THE LIVING WORD TRANSCRIPT

Program Air Date - 9-21-08

LESSON TITLE: "GOD IS FOR ME: GOD IS ALL-KNOWING"

WELCOME

Thank you for joining us this morning for the Living Word program. It is always a pleasure to have you with us for this time of praise and homage to God. It is our desire this morning to do all things in accordance to His Will, as we sing songs and study from His Word. May we all participate and do our part, in this time of worship to God. Let's begin our offering today with a word of prayer. Bow with me, please.

(PRAYER)

It is our privilege this morning, to sing a song of praise before God's throne. So won't you join in with the congregation at this time as we sing together, "Be Not Dismayed!"

(SONG # 1)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

I once read an article that made the declarative statement, that many of us have a "grasshopper mentality." At first I thought, "you have to be kidding," but then after reading it I said, "you better believe it." I know you starting to think what on earth is he talking about. Well let's go a little further!

Remember the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon? He said, in Proverbs 6:6, "Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise," There we have it again, bugs mentioned in God's Word, but how on earth could this have a spiritual application.

Well, think for a moment about bugs! There are certainly many bugs in this world and some are definitely fascinating creatures. In fact, if I were to ask you what was your favorite type of bug, I would probably receive a variety of replies. But the most common might be something like this, "who likes bugs!" "Well, somebody must, because even many movies in our day are centered around bugs and how they live.

So how does all this tie in to God's Word? Well let me first say, "Isn't it interesting to note that the Bible talks about many kinds of bugs to make points concerning our labors as children of God." Furthermore, isn't it interesting how we find the answers to all things in the Bible? Now let me ask you, "where does the Bible talk about grasshoppers?"

First of all, you might think of the plagues which were executed upon the Egyptians, but that's not our text today. Another mention of grasshoppers is found in Leviticus 11:22, where it talks about these insects as being good to eat. I'm sure that makes us all hungry, huh?

However, the text we want to consider this morning is found in Numbers 13, where the ten spies gave a bad report about the land of Canaan. They said, "There we saw the giants; and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." Remember this story when the twelve spies were sent to scout out the land of Canaan? When they came back only two of the twelve gave a good Godly report, that is - Joshua and Caleb. The other ten said that there was no way the Israelites could take the land of Canaan from such giants.

Now what was the difference in the two reports? Well, the ten spies had a "grasshopper mentality." They looked at things from a small, worldly and physically standpoint, lacking faith in God. However, Joshua and Caleb, looked at the facts from the standpoint of God as their leader, saying, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." What great things we could all accomplish for God, if we could start having a greater faith, and stop looking at things as grasshoppers. May we never forget that, "all things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord." We can truly do anything with God on our side.

It is wonderful to again have with us brother Brent Green, as our guest speaker of the day. Brother Brent will be leading us in our Bible study of the morning after singing our next song together. As far as our series, we are still considering the topic, "God Is For Me." Our specific lesson of the day is entitled; "God Is All Knowing." So stay with us and we will enter into this discussion in just a few minutes. Now let's sing our second hymn of the morning, it's name, "I Stand Amazed."



(SONG # 2)

LESSON

By Brent Green

Good morning! It is good again to have you with us this morning as we continue our study of the series; "God Is For Me."

If you have your Bibles and I hope you do, take them and turn to the Old Testament to the book of Psalms. There's a great passage that really outlines the study that we have this morning with the idea that God is Omniscient or that God is all knowing. In Psalm 147 beginning in verse 4 we see the Psalmist pen the following words. It says, "God counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite." When we think about God and the things that are said here, to consider who God is and what He is and His ability to know all things, it says that He counts the stars and numbers all of them. Well when we look up to the sky and we see the innumerable number of stars in our minds, the stars that we can't even count, and God has numbered them all and He knows them by name. As we look out and we call certain groups of stars by name, the Belt of Orion or the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper. We have names for those, but we don't have names for all of them. It says that God knows them all by name and He has numbered them. An infinite God, a God that has all knowledge is the one who could do such a thing.

If we consider the question in "God Is For Me," are we serving God, living for Him knowing that He knows all things? I want you to consider this morning with me that God truly does know all.

If we look at a few other verses considering first in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 20, we read, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things." The fact is that when we look at our lives and how we could be living for God that if we're just living for words and we're just putting on a phased and we're just pretending to be Christians, it says that our "heart condemns us but God is greater." Why? Because He knows we're just pretending. It says, "God knows all things." He knows our words. He knows our actions. He knows how we're living. He knows all. That is an omniscient God, one who knows all in this world.

Even in Acts chapter 15 in verse 18 there where the counsel had assembled in Jerusalem to talk about certain things and to consider the fact that the gospel had gone out now to the Gentiles in the first century. Look there at verse 18 in chapter 15 where it says, "Known to God from eternity are all His works." The fact that in God's plan, His eternal plan was to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world and that would start in Jerusalem and go forth from there and that the Word of God, the Good News would be preached to the Gentiles. God knew this. He knew His works. He knew what the plan would be even before it happened. God knows all things.

Even if you look at Romans chapter 11 verses 34-35. Here we see descriptors that somehow give us our finite minds an image of what it means for God to know all things. There in Romans chapter 11 verse 33 it says, "Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways paths finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? For who has become His counselor?" Here it poses a question of who has counseled God or who has known the mind of the Lord? Well nobody! God is so great. God is so awesome. God is so all knowing and knowledgeable that no one has counseled God. No one has set Him straight. No one has directed His path. Why? Because He does that for us. "Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Something that we cannot measure. That's why if we go back there to Solomon 1:47 it says, "The knowledge of God is infinite." I could have you this morning find the nearest door opening and have you walk half the distance to the door and stop and then from that point, walk that half the distance to the door and stop again, and continue, and you would never reach the door! That's a picture of infinity, something you will never reach, something that is infinite, something that is immeasurable. God's wisdom, God's knowledge cannot be measured. It is infinite.

That is the God that we serve, the God who knows all. The fact is God is wiser than any man who has ever lived, any man who is living right now and any man that will ever live. You put those men up there who have lived in this world, the Einsteins and the Newtons, all of those great men, all of the theories and philosophies and all the wisdom and understanding that is out there for us to know and God surpasses the most expansive amount of any wisdom or knowledge that is out there in the world today. We pale in comparison to God because God knows all.

Some of the writers in the New Testament stated this fact time and again. Paul himself in several letters he wrote acknowledge the wisdom of God.

In Romans chapter 16 and verse 27, he poses that letter to those Christians in Rome with this. He says, "To God alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever."

Who deserves the glory? Who deserves all the praise? God! God who? God who alone is wise. No one stands in the same category. No one sits on the same bench. No one is in the same sphere as God because He alone is wise. That's why He told Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 1 in verse 17, "Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible to God alone is wise. Be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Let it be. Let these things be. So what things? The fact that God is king, that He is eternal, that He has forever been, that He is immortal, that He is invisible, but also what? To God alone who is wise. No one stands in the same sphere, the same realm that God does because He is God, an all-knowing God.

There in Jude 25 we see again the parallel, the similar thought coming forth here where it says, "To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen."

And you think, "Well, where can this lesson go from here?" We understand that God is all knowing. Well, do we? The fact that we live in such a way that, and we act in such a way that says, "I don't really care what God says. I don't really care if His Holy Word is presented to me and how I should live. I'll do whatever I want to. Well how does God know best? Well, I'll do what is right in my own eyes. Well, how can this be true? I'll do what I want to." Well, do we believe that God is all knowing? Well, how are we living in this world? When we consider the fact that God knows all, that He is an omniscient God, how do we live in this world? To know that God knows all is to also know that God knows His creation.

There in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 we read the words that start out the Bibles that we have before us. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and the darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light.'" Then God said... By His own voice, by speaking forth, He brought life into being, His creation, this earth, the air that we breathe, lives that we have, the animals that we see around us, the insects, the bugs, all of nature, this whole universe, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the planets, the stars, the solar system. God spoke that into existence and He knows in His wisdom and His knowledge and understanding is what He has of His creation.

I hope you have your Bibles and if you would turn to the book of Jeremiah. What is tells us here, the prophet Jeremiah about God, and how did He bring these things into existence? How did He create everything that we see around us? In Jeremiah chapter 51 and verse 15 we see the prophet bring up the words there as he is speaking the prophecy unto Babylon. He says the following. "God has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heaven by His understanding." Who could speak life into existence? Who could create something from nothing? God Himself by His wisdom, by His understanding, by His power He brought these things into being. That is a God who knows His creation.

I want you to look and see what Jesus said in His lesson that we often entitle "The Sermon on the Mount" there in chapter 6 of the book of Matthew. When we think about God knowing His creation, I want you to think about maybe even the things you have actually made in this life. I think about the quilts that my grandmother has made. She knows the ins and outs. She knows the patterns. She knows the sewing. She knows the corners. She knows the whole thing because she made it. She put it together. Her life is in that quilt because she made that quilt. Well, think of the things that you've made in this life. Even think of your own body and the fact that you can look at your hands and you can see the scars from when you were a child. You can look at your palm and you can see the fact that the wrinkles in your hand make an "M" or whatever shape they make. You know what is before you and you know the things that you've made and you know yourself, but God even so much more so knows His creation because He made it. I want you to see what Jesus said about God's creation, speaking specifically about man and the relationships that they have, but what it says about God knowing His creation here in Matthew chapter 6. There in verse 4 actually beginning in verse 3 it says, "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." That's talking about doing your deeds. Don't do it just for the praise of men, but do it. But what does God see when you're doing your charitable deeds? The God who sees in secret. He knows what His creation is doing whether the world knows it or not, whether you're doing it at home in the privacy there of your own living room or doing it in the world, God knows the actions, the deeds of His creation.

There in verse 8 of the same chapter as we continue on, it says, "Therefore, do not be like them for your Father knows the things which you have need of. Do not be like them for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him." So don't be like those heathens, as he says there in the prior verses, that ask their prayers with vain repetition. It says, "The Lord knows what you're going to ask before you even ask it." God knows His creation. He knows the thoughts of His creation. He knows what His creation needs.

If we continue on in the same chapter there looking at verse 18, he actually reiterates the same points that he has already made here in the prior verses. He says in verse 18, "So that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in a secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." Go again who sees everything. He sees in secret what you do and He will reward you openly for your service and obedience to Him.

The final verse there is from Matthew 6 and verse 32. "For after all these things the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you need all things." God knows our needs. He knows His creation. He knows the wrinkles and the scars. He knows the hairs on your head. God knows what He made and He made you.

Alluding the fact that God knows even the hairs on your head comes actually from Matthew chapter 10 beginning in verse 29 as Jesus speaks here of what it meant for God to know His creation. Beginning actually in verse 27 it says, "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops and do not fear that kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell." Don't be afraid of the world, but fear God. Why? Why should I be afraid of God? Why should I stand in awe of His presence? Because He is my Creator. Because He knows me.

Look at what verses 29 and 30 tell us. "And are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered." "It says, "Even the sparrows have died, and God knows when His creation have fallen to the earth." He says of you, "He knows the very numbers of the hairs on your head." God knows His creation inside and out!

What does that mean for us? Living in a world that God has made and in a world that God knows all, everything that is happening, and living in a world where God knows us probably better than we know ourselves. What does that mean for us and how we live? We better remember that God is watching. There is a lesson that I learned from my mother very early on in life. She told me basically to the extent that; "There are times that you might find yourself with the opportunity to do something that I or your father will never know. You could get in trouble and it will be hidden from us and we'll never know it." But she said, "Someone will always know what you've done and what you've said and what you've thought." And who is that? The fact is that is God. God knows the heart of man. He knows our hearts. He knows what we're thinking. He knows our attitudes. He knows what we're trying to do in this life and what we are not doing and what we should be doing. God knows.

There in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8, Adam and Eve even tried to hide themselves from God, the very presence of God, but they couldn't. No one can hide from God. You cannot hide your heart from God. You cannot hide what God has put before us or we cannot hide what God has put before us from Him. We are open and naked before His eyes. That's what the Hebrew writer there in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13 tells us, a lesson that no doubt Adam and Eve had to learn firsthand. There in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13 it says, "There was no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." God knows the hearts of man. It is as if we are not just living in a glass house, but we are a glass house. God can see through us. He can see into our hearts. He can see into our minds. He knows what we are or we are not doing that we should be doing. God knows our hearts.

There in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 17, what the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at this appearance or at the height of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord does not see as man sees for man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart." The Lord looks inside man to see what man is made up of.

Psalm 44 and verse 21, "Would not God search this out for He knows the secrets of the heart." God is looking at what we are doing.

How are we living before Him? What are we doing in His sight? God knows our heart and are we living righteously before Him? God knows all. He knows His creation and He knows our hearts. What are we going to do in this world as we live before this omniscient God?

(SONG # 3 - "Soldiers of Christ Arise!")

CLOSING COMMENTS

It has been a real privilege and blessing to have you with us this morning. Won't you join us every Sunday morning at 7:30, as we commit ourselves to this service of God!

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How wonderful it is to understand that God knows everything in this world and all things about us. Furthermore, what a challenge this is for us to do what we need to and to live the life that He requires.

(Program closing)