Only God Knows

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Well I encourage you to take your Bibles this morning and turn not to the book of Romans; we're taking a little break from it for the next few weeks but rather as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's Table this morning turn with me to the Old Testament to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 as you're turning there let me just add my thanks to Jonathan Anderson our family pastor who led the VBS effort this last week to the several key leaders who served with him who've been working for months in preparing and then who dedicated most of their week to that end and some 250 of our church family who spent their week serving our kids and serving our families and so we're just so grateful, some of them even took vacation time, took a week of vacation to come serve in VBS and to serve our kids, so we're just so grateful. We thank the Lord for you and we pray that the fruit of your efforts will be evident in the days and weeks and years ahead.

Psalm 139, I think you understand, that those who count such things tell us that there are seven billion people on this planet today as we sit here in North Texas. Now most of us I think have no idea how many people that really is, so let me see if I can quantify it for you. If you were to count one person a second and you were to do that for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, how long would it take you to count just half of one billion? One person a second, 24 hours a day, seven days a week it would take you almost 16 years to count half of one billion. It would take you almost 32 years to count one billion. That means that counting one person a second it would take you 222 years or three of your lifetimes in order just to count all seven billion people on this planet. And yet, our great God has searched them all and knows them all intimately. He knows everything that can be known about every person on this planet. In fact He knows everything that can be known about you. Recorded in God's mind is a divine database that includes, let's take just your body – every physical detail about you. He knows every character in your genetic code and it didn't take a super computer for Him to discover it. He knows your physical features better than you do after having looked at them in the mirror countless hours. He knows your unique fingerprint. He knows the number of moles on your body. He knows exactly the number of hairs on your head at this very moment, although for some of you that's not quite a great a feat as it is for others. He knows every atom inside your body. He knows your genetic weaknesses both those you know about already and perhaps some you don't. He knows your past injuries, He knows your current physical health and condition and He even knows your future challenges. He knows all of that. That is truly amazing. And yet having said all of that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what God knows about you.

David explores God's knowledge of each of us here in Psalm 139. And he does so, and this is important for you to understand, he does so not in a negative sense, but in a positive sense. Because for each one of us who truly knows God through Christ, God's thorough knowledge of us isn't primarily frightening, although of course it can be if we're living in unbroken, unrepentant sin, but for those of us who know Christ that knowledge is incredibly comforting. That's what struck David, that's how he felt as he wrote this psalm and it's what he teaches us in one of the most famous psalms in the psalter, Psalm 139. We're not going to have time to work our way through every verse, I just want to look at the first six primarily. You follow along as I read them, Psalm 139 verses 1 through 6. Notice the heading says for the choir director, this is a psalm he wrote to be sung, written during David's lifetime that means 1000 years before Christ. So this is a 3000 year old poem and song. And as it says, David is its author. Now here's what the Holy Spirit inspired David to write about our God.

"O 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, O 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 to it."

Now I have to tell you the origin of this message, I was studying this passage just on my own for my own souls sake, I had no intention of teaching this to you but over the last few weeks as I have been working my way through it I had to share the fruit of that with you because it has meant so much to me. The point of these verses and really the entire psalm is simply this; God intimately knows everything about you. He intimately knows everything about you. He begins in verse 1 with a summary statement of that reality and then the rest of the psalm fleshes out that summary statement.

So let's look at this psalm together. He begins in verse 1 with the summary, a summary of God's personal knowledge of you. Now verse 1 sets the theme for the entire psalm and that becomes very obvious because notice the words used in verse 1, "You have searched me and known me." Now look at the last two verses of the psalm, he says, "search me, O God, and know me." So it ends with the very same reality, so this psalm in the end is about God's intimate knowledge of everything about us and all that comes between those verses merely develop that concept, develop that idea. Now notice verse 1, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me." Notice first of all that this prayer is really what it is, is addressed to the Lord in all caps, when you see that in your English Bible in the Old Testament the word Lord in all caps, it's a reference to God's personal name pronounced Yahweh. In other words this is the only one who has this intimate knowledge of me, it's Yahweh. It is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is the God of the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures. It's the one that our Lord Jesus taught us to call Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He alone is the one true God and He alone is the one who knows you like this.

He says, "O LORD, you have searched me." That word search is an interesting Hebrew word, it's used in the Old Testament in contexts like these, it's used of spying out a city. Of investigating a legal matter and even of digging in the ground in search of precious metals like gold and silver. It is a careful, studious investigation. And notice, "You have searched me" David says. That means this investigation on God's part, this thorough exam is personal and individual of David, me and of you. God's thorough investigation of every person is actually part of what it means to be God, in fact if I could say this respectfully; searching out every heart is part of God's job description. The Scriptures make this very clear, for example First Chronicles 28:9 says, "The Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts." Psalm 11 verse's 4 and 5, "the Lords throne is in heaven, His eyes behold the sons of men." Why? Listen to this. "The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked," Proverbs 5:21, "the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord," and this is very interesting "He watches all his paths." Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." You see God is searching, He's examining and He is seeing where there is evil and He's seeing where there is good, He sees both. He sees the reality of both good and evil as He looks and that's what He's searching for. Hebrews 4 verse 13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him whom we have to do." Revelation 2:23, our Lord Himself says this, "I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds." So understand this it is part of the essence of God to intimately know everything about every person that He has created, He is looking at the good and He is looking at the evil. Verse 1 says, "O Lord, You have searched me" You have investigated me and as a result "You have known me." As a result of God's careful investigation, He knows me intimately. That's the Hebrew word here, He knows everything about me. That's a summary of what this great psalm teaches.

But David doesn't leave it at that sort of general 30,000 foot level, he gets much more specific. And so in the following verses, verse's 2 through 4 David explains for us several categories of God's personal knowledge of you. Having given us the summary, let's dive down a little bit and see some of the categories of what God knows. Now this is not all encompassing, all-inclusive there are other categories that could be added, although you will see at the time we're done, it is vast in the categories that are laid out here. So let's see what God knows about you and me. First of all, He knows everything that happens in your home, He knows everything that happens in your home, verse 2. "You know when I sit down and when I rise up;" Now that's an interesting Hebrew expression. Those same words sitting down and rising up are used in Deuteronomy describing when you sit in your house and when you get up from sitting in your house and together when they're used as they are here they're to encompass all of the normal activities at home. That's the idea. In other words, David is saying, God knows everything that happens in the privacy of your home. That again whether there is good or evil, that can be encouraging or it can be frightening. He knows. He knows how you treat your spouse, He knows how you treat your kids, kids He knows how you treat your parents. He knows whether that treatment in your home is sinful or whether it's according to His command. He knows. He knows the Netflix programs you watch. He knows your favorite Pandora stations. He knows the books and magazines you read. God knows every single bit of data on your phone. He knows and He remembers every text you have ever sent. He knows every web post you have ever made. He knows every web page you have ever visited. You know some people get the idea that they're going to do private browsing or they're going to erase their history. Oh, you can do that, people may never find out, but God knows. He knows every page and remembers every single page.

But on the positive side He knows every selfless act of kindness that you have performed in your home. He knows when you have ignored yourself and you've put the interest of others before your own. He knows every moment of hard work you have invested to honor Him. He knows every effort you have expended in order to obey His word. He knows that you have tried to teach your children in a way that would honor Him. He knows. He knows all those things. He knows everything that has ever happened in your home. That's what David says. Secondly, He knows everything that happens in your heart, He knows everything that happens in your heart. Verse 2 says, "You understand my thought from afar." That's shorthand for everything that goes on inside of you, the real you. You see, we see what you want us to see, but God sees you. That's why First Samuel chapter 16 verse 7, we read, "God sees not as man sees" this is God talking to Samuel, "for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at" what? "the heart." The Lord looks inside, He sees the real you. He knows what's going on inside of you. Psalm 44:21, "He knows the secrets of the heart." What you hide from everyone else, what nobody in your life knows, God knows. Jeremiah 17 verse's 9 and 10, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" That's where we usually end quoting that passage, it's like who can know? Well listen to the next verse. "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds." He knows everything that happens inside of you, He knows your thoughts, He knows your attitudes, He even knows your motives. Listen to these passages. Isaiah 66:18, God says, "I know their works" their actions, "and their thoughts." Jeremiah 12:3, "But You know me, O, Lord; You see me" listen to this "You examine my heart's attitude toward You." You understand that as you sit here this morning God is examining your heart's attitude toward Him. He knows whether you care or whether you don't. He knows whether His word matters to you or whether it doesn't. He's examining your attitude toward Him. Matthew 9:4 says, "Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?" First Corinthians 4:5 says, "the Lord when He comes will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts;" You know we sometimes don't even understand ourselves why we do what we do. But God does. He always does. Hebrews 4 verse's 12 and 13 takes the Scripture and says the Scripture does in our lives what God Himself does, "the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow," In other words, it's able to go to the very bottom of who we are, that's the idea. "and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is 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."

Now notice back in Psalm 139 Verse 2, it says He knows or understands my thought, notice that expression, from afar. There are two ways to understand that. It could mean that God sees my thoughts even from heaven, in other words the distance that God has from me doesn't keep Him from knowing my thoughts. That's possible. More likely however, how many take it and I believe it's what David means here is He knows my thoughts before I think them. He knows them, when in my own thinking they are still a long way off. I haven't gotten there yet, but God knows that I will. There are examples in Scripture of that. One example is in Ezekiel 38, you don't need to turn there, but here you have a passage written more than 500 years before Christ and it's a prophecy, Ezekiel 38, about a coming confederation of nations at the end of the Tribulation that are going to come against Israel and are going to be defeated at the great battle of Armageddon. As Ezekiel describes that, God tells us exactly what the leaders of the nations of that confederacy are going to think and that's a long time from when it was written, 500 years before Christ. At least 2500 years and it may be longer still. Here's what Ezekiel 38 verse 10 and 11 say, "Thus says the Lord God, "It will come about on that day," so He's looking forward now to what's going to happen at the very end of the Tribulation. "that thoughts will come into your mind" that's to the leaders of the nations of this confederation. "Thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, and you will say," God says here's what you are going to think, "I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars to gates." In other words, God's going to say, God says you're going to say, look, Israel has lived in relative peace through the first part of the Tribulation because of the man of sin and his promises and therefore they don't have the defenses they ought to have and the leaders of these nations are going to say, this is the perfect time, let's go. God says that's what going to happen. In other words, God knows your thoughts even before you think them. God knows everything that happens in our homes and in our hearts.

Thirdly, He knows everything that happens away from home. Look at verse 3, "You scrutinize my path and my lying down." The Hebrew word translated scrutinize means to winnow like grain. It's when you would take grain and they would throw it up in the air and the wind would blow the chaff away and the heavy wheat would fall back to the threshing floor. Here the word is probably used a lot like our English word to sift. You sift my path. The word path refers to a journey, and lying down to where that journey ends. David's point is this, God thoroughly knows the details of every journey you take away from home, where that journey ends, or where you will stay or what you do while you're away. God knows the details of your journey or your trip.

My wife and I both have fit bits. Some of you have such devices and that fit bit that I put on my arm it counts my steps and tells me exactly how many steps I take in a given day. And you know it can be helpful, it can be motivation, both my wife and I have been guilty at times of being close to our 10,000 steps and doing circles around the house at night before bed just to get to 10,000 steps. But I have discovered something, the fit bit is not entirely honest, it's not entirely accurate, because I have noticed and don't tell my wife this, but I have noticed that when I am sitting in my rocking chair out in the patio in the morning, and I am reading my Bible and having time in prayer, there are times when every time I rock back and forth it thinks I've taken a step. That helps get me to that 10,000 step category. So my fit bit counts my steps, but not very accurately. Let me tell you something, God counts my steps perfectly. Listen to Job 31:4, "Does He not see my ways, and number all my steps?" God knows exactly how many you have already taken today. He knows exactly how many steps you've taken this week. He knows how many steps you've taken in your lifetime and He doesn't have to calculate it, He just knows it. He knows everything that happens when you leave your home. He knows better than your GPS where you are and He knows what you have done once you have gotten there. He knows every detail about every day that you were away from home, whether that's on your normal duties of work or school or whether it's when you journey far away from your home. He knows it all. And Christian, He not only knows, but He helps, He cares. That's the point here. It's not to sort of warn us, although it certainly does that, it's more to encourage us. God sees and He helps. Second Samuel 8:14 says, "The Lord helped David wherever he went." God not only saw where he went, he not only knew his journey and where he stopped, but God was there to help and that's true for us as well.

Number four, God knows every predictable pattern in your life, every predictable pattern. Verse 3 says, "You are intimately acquainted with all my ways," Intimately acquainted is one Hebrew word, it means to be completely familiar with something or to be used to something; for it to be customary. The Hebrew word for ways, is often used in the Old Testament of not like foot paths you take but rather the well-worn paths marked by your constant walking on them. In other words, for predictable patterns or habits in your life, that's how this word is used. So God knows all of your habits. He knows all of your predictable patterns. He knows the normal habits and patterns of everyday life. He knows for example, which shoe you tend to put on first. Do you know that we do that? He knows when you normally go to be, He knows when you normally get up, He knows what route you normally take to work. He knows everything about your normal patterns of life. He knows the temptations you normally deal with, He knows any sin habits in your life. He knows the predictable patterns in your attitudes and in your thoughts. He knows the predictable spiritual patterns in your life. He knows when you read His word, He knows when you pray. He knows all of those realities. He knows every predictable pattern in your life. He knows your ways.

Number five, He knows every word that leaves your mouth. He knows every word that leaves your mouth. Verse 4, "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all." Notice 'a word' not an idea, not a paragraph, not a summary, but every word. God knows every word you say and notice, He knows it before you say it. "Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it." By the way that means He doesn't just know what you say, He knows what you wanted to say, but didn't. And notice He knows it all. Behold O Lord You know it all. The word all here means completely, thoroughly. That means He not only knows what you said, He knows what you meant. You know sometimes we can say things in such a way to hide our meaning. Not from God. He knows what you say and He knows what you mean. Psalm 19:14, David says, "Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Your sight O Lord." In Job 42, you remember God, God comes at the end of the book of Job and chastens Job's friends, and Job 42:7, The Lord says to Eliphaz, "My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends," listen to this, "because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has." God says I was listening to every word and I didn't like what you said about Me.

Turn over to the New Testament; turn over to Matthew chapter 12. In Matthew 12 the scribes and Pharisees have just committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin. And by the way that's a sin that is committed only by those who know that they are committing it. Who intentionally take the works of God and attribute them to the works of Satan. They knew that He did the works of God and they said, it's Satan because they didn't like the ramifications of accepting Him. In response to that, notice what Jesus says in verse 33. Matthew 12:33, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit." That's just a proverb but notice how he applies it in verse 34, "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure (that is his good heart,) words that are good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure (of his heart, evil words.)" You see your words are like a mirror to your soul. You want to know what kind of person you are. Look at your words. Are you words often harsh, uncaring, foul? Then you have a harsh uncaring foul heart. That's what He's saying. Your words are like a mirror to your soul and therefore he says, verse 36, to those who don't know Christ, "I tell you that every careless word that people speak, (every careless word) they will give an accounting for it in the day of judgment." That means God not only knows, God remembers every word. "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Why? Because your words show who you are, they are a mirror of your soul. He knows every single word.

So, back to Psalm 139, so far we've seen a summary of God's knowledge and we've seen several categories of that knowledge. But the rest of Psalm 139 shows us the right response to God's personal knowledge of you. Really beginning in verse five and running all the way to the end, now we don't have time to work our way through all of it. Let's just look at verse 5 and 6 and the responses there and then I'll give you an outline of the rest of the chapter. First of all, David's first response and ours should be the same to God's personal knowledge of us is to find comfort in His presence and care. Find comfort in His presence and care. That's verse 5. "You have enclosed me behind and before." Literally You have surrounded me like a city under siege, this expression is used in that context. Here, not with some hostile intent but rather with a positive end in sight in order to keep a close guard on us for our protection. And verse 5 says, "and laid Your hand upon me." That is for blessing and for protection. Notice verse 10, he says if I were to dwell in the remotest part of the sea, "even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold upon me." Same idea, it's for good, it's positive. Or like the psalmist writes in Psalm 73:23, he says to God, "I am continually with You," listen to this, he says this to God, "You have taken hold of my right hand." That's the idea here, God you have surrounded me for my good and protection and You're holding me by the hand. If you're in a hard place this morning, if you find yourself in a midst of suffering in this life, if you're being treated unjustly, if you're tempted to worry about the future and how your needs will be met, don't ever forget what David says here – God has you surrounded and He's holding you by the hand. Find comfort in God's omnipresence and His omniscience. Because He's not just with you, but He's with you to help. Psalm 46:1. "God is our refuge and strength." He's present. But what? "a very present help in time of trouble."

There's a second response, not only should you be comforted with His presence and care but you should be humbled and awed by His greatness. Verse 6, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it." You see the only way to respond to the intimate way the Lord knows us is with humility and awe and wonder. Like the psalmist in Psalm 40 verse 5, "Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of Your thoughts and wonders, they would be too numerous to count." In other words, what verse 6 is saying is that when you think about God's knowledge of you and the intimate ways we've talked about this morning it should take your breath away and fill you with awe and wonder of God.

The rest of the psalm goes on to lay out other ways we should respond to God, I'm not going to go through them, let me just give them to you and you can go back and look at them at your leisure. Number three, a third right response to God is trust Him wherever you are and whatever you face. That's the message of verse's 7 through 12. Verses 7 through 10, wherever you are, verse's 11 and 12 whatever it is you face, whatever the darkness may be remember it's light to Him. Number four; accept His providence in every detail. Verse's 13 to 16 make this point where He talks about, look God wove you in your mother's womb. God determined the days that were ordained for you when there wasn't one of them. God has mapped out your life, in other words David says God doesn't just know what happens to you in this life, He plans and ordains and allows and directs every detail. Number five; praise Him for His complete knowledge. David can't help himself, he just breaks out in verse 17, "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand." And I would go to sleep trying to think through all those things about You and this idea of Your knowledge of me and I would run out of time and go to sleep and I would wake up and still be counting. Praise Him for his complete knowledge. Number six; pray for His justice against His enemies. That's really the message of verse's 19 to 22. You see David says, listen God You know the details of the lives and thoughts and words of Your enemies just like you do those who know and love You, and I'm asking You to be just in dealing with their sin. And then finally verse's 23 and 24 the right response is to ask God to convict you of sins you don't see and to produce personal holiness in your life. Notice verse 23, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; see if" literally in the Hebrew if there's any way of pain in me, that is any way in me that causes pain You God, pain. There's show me my sin, convict me of my sin that I don't see. And here's prayer for holiness, "and lead me in the everlasting way." Lead me in the path of righteousness, God let me do what pleases and honors You. What an amazing psalm.

Now let me just draw it together by pointing out a couple of lessons, huge lessons in these verses for all of us. First of all if you're here this morning and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, I didn't ask if you prayed a prayer when you were a kid, if you grew up in a Christian home, I didn't ask if you feel good about you and God, I'm asking are you a disciple of Jesus Christ, do you love Jesus Christ, have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ, are you following Him? That's what it means to be a Christian. If you are not that then understand this, God knows absolutely everything about you. There is no detail of your life He doesn't know, He has a record stored in his divine omniscience of every action, every word, every attitude, every thought that you have ever had or ever will have. And it matters to God that that doesn't matter to you. Listen to what God says in Hosea 7 verse 2, "They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness." They don't think about that, "now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face." God says I live with your sins in My face. And Scripture says the Day of Judgment is coming. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 14, "God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." And at that judgment, if you're not in Christ here this morning, you need to understand at that judgment God's already told you what you're going to get, it's pure justice, exactly what you have earned. Matthew 16:27, Jesus says, "The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds." Romans 2:5 and 6, "In the day of the righteous judgment of God He will render to each person according to his deeds."

Listen if you don't come to God His way and if you endure in your own persistent rebellion against Him then you will stand before God and you will get nothing but justice and He knows it all. There isn't one detail in your life that He doesn't know and He will judge you on the basis of those deeds. I plead with you today if you're not in Christ understand that God is also a God of love and kindness and grace and He has made a way for you to know Him through His own Son. He sent His own Son into the world, He became one of us except for sin and He lived the perfect life, the life you should have lived and He died in the place of all of those who would believe in Him, why? To satisfy God's justice so God could forgive your sin. God punished your sin in Christ, if you will believe in Christ. And then He raised Him from the dead. I plead with you today; don't stay in your sin. Don't face the judgment of God, repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

If you're already a disciple of Jesus Christ then God's intimate knowledge of you should motivate you to do three things. Number one, ask God to reveal the sins to you that you don't see. That's how David ends this psalm right? Search me, see if there's something in me that causes you pain, and show me so that I can deal with it. Ask God to reveal the sins in your life that you don't see. Number two, confess and repent Christian of the sins you do see, either the ones you already know or the ones that the Spirit of God reveals to you. Psalm 90 verse 8 says, "You have placed," listen to this, this is to God. "You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence." What do you do with that, Christian? You come to God in the spirit of First John 1:9, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Number three; be encouraged because of what God sees. You see when we think of God seeing everything, we tend to think on the negative side, it's because there's so much sin in our lives. But Psalm 139 is about the positive, it's about what God sees that's good, and so let me just remind you of what God sees that's good. First of all God sees the trials and troubles you're in the middle of. In Genesis 16:13, Hagar has been run out of Abraham's household by Sarai, Sarai is treating her harshly and she's on the run and God shows up and in Genesis 16:13, Hagar "called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees." She meant, You see me in my trouble, in my affliction, in my hardship You see and You've come and ministered to me in that. Listen if you're in the midst of trials and trouble this morning He is a God who sees.

He sees your faithful ministry. Hebrews 6:10, "God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints." Listen, I may not always see, the Christians around you may not always see you faithful ministry, but God always sees and He never misses it and He's not unjust to forget it. Thirdly, He sees your private spiritual activities, Matthew 6, He sees when you privately give, nobody else sees, but He does. He sees when you pray privately to Him and He rewards openly. He sees when you fast. He sees those things that you do in secret, those spiritual activities that nobody else knows, He knows. Number four, He knows your smallest service on His behalf. In Matthew 25 you remember the judgment that comes at the end of the tribulation called the judgment of the nations, you have these people standing before Christ and Christ says to them, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, and He goes on and they go wait a minute, when Lord did we do that? And He says that when you did that to the least of these that belong to Me you did it to Me. In other words, Jesus notices when you do the smallest act of service for those who are His. He sees. He never misses it.

He knows you're worthy motives. Not all our motives are bad. There are times when we do things for the right reason. In First Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5, it's not negative when He says He will "disclose the motives of men's hearts;" because the next phrase says "and then each man's praise will come to him from God." God knows when your motives are worthy and right, you do what you ought to do for the right reason. He knows. And I love this one, finally, He knows your genuine love for Christ. John 21:17, you remember Peter has sinned, and three times Jesus says, 'do you love Me, do you love Me, do you love Me?' I love Peter's final response in verse 17, he says, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Listen if you love Jesus Christ, He knows. He knows. A W Pink writes, "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 nevertheless fixed His heart upon me. O how the realization of this should bow me in wonder and worship before Him." Christian as we come to the Lord's Table confess and repent the sins that you do see and ask God to reveal the sins that you don't. Take a moment and prepare your heart.

O Lord our prayer is that of David's, search me O God and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts. And Lord see and show me if there's any way in me that causes You pain and lead me in the everlasting way. Father as we come to the Lord's Table we do ask You to reveal our sin to us so that we can deal with it so that we can confess it and find Your forgiveness. But Father we also come each of us individually and personally confessing the sins that we know that we are painfully aware of. Because Lord we don't want to cherish, to love, to harbor, to protect, to shield some sins even as we take of the Lord's Table which commemorates His death for those sins. What a travesty. What a blasphemy. And so Father we each come confessing our sins, confessing our desire to turn from those sins and asking for Your grace and Your help to do so. Lord receive the worship that we bring You now in and through Your Son and His sacrifice commemorated in the Lord's Table we ask it in His name, Amen.