Even older teens sometimes enjoy playing this game.
However sometimes older teens they cheat when they play this game.
Let me explain…
Illus: For example, did you hear about the teenage girl that said to her boy friend, “Let’s play Hide and Seek.”
• He said, “How do you play it?”
• She said “It is simple. I will hide and you try to find me, and if you do I will give you a kiss.”
• But he said, "What if I can't find you?"
• She said, "I'll be behind the piano in the corner."
Little kids, big kids, everyone enjoys playing “Hide and Seek.”
But listen, when it comes to FINDING GOD this is not a game that God play with us.
God wants US TO FIND HIM.
I can assure you, based on the Word of God, He does not play this game with us.
Why?
Wouldn’t it be tragic if a person sincerely wanted to find God in their life and He was hiding and they couldn’t find Him?
GOD WANTS YOU TO FIND HIM.
If you are a Christian he already FOUND YOU and now He wants you to FIND HIM!!!
But let me ask you a question, “If you found Him, would you recognize that He is the God of the Bible?
WHY DO I ASK THAT QUESTION…
Because when some folks talk about the God they serve I cannot find this God in the Bible.
The god they serve is a figment of their imagination!!!
Let me give you two examples…
(1)For example, they refer to the God they serve as the “Man upstairs!”
You cannot find such a god in the Bible!!!
He is not a MAN He is the almighty:
• Omniscient God of the Bible!!!
• Omnipresent God of the Bible!!!
• Omnipotent God of the Bible!!!
This is the God of the Bible!!!!
The god they serve is no more than a figment of their imagination of a MAN UPSTAIRS.
Such a god does not exist in the Word of God.
(2) Others when they talk about the God they serve is a god that you can fool the same way you can fool mortal man.
You cannot find such a god in the Bible!!!
Such a god does not exist in the Word of God.
Let me illustrate…
Illus: Did you hear about the woodcutter that was cutting a branch of a tree above a river and his ax fell into the river?
When he began crying, God appeared to him and said to him...
• "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter told Him that he had dropped his ax into water.
• God went down into the water and reappeared with a golden ax.
• "Is this your ax?", God asked.
• "No"
• God again went down and came up with a silver ax.
• "Is this your ax?", God asked.
• "No".
• God went down again and came up with an iron ax.
• "Is this your ax?", God asked.
• "Yes".
• God was so pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes. The woodcutter went home happily.
A few days later…
• The man was walking with his wife by the same river. She was noted to be the ugliest woman in the county. But it so happens, as they were walking she fell into the river.
• When he began crying, God appeared to him again and asked, "Why are you crying?"
• He said, "My wife has fallen into river."
• God went down into the water and came up with the prettiest woman in the county.
• "Is this your wife?", God asked.
• “Yes, I believe it is!”
There are people who think they can fool God the same way they fool mortal man. But I am here to tell you they do not know the God of the Bible.
When you get to know the God of this Bible, you find you can not FOOL GOD!
WHY? BECAUSE HE IS OMNISCIENT AND HE KNOWS EVERYTHING!!!
Psalm 139 is a wonderful Psalm for those who are looking to come to know the God of the Bible.
Let’s look at some of the attributes of God that we find in this Psalm.
In the next few weeks I will be preaching from Psalm 139 so that we can come to know the GOD OF THE BIBLE.
First, let’s look at-
I. THE OMNISCIENT GOD OF THE BIBLE
Look at verses 1-6, we read, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
Notice this God of the Bible…
• He knows when you go to bed at night
• He knows when you rise up out of bed
• He knows every thought we have
• He knows our thoughts before we even think them
• He knows every word we speak
• GET THIS…HE KNOWS EVERY WORD BEFORE WE SPEAK THEM!!!
David said this Omniscient God off the Bible that I serve Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
In other words God is too much for us mortals to comprehend His GREATNESS with our minds.
That is:
• He does not think like us
• He does not do things like us
Many times this frustrates us mortals.
Let me illustrate…
Illus: Did you hear about the man that was taking it easy, lying on the grass and looking up at the clouds?
He was identifying shapes in the clouds, when he decided to talk to God.
(1)He said to God, "How long is a million years?"
God answered, "In my frame of reference, it's about a minute."
(2)The man asked, "God, how much is a million dollars?"
(3)God answered, "In my frame of reference, it would be the same as a penny."
(4)The man then asked, "God, can I have a penny?"
(5)God said, "In a minute."
II Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
With these finite minds we cannot COMPREHEND the greatness of God.
BUT LISTEN, NOT ONLY WE CANNOT COMPREHEND GOD WE CANNOT PRESSURE GOD TO DO ANYTHING HE DOES NOT WANT TO DO.
Mankind has tried!!!
Let me illustrate this in three ways:
(1)Some have told God if you do not answer my prayer the way I want it answered I am going to quit attending church.
(2)Some have told God if you do not answer my prayer in the way I want it answered I am going to quit tithing.
(3)Some have told God if you do not answer my prayer in the way I want it answered I am going to quit serving you.
These people do not know the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible cannot be pressured!!!
God does not think like us or do things like us. He is God and He does things the way He wants them to be done and he cannot be threatened or pressured by mortal man.
King David knew the God of the Bible and he starts this psalm with the realization that God knows all about him.
What is amazing about this is that God knows all about us and HE STILL LOVES US.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger talks about a man that he thought a lot of and considered him to be a good fiend but the more he got to know him the less he thought of him. He no longer considers him to be a good friend!
Illus: One of the reasons many are seeking a divorce in their marriage is that when they were courting their mate their MATE was one thing, but after they married them they found out things they did not know about them and came to the realization they have been conned!
Illus: Often a young Christian girl will meet an unsaved young man that wants to marry her. He attends church with her regularly, he is nice and kind to her. He ask her to marry him and after she marries him this unsaved man will no longer attend church with her and he is no longer nice and kind to her. She finds out that she has been tricked in the worst kind of way by marrying him making her life miserable and she has been duped!
• In other words when she was dating him she thought he was a “Hunk,” but it turns out he was just a “Chump”.
• He was MADLY IN LOVE WITH HER WHEN HE WAS DATING HER but now he is just MAD!
And some men and women have said I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS MARRIAGE and they become very vindictive.
Let me illustrate….
Illus: A man after 17 years of marriage, he dumped his wife for a younger woman.
The downtown luxury apartment was in his name and he wanted to remain there with his new love, so he asked the wife to move out.
The wife, with a broken heart, agreed to do this, but asked that she be given 3 days on her own there, to pack up her things.
1) While he was gone, the first day she lovingly put her personal belongings into boxes and crates and suitcases.
2) On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things.
3) On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their candlelit dining table, soft music playing in the background, and feasted on several pounds of shrimp and an RC Cola.
When she had finished, she went into each room and deposited the left over shrimp and shells into the hollow of the curtain rods.
She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.
The husband came back, with his new girl friend, and all was
bliss for the first few days.
Then it started; slowly but surely. Clueless, the man could not explain why the place smelled so bad.
They tried everything to get rid of that odor:
1) They cleaned and mopped the floors
2) They aired the place out
3) Vents were checked for dead rodents
4) Carpets were steam cleaned
5) Air fresheners were hung everywhere
6) Exterminators were brought in
7) The carpets were replaced, and on it went
Finally, they could take it no more and decided to move.
The moving company arrived and did a very professional packing job, moving everything to their new home...INCLUDING THE CURTAIN RODS.
Like I said a lot of folks entered a marriage madly in love, and they left it just mad!!!
Why?
Because they found out some things about this individual they did not know before.
God is Omniscient, there is nothing that God does not know about us. NOTHING! YET HE STILL LOVES US!!!
Isn’t that scary!
We mortals do not know what is in the heart of people but God knows everything INSIDE OF US and on the OUTSIDE OF US!!!
Illus: So often when a serial killer is caught, they interview the neighbors and ask them what kind of a man he was. Many times they will say:
• Friendly
• Hard working
• One of the nicest person you would ever want to know!!!
And here they are talking about a serial killer!!!
We all find ourselves from time to time saying, “I thought I knew them, but I did not know them at all!”
But while we can fool people, we can not fool God.
We read in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Jeremiah, speaking of what is in the heart of man, says, “WHO CAN KNOW IT?”
I know someone that can, and it is the OMNISCENT GOD OF THE BIBLE. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT US.
But AGAIN here is what is amazing, GOD KNOWS EVERTHING ABOUT US but still loves us.
God is Omniscient!
A. WHAT IS OMNISCIENCE?
In theology, the doctrine of God’s omniscience means that God knows all things, past, present and future, and he knows them all at the same time.
And if that was not enough:
• He not only knows what was
• He knows what is
• He knows what will be
• More than that, he knows everything that could be but is not
You see, If God did not know the PAST, PRESENT, and the FUTURE when we pray and ask for guidance He could not give us GUIDANCE!!!
God knows everything about us…EVERYTHING! I mean EVERYTHING!
B. WHAT DOES HIS OMNISCIENCE MEAN TO US?
It means a great deal, for example:
• In Luke 12:7 He know the numbers hairs on your head.
• In Psalm 139:4 He knows your words before you speak them.
• In Psalm 139:2 He knows your thoughts before you think them.
• In Matthew 6:8 He knows your prayers before you pray them.
• In Psalm 139:2-3 He knows when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night.
• In Psalm 139:16 He knows everything you are going to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and every moment of every day until the moment of your death.
• In Matthew 12:36 He records every word you say and will some day call you to account for every careless, thoughtless, unkind and unchristian comment.
• In Matthew 6:4 He sees everything you do in secret—both the good and the bad.
• In Luke 12:3 He hears every whispered word and will one day shout them from the housetops.
No wonder David said that God knew all about Him.
C. WHAT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE DOES GOD HAVE?
When it comes to the knowledge of God, there are several things we need to consider.
Such as:
(1) GOD’S KNOWLEDGE IS INDEPENDENT, OURS IS DEPENDENT
• No one has ever taught God anything, because his knowledge is complete from the beginning.
• But our knowledge is dependent in that we must learn what we know from others.
Let me illustrate…
Illus: Eight-year-old Sally brought her report card home from school. Her marks were good...mostly A's and a couple of B's.
• However, her teacher had written across the bottom: "Sally is a smart little girl, but she has one fault. She talks too much in school. I have an idea I am going to try, which I think may break her of the habit."
• Sally's dad signed her report card, putting a note on the back: "Please let me know if your idea works on Sally because IF IT DOES I would like to try it out on her mother
We learn from each other. We can even learn a lot from children.
Illus: One little boy said, “Grandpa, I bet you I can stick this worm back in this hole that he crawled out of.”
• The grandpa said, “I bet you five dollars you can not do it.”
• The little boy took the worm in the house, and in a few minutes he came back and that worm was straight as an arrow, and he slid the worm back in the hole it came out of.
• Grandpa gave him the five dollars and said, “Son, how did you get that worm to be so straight that you could slide him back in that hole?”
• He said, “Grandpa, you know that old hair spray that grandma sprays on my hair that makes it straight and stiff? I sprayed the worm and that is why he is so straight and stiff.”
Our knowledge is dependent on others. God’s knowledge is independent.
(2) GOD’S KNOWLEDGE IS INFINITE, OUR IS PARTIAL
He knows everything that could be known, we know a tiny fragment of what could be known.
Illus: Here in the South, sometimes you can hear a song that I love to hear sung on the radio. It is called, "Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?"
That sounds odd at first, because things occur to us all the time, but it is true: nothing has ever "occurred" to God.
• God never wakes up and says, "A great idea just occurred to me."
• He knows all the great ideas all the time, from the beginning of time.
• He knows all the time what will work and what will not work.
(3) GOD KNOWS US BETTER THAN WE KNOW OURSELVES.
Specifically, he knows what is in the human heart. That is why David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23).
Someone said that God’s omniscience is a comfort to believers and a terror to unbelievers.
Why?
For two reasons.
Let’s consider-
(a) THE COMFORT OF HIS KNOWLEDGE
If he truly knows all things, and if he ordains all things, then everything that happens to me or to those I love must happen as part of His plan.
(b) THE JUSTICE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE
If God did not know everything, how could He reward those who have been faithful?
Listen, I see Christians today who are saved by the grace of God.
They will go to heaven the same way that we will go there, because we are all saved by God’s grace. But these same Christians:
• Will not invite people to church
• Will not pray for the church
• Will not give to the church
• Will not say anything nice about the church
• Will not attend God’s church regularly
To watch them live the Christian life, you would think the whole purpose of the Christian life is to sit around doing absolutely nothing, and to say something negative every now and then about someone or about God’s church.
Now listen, I love these people and God loves these people. But when we get to heaven, and they get to heaven by the same grace of God that gets us there, I am going to be upset if they get the same rewards as those who have faithfully served the Lord.
Illus: Just like us who work hard each day, we love everybody but it upsets us when we see them who are lazy getting part of our pay check through social progams
But God is Omniscient and He knows who to reward and who not to reward.
While God’s Omniscience is a COMFORT to the dedicated child of God,
C.His Omniscience is a TERROR to the unbelievers.
He knows every ungodly thing they have SAID AND DONE!
They do their evil and no lightning from heaven does not strike them down and they think they have gotten away with their evil…NOT SO!!!
They can hide behind their excuses in this life with their evil, but on the judgment day they will not be able to fool him.
Do you know this God of the Bible that is OMNISCIENT, He knows everything about you.
Conclusion:
The God of the Bible is OMNISCIENT!!! He knows everything about us.
He knows who is saved and who is not saved.
Illus: For example, you can have a football stadium of a hundred thousand people and God knows every one there that is:
• Born again
• Who thinks they are saved but not Born again
And according to Matthew 7 MANY, not some, but MANY have never been born again.
Illus: Dr. Billy Graham said the biggest harvest of the lost souls can be found in the church that thinks they are saved but have never been born again.
And you can have a congregation like this and God knows everyone that is BORN AGAIN and not BORN AGAIN!
DO YOU KNOW THE GOD OF THE BIBLE?
Today I have preached about the OMNICIENT GOD OF THE BIBLE, NEXT WEEK I WILL BE PREACHING ON THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD OF THE BIBLE.
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach this sermon after July 21, 2024. Go to Channel Lykesland and look for KNOWING THE GOD OF THE BIBLE (1 of 3)
