Do You Really Know Him?

Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 2:12, Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they did not know the LORD.

As we read about the sons of Eli, we see a very important lesson. In fact, the lesson is one that is a matter of life and death, eternal life and death. I will bring our attention to that lesson by asking one simple question. Do you really know the Lord? I am not asking if you know about the Lord. There is a huge difference between knowing about the Lord and knowing the Lord. There are many who know about the Lord, and may even behave like Christians, but do not have a personal relationship with Him. Interestingly, the Scriptures refer to the sons of Eli as the sons of Belial, or the sons of the devil, sons of corruption. In John 8, the Pharisees insulted Jesus by telling Him that He was born of fornication, and alleging that God was their Father. In verses 42-44 Jesus responded, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Here is a plain and simple fact. If a person has not put their faith and trust in Jesus and what He did on Calvary, calling upon Him by faith, and faith alone, he/she does not know Him. Romans 10:8-10 clearly says, “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Verse 13 goes on to say, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” With that said, we must not be fooled into thinking that we are saved and know the Lord simply because we are performing our works or going through the motions of serving in a church building. There are many who try to be good people, who serve in a church building, serving in their religion, who have not taken the step of actually putting their faith in Christ personally. Note that even though their father Eli knew the Lord, that was not passed on to them genetically or because they grew up with Eli as their father. The Lord’s invitation to us to accept the free gift we have in Jesus is a personal invitation. The only way to receive it is to personally call upon Christ and personally accept it. If we fail to do that, regardless of how many works we perform, or what family we grew up in, or what church we grew up attending, we will still belong to Satan’s family (as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees), and we will die in our sins; thereby condemning ourselves to eternal destruction. I will leave you with these verses of Scripture that clearly point out that our works are like filthy rags to God, regardless of how good we think they are, and the only way to receive eternal life and truly know the Lord is by faith alone. Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”. Titus 3:4-7 also tells us, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).