so that the jar can't really hold any water.

Or they become like holes in the screen door, so the flies and the mosquitoes keep pouring in. Maybe it's a grudge that I don't want to let go of. Or a little habit of lust that seems quite innocent.

Or a secret, you know, lust for power. Or a vain ambition that I have buried in my heart. Particularly my name.

I want to somehow keep my name alive before men. It's going to come in handy someday, I might need it. And now Jesus says, that's your bridge to the world, and you've been maintaining it subtly all this time.

Burn it. Get rid of it. And, you know, what tremendous liberty we begin to experience when we see that thing go up in flames, and twist and writhe, and finally plunge into the water.

You know, and immediately, when the bridge begins to, when the bridge is broken, we begin to hear God, and see God, and know God's presence in a new way. And the second thing we have to do if we want to be set free from this bondage to man, which is more prevalent among so-called Christians than anywhere else. We have to settle for a life spent with Jesus outside the camp.

So also Jesus suffered outside the gate, that he might sanctify the people through his blood. Therefore, let us go forth to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.

He's outside the camp, we're outside the camp. He's looked upon as a madman, we're looked upon as the same. He's crucified, we're crucified with him.

He's despised by the world, and we better be too. You know, these Christians who think they can follow Jesus, and still be loved by the world, are lying to themselves. This just can't be done.

There's no such thing as following Jesus and still being in the clique. Because Jesus is always outside the clique, especially the religious clique, the so-called spiritual clique. Therefore, let us go forth with him, outside the clique, bearing his reproach.

And finally, if we want to be set free from this bondage to man, we need to know, anew every day, that the only treasure we have, the only treasure we have, is Jesus himself. Now God has given us, perhaps a mate, or a child, or a particular skill, or a spiritual gift, or two or three. And these things are all good, God gave them to us, that's wonderful.

But could he help us if we surrender our hearts to these things? They were never meant to hold our hearts, the place where our heart dwells, the treasure. The one treasure, and only treasure we have, is Jesus. And he's not to be shared with anything else in our hearts.

He alone. He's supreme. Now these other things can be taken by circumstances, faster than we would ever imagine, and some of us have tasted this already.

You know, circumstances can come, an accident can come, and destroy your gift, so that you don't have it anymore. Death can take a loved one from you. Your spiritual gift may suddenly no longer be in demand, but you still have Jesus, and he's still holding you up, and he's still your joy.

Burn your bridges to the world, settle for a life spent with Jesus outside the camp, know that your only treasure is Jesus himself, and you will begin to see the glory of God in a new way, and know that he's there. It will become like a fresh revelation that God really knows me by name, and he sees what I'm going through, and he's really helping me. And no matter what kind of things you may have to suffer, the power of God will flow out redemptively all the time.

Every man or woman of God on this earth who's ever been abused redemptively has had to walk a path that's known only to God, with a name that's known only to God. And somebody says, ah, wait a minute, what about the apostle Paul? He had a name before men. You know, he was somebody, and I don't believe that's true.

In his own day, as we look back, he seems great, but in his own day, Paul was a little nobody. He was an odd little duck, loved only by a few, despised by many, ignored by most, and known only to God. See, are we willing to pay that price? It's a question which God asks us as he renews to us again a vision of his son dying for his children outside the camp.

God is not sending us, the forgotten people of this world, to be their spiritual social workers. He's sending us, the forgotten people of this world, to be one of them. To be lost to the sight of men until the king comes back satisfied that only one eye sees us, really, and only one heart knows us.

And the question is, are we willing to live that kind of life with our Lord? Let's wait upon him in prayer. O Spirit of God, you know the situation, the condition of every single one of our hearts, and those things in us that have been really screening our minds and our spiritual eyes and ears from being able to hear and see. And we pray that by your grace, Heavenly Father, you'll put your finger on the things we need to let go of and the bridges that need to be burned, that we may experience, even this day, a new taste of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

The joy of those who are free from bondage to man, able to go and come in and out of your temple, glad to be known only to you and no longer possessed with this need to prove themselves to the world at large. We thank you that you heard this prayer and that it is being done, being accomplished, in the name of Jesus, this day. Amen.