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Well, tonight we're going to continue with our series that we've just started on the attributes of God. Certainly there are more attributes than 26 but in the next 26 Sunday nights, as the Lord allows me, we want to talk about a different attribute beginning with the letter A.
We're going to do this in an acrostic format going A through Z with 26 different attributes for the 26 letters. Who can tell me what an acrostic even is? What is an acrostic? Yes, Mike? Okay, great. And it could match a letter to start, a few letters, a whole word.
I found this interestingly. It comes from the Greek word acrosticon, two words, across, extreme, stakos, verse, extreme verse. It all lines up. Are there any books in the Bible that are acrostically written?
Am I just making this up A to Z? Yes. Psalm 119 is the most famous acrostic for the Jewish consonants. How many Jewish consonants are there? 22 consonants. We have vowel pointing but there are 22 letters as it were.
Psalm 119 is the most famous one. There are others though. How many other acrostic psalms are there? That would be right. There are eight other ones. Very good. By the way, congregation, and Mike and his family are fairly new to the church, on Sunday mornings it's best to have the kids go to the bathroom and try to take care of the kids.
Maybe junior church and this or that. We want to try to encourage the kids to learn. But on Sunday nights I want you to bring your kids and I want you to train your kids to sit and listen. This is the time where if we have a few singings and speaking in tongues and other things, it's okay.
It's a church family. Certainly if it's distracting so much that some kids yelling bloody murder, screaming bloody murder, then take a lap around the sanctuary. I don't know but it's fine by me, the preacher.
It's fine by the church. We want you to train your children to be in the sanctuary, to worship with the parents. Bruce Ray has a great book about discipline. It's called Withhold Not Correction. He talks about the family worshiping together.
So when I hear these voices, I'm not disturbed. Although I did hear a cell phone this morning and it kind of got me off track. Just hearing some cell phone go off. Where was I? Acrostics. There are nine psalms that are acrostically written.
Psalm 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145. I came across an acrostic poem written by Edgar Allan Poe and it was entitled Elizabeth. And it goes like this. And the first word of each line spells out something.
It spells out Elizabeth. Elizabeth is not vain you say. Love not thou sayest in a so sweet a way. In vain those words from thee. Xantippes talents had enforced so well. Ah, if that language from my heart arise.
Breathe it less gently forth. And it goes on and on. Why am I reading Poe from the pulpit? I don't know. But every letter starts off with us thinking about something in a good memory format. The book of Lamentations is also acrostically written.
And it's just a good way to go ahead and do it. So tonight is letter A. There are many attributes that start with A. Can you think of any? I'm gonna pick a different one. But which one would you think?
Luke? Almighty? Yes. Haley, can you think of one? Yes. Amazing. That's a good one, isn't it? Amazing would have been excellent. Dave? Awesome. Good. All-powerful. Good. I should have asked you before I did the series because I've already picked all 26.
Anyone else? Yes. Atoning. Great. That is excellent. Anyone else while we're thinking? Yes. Astounding. Good. Let's keep going. This is fun. One we're going to... Yes. All-knowing. That's the one we're going to do tonight.
All-knowing. God is om... what? Omniscient. God is all-knowing. Tonight we're going to look at the doctrine that God knows everything. God knows everything. Who can tell me omniscience, the two words that make up omniscience?
What are the two words and what do they mean? Anyone? Yes, Barry? Omni means all. Good. That's okay. I would have said it. Okay, good. All-knowing. Basically, we get... it's kind of like science of knowing science.
All-knowing. And basically, omniscience means that God knows everything. He knows everything actually. He knows everything that is possibly to be known. He knows it effortlessly. And as one man said, he knows it equally well.
God knows everything. Can you imagine? Everything he knows. I did a little research this week and I found out in the Library of Congress in the United States, the world's largest library, we have a collection there of 119 million items in 460 languages, maps, monographs, dissertations, periodicals, voice and music recordings, and four million images, and God knows them all.
James Boyce said, omniscience involves not only God's knowledge of us, but also his knowledge of nature, the past, the present, and the future. It involves everything we can possibly imagine and much more besides.
And the thing is, God knows it now. He knows himself, he knows all things actual and possible, and he knows it all in one eternal now. That blows my mind. That is, to quote some of the theologians here, that is astounding and that is amazing that God knows everything and he knows it right now.
Arthur Pink said, God knows everything, everything possible, everything actual, all events, all creatures of the past, present, and future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven and earth and in hell.
Nothing escapes his notice, nothing can be hidden from him, nothing is forgotten by God. God is all-knowing. Matter of fact, if you'll turn your Bibles to Isaiah 41, let me show you that this idea that God knows everything is proof that God is God compared to the false idols, compared to the man-made, handmade idols.
How can God be different from an idol? Well, God knows everything. This shows that God, in fact, is God. Heathen gods could never measure up to God who knows it all. Isaiah chapter 41, I'm just going to read several verses from several chapters so you can see that God knows everything, every detail, and this sets him apart.
It sets him apart as different than all these false gods. It's just a brilliant challenge here from God to those that would believe in less than God. Isaiah 41, 21, present your case, the Lord says. Bring forward your strong arguments, the King of Jacob says.
Isaiah 41, 22, let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place. As for the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider them and know their outcome, or announce to us what is coming.
If you call yourself a god, you should know these things. Verse 23, declare the things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods. Indeed, do good or evil that we may anxiously look about and fear together.
Behold, you are of no account and your work amounts to nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. Verse 25, I have aroused one from the north and he has come. From the rising of the sun he will call my name and he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, even as the potter treads clay.
Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know our former times, that we may say, he is right. Surely there was no one who declared, surely there was no one who proclaimed, surely there was no one who heard your words.
If you are God, by definition, you should know everything. Jump down to chapter 44, the same book, please. Isaiah 44, 6, it's the same refrain. God is the one who knows everything and that, by definition, shows it is God because of his intense and in-depth knowledge.
Isaiah 44, 6, thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, I am the last, there's no God besides me. And who is like me? Let him proclaim it and declare it.
Yes, let him recount it to me in order from the time that I established that ancient nation. And let them declare to me, to them rather, the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.
He says the same thing in chapter 45 and 46 as well. God knows everything and he is set apart from other gods because he does know everything. Well, one of the things I want to do with this series is make it expositionally based.
That is to say, I don't want to just give you a bunch of random Bible verses to create the doctrine of all-knowing God, the omniscient God. I want to go to one main passage and preach that so you see it in context.
And that passage tonight is Psalm 139. Let's go to Psalm 139 and see this very personal psalm and I'm going to call this psalm the fireworks psalm. The fireworks psalm. How many people love fireworks 4th of July or any other time?
I do. I like Roman candles. Matter of fact, we used to like to pick up Roman candles when we were kids because you could kind of shoot them. We don't want to do that as children, do we? I think Massachusetts outlaws all fireworks anyway so it doesn't really matter.
But there are four kind of flares that shoot up, four bursts of praise, four bursts of things about God that are just awesome. We went to the is it half shell or hat shell in Boston? Hat shell? But it looks like half a shell to me.
Is it a half shell? H-A-T. Oh, hat shell. I was wrong on both counts. It was not a half shell or a hat shell. It's the hat shell. Oh, it does look like a hatch. Okay, well good. I'm not omniscient. Thank you.
Sometimes you sit there and you watch just the big fireworks and what does everybody do kind of under their breath or out loud especially if you have kids? Up goes the rocket and then you see the lights before you hear the explosion and you see the light then hear the explosion and what's the underlying kind of crowd murmuring?
You can say it out loud. And that's exactly what happens with this psalm. You can't believe that God knows everything and you just sit back and you go, wow. There's four kind of fireworks blast. We're only going to look at the first one but the four are God knows you, God is with you, God's power extends to you and God's holiness should affect you.
In other words, it talks about his omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence and then how it's practical. These four kind of Roman candlelight things that show how great God is and frankly if I could just let down my hair for a minute, I can't stand when people go around trying to tell me how great they are.
And it starts back with Muhammad Ali and even goes back farther and people put great in front of their name, greatest show on earth, the great Houdini, Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great. I went to see Napoleon's crypt in Paris.
Have you ever been to Napoleon's crypt? And it's set up in such a way that his crypt is down really low and the story goes that when you see him up above and look at him way down in the crypt there, he wanted to set it up so everyone would have to bow to him to see him when he was dead.
And in fact to see him you have to look down and in a sense you're bowing to Napoleon's crypt because he was such a great man. I don't like that. I like Bishop Massillon instead in 1715, King Louis the 14th of France died after a 72 year reign and his nickname that he gave himself was the Great.
And he made this famous statement that you may remember in history, I am the state. Funeral is spectacular, his body's in a golden coffin, he gave orders that the cathedral should be very dimly lit with one special coffin candle that sat on top of it to dramatize his greatness.
The bishop began to speak, he snuffed out the candle though and said, only God is great. This psalm shows how great God is. It is a wonderful song that you could read in the morning and in the night because it is wonderful.
And we're only going to look at the first six verses God's omniscience. Psalm 139 verses 1 through 6 it shows that God knows everything. Each one of these sections, these four Roman candle blasts have six verses and there's two parts to those six verses.
The first four verses describe what's going on and then the next two verses are reflective. That is to say there are statements of fact and then kind of practical application. And you'll notice when we get going in this psalm that this is not one of these doctrinally cold psalms.
This is doctrine through God who's very personal to David who's a person as well. This is kind of knowledge and theology that you can use. Very very practical, intensely personal and I'll read the psalm and you can see at least the first six verses how many times you is used and how many me is used and I and let's just let me read it and you can see how personal God relates to David.
Oh Lord you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up you understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue behold oh Lord you know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high I cannot attain it.
Very very personal psalm. This is not abstract theology. It matters. Leslie Allen a great commentary writer said it is applied theology and all kinds of words are used. You'd think you're looking up a thesaurus with all these verbs.
Search, examine, know, perceive, understand, discern, sift the comprehensive knowledge that God has of us and let's just jump right into the text. Psalm 139 and it says for the choir director this psalm is to be what?
Sung. A psalm of David and then it says oh Lord thou has searched me and known me. If you think there's going to be a very personal psalm and God's going to call himself a name do you think he'd call himself the name Adonai?
He's in charge. He's sovereign. He's the ruler. If it was going to be a personal psalm do you think he'd call himself God? This powerful God Elohim? Or do you think if there's going to be a personal psalm God would call himself by his personal name Yahweh?
Which one would you pick with a very personal touch to it? It's Yahweh and that's exactly here. Do you see all the capitals? This is the personal name for God and it just starts off like a gun. The center and theme of this chapter is God.
He knows everything about David and what happens? It says there oh Lord Yahweh thou has searched me and known me. Thou literally the word search means to examine carefully, to dig. It's like a search-and-seizure for drugs kind of intense.
Sometimes when I was in Logan they have a little beagle walking around and the beagle has a little kind of chap over it or some kind of clothing and it says something like drug sniffing dog. Just walking around from place to place examining, investigating.
This is this kind of scrutiny. Reminds me of the story that has nothing to do with this but when my mother had to go to a one of the final thing I had an old dog and taught her all kinds of tricks. Her name was Marley and so my mom had to figure out the council time for the last Iwana deal and so she made Marley an Iwana vest and put the Iwana vest on Marley to come do the tricks for the Iwana closing.
Far removed from Logan Airport dogs I know. This means to dig, to to closely investigate. One commentary in the 70s said this means God really digs you. This has nothing to do with God digging you in the 70s discussion.
No this is more like God has dug into you and found out everything about you. He knows everything about you. It's like taking a magnifying glass better yet a microscope and just examine your whole being.
When I was in college I started off as a chemical engineer major and we were given a little packet of white powder in one of the classes and we were trying to find out exactly what was in that white powder.
What was that experiment called? I can't remember but we have to do titration analysis and precipitate some of the things out and we had to say that powder contains exactly this percent of that element and this percent of that element detailed.
That's exactly what's happening here. God thoroughly knows David. He has examined him minutely. I can't even figure out what's going on in your mind let alone God knowing everyone's minds and by the way David is what?
What kind of position does David have? Is he a serf or a peasant or who is David? A king. Think about the king. If you came to me and I was the king I didn't even have to tell you my name. I didn't have to tell you what I liked or disliked.
I didn't have to tell you anything. Proverbs 25 3 says as the heavens for height and the earth for depth so the heart of the Kings is unsearchable yet God knows everything about David and us as well. This word to search or to dig is found in Job 28 talking about mining operations.
Man puts an end to the darkness and to the farthest limit he searches out the rock in gloom and deep shadow. This is used for for spying in Judges 18 to spy out the land and to search it. God knew every detail of David.
Perfect knowledge and then it says if you continue looking at the verse thou have searched me and known. Me isn't in the text. God you have searched me and you just know. Matter of fact I love 1st Samuel 2 verse 3 it says God is a God of knowledges not just knowledge but knowledges.
God knows. He knows everything. If you have not read Tozer's book on the attributes I encourage you to do so. Tozer said about this God knows instantly and effortly all matter and all matters. All mind and every mind.
All spirit and all spirits. All being and every being. All creature hood and all creatures. Every plurality and all pluralities. All law and every law. All relations. All causes. All thoughts. All mysteries.
All enigmas. All feeling. All desires. Every unuttered secret. All thrones and dominions. All personalities. All things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth. Motion space time life death good evil heaven and hell.
And God knows you. God knows you. Psalm 1 says the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Think about how knowledge how it explodes over time. In 79 there were more than 2 ,000 pages a minute that were being published.
Even in 1979 if you read 24 hours a day from the age of 21 to 70 retained all that you read you would still be one and a half million years behind when you finished. And God knows everything. And God doesn't have to learn.
He knows everything perfectly at once. It blows my mind that God has never learned anything. He knows us. And look at the extent of God's knowledge. If you're taking notes let me give you five things that God knows.
Verse 1 was the general statement God knows everything. Now let me give you five particulars. Number one God knows what you do found in verse 2a. The extent of God knowledge. Number one God knows what you do.
You see that in verse 2? Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up. Thou is emphatic. God is the one who knows. It's the same word for know in verse 1. He knows when we have a passive life. Sitting down.
Resting. Reclining. Sitting. Sleeping. And he knows when we rise up. Working. Standing. Being busy. And everything in between God knows. No action is lost. Nothing's overlooked. He knows things about us that are common.
That are casual. That are easy. That are hard. When we're at the top of our game. When we're at the bottom of the barrel. From one shining moment in an NCAA basketball song to the agony of defeat at wide world of sports.
He knows it all. Now let me ask you this question. If God knows what you do, why would that be practical? Remember when you preach you want to try to preach and answer this question. So what? God knows everything I do.
How does that make you feel? What does that make you think about? What would that make you do or not do? Give me some answers congregation if you would please. If God knows what you do, so what? Yes Mark?
Okay if he knows everything that you do and there's no darkness for him. Can't hide in the dark. You can't do anything kind of secretly. You want to please him. Excellent. Good. Our future is secure because he knows everything in the future.
Good. So it's not only we want to watch our step but we also can be comforted that God knows everything about us. Good. Is it easy do you think to be a hypocrite if God knows everything? I liked Alexander the Great story.
They asked him why he could sleep so soundly in the midst of all this danger and he said the reason I can sleep so soundly is that Pomeranio, his faithful guard, was watching him. God knows. God knows everything about us.
God cares. Well let's keep going. God not only knows what you do, God knows what you think. That almost fits in with this morning sermon found at the second part of verse 2. God knows what you do, number one.
Number two, God knows what you think. Thou dost understand my thought from afar. More than perceive but he really knows more than surface knowledge. He knows carefully. He interprets. He knows our thinking, our reasoning.
He understands all that. Deuteronomy 31 says of God for I know their intent. Luke 11 17 of Jesus but Jesus knew their thoughts. God knows exactly what you're thinking. He's not distant. He knows. I love Jeremiah 23.
Am I a God who is near declares the Lord and not a God far off? I guess I'm a product of pop culture. It is not as if somehow your thought life has a little cone of kryptonite over it so God's laser-beam Superman eyes can't see through it.
Everything God knows. A man who is no great theologian, Mr. Beecher said before men we stand as opaque beehives. They can see the thoughts go in and out of us but what work they do inside a man they cannot tell.
Before God we are glass beehives and all that our thoughts are doing within us he perfectly sees and understands. Never been misunderstood by God. He knows exactly what we think at all times. If God knows what you think so what?
Should it change what you think? Absolutely. Number three, we need to keep moving. God knows what you do, number one. God knows what you think, number two. God, number three, knows where you go. Verse three, God knows where you go.
Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. I love the word there for scrutinize. It just means to winnow and basically David takes something from everyday life and you can have wheat and chaff that are together and you throw the wheat up and what happens to the chaff?
If there's a wind the chaff blows away and you're stuck with that kernel as if we have our lives and and God just takes us and and he knows us intimately. He knows everything that we do and every place that we go.
It's like we have global tracking system on ourselves at all time. He knows and the text says he's intimately acquainted. He knows where you go to work, where you go to school, where you go to vacation, all your ways, all your behaviors.
Job 31 verse 4 says does he not see my ways and number all my steps? Absolutely. But furthermore, God knows what you will say. Number four, God knows what you do, God knows what you think, God knows where you'll go, where you do go and number four, God knows what you will say.
Sometimes we don't even know we're gonna say. Sometimes I come on Sunday nights just because I want to know what I'm gonna say. I'd like to know what I'm gonna preach about. Verse 4, even before there's a word on my tongue behold oh Yahweh thou does know it all.
Now if anybody does math really well here you might want to take some of these numbers down and help me. I found this week that the average words per day that people speak are 20 ,000. I kid you not, there are differences between men and women but I won't tell you who speaks more and who speaks less because that's not for tonight but men speak less.
But anyway, seriously look at the internet. It's like 20 ,000 for men, I mean for women 15 ,000, 10 ,000 for the men. You can just study that on your own. Some think that's about 25 ,000 a day compared to men who are 12 ,000 a day.
It doesn't really matter. Let's just say everybody speaks 10 ,000 words a day times 365 per year. What does that give us? My calculation was 3 ,655 ,000 words per year that each individual speaks. There are 300 million people in America.
That gives me I think over a billion people, I mean a billion words. How many people are in the world total? Can you imagine that God knows every one of those words and he knew every one of those words before they even said it.
Here's how I have to do it in my mind. It's football season and so sometimes when I go back home to Nebraska, I'll go to University of Nebraska football game and I'll sit there and I'll see 76 ,000 people around me with red and white and that's the largest group of people that I can think of all at one place.
And I think God knows every one of those people. He knows what they're thinking, He knows what they're going to do, He knows what they've done, He knows 76 ,000 people. He even knows what the coach is going to do and sometimes nobody knows that but God does.
76 ,000 people? How about everybody that's ever been born? I sometimes gauge people's intellect by how many languages they can speak. No matter what language it is, God knows it and He knows it before they even speak.
James Boyce said, omniscience involves not only God's knowledge of us but also His knowledge of nature, the past, the present, the future and what we speak. It's amazing to me. He knows what is said and He knows what we meant when we said it.
Thomas Watson, the great Puritan said, what care, here's a so what question answered, what care would people have of their words if they remembered God heard and the pen is going on in heaven. The divine pen is going on as we speak.
God knows a lot. He knows what you do, He knows what you think, He knows where you go, He knows what you will say and He knows what you need. Number five, here's the last one and this is very comforting.
Some of the others might kind of scare us and we want to be scared into sanctification with fright. Here this is very comforting. Verse five, thou enclosed behind me and before and laid thy hand upon me.
Enclosed means surrounded, it means protected. It's like a city that was hemmed in by a siege, no way out. But this is a positive thing that God is all around us. He's all around us knowing us and protecting us.
He's on every side of us, hemmed in and surrounded by God and the text says there with a with a language of protection and blessing and you laid your hand upon me and you can study Genesis 48 and Exodus 33 that this is a divine hand that protects and comforts and blesses.
I like Exodus 33 22 when God told Moses that no one could see him and live, he did go on to say how he would shelter him and protect him with his hand and it will come about that while my glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
God has enclosed us by himself and has laid his hand on us and knowing that God knows what we'll do, what we'll say, where we go and everything else, the response is some of the A's that we heard earlier with astounding and amazing.
Here's the response, the built-in response and you see it in verse 6. How should we respond to a God that knows everything? It is inconceivable that from eternity past to eternity that comes in the future God knows everything.
He doesn't have to have ginkgo biloba to remember. He's never going to have Alzheimer's. What should our response be? And you can see what the response is. It should be praise. It should be like the fireworks that go off and we just say God you're wonderful.
When's the last time you were astonished about anything? Here is you should be astonished by what God knows. Verse 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I can't attain to it. In English it doesn't work so well but in Greek and in Hebrew if you put a word right up at the front it emphasizes it and if you had to pick one of these words in your English text in verse 6 that was very very important that would be emphatic in your mind theologically.
What word do you think is at the very front of the Hebrew sentence? Wonderful. Emphatic. It is wonderful. It is extraordinary. It's surpassing to our mind. This theme overwhelms David. He can't understand it and can it be?
He's praising. God doesn't forget. God doesn't have memory loss. When was the last time you said to yourself or to God, God you are awesome because you know everything. David says it's too high. I can't attain to it.
Sadly our society people relegate God to a curse word sometimes and speak of God flippantly. David knows about God and he says you are just to be praised. You are to be praised. God's knowledge is eternal.
God didn't ever learn anything. He started his knowledge before time. Says the Lord who makes these things known from old. Acts 15 18. God's knowledge of the future. You can just think of prophecy and just say the wonder of God.
God's knowledge is independent. Nobody has told God anything. Verse 13 of Isaiah 40. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or as his counselor who has informed him? Answer, no one. God's knowledge is extensive.
Psalm 147. He counts the number of stars. He gives names to all of them. God's knowledge is primary. He is the pattern for all knowledge. It's instantaneous. God does. I just got a new computer, a church computer.
My old one was I think 94 pounds when it was packed in the bag and now I got a new little four-pound one and I'm so happy because I have two gigabyte RAM, random access memory so the thing just comes right up.
God doesn't have random access memory. Why? Because there's nothing to access because he knows it all now and that kind of knowledge should make us praise God. Let's get really really practical for a minute.
If you know God knows everything about you and God has had his son die for you and you are a Christian why would you worry about losing your salvation? Because there's a sin in the future that you committed that God didn't know about because if he didn't know about it he wouldn't have ever chosen you.
Friends, God's not taking off guard when we sin. God knew the worst about you. He knew the worst about me and he still had his son die for us. True? He didn't say well you know it's so far not too bad but if they do anything worse then you know out of the family.
Arthur Pink just with piercing words says, the whole of my life stood open to his view from the beginning. He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding yet nevertheless he fixed his heart on me.
Oh how the realization of this should bow me and wonder and worship before him. Of course we shouldn't sin but our sins can't get us out of the family when Jesus dies for sins past present and future.
I love Tozer. No tailbearer can inform on us. No enemy can make an accusation stick. No forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some closet to a bash us and expose our past. No unsuspected weaknesses in our character can come to light to turn God away from us since he knew utterly all about us before we knew him and he called us to himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.
God knows you perfectly. How could he be surprised or amazed when he would never learn anything? God knew the worst about us and he still saved us. Let me give you some other things that are practical very down to the shelf, low shelf.
When you pray do you inform God of what's happening in your life? When you pray is it an informational setting where you're gonna let God know the latest with you? Yeah? God I've got a few things to tell you because you don't really know what's going on and let me just share with you.
Prayer doesn't inform God but prayer certainly deepens our trust, confidence in God. It helps line up our will to God's will. He likes to hear what's going on and he likes to hear from us as his children but we're not telling God anything that he doesn't already know.
He already knows things instantly anyway in all causes. How else can this doctrine really help me? We mentioned it earlier and I'll say it now about the futility of hypocrisy. We might as well just play it straight with God because he knows everything about us.
Could the trees of the garden hide the sin of Adam and Eve? Could the tent that old what's-his-name who stole a bunch of things conceal it? Who was the man who stole everything? And here's how you memorize that by the way.
His name was Achan because he was what? Achan to steal something. That's right. So could that tent hide the things from God? No. Sarah was in her tent laughing derisively but God could see through that.
I wrote down on my notes the concept of staring. Sometimes it's good and comforting to know God knows all about us but has anybody ever stared at you for a long time? I get kind of unnerved when people do that.
I mean how about if I was just preaching? So I'm just preaching this morning. I just preached the whole time and I just look at Mark. Everything I say this morning, last week, tonight, I just continue to look at Mark when I preach about God and he knows you.
He knows everything about you. Mark, God knew what you did this morning. He knew what you did before you were saved. He knows what you're thinking about right now. He knows all about you. I mean it's just unnerving and here we know God sees us.
That's why I preached before and certainly I am far from you know the sinless one. I'm not but when we sin it's as if we just go up into the presence of God and say I'm gonna sin in front of you anyway and I don't care that you know this but I'm gonna just sin because who cares?
When I think of God staring at us I think of Jeremiah 16 17. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face nor is there iniquity concealed from my eyes. I don't want to be a hypocrite.
Knowing the sovereignty of God and knowing his omniscience that helps me. I think also about God knowing us. When God knows us it should help us when it comes to people who are lonely. God knows all about us and he's still a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
But lastly if you'll turn to Hebrews chapter 4 as we wrap up tonight. There's a God who knows all about us but he knows about us in a special way too and that way is how we started the sermon today with Philippians chapter 2 in the Incarnation.
God not only knows from afar God has made his love very obvious for us and he has cloaked himself with humanity and Jesus Christ the second person the Trinity did come two thousand years ago and he did something for us that we could never do for ourselves and he knows us now as even through another human beings eyes.
Certainly when you read the warning passages in Hebrew they are difficult and when we read things like verse 12 we always talk about it as the Word of God but it's discussing Christ the Sabbath and people who are being disobedient and then it says for the Word of God is living and active in Hebrews 4 .12 and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit which is impossible but it still can do.
Of both joints and marrow and able to judge the hearts thoughts and intentions of the heart. Who could stand up like this? Verse 13 there is no creature hidden from him sight his sight but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Laid bare sacrificial language. Do you remember that what the sacrificial language is talking about? If you're going to kill a lamb how do you kill a lamb? Just when it comes over just kind of point your knife here and there and stab at it.
No you grab the the lamb you can put your leg over the lamb as it were and you take the neck and you spread the neck way out so the jugular vein is exposed. That's the word laid bare here before God no creatures hidden from him sight and it's as we have an open and laid bare neck before him with this God what in verse 13 at the end with whom we have to do.
If Hebrews ended at the end of verse 13 we are undone but verse 14 starts with a therefore and it's a wonderful therefore and he says to the Hebrew readers some saved some not saved particularly now he says we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession we're not going to be like those people talked about in verse 11 these disobedient ones.
For verse 15 we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Here we have a God who knows all about us and he also knows not just in the heavenlies as a God who is try you and who is sits in the heavens does doing whatever he pleases but he also knows us in a close way as a man the God man.
Verse 16. So how what does that spur us on to do if there's a God who knows all about us but we have one who's a great high priest a mediator someone who can sympathize with our weaknesses someone who's tempted but doesn't sin who could be our our propitiation.
Verse 16. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of what you've heard me preach it many times. What is the throne room for in the Old Testament during the Bible time it's always a throne of what.
Forever and always. You walk into the throne room of Solomon. There's the Lions there and the Lions on this side you walk in and sometimes they take the prisoner and they they put a knife underneath the chin and they'd have to look up at the at the king.
Or sometimes they're not even allowed to look at the king. And they bring in people like an Esther and they had to shame their eyes. It's almost like people who get arrested and the police camera comes up and they just have to hide their eyes.
In the Old Testament it is forever and always a throne of what judgment. Because in the judgment hall where the king is he gives judgments. And here for the first time I think in all the Bible I can't find it anywhere else because of what Christ has done it says.
So therefore draw near with confidence priestly language of drawing near to the throne of grace. And at this grace there are many things to be bestowed so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God not only knows everything but he also knows everything through the eyes of his son who is still to this day the Incarnate One. God's knowledge is not just theoretical it is experiential. We have a great high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses.
My response only is this such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is too high I can't attain to it. If you like homework before next Sunday I challenge you to get the poser book and the pink book which is actually online and read the omniscience of God.
And remember that God knows everything about you everything and it should affect the way we live. Well let's bow in prayer. Thank you father for tonight. Thank you that we can come to you as a God who knows everything.
And you knew about the series. You knew about the message. You know about our frailties. And yet you still love us. You knew about our sin. And yet you had your son die for us. Father you know what's going to happen in the future.
And we know that there'll be grace there. You know how we're going to die. And we know that you'll be with us when you do. When we do. Father you know about the trials. It'll start tonight or tomorrow.
You knew about John Zook and his trials. And father you know all these things. And in a splendid and wonderful way you cause all these things to work together for our good. And that good is conformity to Christ's image.
We thank you for that. Father. Would you help us this week to not think about ourselves and our own trials but to think about you and your goodness and your greatness that you know everything. You're a God that knows everything.
We praise you for that. We thank you for that nothing can catch you off guard when it comes to the political elections coming up in November. You know everything. Only your vote counts. When it comes to the nuclear bombs it could be in countries that are in and rogue states.
You know all about that. You knew about 9 -11. You know about everything. And father there's something to be said for children that go to their dads. And the dads know about all their troubles. The dads know about how to comfort the children.
The dads know so much more than the kids. And the kids can receive comfort. And so father with greater comfort would you comfort us knowing that you're a God who knows everything. And you've known every trial.
You've known every mishap. You've known everything about us. And yet you still are on the throne. And you still work these things out in a way that's wonderful Lord as an addendum as it were. I pray for our church.
Bethlehem Bible Church. Father it is up to you to either grow our church in maturation. And numbers are to close us down. Who knows what you have in store for us. But we would ask that you'd have us to be faithful.
You know us. You're intimately acquainted with our church. And we would ask that you'd be pleased to have our church be a beacon of gospel ministry here in New England. And that you would have a revival.
That we might be like Jonathan Edwards saying give us New England lest we die. And we know you know all about it Lord. And if it would please you and if it we would match up to your sovereign will we'd ask that you'd let us do things that people might sit back and not say.
Oh Bethlehem Bible is great. But the Jesus Christ of Bethlehem Bible is a great Savior in his name. We pray.