God’s Omniscience – He Knows • 12.22.24
Chris Zepp   -   December 22, 2024

God’s Omniscience – He Knows

  1. God states His omniscience
  2. God shares His knowledge with us through the Scripture
  3. God shows His omniscience

God’s Omniscience – He Knows

 

Welcome and introduction and pray

Bibles for any who want them.

 

We are on our 4th week of a sermon series called, “Let God Reign.”  The intent for this series is to pause this season and focus on God.  We read and preach through His Word all year long and sometimes it is good to simply stop and think about Him.  How big He is?

We want to ponder and wonder at His Glory.  His majesty.  His sovereignty, His goodness, His immutability, His omniscience, His omnipotence.  To set our minds on things above.  This is who He is.  How trustworthy He is.  Magnificent.

When He calls us to trust Him, have faith in Him, pray to Him.  This is why.  When we consider His righteousness and His holiness, this is why we confess before Him and turn from sinful ways.

Lead into intro of Omniscience

This morning the attribute of God that we are going to study is His Omniscience.  I will define it, discuss what the Bible says about it and then look at God’s omniscience in Scripture.

I want to point out and give credit to resources that I studied in addition to the Word of God.

Attributes of God by Arthur Pink

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem

In the Beginning…Jesus by Jill Nelson

You may notice that last resource is the Truth 78 curriculum that we teach our children here at Harvest.  Laurie and I teach the 2nd and 3rd graders.  I have always maintained that I could take any of their lessons and teach the men on Saturday morning or here on a Sunday morning.  Let me give you and example…

Give intro

Israelites in Egypt. Slaves.  Crying out to God.  They cried out to Him because He had promised their ancestor Abraham to make them into a great nation, give them a land to live in, to bless them, to bless the world through them.  God hears them and calls Moses to go and confront Pharoah.  Moses goes and tells the Israelites that he is going to go to Pharoah.  They are not sure about it.  We know the account of God working 10 miracles.  The back and forth with Pharaoh relenting and then God hardening his heart.  Up to the point on the final plague, Pharoah finally relents and lets the Israelites go.  God then leads the Israelites out of Egypt.  He leads them by day and night by this pillar of cloud and fire.  He does not go directly (NE) to the promised land, God leads them SE to the shore of the Red Sea.  The Israelites are left wondering…what is this?  We know that at the same time God has hardened Pharaoh’s heart and Pharoah gets his army and all of his chariots and all of his horses and he sets out to pursue Israel.  One of the greatest armies in the world at that time and they were coming after a million slaves.

Read and expound upon

Exodus 14:10-14.

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

 

Did God know what He was doing when He led them out of Egypt?  Yes! Did He know what He was doing when He led them to the Red Sea?  Yes! The Bible tells us that He wanted them to see who He was.  He wanted the world to see who He is.  I think He put the account in the Bible so that we could see that He is sovereign, good, all knowing, all powerful.  We can know and trust and have FAITH in God because He knows our situations, our hearts, our sin.  He knows and we can have faith.

Now….anyone can stand here and tell a good story, even one from the Bible and tell you something like “God is Omniscient,” but the facts matter.  Is what I am saying about His omniscience founded in Scripture?  Can we study it and know?  Let’s find out.

 

  1. God states His Omniscience

Let’s define the word “Omniscient”  especially because it is not specifically used in the Bible.  The qualities and definition is spoke of in Scripture.  So let us examine them so that we can KNOW and Understand what is said about what God knows.  Let’s start with these definitions about omniscience:

 

God knows everything in Himself, in His creation and throughout history.

  • His understanding is beyond measure.
    • Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
  • He knows all things.
    • John 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
    • 1 John 3:20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
  • God knows everyone and every creature – alive, dead, in heaven or in hell, all things that happened to them or done by them.
    • Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account
    • Job 34:21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
    • Psalm 33:13-15 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
    • Psalm 139:7-12 Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

His knowledge perfect.  He does not make mistakes, lie, guess.

  • John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

God knows all things past, present and future.

  • Isaiah 46:10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, say, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”

 

Knowing all things – God does not have learn anything and He has not forgotten anything.  God does not have to figure things out or go find out.  He simply knows all things. 

 

Invisible/spiritual things

All the things I have said so far are all the physical things.  But God knows, not just the physical world, the observable world, He knows the thoughts and motivations of people.  He knows our hearts.  For example,

  • He knows false worship. All through Isaiah, God calls out the people of Israel for false worship.  They were doing things that He said to do, but He knows it is not because they worship Him.  They are just doing it because they want to.  Kind of like a person coming to church, but not really caring about God. They just do it because…and you can fill in the reasons.
  • He knows our hearts – In 1 Samuel 16:7 God tells Samuel that He does not look at the outward appearance of men, but the Lord looks at the heart.
  • He knows our words before we say them and He knows our intentions. Look at this beautiful passage:

Psalm 139:1-6

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

I can accepted and believe those verses.  I trust them implicitly because of my faith in God, but they really blow my mind.  I can sort of comprehend him knowing all that happens or that can be seen…but this notion of Him knowing my heart, my motivations, my intentions….what is that?  It is hard for me to understand that.

 

He knows possibilities

Even as God knowing the spiritual or invisible things is hard to understand, let’s keep going and see if this might stretch you further.  He knows all things possible…do you get that?  All things that could be.  Let me give you an example,

  • 1 Samuel 23:10-13 Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “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, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.

 

Do you see the wonder of God in this account?  God is not just presuming.  He is not guessing that these events would happen.  He is perfect in His knowledge and is never wrong.  He knows that if David would stay there, then these things would surely happen.  He has correctly and accurately told David what would happen if David and his men stayed.  But David and his men did not stay so those things did NOT come to pass.  God is showing that He knows all things possible.

 

Can you wrap your mind around that?  Talk of God being omnipresent and seeing end from the beginning.  See all things and knowing all things perfectly.  Even if our minds could grasp or understand that concept…Now add in the fact that He knows all things that could happen.  Brain melt.

 

That is the God we serve.  One who is worthy of our praise.  The One whom we we call out to.  Imagine anyone telling that God that he knows more than God does or that he will do it on his own?

 

Pastor Nick taught us last week of God being unchangeable – Since God’s knowledge is complete, whole, eternal, it means His knowledge is unchanging.  He never learns anything new.  If he did, then He would not be omniscient.  He simply knows.

 

Consider what if God were not omniscient?

  1. Would you want a sovereign king who does not know all things perfectly? Who guessed or made mistakes or just did what he felt was right?
  2. Would you want a God is is good, but not omniscient? He intends good, tries really hard, but is not sure what to do, who you are, who everyone else is?
  3. Would you want a God who is all powerful, yet again…does not know all things, remember all things, or is perfect in that knowledge?

 

We’ve looked at just some of the Scriptures that speak to God and all He knows.  We could keep going.  In fact, since getting this preaching assignment, thinking about it, praying about and taking notes, I saw His omniscience everywhere in the Bible.  In fact, I’d like to pivot to Point #2 on your outline and dive into it.

 

  1. God shares His Omniscience with us through the Scriptures.

 

I do need to qualify that statement.  We do NOT believe God shares ALL His knowledge with us.  He has given us the Word and His Word is sufficient.  Practically speaking that means He knows what we should know and has decided what we should know and that it is captured in the Holy Bible.  We trust Him.  Regarding the Bible and its sufficiency, our beliefs on the church website define it as this:

 

  1. We believe in the verbal and complete or full inspiration of the Scriptures and that they contain all the words of God that we need in order to completely trust and obey Him. We further define it as this:
    1. The Scriptures are inerrant in their original writings and are infallible in their instruction,
      1. Psalm 119:160 – the sum of your Word is truth and everyone of your righteous rules endures forever;
      2. Matthew 5:18 – for truly I say to you that until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished;
      3. 2 Timothy 3:15-16 All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God maybe complete, equipped for every good work.
    2. eternal in duration,
      1. Isaiah 40:8 but the Word of the Lord will stand forever.
      2. 1 Peter 1:25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.
  • the final authority and the standard for faith and practice
    1. Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. – “live by.” That is speaking to life.
    2. Psalm 119:105 your word is a lamp unto my feet and light to my path
  1. sufficient for counsel in every issue of life. (Psalm 19:14-17; 2 Timothy 3:16)

 

Here is how we should process that.  If our All Knowing, Omniscient God has given us His Holy Word and it is true, eternal, profitable…shouldn’t we make it an aim, a purpose to read it, pray on it, and study it?  The answer is a resounding YES!  Look back again at 1 Timothy 3:15-16

  1. All scripture is God breathed and profitable for
    1. For teaching, – instructing us, helping us to grow in spiritual maturity
    2. for reproof, – convicting us of sin in our lives, that we may repent and be forgiven
  • for correction, and – things we think we know, but may not be quite correct, or something we heard or learned that may not be Scriptural
  1. for training in righteousness – growing up and changing.  Things like “every time this happens to me, I get angry or anxious” or “I was blessed with some money and now I want to go out and buy the next hot item.”
  2. so that the man of God maybe complete, equipped for every good work.

 

And if studying God’s Word seems daunting to you, or if you think that you cannot understand it, Jesus promises to those who follow Him to send a Helper (the Holy Spirit) to help you understand and remember.

 

So…hear is the deal.  If we believe God is omniscient (He is) and He has given us His Word so that we may know Him and have all we know to live and obey Him, when we read it, hear it, study it….guess what?  We need to trust Him because He is omniscient and we are not.  Let’s go to

 

James 1:22  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

 

These verses tell us that we have their ability to hear an All Knowing God give us truth and then ignore it or forget it.  Lean on our own understanding.  Argue with it.  Trust something or someone else.  But, we also have Jesus tell us that His sheep he hear His voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him.  James tells us to not be like the guy who looks at the Word and forgets, but to live like a sheep who follows their Good shepherd.

 

I want to point out that here at Harvest one of our pillars is Bold Preaching.  It is a pillar because we trust God and we want the people at Harvest to grow in their faith.  Our church website says this:

 

  1. We believe the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament are verbally inspired by God and inerrant in their original writings. We believe the 66 books of the Old Testament and the New Testament are God’s complete and sufficient revelation and therefore carry God’s authority for the total well-being of mankind

 

Hearing and studying God’s Word is what people need.  We want to bring you the Word of God each Sunday and dig into it, so that we can grow from needing spiritual milk to consuming solid food.  That we grow beyond the elementary doctrine of our faith.  That we are ready at any time to give a defense of the gospel.  That we can go into all the world and tell them about Jesus and teach them to obey.  We will not pour out to you sermons that simply tickle your ears.  We will teach you sound doctrine.  We understand that any preaching that does not do this is depriving you of the Word and that starves the maturing Christian.

 

Another example of how our church seeks to trust God is biblical counseling.  Again…our belief that God is omniscient and that He gave us the Word and the Word is sufficient.  This is lived out in how we counsel those who seek help.  We have members and staff trained and certified in biblical counseling with others in the process.  If you would go to our church website you would see a section for our Counseling Philosophy.  In that section you would see that we believe:

  1. The Lord changes lives and accomplishes His purposes directly through reading and applying the Scriptures, meditating on the truths of the Scriptures and prayer. The Lord also uses those who minister His Word as they encourage, exhort, admonish, edify, implore, reprove, rebuke and console others toward godliness. God needs no new or unique insight into the human condition in order to change lives, regardless of whether that insight is gained through psychology or some other tool of human origin. Problems that are approached by integrating the Scriptures with psychological theories tend to deceive individuals into diminishing the God of the Scriptures and into believing that He has not provided and cannot provide sufficient truth, insight and wisdom that will change their lives. (Colossians 2:8-10)
  2. Each Christian’s passion should be to become more like Christ and fulfill the Great Commandment to love the Lord with the entire heart, soul, mind and strength. (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2, Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37-38)
  3. The Christian who learns and applies the Word becomes mature and, in turn, can help others mature. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Giving us the Word is one example of God’s use or display of His omniscience.  Let’s continue to see  His omniscience on display in the Scripture in the next point.

 

  1. God shows His Omniscience

 

Allistair Begg – sermon on Luke 5.  In this account, Jesus is teaching inside and we are told that there are many in attendance including Pharisees and teachers.  We are then told of some men who had a paralytic friend that they were carrying on a bed and they were seeking to lay him before Jesus.  But finding no way in, they go up on the roof, open some tiles in the roof and lower their friend down before Jesus.  And Luke 5:20 says “when He saw their faith, he told the man to get up and walk.”  ???  No.  He didn’t say that, did he?  He looked at them and the man who was paralyzed and said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”  Why does Jesus say this?  That is not why these men have come.  They have come to see their friend healed.  But here the glory of Christ, His omniscience is displayed.  Jesus tells the man what the man needs.  He KNOWS what the man needs.  He needs forgiven.  Our Lord knows what we need even if we do not.

 

As an added bonus, we see that the Pharisees and teachers are grumbling about Him forgiving sins and we are told in verse 22 “when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered them, ‘Why do you question in your hearts?’”  He knows what these men are thinking and is able to speak to what they need to understand.

 

In John 5, we see Jesus in Jerusalem, specifically by the Sheep Gate and he sees a man who has been an invalid for 38 years!  Jesus saw the man and KNEW he had already been there a long time and said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  Did Christ not know?

 

This is not a matter of Jesus not knowing something.  Jesus does know.  He does know the situation of this man and why he was by the pool.  He knows that this man wants to be healed, but that he falsely believes that getting into this pool when it bubbles will heal him.  No where is that taught in Scripture and I am quite confident that this man has never witnessed anyone truly healed by this false hope.  Rather Jesus is asking something akin to “You are a Jewish man in Jerusalem and you know who God is.  I know you want to be healed, but you know this water will never heal you.  Why are you going to a false source for what you need?  Do you truly want to be healed?”

 

Likewise, we recount in Genesis God asking a question of Adam.  “Adam, where are you?”  Adam and Eve have just committed the first sin.  They listened to lies.  They doubted God’s commands and His goodness.  They mulled it over in their hearts and decided they could do better than what God had provided and what the All Knowing God had commanded.  They ate the fruit.  Immediately the shame of their sin came upon them and when they heard God in the garden, they went and hid.  It seems to us as ridiculous that they would try to hide from the God who knows and sees everything.  You can’t hide from Him.  And at this time God asks the questions “Adam, where are you?” and later “What have you done?”  We know that God knows the answers.  We know it.  And, yet, the deception of sin is already too great for these first people to simply confess and repent.  They blame each other.

 

When we wrap this account in the context of God is all knowing, it seems so ridiculous to doubt God in the first place.  It seems preposterous to believe Satan’s lies that either God doesn’t know or that God is purposely holding back what is good.  But their human, sinful hearts can toy with and be deceived by those lies.  I would suppose if each of us considered sin in our lives, we would probably find that we KNOW the truth, yet we act like we believe lies…and…we might even blame someone else.

 

If sin can deceive and grow in the first, perfect people who walked and talked with God, consider all the possibilities we face in a world awash with distractions, know it alls, other fallen people, our own sinful hearts, or even our ignorance.  Wide is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to life.

 

The narrow path while challenging at times, is not too hard to find.  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.  God says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Col 3:10.

 

  1. God’s omniscience impacts you
    1. As we near the end of this sermon, I thought about leaving any application out. Thinking that it is not all about us.  This can simply be about the grandeur, the majesty of God.  We can just sit and think about God’s sovereignty, His Goodness, His Immutability, and His Omniscience.  Just ponder and pray about that all week.
    2. Having said, maybe a few encouraging things came from considering His Omniscience:
      1. He knows.
      2. There is no fear that the petitions of the heart, the situations we are in, our needs are not known intimately by an omniscient God.
  • God can hear all the prayers of all the saints at the same time, know the situation, know the persons and know what to do perfectly.
  1. Even if we do not know what to pray, Isaiah 65:24 “before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
  1. Knowing God’s Word
    1. Do you know His Word? Does God have the loudest voice in your life?  Do you spend the most time on His Word?  Or does some other voice have more of your attention or time.
    2. The honest answer is that no matter how much you love God and your mind knows that He is right, whatever you spend the most time with, around, listening to, will be your top of mind. That will be your go to topics to talk about.  That will be where your mind goes when you are down or life is after you.  That will be where your money and your best efforts go.
  • If it is not God and God’s word, it will be an idol to you…and the honest, sad answer is that it will never serve you or benefit you. Those other voices will not give you the bread of life that you absolutely, 100% need.
  1. I would encourage, highly…set your heart to know His Word. Bible study.  Get in one, go buy one, start one, do it with your kids, friends, loved one.  Write it down.  Do it.
  2. He is your All Knowing Omniscient, Good, Immutable God. Draw near to Him.
  3. Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules to Israel.
  1. How about witnessing? We know that our Great Commission is to go into the world and tell people about Him.  How are you doing with that?  Can I take a moment and encourage you (in light of who God is), to make this a priority?
    1. We have an activity we have done as a church and promoted several times called Witness on Wednesday. We go out into the community on Wednesday evenings and pray for people and seek opportunities to invite them to church and to tell them about Jesus.  It is challenging, but so rewarding.
    2. I realize cold witnessing is not everyone’s jam. What about talking to people that are closer to you about Jesus.  Be willing to be used by God to share the gospel with them or your testimony.
  • I am not going to give any believer a pass on this…but if you want to work your way into confidence in sharing Christ, how about volunteering to pray for others? How about bringing God or Jesus up when you are in a conversation with others?  Tell people something that helped you from reading scripture.  Share how God met you and comforted you.  How about simply inviting people to church?
  1. You matter. Your voice and openness to used by God matters.
  2. Many of you likely have met Mark Miller. He and his wife, Katy, have joined our church.  He was up hear playing guitar and his two sons, Taylor and Brendan, were up here during the worship set.  I hired Mark out of college and within a few weeks of him working for me, he catches on that I am  not a believer.  He then sets about to tell me about Jesus in everyway possible.  Day after day, week after week, one job to another Mark continues to talk to me about this Jesus guy that I wanted nothing to do with.  He invites me to a men’s ministry.  God used Mark to bring me the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Almost 27 years ago, a young new hire is bold enough to talk to his boss and changed my life.

 

The other night my son, Ethan, calls me.  He is a police officer down in Creston and his message was to say thanks to me for being a godly man.  He has no idea who I was.  Laurie used to pray that God would bring someone to tell me who Jesus was because I was not listening to her.  Ethan doesn’t know that guy.  He knows a man that repented and was regenerated by the saving power of Christ.  And God used a praying wife and a disciple to share the Good news.

 

I can’t help but share the good news with others so that God can bring them unto Himself.  I encourage you to grow in your faith and to share the Good News.

 

Please pray with me.