Westmeade Baptist Church, Decatur
How does one really “know” God? Perhaps through some act of service. One woman answering that question responded, “I know I am saved because I played the piano at church when I was a girl.” Really! That is how you “know” that you know God? The Bible clearly declares in Matthew 7:22–23, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you!’” Good works are wonderful and every believer should be careful to do good works. However, works follow in response to our knowing God, not as a means to know Him.
Perhaps “knowing” God comes through some religious formula or prayer such as the sinner’s prayer. Many people have prayed such a prayer and yet candidly confess that they neither know God nor have any desire to serve Him. At the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans in June 2012, a resolution regarding “the sinner’s prayer” garnered much debate for this very reason. Words alone do not guarantee a person’s salvation, as clearly expressed in Matthew 7:21.
Perhaps one of the worst rationales for knowing God came from a 20-year-old man who expressed that his mother knew the time and place when he supposedly was saved. This young man had struggled with knowing God and being certain of his salvation for many years.
How then does one “know” God for certain? For the man mentioned in the previous paragraph it wasn’t until he heard the call of God in his heart and responded in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus and His finished work on Calvary. God had to show him that he was lost before he could ever be saved. Romans 10:9–10 states, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
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