God Knows

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Well as I mentioned tonight we come to the issue of God's omniscience. God knows. I'm fascinated by libraries and it's one of my favorite places to go. When Sheila and I were in California one of our favorite stops constantly was the Huntington Library. But one library I wish I could have had the chance to see was the library of Alexandria. Some of you have read a little bit about that. It was established in Alexandria in Egypt. It was the queen of all the ancient libraries. It had a copy, we're told, of every scroll known to exist before the birth of Christ. About 400,000 scrolls is what some estimate. And while I think about the information that was available to them, it was only really available in libraries. For the most part, scrolls or books or as we would refer to them as books were simply not available for the average person in the ancient world. In spite of the fact that there was this great repository of learning, only a few really had access to that kind of information.

It was in the 1400's that the first printing press was established. Before the printing press of course things had to be hand written, when the printing press came along it allowed for mass production but before that it was very difficult to make books. In fact, one person has estimated that there were only about 30,000 books on the entire continent of Europe before the printing press. By 1500 there were more than 9 million. Today we have it seems like thousands of titles printed every day. This is one of my favorite spots, I want to go someday, I've had the opportunity to visit briefly in the past, the main reading room of the Library of Congress. Where all the books and that publications that are produced in our country are housed in conjunction with the Library of Congress.

But when you think about all that we have available to us when you think about just the books that are available in that one place in our country, it seems like we have information overload. I'll just give you a personal example. When I came to Texas, I decided I needed a newspaper. Sheila and I talked, let's get a newspaper, well all we really needed was the Sunday paper. So I called the Star-Telegram and asked if I could get the Sunday paper. Now if you've ever had this experience you understand how frustrating this can be. Because they said well, yes you can have the Sunday paper, but you can only get it if you get Friday through Sunday. Well I don't want Friday through Sunday; all I want's the Sunday paper. Well, you can only get it Friday through Sunday. Well, okay if that's what I have to do, I told the person on the phone and then I said okay, so how much does it cost? Well, when they gave me the price and I said well you just gave me the price for the whole week. They're almost identical; yeah in fact he said sometimes it's even cheaper to get the whole week. So I said, now okay, I'm tracking with you here, but I don't understand this. It makes no sense. So he said really right now we have a special deal going, it'll be cheaper for you to get the whole week than to get Friday through Sunday. I said, alright, give me the whole week. So, we get the Star-Telegram every day and at least half of the time it never leaves the plastic wrapper, but goes straight to the re-cycle bin. When you think about the information that's available to us in the newspaper, in magazines, in the internet – the average person today sees more information in one day, think about this, than the average person saw in a lifetime before the printing press. You come across more information in a single day than the average person in a lifetime before Guttenberg came along with the printing press.

Now we can even put more information into smaller and smaller holders. On my computer right here I have more than 1000 books that I use in my study. And recently you probably saw that a little instrument called the iPod came out, some of you may have it that can contain I think up to 10,000 songs on something that's not much larger than a credit card. There's even discussion about molecular storage. This is a form of information storage that would allow all of the world's books and publications and printed resources to be stored on something about the size of the average paperback. We have certainly reached information saturation. The human mind can only hold so much. If you're like a couple of us that were talking over lunch today, it's holding less and less as time goes by.

But everything that man knows, and everything that he has ever known is a mere solitary drop in the ocean of the infinite knowledge of God. Think about that for a moment. Everything that we have ever known, all that the libraries have ever contained or will ever contain is a drop in the ocean of the knowledge of God. The reality of God's infinite mind is so axiomatic that we even use an oath like expression, we say, "God knows." Paul himself uses that expression in the Corinthian Epistles, "God knows." I don't know, God knows. Nothing can be more comforting and honestly nothing can be more disconcerting than the simple truth that God knows absolutely everything. And that's what I want us to talk about tonight.

Let's begin with what do we mean when we talk about God's omniscience? It comes from two words, again omni meaning all, and the word for knowledge. A couple of definitions just to sort of whet your appetite as we get going here. God knows all things and all true propositions, always has and always will know all things and cannot learn more or forget anything He knows. Are you already in too deep? I am. Berkhof writes, "It's that perfection of God whereby He in an entirely unique manner knows Himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act." In other words, God doesn't have to think about it, He knows it. Grudem writes, "God fully knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act."

Now I'm not going to spend much time here, but several of them touched on how God knows, we're going to talk mostly tonight about what God knows. But we probably ought to just comment on how God knows. When we talk about God's knowledge, how exactly does He know? First of all, He knows instantaneously. In other words God is always aware of everything. Nothing ever dims or fades into sub-consciousness with God, into His unconscious memory. His knowledge is immediate, innate. It's not from observation or a process of reasoning. For example, if I were to ask and had the opportunity to ask God, how many grains of sand are there in our world? God wouldn't have to count. God wouldn't have to think and recall it to mind, God would know that fact immediately.

God knows everything simultaneously. In other words He knows all things at once in their totality. I've used this illustration with you before, but imagine for a moment an infinite sheet of paper. A sheet of paper that extends infinitely in all directions. And then imagine for a moment that that sheet contains everything that can be known-actual and possible. It's as if God steps back from that sheet of paper and takes it all in with one sweep of His eyes. He knows it all simultaneously.

He knows everything eternally. In other words, God's knowledge never changes, His knowledge never grows, He never learns and He never forgets. When we see that He forgets something in scripture, like our sins, it's a choice of God not to bring that up against us anymore. But it's not that God forgets it in the sense that you and I forget it. He's known everything eternally and He will know everything eternally.

He knows everything infallibly; this is where I know some of you think this is true of your knowledge. You know I know how it is with husbands and wives. Particularly as you get older, there's this sort of argument about what year something happened. Now it doesn't really matter, let's just be honest, it doesn't matter what year it happened, but it's important to be right, and so both husband and wife think they know this infallibly, but in reality only God knows infallibly. His knowledge of everything always perfectly conforms to reality.

You know as a father there are many times that I come in on the middle of something that's going on with my children. Have you ever had this experience, dads? You know I'm in my office downstairs and I hear something that's roughly akin to an atomic explosion upstairs, just above my head. And I go upstairs and I walk in the room and you know I throw open the door, I love throwing open the door, you throw open the door and the other day this happened and I won't tell you which daughter, but my wife had the joy of walking in and one of my daughters was standing on a desk in the room and the other daughter was holding her hand assisting her, making sure she didn't hurt herself jumping off the desk. And you know you come in on something like that and your mind starts making connections and you assume I know exactly what's happening here. And particularly when it comes to sort of fighting, infighting back and forth between the siblings. You think you understand as a father, and many times I think I've got it only to discover that all I got was the last chapter of sort of an ongoing volume. And Sheila has to sort of gently say there was more that happened. But God's knows infallibly. His knowledge is absolutely correct.

God knows exhaustively. He knows everything that an all-knowing being can know and He knows it perfectly. His knowledge is comprehensive. And this is where we need to answer the question, but what does that really mean? When we say God know everything, what does the bible tell us He knows. Because we need to fill that out and enrich that a little bit because I think it will be a great source of encouragement to you. So let's look at what God knows. What exactly is it that God knows? First just some overall references, scripture is replete with references to the comprehensive knowledge of God. Here are just a few, Job 12:13, "With Him are wisdom and might; to Him belong counsel and understanding." Job 37:16, "Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds, the wonders of one perfect in knowledge?" First Samuel 2:3, "Boast no more so very proudly, do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge," you can't get anything by God, "and with Him actions are weighed." Isaiah 40, this is one of my favorites, where Israel is complaining about her situation and the prophet responds to her, "Why do you say O Jacob and assert O Israel, 'my way is hidden from the Lord and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God." God just doesn't see, He doesn't understand, He doesn't know. And the prophet's response is, "Do you not know, have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired and His understanding is inscrutable." In other words you will never get to its bottom. It is absolutely beyond your capacity to sort out. First John 3:20, the Apostle John says, "God is greater than our heart and He knows all things."

Let's talk though specifically about what God knows. First of all and I won't spend much time here, but it's important to know that God knows Himself. There are a lot of theories about God that circulate, but the bible's clear. First Corinthians 2:11, "Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him?" In other words, you're the only one, your heart, your spirit is the only one that knows what's going on inside of you. "Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." God knows Himself and He knows Himself perfectly.

But more traditionally we would say that God knows all that actually does exist or has existed. So let's start with the past. God knows everything that does exist today or has existed in the past. Job 28, "He looks to the ends of the earth and He sees everything under the heavens." Now let me remind you that when the bible speaks of God's eyes, when it speaks of Him seeing, does God have eyes like you and I have? No, God is a Spirit. So that's an anthropomorphic expression. You remember that from a long time ago? It's when the writers of scripture take and they give to God some attribute of man so we can better understand Him. So, when it talks about God's eyes, it's not talking about God having eyes like you and I have, it's talking about His knowledge. God sees and takes into His mind whatever's happening. He sees everything under the heavens, in other words, that's another way to say He knows everything that's happening in the world.

Turn to Psalm 139; this of course is the classic passage about God's omniscience. And I said at the beginning that God's, the knowledge of God's omniscience, that He knows everything is both comforting and at the same time disconcerting and here you see that. Verse 1 of Psalm 139, David understood these things about God and he made them very personal. Look at what he says, "O Lord, You have searched me." The idea here is almost a word that means to ransack. It's as if God has entered into your heart and He's ransacked your heart like a thief would ransack your house looking for something of value that he wanted. "God has searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar." So, verse 2 he begins with my actions, You know when I'm moving, when I'm acting. "You understand my thought from afar" that doesn't mean You know my thought at a great distance; it means You know what I'm going to think before I think it. "You scrutinize my path and my lying down," my path is my journeying and my lying down, You know everything I'm doing. "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all." Think about this for a moment now. What does God know about you? He knows every time you act. He knows every thought you think. But He doesn't know it when you know it; He knows it before you think it. And God knows not only what you think, but He knows what you're going to speak and He knows everything you're going to say before you say it. Don't you wish you did?

He goes on, verse 5, "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 to it." He's absolutely dumbstruck with the majesty of the omniscience of God. Down in verse 16 of the same chapter, he talks about God's knowledge even of him before he was born, he says, "Your eyes" and remember, that's a reference to God's knowledge. "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." Not only does God know what you're going to do, not only does God know what you're going to think before you think it, not only does God know what you're going to say before you say it, but He saw you in your mother's womb the previous verses said, He wove you together, He knew exactly how you would be constructed in every way. And He even knows the day of your death. What amazing knowledge.

Psalm 147 verse 4 and 5 says that "He counts the numbers of the stars' He gives name to all of them. Great is the Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite." But then you wonder what, you know I understand God knows about the stars, I mean those are pretty important to keep track of, if you're running the universe. But what about all the small things in life, does God really know or care about the small things? Listen, God's comprehensive knowledge, His exhaustive knowledge means He knows everything down to the very details of life. Look at Matthew 10:29 and 30, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father." Not a single bird in the woods behind your house, if you have woods behind your house, will fall to the ground apart from God's knowledge and even His direction as we'll learn in the future. And in fact verse 30 says, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered." For some of you that's less of a chore for God than others of you. But God knows how many hairs are on your head at any moment in time. There is no trivial detail to God. God knows everything. Hebrews 4:13 brings it really home to us. "There's no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

But God doesn't only know what actually does exist or has existed. God also knows all things that are possible. This is an interesting idea; I want you to turn to First Samuel 23. It's a fascinating little interchange. In First Samuel 23 verse 8, David is running from Saul and "Saul summoned all the people for war to go down against Keilah to besiege David and his men. Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." So he's going to inquire of God with that special ephod that was given to the people of Israel for them to inquire of the Lord. "Then David said, "O Lord God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. "Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand?" Now think about what he's asking here. He's saying okay, Saul is coming; will the people in the town where I am surrender me into his hand? And, verse 11, "Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant." And the Lord said, "He will come down." Then David said," ok well let me clarify this a little more. "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will surrender you." Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah." Now what's going on here? Did what David was asking of God actually occur? No. Because once warned what did they do? They fled the city, they got away. But David is asking God about something that is possible. Will this happen if this happens? And God says, absolutely, that's what will happen. God knows not merely what actually what will happen, but He knows what is possible to happen. In this case it didn't actually happen, but God says if you don't leave the city it will happen. Isaiah 48:18, God says "If you had only paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea." God understood and knew how He would have responded to them if they had obeyed His commandments.

I'm going to skip Jeremiah 38, you can jot it down in the interest of time, it's another fascinating account much like the First Samuel 23 one, but I want you to turn to Matthew 11. Matthew 11 verse 21, this one is interesting for a couple of reasons. Matthew 11 verse 20, Jesus has been ministering in the cities of Galilee and they have not responded, and so He pronounces a woe on them, notice verse 20. "He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent." Now watch what He says. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you." Verse 23, "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." You see what Christ is saying? He's saying listen, if we could go back in time, if we could re-write history and go back, My miracles could have been performed in Sodom and Gomorrah, those people would have repented in sackcloth and ashes and Sodom and Gomorrah would still be here instead of a pile of dust at the end of the Dead Sea. So God knows what's possible.

There's another reason this passage is interesting and that is there are those who believe that God chooses those who will be His children based on looking down the corridor of time and seeing whether or not they will respond to the gospel. Here Christ says Sodom would have believed if the miracles done in Capernaum had been done there and did God give them that opportunity? No, he didn't. He gave them a great opportunity, He sent them Christ, He sent them two angels, Christ incarnate and two angels and particularly with the angels they responded in sinfulness pursuing those angels to have their way, with their sexual perversion with the angels. God knows all things possible.

Wayne Grudem says, "God has made an incredibly complex and varied universe but there are thousands upon thousands of other variations or kinds of things that God could have created but did not." Have you ever thought about that? It doesn't have to be the way it is. God could have done it entirely differently. But he goes on to say, "God's infinite knowledge includes detailed knowledge of what each of those other possible creations would have been like and what would have happened in each of them." Thousands of possible scenarios, thousands of possible universes and worlds God could have made and He knows all the details about what would have happened in each of them. What an amazing mind.

God also knows all things future. There's an attack on this today and I'm not going to spend a lot of time here but you need to know this. I need to give you just enough information to sort of inoculate you against an error that is besieging the church in this area. There are people who call themselves open theists. That is, they believe that God is open to change and that history is open to change. Their view of God's knowledge of the future is that God doesn't know the future. Essentially God knows the future a little better than we do because He's better at guessing how people are going to respond, but God doesn't perfectly know the future. It's really warmed over Socinianism, a heresy from the 1500's. But here's what they argue, open theists. They argue that "If God knows the future completely, then the future must be fixed and if the future is fixed then man must not be free to make decisions." That's what they argue.

Robert Raymond has written in his excellent Systematic Theology, "They quite correctly observe that if God knows all things then it would seem that He must infallibly know the future. And if He infallibly knows the future then He knows infallibly the future acts of men. And if He infallibly knows all of the future acts of men, then these acts must be certain of occurrence. But if their acts are certain of occurrence then men are not free to choose and to act as they want. Accordingly they conclude that divine omniscience is incompatible with human freedom." Did you follow all that? Essentially if you believe God knows the future then you are doing away with human decisions, then it must mean God forced everything to happen exactly the way He wants. The Bible argues that God does know the future perfectly and He knows it comprehensively. Prophecy is just one example of that. If God doesn't know the future perfectly then folks we are all in trouble, because we have no idea and neither does God how it's all going to end. There's a lot at stake here. The person of God is at stake in this battle.

God knows the future because as we saw a couple of weeks ago, He has willed the future to be the way He wants it to be. He doesn't violate our wills. He works through our wills in ways we don't understand, we make decisions and yet God's will will be done. He will accomplish His ends. Let me just show you a couple of references. This is so clear in scripture, this whole point that God knows the future. You remember in Genesis 15, God comes back to Abraham and God says listen let Me tell you what's going to happen. He said, "Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they'll be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." Boy this is a rich passage isn't it? It has God's mercy in it as He spares the Amorites and gives them more time in spite of their wickedness. But what I want you to see is that Abraham lived about 2100 BC. God shows up to Abraham and He says, listen, your people are going to be enslaved for 400 years, that started in about 1800 or so BC. 300 years after Abraham lived and God predicts the end of it which was in 1400 BC. Hundreds of years God predicts the free decisions of men. God knows the future there's no question about it.

Second Kings 8:12-13 again I'll let you look that one up on your own, but I want you to turn to Isaiah 44. This is my favorite illustration. Isaiah 44 verse 28, God says, "It is I who says of Cyrus, "He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.' Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars, I will give you the treasures of darkness" etc. "so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no other God." Now what's going on here? Isaiah is prophesying about a hundred years before the events he's describing. And he describes in amazing clarity what a man by the name of Cyrus and he calls him by name, a hundred years before Cyrus is born, he calls him by name and says he's going to be a great king. And he's going to come and he's going to eventually cause Jerusalem to be built. But before that, I'm going to go before him to shatter doors of bronze and to cut through iron bars.

Let me give you a little history lesson. Daniel is in Babylon. The night is Belshazzar's feast, you remember in Daniel chapter 5. Outside the city are the Medes and the Persians led by a man by the name of Cyrus. The city of Babylon was an absolutely untakable city. If you read about the city, its walls were mammoth, its fortifications were impenetrable. But what the Medes and the Persians did is they diverted the water that ran through the river underneath the walls. They cut a channel upstream and while the city partied at Belshazzar's feast the Medes and the Persians walked under the walls to conquer the city of Babylon. But what they found when they got inside the city was unexpected because the city was protected inside by a series of bars that kept horses and other kinds of armor from penetrating further into the city. But what they found was that those bars were all open. Some believe it was treason on the part of some of the Babylonians who tired of their king at that point. But we know exactly why it happened. God predicted through the mouth of Isaiah more than 100 years before. "I will shatter the doors of bronze, and I will cut through their iron bars." It's amazing the detail with which God executes His plan. He knows the future because He's planned the future.

One more passage I want you to see is Isaiah 46, notice verse 5. Isaiah is talking about idols. And he says what is the difference between idols and the true God? Verse 5, "To whom would you liken Me and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?" And then he goes on to describe making an idol. And He says this in verse 8, "Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me." And you know what evidence God puts forth to say I am the true God and all the other gods are false? Look at the next verse. "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure';" You know what God says? He says here is My claim to deity. Here is why you can believe I'm the true God and not one of these idols that are worthless. It's because I can declare what's coming. I know the future because I mapped it out, I planned it.

Listen folks, if you read about this if you hear about this understand this is not a little thing. Those who embrace it want to present it as if it's some little thing, some little deviation. Listen, the entire Godhead rests on His ability to predict and to bring about the future, and He puts it there Himself. They're serving a different god and not the God you and I worship. Revelation 1 talks about the things which must soon take place. God knows the future.

Now let's move to the ramifications and this is where it gets so encouraging. I hope you are encouraged by this as I have been. Okay, so God knows everything. He knows Himself. He knows what actually exists today, what actually existed in the past, He knows the future. He knows everything that's possible, so what is the application of that to life? How does that affect our perceptions of God and our relationship to God? Well, there're a few of them. I won't touch all of them equally but let me just run through them. First of all, with such an amazing mind, His mind is only accessible through self-revelation. You and I could never understand God unless He told us about Himself. First Corinthians, we won't turn there but First Corinthians 1:19-21 talks about God's wisdom put on display in the gospel. You and I would have never in a million years believed the good news that's delivered to us if God hadn't told us. Because God's ways as He says through the prophet Isaiah are way beyond our ways, His thoughts are way beyond our thoughts. Chapter 2 of First Corinthians goes on to say that God has revealed to us whatever it is we know. Listen you ought to prize this book that you hold in your hands. This is the mind of God as much as you and I can understand it. And we only know what's true. We only know what's true about God; we only know what we can be certain about because He has revealed it because His mind is way beyond ours. But fortunately He knows everything and He knows everything perfectly and He knows it comprehensively and He's told us what we need to know. Not everything He knows obviously, this is a scratch on the board of the infinity of God's knowledge, but it's all that we need to know.

Secondly and here's where the rubber really meets the road. Nothing we think, say or do can be hidden from God. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about the fact that in the inner recesses of your heart right now, whatever you're thinking, whatever you have allowed to fester and to grow there, God knows. He knows that perfectly. There's not a shadow on His knowledge about you and your thoughts. Let's look at just a couple of these references that bring this home, in Psalm 90, Moses writes really a chilling verse. When I read this verse it gives you a shudder because we know ourselves, we know our sinfulness, but we don't know it like God knows it. Verse 7, "For we have been consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath we have been dismayed." He says listen, God deals with sin and what's worse is He knows it perfectly. Verse 8, "You have placed our iniquities." That word iniquities is one of the Old Testament words for sin which means to be twisted. "You have placed our twistedness before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence." What a powerful bit of poetry. Those things that we hide in the darkness of our souls God has put on display in the blazing glory of His presence. Not a shadow remains, He sees it, He knows it perfectly.

Proverbs 15 verse 3, the proverb says and again here's that anthropomorphic expression, giving God eyes as it were. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." In other words, God's knowledge is comprehensive observing all good, all evil. Nothing is outside of His knowledge. We already looked at Hebrews 4:13 that no creature is hidden from His sight, but everything is made manifest in His presence. Isaiah 29:15 says, "Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, "Who sees us? Who knows?"

I love what A W Pink writes, he says, "Neither the darkness of night, the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeons can hide the sinner from the eyes of omniscience. The trees of the garden were not able to conceal our first parents. No human eye beheld Cain murder his brother, but his Maker witnessed the crime. Sarah might laugh derisively in the seclusion of her tent, yet Jehovah heard it. Aikin stole a wedge of gold and carefully hid it in the earth, but God brought it to light. David took great pains to cover up his wickedness, but the all-seeing God sent one of His servants to say to him, 'though art the man.'" Listen folks the reality of God's omniscience ought to make us quick to confess our sins, to repent and leave them.

We live in a day when people like to hide from sin. They always have. There are a lot of people who hide in different ways. I mentioned the internet this morning and what a great resource it is, but it's also become a great tool for allowing people to hide their sin as it were, in a closet where no one else sees and no one else knows. Well listen, God has set that secret sin in the blazing light of His presence and your sin will find you out. Don't imagine for a moment that anything you think, anything you say or anything you do can be hidden from God.

Thirdly, I think it's third. Nothing happens to us outside of God's perfect knowledge. And here we get to the comfort side of God's knowledge. God knows what happens to us and He knows what we need. Let's look at just a couple of references. Turn to Genesis 16, you remember the story of Abraham and Sarai and their desire to have a child and Sarai says, here take my handmaid Hagar and have a child with her, which was a custom at the time. It was outside of God's plan, they were sort of seizing, making their own plan and of course it created nothing but problems. Verse 4, "He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight." In other words, she despised Sarai, and she made it obvious, verse 5, "Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight." So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence." You ever find yourself in a circumstance that doesn't seem fair? To this point the only sin that Hagar has committed is looking with spite on her mistress. And when she does, that's the only sin. But all of a sudden she's treated harshly, she's driven from where she lives, she's driven into the desert, she's afraid she's going to die, and what happens? Verse 13, the angel of the Lord came to her, verse 7 is where he first comes and he says, from where have you come and where are you going? I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai, and he says return to her, submit to her authority. Moreover, the angel said to her, I'm going to multiply your descendants; here we are talking about the Arabs today. Verse 13, "Then Hagar called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees." She's saying, God You are a God who knows. You're a God who saw my circumstance and You responded. Listen folks, I don't care what circumstance you find yourself in tonight. You may have difficulties and trials in your life that nobody else knows about. God is a God who sees, who knows. And He cares for you just as He cared for Hagar driven from her mistress.

Exodus chapter 2, you see the children of Israel, verse 23, "it came about in the course of many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. And God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant…God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them." Did that mean that God had sort of missed the last hundred years or so and didn't see what was going on? No, it's a way to let us know that God took special interest, God understood, He knew and He cared. Chapter 3 makes the same point. God knows. Second Chronicles 16:9, "the eyes of the Lord move to and from throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His." Listen, I don't care what circumstance you find yourself in, however difficult, however much of a trial that it may be. More than any of us can comprehend, God knows and He cares. I love the verse and I didn't put it here, but I love the verse in Peter where Peter says, 'cast all your care upon Him.' Why? 'Because He cares for you.' Not only does God know, but He cares. Think about that. The eternal, awesome, omnipotent God of the universe cares about what is happening in your life. He knows and cares.

You can look up these references on your own. I want to move ahead. God's knowledge means certain punishment for His enemies. Turn to Psalm 73. Psalm 73 is one of those psalms that you just love because of its honesty. The psalmist just tells us the struggle he has. He says verse 2, "my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked." And he goes on to talk about that prosperity. He says, listen, I looked at the wicked arrogant successful people. The people he goes on to say they don't seem to have pains in their death, their body's fat, they don't have trouble as other men. They fly lobster in for dinner and whatever you want to say. Verse 11, "They say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?" The answer is a resounding yes. Notice where the psalmist ends, he said, I almost slipped because I saw this and he says, verse 13, "Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence; for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning." You ever feel like that? You know Bill Gates doesn't have it so tough. As far as I know he doesn't know God, so why am I getting what I'm getting? It's what he's really saying. But then he says this, verse 15, "If I had said, "I will speak thus," behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children. When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight until" here was his solution, "until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction." He says I got an eternal perspective. God sees, God knows and He will deal with those who have set themselves as His enemies.

A couple of more, we can find comfort and help in trials and temptation. Turn to Job 23 verse 10. Let's start back earlier in the chapter. Job says that his hand, verse 2, "is heavy on me despite my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat! I would present my case, I would fill my mouth with arguments." Verse 8, "Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him." In other words, God's nowhere to be found. I'm going through this difficulty, through this trial and where's God? Verse 10, "But He knows the way that I take;" He knows the path I'm on. And "when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Listen the knowledge that God has of what you are enduring, what you are facing and the plan that He has for that is a comfort to us in times of trial and temptation. God knows. And He knows because He has a plan; He knows the path I take because He has a plan – when He's tried me I shall come forth as gold.

Hebrews 4:15 makes the point about temptation. God understands because Christ, not only does God know because He knows as He knows everything perfectly. But Christ even came into the world and became a man and went through the same kind of temptations that you and I go through and so He understands in a personal intimate way what we face and therefore He's able to help us in the time of temptation, Hebrews 4 says. God's knowledge is a great source of comfort and help in time of trouble.

It's also important that you understand that God is the only accurate judge of the human heart. He's the only one that has that kind of knowledge. There're a couple of applications to this. Turn to Matthew chapter 13 and I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, I've mentioned this to several of you over the last weeks, it's been on my mind. Matthew 13 in verse 24 Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares, you remember that? He talks about the fact that the wheats growing, those represent true believers and the enemy that is the devil comes in among the wheat and sows tares. Something that isn't the real wheat. And you remember the servant's response? Verse 27, this would be us; "The slaves of the landowner came and said to the master, 'Sir, did you now sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?" And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves (again that's us) said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'" You know what the servants, that is Christians are saying? Look it's obvious that among the wheat, that is true believers in the church, there are also unbelievers, those who profess to know Christ but don't. Do you want us to go pull them up? Do you want us to go identify them? And say, listen buddy you're not really a believer. Christ says no, verse 29, "For while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the time of harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn." The reapers you find out in verse 36 and following are the angels.

You know what Christ is saying? He's saying listen, in your eagerness to pull up the false believers out of the church you might accidentally pull up someone who's really in Christ. Listen don't ever say to anyone who professes to know Christ you are not a believer. You don't know that. I don't know that. What you do say is, you're not living like a believer, you need to examine your heart, you may not be a Christian. But none of us can perfectly know the human heart. We can't even know our own heart. Turn to First Corinthians 4, much less the heart of someone else. First Corinthians 4 verse 1, you remember Paul says we are to be stewards and in verse 2 stewards are to be trustworthy. So how do you know if you're really trustworthy? How do you know if you're a faithful steward? Verse 3, "to me" he says, "it's a very small thing" in other words it doesn't really matter to me that I'm examined by you or by any human court. In fact he says, not only does your opinion about me, and my work and my service not matter, but I don't even examine myself. Verse 4, "For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted;" in other words the fact that I think everything's fine doesn't mean everything's fine. "But the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God." Again he's not saying that you and I don't have a responsibility to come up to someone that professes to be a brother and living in sin, confront them, we do have that responsibility. But here he's talking about his own heart. He's saying I don't know whether my work deserves God's praise or not. I don't know my own heart. And so don't be passing that kind of judgement on other people's work and service for God because you can't know until the Lord brings everything to light.

God knows the best ends and the best means. Now this is really sometimes called another attribute of God, God's wisdom. God knows not only the best ends but the best means. You don't even need to turn there, Romans 8:28 is the reference that really drives this home, but this is such an encouragement. You know most of us believe that what God is trying to accomplish is the best for us. I don't know many Christians who wouldn't embrace that and agree with that who wouldn't say I know the ends God's trying to get me to are the best ends. Where most of us have the problem is with the means. Surely I understand God's trying to strengthen my faith, but surely cancer isn't the best way to do that. I understand God's trying to strengthen my faith, but this lifelong illness can't be the best means to get me there. I know that God has my best interest at heart but losing my job surely that's not the best way for God to accomplish His purpose. But God's knowledge and particularly His wisdom as I have it defined here means that not only are God's ends the best ends, but the means He chose to get you to those ends are also the best means. God's plan cannot be improved upon. That's what Romans 8:28 says, "God is causing all things to work together," to be woven together "for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose." If you're in Christ if you're a true believer then every circumstance in your life God is weaving together, those are the best means He's chosen to end with a finished product.

I had a mentor in California who died a number of years ago. His name was Fred Barshaw and Fred often used the illustration of a tapestry. He said if you've ever watched someone weave a tapestry, if you come up behind it and you look at the pattern that's woven it looks like a mess, it looks like nothing fits. Nothing works together. He said it's like that with life. We don't see the finished product, all we see is the mess if you will. But if you walk around to the front as the weaver is working you see the finished product you see the tapestry and you see that he had a plan and it all worked together perfectly, that's the way it is with God. Not only is the end goal God has is the best but the means He chooses to get you to that goal is also the best.

And then finally, and I love this, God's knowledge of me and of you is the foundation of our security and acceptance. I won't turn there but in John 21:17 you remember Peter had denied Christ and Christ confronts him and He says Peter do you love Me? And this goes on and in the end of that Peter says this, he says, Lord You know that I love You, You know all things, You know that I love You. God's knowledge of me and my heart is the foundation of my security and acceptance. Tozer put it this way, "To us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows us completely. No tale barer can inform on us." Have you ever thought about that? Nobody can run to God and say, do you see what so and so is doing? "No enemy can make an accusation stick. No forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past. No unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and He called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything we were." Amen. A W Pink puts it this way. "The apprehension of God's infinite knowledge should fill the Christian with adoration. 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 He fixed His heart upon me. O how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before Him." Let's pray together.

Father we do fall before You in adoration. Just talking about and trying to comprehend in some small way Your omniscience wearies our feeble finite minds. And yet Lord we find such comfort in it, we find such encouragement. And we also find such accountability knowing that there's nothing ever hidden from Your sight. Lord help us to be quick to deal with our sin. Help us to be diligent in pursuing the knowledge of Your word and what You've revealed about Yourself and what we can know in our finite minds. And Lord help us to rest in the fact that You know us and everything about us and in spite of who we are, in spite of what we've been You have chosen us for Yourself. Lord we do praise You and adore You, we love You for all that You've done and all that You are, in Jesus' name. Amen.