Behold Your God, Isaiah 46, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Isaiah chapter 46 contrasts the gods of the day with Jehovah God, bringing out a clear picture of the sovereignty and power of our God.

He's the one we can confidently and safely commit ourselves to. His character evokes awe and worship. Let's listen in to this message from Isaiah 46. This is part two of a message from the Isaiah series titled Behold Your God.

It was first preached on May 12, 2013 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. James is making a powerful statement here. By the way, the textual evidence for this to be in there is pretty strong.

So it ought to be in there in definitely the majority of the texts. But James, as he's quoting Amos 9, he makes this statement under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, known to God from eternity are all his works. This is omniscience. This is the omniscience of God, because God is an infinite person. Because he is an infinite person, he has infinite perspective. And because he has infinite perspective, he has infinite knowledge. So we need to try to understand the omniscience of God. Omniscience is the quality or the attribute of knowing everything.

Everything. Now, God knows everything, and we need to unpack this. God knows everything, and we're going to look at five specific ways that God knows everything. First of all, he knows everything completely.

He knows everything completely. And this is what is drawn out of Isaiah chapter 46. This is what God presents to them, saying, this is what I know. This is who I am.

I am your worthy object of trust. God knows everything completely, meaning he knows all that is actual and possible. Whatever has happened, and we look at it linearly, okay, whatever has happened, is happening or will happen.

Actual or and possible. God knows it all. Now, it's one thing to understand that God knows everything that actually has happened, is happening or will happen.

But I'm telling you what, God knows everything that could possibly happen. Now, you think about that long enough, and you're going to, okay, but understand that we are finite people, and God is an infinite God. And one of the biggest challenges in so many of the theological debates that arise out of understanding God is just, it boils down to this fact, we are finite beings trying to comprehend an infinite God. And our understanding is limited. And our divisions with each other in our understanding arise out of our limited understanding, not God's obscurity.

God knows everything completely, all that is actual and possible. There's an example of this in Scripture. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the God-man who came and lived among us, he manifested this attribute of omniscience. And at times, because he was fully God and he was fully man. And he said something to this effect, as we see in Matthew 11 and verse 21.

He says, woe to you, Koratzin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Do you see how much God knows? He knows not everything that is, not only everything that is actual, he also knows everything that is possible. Behold the omniscience of God. Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton said, the true God is a living, intelligent and powerful being. He governs all things and knows all things that are or can be done.

He's right. The omniscience of God, God knows everything completely. Here's a second sense in which God knows everything. He knows everything perfectly. He knows everything perfectly, meaning his knowledge is faultless.

There's never an occasion where God says, oh, man, you know, I wasn't really looking at that right. No, he knows everything perfectly. His knowledge is faultless and therefore all of his knowledge and understanding is absolutely true. God's knowledge is perfect in his omniscience. God knows everything completely. God knows everything perfectly. Thirdly, God knows everything independently, independently. He doesn't count on anything outside of himself to learn or to know.

He doesn't need a teacher. Fourthly, God knows everything simultaneously. This, I believe, to be a most important point that we must understand, that God knows everything simultaneously, all things at once in their totality and detail, all things actual and possible. Children line up at the cafeteria of the school for lunch and at the head of the table was a large pile of apples. And the teacher made a note, take only one, God is watching.

At the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A boy wrote a note, take all you want, God's watching the apples. That's so human of us to do that, isn't it, though, to think of God in our image, to think that God's knowledge and understanding and perspective is limited like ours. And it's not. God knows everything simultaneously.

We'll talk about that a little more in a couple minutes here. Also, in terms of his omniscience, God knows everything innately, innately. That means his knowledge is inherent. All this knowledge, all knowledge, his perfect knowledge is inherent in his being. It is a part of his essence. It is inherent in his nature.

Why is this? Because God is timeless in his own being. For example, Psalm 90, verse four, for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past. Second Peter three, with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

What is this telling us? That God as an infinite being is not bound by space and time. He is not defined by space and time. He is not defined by space and time. He cannot be measured in terms of space and time. He transcends all that. All that is space and time exists within God.

Wow. And so we cannot think of him simply in terms of space and time. In that way, his knowledge is infinite.

It is perfect. This brings us then to an understanding, the necessary understanding of a particular word that we find ourselves using often and that is often used in scripture. Consider once again verses 10 and 11. Look at verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning, from the ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand.

I will do all my pleasure. What is God's perspective? A word that we often use and one that we find used often in scripture is the word foreknowledge.

Now, let's be very careful about this, okay? Because when we think of God's foreknowledge, we have the tendency to make God in our image. Remember what I said about making God in our image before.

If I make God in my image, then God becomes a burden to me and following him becomes a burdensome thing. That's not the God of the Bible. When I speak of God's foreknowledge, when the scriptures speak of God's foreknowledge, we tend to think of it like this. Here I am at this point in time and I can look ahead to things that have been made known or we could think of the prophets who could look ahead to things that had been revealed to them. And so we think God is like that.

Let that window represent the end. And we see God standing here looking down and say, yep, I see all that that's going to happen. All this, I can see everything that's going to happen.

No, no, a thousand times no. That does not accurately represent foreknowledge. Because God is omniscient. He sees everything perfectly, innately, simultaneously, completely. This foreknowledge is a human concept.

It is the creature's point of view. And it is often done in scripture that our understanding of God is written in human terms so somehow we can grasp and understand God. But we must understand that God is not like us. God has no before or after.

We look at time and events and saying that has happened, this is happening now, and that is what's going to happen. God doesn't see it that way. He has no before and after. So how does God see? What is his perspective, his omniscient perspective? The sovereign God, at some point in the eternity of his existence, goes, goes, let it be, and there it was. Everything that ever has happened, is happening, or will happen is all right there in front of him, in one view.

It's right there. There's no before and after. That is his perspective, spread out right in front of him simultaneously. That is the view of an infinite God who is not bound by space and time. There is an example, there are many, many examples of this in scripture, and this is exactly the very thing that God is pointing out, which is why he is comforting his people saying, listen, it's not like, okay, I'm drawing up plans here, and this is what I see coming down the future. I'm drawing up plans, and so be encouraged, because we're going to be encouraged because I'm working on these plans. No, no, no, no, no. He says, listen, let me tell you what is going to happen, and you know why it's going to happen?

Because I said it's going to happen. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10am.