Our God is Omniscient (Part 7)

And now in churches like ours where a lot of those things are as a matter of intellectual facts are settled, a lot of times the doubt comes in the form of where do I stand with God, me personally? Am I actually a believer or do I have God in me? Those kinds of questions. And again they’re not new. You remember John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress but another book he wrote was Grace Abounding to the Chief of Centers. Has anyone read that book? I challenge you to read that book if you’ve not read it. But get ready because that book is thick, thick reading. It’s basically a book of him describing his long periods of doubts. And this is the same man that wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress who suffered in jail for years in Bedford, England due to his faith and his refusal to accept a license from the Church of England. And this is the same guy who dealt with all those doubts. So my point is it is not uncommon. And so the Lord gives us the assurance in Scripture. And the last thing I’ll mention before we move on is danger to the sinner because God knows all things. There’s a great danger to the sinner that God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 14. Then we turn the page and we looked at the omniscience of God as it relates to Jesus Christ. We spent several looking at several passages in the book of John specifically just if you were taking notes John 145 through 51 where Jesus demonstrated omniscience when he saw Nathaniel under the fig tree.

John 4 verse 29, the Samaritan woman said that Jesus knew her story, her moral history, her marital history, though they had never met. John 6, 64, Jesus knew the state of a person’s belief which is knowledge that only God can know. And then John 21 verse 27, Peter speaking under divine inspiration said that Jesus knew all things. And then we could also look at John 16 verse 30, 20 verse 24 and 5. There are many examples as we’ve seen there’s these examples in the book of John where Jesus exercises or appears to exercise omniscience, knowing things that are information that God that is only God’s prerogative to know. It is only possible for God to know. And that’s why it was important for us to cover the foundations before we get to that.

If we looked in the Old Testament at the various passages that describe how that only God knows these things. So if Jesus all of a sudden knows them that tells us something about him. And so we want to pick up there and we want to finish this section about Jesus and then move on to the relation of God’s omniscience to the gospel. So let’s look at Matthew 9.

And if you want to go ahead and get ahead of me a little bit we’re going to look at four verses all kind of in quick succession. Matthew 9 and then Matthew 12. So let’s look at Matthew 9 verse number 4.

If you look at verse number 3, you know following the context Jesus heals a man, a man with palsy, sick of the palsy. And then Jesus says instead of just healing him he says thy sins be forgiven thee. And so verse 3 says certain of the scribes said within themselves this man blasphemeth. But notice where they said it. They said within themselves. They did not say it out loud just as a little hint. Thinking a thing in your heart and speaking a thing out loud are the same. That’s not the way we view it. But from the Lord’s perspective it is the same.

Right? Now we think as long as we don’t let it out, Southerners are, listen I’m a child of the South but Southerners are really bad about this. Thinking a thought and being able to in certain contexts suppress the expression of that thought and then thinking a thought and then thinking a thinking that because we did not say something ugly that we have a pat. No, no, no, no, no.

Notice Jesus, look at verse 3, just look at the text. They said within themselves this man blasphemeth. The Lord did not address their words but he addressed their thoughts. See this? Which does, it’s two things. It reveals number one what I just said a minute ago which is to the Lord, the Lord’s counting our thoughts and our words basically the same. The difference is that our thoughts, rather our words when they go out of our mouth like we talked about on Wednesday night with the venom, right? The poison. They hurt other people whereas our thoughts destroy ourselves and our own heart. But so the Lord deals with that fact but secondly is because the Lord addressed something they did not verbalize. Verse 4 says, Jesus knowing their thoughts said, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? He revealed that he knew something that is only privileged information that God himself knows. He knew their thoughts. Look at chapter 12, verse number, roundabout verse number 24.

Chapter 12, verse 24 says, but when the Pharisees heard it they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. Now what’s interesting is some people have tried to describe Jesus as you know when they talk about, I was reading about this yesterday so this is why it’s fresh on my mind, the ketosis, the kenosis. I’m getting confused with the diet and the, but it’s the idea of humbling right? It’s Philippians chapter 2 where Jesus humbled himself.

That kenosis I think is the word. But and there’s a big debate you know did Jesus empty himself of his divine attributes? If so which? Or did Jesus, and I think I know the answer, but or did Jesus relinquish the independent exercise of his divine attribute? You know that’s kind of the rationalization. The truth is we can’t know all of those things with assurance. So these are kind of hypotheses about how Jesus could be a man yet exercise divine prerogative. So that’s the kind of argument that goes with it. So the question is, is it true that Jesus was not the man that goes with it? But in this case, I’m about to lose my train of thought here.

So there’s an argument about whether Jesus exercised those things or not. And in what way? Well here’s the thing you have to remember. That you don’t see the apostles under the control of the Holy Spirit knowing what people think. You don’t. You see them preaching and God knowing what they think, but you do not see the where the Bible says Peter knew the man’s thoughts and responded to it. You don’t see that.

So that’s why I think that Jesus is actually exercising divine omniscience. Not just get not just like the father is telephoning him what these people are thinking and then he is therefore responding to that note. Because the Lord could have done that with Peter or with James or John or you know during their preaching and acts. But we don’t find that. What we find is they’re preaching under the complete power. They’re filled with the Spirit of God and yet they don’t do that.

But Jesus does multiple times. That’s why I think one of the reasons I think Jesus is actually exercising omniscience. So again he knew their thoughts. Look if you would at Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2.

Mark chapter 2. Look if you would at verse number 8. And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

All right lastly go to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. Luke 6 verse number 8. Luke 6 verse number 8. The Bible says this, And he knew their thoughts, and said to the man that had their withered hand, Rise up, stand forth in the midst, and he rose and stood forth. And he rose and stood forth. Okay just again these are these are just several examples where Jesus appears to show omniscience in as much. Now this doesn’t show he knows he has omniscience.

It doesn’t say that but it does show that he knows things only God knows. Okay let’s go now to Matthew chapter 17. We’ll look at another example of what Jesus knew. Kind of another facet of it. If you want to get ahead of me a little bit we’re going to be in Colossians chapter 2 as well as Revelation chapter 2 after this. All right so Matthew chapter 17 verse number 24.

So they come to Capernaum and then the people who received the tribute money came to Peter and we’ve already studied this in our study of Matthew. But they came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? And then there’s a discussion. And then verse 26 Peter saith unto him of strangers, Jesus saith unto him then are the children free, notwithstanding verse 27. Lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast and hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up.

And when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take and give unto them for me and thee. How did Jesus know that there was a fish that had a piece of money in its mouth? How did Jesus know where the fish would be located? How did Jesus know where Peter would cast his line? That’s a demonstration. I think it clearly demonstrates a knowledge of future events.

Which is also, remember when we looked at Deuteronomy? When the warning about the false prophet and also in Isaiah. One of the marks of a false prophet is that he predicts something in the future that doesn’t come to pass. And then the Lord challenges, and Isaiah challenges the false gods by saying, declare the end from the beginning, if you know everything. And so here the Lord is telling the end at the beginning. He’s telling Peter what will happen and then it comes to pass exactly.

And this is not something that could be orchestrated or invented. You know how big the Sea of Galilee is, right? I mean how would he know where Peter would go and where the fish would be? I mean there are literally millions and millions of fish in the Sea of Galilee probably. And so again, the Lord demonstrates a knowledge of future events. That is also tied to his eternal nature, which we’ve already covered.

Now Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Now all of those things that we’ve looked at in John, with one exception which is what Peter’s statement, but even that was part of a narrative. What we’re going to see here is direct teaching, didactic part of Scripture where the Bible directly says that Jesus is omniscient. As a matter of a statement in the epistles, Colossians 2, look at verse number...

Let’s start in verse 1. Now does it say Christ is omniscient? No. In fact, I’ll bring this up, Ms. Lynn, I hope you don’t mind. So Ms. Lynn had the opportunity to talk to a Muslim the other day. And Muslims now, because of the internet and because of debates and all those kinds of things that you might have seen, Muslims now are being trained in apologetics from their point of view as well.

And so this man, probably a younger man, I assume so based upon his voice and based upon his tone, his manner, kind of contentious. So he wanted Ms. Lynn to give a verse in the Bible, not that they trust the Bible because it’s been corrupted, but I digress. He wanted her to give a verse in the Bible where Jesus said, I am God. And he claimed that if she could quote one verse in the Bible where Jesus said, I am God, then he would renounce Islam and believe in Christ.

That’s what he said. And we know that’s not what he would do. So anyway, he wanted that one verse. And there is no verse like that. There is no verse where Jesus says those words. Now we’re going to cover a verse today that says everything but that. And there are verses that, you know, you know verses right now, probably have verses in your mind that say essentially that, but not those words.

But because those words are not spoken, does that deny the truth of that thing? Well, no, because we don’t get to determine the way that God reveals himself to us. That’s his prerogative. And if he wanted to say it like that, he would have and he chose not to. He clearly could have. And this is a case. Does verse number three say Jesus is omniscient? No, but what it does say is in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That’s the same thing, Ms. Lynn. The Lord says the same thing as the statement that is our target statement. But he just uses different words to do it. And then some guy comes along and says, no, you have to say Jesus is omniscient or I don’t believe he’s omniscient. Which is, which again, the Lord uses that to reveal that the heart disposition of that person that they are not willing to receive any evidence.

Right. And so solid evidence that is refused because it’s not the evidence that I want reveals the heart is closed tight, closed shut. So this verse says that Jesus has all wisdom and all knowledge. And so that’s omniscience. All right. Lastly, Revelation chapter two. Let’s go there.

Revelation chapter two. Revelation two, verse number 23. Now, this is why context is so important. I know, well, my Bible has red letters. Yeah, but that’s something people added, you know, to help us recognize the words of Jesus. My Bible has red letters, see? So don’t hate on me. I mean, I’m not against red letters. But the danger of red letters is thinking the red letters are more important than all the rest, which they’re not.

You say Jesus words are not more. No. See, see. They’re not more important. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Okay. There’s your proof text. Okay. But the danger with red letters is thinking that these are more important. But when you look at this passage, you have to get the context because in the beginning and verse number in chapter one, Jesus prepares John by saying, I have letters. I’m sending letters to these seven churches.

And then in each introduction to each letter of the seven, the Bible says, and to look at verse number 23, the introduction to verse number 23 is the letter to the church in Thyatira, verse number 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira, these things saith the Son of God. Who’s that? It’s Jesus, right? Who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire in his feet are like fine brass.

So if you follow the context besides the red letter, even if it’s black letter, you can still find out who’s speaking in verse 23. Because in verse 23, he says, the Son of God says, and I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the rains and hearts. See that? Omniscience. And I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

We talked about that last time, remember? The practical effect of God’s omniscience is he will judge because he sees all things. Not partial judgment, full judgment. Every thought, motive, deed, word, everything because he is omniscient, right? And here Jesus claims that attribute on himself in his own words to John. Now, all of these things combine reveal that Jesus claims omniscience for himself and is by that claim very God, right?

Again, I’ve said this over and over. We’re on like the fourth or fifth attribute we’ve looked at. And every one that we’ve looked at from eternity to, what are the other ones we, aseity, and I’m not going to be able to think. Yeah, I don’t think we’ve covered that one yet, but yeah, that’s included. All of those things are woven into a tapestry that is the identification of who Jesus is.

He is God in the flesh. He is very, very God. All right. Okay, so let’s move on to the last part. We still have time. We should be able to get it finished. The relationship of God’s omniscience to the gospel. The relationship of God’s omniscience to the gospel. I’d like you to go to Matthew 26. We’ll just look at several of these verses. Let’s look at Matthew 26. We’re going to be in end of Luke as well and then Acts and 1 Peter, Matthew 26.

Matthew 26, verse number 24, speaking of Judas, our Lord speaks here. In verse 23, he said, He that dipeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. Verse 24, the son of man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Wow, what a statement.

There are no, as far as I’m aware, there are no statements. This grave spoken of anyone. Most of the time the Lord says, I’ll just like, I’ll judge you, you know, and I’ll take you from the earth or cut you off or whatever. This is saying for Judas is scared it was better if he had never lived. That’s powerful. But notice what it says about Christ himself. He says, the son of man goeth as it was written of him.

Now we know that Judas of his own volition, influenced by the devil, betrayed Christ into their hands. Right, we know that for the silver. We know that. But yet, even though that is true, simultaneous with that is the reality that it was written that Jesus would be betrayed into the hands of sinners. You see both of those things at the same time. Judas doing his thing and it also being written.

Do you think Judas was thinking to himself when he was trying to get the work out of way to betray Jesus in the absence of the multitude? Do you think he was thinking to himself, how can I do this and fulfill the scriptures? No. Judas was not, definitely not thinking that. Judas was only thinking of money. And yet by doing it, he fulfilled something that had already been determined as recorded in scripture.

Look at Luke chapter 24, Luke 24, verse 46. Verse 46. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooves Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. Notice, thus it is written. So what that tells us, because of when we know these things were written, that this was something that God had planned and determined prior. Long prior. However it played out in human terms, it was planned and determined by God and His counsel long, long before.

Okay, everybody see that? Look at Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Verse 22 says this, You 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 him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

I do not believe that God moved the hands of these wicked men to do this to Jesus Christ. I don’t believe the scripture teaches that. But the fact that they did it against him did nothing to undermine or thwart or in any way nullify the thing that the verse says that God had determined by his counsel and foreknowledge to be done. You see what I’m saying? Again you see both at the same time. You see man doing what man does and God long before determining that thing to be done.

Last one is 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter number 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse number 19. 1 Peter 1 verse 19 says this, But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who, this is Christ now, verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. For ordination. Now in all of these verses, Matthew 26, 24, Luke 24, 46, Acts 2, 23, 1 Peter 1, 20, what is the subject? The subject is Christ, the cross, the gospel.

That is the focus of these things. But notice in those verses we read we saw that God predetermined, foreordained in his wisdom, in his counsel, and in his knowledge that those things that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ would be done. And yet in real time, in history, we saw them performed by people who had no knowledge or interest in any of that fact. In other words, they were doing their own will.

And the Lord gave them liberty to exercise that will and that did nothing to thwart God’s plan in the matter. And so here’s the point I want to get in relation to the gospel, God’s omniscience in relation to the gospel. The gospel was not a contingency. That’s what I want you to see. What the Lord Jesus Christ did for us in his going to the cross was not like plan B in God’s mind.

It was not plan B where, you know, and sometimes, honestly, sometimes people with a straw man argument describe people of our doctrinal position as, well, we believe that, you know, basically God has tried all these various ways to save man and has failed in each time. And therefore, you know, so he finally got to the cross and that worked. That’s ridiculous. That’s ridiculous. This thing with what Jesus Christ did for us, him bearing our sins, bearing the sins of the world on him was something that God planned from before he created the world.

Right? It was not a contingency. It was his original plan. It was his original plan. He never failed at his attempts to save man. But there nevertheless, there does exist a tension, what we might call a tension between what God knows and what he determines to be done. For sure, God allows men to exercise their will and they do. And the only other option to that, no matter the rhetoric that might be used, the only other option is that God caused these men to do that and thereby is the author of what they do.

And you can deny that, but it is still, that is the natural and logical outcome if God is the one who determines all the things that man does. What I think the Scriptures bear out in this, and you see several examples of it, that God was not pleased with what Judas did and the Romans did and the Jews did. He was not. They were not things that God wanted, in a moral sense, wanted them to do. Yet, the Lord used the wicked acts of men to accomplish something he had determined would be done.

That’s a tension that’s hard to make sense of, to be honest with you, but it exists. It’s real. It’s real. And I would go so far as to say any effort to try to fully harmonize that is destined for failure. And that’s not a cop-out. I think the Scriptures bear out that both exist simultaneously. And so we can say like Paul, oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.

And that’s Romans 11 verse 33. If you read the context of that, that’s the same thing. It’s talking about Israel and how their rejection led to the salvation of the Gentiles. So, all right, let’s go a couple more things. We’ll be done. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Verse 23. In this picture of the Lord at the judgment, when those stand before him, verse 23 says, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work in equity.

How does that relate to the omniscience of God, which is God knows everything? Same word. It is not that God is unaware of these condemned. It’s not that he’s unaware of them. Someone shows up and says, oh man, you’re not in the book. I don’t know. Who are you? It’s not that. He is fully aware of them. And we’ve seen it in our study of God’s omniscience.

He is aware of every thought, every motive, every word and every work that these people standing in front of him have or have had. Yet the Bible still says, I never knew you. And of course, we know that’s not referring to knowledge in the absolute sense. It’s referring to knowledge, the personal knowledge when a person who God knows comes to know God, when they are known of God.

In fact, Galatians actually uses that phrase. It says, but when ye knew God, or rather are known of God. So did God not know us? No, God knew us the whole time. But in the sense of a personal knowledge, that happens when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I think is, is this is related to the Lord knows them that are his that we looked at last time.

It is related to a personal knowledge. Last thing I want you to see is this. Let’s look at Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. So related to the gospel, omniscience of God related to the gospel. First thing, the gospel was not a contingency. It was God’s plan. It was his determination. And that’s all related to his foreknowledge. There are people that God does not know. Matthew chapter 7, in that sense.

And then lastly, Jeremiah 31. Part of the new covenant that God made with Israel, of which new covenant we have been blessed to be a part of in Christ. In verse number 34, notice this. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. How can a God who is omniscient not remember anything? Right? Right. You nailed it. You nailed it. This is repeated in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12, and Hebrews chapter 10, verse 17. You know what this is? This is an act of God’s will. Right? This is an act of God’s will. Can I explain this fully?

No. And again, that doesn’t surprise me. The incomprehensibility of God, we talked about that in our class, right? It doesn’t surprise me there’s something about God I don’t understand. And this is one thing. How can God who knows all things forget it? Forget something. Well, what he’s doing is he’s choosing to forget it. Listen to this, Daniel 4.35. This is the words of Nebuchadnezzar now. He says this, And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou?

If therefore God determines not to remember something, that thing being our sin, it is forever forgotten. Amen. Amen. That’s assurance. It’s not that something’s going to come up and God’s going to be like, Oh, no. God is an act of his will determined not to remember it. So he’s not going to remember it. So that’s what he said. Amen.