The last session together we came to the
omniscience of God, and we had turned to
Psalm 139, and just let's turn back to
that again.
Incidentally, in studying the attributes of God, you
do come to some big words, don't you,
like omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence.
We shouldn't be afraid of those words.
I make no apology for them.
Just get used to them.
Omniscience.
Omni means all.
Science means knowledge.
Science today has a more restricted meaning, but
basically it means knowledge.
And the omniscience of God teaches that God
has perfect knowledge of everything.
He has never learned anything, and he cannot
learn anything because his knowledge is absolute.
And in Psalm 139, as you know, the
psalmist David is celebrating the omniscience the omnipresence
and the omnipotence of God.
And that's the next three attributes that we're
going to be taking up, and they're all
found in this one psalm.
Beautifully nestled together.
All right, the omniscience of God.
Psalm 139, verse 1.
O Lord, thou hast searched me and known
me.
Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising.
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there's not a word in my tongue,
but lo, 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.
Let's read a couple of other verses.
There are many in the Bible, but just
one or two other passages that teach the
omniscience of our Lord.
Matthew chapter 10, verses 29 and 30.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?
And one of them shall not fall on
the ground without your father, but the very
hairs of your head are all numbered.
Dr. Ironside used to say, God attends the
funeral of every sparrow.
Isn't that wonderful?
We were thinking of something of the grandeur
and majesty of God.
The God who put the stars in their
places.
And he even attends the funeral of the
sparrow, and he legislates about birds' nests in
the Old Testament.
What a great God he is.
Romans chapter 11 and verse 33.
It says, oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out.
For who has known the mind of the
Lord or who has been his counselor or
who has first given to him, and it
shall be recompensed unto him again.
For of him and through him and to
him are all things to whom be glory
forever.
Amen.
Then, of course, in Hebrews chapter 4 and
verse 13, we're reminded that all things are
open and naked unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do.
And in 1 John 3 20, it says,
God knoweth all things.
Just think of all the knowledge that all
the men of the world have today.
I was thinking that this afternoon as I
was pondering the omniscience of God.
I was thinking of the knowledge that some
of you have with regard to things agricultural,
with regard to things chemical.
Think of all the knowledge and all the
libraries of the world today.
It's really so massive that men have to
become specialists nowadays, don't they?
No, nobody tries to learn it all.
They couldn't anyway.
Let's just think of God having all that
knowledge and all the rest of the knowledge
that there is.
Man with all his knowledge, he can fly
to the moon, but he can't cure the
common cold, can he?
He can do marvelous things, but he can't
understand how a bee flies according to all
the laws of aerodynamics that bee can't fly.
But the bee doesn't know it and just
keeps on flying.
Because he has a life principle within him
some way or other.
It's marvelous all the secrets that God has
hidden in this wonderful creation of his.
He has all knowledge.
He has never learned and he can never
learn.
And how wonderful to think of the Lord
Jesus coming into the world, being born of
the Virgin Mary, growing in wisdom and stature
in favor with God and man, and yet
in him dwelt all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.
I tell you, it's a divine paradox, isn't
it?
And I don't believe there was a time
in his life when he didn't have all
knowledge.
It's true, he did say, of that hour
knoweth no man, not even the son of
man.
But I really think that that means that
the time of his coming was not given
to him by God the Father to reveal
to us.
That's what I believe it means.
The servant knoweth not what his master doeth.
I believe that he veiled his Godhead in
a body of flesh, but I believe it
was all there all the time.
Wonderful, wonderful Lord Jesus.
Isn't that wonderful to think of him walking
along with men down here in Nazareth and
Capernaum, and he knew exactly what they were
thinking all the time.
But he never needlessly embarrassed them.
Mind you, he could have.
He could have, but he never did.
You think of all the people in the
world today and God knows all about them.
Though infinitely glorious and gloriously grand, he knows
the eternal story of every grain of sand.
It isn't just that he could know it
if he wanted to know it.
That's not the point.
He does know it, and there's nothing hidden
from him.
Now, what is the practical application of this
in our lives?
We'll never be omniscient.
We'll never have full knowledge, even in heaven.
We're going to go on learning throughout all
eternity.
It says that in Ephesians 2, 7, that
in the ages to come, he might show,
if he's going to be showing, what are
we going to be doing?
Learning, that's right.
That he might show exceeding greatness, his kindness,
and his love toward us through Christ Jesus.
And heaven is going to be a school,
and God is going to be the teacher,
and the Bible is going to be the
textbook.
And what you learn about it here will
be your initial investment.
You and I are determining our capacity for
enjoying the glories of heaven right now by
what we do with the sacred scriptures day
by day.
I love those lines in the first hymn
that Che gave out.
It said, hearing his voice in every line,
making each faithful saying mine.
That's it, friends.
Hearing his voice in every line, but not
stopping there, making each faithful saying mine.
The practical application of this, first of all,
there's a warning in this to men, is
there not?
God sees everything I do.
Thou, God, seest me.
Somebody has said, secret sin on earth is
open scandal in heaven, right?
Secret sin on earth is open scandal in
heaven.
Nothing secret there.
God knows all.
Be sure your sins will find you out.
And I think it's so wonderful that our
children learn this in Sunday school.
You know, little eyes, be careful what you
see, right?
Little ears, be careful what you hear.
Why?
Because there's a father up above looking down
in tender love, and he knows all about
it.
We teach our children the omniscience of God
from their earliest days.
So there's a word of warning.
But, you know, there's a word of comfort
here, too, for our hearts tonight.
The omniscience of God, he knows what his
people are going through.
Isn't that wonderful?
He knows what we're going through.
He knows the way that I take, Job
said.
He knows the way I take.
I love those words just taken out of
the context in the letters to the churches,
where the Lord Jesus says, I know.
But I get great comfort from them.
Psalm 56 and verse 8 says, and this
is beautiful.
He counts our tossings and numbers our tears.
How do you like that?
It's OK to say amen or praise the
Lord.
Sometimes I wonder how we can be so
unmoved by the contemplation of the majesty of
God.
Psalm 56, verse 8.
He counts our, how do you like that?
You're having a sleepless night.
Maybe the care of all the churches upon
your heart.
You can't sleep at night.
He knows every time you turn over in
bed and counts it.
Isn't that wonderful?
And he numbers our tears.
They don't mean as much to us oftentimes
as they do to the blessed Lord.
The omniscience of our wonderful God.
And what a tremendous encouragement it is to
me, the omniscience of God.
It's an encouragement to me, for instance, to
know God knew all about me before he
saved me and he saved me anyway.
Isn't that wonderful?
I tell you, he knew what a failure.
He knew what a flop.
He knew how I disappoint him and break
his heart.
And he saved me anyway.
Nothing ever came as a shock to him
in my life.
He knows, too, what we feel in worship
and in prayer, but can't express.
I oftentimes have that feeling.
My heart is so overflowing with gratitude and
love and worship to the Lord.
I can't find words to express it.
But he knows.
He knows what's going on in my heart.
And the Holy Spirit puts it into words
before him.
And I like this, too.
He knows what we would like to be
able to do for him, but for some
reason or other are prevented from doing for
him.
David.
David wanted to build a temple for the
Lord.
The Lord said, no, David, you can't do
it.
Nevertheless, in as much as it was in
my heart.
And I think that David will get the
get reward for building the temple, even if
he didn't.
I think there are people tonight in the
world and and God knows that they'd really
like to go the mission field, but for
reasons beyond their control, they just can't do
it.
There are people tonight who really like to
give more lavishly to the work of the
Lord.
They're already given beyond their means.
God knows all about that.
God rewards that, too.
Isn't that wonderful?
The omniscience of the Lord.
You know, what really stops me in my
tracks is this.
When God forgives me my sins, he forgets
them.
Now, would you please tell me how an
omniscient God can forget?
I don't know.
But I know he does.
He buries them in the sea of his
forgetfulness.
He cast them behind his back.
He'll never remember them again.
How great he is and greatly to be
praised and his greatness is unsearchable.
This is our blessed Lord Jesus.
God manifests in the flesh, the omniscient God.
Then in Psalm 139, we go on and
we see the omnipresence of God, the omnipresence
of God.
And the omnipresence of God teaches us that
God is in all places at one and
the same time.
He fills heaven and earth.
God is in all places at one and
the same time.
He fills heaven and earth.
Let's read verses 7 through 10.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or
whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, 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.
Turn also please to Jeremiah chapter 23 verses
23 and 24.
Jeremiah chapter 23 and verses 23 and 24.
Says, am I a God at hand, saith
the Lord, and not a God afar off?
Can any hide himself in secret places that
I shall not see him, saith the Lord?
Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith
the Lord?
And Matthew chapter 18 verse 20, familiar to
all of us, for where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them, a special
promise of his special presence when people gather
together in his name.
God is in all places at one and
the same time, but this is not the
same as pantheism.
You know, there is a false teaching in
the world today known as pantheism, and that
equates God with things, with forces, with laws.
With the tree, for instance, growing out in
the yard.
When we speak of the omnipresence of God,
we're not speaking of pantheism.
We're saying that God is everywhere, and you
cannot hide from his presence.
I've known people across the Atlantic to get
away from God, and he was waiting for
them on the dock in New York.
And he caught up with them, and they
got saved.
The atheist once wrote out on the wall,
God is nowhere.
And a little child came along and put
the space between the W and the H.
God is now here.
She was right.
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings
has thou ordained strength because of thine enemy.
God can do that.
God is nowhere.
God is now here.
God is present everywhere, though he is not
manifest everywhere.
Sometimes his presence is more hidden than at
other times.
Okay, once again in this great truth of
the omnipresence of God, we come to a
wonderful paradox.
The Lord Jesus, as a man here on
earth, and yet he could say the only
begotten son which is in the bosom of
the father.
Could he be here as a man on
earth in a specific location and still be
omnipresent?
I believe he was.
He didn't have to be present to heal
a person of his illness.
No, no.
He's omnipresent.
So how can that be different?
I don't know.
I just bow and worship.
I just accept it by faith and leave
the question with God.
But there's a wonderful warning here too.
Man can't hide from God.
My, what a ridiculous thing to try to
hide from this God who is present everywhere.
What a wonderful comfort in this truth.
God is with his people.
People say, people, I've had people say to
me, where was God when the concentration camps
were going on?
My answer was God was with his people
to the concentration camps.
And when they go through the fire, he's
with them.
And when they go through the flood, he's
with them.
He never leaves us.
We're never, we're never alone.
Alone.
It's a wonderful thing to go on through
life as a Christian, counting on and believing
the constant presence of the Lord.
But I tell you, it's a wonderful challenge
in this truth of the omnipresence of God.
And that challenge is this.
My, if I'm going to walk with his
God, I want to walk in holiness.
We mentioned that when we spoke of the
holiness of God, how can two walk together
except they be agreed?
I want to walk in separation from the
world.
Indeed, I do.
And that brings us to the subject of
the omnipotence of God.
And the omnipotence of God means, of course,
that God is all powerful.
He's able to do anything that is not
inconsistent with his own nature.
Now, you notice we qualify that.
We say he is able to do anything
that is not inconsistent with his own nature.
The attributes of God cannot fight against one
another.
They must all be always in perfect agreement.
The attributes of God cannot fight against one
another.
They must all be always in perfect agreement.
People have problems with that.
They say, can a God of love send
people to hell?
Yes, because a God of love is a
God of judgment too.
And there's no contradiction at all.
No contradiction at all.
So the omnipotence of God says that he's
able to do anything that's not inconsistent with
his own nature.
You say, what do you mean?
Well, he can't sin, can he?
That would be inconsistent with his holiness.
He can't lie.
God is not a man that he should
lie.
But he can do anything that's not inconsistent
with that.
Now, in Psalm 139, you say, well, does
he speak about the omnipotence there?
Well, I think he does.
And you know how he speaks about it?
In connection with the birth of a baby.
And I think that's beautiful.
David says, I'm just going to take one
instance of the omnipotence of God and that's
my own birth.
But I don't know how many times in
recent weeks I've heard and read statements to
the effect, I don't see how anybody can
stand in the delivery room and see the
birth of a baby and not believe in
God.
And I thought of that.
I thought of Psalm 139 when I heard
that.
It's been a refrain over and over again.
All right.
It says in verse 13, for thou hast
possessed my reins.
Thou has 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, well, it
said members in the King James version, maybe
if you have another version of the Bible,
you'll find a different word there.
There's some versions say days.
Does anybody have a version that says that?
Days?
No.
Members, everybody?
Days.
What is that?
New American Standard?
RSV.
We'll mention it.
We'll comment on it when we come to
it.
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.
Oh 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 let's go back to verse 13.
It says thou hast possessed my reigns.
Thou has possessed my reigns, formed my reigns.
And thou hast literally, it says, knit me
together in my mother's womb.
The marvelous formation of the baby and the
mother's womb and the knitting together of the
sinews, the muscles, the arteries, the veins.
What more appropriate word could you use than
that word knit together?
Beautiful.
David is contemplating the wonderful subject of birth,
an omnipotent God.
And he begins with us.
And when he begins with us, dear friends,
you look at that word reigns in verse
13.
And our beginning was smaller than the dot
over the eye.
Really, smaller than the dot over the eye
in reign.
He says, I will praise thee for I
am fearfully and marvelously made.
Marvelous and I work so that my soul
knoweth right well.
Then he says my substance.
And once again, if you have another version
of the Bible, it might say my frame.
And it means my skeletal structure, my skeletal
frame, the skeleton.
Wasn't that a marvelous thing?
Marvelous thing to know that when that baby
began, that whole baby was programmed, including the
bony structure.
You know, some people are born of stock,
large boned people.
You know, other people are more slight.
Well, it's all programmed right there from the
very beginning.
And that's what David is saying here.
My skeletal structure was not hid from thee
when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the lowest
parts of the earth.
There, I believe, is a figurative expression, a
literary expression for the mother's womb.
I mean, the baby isn't born in the
dirt, you know, not born out there in
the in the ground, the lowest parts of
the earth.
I believe it's a figurative expression for the
mother's womb.
And I believe that's exactly what you have
in Ephesians 4, when it speaks about the
Lord Jesus coming down from heaven to the
lower parts of the earth.
It means he entered life through the antechamber
of the Virgin's womb.
Isn't that wonderful?
Really is wonderful to think of the great
God coming down and going through the process
of birth, being born as a baby in
Bethlehem stable, cradled in a manger, mothered by
the Virgin Mary.
Thine eyes did see my substance.
That means my unperfect substance.
This is the formation of the fetus in
the mother's womb, yet being unperfect.
And in thy book, all my members, if
you want it, I notice that members is
an italics there.
Dan's version says days.
I like days.
I think it means all my days were
written when as yet there was none of
them.
What does that mean?
It means the whole diary was written.
That wonderful.
All my days were written when as yet
there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God.
Oh, how great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they are more
in number than the sand.
When I awake, I don't know when I,
I think it means when the birth takes
place.
That's what I think it means.
I've never read that in any commentary.
And it may be wrong, but it seems
to me that David's saying, when I see
the light of day, I'm still with thee.
Isn't that beautiful?
And this is the omnipotence of God that
he's tracing.
He just uses that as a single example
of it.
The marvelous miracle of birth.
Just to think that the Lord Jesus, our
wonderful savior went through that miracle.
The omnipotence of God.
Let me read you some other verses from
the scripture before we go on that deal
with the omnipotence of God.
I am the almighty God.
Genesis 17, one walk before me and be
thou perfect.
See the almighty God.
Genesis 18, 14.
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Nothing.
Job 42, two in the new American standard
version.
It's beautiful.
It says, I know that thou can't do
all things.
And that no purpose of thine can be
thwarted.
You like that?
I know that thou can't do all things.
And that no purpose of thine can be
thwarted.
Matthew 19, 26.
With God, all things are possible.
Luke one, a 37 for with God, nothing
is impossible.
And then the Bible ends on that note.
Revelation 19, six.
It says the Lord God omnipotent reign.
Think of the omnipotence of God in creation.
Think of the power that by the word
speaks worlds into being.
By faith, we know that the worlds were
framed by the word of God.
Think of the marvelous power of the Lord
Jesus in sustaining this universe.
Allowing my, what a, what a marvelous work
he does.
Colossians chapter one, 17 for by him, all
things consistent.
I remember flying across the Irish sea once
at a young, well, a gentleman sat next
to me and we got engaged in conversation.
He was a, he was a scientist.
And I said, oh, I'm so glad to
sit next to you.
I have a question to ask you.
And he said, what is it?
And I said, what holds matter together?
And he said, um, cosmic glue.
And I felt like saying, thanks for nothing.
Cosmic glue is a way of saying, we
don't know.
He was saying to me, oh, I wish
we knew.
But we know, don't we?
Colossians one, 17 for by him, all things
consist.
Think of the omnipotence of God and the
providence of God in this world.
The marvelous converging of circumstances.
Think of the omnipotence of God in the
Exodus, leading his children across the red sea
and dry land.
I think the greatest display of God, that
power that ever took place in the universe
was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from
the dead.
Spoken of in Ephesians one is the greatest
display of power ever.
Why?
Well, I believe that all the hosts of
hell were encamped at that tomb, at that
sepulcher to prevent the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus.
God reached down, raised him from the dead
and eventually took him back to heaven where
he seated at his right hand.
And I think of the omnipotence of God
in the salvation of sinners.
Wonderful, isn't it?
I think of the omnipotence of God in
that final day of judgment, the judgment at
the great white throne.
Well, there are very practical lessons to be
learned from the omnipotence of God.
One of them is this, man can't fight
successfully against God.
It's like a gnat trying to fight against
the blast furnace in the steel mill in
Gary, Indiana.
Imagine, imagine man fighting it.
It's so ludicrous and yet I did it
at one time.
Against the God who built the sky, I
fought with hands uplifted high, despised the mention
of his grace, too proud to seek a
hiding place.
And he finally pinned me down.
I found out that God is a better
runner than I am.
And he finally pinned me down with a
verse of a hymn, ashamed of Jesus.
Can it be a mortal man ashamed of
thee?
Ashamed of thee whom angels praise, whose glory
shines through endless days.
Well, I realized that was me, stupid me,
ashamed of my creator and savior.
And I bowed the knee and turned myself
over to the omnipotent Lord.
Man can't fight successfully against God.
There's no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against
the Lord.
Proverbs chapter 21, verse 30.
Lovely, isn't it?
There's no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against
the Lord.
Man can't fight against the Lord.
Second lesson is that the believer is on
the winning side.
Ah, that's wonderful.
It's wonderful to be on the side of
divine omnipotence, isn't it?
Now, you and I will never be omnipotent.
We'll never have all power.
But I'd like to share a little secret
with you tonight.
Man never comes closer to omnipotence than when
he prays in the name of the Lord
Jesus.
When you and I pray in the name
of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of
God, it's just exactly the same as if
the Lord Jesus were asking the Father of
the family for that.
And when you realize that, it's a marvel
we don't pray more.
Isn't it?
Prayer seems to be the last thing we
want to do.
I'll tell you, you announce a night of
prayer, or an all-night prayer meeting, and
the people will stay away in droves.
Who knows?
You announce a potluck.
Different story.
The believer's on the winning side.
If God be for us, who can be
against us?
And God has a wonderful way, you know,
of controlling the intellects and the emotions and
the wills of men in his great omnipotence.
And I'll tell you, this must be a
great encouragement to missionaries on the foreign field.
Turn back to Exodus chapter 34 and 24.
Exodus chapter 34 and 24.
And I hope this will even thrill you
so much that you might even say amen.
Praise the Lord.
You know, a lot of people that come
into our meetings think we're awfully dead.
You know that?
They wonder how we can scan the mystery
o'er and not be moved to love
and mourning.
And not be more enthusiastic about the Lord
Jesus.
Well, I wonder.
Exodus 34, 24.
Just a little background.
It says in verse 23, God is speaking
to the children of Israel, thrice in the
year, show all your men children, all your
males appear before the Lord, the God of
Israel.
He said, I want your men folks to
leave their homes thrice in the year and
come up to Jerusalem to worship.
And I can hear the wives and the
kids saying, wait a minute, you leave us
without the men?
We're defenseless.
And you know that we're surrounded by enemies,
the Hittites, the Hivites, the Amorites, the Canaanites,
the Philistine, all of them, you know, and
they'll just swoop down on us like the
Assyrian, like the Assyrian wolf swooping down on
the foe.
Listen to the next verse.
Thrice in the year, verse 23, thrice in
the year shall all your males appear before
the Lord God, the God of Israel.
For I will cast out the nations before
thee and enlarge thy borders.
Neither shall any man, what?
Desire thy land.
When thou shalt go up to appear before
the Lord, thy God thrice in the year,
God says, you obey me and I'll control
the volition, the desires of your enemies.
So they won't even want your land.
I tell you, that's a myth, isn't it?
And he's still the same today.
He's still the same today.
And we look about us and we see
the forces of evil masked against the church.
And we think the waves are beating against
us.
Yes, but the tide is sure to win.
One with God is the majority.
And I mentioned about prayer that we never
come closer to omnipotence than in prayer.
And, you know, the wonderful thing is that
in prayer we can deal in the realm
of the impossible.
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees and looks
to God alone, laughs at impossibilities and cries,
it shall be done.
If it's impossible, it can be done.
And in prayer, by faith, we deal in
that realm of the impossible.
And then finally, the omnipotence of God is
a tremendous encouragement to us.
Tremendous encouragement and comfort to our souls, the
omnipotence of God.
And let's put it this way.
The Savior can solve every problem.
The tangles of life can undo.
There's nothing too hard for Jesus.
There's nothing that he cannot do.
Some of you are saying, yeah, but I
got a problem.
There's just no solution to it.
I prayed and nothing happened.
Listen, the Savior can solve every problem.
He solved the worst problems in the world.
Already solved.
The tangles of life can undo.
There's nothing too hard for Jesus.
There's nothing that he cannot do.
When my weakness leans on his might, all
seems light.
The omnipotence of our God.
How we just bow and worship him tonight.
Blessed God, our hearts are full.
We feel tongue-tied when we think of
your greatness, your omniscience, your omnipresence, your omnipotence.
What a great God you are.
And just to think that you care for
us.
Just think, just to think that you took
the initiative in our salvation, sent your lovely
son into this world to be our sin
-bearer.
That he came and aside he threw his
most divine array and veiled his Godhead in
a garb of clay.
And in that garb, this wondrous love display,
restoring what he never took away.
And just to think, oh Father, that you've
destined us to eternal glory.
That your love could not stop short of
that.
That you would not be satisfied till we
would be there with the Lord Jesus and
like him, the fruit and travail of his
soul.
As we contemplate your majesty, your glory, your
greatness, and your goodness.
Deliver us, Lord, from the things of this
earth that tie us down.
And may we truly reign in the heavenlies
in Christ Jesus.
We ask it in his worthy name and
for his sake.