Our Sovereign God

Providence Baptist Church

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Be in Psalm 139 tonight. I do appreciate

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Gunnar doing that song. I think he he wrote him and he wrote that song and him and Jeff Crago sat down together and And kind of put it to music and I really like it

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I think I think it's good and really fits with the sermon tonight. And so Gunnar he

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He took counsel from one of his pastors this afternoon and and he sang that for us

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And so I appreciate I really appreciate that Psalm 139. I want to read the entire psalm it's a little bit longer than the one that Brother Randall read this morning, but I would have you stand tonight as we read this to the choir master a psalm of David Says in our heading

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Beginning in verse 1. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me You know when

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I sat down and when I rise up you discern my thoughts from afar

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You searched out my path and my lying down and are equated with all my ways

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Even before a word is on my tongue Behold, oh Lord, you know it all together

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You him me in behind and before and Lay your hand upon me

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Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it Where shall

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I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven?

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You are there If I make my bed in Sheol you are there

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If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea Even there your hand shall lead me in your right hand shall hold me

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If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night

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Even the darkness is not dark to you The night is bright as the day for darkness is at light as as light with you

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For you form my inward parts You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

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I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Wonderful are your works?

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My soul knows it very well My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth

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Your eyes saw my unformed substance and your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me

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When as yet there was none of them How precious to me are your thoughts?

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Oh God, how vast is the sum of them? If I would count them they are more than the sand.

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I awake and I am still with you. Oh That you would slay the wicked.

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Oh God. Oh Men of blood depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent your enemies take your name in vain

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Do I not hate those who hate you? Oh Lord And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

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I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies Search me

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Oh God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and Lead me in the way

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Everlasting. Let's pray Father what a beautiful song

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Lord as we read the psalm and it speaks of you and it speaks of The depths of your knowledge the expanse of your knowledge

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Lord may we be in all of you Lord humble me

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Tonight may I be humble before you to speak of such weighty things to speak of you

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Lord, there are so many topics so many things we could speak of but Lord none greater than speaking of your glory

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Speaking of your insearchable Attributes father that we cannot Try even try to comprehend

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It's my prayer tonight that myself and those that are gathered that Lord as we read these things that our view of you might be

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Increased Lord that we might have a higher view That our love for you might be increased that Lord you we might read this text and there might be a lost person that sees the majesty

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Of you and sees the need for Christ So I pray tonight that that would be

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Hit Lord that we wouldn't seek to be fancy that we would seek to magnify you

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Help me tonight. I stand in great need of your help Cannot do this without you meet with us tonight meet with me.

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I pray for the guidance of your Holy Spirit Lord that You would give me holy unction

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Lord you give me the liberty to preach your word rightly Pray that you'd give us ears to hear that we might rightly apply this and we ask all this in Christ's name.

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Amen so in this psalm, which We see at the beginning.

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This is believed to been authored by David And in this psalm we have both a psalm of praise and reflection

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He does praise David. He's praising God and he's reflecting He's offering praise to God and he's reflecting upon the nature of God more specifically he's reflecting upon some of the incomprehensible attributes of God MacArthur notes that Maybe David when he was writing this he might have been pondering the

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Lord's words in 1st. Samuel 16 7 when David was anointed if you remember he didn't start with David He goes out there the sons of Jesse and he goes through these sons and some of them

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You know as Samuel thought man that looks like a king. This has got to be the one Looks like a king.

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He's built like it He's built for it And then in verse before they get to David in verse 7 of 1st

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Samuel 16 says but the Lord said to Samuel Do not look on the appearance or the height of his stature because I have rejected him for the

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Lord sees not as man sees Man looks on the outward appearance, but the

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Lord looks on the heart in this psalm we are met with the reality of a big

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God a God that we cannot fathom and I don't understand how anyone can read this psalm and not stand in all of the

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Creator and the sustainer of the universe And there are three main

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Attributes that David looks at here in relation to himself and God and I want to look at those tonight

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And I know we could spend a handful of sermons just on this text that we've read

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But I want to briefly go through this whole thing Looking at these three different attributes we begin in Verse one with O Lord you have searched me and known me

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We begin the first attribute that David Causes us to to think upon and to ponder is the omniscience of God So what does that mean?

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We're gonna have three different attributes of God and they all start with O -m -n -i omni which means all and this is all omni and then you see the another word there science

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Which can also mean knowledge. So all knowledge all knowing so God's omniscience means that God is all knowing

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And there are many things that we could look at when we think about that fact that God is all knowing

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He knows everything a lot of different things we could look at There's a lot of different things that David could look at in relations to God's omniscience

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But David starts really close to home Highlighting that God's omniscience is

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Personal look with me at verse 1 again. Oh Lord you have searched me and you have known me we serve a

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Personal God who knows us he knows you he knows me

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But not like I know you or you know me and not like I know me or you know you a

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Lot of times we think we know people we think we know our neighbors. We think we know our friends

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We think we know our family. I Feel like I know my wife pretty well

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Her likes her dislikes. I know not to wake her up when she's sleeping That's something that you know, you may not know y 'all may not have known that I found that out very early on I Know my wife.

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I feel like I know her better than I know anyone else on this earth

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But is my knowledge of her perfect No, I'm still learning things about her

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It's beautiful to get to continue to learn things about her But is it right for me to say

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I know my wife Yes, I think so But not in the way that God knows her

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Not in the way that God knows her. She knows me but not in the way that God knows me

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I know me but not in the way that God knows me not in the detail not in the

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Perfection of knowledge there may be details about someone that we miss I may miss details about my wife that God does not we can hide things from other people.

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I Wouldn't recommend this but you can hide things from your spouse But he searches and knows all things

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God's Omniscience is personal the God of the universe knows us

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The God of the universe he knew David's heart You have searched me and you have known me

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You know me when I sit down when I rise up you discern my thoughts from afar

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He knows he knew David's actions. He knew what he set out when he rose up He knew wherever it was that David went he knows our actions.

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There is no action Too slight for him to take notice. I don't know if y 'all have ever sat in a in a deer stand

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And you've got deer that are on you. Yeah, and what I mean is the deer they're right there They're out there eating and you want to be really still because you want to scare them off especially if you got a couple of does that come up you're waiting on a big buck and you're just as still as you can possibly be

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After you do this for a long time you can slowly if you're wanting to look and see is there a buck coming you can slowly

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Turn to where that deer doesn't notice you that doe doesn't see Because the moat the motion is so slight

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God sees that there's no motion. There's no action that is beyond him

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There's no action that gets past God. He sees them all He knows every word that is spoken

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This one is kind of easy for us to understand. Sometimes we we are careful and rightly so Not to say everything that we think

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That's good, that's it sometimes sometimes we should say more of what we think but there's other times where We can rightly so not say everything that we think

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That'll help you sometimes, you know in eight years of marriage. There have been times when it was good

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I didn't say everything that I thought and other times I've said everything I've thought and I shouldn't have There are times when we can we can say, okay,

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I get it. He knows our words. He knows what we say But David steps it takes it a step further as we look

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We look at so look at verse 4 even before a word is on my tongue

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Behold Oh Lord, you know it all together Verse 2, you know when

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I sit down and when I rise up you discern my thoughts from afar He knows our thoughts

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God knows our thoughts. He knows every emotion. He knows where that emotion is flowing from For he knows the heart.

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He knows every idea that we have every idea good or bad. God knows it He knows our motives

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He knows the motive behind every action or thought He knows if our intentions are pure or not.

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I can fool you on this one, especially I Can do the right thing the right way and fool you

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But God knows what reason it is for my doing it. He knows why

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I'm doing it. You can fool me You can fool pastor quattro You can fool your spouse.

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You can even fool yourself kids You can fool your parents But you can't fool

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God You cannot fool God adult kid teenager doesn't matter you cannot fool

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God Those action that he those actions that we get okay.

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Yeah, he sees us Those actions that he knows about He knows the why of why we truly do them

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He knows why we don't do other things He knows why you're here tonight He knows your motivations for being here

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If you're listening online, he knows why you're not here tonight for some.

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I hope that to be a comfort I hope there are some listening that would listen to this

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And when I say he knows why you're not here That'd be a comfort but he because he knows that you would love to be here, but you can't

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Because of sickness or providential reasons you can take comfort that God knows your heart

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There are other times that maybe we don't wish

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God knew why we didn't come to church or why we didn't do this because of laziness or Maybe tonight.

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I don't know. There's a game that's being played Barry made a joke about Jamie not being here for the

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Super Bowl. I don't believe him So Jamie if you're listening, we know that's not why but I do pray that God knowing our intentions and understanding that fact

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I pray that that if if it's needed if God the Lord wills it to convict you The Lord wills it to convict me that it would and we would understand that God he does know our hearts

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That can be a terrifying reality He knows if we truly love him

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He knows if what you come in here and you do or if what we come in here and do he knows if this is all for show

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He knows if this is just going through the motions and saying look at me He knows why you really want to know good theology

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So you can go around you can beat your chest and say hey look how smart I am or if it's because you really just Want to know

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God and more of him He knows our thoughts. He knows our intentions.

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He knows our motives. He knows every doubt that we have. He knows every anxiety And understand this we cannot get to a place

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Where God will not know these things You search verse 3 you search out my path am

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I lying down you're acquainted with all my ways Even before a word is on my tongue behold

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Oh Lord, you know it all together You him me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful me for me

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It is high cannot attain it We cannot go past the knowledge of God, you know,

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I know this area pretty well I know how to get from place to place.

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We had a question Randall Chronister his son at lunch today.

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He asked me he's like do I live north of here south and I think his dad kind of son, you know, he's pretty disappointed and that he didn't know that he lived north of here and Jerry had mentioned, you know,

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I'm not from the area and he was asking and we and Randy and me were kind of telling

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Jerry you know where Hector is from here and then Rogers and these things I Know this area pretty well.

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I Know how to get from place to place When I was a fireman for the city of Russellville, I was required to know all the streets and all the routes so if we got a call and there was a a

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Medical condition there was a fire at this certain address I was required to know where that was and I was required to know the fastest route to get there but my knowledge that knowledge even that knowledge was limited to Russellville and even then it wasn't perfect knowledge because my knowledge couldn't account for a

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Train coming through town and we get stopped by a train My knowledge of how to get places here.

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I can tell you how to get to Dardanelle But there that knowledge is limited. There are factors that I don't know

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There may be an obstacle on this road or that one It takes 23 minutes to get from here to my house

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Unless you get stopped by this Traffic light out here with the bridge or they're doing road work on highway 10 and then it's anybody's guess

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My point is that well, I may know this area better than someone who's not from this area

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That knowledge has its limits Drop me out off without a map

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Anywhere three or four hours from here, and I'll probably struggle a little bit with directions The further you take me the harder harder it will get

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Because I'm capable of being lost due to lack of knowledge God's knowledge is not like that God's knowledge has no limits

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There are no limits to the amount of knowledge that he has and you can't outrun that knowledge

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You can't you can get to a place where I can't help you because my knowledge is limited You can't get to that place with God There is no place you can get far enough that God will not know

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These things that he will not know your thoughts that he will not know Your actions that he will not know your intentions that he will not know all things

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This is beyond our comprehension, that's what David is saying in verse 6 such knowledge is too wonderful for me

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It is high. I cannot contain it. He said I can't even grasp This fact that you know everything

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That you know my thoughts It's beyond our comprehension and this is true with God in general

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We can't truly fathom God and his attributes. This is because of his greatness He's a great

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God he's a big God In verses 5 and 6 they kind of lead us into the next section

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You can't outrun the knowledge of God because you can't outrun God Because not only is he omniscient, but he's also omnipresent all present

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God is everywhere God knows everything and God is everywhere.

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We can't and we don't separate these attributes of God He cannot be escaped

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Verses 7 where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there

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If I make my bed in Sheol you are there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of The sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me

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Everywhere means everywhere The highest of heavens he is there Sheol to the grave

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God will be there as well for the spirit cannot escape him But neither can the body for on the day when he comes he will bring us forth

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Those who have passed will bring us forth from the dust to meet him We could go to the uttermost parts of the sea

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David says we could go you just go out and you go to the ocean the beach and you look and you seen it just Looks like the ocean goes forever.

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We can go to the uttermost parts of the sea and He would be there. We can escape people

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Somebody say well, you can't escape world governments, but people have done this People can commit crimes and hide for decades

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But they can't hide from God You can't hide from God. We can try to hide we can try to hide our sin

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We can we can even run and hide ourselves in darkness That's what David says I could run to darkness we could try to hide ourselves of darkness and think there

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I won't be seen I'll go to the darkness. God won't see me there my actions my thoughts my words.

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They can be hidden in the darkness David shows us the foolishness of this thinking

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Verses 11 and 12 if I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night

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Even the darkness is not dark to you The night is bright as the day for darkness is as light with you

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God sees just as well in the darkness as he does the light for he makes the darkness light

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This can be a frightening thought And it should be for some this should be frightening

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More on that later, but for a believer Understand me frightening for an unbeliever for a believer

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This is a comforting truth Understand uh everybody

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We need to grasp this Understand that David he's not writing these things

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He's to try to escape the presence of God here That's not what the purpose of the psalm is rather.

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He is Rejoicing at the thought that he cannot run away from God look at verse 9 and 10 again

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If I take the wings of the morning and dwell not in most parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand

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Shall hold me No matter where David went near or far

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God would be with him leading him and holding him Reminds me of a text in Isaiah 41 9

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You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners Saying to you you are my servant.

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I have chosen you and not cast you off Fear not for I am with you be not dismayed for I am your

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God I will strengthen you and I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand

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Behold all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded Those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish

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This fact that we cannot escape God that God is with us should be a comfort to Believers this should be a comfort to believers like no other

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That he is with us and he will remain with us those apart from Christ Due to their sin.

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They cannot see why they should want this Instead they run They run from an omnipresent God Some eat try everything even take their own lives only to stand in judgment squarely before the one they were running from But friend listen to me not kids

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Children teenagers listen to me tonight. Don't seek to run from his presence desire his presence

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Run to him if you have tried to flee Maybe because of sin understand you cannot escape

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Stop fleeing and turn and run to him We can trust him for he is a

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God that is not far off He is near in verse 13.

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We see a shift to our third attribute that we will discuss That's the omnipotence

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So you have the omni of all and then you see the other word you would see there's kind of potent Powerful all powerful all and unlimited power

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Verse 13 for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb

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How can all of this be possible that we've mentioned? How can God both know everything and be everywhere?

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Because he holds all power Because God is all powerful and this is evident in creation

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As seen in the creation of man, how does God know David so well?

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How does he know him so well? Because he formed him he created him.

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This too is personal He is not only the creator of the universe and everything in it, but he is our creator

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He was David's creator. He's my creator. He is your creator God's power is evident in our creation

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The great attention to detail attests to this You formed me you formed my inward parts you knitted me together in my mother's womb

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Verse 15 my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately intricately intricately woven in the depths of the earth greatest attention to detail

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Detail this is true of our minds our soul our spirit our physical bodies when you think of our physical bodies every organ in part

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Finely crafted what a marvel the human body is It is stumped even the staunchest of God -denying scientists

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They've been astonished Some brought to repentance at the amazement of his creation others brought to rebellion and sought to explain it away with fables such as evolution

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The God didn't create this it just happened by coincidence a big bang Of the theological word for that baloney

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These fallacies are due to their denial and rebellion against their creator Our body was not formed by chance air in our lungs and blood pumping throughout is not by Coincidence God designed every intricate detail even our days in the womb were formed by God Look at verse 16

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Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me

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When as yet there was none of them The hair on our heads is the song that Gunnar sang

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This is not just true after we were born we were knitted together in the womb by God intricately woven verse 15 says

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There's a truth here that this should cause us to see One of the there's many truths, but one of those is the value of life

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How can you read this and support abortion of any kind? How?

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How can so many professing Christians and churches read this and remain silent on the state of our culture?

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We cannot be silent you can't read this and not value life and be silent

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We can't sit by the wayside of this This is one of the many reasons You cannot vote

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Democrat in our country if you're a Christian if you do you're in sin And understand the report the

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Republican Party is headed down this road as well It's a slow fade that's speeding up especially in this issue of abortion

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They don't just need reform they need repentance as well But we have to stop being soft about this to support things such as abortion

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Is to devalue life is to support murder and God hates that And I don't care what excuse you give about the economy to try to ease your conscience of support of murder

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God hates abortion and we see here in our text that life begins at conception

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We see that life doesn't begin at eight weeks or Ten weeks or thirty weeks or when the baby is born life begins in the womb

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Knitted together in the womb of our mothers fearfully and wonderfully made Gender determined by God in the womb not up for debate not something that can be changed in The work of God in the womb is a wonderful work of God as are all his works

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This is a wonderful truth intricately woven

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He knew us before he knew me before my mom and dad For he formed me

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What a wonderful reality We see here his sovereign will put into action his power on display

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You know, it's one thing to will it it's another thing to do it our actions don't always match our will

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We want something but either we can't or won't do it God's actions always match and fulfill his will

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He does this in our personal lives. He guides our steps Nothing we do surprises him

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Our life was planned and settled by God before we began The story written by God himself his

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Omnipotence is providential Not only does he guide our steps. He has determined our steps

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His hand laid upon us. He's preserved us back in verse 5 you him me and behind him before you lay your hand upon me

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He has preserved us. He's restored us. He has quickened our minds and our bodies What is our response as?

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I'm landing the plane What is our response To the omniscience the omnipresence in the omnipotence of God.

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It's praise to our sovereign God Praise to our sovereign God verses 17 and 18

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How precious to me or your thoughts of God how vast is the sum of them if I?

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Would count them there more than the sand I awake and I'm still with you And When we see and we begin to understand these things the response of the believers should be the same as David's We must understand that we can't put a worth or a value on the thoughts and the ways of God Any value we put on the thoughts and ways of God would be too small, but think about this church

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This God in his mercy Has not only thought of his children, but he has thought favorably and lovingly towards us

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We don't deserve this we deserve his wrath for our sinfulness and our law -breaking but his thoughts of us are evident how how so well they're evident because 2 ,000 years ago over 2 ,000 years ago.

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He sent forth his only son to pay our sin debt on Calvary Making a way that we can be saved by his grace

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That we may repent and trust in him how marvelous Are his thoughts towards us?

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This should cause us to sing with joy and with praise Verse 14 he said

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I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made We should be in all of this

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God and all that this great and mighty God has considered us He has formed us with great thought in detail.

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He's ordered our steps We are here only by his mercy beautiful things such as true love flow from him to us

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Verse 18 he keeps us with him. He secures us For believers he saved us

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Then David shifts here After verse 18 we see that in addition to his praise for God.

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He's also zealous for God Verse 19 through 22. I won't read them again, but you see what

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David thinks of the enemies of God David can't stand the thought of those who stand against this great

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God So they have blasphemed his name and he understands that this great God will have his vengeance his enemies won't escape him

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And David could rest and praise him in that as well as should we? Those who stand against the truth will be slain

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These things that we've mentioned are true we see What should be the response of the believers to these we should praise him but the unbeliever the enemy of God That's written about here

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Should have a response as well They should be afraid They should repent

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Understand that his righteous sovereignty will not be thwarted by man or by the enemies of God His son he is sovereign

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He is unchallenged he is unable to be challenged he will reign and continue to reign

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He has great love For his people Verses 23 and 24 is how

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I'm gonna close with five very quick applications But our prayer in response to this really

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I do want to read this Verse 23 search me Oh God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts if there be any grievous way in me lead me and see if there be any grievous way in Me and lead me in the way everlasting

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Understand that we Don't even know ourselves well enough to know everything in us that grieves

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God We can deceive ourselves. We can lessen the guilt of our sins in our minds

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We can try to explain it away in our hearts to our own demise But David prays that God would search his heart and his thoughts and find these sins

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There may be some wickedness rising up within us. There may be pride that is slinking away somewhere in the recesses of our mind

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We may even be discouraged and doubting of whether we can continue in the faith And David prays that God may lead him away from these things

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We should pray the same One way God's hand is upon it is upon his children is in their sanctification

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It's a good thing for us to pray for that He might reveal our sin to us that he might that God might lead us in the way everlasting

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And we must understand that Only God knows what this will look like In our lives when we're led this way

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May we trust him five

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Quick applications in under two minutes Number one increase we must increase our view of God Providence increase your view of God all of us should we need a higher view of God Secondly understand the folly of hiding anything from him.

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He knows and sees all he is in complete control Three Stand confidently

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Confidently on his truths and against evil for there is none who can stand against him for Let these truths that we've seen of God not lead you to despair, but rather praise to our sovereign

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God to our sovereign ruler and lastly pray that God would search your heart

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That he would sanctify you and that he would lead you in the way everlasting to God be the glory let us pray

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Father we need a bigger view of you. I need a bigger view of you. This church needs a bigger view of you

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Providence everyone here Needs a bigger view of you. May you help us?

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May you give us a greater view of yourself? Or may you draw sinners to yourself tonight, even if Lord Lord even if there's an adult out here that says, you know,

39:25

I've professed to be faith I've professed faith. I've professed to be a Christian. I've been baptized.

39:31

I've been even a member of this church But father if you see their heart And they're not show that to them tonight.