The God Who Knows It All - Part A

Whatever it is that you think about God determines what you think about everything else. If you get God wrong, you have everything else wrong. Because whatever you think about God will determine what you think about yourself, what you think about other people, what you think about the world, what you think about what is right and what is wrong.

A.W. Tozer was right when he said, whatever a person thinks about God is the most important thing about that person. Have you noticed that children know everything?

When you tell them something, they respond, I know. Today on Connect with Skip Heiseck, Skip talks about the all-knowing nature of God and how to continue growing in your understanding of Him. But first, we want to share about where you can hear even more biblically solid teachings from Skip. Well, I want you to know that because of support from listeners like you, our media ministry is expanding. Our weekly half-hour TV program is continuing to grow. In addition to our weekend broadcast on the worldwide Hillsong Channel, we are now being seen each week on the Trinity Broadcast Network. Thank you for your donations that make this expansion even possible.

It's a joy to see the teaching of God's Word reach even more people. Here are the viewing details for Hillsong and TBN. Tune in to connect with Skip Heiseck on the Hillsong Channel on Saturdays at 4 30 p.m. Mountain or catch it on TBN on Sundays at 5 30 a.m. Eastern.

Check your local listings. Now, we're in Psalm chapter 139 as we dive into the teaching with Skip Heiseck. I want to read something that a gentleman wrote to Dear Abby. Dear Abby, my wife insisted that I put the Christmas lights up this weekend. I went out of my way taking valuable time away from watching football games to go out into the cold and put them up.

Now, rather than being appreciative of my efforts, she has stopped talking to me. Signed, confused. But you need to know the rest of the story and he sent a picture in to show you the rest of the story. So, that's a little bit different, isn't it? Well, yeah, he hung up the Christmas lights in a blob on one nail. Isn't that great? Now, the reason you're laughing is because you learned something.

You thought that this guy went all around the house and put up the lights when, in effect, he did not do that. And so you laughed because you learned the whole truth. You gained more knowledge by seeing the picture versus just hearing what was written. And we're always learning. That's how we know things. We know because we learn things over a course of time by research or experience.

Very different than God does. And what we learn, we accumulate over time. In fact, there's a lot of stuff in our minds that is just worthless information.

It could be lyrics of songs or movie lines or facts about celebrities. It's not meaningful information, but it's stuck up there. And it's funny how people love trivia. And there's a big market for it. It's because it's interesting.

Here's a sample. I bet you didn't know that no piece of paper can be folded more than seven times. Don't try it now, but you can go ahead and try that sometime. I bet you didn't know that donkeys kill more people every year than plane crashes.

I'm never getting near a donkey again. I bet you didn't know that the liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. Crazy stuff. I bet you didn't know that you burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. It's all that snoring. I bet you didn't know that a Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight. Or I bet you didn't know that most dust particles in your home are made from dead skin. That's gross.

I bet you didn't know it takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. You probably did not know most of those things. If you knew them, you're a scary person.

Or you're hard to be around. People that know a lot can be intimidating. Have you ever thought how intimidating it might have been for the disciples to be around Jesus, who knew everything, even what people were thinking? Like the time they brought the paralytic to Jesus and Jesus looked down at him and said, son, your sins are forgiven. And the Bible says they began to think within themselves. This man speaks blasphemies. And the Bible says, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why is it that you think evil thoughts, evil in your heart?

Evil in your heart? They realized Jesus knew it all. So imagine knowing someone who knows everything.

You do. That's your God. But let me put it to you a different way.

Imagine knowing someone who knows everything about you and loves you anyway. That's the vantage point that we approach this from. Psalm 139 describes the God who knows it all. And this Psalm is a treasure trove in our series, The Biography of God.

It's what Charles Spurgeon called one of the noblest of the sacred Psalms. It's because it highlights four unique characteristics of God. It tells us about his knowledge, his presence, his power, and his holiness. It tells us that God is omniscient, all-knowing. God is omnipresent, always everywhere. God is omnipotent, ever and always and ultimately powerful, and he is uniquely holy.

And why all of this is important is for this reason. Whatever it is that you think about God determines what you think about everything else. If you get God wrong, you have everything else wrong. Because whatever you think about God will determine what you think about yourself, what you think about other people, what you think about the world, what you think about what is right and what is wrong.

A.W. Tozer was right when he said, whatever a person thinks about God is the most important thing about that person. That's why theology is essential to meaningful life. You get God wrong, you get everything wrong.

But don't let me scare you away. This is not a theology lecture per se. David in Psalm 139 takes the theology off the top shelf and takes it down to his personal level. So what we're going to do today is look at the first six verses of Psalm 139 going from wide to narrow, from general to specific, from theological to personal, because that's what David does.

So that is what we are going to do. We're going to look at God's knowledge stated, his knowledge studied, more in depth by David, and then finally his knowledge surrendered too. So let's begin by looking at the first six verses as a whole, but I do not want you to look down at your Bibles and read along. In fact, I'd like you to close your eyes or keep them open if you prefer, but let me read it to you because I'm going to read it to you in a version that you don't have on your lap probably this morning. I want this to fall on fresh ears. I want you to get a fresh take on it before we delve into the familiar.

Here's some select verses from this Psalm. God, investigate my life. Get all the facts firsthand. I am an open book to you. Even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back. I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you are there.

Then I go up ahead and you're there too. Your reassuring presence coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful. I can't take it all in. Your thoughts, how rare, how beautiful. God, I'll never comprehend them.

I couldn't even begin to count them any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you. David comes to an understanding that he articulates. We call it, in the general theological sense, God's omniscience.

Have you heard of that term before? God is omniscient. That's a theological word, granted. It simply means God knows it all.

It comes from two Latin words stuck together, omni, which is all, and scientia, which is knowledge. God has all knowledge. And what this means is that God, by nature, without the need to learn anything, knows everything past, present, and future. He's the ultimate knower in every field of knowledge.

God knows more astrology than any astronomer, more biology than any biologist. God knows more about counseling than the best counselor, more theology than the most astute theologian. I've heard women say, I don't understand men. Or men say, I don't get women. Amen. But God does. God understands both men and women, has written about them both, thus our best approach to men or women is from the lens of this book. By the way, God even understands your teenager.

Can you imagine that? Now, man's knowledge, mankind's knowledge, it is accumulated knowledge. It's the product of tedious learning and research or experience. And every now and then I read something that tries to elevate just how smart we are as a human race. For instance, I read that mankind is accumulating knowledge exponentially at such a rapid rate that it was represented this way. If you took all of the accumulated knowledge of mankind from the beginning of recorded history until the year 1845 and you represented that by one inch, so one inch depth represents now all of man's accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to the year 1845, one inch, then what we've learned from 1845 to 1945, a mere 100 years, is represented by three inches. And what we've learned from 1945 to 1975 would be the height of the Washington Monument in Washington DC.

Amazing how brilliant we are, they say. It is true we know more today than at any other time in history. In fact, half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. Knowledge doubles on earth every 18 months. So I don't know what the accumulated knowledge would be from 1975 to our year, but you get the idea. It is growing exponentially.

It's way up there. But David would say, no matter how great it is, you compare that to what God has always known and it's like, whatever. It's hardly anything at all.

It's insignificant. We had to learn it. God's knowledge is immediate, instantaneous, comprehensive, and fully retentive.

Now let me flesh that out. What God knows, he knows without any kind of painstaking research. What God knows, he does not have to move from one logical premise to another logical premise to another premise to finally a conclusion. God never had to go to school, ever take a test. God never has had to be informed about anything. God never says things like this, huh? Or, oh really?

Or, wow! Or, I didn't know that. You can never be informed. You can never tell God something he doesn't already know.

He knows it all. And get this, God never forgets. It's amazing how much we forget. We are reminded of that every time our child or grandchild brings home a book and asks us a question that's on his paper.

And you struggle really hard to get in touch with that subject and it is as foreign to you as a foreign language. You knew it once for about a week when you were that age and it's gone for the most part. God retains it all. God knew who would win the election. God knows who's gonna win the Super Bowl.

You're thinking, boy I wish he'd tell me. So according to the Bible, God is omniscient. He knows everything, past, present, future. Now sadly, I have to report to you that not everyone who comes to Christian churches believes that. There's a whole teaching afoot these days known as open theism in some churches and you'd be surprised if I told you Christian musicians that you swear just bless your socks off that hold to this idea of open theism or the finite knowledge of God, what they believe in. It's the idea that God created a world in which he does not know the future. God is learning as he goes. They would say, God does say, huh, wow, really? Well that wouldn't make God omniscient.

That would make him un-niscient or part-niscient or micro-niscient. But the Bible declares quite the opposite. He knows it all. There's a question Isaiah 40 asks to be answered rhetorically. Who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? The answer would have to be nobody because of who he is and what he knows. He knows everything. It's the same question God asked Job in Job chapter 38 as these guys were trying to figure out why there was suffering in the world and God finally says, who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me if you know. God is comparing what he knows with what they don't know. So all of this means that God knows everything, past, present, future, didn't have to learn it. He knows it instantaneously, comprehensively, and with full retention. And that even means that the future, well it's like a rerun to God. He's already seen it. Isaiah 46 verse 9, I make known the end from the beginning.

Okay, so that's the general sense. God is omniscient. But David doesn't leave it there. What I love about this psalm is that David takes the theological, philosophical premise off of the top shelf, dust it off, and lives it personally. This truth to him is not theological. This truth to him is not philosophical. This truth is relational and personal. David does what J. Vernon McGee used to always say when he was alive on his radio broadcast. He said, every Bible should be bound in shoe leather.

I've always loved that. He personalizes it. So notice the personal pronouns. I'm going to emphasize them as we go through. Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up.

You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. There's not a word on my tongue, but behold, Lord, you know it all together.

You've hedged me behind and before. You laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.

I cannot attain it. Now I counted eight personal pronouns. David doesn't say, Lord, you know all things and you've searched all things, but he personalizes it. You know me.

You've searched me. And I'm bringing this up because what David does in this Psalm, we must do with all truth. We must not be content to leave it on a page of a book or discuss it in a roundtable discussion at Starbucks with our friends of what is the meaning of life and who is God. We have to personalize this, not just be content to be astute theologians. We always teach our students this at the School of Ministry.

We teach them those three steps in reading the Bible. Observation, interpretation, application. First, you observe. What does the text say? Next, you interpret. What does the text mean? Third, you apply it. What does the text now, having seen what it says and what it means, what does it mean to me personally? And all three of those stages are necessary.

In this series, I've been referring to J.I. Packer's great book, Knowing God, and here's a little excerpt. Whenever we embark on any line of study in God's holy book, we need to ask ourselves, what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God once I have gotten it? For if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it's bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited.

The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us. I'm here to tell you, I've met a few intoxicated theologians, intoxicated pastors, intoxicated Bible students and Christians. They become more intoxicated with their personal knowledge rather than God himself. And I say intoxicated because though they have so much knowledge, it didn't seem to change them. The very truths they deal with didn't seem to shape them. They still have bad marriages.

They still have horrible quiet times. They're not shaped by the very truth that they espouse to be familiar with. So David says, you have searched me. Very strong word. The word search means to see through, to pierce. Sometimes you've been with a person, they'll give you a spiel and you'll say, or you'll say to your wife or husband, I could see right through that person.

That's the idea here. God sees right through me. He searched me. And then notice the next one, and you have known me. And that means to examine something carefully or to explore, to know inside and out.

Think of going to a doctor and getting a complete physical examination. And they run every single test and they look in every conceivable place. And by the end of that examination, they have searched you and they know you.

And then they tell you what you need to do to fix it. Or going to a counselor and you're pouring out your heart before the counselor or friend who asks you very deep probing personal questions. And by the end of the session, they've searched you and they know you.

That's what David is realizing about God. Now wouldn't you say that dealing with any person who knows this much could be quite unsettling. We have a fear of being exposed.

Most people do. It's part of human nature, which is interesting because we live in an age that is the information age. There are surveillance cameras everywhere, even here at the church. You can bug a person's room.

What you say this morning could be on YouTube this afternoon. You can be exposed quickly to the entire world. Or what do you feel like when in a restaurant you suddenly realize somebody's been staring at you from that table? You get uneasy. You have no qualms about staring at other people. But when you discover that you are being stared at, it embarrasses you because we want privacy.

We don't like that exposure. So here's David personally coming to grips with a God who searches him and knows everything about him with full examination. That's Skip Heitzing with a message from the series, The Biography of God. Now we want to share about an exciting resource that will answer your questions about who God is so you can know him more intimately. Can you imagine reading a biography about your life only to find details about your life that were wrong?

Well, it would be frustrating, wouldn't it? And God's nature, character, and motives have often been poorly portrayed and even intentionally misstated. And that's one of the reasons I decided to write the book, The Biography of God, to open your eyes and heart to a larger picture of God.

I hope you will go on this journey with me as we ask and answer the universal question, can we know God? Here's how to get your copy of my newest book, The Biography of God. The Biography of God is our way to say thank you when you give $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach to more people. Request your copy when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Every day, listeners are growing closer to God through this radio ministry, and you're making it possible.

Listen to what one person sent in. My wife and I found your teachings to be just what we needed to enhance our walk with God and to help satisfy our hunger to learn more about the Bible. You make stories like this one possible when you give to connect more people to God's truths. And we invite you to help reach even more people by giving a gift today at connectwithskip.com slash donate and help reach more people with God's word. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig reminds you about our God who knows everything and shares why you can put all your trust in Him. Once you understand at least in part agree with this attribute of God, He's omniscient. And you go, I get it. Any God that can be said to know it all must certainly then know the future. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.