Our God is Omniscient (Part 3)

He knows all the words of men. He knows all the thoughts of men. And what we talked about last time is He knows all of the hearts of men. And so that’s all the things we’ve covered so far. There are two more things that I would like to cover in this vein of the things that the Scripture says that God knows. And so we’ll begin in Acts 15.

We’ll pray and then we’ll start there. Okay, let’s pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank You for who You are. Lord, as we study these things, I pray that You would so work in us that these truths would profoundly affect our life, would profoundly affect our walk with You and our view of You and also the way we interact with others. Lord, we pray that You’d help us to grow by Your Word and guide me as I try to teach Your Word.

Lord, I pray that You would strengthen and help Your people in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right. So look at Acts 15, starting in verse number 13. Now this is, I won’t get into all of the background, but this is a detailed kind of debate that’s going on. They call it the Council of Jerusalem. It’s not a biblical term, but that’s what people like to say. And it’s the discussion, the debate of what role does the law and specifically circumcision have with these new believers in Christ who are not Jewish, right?

Because obviously the Jewish people knew all of that and they accepted all of that and so that was all a part of their cultural understanding and religious understanding. But when these Gentiles who were not Jews got saved, that was an open question since of course Christ was a Jew. So the question was, do they have to follow the law? Do they have to be circumcised? And so verse number 13 says this, so that’s in this discussion.

And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon, you guys remember Simeon, right? In the early part of the book of Luke in the temple, Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to make out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written, After this I will return, and I will build again the tabernacles of David which has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

So basically what he’s describing is he’s describing how both Simeon and the Old Testament foretold that there would be Gentiles who would believe in Christ. That it would not just be Jewish people, it would also be Gentiles. That’s all he’s saying in this point. But notice that is a prophecy. That is a prophecy. And that’s what we’re going to kind of touch on in just a minute.

It goes on to say this, now look at verse 18, this is the key. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. So unlike us, the Lord does not have to wait to know what He will do. And of course we know this is all tied into the eternality of God, God is eternal.

But the Lord doesn’t have to wait. He knows from the beginning of time, you know, from the beginning we could say, He knows everything, every act, everything that He will do. That’s what this verse is saying. So here’s what it, here’s what it kind of, this is kind of the intro to this point. God knows all of the things we’ve listed previously, but God also knows all future things.

And this is specifically talking about the future, as we view them, future acts of God. All of those are completely known to God from the beginning. So we could say, from this point we can say, this is a scriptural truth, whenever God saves a sinner, no matter at what point in history that happens, He knew very well that He was going to do that. How do we know?

Because the verse says it. All of His works from the beginning of the world. And so that means any act of God that He does, no matter what it is, He knows about it previously. Now down from that, you know, kind of deduced from that, there’s a lot of, does God know who is going to be saved and who’s not going to be saved? Absolutely. How could He know that?

Well, it’s very simple. Because He knows who He’s going to judge, and in what will be the final circumstances of that judgment, because that’s what He’s, that’s His works, right? That’s what the verse says. He knows who He’s going to save and who He’s not going to save. This is just a fact. It is not a mystery to God. Now as we think about this, this is what we call foreknowledge, the foreknowledge of God, and that’s a term we’re going to see over and over in Scripture.

But as much as those who hold to the persuasion of Calvinism like to say, knowing something beforehand and causing that thing to come to pass, it is argued that those things by them, it is argued by them that those things are, they must be the same thing. They’re equated. Yet, they don’t have to be equated. Foreknowledge is something that can exist independent of foreordination, causing something to come to pass.

And so a lot of, and here’s, if you understand what I’m trying to say, so a lot of these things when we talk about attributes of God are tangled up in the doctrines of Calvinism. There’s no way around it, right? Especially when you start talking about things like sovereignty, right? That’s the key term, right? But when you talk about foreknowledge, oftentimes people of our persuasion will look at that and we say, oh well God knows who’s going to be saved, just like I said.

And that, I think that is born out clearly in Scripture in this verse and in other verses which we’ll look at in a minute. But the problem is when one takes that truth and equates it to foreordination, that not only God knows all that will come to pass, but God caused and ordained all that comes to pass. And that is, honestly, to shoot straight with you, that second part is really the linchpin.

It is the keystone of Calvinism. That right there. That God foreordains every single thing that comes to pass. All of the others rest upon that idea. Okay? Now, and because there’s a lot of implications with that. And what that is called, the idea that God has decreed all that comes to pass, it is clearly articulated in the Calvinistic confessions. Yes, thank you. How does he know what I’m going to say?

And I don’t even know what I’m going to say, right? Exactly. Yeah, just, brother, get out of here. So, that is what, that preordination, the decrees of God, those, that is what they mean when they say sovereignty of God. Okay? Now, eventually in our study we’re going to get to the sovereignty of God because it is a biblical truth, just not in that sense, in that meaning.

But that is what they mean when they say God is sovereign. They mean God has foreordained and decreed every single thing that comes to pass. Okay? That is absolutely what is meant. Okay? Now, the issue that we have is that those of that persuasion equate that with foreknowledge. And that’s something the Bible does not do. Okay? I’m going to show you in just a minute. Okay, but I just want you to kind of know the background of that because a lot of these things are interrelated.

All right, look at, if you would, at Acts chapter 2. Go back, if you would, at Acts chapter 2 and I’ll give you an example of these things being distinct. Brother Phil, is the call-in working okay, as far as you can tell? Okay. All right. They said somebody was having trouble calling in, so I just want to make sure everything’s working up there. All right, Acts chapter 2, verse number.

Look, if you would, at verse 22. Says this, Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Now stop a second and if you would look up here because I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag quite yet.

Okay? Let me ask you a question. Did God know, did God the Father know what would happen to the Lord Jesus Christ in regards to the cross? Did he know that? Okay, that’s, we know that he knew because obviously Jesus knew. He told his disciples and that gets back to our original point. But yes, he knew. All right? Step back. Did God cause the things that happened to Jesus to come to pass?

What do you think? Just maybe this is better done rhetorically. All right? Just think on that a minute. Did God actually cause those things to come to pass? Okay, so you can see how if you think about that and kind of meditate on that, there’s, that gets a little complicated, does it not? Because if you say yes, are you saying that God then caused those wicked men to do the things to his son or did they do it of their own volition?

You know, it, were you going to say something? No, they have an easy way to fix that. They just say he’s not the author of sin in the, in the confessions. They just state it and therefore it is. All right, go ahead. That is exactly what the confessions say. Has anybody ever read them? That is exactly what they say. God brings all things to pass, yet, yet so without being the author of sin.

It actually says that. Just a second, brother. Yes, he calls it upon himself. That’s interesting. David, David, do you have something? There, and there are paradoxes. Like we would be stupid. See, here’s the problem is in a lot of that system, a lot of it is logical, not so much scriptural. And I challenge you, if you ever get an inkling to, I challenge you to look at the confessions and read the verses they cite that are designed, that are cited to prove the points they make.

Just like in our doctrinal statement, there’s verses, there’s references, right? They’re supposed to support the positions that we take like that. They do that as well. And I challenge you to read the verses and see if they say what they claim they say. But one of the issues with that is the logic of it all. So a lot of it is logical. That’s why they call it systematic theology.

It’s logical. But the issue with the logic is there are things in scripture that are not easily tied up like that. There are paradoxes that remain. So the danger that we have though is to do the same thing, think that we can figure it out and put it in a system, neat and tidy, but on our side. Because inevitably, we’re not going to be able to do that.

Yeah, brother? Sure. You’re getting ahead of my lesson, brother. I’m telling you, between you and David, I can’t teach a lesson in this class. No, you are touching on something that we’re about to get to, which directly relates, in fact, the Scriptures directly relate it to that. So look at the next verse now, Acts 2, 23. Hymn, speaking of Jesus Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

If you want a single verse that is a paradox, that’s it right there. Because in this one verse, it says not only God knew the things that would happen to Christ, He decreed, He foreordained them to come to pass, yet men and the instruments that actually performed the deeds are also mentioned all in the same verse. And so unless we’re going to say that God, like, was programmed those men to do those wicked things to Christ, you have to accept that there’s some sort of paradox here, that God used their wicked schemes to bring to pass His, you know, what He not only knew, but foreordained.

But here’s what I want you to see, is in this verse, notice they’re distinct. What God knew and what God foreordained are distinct. They’re not just blended, like, just mushed together, like sometimes they’re defined in that way, but they’re distinct. In this case, both are active. Okay, now go to 1 Peter chapter number one. 1 Peter chapter one.

1 Peter one. Verse number two. Well, I’ll read verse one to get the context. 1 Peter one, one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, speaking of the strangers who believe now, elect, that is chosen, that’s what the word means, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, through the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Now, it is no question that the believers are called the elect. Right? That is, many are called, but few are chosen. That’s, we covered that in Matthew several times. Are there difficult things to kind of wrap our brains around in that? Of course, that’s fine. We expect no less when we’re talking about the eternity of God and the nose and that kind of thing.

Alright, so that believers are called the elect is a settled issue. But notice it says elect, and then God’s election then in this verse is contingent. It is, there’s a dependency, and that is according to the foreknowledge of God. Do you see that? Now, this is a verse that oftentimes those of the Calvinistic persuasion will have a hard time taking it at face value. They kind of argue around it, if you will.

And I say that, and I’m poking at that a little bit, and I acknowledge that, but I could show you other verses that we also have a little bit of trouble kind of wrapping our brain around that they believe supports their view. Okay, so I just think we’ve got to be honest when we deal with that. But what this verse does say, but I’m not going to deny what this verse says, which is that believers are elect contingent upon or hinging upon God’s foreknowledge.

That’s what it says, okay? We’re not going to deny that. And then the other operations, in other words, what you have here is elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through, so this is the means by which he chose us, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. You have the gospel in there. You have the activity of the Spirit in the spirit.

You have the activity of the Spirit in there. All of those are kind of the means and mechanisms that actually brought about this election that we read in verse two, okay? And so when you look at these things kind of together, well, the thing I want you to see from verse number two is specifically the foreknowledge of God. In this verse, it is clear that God knew beforehand all who would be saved.

God knows all things beforehand. Anything he does, he knows beforehand. And that includes our salvation, okay? That’s just a fact. That’s a fact. I do actually know people who argue that, based upon random references in Daniel, that God does actually not know all things in the future, that he somehow chooses to limit his own knowledge of future events. I don’t think in the weight and the balance, I don’t think that that has merit, but I know people who have tried to argue that.

Now, if you would go to Isaiah 41, Isaiah chapter 41, verse 21, Isaiah 41 verse 21, Produce your cause, saith the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them. You see this? He’s talking about the future now.

This is God speaking to them. Or declare us things for to come. So God is challenging them. God is challenging them to state the future. If you know these things, then speak it. Tell me about the things to come. He continues in verse 23, Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods. So this is actually spoken to gods, to false gods.

Yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of naught, and abomination is he that chooseth you. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come. From the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name, and he shall come upon the princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth the clay.

Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? And before time, that we may say, he is righteous. Yea, there is none that showeth. Yea, there is none that declareth. Yea, there is none that heareth your words. You know what the Lord is doing here? He’s challenging the false gods to prove that they are gods by telling the future. That’s what he’s doing. So you know what that tells us?

Knowledge of the future is something that alone belongs to God. Now we covered this already when we talked about the hearts of men. Remember when we talked about omniscience? That God only knows the hearts of all men? Well, it is also true of foreknowledge. Does the devil know the future? No, because this is something known only to God. He challenges the false gods. Do you think the devil, if he had the ability to know the future, that he would not use that to his advantage?

Using these false gods? Absolutely, absolutely. He tries to, see the devil tries to mimic it. You know what he does? Because what he does is he lays down certain things and says certain things might happen and then seeks to perform those things to make it appear that he knew in advance. But the Lord says, you false gods, tell me about the things that are coming here after.

Tell me about the end from the beginning. If you’re gods, tell me about it. Here’s what that tells us, that knowledge of the future, foreknowledge, divine foreknowledge, is something that belongs only to God. It is one of his essential attributes. And you know why? Because it is tied in with his eternity, the fact that he lives outside of time, and it’s tied in with his omniscience and with his omnipresence.

So the fact that God knows all things in advance is one of the essential attributes of God. If it is God, it must have divine foreknowledge. Does that make sense? This is going to be really important later that foreknowledge is an essential attribute of God. Without it, that thing, that entity cannot be God. Does that make sense? We’ve covered this before, but notice we’re just adding things to that list.

It’s going to be important in a minute. But notice also if you would like to know also if you would, and I want you to think about this, the Lord challenges these false gods and he says, tell me what’s going to happen in the future. He challenges them to do it. Of course they can’t because they don’t have divine foreknowledge. What does that then... Now I want you to think about and critique those that claim, that make predictions of the future in the name of Christ in our day.

Do they exist? Oh yes. Think about that guy recently in Africa. That was in Ghana or Nigeria, can’t remember. The guy recently who claimed there would be another flood got extremely wealthy. I mean, but he did. But of course when it came time for the rain to start to fall, nothing came to pass. And see, that proves he’s a false teacher. But you know, we know that, but how many people were deceived?

How many people in similar fashion have been turned away from Christianity? The truth, because of some false teacher claiming to speak of the future and being wrong. And then when it comes down to the day, oh well, I misinterpreted, or oh well, some excuse, hymn hall. Yeah, exactly. So you see what I’m saying? That actually casts the truth in a bad light. This is why it’s satanic.

It’s designed to mar the truth in the minds of those who don’t believe. And this is why in 1 Peter, or 2 Peter chapter 3, they say, the mockers say, where is the promise of his coming? They’ve been talking about it. And you add to that, these people said Jesus is coming, and these people said Jesus is coming, and whatever. Those of you who are a little bit older remember, I think it was in the 80s, or 1980 something, or come on now, get out and help me.

Anyway, there was a big one in the 80s. Yeah? All the prophets and the false prophets that said that Jesus is going to come, all the books that were written, and then people were excited about Jesus coming and remember that. And then that’s when it was sort of following the hope that he was coming. Well, I think in some degree, and this might not be exactly related, but I think from a theological perspective, I think that it’s kind of easier to just kind of explain it away.

Well, maybe he’s not coming like we thought exactly. You know, that’s kind of... Yeah, he’s coming invisibly. Well, that’s an easy excuse. But yeah, brother, go ahead. A lot of that 70s, 80s, 90s, especially the Baptist world, coming back tomorrow, to the neglect of what it means to be a Christian, have family, do whatever you want, and so forth. I mean, such a focus on end time because you’re actually helping people be a Christian and do what you’re supposed to do as long as you think back on it.

And I think that it drives a lot of the reforms, and I think that’s a good point. Yeah. And the irony, though, is that that is a misuse of the idea of eminency. Is because eminency is not supposed to be, you know, empty your bank account and go live in a bunker. Eminency is supposed to be prepare yourself, live for God, your time is short. That’s the...

It’s actually the very opposite. If you follow the Scripture, it’s actually the very opposite of that. It’s the idea that, you know, the things that were common at that period. Anybody else have something? All right. Okay, let’s look at a couple more passages. I did not get as far as I had hoped. Look at Deuteronomy 18 and Jeremiah 28, and we’ll close with these. Deuteronomy 18 and Jeremiah 28.

Deuteronomy 18 and Jeremiah 28. These say very similar things, though spread apart by hundreds and hundreds of years. Deuteronomy 18 says this in verse number 22. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.

You know, because... And this tells us the prophet is supposedly speaking for God. God foreknows all things. He knows all things now. Okay, so if it is true he is speaking for God, then he ought to be able to predict the future, he ought to be able to state the future. And so that’s the basis of this, which reminds us of one thing, which is this. Prophecy itself, the idea that there is a such thing as biblical prophecy is rooted in God’s omniscience and foreknowledge, okay?

And so that’s one of the reasons why fulfilled prophecy is actually a strong argument for the inspiration of Scripture and the existence of God. Because it is an essential aspect of the Bible that God is the attribute of God. If God foreknows all things, that prophecy is built upon that, and that is a good proof, a good evidence, if you will, that God exists. Because it is impossible for a man to know things in the remote future except a divine being who has that attribute of God has revealed it, right?

All right, Jeremiah, we’ll finish with this one. Jeremiah 28. Verse number nine. So if somebody says, I don’t believe in God, well, what do you have to say about the fulfilled prophecies of Scripture? Right? And so what’s usually the answer to that is usually, oh, well, the Bible’s been corrupted, and it wasn’t actually written by, you know, the people who claim to have written it. That’s the way it goes.

It’s trying to undermine the foundation. All right. Jeremiah 28, verse number nine. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him. See it? When it comes to pass. When it comes to pass. So you know the benefit we have is we have the Scripture and we have examples of prophecies coming to pass, right, to prove that the writers were divinely guided by God, right?

And so that’s part of the evidence of Biblical inspiration. All right. Let’s pray together.