Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, June 12th. The world distracts us with things that aren't very important. Let's direct our attention to the most essential thing in life. Here's part one of The Privilege of Knowing God. Of all the people that you've ever met in your life, Who above all of those stands out the most?
That is About whom could you say with great delight I've had the wonderful privilege of knowing him, of knowing her. Was it some famous athlete?
Some famous artist.
some outstanding musician. Or maybe some particular speaker that you enjoy. And got to know Maybe someone in your field of vocation. Or maybe someone that you greatly admired and Got to know in the area of some hobby that you had. Maybe it's someone that had helped you a great deal in life.
Or it could have been someone not famous at all. Maybe. A precious, wonderful grandmother, our grandfather. But someone who made an awesome impression on your life and you counted a great privilege just to know them.
Well, when I think about all the people that you and I could know and the privilege we have of knowing them. One thing is for certain. The greatest privilege you and I have to know anyone is the privilege we have of knowing God. And oftentimes we forget about that. We forget about the fact that it is a great privilege to know God.
That it is an awesome Opportunity, an unparalleled benefit, and an eternal treasure to be able to know the living God. And yet oftentimes we're more concerned about knowing other people. About what they do and how they think and how they operate and what they can do for us. But knowing God is the greatest of all knowledge. And until you know Him, you can place all the knowledge that you have of all things in the entire universe.
And yet if you do not know God, all that knowledge in the world will not be sufficient to bring you peace. and happiness, joy, and contentment, and certainly not eternal life. The Apostle Paul had the most awesome way of expressing his desire to know God. And in Philippians chapter 3, if you'll turn there for a moment. I want us to read, beginning in verse 7, And he has just been talking about his heritage.
and to his background. and all that is a part of his life. And then here's what he says. He says, beginning in verse 7 of this third chapter, But whatever things were gained to me, Those things I have counted as a loss for the sake of Christ. He says, more than that, I count all things, everything to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
and count them but rubbish. in order that I may gain Christ. And may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. And listen.
He says, My desire is that I may know him. and the power of his resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The Apostle Paul was expressing his insatiable, hungering, thirsting desire to know God through his Son Jesus Christ. And when he says the surpassing value of knowing him, I wonder when is the last time you even thought about I want to know this God whom I believe in.
I want to know this God whom I serve. I want to know this God who has saved me. I want to know this God who is preparing a place for me in heaven. Or have you been one of those persons who's just sort of been satisfied where you are? and just having been saved.
Well, I want you to listen also to that eighth verse. from the amplified translation of the scripture. Which gives it a little deeper meaning, I think, and certainly no more meaning than the Apostle Paul must have felt when he made this statement. But listen to this. He says, I count everything as lost compared to the possession.
of the priceless privilege the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth and supreme advantage of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him and perceiving and understanding Him more fully and clearly. What a beautiful way to express Paul's desire to know God. What a beautiful way to express this deep, abiding hunger and thirst in his heart. To know this God who transformed his life, who saved him on the Damascus road, who called him into ministry, who gave him the responsibility of missionizing, of evangelizing the world of his day. He said, I want to know him above everything else.
In fact, he said, I'm willing to count Everything else I know is lost. I'm willing to throw aside all of my past heritage. He says, I count everything in comparison as rubbish, garbage, trash in comparison to the knowledge of Almighty God. Through his Son, Jesus Christ. One of the tragedies of this day is this.
And that is that many, many people will live their entire life. and they will never know God. They will come to the end of their life. As a person who is an unbeliever. and miss the very point for which they were created.
Miss knowing the very God who created them. Miss all the blessings that God would have stored up for them. Missing to know the one person For whom it is the greatest joy to know in all the world, and they will have missed him. Why is it? But people live their lives and miss God.
What an awesome tragedy.
Well, I think there are at least three good reasons to consider them. The first one is this, that many people live in darkness. They do not know that there is one true God. They do not know Jesus Christ, his Son, who came into the world to make it possible for them to know God. I think about the millions and billions of people who live in the world.
who do not know God. Who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, who do not know that there is a Heavenly Father who can love them, people who do not know that there is a Bible that gives us instruction on how to live and how we can understand who this God is, they're living in spiritual darkness. They may be wealthy. They may be poor. They may live in the slums, they may live in the jungles, they may live in the big cities, but their heart is darkened to the things of God.
They do not know God. The greatest knowledge there is to have, they do not know God. And when I think about what Jesus Christ said when He gave us the great commission, He said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Why? Because God intended for you and me, whoever you are, who you know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, He intended that you and I so live our lives where we are.
And take advantage of every single opportunity we have to be a light to someone who has a darkened heart, to be a light in an area where there is spiritual darkness and witchcraft and satanic work going on among the people. One of the reasons people do not know God is because many in this world have not had the opportunity. They've never heard the truth. That's what we're all about. That's what The in-touch ministry is all about.
It's all about obeying the great commission. It's all about getting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who live in darkness. But there's a second reason people do not know God, and that is that many people have no interest in Him. If you'll think for just a moment the absolute avalanche of information and knowledge that is being circulated today, and when you sit down to the computer and the internet, you have the world at your fingertips, the good part of the world and the evil part of the world at your fingertips. You can get information on just about any subject you want.
All kinds of information. You can get good things and evil things. It is all there. And what has happened is, I'm not talking about just people who are not believers or unsaved. I'm talking about even Christians who have allowed their minds and their time to be so filled with so much information and so much so-called knowledge.
that a desire to know God is on the periphery. Or maybe their desire to know God is absolutely cool or cold or they're indifferent. There's so much appealing information, so much information that appeals to the flesh.
So much information that the propaganda is that it will satisfy you, complete you. If you have this, if you drive this, if you wear this, if you live this, if you possess, if you drink this, if you eat this, you name it, it's all out there. And there's so much information, where is there a hungering, thirsting, yearning, desire to know the living God, the only information that's going to get me out of this earth into life eternal? What about that? And so many believers have been caught up in so much of that information.
so much of that so-called knowledge. When you can place all the knowledge Of all the scientific field, medical field, religious field, you name it, all the kind of fields, all the vocations in the world, put all that knowledge over here, and then you put a knowledge of the living God over here, and this far outweighs all the knowledge that man will ever be able to amass. Walk into certain offices, or doctor's offices, or even pastor's offices, or whatever it might be, and you see all these credentials on the wall, all these diplomas, and all these certificates of what they've accomplished and what they've achieved. And certainly, you look at those and think about how absolutely wise and smart and intelligent and knowledgeable they ought to be. But I'm here to tell you, you can have your whole house, every single wall in your house, full of diplomas and certificates and everything else.
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are ignorant about the most important thing in the entire world. Because if you do not know him, you do not know God. If you do not know God, you're not prepared to live nor are you prepared to die. It is the greatest knowledge. He is the greatest person in all the world to know.
and yet somehow our minds are so full of other things, he's on the periphery. A third reason. That people do not know him is because they're unwilling to pay the price. You say, Well, what do you mean, pay the price? Simply this: there is a price in knowing who God is.
If someone should say to me, Do you know God? Here's what I'd have to say. I'd have to say, well, let me put it this way: I'm learning about him. I'm learning who he is. I do have a relationship with him.
I'm gaining on that relationship. I'm progressively knowing Him. I have an intimate relationship that is very satisfying. I'm excited about what I know. I'm excited about my relationship with him, but it's growing.
And it's progressive, and I'm still learning. And if you ask me if I know God, I could not boast by saying, oh, yes, I know God. I know enough about him to know that I don't know enough. I know enough about him to know that it's the most thrilling, exciting knowledge that I have. I know enough about him to know this.
And I know him well enough to know that there's so much beyond what I know. That I am thrilled to know that He loves me enough to keep unveiling Himself little by little, so that my knowledge of Him, my understanding of who He is, my relationship with Him, and my knowing Him on a personal basis is becoming more exciting as the years go by. Would I boast of knowing God? No. Why?
For this reason. Because in every aspect of who He is, in His mercy, in His love, in His justice, in His chastisement, in His kindness toward us. In every aspect of who he is, in his sovereignty. He is infinite, absolutely infinite in every aspect of it. Therefore, how could I say I know God when behind every single aspect and every single attribute and every characteristic there is a world of knowledge?
There is infinite knowledge because He is infinite in every area.
So I would simply have to say, I'm learning who He is. I'm excited about what I know about him, but to ask me if I know him, to know him fully, no, I do not. I want to, and the wonderful thing about it is this, this much I know. That when you and I leave this earth, we're gonna leave these earthly bodies, and we're going to heaven to be in the presence of Almighty God with a mind that has absolutely become detached. From everything that is earthy.
Everything that is earthy that binds us, everything that is earthy that hinders us, everything that is earthy, everything that is human, everything that is fleshly, everything that is a part of our presently makeup will all be gone. And we will have minds that are so absolutely, perfectly pure and holy. Everything about us will be absolutely perfect and pure and holy. Then we can think unhindered as God thinks. Then we will begin to know Him in a way we will never be able to fathom on the face of this earth.
So, do we know Him? We're learning about Him. What is this message all about? This message is all about this simple truth: the privilege of knowing God. because it is an awesome privilege, an unparalleled benefit, Listen, it is a glorious opportunity that you and I have, an eternal treasure to know this God whom you and I have been.
thinking about, talking about, singing about, praising, worshiping, boasting of, all these years of our life.
Now, let me just say this to you. God desires that you and I know Him. Turn, if you will, to Jeremiah. Isaiah Jeremiah. And look, if you will, in that ninth chapter of Jeremiah, because here, I'll give you a couple of scriptures here that indicate God's desire that you and I know Him.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah. Ninth chapter. And this 23rd verse. And the reason I give you those other books is because some people knew Christians and they don't know where that is.
So the big prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. All right. And when you come to Jeremiah, hold that because we're going to move over about three more books. There's another passage. He says Verse 23, Thus says the Lord.
Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts Boast of this, that he understands and knows me, God speaking. That I am Am the Lord. Who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth?
For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. He says, I delight in these. in being this, and I delight in your knowing me.
Now, if you go over from Jeremiah, going over to Jeremiah. And then I move on over to Ezekiel and then Daniel. And then the first book of the of the minor prophets. Hosea. Look, if you will, in Hosea chapter 6 and verse 6.
Now, let me explain something because it'll be confusing. This is God speaking.
So it's not, it sounds like somebody else is speaking about him. This is God speaking, and here's what he says: Hosea 6, verse 6. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God of myself, he's saying, rather than burnt offerings. Here's what he says. He says, which do I light in the most, your gifts or you listen, or your knowledge of me?
He says, above all that I want from you, I want you to know me. God says, I want to be known. And if you think about yourself, for example. Any person who has a good self-esteem and a good self-image wants to be known. The reason is because you say, well, you know what?
I think I'm worth knowing. And if I should ask you today, do you feel like, do you believe that you're worth knowing? Many people would have to say, no, I don't. Because that's the image they have of themselves, they're not worth knowing. The truth is, everyone is worth knowing.
There's something in everyone worth knowing. God is certainly worth knowing, and He desires that you and I know Him. Turn to the 14th chapter of John for a moment. And you'll recall that when Jesus was speaking to his disciples, and so many times he gave them some very intimate things and shared with them. They were asking him about the Father, John chapter 14.
And if you look in verse 8. Philip said to him, He said, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. We want to see Him. Jesus said to Him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.
How do you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Listen, Jesus said, No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus was so intent.
On his disciples knowing him, understanding him, he shared the innermost beings of his heart. They watched him hurt. He shared the openness of his soul. He shared the deep, abiding things that he felt and things that he knew about the Father. But he also shared himself with them.
Why? He wanted them to know him. God the Father wants you and me to know Him. Because He is exciting to know, satisfying to know, thrilling to know, contenting to know. And I could go on and on and on and on and on about what it is to know the living God.
Listen, he desires that we know him.
Now Listen very carefully. Listen, say amen. Let me show you why it's so very important. That every single sermon you see and every one you hear, Because we read the Word of God. We ask the Holy Spirit.
to interpret it for us and we apply it to our heart. And that's what happens. Second thing we do. We try to bring out Those characteristics of God. in every single message, so that you'll know something else about him that'll cause you to love him.
The third thing is We are receptive. To an invitation, and I'm inviting you to allow God to work certain ways in your heart. And we talk about the commands of God, the things that He wants us to do to be obedient to Him. And then what do we do? We worship Him and praise Him and adore Him.
You know what happens? That means that every single worship service is an opportunity to get to know. our Heavenly Father a little better. Is that important? If knowing him is the most important knowledge there is, If knowing Him is the greatest person we can possibly know, and if knowing Him is to have life eternal and all three of those things are absolute true.
in every single opportunity you have. to grow in your relationship and in your knowledge is very important. Thank you for listening to Taking Advantage of the Privilege. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
