God Sees Everything — Roy Daniel

Well, good evening to every single one of you again many of it most of your faces. I know one or two I've only met recently so I say. But it's wonderful to be here the first meeting of these youth meetings For 2017 and I'm gonna preach tonight on a sermon.

Ezekiel 8 and God's Knowledge of Hidden Sin

Obviously out of the Bible, but you can open up your Bibles at Ezekiel 8 verse 12. Now I remember when I was a very little boy, I was on my grandfather's farm and I remember when I was on my grandfather's farm.

He had three farms. He's dead now. There was this dog called a black dog called Jackie, and I don't know what type of breed He was I just know he was a very nice dog. And I was five or six years old and I used to go and look at the monkeys as the Sun came up stealing the citrus Oranges and nachis and all those different things and try and chase them away as if I could help the situation and There's cactuses.

They're cacti in America. You've got the big ones. We've got these little ones I don't know what you call them in America. But when they get into your leg, they suck into your leg and they're very painful and as a little boy I got one of these in my leg and I was too Cowardly to take it out of my leg.

So I looked at my dog. And not my dog this dog I considered my dog Jackie and I had great respect for this dog. I I believe this dog could do anything. And so I looked down at this dog and I explained the situation to the dog and I told the dog to go and get help and That was my first very disappointing moment in this dogs and my relationship.

Because as a six-year-old this dog listened to me very attentively. But after to listen to me it just carried on looking at me with its tongue hanging up and it's tail wagging and I really lost respect.

You know, the Bible says be careful how you yelp and I appreciate it. If everybody listens to the Word of God tonight and and doesn't disappoint me like that dog and Rarely listens attentively but also try to apply the message to your life not because I'm speaking me because behind this word is the Creator of Heaven and Earth and so let us read this morning Ezekiel 8 verse 12 before we go over To pray Ezekiel 8 verse 12.

Then said he unto me son of man Hast thou seen what the ancients the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the chambers of his imagery for they say The Lord seeth us not The Lord hath forsaken the earth.

Yeah, we have the ancients of Israel not young people but old people Who do things in the dark and they say that God cannot see because he has forsaken the earth. That let us go over to pray. Dear father, thank you so much that you love every single person sitting here and Every even the sinners out there so much That you gave us 66 books of the Bible so that we can know thy will for our lives and who you are and who we are and where we stand with thee you've given us this great light and It's the Word of God that created the heaven and the earth and it's the Word of God that sustains all life and This universe and it's the Word of God by which one day we will be judged.

And I just asked thee in thy mercy that you alone I cannot do this but that you would make thy word a two-edged sword and a balm and Gilead. That you would help us to see what is thy will for our lives that you would shine upon every single person sitting here and Me and show us our need and be the answer to that need through the person of Jesus Christ.

And I ask this not in my own merit, but in the name of Jesus Christ alone. Amen, I I have some very interesting family in South Africa and I Remember one of my I'm not going to mention names in case they get crossed with me.

But I have a family member, you know uncles and aunts and cousins and whatever. I have one Let's say an uncle who was in the special forces of South Africa Back in the day when they were special forces and not just getting fat and He basically I've been at his house.

They've got video cameras up and a whole lot of stuff because people even this year people robbed them and beat up People staying on the property. It's quite scary to stay there but My Uncle shall we say is a a very strict father.

Now, I don't know how many of you have had this problem when you're a little little child. But how many of you have and I've had this problem once or twice you think that there's somebody under your bed.

But there's nobody under your bed. And so you long that mommy or daddy would come there or you long for call the call mommy or daddy. But you're scared you'll get the person under your bed to come and attack you so you don't know what to do now my family member the child of this a Person I had this problem he thought as a little boy That he there was someone under his bed.

And so he said daddy Please help me that he didn't hear so he walked down the passage and he went to his dad's room and he came to his Daddy out there in the bed late at night and he said daddy. I think that there's somebody under my bed.

And that father doesn't take nonsense. He spanked me. He's not my father's and but he even spanked me and spanked everybody basically does anything wrong through life and this child Wasn't in trouble because the father said listen, you better get back to bed right now and so the father went off to bed a little bit later the son came again and Came into the room and said to the father father.

I think there's somebody Under my bed and the father said you get to bed right now. This happened about three or four times and eventually the father got Exasperated he didn't want to be woken up again and again.

And so he said this on listen I'm gonna come to your bed and I'm gonna look under that bed. But if there's nobody on your bed, you're getting the spanking of your life so he went with his son and went to the room and it's really happened and he looked under the bed and There was a person on his bed.

It was a thief and this poor Trembling soul that wanted to steal from their house had obviously found out that there were people there and an absolute fear of these little children and and The father obviously he got under the bed and he was very frightened there my Family member took him and held him up in the air and took him outside and obviously called the police.

Now that's a funny story it's a true story and But you'll be shocked and amazed To find out all the things that even people you respect at times and in church Have done in the darkness. To find out what is in the darkness of their life those places that they don't expose to other people that they want respect from.

And they don't expose to the public in general. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna preach tonight on three attributes of God. Last year Timothy was sick, and he said to me Roy I don't think I he said basically his wife said that he never ever for sickness Misses preaching, but he said this might be the first time and so he said he was gonna preach on the fact that God knows everything and sees everything and so I sat down and I decided to work out a sermon on the same topic and I worked out a sermon and then he in the end of the day did preach last year, and he preached on those topics and I was very glad to hear that he didn't preach my sermon so I can preach it this evening now these three Attributes of God there are many attributes of God wonderful attributes to the Bible and the Bible concentrates on who God is in so many wonderful ways and I don't know if you've noticed but the Bible is a God-centered book and God is not just a name.

He is a person who has attributes and characteristics and a personality. He is someone he hates certain things and he loves certain other things. He's not just the name of Jesus or the name of God the Father.

God's Omnipresence and Distinction from Creation

And the three main attributes, I'd like to look at tonight, which are connected to each other our God is everywhere God sees everything and God knows everything. God is everywhere God sees everything and God knows everything and I'm sure if you've got a Analytical brain or you're just a normal person even you'll you'll realize these things flow out of each other.

The fact that God is everywhere means in the past in the future and Everywhere spatially means that he sees everything and the fact that he sees everything means he knows everything. And that is who God is and this is not just something that I say or can figure out.

It's something the Bible says very clearly. Let's look at this. Carefully. God is everywhere in the Bible in Psalm 138 verse 39 verse 8. It says if I ascend up to heaven thou there and if I make my bed in hell Behold thou there God says he is everywhere.

Now the Hindus they and The Eastern religion they have the belief contrary over billion people that is different to Christianity. They believe God is everywhere in another sense. They believe that there was an original God who split and that this two gods basically had a relationship with each other and out of this relationship came everything and.

So just like you'd have a sexual relationship between a man and woman and they would have children. Everything in the universe comes out of this original God who split and then had this relationship. So all the trees come from God all the people come from God everything you see around you comes from God and therefore is God.

We are a blob of what the original blob that God is was and. And that's different Christianity in the Bible the very first verse of the Bible says in the beginning God Created the heaven on the earth.

God sustains creation, but he separates himself in essence and who is from creation. No tree out there according to the Bible is God. Not one person on earth not one mountain not one star not anything in creation is God.

Because he is the creator and we are the creation. Now God sustains everything he is everywhere. But another thing that we have to understand and this is what the Eastern religions believe contrary wise is that even though physically and spatially God is everywhere.

He is not in spiritually the heart of men because we are born sinners and there's a wall between us and God and that wall is our sin and God though he can see in our hearts spiritually does not dwell in our hearts.

And that's something you can use in the gospel for over 1 billion people out there. Now is I 59 verse 1 and 2 says this clearly behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither He's a heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities Have separated between you and your God.

So there's a separation though. God is everywhere. He is not in the heart of sinful men and because your sins have hit his face from you and he will not hear the Bible says God is everywhere. But not he sustains all things but he does not spiritually dwell in the hearts of sinful men.

God's Omniscience and Judgment

Secondly God sees everything. Hebrews 4 verse 13 give hundreds of verses. It says neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight? But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Jeremiah 23 verse 24 says can any hide himself in secret places that God speak and that I I Shall not see him save the Lord. Do not I fill the heaven and the earth. You know what God's saying yet what I said earlier.

I said these attributes flow into each other. God says I see everything because I fill everything. The fact that I'm everywhere means I See everything God says it. And the third thing which flows out of that is that God knows everything one.

John 3 verse 24 If our heart condemns God is greater than a heart and knoweth all things. There are people out there. So Jesus was not God because he did not know everything. They say Jesus did not know according to mark 13 was 22 32 that when his second coming would be.

And I'm not going to go into that that could be a long conversation but the answer would be the same as you give to a Jehovah's Witness who says that Jesus couldn't be God because he said he's got my father's greater than I and You can read Hebrews 2 verse 7 to 9 to see why he said that.

But now God is everywhere sees everything and knows everything and and this God is she's is everywhere who sees everything. And he knows everything he ponders your heart. Now the Queen of England she's not thinking about me.

Because I'm not that important. But God ponders everything that you ever do if you're a fisherman if you are plumber. If you work at a golden harvest if you build a wooden boats for a long time and show it on Facebook Continuously so that everybody can talk about it.

No matter what you're doing God's thinking about what you're doing and I'm I don't just say that that's what the Bible says and I believe the Bible with all My heart it's the book that changed me through Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 5 verse 21 says his words for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings. In other words God's saying I'm thinking about everything that you're doing when you drive in that car.

I'm thinking about you. When you fly on an airplane, I'm thinking about you as you're making that that that that that that thing that Brandon makes out of dough. I'm thinking about you. The attitudes of a heart towards others.

I'm thinking about you he's pondering. He's deeply thinking about everything that you're doing and that's something that God can do. Now Proverbs 21 verse 2 says every every way of man is right in his own eyes but the Lord pondereth the hearts.

God looks at whether you upright towards him not. That you think you're right. Now the Bible says that there are people out there who Who actually ask a very stupid question and we find this stupid question in Psalm 73 verse 11.

It says his words and they say how doth God know and is there knowledge in? The most high. How doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high and the reason that this is a very? Stupid question is if you knew from the scriptures who God is the fact that he is everywhere.

The fact that he sees everything and the fact that he therefore will know everything then it's stupid to ask. Well, how did you know? Well, he knows because he's everywhere and he sees everything and he knows everything that's why he knows and.

But there's still people out there that ask the question, you know, um, no one can see me. So, how does he know? Because he sees what other men cannot see. My granny is now almost a cabbage in a bed. I found her.

I think it was this morning and Lovely to speak to my one last grandparent that's alive after the rest of them have died but My granny I used to believe at special powers. Not because I believed in magic, but because she had this amazing ability to know when I had done something wrong.

I Some kids can look at you and have a perfectly straight face and and and get away with the press. Brandon was like that when he was a kid, but me when I tried to look innocent when I was a child I just made it worse because I looked totally guilty.

They say and I remember as a child when I've done something wrong and people ask me questions. I would put on this very extremely innocent face and I never got away with it mostly. Now my granny she really was good at this and I remember once many years back in a farm that they no longer owned.

But I was running down the passage and I can't remember what I did. But it was very naughty and and I thought nobody knew about it. My granny stopped me and she looked down at me and I put one of those innocent faces on and she says what have you?

Done wrong. I was like, how did you know? She says never mind. Just tell me and so I told her because I thought she had these amazing powers and knew anyway. Of course, I got a big spanking after that.

My granny had a wooden spoon and I remember that wooden spoon for a very good reason now, I Don't know if you know the illustration that many preachers use of the little child and the little child Basically was told not to eat a cookie.

You can imagine Ezra being like this, but he probably would have gotten spanked badly and You told not to have a little cookie and you look at the cookie and you think what must I do? I want to eat the cookie, but I'm not allowed to eat the cookie.

And so you put your hand over your face and you put your arm out and you take the cookie and with his big ugly mouth He put it into his mouth and swallowed it After biting it. Well. Now, why did the little child do that?

Because it thought that if I cannot see my mom my mom cannot see me and Every single person sitting here would admit that's pretty stupid. But how many people don't do that to God. I can't see God so no one can see me.

I Can't see anybody in the dark so I can do stuff and nobody see me even though God Can see you even in the dark? Now The Bible actually in 1 John 4 verse 20 talks of God that is not seen in. In Africa, there's a subculture among many of the poor people in the criminal element where they will bring up their children and Unfortunately, they're in poverty.

And so they they feel that they have to steal and so on and many of them Will take their children and it's been known that of them Will put them at a table as young Four year olds and three year olds and five year olds and they'll basically starve them for three days.

And after starving them for three days they will put food in front of them and they'll teach them that you only get into trouble if you are seen and So that little child that has not eaten for three days will ravenously start to eat the food and The mother father will turn its head away and and then turn it back and as the mother father's head turns and it can see the child it smacks the child in the face and The purpose is to teach it when I can't see you you find to eat when I can see you you not find it.

And I know shop owners in some parts of Africa said literally what they were taught as little children. You can see in them as adults because they'll be in the shop and they'll put their hand towards the thing that they're gonna steal and When they see the shop owner looking they'll put the hand away and when the shop owner looks away but can still see them they put the hand again to take it to steal and I could go on and on as to what that has affected many people in many places.

One person actually had read Ray Comfort's Hull's best-kept secret in South Africa about many many many years back and he phoned me he was going from door to door trying to witness to people and he was in a state a young Christian and He called me said Roy.

I need your help. I don't know what to do. And so I said, okay. Where are you explained where he was and I went down the road and I found the house girls that I knocked on the door. And there was this oldest lady and he was standing there exasperated this young Christian.

He said I don't know what to do. I've been through the Ten Commandments I've I've been through parts of the Sermon on the Mount showing that it's in your heart if you hate it's the same as murder. And and it lust is the same as adultery and and she hasn't committed any of them.

I was like, okay. And I sat down with this lady and I found out that like many other people. She basically believed that if nobody ever saw her she hadn't done it as long as you're not caught. As long as nobody knows.

You didn't even do it. How many of you have listened to the pineapple story old Otto Koning? I don't know how to pronounce that in American most of you. Do you remember how at one point they had a revelation?

He'd been really struggling for a long time with with the with the people that he was preaching to on those islands of Papua New Guinea wherever it was and Eventually came to the point where they realized that God sees in the dark and When they realized that God sees in the dark it was a turning point where after that through that revelation.

They started to respect fear God and actually quite a lot of them got saved in. In Missionary stories in my life in many other people's lives and even in culture that you find in many countries. It is so important when you bring the gospel for people to realize that God sees.

Everything what you think in your heart what you do behind closed doors. Not just how you are in church. Whatever you are and whatever you do God knows. And not only in life and and in famous missionaries and in different places of the world is this some very important.

When it comes as an aspect of who God is for God-centered gospel to reach people, but in the Bible we see very clearly that it was very important to God and Very powerful as a tool this concept in people coming to the realization that they needed Jesus Christ.

And I just like to give you a few examples from Scripture before we carry on. Of people where God used the fact that he knows that he sees. To bring them to the revelation of who he was in the need of him.

Nathanael Recognizes Jesus as the Son of God

Let's start with Nathanael. Nathanael in the Bible there in John chapter 1 of his 45 to 50 you'll see that there was this man and Philip came to him and Philip told him of Jesus of Nazareth and the son of Joseph and how this was the person that Moses spoke of spoke of in the law and Though he was a religious person.

He was skeptical skeptical. Not spectacles. He was a skeptic. He didn't just believe that this was The person of whom Moses spoke in the law and he asked a question. He said can there any good thing come out of?

Nazareth and He followed and he came to this person that the people were talking about and that Philip had told him about called Jesus. And not really knowing who this person was and then something amazing happened because Jesus said to him behold an Israelite and whom is no guile and and Nathanael was a bit confused because he said how do you know me and Jesus said before that Philip called thee when thou was under the fig tree I saw thee and In response to this a person who was skeptical who basically didn't believe I don't really know who this Jesus is that you're talking about.

He suddenly said these words rabbi thou the Son of God thou the King of Israel. How did he turn from someone who was Skeptical to someone who said you're the Son of God. Well, Jesus revealed the fact that I know who you are.

And that's what God used. It's in missionary life. It's in evangelism. It's in subculture and it's in the Bible. That this is important to God. And that God uses it. There was a woman at a well John 4 verse 29 and Before we quickly mention that there's a there's some false churches out there and They will get you to put at the back of the church.

There's a little box where you put prayer requests of things You're struggling with in life and the preacher will have a teleprompter little Thing in his ear that he can hear what his wife is telling him.

So as you walk in there She goes to the back and she sits there and she tells the pastor all the prayer requests and they can't believe that he knows. Oh, he said there's someone sitting in this room.

Who has a baby who just died. There's someone sitting in this room. Who's got arthritis. There's someone sitting in this room who can't get over their bad looks, whatever it is, and they cannot believe.

How did he know? I mean, he's at the front and I put the prayer request in the back. But somehow he knows what's in those prayer requests and then they catch them up. That's not what we're talking about.

Yeah, we're talking about a God who really knows not as playing tricks with us. In John 4 verse 29. We said come a Lady said come and see a man which told me all things that if I did is not this the Christ.

He has a woman who according to the Bible she didn't just believe Jesus is God when he first came there she was a skeptic. She believed him to be a Jew a little later. She believed him to be a Prophet and a little later.

She believed him to be the Messiah. Now how on earth in a few moments that a woman who was sleeping with the man who had had how many husbands? That were not hers anymore. How how how on earth that a woman who was a great sinner like that?

Suddenly believe and then a man. She first thought it was a Jew was then a prophet and then the Messiah in such a short time. Well, the answer is simple. He showed her I know you and that's the words I just read come see a man which told me all things that ever I did Zacchaeus and Luke 19 verse 5 a little man.

He gets up into the the tree and he's waiting for Jesus to come past. He's heard about Jesus like we've heard about the Queen of England, but the Queen of England hasn't heard about me. Not yet. Hope to meet her in heaven if she gets saved what we say.

But There was a moment where his life changed. There was a moment when he wasn't just an interesting bystander anymore hoping to see this famous person coming past he'd been healing people and whatever as he heard but didn't quite know and.

And and and that moment that changed his life was when he heard one word. And that's the word of Jesus Christ saying Zacchaeus. Because the moment that Jesus said that word his name he realized this person that I've never met before knows me.

He knows my name. And so he came back and down and he followed Jesus Christ. His life was changed. The fact that God knows you is a powerful truth. That should put fear in the hearts of sinful men and hope in the hearts of those Who would be saved?

God's Knowledge Exposes Hypocrisy

I'd like to read a quote Famous or quote that I made up man can fool man, but God is no man's fool. Man can fool man, but God is no man's fool. Little Glen I was taking a break from missionary work in South Africa and evangelism stuff and I went to this place where they for free let us stay in a little hut and Near where elephants were and stuff and I was very excited about this although it's kind of a three-room place and I remember coming there not an apple in my hand and I wanted to give that to my my daughter Ruth.

And I think Glenn was about four years old at that stage and I gave him the apple and said go find Ruth and he Thought she was at the back of the house. So he went running off to do what daddy said. It doesn't always happen.

But in this case, he ran around the house and I couldn't see him anymore and of course little Glen running around this big house his stomach start speaking to him and he decided daddy can't see me and Obviously that makes it right to just have a little quick bite and so he bit from the apple and came around the other side of the house a few seconds later and And he gave me an apple and said I couldn't find Ruth and He thought he was safe because I couldn't see him, but unfortunately for a four-year-old little boy.

He didn't realize that when there's a kind of a mouth mark the size of his teeth in that apple. It's pretty obvious what he did in the dark behind that house. Now I might be Intellectual enough to not be fooled by a little four-year-old most times, but I've been fooled in my life.

I Remember once this is just one example of many times that I've been fooled I remember and this is in spite of the fact that I have sometimes hours praying and reading my Bible I still get fooled at times by people.

I Remember late at night. I went shopping and outside the shop in South Africa. I got into at that stage. We've got a nicer car now but at that stage a 33 year old little car and I got into the car with my wife sitting there and there was a car next door and they opened their window and they started talking to me in the dark and They said it was about four or five young people teenagers or something and they started laughing at me, and they said listen brother.

Your hubcaps are the nicest hubcaps that has ever been in the history of time. You know what hubcaps are those things in the wheels and I said, that's nice. I said listen. We want to buy it. We want to buy your hubcaps.

Please let me have your hubcaps. We will pay for it a big price. I said actually I don't know if I can get more of these things. I don't want to sell my hubcaps. They spent 10 minutes in between laughing at me.

And they said please sell me your hubcaps and after 10 minutes they drove off laughing and it was only after 10 minutes being a very slow person that I got a little suspicious and I opened up the window again, and I looked out and I saw that my hubcaps were gone now I don't know how many of you would there be this brazen you steal a person's hubcaps and Then for 10 minutes you try to buy them.

That is amazing now. Like I say you can fool me. But you can't fool God deal. Moody was once asked. What is character and he answered character is what you are in the dark there was a boy and there's a preacher in America, and he basically I think it aunt or grandmother there and Allowed this preacher into the house and the preacher took the preacher to the room where this boy wasn't talked.

Of how wonderful this child was how amazingly spiritual this child was. This child read its Bible for hours this child Listened to hymns for hours this child was absolutely phenomenally amazing and The preacher was listening.

But then the American preacher after the aunt or grandmother I don't know which left the room he went and he found that there were the CD player was with all the the Christian hymns. There was a wire from the earphones around that and under the bed to another section where there was another CD player.

Which was full of rock music? And he found the magazines and other things that that child was busy with but he was putting on a front. He had fooled that godly woman at least that she had a fear of God and wanted him to follow God.

He had fooled her. One day he would stand before God who knows everything and it's not just an old lady and he would not Be fooled. I remember going to one Town in South Africa and I I came to the house and and I sat down with his minister and the minister looked at me.

And just told me how wonderful his son was. He said it's just so wonderful and such a blessing to me that I have a son that loves God that I have a son. And there's reading his Bible that I have a son and that is Telling other people about Jesus that I have a son that wants what I Want for him because I love him.

I want him to follow Jesus Christ. And what was breaking my heart at that moment as I just seen his son outside with his bad friends smoking and Doing other bad stuff. Well, his father was telling me how wonderful his son was he was fooling his father.

You can fool me. You can steal my hubcaps. You can fool an old lady or your aunt or your grandmother your mother. You can fool your father as a minister, but let me tell you something. You cannot fool God.

I don't know if I once told you in Pennsylvania of the boys that I caught at a drunken party. Called the police. It was quite fun. They didn't believe I would. But they were fooling the old man upstairs.

Because they believed That he was deaf and they were right. And so they were using the property of a godly man who in my I've known for many years who hates sin there's a little bit strange at times, but he stands up against evil and for good and Because he was a bit deaf.

They decided downstairs on his property to have a party with drugs and drink. And then there would be on church on Sunday, of course. Being younger I could smell what they were doing and I could hear what they were doing and in a whole lot of other stuff.

So it wasn't too hard for me to go downstairs and realize that they were being stupid. But they thought they could fool that old guy Tindall was Was Made his death because of a man by the name of Henry Phillips.

And of course, you know many of you will know the stories he had the Tindall Bible and he was importing Bible to England or whatever from Europe and they got him back to. They wanted to get him so that they could execute him but they knew they had to deceive him so they got a guy to act like a Christian talk like a Christian and And basically deceive Tindall and his good work that he was doing to come back to England there.

He was killed. The Bible talks about this. People who on the outside look like Christians, but on the inside They hide in the fact that they don't know God and in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 26 It talks about him being in peril among false brethren.