Our God is Omniscient (Part 6)

And so I would say we’ve covered a lot of ground theologically. And then we’ve also seen how that God’s omniscience is woven into his other attributes as well, his eternity, his omnipresence, etc. And then we also, last week we were looking at the relationship of God’s omniscience to our practice or the practical aspect. And we’ve seen God’s creation, or rather God’s omniscience in his providence in creation and events that happen in his world.

We’ve seen God’s omniscience related to the certainty and completeness of judgment. We’ve seen it, God’s omniscience related to the foolishness of hypocrisy. And then we’ve seen God’s omniscience related to encouragement to the secret and sincere saint. And the last two things we covered last week were God’s omniscience related to a warning to a saint who is sinning. And then lastly, God’s omniscience related to comfort to the suffering saint, because we know that God knows and remembers our frame that we are but dust.

And so that’s a comfort to us knowing that God knows our sufferings, just like he knew Job’s sufferings. We have a couple more things though to cover in this, the omniscience of God related to And that’s what we want to cover this morning. And then we’ll get into the omniscience of God related to Jesus Christ. And hopefully we can get through all of these. And so we’ll just have a little bit left next week.

So let’s pray together. Our Father, we thank you for your wisdom and your grace. We thank you for your word and the opportunity here to study your word. And we do pray, Father, that you would give us understanding and wisdom as we study your word that we would see what it says very plainly, that we would embrace it, that we would do it, Lord. And Lord, that these things not only would fill our heads, but will fill our hearts and give us the spiritual edification and encouragement that we need.

Lord, help each person here. I pray that you would be the teacher and that your word would give us the instruction, would give us the reproof or the comfort, whatever it is that we need. And as we study these things, it would help us to see how great you are in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So how does God’s omniscience help us if we are a saint, if someone is a saint who is doubting?

This is one of the ways that God’s omniscience is a help to us. And so let’s look at 2 Timothy chapter number 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse number, verse number, let’s look at verse 16. 2 Timothy 2 verse 16 says this, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat, so we’re talking about their word referring to the babblings, referring to the false teachers, the spreaders of lies.

Their word will eat as doth the canker, of whom is Hymenius and Philetus, who, now this is what they taught, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. You know, there are some people that say that the coming of Christ has passed already, that you just switch out the subject, that they’re using it, that it’s not the resurrection is past, but the coming of Christ.

And in fact, you could say that, you could actually say that the resurrection in this verse is not referring to the resurrection of Christ, but to the resurrection of the body. So in that way, it is related to the coming of the Lord, and there were people in this day that said that’s already happened. And what does that do? What did that do? It says it overthrew the faith of some.

In other words, it, because a doctrinal, someone was pushing and teaching a false doctrine, that had a direct relationship to the practical lives of these Christians. Their faith was overthrown, the hope of the resurrection, which is part of the coming of Christ was taken away. And then what that did is that was a fundamental and a basic shift in that person’s outlook toward the Lord, in their hope toward Christ.

This is why, and there are people, absolutely, in our day, which we’ll actually start to cover this this morning, and especially tonight, this as we go into Matthew chapter 24, which is about the coming of the Lord. There are people that teach that the coming of Christ has already happened. That it happened in AD 70, spiritually. What effect does that error have upon a person’s practical outlook?

It absolutely has an effect upon the hope of the Christian. And this is why we talk about eschatology, that is the teachings of scripture regarding the last things. That is not just theological, you know, preacher talk, you know, just theological stuff to fill up a theology book. No, it has direct relationship to our outlook. And that’s why we need to be dead on. But that’s what’s happening here.

Verse 18, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. So we’re on the practical truths now, verse 19. So verse 18, these guys were not believers. You’ll see why I say that in just a minute. Or there is doubt anyway that they were believers because of verse number 19. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal.

The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So the Lord knoweth them that are his, which in this context casts doubt upon whether Hymenaeus and Philetus were actually gods, whether they were actually Christ’s, because they were pushing a grossly erroneous doctrine. So the Lord says, because there are false teachers that are, they are in our day, they are actually multiplying.

As we approach the coming of Christ, false teachers are multiplying, which is exactly what the Bible says will happen. It’s tough to know, especially when you’re talking about this doctrine or that doctrine, where do these people stand? Are they saved? Are they not? When they talk about, as an example, Brother David mentioned someone, I don’t know who this person is, but he mentioned someone on Wednesday night who is dabbling with Anglicanism.

And why? Who knows why? Anglicanism is like a very small half-step from Roman Catholicism. And it has and embraces some of many of the same doctrines. Where does that person stand with God? That’s a tough question, right? When you start considering those kinds of questions like that, that’s a tough question to answer. And I think the biblical answer is this. Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands assured.

That is, even though we have people who are pushing false doctrines, the foundation of God remains solid. God knows those who are His. You know what? You think about it. That’s something that only God knows. I might be the pastor of the church, but I don’t know your personal relationship to God for certain. I certainly hope everyone in here knows that, or everyone in here is and does belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and you are His.

I certainly hope that’s the case. But there’s no, it’s impossible for me to know that. This is why it is foolish for us to declare to another person, you are saved.

How can I know that? How could I possibly know that? The Lord knows those that are His. Now we can examine the scriptures and we can say, alright, the scriptures say this, and you explain the scriptures to a person, but ultimately it must be not me but God who convinces and shows and demonstrates to that person that they belong to Him. So there’s only two people that know that you are saved.

Who is that? God and you. No third party, not even between Brother Wayne and Miss Linda. They don’t even know that for absolute certainty, even though they’re married and have been married for a long time. Because it’s not possible to know that. God knows those that are His. I don’t say that to cast doubt, obviously not. I don’t know for certain that my wife is saved. There’s no mark on her.

I believe with all my heart she is. But that’s short of certainty. I know that I’m saved more than I know that she’s saved than I think that she’s saved. And it’s just a simple limitation of our knowledge. But that limitation does not apply to God. That’s what this verse is saying. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows who’s inside and who’s outside. He knows.

And okay, so that’s the first principle we can take away from it. We have to be careful of making declarations about, listen, especially with your children. Little kids, you need to be very careful. There are people that think that they’re saved because their mom or their dad told them that they are saved, even though they don’t have no idea of the truth of that matter. They weren’t there or they don’t recall the time when they personally put their faith in Christ.

And unless you’re afflicted with dementia or Alzheimer’s, you had to be at least cognizant in order to exercise faith in Christ. You had to be at least of age and cognizant to do that. And so if someone is in a case like that where, oh, well, mom said that I prayed the prayer when I was whatever, well, so? Mom doesn’t know you’re saved. I mean, my kids, I mean, I pray for my kids all the time and I believe my children are saved.

They have made professions of faith in Christ, but there’s no way for me to know that. Right? I want God to show them that and make sure that you can give them that assurance. And so the warning for children is be very careful. Let the Lord give your child assurance of their salvation. Let the Lord do that. And he can do it. He can absolutely do it.

The second thing, though, regarding this omniscience related to God knows those that are His is the comfort that it gives to us. Look at 1 John 3. 1 John 3. Verse 18. Verse John chapter 3, verse number 18 says this, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.

Okay, you see that? Assure our hearts before whom. God, you see this? It’s the same principle we saw before, right? You and God. Your personal salvation and the assurance of it is a matter between you and God. Assure our hearts before Him that we are of the truth. Okay, verse 20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. There’s omniscience.

But if our, beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. So in verse 19, he’s talking about assurance of our hearts before God. Verse 20 says, but what if your heart does not have assurance, if our heart condemns us? So here’s the thing. If you have doubt concerning the, the, whether you are in the truth or not, does that mean you’re not?

No. You see that verse? That verse shows us that it is possible for a believer to doubt whether they’re in the truth, whether they’re truly born again. That is a possible thing. Why do I say that? Because I have heard preachers say that if you have a doubt at any point in your Christian life, it just means you’re not saved. Well, that’s not a biblical idea at all.

Look at that. Look at the verse. If our heart condemn us, listen, if you or I doubt our salvation, that is not a mark that we are not truly born again at all. In fact, the comfort is that does nothing to what God knows, right? God knows whether I know or not. And if God knows that I am his, even if I am entertaining doubt in my heart, I am still, listen, I am still just as secure as if I knew for certain.

In no way is the security diminished at all because of my doubt. See, this is something that Arminianism that has come via like the Pentecostal movement, Charismatic movement, and some other Arminian groups, this idea that you continue to be saved so long as you hold out, as you continue to believe. What happens if my faith fails? Well, God’s promise doesn’t fail because listen, my salvation is not contingent upon my belief forever.

It’s contingent upon the promise of God. For if the promise of God was not there, then I can believe whatever I want to believe and it won’t matter. Our salvation is secure because of God’s promise. Because sometimes our faith will waver, and it does. Yeah, were you going to say something? Oh, okay. Yeah, dependent upon your own assurance. But see, and listen, and this applies to me personally because I had a period of my life where I had very serious doubts, and part of that had to do with my earlier experiences in Christianity and churches and things, and that led to confusion and confusion and confusion in Christianity and churches and things, and that led to confusion later.

But when I read these verses, I got great comfort, to be honest with you. Because even if doubt lingered, yet somehow under that was a certain assurance from verse 20 that even if doubt was there, God didn’t doubt. I might not know, but God knows. And that’s good enough, right? And eventually the Lord used these kinds of things to completely eradicate all doubt from my mind about my own personal salvation, to give me full assurance.

But part of the way he did that was through verses like verse 20 and 21. So, to the self-doubting saint, God’s omniscience brings comfort. Despite what the saint himself might not know, he can have assurance of what God knows, he can have assurance in that he knows that God knows of him. And this is part of the way that we get that assurance that we desire. All right, does anybody have anything else you’d like to mention on that?

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good example. John entertained doubt, but that did not change his relationship to God because that was dependent upon God’s knowledge, not his knowledge. So, man, there’s such a comfort in that because we know we’re like this all the time. We are. I mean, even if it’s not on this particular subject, but on like everything, you know, we’re hot, we’re cold, you know, we’re up, we’re down, we’re in, we’re out, you know, we’re always like that.

And yet God is steady. Right? He’s steady. And that can give us some level of comfort. All right, what we’re going to do now is I had one more thing to cover, but I think we’ve covered it, and that was, I’ll just mention it from Ecclesiastes 12-14, And the last point under the omniscience of God related to our practice is this. There is danger to the sinner.

If God knows every work and will bring every work into judgment, that should bring a thought of fear to someone who is in danger of that judgment. That should be a, you know, that’s one thing people who, without Christ, they don’t know what they’re doing. You know, if you follow news at all, there’s always some scandal, some guy who is apologizing for something that he did not apologize for when he did it, but only when it came to light did he apologize for something that he did not apologize for when he did it.

So that’s one thing. And then the other thing is that God is always on the side of the sinner. And that’s why we’re talking about the danger of the sinner. But only when it came to light did he apologize for it publicly because all of the effects had happened and he was outed. Well, the reality is the omniscience of God says that every person, and especially every unconverted person, needs to be in fear that God’s going to out it all, every bit of it, and even the things that people publicly do not know.

All right, so let’s turn the page and go to the omniscience of God related to Jesus Christ. All right, go to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. We’ll spend a few minutes in John.

Now, in the Gospels, there are, not just in the Gospels, there are a number of times in which Jesus, our Lord, appears to have exercised omniscience. Now, this is during his earthly ministry. He shows and demonstrates that he has omniscience, okay? Because he knew information, he showed that he knew information that is only and can only be known to God. And that’s why we spent so much time looking at the theology.

Because that is the basis for what we’re going to see about the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 1, verse number 45. The Bible says this, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Now, how would Jesus know that Nathaniel was a guileless individual? See, that’s a character trait of the heart. Besides that, he had never met Nathaniel. Let’s keep reading. Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?

So, obviously, Jesus had never met Nathaniel because Nathaniel had never met Jesus. Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Now, notice what, so he saw Nathaniel, he was, he perceived he was aware of Nathaniel. He knew of Nathaniel before he actually met Nathaniel. And notice how Nathaniel responds. What is Nathaniel’s conclusion when Jesus appears to demonstrate omniscience?

He knew him before he knew him. And he knew about him, his inner man, before, you know, without having met him. Look at what he says. Nathaniel answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Now, notice in verse number 45, Philip findeth Nathaniel and he says, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. But Nathaniel’s not saying that down in verse 50, 49 rather.

Nathaniel’s saying this is the Son of God. So, Nathaniel did not get his information from what Philip said. Nathaniel got his information deduced directly from what Jesus said. You know why he said the Son of God? Because Jesus just showed that he knew things about Nathaniel. It was not possible for him to know, which is an exercise of a divine prerogative. So that’s how he understood Jesus’ deity, Jesus’ deity.

Notice also verse 50, or verse 48 rather, he says, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Remember we talked about when we were going through the theological part, we talked about sight in scripture is related to God’s omniscience. God talks about all the things that he sees. And you see it in this, no pun intended, you see it in this passage as well.

Look at John chapter 4. Let’s look at the next one, John chapter 4. Verse 28, When the Lord is speaking to the Samaritan woman, again, the Jews did not go through Samaria. And Jesus stops in Samaria, and by chance this woman comes, this woman does not know Jesus, Jesus does not know this woman. And notice they have this conversation, the woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

She says, Is not this the Christ? Notice her conclusion also. The woman’s conclusion is, this is he. Because he knows, why does she think that Jesus is the Christ? It’s simple, because he demonstrates omniscience. He demonstrates omniscience. He knew about this woman though he had never met her. He knew her history, her moral history, and all of those things. Chapter 6 of John, look at that if you would.

Chapter 6 of John. John 6 verse number 64. Look at verse 60 for the context, John 6 verse 60. Many therefore of his disciples when they had heard this, this said, this is an hard saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he saith unto them, Does this offend you? Now drop down to verse 64. He’s speaking still to his disciples, he says, But there are some of you that believe not.

Alright, pause a second. You remember what I just said a few minutes ago, right? From 2 Timothy 2.19, that God is the only one who knows those who are his. That’s privileged information that he does not reveal to us. Here, notice what the Lord is saying. He’s saying, There are some of you that believe not. So belief is something that’s never done with the mouth, although that’s the evidence of it, but it is done with the heart.

Someone could say, I believe, I’m saved, whatever. They could say whatever, and that does not change the fact of their heart condition before God, which only God knows. But Jesus says, You don’t believe. Some of you don’t believe. The only way he can say that is if he knows their heart. And that’s something only God knows. And that’s exactly what he’s showing, that he has knowledge that only God can know.

It goes right with 2 Timothy 2.19. Look at chapter 21 of John. Chapter 21 of John. And then I have a couple of verses I’d like somebody to read. Brother Ari, can you read John 16.30? And Brother Ben, can you read John 20, verse 24 and 5 in just a minute? All right, we’re going to look at John 21. John 21.

John 21. This is the passage where Jesus is saying to Peter, Lovest thou me? And he says, Yes, yea Lord. And then he says it again. He says, Yea Lord. And he says it a third time. Verse 17. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest.

What does it say? All things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep. Peter under, being recorded by John who is present, Peter under divine inspiration says, By this point, now at the beginning I don’t think they understood this, but by now after the resurrection of Christ they know, Jesus claims to be and indeed exercises the attributes of God. And so Peter announces, he says, Lord thou knowest all things.

Like, you know my heart better than I know my heart. You know that I love you. Right? Now read, what’s the one I asked you Ari? Read it for us brother. Notice that. They say first, now we know that thou knowest all things. That is, we know that you’re omniscient. And the result is, therefore we believe that you came from God. In other words, you’re divine. Okay?

Go ahead brother. 20 verse, John 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse 20, verse, John 20, verse 24 and 5. Alright, that’s not the right verse. Let me see if I can track it down. What’s wrong with you, Ben? Might be like Matthew or something. No. Alright, anyway, let me check Matthew real quick. Matthew 20, 24. Let’s see. No, that’s not it either.

Alright, I have to get back with you. It is another passage where Jesus demonstrates his omniscience. Okay, so let me ask you a question. What is the theme of the book of John? He tells you, so it’s not hard. It’s at the very end of John. What is the theme? What? What’s that? Yeah, it’s in the last chapter of John. He says, these things have been written unto you that you might believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God and that believing my life through his name.

So it’s actually both of those. Yeah. I have a question that I’m not arguing with you. I just wanted clarification. I’ve heard that Jesus didn’t do a single miracle. I’ve heard a preacher say that. I knew what you were going to ask. Yeah. And I believe that miracles demonstrate his duty because all the prophets of this world are not going to be able to do miracles. So I’m just going to ask you a question.

What is the theme of the book of John? What is the theme of the book of John? What is the theme of the book of John? What is the theme of the book of John? What is the theme of the book of John? What is the theme of the book of John? He did not set aside his deity. He did not set aside His deity. His divine prerogatives, yeah, yeah, the exercise of His divine prerogatives is what they usually say.

Here’s the thing, here’s the thing. First of all, the Bible does not say that. That is a deduction from Philippians chapter 2 in the verse that says He humbled Himself, but it is not directly stated. Now to add, I don’t know that I’m going to be able to answer your question directly, sorry. But I don’t know that anybody can answer that question directly because that’s one of those mysteries.

But what we do know though is there were some things that Jesus apparently did not know at certain times. What’s that? What do you mean? Like the one I’m thinking of is when He said, no man knows the day or the hour of the coming of Christ. And that’s His own coming. That is hard to wrap your brain around. Yeah? I’m saying that all things I receive are from God.

But that’s... But your premise is that He laid aside His divine prerogatives is a fact. And to what degree that is a fact. That’s the question that we’re trying to address. So you can’t assume that when you’re trying to get to the answer. Yeah. Yeah. Some people have probably said, and can it be? But yeah, we’re not going to split hairs over it. Yeah, brother?

I think that paradox is present in the text of Scripture. That Jesus obviously knows things that are only God’s knowledge. That’s what I’ve been showing you, right? And that’s clearly demonstrated. And then there are other times where He apparently doesn’t. So then He also did miracles that were never performed by man, which is actually directly pointed out in some of the gospels. Where He says, no man ever did this type of thing.

So that’s the point I’m trying to make. Did you have something? That’s true. 100% man, 100% God. So it’s like, just depends on which point of view you’re looking at. You know, that’s a good point. So here’s the thing I want to say, and we’ll finish with this, about the book of John. You notice all of these examples of Jesus exercising the divine attribute of omniscience that we’ve looked at so far.

That’s not all. We’ll have to pick up next week. But these, John 1, John 4, John 6, John 21, John 16, John 20. You notice how they’re all in John? And you don’t see as many of them in the other gospels. It’s in John. You know why? Because these demonstrations of his omniscience are the evidence of his divine nature, his deity, which is John’s purpose for to be the Son of God is to be equal with God.

So that’s what I wanted to show you. We’ll pick up there and look at the rest of them next week. Let’s pray together.