The God Who Knows All - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, March 20th. Have you ever found yourself trying to conceal your actions or attitudes from God? Today, you'll hear about the futility of trying to hide from the God who knows all. If you'll turn to Psalm 139, and as I said to you in the very beginning, there are no attributes of God, wherein you will find a complete description of that in one passage of scripture. But I believe if there is not an exception, but anywhere close to that, the hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, at least most of it, deals with the fact of God's omniscience, that is, that God knows all things.

So let's read this passage with that in mind of what God knows. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off, thou compasses my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but 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. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I send up into heaven, thou art there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee. When I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Now look at verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! Now when you talk about the attributes of God to some people, they say, What is that? And sometimes we who have been believers a long time have the attitude that there's some aspects of the Christian life, or about the Bible, or about God, or about the whole theological concept that you and I walk in and live in, that there's some things that don't really make a whole lot of difference to us. So we want to categorize these over here and say, Well, some things are important, and some things not important.

And so we're just going to shove aside the things that are not important. And what I need to know about God is what I want to know. But as I began to read and study what God is like, let me tell you what I've discovered. There's not one single thing about God that is not essential to yours or my life on an everyday basis.

Not one single thing. There isn't anything in this Bible that is unimportant. There are no attributes of God, no characteristics of God that are not essential in my relationship to Him. And my purpose for preaching on this series, I have twofold purpose.

One of them is to stir up in your mind, and to motivate you and to put some questions in your mind not about God. But if there's so much here about God, you have not known before, how much more is there in this book that you would be excited about if you only knew it were there? You see, God never intended for us to stay in the kindergarten and our understanding of who He is. Now, you may study it and still feel ignorant, and I think every intelligent person will. And the more you learn, the more you understand, you ought to be motivated to learn more and more, understand more and more and think, my goodness, it's like the ocean.

I have only a short lifetime, I have one thimble, and I can be dipping out of this book the rest of my life, and when it's all over, it'll just be like dipping the ocean dry with a thimble, it'll all still be there. Because you see, He is infinite. And what I want to see this evening is the fact that God is all knowing, He knows everything, and what that involves and how that applies in yours in my daily life.

So I want to talk about three aspects of that. And the first one is the character of His omniscience. When we say that God knows everything, well, you'll notice in these first few verses, what He says, O Lord, Thou has searched me and known me, Thou knowest my downsittings and my uprising, Thou knowest my thoughts and how far off Thou compasses my path, my lying down, Thou art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together. Now, when we talk about the all-knowing God, what does He know? All of God's knowledge is, first of all, complete. He doesn't know anything partially, He knows everything totally and completely.

In the 40th chapter of Isaiah, I want you to think about something. The fact that He knows all things, that His knowledge is perfect and free. That means that God cannot learn anything. There isn't anything for God to learn. Where is He going to learn anything?

Whose feet will He sit at? Who will teach Him anything? Some angel in heaven, look at Isaiah chapter 40, and look, if you will, in verse 13. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counselor, hath taught Him? And the answer is no one. With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?

And the answer again is no one. God cannot learn anything because God knows all things. What did He learn back yonder?

He didn't learn anything. How long has He been one who knows it all? He always has known all things. He knows things past, He knows things present, He knows things future. You see, there are no surprises to God. There isn't anything He's going to find out.

There are no skeletons in your closet that suddenly He's going to discover. No one can gossip to God and inform Him on you. God already knows all things that ever will be, ever have been, and are presently. He knows everything. You say, well, you mean to tell me He sees me when I'm born, and He sees me when I'm 65 at the same time?

That's exactly right. You see, there is nothing hid to Him. Look, if you will, in verse 15. Let's go back to verse 14.

How's that? I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought. That is, before you and I were born, God knew exactly how we were going to be born. He knew all about the chromosomes. He knew everything. He knew about our personality. He knew about our temperament.

He knew what our talent would be, what our gift would be. He knew everything that could possibly be known by an all-knowing, omniscient God, which was every single thing. He knew all of that before we were born. Now, listen, He knows all things perfectly and completely.

Now, if His knowledge is perfect and complete, you can't ever tell God anything that He doesn't already know minutely, specifically, clearly, definitely, and absolutely. He knows all things completely. Secondly, His knowledge is all-inclusive. He knows all about the earth. He knows all about animals. He knows all about human beings. He knows all about His kingdom.

There isn't anything in this earth that He does not know about. And He puts it so simple in these first few verses when He says that He knows our downsittings and our uprisings and so forth. For example, in 1 John 3, look, if you will, what He says. He says in the 20th verse, and here He's talking about, He's been talking about sin and loving our brother and hating our brother and so forth. And He's been talking about the conscience. He says in verse 20, for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God because He knows, listen, what does He know? He not only knows all things, but His knowledge is all-inclusive. And that is, He knows what we would do if certain circumstances would arise. He knows what we would not do if certain circumstances would arise. That is, He knows what would happen if this happened. He knows what would not happen if it didn't happen. He knows things past, present, future. It is complete knowledge. Now, the only way for God to be a just God is for Him to be complete and all-inclusive in His knowledge. That is, He knows every intricate detail of what will happen, what might happen, what has happened, what caused it to happen.

He knows the motivations of our heart, the things that we would do if we had the opportunity and the things we would not do. Now, somebody says every once in a while, oh, man, I'd never do that. And some people say that who know they'll never get tested in that area.

They'll never have the opportunity. But let me tell you something. God knows this whole frame of ours, and He knows what you do if you had the chance. He knows how genuinely honest we are. He knows how really truthful we are. He knows what we would do if we could get away with it and what we do not do because we know we can't get away with it.

So when you begin to walk around with your ego saying, well, I'd never do this, that, and the other, sometimes you fall flat on your face because God gives you a little dose to show you, yes, you would if you had half a chance. And you see, He knows, He says, our downsittings, our uprisings. He knows every word, listen, He knows every word that you and I speak, but He knows something else. In Ezekiel chapter 11 verse 5, for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. He knows what we think. He's infinite. God in His all knowing, infinite, incomprehensible, indescribable mind, He knows what everybody's thinking all at one time. Now there's no way in the world for the human mind to comprehend that. There's not one person in the whole world who really knows exactly what somebody else is thinking. And here is God who has everybody catalogued.

He doesn't get anybody mixed up with anybody else. And all the millions of thoughts that go through our mind in a lifetime, He hasn't lost a single one of them. Infinite, infinite, unlimited, there are no barriers around His mind. There's no top, there's no bottom.

You cannot measure it through, you cannot fathom its depth. Because He's God, the self-existent, all-knowing God, has all input to all things that are happening, whether they are a mile deep in the bottom of the Pacific, 50,000 miles out in space, He knows where every planet is, He's never lost a star, He knows every comet that's going to shoot, He knows the exact time it's going to happen, He knows when every eclipse is going to happen, and today scientists say we can predict years ahead what's going to happen. And God must chuckle sometimes when He says, well, you know, I've been knowing that forever.

I've been knowing that forever. There isn't anything that God has not known forever. And once in a while somebody says, now, I can believe in God, but I just don't believe that God knows everything. Well, my friend, if He doesn't know everything, He cannot be God. He's got to know it all if He's going to be God, and He does. The second thing I want us to notice is this, and that is that His omniscience should bring conviction to all of us. The fact that He does know everything.

Now, let's look at it for just a moment. When you think about what He knows, for example, in the Old Testament, look at all the prophecies that He's given. He gave those before they would happen. In the New Testament, look at all the prophecies as they've come to pass. In the New Testament, look at the prophecies that He says are going to happen, and you and I watching those unfold today.

But I want us to think about this matter of our conviction. For example, it is great to think about the fact that God has all knowledge and all wisdom, but there's some times in our life we wish He only knew what we told Him, right? But look, if you will, in Psalm 90 for just a moment, look in verse eight. He does know all things, all our motivations, all our thoughts, all our words, all our actions, all our deeds. Psalm 90 verse eight says, Thou has set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. There is no way for anyone to be able to sin in secret. And you recall, He says in Numbers, He says, Be sure your sin will find you out. There is no way to hide any sin from the all-seeing eye of God.

Now let me say this. He is looking with favor. He is looking in love.

He is looking in mercy. He is looking, already knowing what we are going to do, but always extending His forgiveness, always extending His care, always extending His love, so that God's never surprised at what you do. That ought to say something to us about asking for forgiveness. Oh, Lord, as if we were telling Him something He did not know, or we come up with the idea somehow that we have so disappointed God.

I want to tell you something. You didn't disappoint Him. You know why you can't disappoint Him? He already knew about it.

You can't disappoint somebody, listen, who never had any expectation for you anyway. That is, He already knows everything that's going to happen. And because He does, He does not get disappointed when we sin. In fact, the real truth is you can't ever do anything in total privacy. I mean, you may get in your house and lock all the doors, pull all the shades, shut all the blinds, cut off all the lights and get under the bed, and you're still not in private, because God is there. You may fill out your income tax and nobody know how you figured the last line.

Oh, yes, somebody does. And you see, the believer is living in absolute mental darkness to think that he can do anything away from God. And whereas on the one hand, we may feel dogged by God, on the other hand, we don't ever want to look and Him not be right at our shoulder, do we?

You don't ever want to turn around without seeing Him. So that what on the one hand gives us comfort on the other hand sometimes brings about conviction of our sin. There is no way to sin against God without God knowing all the details, why you did. Now, you see, sometime we come to God and we say, oh, but Lord, you know, they influenced me. It's their fault, God. Lord, if you hadn't allowed this, I wouldn't have done that.

Lord, I believe you're partly responsible for that. He's not impressed by that. He knows exactly what motivated you to disobey Him. He knows what influences were there or were not there. He knows all the intricate details or emotions. He knows what makes us afraid. He knows what gives us joy. He knows what bolts us up our courage. He knows what motivates us to achieve. He knows how well we're able to love. He knows what causes us to cry. He knows what brings sorrow in our life and He knows what brings happiness. There isn't anything about us that He doesn't know. So you have to deal with what you're trying to get away with because I tell you, there is no way to escape God's knowledge in our life. And you see, deep down inside, you really don't want it anyway.

Sometimes you may think you do, but listen, you don't. He says, as we said before, thou has set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. He knows all about them. Now because He does, when you and I come to confess them to Him, when we come to confess them to Him, listen, we are not giving out knowledge of something He doesn't know. What we're doing is revealing the fact and expressing our regret and asking for His forgiveness. We are expressing something from our heart to Him. We are not giving information. We are submitting ourselves to His sovereign rule and control in our heart. Thank you for listening to The God Who Knows All. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.