Our God is Omniscient (Part 4)

Lord, we come to you now in Jesus’ name, and we give you thanks that you are a God who does know all things, and that nothing, no matter how small or big, nothing at all, ever escapes your notice. And Lord, we give you glory for that. Lord, we rest in that fact. We rejoice in that fact of who you are and all the things that you know, Lord.

But Lord, we also acknowledge that you know us through and through, and you know our motives, you know our thoughts, our words, our actions. And none of it escapes your attention. And Lord, we pray that you would help us then to be pure in body and in soul and in spirit, and to walk in such a way that both inside and out, we walk in a way that pleases you.

And bless our study this morning as we look at your omniscience, Lord. I pray that we would just glory in your glory and that you would teach us your ways and help us to grow, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right. Well, we are going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 23. So let’s go there. I already asked you to go there, but I haven’t gone there myself.

So let me take a moment to get there. 1 Samuel chapter 23. Now, the last point we want to look at this morning or for this part of our study of what God knows is this. God knows all possibilities. So God’s knowledge is not limited to only to the things that actually do happen in history. God’s knowledge extends to all possibilities of all possible things that could happen in a different set of circumstances.

You know, they call this the multiverse. How many of you have ever heard that before? In other words, there are infinite number of dimensions. This is all like philosophy, it’s theory about that. But in scripture, the Bible does definitely indicate that God not only knows the things that do happen, but he knows the things that could happen. And that’s important because that adds a layer of knowledge to God’s knowledge.

That’s important because that adds a layer of knowledge to God’s knowledge that maybe we don’t always readily recognize. But that information is very important, especially when you see how the Lord Jesus deals with others upon that basis. So 1 Samuel 23, I’m going to just show you a couple of examples of this. 1 Samuel 23 verse number 9 says this, Now the first thing I want you to notice about this is this context.

David is praying. Now what is the basis of David’s prayer? David is praying to God and asking God for wisdom, asking God for direction upon what basis? He’s asking it upon the basis of God’s foreknowledge. You see that? His prayer is based upon that. He knows that God knows. It’s really based upon God’s foreknowledge because he asks, Lord, are they going to do this in the future?

You know, you can pray. Did you know that you can pray to God about the potentials of what might happen in the future? And that can be part of your prayer. Lord, will this happen? What should I do? Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that God’s always going to tell you what happens in the future like he did with David. But the point is, is knowledge, that God’s knowledge of the future is something that can be integrated into the way that we pray.

It absolutely can be. We see it in this example. But not only that, he also is praying upon the basis of God’s foreknowledge in that God knows the thoughts and the inward plans of Saul and of the men of this city. So he prays based upon that. Lord, what is in their mind? What is in their heart? What should I do? Knowing that God knows their mind and their heart.

So the thing I want you to see first is the prayer part. These truths that we’re looking at are not just doctrines on paper. These should be a part of our faith and the way we exercise our faith in our prayer life. And so notice what he says. He asks two questions of God. First, will the men of Keilah deliver me up? And number two, will Saul come down?

And he gets two answers. Verse number 11 says, he will come down, speaking of Saul, verse 12. Then said David, will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, they will deliver thee up. Okay, so that second answer is the one I want to concentrate on. Let’s keep reading. Then David and his men, which were about 600, arose and departed out of Keilah and went whithersoever they could go.

And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah and he forbear to go forth. Let me ask you a question. Did Saul come down? No. Did the men of Keilah deliver David up? No. But God said both would happen. But neither did. You know what that shows? It shows that God knew that if Saul came down and if the men of Keilah were confronted by Saul, that they would turn David over.

And the reality is that that never actually happened. God was demonstrating by his answer that he knew a contingency that would never actually come to pass. Alright, let me explain something to you about fatalism. Does anybody know what fatalism is? Can you give me, I don’t mean to put you on the spot. No, you say the last one. I know what it is. Yeah, maybe it’s hard to explain.

What will be will be. What does that say? Geiserauseraus. Famous quote. Barney Fife liked to say Geiserauseraus. What’s that? The future is so certain that there is no need to even follow the future. Right. Fatalism has a practical dimension to it that is the problem, problematic. But fatalism is also based upon the idea that the idea of fatalism says that everything in the universe is absolutely and totally fixed.

Every event is totally and absolutely fixed. And that is built upon the idea that God has fixed it. Right? We talked about this last week. That God has fixed and established and ordained every single thing. Not just good things. But all things that will come to pass in the universe. And because of that, all things are therefore fixed. And then because of that, the practical side of fatalism says, then what’s the use?

Right? Honestly, people that have been confronted with that throughout history, that have been confronted with fatalistic ideas, that is exactly their conclusion. Because it’s a logical conclusion. And those who believe in fatalism will say, oh no, no, but that’s not what it means. But see, here’s the problem. All theology has a practical element to it. The child of the theology. That’s how the Bible describes it. The child of the theology.

So if the child of the theology is bad, it might be that the theology itself is bad. Now I know there’s always bad apples that poorly represent sound theology. We know that as well. But here’s the point. You can actually judge theology to some extent by the fruit that it produces. And if a theology produces the logical outcome of theology is, well, I guess there’s no reason to pray.

I guess there’s no reason to witness. If God has established it all, it’s going to happen. Que sera sera. What will be will be. What will be will be is not a biblical truth. It’s common, right? You probably have said it before. I probably have said it before. But really, if we want to be picky about it, that’s not really a biblical truth. Because God, because first, in order for that to be true, you have to first prove that God has established every single truth.

Every single thing that would happen in the universe in order for it to be fixed. And that’s the problem, which we talked about last week. So what we see here is that God did know things that could happen but didn’t. And that raises questions about, well, does that mean then everything is fixed?

Yeah. Yeah. Apparently, God wasn’t either. No, there is a clear answer in Scripture from that. And it is this. And this is not original with me. I heard another preacher describe it, and it’s true. Hezekiah was granted how many years? Thank you, sir. Fifteen. Right? Thank you.

It was within those fifteen years after Hezekiah was granted the extra fifteen. It was in that fifteen years following that Manasseh, his son, was born. And Manasseh was far and away the worst king that Israel ever had. Israel, or Judah, Judah ever had. Manasseh was the reason God names that he sent King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Israel. And that happened in those intervening fifteen years when he was born.

So the contingency is had Hezekiah not asked for more life, and I have to be honest, if I’m him, I’m asking. I’m just telling you. Like, I’m just saying that. I just know what I would do. I guess I’m not that spiritual to say, Kisra HaSanah or whatever. I’m just saying I sympathize with Hezekiah. But it is also true that had Hezekiah not had another fifteen years, Manasseh would not have been born.

Now, would another king have risen? You know, was the...and these are questions that I just, honestly, I like in our Sunday school because it’s a little more informal. I like to just meditate and think upon this, these kinds of questions, because we have opportunity, we have time, we’re not in a big hurry. But the question is, was the destruction of Israel fixed? Was that going to happen either way?

Because all the time God said, if you do this, I’ll do this. If you do that, I’ll do this. But then you have prophetic scripture where God tells them, even back in Deuteronomy, He tells them exactly what would happen to them hundreds and hundreds of years later when they rebelled. Does that mean it was fixed? You see what I’m saying? Did you have another?

So for me personally, practical application is that when I face the question of how to...if this is what I want for you to know, and in that I see David where you let the politics answer that. Do you recognize that the change in mind would be merciful or be somewhat merciful? And so the knowledge of man at that point is the knowledge of man and the knowledge of God kind of diverge.

And you see what God knows and what we don’t know. And how a large part of our Christian life, a large part of our life with God, our faith, is committing ourselves and the events of our life to a God who does know. And we don’t. So that should keep us humble, right? That should keep us meek. That should keep us like little children when it comes to the events of our life.

Right. The fatalist says, the fatalist takes exception with your term, God allowed them to choose a king. The fatalist insists that God ordained that they choose a king even though God himself expressly said he did not want that. You see the problems with that? And then to add, I’m sorry, I have to do this. I have to do this. To complicate it, Deuteronomy, which is many, many years before that, 500 years-ish before that event with Saul, Deuteronomy, God tells Moses, when the children of Israel ask for a king, this is the kind of king.

How do you put all that in your ball of wax and interpret it? Here’s the bottom line. At some point, do we not just have to step back and say, God, you know, like you know, we have to accept what the Scripture says. And that’s the problem with fatalism is fatalism does not allow for that. Fatalism forces all of the Scriptures into one mold that the Scriptures themselves do not allow, that God has permanently and unalterably fixed everything.

And yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Yeah. On a blacklist of some kind. That’s true. These things are hard to wrap our brains around. Let’s look at another example. Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. As I said, you know, we can, we can, we can, we can, and I think we should meditate on these things, but at some point, we must get to a point where we just step back and say, I just can’t explain it all.

God, you know, and in that way, what are we doing? We are standing in awe of God’s omniscience, which is part of why he tells us his omniscience so that we’ll step back and say, Lord, I trust you. And that’s part of what we’re getting into as we as we get closer to our next next part of our study. Matthew chapter 11 verse number, verse number 20.

Matthew 11 verse 20. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.

And thou, Capernaum, thou art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Now, we know that Tyre and Sidon were destroyed and we know that Sodom was destroyed.

In other words, we look back at history and we see the historical events that actually did take place. And so we have that kind of fixed point in our mind. But what the Lord is saying, I mean, unless you’re going to argue that Jesus is just kind of using a turn of phrase, he’s just kind of saying it, but he doesn’t really mean it, I think that the Lord is expressing, well, first of all, he’s expressing omniscience, but he’s also expressing his knowledge of possibilities.

And we know that Tyre and Sidon did not repent and were destroyed. We know that Sodom did not repent and was destroyed. They did not continue. But the Lord said if the circumstances had been different, they would have. Okay. And that leads us to another question. Does anybody know what my question is going to be? What is it? Okay. What’s the question? Don’t answer it though. Exactly. That’s the question.

If Jesus said they would have repented and would have been spared, that is Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, if they had heard the preaching and seen the miracles that Jesus did, then why didn’t they? Why didn’t he send them? Why didn’t he send the miracles or somehow perform the preaching or whatever in that case? Do you have an answer?

What have we been doing for the repented? What have we been doing for the repented? So what have we been doing for the same reason about they could have repented? Otherwise, it would be considered a stiff neck, hard-hearted culture. The mighty works were done. They did not repent. But the mighty works were not intended that they should have repented. They were intended to show repentance. So God has used you to do what was meant to do, instead of say, cause the people to repent.

Exactly, and see, you can see in Brother Andrew’s answer, what does he do? He finally gets to a point in his trying to rationalize it, he just stops and says, okay, well, I mean, we know up to this point, but beyond that, we have to say, God, you know what’s going on and you know the details. Yeah. What is the point of this? This passage reminds me of the book of Romans 1, where it says, when the new God, the Lord by God, is God, and how the new God is just nature itself, God and everything, and all that.

Okay, so the entire side of the world, they obviously saw a concentration, in a way that it’s like, when, yeah, like, there could be a nation over in Africa where there’s a God And they have practical implications, and one of them is this, you know, on the subject of prayer, which is what we looked at in 1 Samuel 23, but that foundation of understanding that God knows all possibilities, how would that change and alter our prayer life as an example, right?

When we pray, we can petition God on matters that might or might not be. Think about one example that’s in my mind, because we’ve had a number of people in our church get married recently, are planning to get married soon, and these are important questions because when you’re looking at a situation like that, and you’re considering a spouse before you get married, you don’t know that person.

You don’t know that person’s heart, for one, and there’s a risk involved with that, but also you don’t know the future. You don’t know the future of that person. And so that’s where you can bring, as an example, that’s where you can bring in this knowledge of God’s knowledge of all possibilities, and you can say, Lord, You know their heart, and You know what they will do, and You know what kind of husband or what kind of wife this person would be.

Lord, please direct me. How is that any different than what David was praying? It’s not. It’s the same. It’s the same. And God can answer and direct you, but at some point, even then, however He directs you, either A or B or C, however He directs you, you never will know the outcome of that possibility that never happened. You have to trust God. You have to. And His way is best.

So basically, what are we doing? What we’re doing is we’re basically walking with just the light for each step. If we go this way or that way, if we went this way, we don’t know what would happen that way, but we have to trust God with that and just walk in the steps that He leads us day by day. And really, that kind of brings us back full circle because it brings us back to the basics of the Christian life, walking with God by faith.

Even though we get into some of these deep things, where does the practical part bring us back? It brings us back to the simple things, the basic things that every child of God can do and understand. All right. So the one thing I’ll say as we conclude this section here is this. As we’ve looked at the omniscience of God and all the things that God knows in Scripture, we must remember and keep in mind that the omniscience of God is related to and integrated with and inferred from all of His other attributes that we’ve already studied.

In other words, all of the attributes that we have studied in our study of our great God are all interrelated. And you can’t pick out one and say, this is true and that’s true and this was not and that’s not. They’re all related. If any one of them is false, none of them can be true. And if any one of them is true, then all the others must also be true.

God is one God. The unity of God’s character. You cannot tinker with the teaching about God’s character. The fact that God is eternal, like we studied before, means that He cannot be unaware of something in the past nor of something in the future, right? Because He’s eternal. The fact that God is omnipresent, which we haven’t covered yet, means that there is no place that could exist where God is not.

Therefore, there is no event that could occur without His knowledge, right? And if you said, well, there is one event that could happen that God could know about, well then that casts doubt upon God’s omnipresence and God’s eternality. They go together.

God’s omnipotence, that is that He is all-powerful, cannot be exercised unless He first knows all things upon which He must exercise His omnipotence, right? And He does. So omnipotence requires God’s omniscience. Okay, so what we want to do now is we just have a few minutes. We want to kind of turn the page and look at, we’ve looked at theology now, gotten the theology down. Now we want to look at the practical part.

And after that, we’ll look at how this relates to Jesus Christ and then how it relates to the gospel. But as far as how it relates to practice, I’ll just give you a few points. I only have today, if I get through them, that we might have three or four, but there’s more that we’ll get to later. The first one I want you to remember and connect with God’s omniscience is this.

The Bible teaches based upon God’s omniscience that God is a God of providence over all of creation and all events. God is a God of providence. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that God is the doer of all events, but the fact that God knows all events is tied into God’s providence and the way we view the events in Scripture, the way we view the events in the world, and not just the events as we see them in Scripture, but all human events, all human events.

None of them escape his knowledge and none of them, because of his foreknowledge, none of them happen without him knowing prior. Indeed, from all of eternity past. That’s his eternality. So how then does that affect the way we view the events in this world? As a believer, how do we view, you know, we can forget about all the events that might happen like for instance with Iran as an example.

The events with Iran will definitely at some point have an effect upon us, but it’s a little bit distant. What I’m talking about at this moment is the events that happen in our life. Like how do we view those events? How do we receive them? Do we receive them? Do we fight against everything that happens in our life? Or do we receive them as, God, you know, you knew.

None of these are a mystery. That’s a big difference. Listen, there are a lot of, there are many, many people who view the things that happen in their life and their prayers as an example. Things happen, they pray against those things, but they still happen and they wrestle and fight with God on those things. And I’ll be honest with you, I can’t promise that if the case were, if I were in those shoes that I wouldn’t have the tendency to do that as well.

I can’t promise that. Job is an example of a godly man who had that tendency and did that tendency. Hezekiah is another one. So, but should the knowledge of God’s omniscience, should not that kind of cast a different light upon the events that happen in our life, the news we get? Right? It does. It does. Excuse me. That doesn’t mean it takes away all the hard things about it.

It doesn’t mean those things aren’t painful. It doesn’t mean we take a passive attitude toward everything. Because some things God allows or brings into our life, he allows because he intends on using those things through our prayers to do great things in our life in response to our prayers. Did God know about that in advance? Of course he did. Of course he did. But you see what I’m saying though.

We should have, if we have a biblical view of God, we should see a God who is aware of all things that are happening in his universe. And that means in our lives. But the bigger picture is you think about the things that are happening in the world. You know, the things that are happening on the global scale with Iran, with world events, whether it’s world wars or whether it’s whatever, cosmic events even.

All of those things are part of God’s good care, knowledge and order of his universe. And to a believer, that should produce in some sense of peace. When those things are kind of contrary. So the providence of God, the providence of God. Let’s pray together.