The Omniscience of God

Tonight we're talking about the omniscience of God. When you look at that word, it's a big word — it's "omni," which means all, and "science," which means knowledge. So God is the one who has all knowledge. We're going to look at Bible point number one to begin with. There's a lot of blanks here. I'm going to read it to you a few times so you can fill in the blanks. "God is all knowing. God alone can see, know, and understand everything at all times."

God is all knowing. God alone can see, know, and understand everything at all times. One more time. God is all knowing. God alone can see, know, and understand everything at all times. Who is like God? Who could know everything and understand everything at all times? Only God can. One of the most beautiful passages that describes God's knowledge of all things is found in the Psalms written by David, Psalm 139. It's here on your sheet, verses one through four. Would someone read that for us, verses one through four?

"Oh, Lord, you know how God has taught me how to be born and made your name born." Excellent. Way to go. Those are some big words you can read so well.

He says in verse one, "Oh, Lord, you have searched me." The word "search" there means to spy out. It's the same word that the Israelites used when they went into the Promised Land — they spied out the Promised Land to search it out, to know it. And he's saying, "God has known me that way. He searched out, knows every part of me."

He not only has searched me, he's known me. The word "known" there is the word that's used between a husband and a wife. Adam knew his wife Eve. That's the most intimate knowledge you can imagine. No one knows you as well as God knows you. You may think, "Well, my momma knows me pretty well," or, "My spouse knows me pretty well," or, "I know myself pretty well," but no one knows you like God knows you. He says, "You know my sitting down and my rising up." Hey, Russ, come on in, brother. Russ, here are the little red folders to hand out there.

He says, "You know my sitting down and my rising up." Y'all know what I do — I service swimming pools. So today I did 24 stops, got in my truck, sat down, drove, got up out of my truck, cleaned the pool, sat down, went to the next one. But my day started early this morning in my office, and then when I got home, I sat down at the computer and printed these up. I can't remember how many times I've sat down and got up today. Can you?

No. But you know, God knows how many times you sat down and got up today. He knows how many times you sat down and you got up yesterday. And the day before, and the day before, all the way back to when you couldn't sit up. Because God knows everything perfectly. He says, "You understand my thoughts afar off." God knows every thought that goes through my mind. How many times do you find yourself daydreaming? You know, you're doing work, but all of a sudden you're thinking about the ball game or you're thinking about hanging out with some friends and your mind's far away. Did you say something? Exactly right. God understands our thoughts afar off. He knows every single thought. We can't even recall what we dreamt last night sometimes, can we? We may have some recollection, but not perfectly — but God knows. He says, "You comprehended my path and my laying down." He knows everywhere we go. He knows when we lay down. Isn't that all of life? When we sit, when we rise, when we think, when we lay down, when we wander — God knows everywhere we go. He knows us intimately. He says, "And are acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether." God even knows the words that are about to leave our lips before we even speak them. Isn't that amazing?

In the Sermon on the Mount — it's not on your sheet, but this is just bonus here — Matthew chapter 6, verses 7 through 8, Jesus says, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him."

God knows our thoughts before we even utter them. He knows our prayers. Now sometimes I'm asked by folks sincerely, "Then why pray, right? God knows my thoughts. Why should I pray?" And we studied in week seven that God is immutable — He doesn't change. We know our prayers don't change God, right? And we know that our prayers are not informing God of anything because He knows everything. It's not like, "God, you overlooked this. Let me set you straight here. This is what life is really like for me. I hope you can understand this, God." He knows it perfectly, right?

But we often think of prayer as almost a magic lamp where you rub it and the genie comes out and grants you three wishes. We think about prayer as something that we get, right? We go to God to get something. But what prayer is about is giving.

It's about us consecrating and giving ourselves to God. It's about us aligning our will with God's will. Like Christ said in Gethsemane, "Not my will, but Thy will, O God." And when we express our dependence on God, when we express our love toward God, He knows those things already.

But you know what? He likes to hear them because we're in a relationship with Him.

My wife and I are going to have our 30th anniversary in December. And if I had to count up all the times I've told her I love her, I wouldn't be able to count them up, right?

We tell a person that all the time. She knows that, but she still likes to hear it, right? Because it's me consecrating myself again to her, committing myself again to her — music to her ears. When we go before the Lord and we express our love for Him, our dependence on Him, it's honoring God. It's blessing God. It's giving what we can, which is ourselves, to God who owns everything. There's nothing we can give God other than who we are, right? So God knows everything. He knows our thoughts. He knows our ways. He knows our words before we even pray them. The application is this: rejoice that God knows us and loves us.

Rejoice that God knows us and loves us. There's an old saying, you probably know it — it says familiarity breeds what? Contempt. And what that means is simply the more you get to know something, the more the flaws stick out, right?

I enjoy going to look at classic cars. I've always enjoyed it. I took my kids when they were little to go look at car shows. It's a free thing to do and to look at these beautiful cars from the 50s and the 60s. And when you look at cars there's such a thing as a "20 footer." And what that means is that from 20 feet away, that car looks fantastic — a bright, shiny paint job. Wow, my heart is jumping. But then you get a little bit closer and you see it's an amateur paint job. There are swirls in it. It's painted resale red by Maaco. It's not a good quality paint job.

You see waves in the body where it's been filled with filler Bondo. You see rust on the frame. You open up the door and the interior smells like it's been in a flood and rats have been living in there. It's nasty, but from 20 feet away it looks pretty good.

Well, God is amazing in that He knows us intimately, perfectly, despite our rust, despite our filler, despite our stench and our mildew. And He loves us.

That's amazing. So we should rejoice in that. Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 5, says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved."

We're described as being dead in trespasses. Ever smelled something that's dead?

Yeah. I clean swimming pools. I pull dead frogs and dead mice and things out of skimmers. They've been sitting there for a few days during the summer. They stink. Terrible smell.

But God loved us anyway, right? Even when we're dead in trespasses and sins, He has made us alive in Christ Jesus. Flip over to the back.

Reference number one, it's marked number one. Romans 5, 6 through 8 says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That's the gospel right there, right? It's Christ dying for unworthy sinners. When we were still in rebellion against Him, He paid our penalty. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. God's perfect Son took upon our sin and gave us His righteousness. And that is a wonderful knowledge — to be known and loved by that kind of God. Amen.

Number two: God's knowledge is perfect, distinct, and infinite. God's knowledge is perfect, distinct, and infinite. He clearly sees all things as they truly are.

He clearly sees all things as they truly are. Let's unpack that. God's knowledge is perfect.

When we think about God's knowledge, there is no possible way that God could know more than He knows, because God's knowledge is perfect. There's no room for expansion. God can never know more. He can never know less. That's the definition of perfect, right? If He could know more, then His knowledge would not be perfect. But His knowledge is indeed perfect. Not only is His knowledge perfect, but it's distinct.

God's knowledge — what we mean by distinct is that there is no vagueness in His knowledge. There is no gray area in God's knowledge. There are no unknowns in God's knowledge. In our knowledge there's plenty of that, right? There are lots of gaps in our knowledge. You may understand things partially — like we understand Newton's law of gravity, that things fall down and not up. But try to explain that in more than two or three sentences, try to get scientific about it, and you see how much of a gap exists in your knowledge, right? There are lots of things that we only know vaguely.

Things that we know in part, right? Isn't that what Paul even writes when he writes to the Corinthians, talking about his looking forward to being in heaven? He says, "Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am also known." God knows nothing dimly and He knows nothing in part. His knowledge is not only perfect, but it's distinct. Also, God's knowledge is infinite. What we mean by God's knowledge being infinite is that it is complete — it is comprehensive. In the pool business, I've been doing this for over 20 years. I know a lot about water chemistry because I've been dealing with chemicals for 27 years. However, that doesn't make me an expert chemist, does it? No — I can't even tell you the periodic table anymore. I learned that in college, but if you don't keep up with that knowledge, it goes way out the window. So we can be partial masters of some knowledge, but none of us can have a comprehensive knowledge, right? None of us can have knowledge that's infinite, but God does. He knows all things, and He knows all things perfectly, distinctly, and infinitely. He clearly sees all things as they truly are. We sometimes get the wrong impressions. Something may appear to be one thing, but in reality it's quite another, right? But God knows the form. He knows the substance. He knows what's true. He knows what is actual, right? Look at Job 37. This is one of Job's friends speaking rightly about God here. He says, "Do you know how the clouds are balanced? Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge." We can observe the natural world, but we can't explain most of it — but God can. He knows it all. He's the creator of it. Of course He knows it. Psalm 147:5, "Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite." There's nothing that He doesn't know, right?

The application is to trust God's assessment and not your own. Trust God's assessment and not your own. I'll tell you a secret — if you haven't already figured it out, you don't even know yourself as well as you think that you do.

But we're to trust God's assessment and not our own.

Look at 1 John 3:20, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things."

Christian, if you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, if you've trusted His perfect work for your salvation, sometimes your heart will condemn you when there's no room for condemnation. You may have a hyperactive conscience. A conscience can be misinformed. A conscience can be hardened. A conscience can be twisted even, right? Yeah, seared — exactly, Jimmy. But God knows, and we can trust His assessment of our heart, right? He's greater than our heart and He knows all things. And if He has said, "You are clean," then you are clean, regardless of what your memory tells you, right?

Look at Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." Underline "no condemnation" because sometimes you will feel condemned.

But know that if you're truly in Christ Jesus, if your life is hidden in Him, there is no condemnation. Flip over to the back.

Reference number two is a continuation of Psalm 139, and look at God's perfect knowledge. He says, "Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day." God can see in the dark, right? There is no darkness to God. Have you ever been in a dark room, stumbled on something, stepped on a toy, or hit your toe on the bed? Hurts, right? God never stumbles. "The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts, You covered me in my mother's womb." He knew us when we were just a clump of cells, right? "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

God not only knew us when we were infinitesimal, but He knew every single day of our life at that point. And it's written in His book.

Let's flip over to the front. Let's look at number three.

God's knowledge is immediate and instantaneous. Those are big words — we'll unpack them in just a minute. God's knowledge is immediate and instantaneous. God does not need to discover or be taught.

God does not need to discover or be taught. God is never surprised or found unaware. God is never surprised or found unaware. God's knowledge is immediate and instantaneous — or simultaneous, either one. God does not need to discover or be taught. God is never surprised or found unaware. Let's look at the first one. God's knowledge is immediate.

What we mean by the word "immediate" is that God's knowledge is direct. Our knowledge — the way that we learn things — is either we're taught something by a teacher or instructor (we learn our ABCs from our moms and dads or we learn them in school), or we learn by experience. We experience our life with our senses, right? The things that we see, the things that we hear, things that we smell, the things that we taste, the things that we touch — that's how we learn about life. It's one thing to be told a stove is hot; it's another thing to touch that hot stove, and you learn really well by experience. You don't want to be touching a hot stove. We're very thankful that God doesn't suffer from a senior moment. Exactly right. And our senses are so bound up with our knowledge that we even speak of them as being the knowledge itself. We say that seeing is what? Seeing is believing, right? But can't our senses sometimes trick us? Have you ever driven down a long road during the summer and seen what looks like a lake at the end of the road? We call that a mirage, right? You see what looks like water, but it's not really there. Our senses can fool us, can they not?

Our senses not only can fool us, but they can often fail us. Can they not?

How many of you can see better today than when you were 18?

Okay.

Having surgery — that's cheating. But normally our senses fail us, right? Our senses become dull over time, right? We need glasses. We need corrective vision surgery. You know what? God's knowledge isn't dependent on senses. Remember, He's a spiritual being. He doesn't have eyes and ears and a nose and a mouth, even though the Bible may speak of them that way so we can understand Him. But God's knowledge is direct. He's known all things from the very beginning. His knowledge is immediate — not dependent on sensory perception. Not only is God's knowledge immediate, but it is what we call simultaneous or instantaneous. Let me explain what we mean by simultaneous. God's knowledge isn't acquired by observation or reasoning.

Much of our knowledge, if we're not taught directly or we don't experience it by our senses, we pick it up through observation and reasoning, right? In fact, that's what the whole scientific method is about, right? You observe something — apples always fall from the tree down and never up, right? And so then you form a hypothesis about that. And then you run some tests to try to verify or test that with other things and see if they follow that same rule of gravity. And then maybe you've proven your hypothesis and you call it a law, right? We learn by observing things in successive moments, time and time again. But God never does that. He never learns anything. He never discovers anything. He's never surprised by anything, because His knowledge is simultaneous. Not only is His knowledge simultaneous in the sense that it's not acquired by reasoning, but it also is a knowledge that's simultaneous because it never vacillates or changes between forgetting and remembering. You see, we observe, we learn, then we know — and then we try to maintain that knowledge. Have you ever learned a language? Maybe you took Spanish or French in school, and maybe it's been 20 or 30 years ago and you know very little of it now, right? Because we don't maintain that knowledge. Same with mathematics — I cannot go back and do Calculus I and II like I did in college, but that was a long time ago.

And then we forget it, and maybe we try to recollect it. God has never forgotten anything.

He's never had to remember anything because all things are simultaneously right in front of God. So He does not need to discover or be taught. God is never found unaware. He's never surprised. One thing — my wife, even though we've been married for 30 years, sometimes I'll come home from work and I'll say, "Hey, Toby, I'm home," and I don't see her. Then I'm like, "Oh, no." She's usually hiding behind a door or hiding behind the bar, and she'll jump out to try to startle me. It's a little game she plays, and she gets me good sometimes. But God is never surprised. He's never startled, because He's known all things. Look at Isaiah 40, 13 to 14. "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?" God has no teacher, right? Because He knows everything directly.

The application is to have peace that God never overlooks you. Have peace that God never overlooks you. Look at Jesus's words in Matthew 10. He says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?" — basically saying these birds are almost worthless, two sparrows for a penny. He says, "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. Do not fear therefore, for you are of more value than many sparrows." God knows every sparrow that falls. He knows every hair on our heads, even for those of us who are follicly challenged. He knows them all. And we are of more value than many sparrows. God knows us intimately. He never overlooks us. Look at number three on the back, Matthew chapter 6. This is also, of course, in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" — and in the Greek, that can also be interpreted as one span to your life.

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

We don't need to worry about tomorrow because we have enough troubles today. Right? When you worry about tomorrow you're just doubling down on your troubles, doubling down on your anxieties. We serve a God who knows us, who knows our needs, and He's going to provide everything that we need. We can safely and assuredly trust in Him. Flip over to the front page again. Bible point number four — God's knowledge is eternal.

He has known all things from before the foundation of the world.

The certainty of all things is based in God's decree. Let me read that again. God's knowledge is eternal.

He has known all things from before the foundation of the world. The certainty of all things is based in God's decree. First of all, God's knowledge is eternal. We know that God has no beginning. He has no end. He's always been. And His knowledge has been from the very beginning. God has comprehended all things in one timeless act. It's the definition of God's eternal knowledge — before the world began, before He made anything, He knew us. He knew our lives. He knew our details. He knew what He would create, right? All things before the foundation of the world. The certainty of all things is based in God's decree.

God's decree is another word for His plans, or His sovereignty. His plans may seem many, but they are one. And just as God has known all things from the beginning — before the foundation of the world — God has decreed all things. Our beginning, our lives, our end, the times that we live in, where we live — the boundaries of our lives are all decreed by the Lord. That's His sovereignty. These two things are part and parcel with one another. God's knowledge and His decrees go hand in hand. That explains the certainty of what will be, because God has decreed it.

Look at Acts 15:18, "Known to God from eternity are all His works." God knows everything about His creation, everything about who He has created from the beginning, from all eternity.

That for us is hard to grasp — how God knows all things and He's decreed all things from the very beginning. It's hard for us to reconcile that man is truly created free, and yet God is sovereign over all things, and that in our freedom we freely do what we want and we freely sin, and God is not the author of sin — but God allows it and permits it for His glory, because He can override sin and cause all things to bring Him glory, right?

And in trying to reconcile God's sovereignty and man's freedom, there are so many errors. It's best to follow what Luther said — he said simply, "Let God be God." Don't try to figure it out. Just believe His word. Just trust Him. Let me get on my soapbox for just a second. One of the modern errors that bugs me to no end is called open theism. Perhaps you've read or heard about it. What open theism does — it's a brand of theology that tries to reconcile God's sovereignty and man's freedom by saying that man's choices are a true libertarian freedom, and therefore not even God can predict what man's going to do, or else man would not be free.

And so what does that do? It destroys prophecy, right? And what does it do? It takes God, who is sovereign, and puts Him down to the level of a man. It's basically saying God is a skilled chess player and He's waiting for you to move, and then He's going to decide how to respond or react in regard to your movement.

Amen. That's being taught from our pulpits, and it's even being taught in some seminaries today. It's a very sad thing, right? But the God of the Bible is a God who proclaims the end from the beginning, right? He's the one who knows all things because He's the one who's founded this world and has decreed all things from the very beginning. Let's look at our application. Rest in God's grasp of the past, present, and future. Rest in God's grasp of the past, present, and future. When I say grasp, I mean not just His knowledge of the past, present, and future, but His control over the past, present, and future. For God to know all things means that He has decreed all things and He's always been in control at all times. There has never been a time when God was not at the helm, if you will.

Isaiah 44, 6-7 says, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and the last. Besides Me there is no God." We read about — we actually read this verse — God being the first and the last when we talked about God being the pre-existent one. But look at verse 7, "And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for me. Since I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them."

He's appointed the people, the things that were to come, when yet there were none of them. That is our God who sovereignly decrees all things. Flip over to the back. Look at Isaiah 46, 9-10. This is a familiar theme from Isaiah 40 all the way to the end — God is constantly saying that He is the God who calls the end from the beginning, the pre-existent one, and that all these idols are nothing compared to Him. He says, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"

God's counsel stands. And it has stood from eternity past. I love Acts 2, with Peter being filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He's proclaiming the gospel, calling them to repent. And look how he brings God's sovereignty and man's responsibility together seamlessly. This is my opinion, but reading things like this, you can't help but trust the inspiration of Scripture at the highest level, because man would not think of this. "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death." Saying you and your lawless hands have crucified the Savior, but that was part of God's predetermined plan. It was part of what He foreknew from the foundation of the world. And that's our God.

Bible point number five: God's omniscience is penetrating and convicting.

God's omniscience is penetrating and convicting.

That God knows us so well and so intimately — when you think about it, that's rather convicting, isn't it?

I love you all so much. I sure enjoy your fellowship and visiting with you all. But I'm glad that you don't know me as well as God knows me, because you would probably see some horrible thoughts, right? You know, how many of us would want it all laid out there — when we are angry, or when we're bitter, or when we're covetous, or when we tell a white lie and try to excuse ourselves? How many of us would want that to be seen by everybody? No, we'd be ashamed of that, right?

But God knows us perfectly. So it's convicting and it's penetrating. Look at Psalm 90, verse 8: "You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance."

Every evil thing that we conceive of, that we think but don't even do, but just entertain in our hearts — it's under the light of God's countenance. He knows. Proverbs 5:21: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths." God knows everywhere we go, everywhere we think.

One of the most godly men I ever knew — I'm going to introduce you to him one day when we get to heaven, as he's preceded us into heaven — his name was Dr. McDonald. He was one of our Southern Baptist missionaries to the West Indies. He was also an evangelist. He used the church I grew up in as his home base when he'd come stateside. He took me under his wing as a boy and was just a godly man. The man lived his life on his knees, and when he prayed and when he preached, it was just all over him. He was just a godly man. He told me one time that he was out doing an evangelistic series of meetings out West — what we call revival, where each night he's preaching the gospel at a local church. His church didn't have a lot of means, so they put him up in a roadside motel on the outskirts of town. There's the old style motels — you don't see them so often anymore — but it's the kind where you pull up and you park directly in front of your hotel room door. It was one afternoon, and he was getting ready to preach that night, so he was praying and in God's Word, when he heard a car pull up right outside his door. So he figured, well, maybe this is someone from the church coming to greet him or something. So he looks through his window and he sees a man very advanced in age accompanied by a very, very young woman. They don't have bags, and they go into the hotel room directly adjacent to his. And those walls are paper thin. The door shuts, and he hears the young lady say, "I sure hope no one saw us." And if you knew Dr. McDonald, you know he was zealous for the Lord and zealous for holiness. Without hesitation, he reared up his head and in his loudest preacher voice said, "God sees you."

He said he heard three doors slam. First was the door to the hotel room, and then the two car doors, and the car zipped out of the parking lot like a NASCAR car.

That young lady — her conscience was already working on her, right? We may try to fool ourselves. She says, "I hope no one sees us," and Dr. McDonald just reminded them that God always sees you, right? You're not fooling God at any time, right? Look at Hebrews 4:13: "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." When you recognize God's omniscience, even as a Christian, it's very humbling. It's very convicting. Yes, we know our sins are forgiven, but it drives us to holiness, does it not? You know that all things that we do are before the eyes of a holy God, to whom we must give an account.

The application is to guard your heart and trust in Christ. Guard your heart and trust in Christ. Psalm 19:12 through 14 says, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins, and let them not have dominion over me." This is how we should pray — it's being modeled for us. "Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

And then 1 John 1:9 — God comforts us, knowing that we will fail because we are but flesh and blood. He says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It's good to know that God knows our sins, because Christ paid for those sins on the cross. Therefore He is just and faithful to forgive us of our sins. If He punished us for the sins that Christ had already paid for, it would be double jeopardy, right? God would be unjust. He poured out the full wrath of God on Jesus on the cross in our place. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Flip over to the back.

Bible point number five on the back — reference number five is 1 Samuel 16:7. Would someone read 1 Samuel 16:7? Such a lovely verse.

"The Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. But the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" Amen.

God doesn't look at the externals — He looks at the heart. So we can see the externals, right? We judge a book by its cover every day. But God looks at the heart, and praise God, He knows those who are His.

Number six on the front page: God's omniscience shows His care and love. God's omniscience shows His care and love.

Look at Psalm 139, verses 17 through 18. He says, "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" These are thoughts that God is thinking toward His people, toward His bride. How precious are His thoughts toward me, and how great is the sum of them. "If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You."

You can't count God's thoughts because God is infinite. And there's never been a time in your entire existence where God has not been thinking of you. His thoughts are innumerable. You're always on His mind. We're forgetful creatures, aren't we?

We'll tell someone, "I'll pray for you." That's why I like to write them down, right — I have a list, because I need a list to remember to pray. We often forget to think about others. We tend to think about ourselves and the particular environment that we're in or the predicament that we find ourselves in. But God is always thinking about us. His knowledge is so vast that He can give us His full attention as if we're the only person in the world, right? That's our God.

The application is to think on Him who is always thinking of you.

Think on Him who is always thinking of you. Psalm 40:5 says, "Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

How many of God's promises do you know?

We have the Holy Scriptures right here, right? And isn't the Scripture the record of God's thoughts to us?

It's full of commands. It's full of promises. Full of things that we can bank on, right? So know God's Word. You can spend a lifetime studying God's Word and never master it, never know it in depth. So we have these wonderful, uncountable promises of God contained in His Word. It's not necessary that we're hoping to hear a still, small voice whispered in our ear out of thin air, right? It's written down for us. God has given us His thoughts in His Word. So let's make use of them, right? Let's avail ourselves of them and count on them. Flip over to the back.

Psalm 56:8 says, "You number my wanderings. Put my tears into Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?"

God treasures each one of our tears.

Toby likes to talk about this verse and she says, "My tears don't fit in a bottle. I need a swimming pool," right?

God knows every single one of them, right? He knows our tears. They're precious to Him. They're in His book. Look at Isaiah 49, verses 14 through 16.

"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.'" Do you ever feel that God has forsaken you? Does circumstance ever make you wonder whether God remembers you? Because it sure seems like everything is chaotic around me. It sure seems like the darkness is getting the upper hand. It sure seems like my feet are sliding. That's what Zion — or Jerusalem — is saying here: the Lord's forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. But look what God answers His people. Verse 15: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget. Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands. Your walls are continually before Me."

God can never forget you.

He's inscribed your name on the palms of His hands. That's what Christ did on the cross, is it not? The nail-scarred hands. Even now in heaven, Christ is interceding on your behalf before God the Father. And if you were to look at His hands, they're still pierced. His feet are still pierced. They're etched. Your remembrance is etched into His very self — that's how much He loves you. "Your walls are continually before Me" — speaking of Jerusalem, personifying God's people — saying, "Your walls are always before Me. I'm always watching over you." God is always watching over our lives. That's God's wonderful, incredible omniscience.