Title: Do You Really Know God?
Contents
1. Words that begin
Looking at the way the world is going, we can see that it is a period of severe value confusion and extreme ethical confusion.
Christianity and other religious circles, which need to correct this world, are also in a state of severe confusion of the Word and great spiritual confusion. So these days, pseudo-religion and shamanism are overflowing.
We believers, who are living in this turbid and sinful age, more than ever have to watch and pray according to the Holy Spirit, learn the truth of the Gospel, and live worthy of the Gospel.
Recently, a strange group of people who claim that those who repent and believe in the Lord and are saved do not need to repent because they have a new life have deceived the church members.
However, there are verses throughout the Bible urging believers to repent of their sins and those who do not repent, and there are verses where non-repentant church members were punished. There are even words in which church members who did not repent until the end were eventually destroyed.
2. Jesus Christ as the propitiation sacrifice
“My children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.”
Like John, Paul used to call the Saints “My children.”
In fact, the desirable relationship between the spiritual leader and the saints is to love them as if they were their own children, and to obey the saints as their parents too.
If the sin of not believing in the Lord is a barrier to salvation, the sin of believers in the Lord is a barrier to the promised grace and blessing.
Not only that, if a believer continues to repeat sins without repenting, trials and tribulations will follow.
This is an opportunity to realize and repent really quickly.
Hebrews 12:6 says that the Lord disciplines those he loves, and scourges every son he receives.
Everyone, please believe that the Lord's discipline and scourge on those who believe are the Lord's last love that prevents eternal destruction.
In the first place, except for those who went to church for the purpose of deceit and adultery, where would a saint commit such a sin?
But the problem is that although it is difficult for us to admit it as a sin, there is a clear sin.
A deacon in our church said that while talking to another church officer, he recalled a sermon he had heard and said that it was not right for the churches to mobilize for special events or church festivals, and to force the members of other churches to come. .
Then he countered that such thinking was rather wrong.
If other people's tears are welling up in my joy, it is definitely not the joy that the Lord will rejoice with.
I'm not saying you shouldn't hold a mobilization event. Why is it that all churches hold worship on Sundays?
Shouldn't it be done on public holidays or avoid the times of worship? What more can you say?
Some people say, “You have to be blessed and go to a church that has grown greatly. What kind of blessing do you get if you attend a new church or a small church? Come and see!” While doing so, I am actively engaged in the church deodorization movement rather than evangelism.
I'm not sure if I should say that these people I mentioned before know the God of love who sent the Lord to carry the cross to save us sinners. I don't even know if it's really a matter of faith in the God of love.
When there was a dispute over whether to eat meat sacrificed to idols, the apostle Paul said:
“He who doubts and eats is condemned, because it is not from faith, for everything that is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23).
So, what should a believer do if he has committed a sin?
We must believe that the only righteous Lord is our lawyer before God the Father, confess our sins to Him, and bear fruit worthy of repentance, not just words. There is really no need to worry that he will forgive me for not living by faith even though I have received the gift of eternal life.
Gentlemen, please believe that our Lord not only became the propitiation sacrifice for our sins, but also became the propitiation sacrifice for the sins of the people of the world.
If you are a member of the church who is saved by believing in the Lord, you will know the God who sent the Lord.
Knowing God here does not mean simply knowing God with the head, but means acquiring knowledge through experience.
3. Those who keep the commandments of Jesus Christ
The apostle John affirms that if we keep God's commandments, we have the knowledge of God.
Therefore, he asserts that he who claims to know God and does not keep God's commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Here, the word “know” used by the apostle John, ginosko (γιν?σκω), means “to know experientially” or “to acquire”.
In particular, in the New Testament, it is used to know the spiritual truths or facts that believers who are saved and united with the Lord get through the life of walking according to the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, knowing God means that it is the process of getting to know God.
In other words, just as a grafted branch enjoys a new life depending on the tree it saw, it means a life of faith itself that believes and follows the Lord in the Lord. Our life is to know God, and knowing God must be our life.
Those who are justified by faith in the Lord must live by faith, not their own will, moral code, ethical or religious doctrine, but rather, they must continue to live in obedience to God's commands and precepts. This kind of life is the life of a believer who knows God.
The Apostle John said the opposite, saying that he who claims to know God and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
On the other hand, whoever does the word of God has truly perfected the love of God in his heart, and therefore is in God. Of course, our love for God is in response to God's love for us in the Lord.
4. Conclusion
No matter how much you say you know God, no matter how much you say that you have a wealth of knowledge about God, it is not yet the knowledge of knowing God properly.
If he does not live a life of obedience to God's Word, if he does not live by faith in the God of love in the Lord, then he does not know God and is accumulating sins for repentance.
I hope that all of us, no matter how insignificant our sins may be, repent in the Lord who is our lawyer before God, and accumulate the knowledge of God by constantly obeying His Word.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperity Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. -3051)