OUR GOD #4
OUR GOD:
Our God
Omnipotent
Omnipresent
Omniscient
This week:
OMNISCIENCE:
GOD IS ALL KNOWING.
1 John 3:20 - For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Psalm 147:5
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
Psalm 139:1-24 -
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Matthew 10:30
But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
WHAT IS GOD DOING?
Right now in the world the heat has turned UP. Russia has invaded Ukraine. There is so much heartbreaking destruction, Loss of life and needless suffering. WHAT is God doing? If He’s omniscient, He clearly knows about it AND He KNEW about it BEFORE it happened. Why didn’t He stop it?
It is so important to remember The big picture. Something that might be the most commonly misrepresented part of what we as christians believe is the idea that people are “mostly good”. That we deserve good things. That we deserve to be loved by everyone. The truth we see in the Bible is that our continued existence is only as an act of mercy. We’re not good. We’re not just. We’re not righteous. We deserve one thing, and that is death. That is our baseline. Some friends of ours who have a wee bit of a following in the christian music scene have recently released a song with the line “Being scared isn’t sinful”. This lyric is NOT Truth. It feels nice, sure. It lines up with much of the feel good christian industry message today that being, “You’re ok”. YOU’RE NOT. The Bible teaches that ANYTHING not done in faith is SIN (Romans 14). Can you really fear in faith? Especially when perfect love casts out all fear? Contrary to popular belief, Jesus came and didn’t make things easier. The religious understanding of the day was that jews could follow the laws of the old testament and by doing so, people could become righteous. Jesus reveled the reality of the situation. It was MUCH worse. NO ONE could actually keep up the requirements. ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It wasn’t just harder than the Jews thought, becoming righteous is IMPOSSIBLE for people. BUT the good news of the gospel is that Jesus, being God in the flesh achieved what was impossible for us. His redemption plan is our hope. Its THE answer. The only way. We so desperately want to feel ok. We want to be comfortable. We want to be approved. Part of their justification is the mental health of believers. The church is trying to incorporate mental health into its message, And mental health is important. In many ways the church doing so is a good thing. But it is important to understand that much what Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and others who defined the field of psychology, is antithetical to the gospel. It’s secular and Godless. We as christians are called to CRUCIFY the flesh. Our friends justify their claim that fear isn’t sinful by citing cases where calling fear sin has caused shame for people. THAT IS WHAT SIN DOES!
So, let’s be clear. Even though we are not good, GOD is good. He is merciful and graceful. He commands us to Love one another. Not because we deserve it, but because we don’t and because HE is good. God has a plan for our redemption and some of us have already nailed our colors to the flag, choosing team Jesus. Others? If God was to stop all evil right now, those who are not yet saved would have no chance of redemption. They would be damned to hell. The fact God continues to extend this period of grace where we can accept the free gift and be saved from this wicked and perverse generation is MERCY!
In light of this, here’s some biblical items to be aware of regarding this invasion.
1. Don’t lose your head. While it’s terrible, we don’t know how much global impact it will truly have.
2. Yes, it could have massive impact, but that impact could be part of God’s plan. In revelation 19, Gog and Magog are the powerful anti-god military forces of the end times. Geographically, many think Gog and Magog are China and Russia. First time I hear this was in the 90s, and China and Russia looked like no threat to the USA back then.
3. God used the king of Assyria to Judge the Jews, then God judged the king of Assyria for attacking the Jews according to His judgment. God has the right to do both those things. Could God be judging Europe and the west for it’s flagrant rebellions against God? Could God be judging Russia at the same time by using them to carry out his judgment? Who is the potter to say to the clay, why did you make me this way?
THE HUMBLE RESPONSE
God is God, We are not, We know a little, He knows the lot.
Our appropriate response to God being all knowing is to trust. Especially because when we don'’t know what God is doing or why, to think we know better than the all knowing God is the height of arrogance. Sometimes we do this in our head, allowing our thought life to run wild with fears and anxiousness.
We also do this with our actions. Do we really act like God knows better? Even if we think we do? I haven’t seriously questioned God in my thought life in over a decade, But, I certainly have created Ishmales acting in my own strength plenty of times. Not literal children from my sin, thankfully, but I have tried to fulfill a promise of God in my own strength and suffered the consequences. We’ve got to humble ourselves and trust.
There’s many a discussion at theology schools or seminaries regarding “Do we need God for morality”. They’re so myopic they’re missing the point. Even the Christians willing to entertain the question, providing their hypothetical world where God doesn’t exist and morals run wild and subjective.
The answer is simple, can an atheist have morals if there is no God? No. Because atheists wouldn’t exist if there was no God. Nothing would exist. Even if a person chooses to deny their maker, it doesn’t change the fact that they have a God-given consciousness powerful enough for God to hold them accountable for their unrighteousness. I got my baldness from my parent’s genes. I can deny my parents all I want but it won’t make my hair grow.
IN HIS IMAGE.
We’re made in the Image of He who is omniscient. God is Omnipotent. We are potent. God is Omnipresent. We are present. God is Omniscient. We have knowledge. We are not omni, but we’re not the opposite either. We’re not made to be impotent, we’re not made to be absent, we’re not made to be ignorant. In fact, we’re called to grow in Power, Presence and Knowledge by following GOD.
How long will you simpletons love simplicity?!
Proverbs 1:20 [v22]
Wisdom calls aloud outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.
21 She cries out in the chief concourses,
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
Study to show yourself approved.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
BE REAN!
Acts 17:11
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
Hermeneutics
1. Let Scripture interpret Scripture.
2. The meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph must be derived from the context.
The context of a passage is absolutely critical to properly interpreting the Bible. Why? Well…
• Every word in the Bible is part of a verse.
• Every verse is part of a paragraph.
• Every paragraph is part of a book.
• Every book is part of the whole of Scripture.
Because that is the case, no verse of Scripture should be divorced from the verses around it.
3. Interpret the Scriptures knowing that the goal is not to discover hidden secret truths, or to be unique in your interpretation.
4. Interpret the Scriptures literally unless you have good reason to believe that they are figurative.
5. Instead of interpreting Scripture with the lens of your personal experience interpret your personal experience in the light of Scripture.
6. When interpreting the Scriptures, investigate the meanings of keywords in their original languages. “Adam Knew Eve” means a lot more than plain knowing her.
7. Interpret the Scriptures bearing in mind that many commands, directives, and duties were made to an individual and not all people. The Who is this written to question
THE UNIVERSE IS COMPREHENDIBLE.
Knowledge is such an interesting dynamic. We, who are made in the image of God, continue to grow in our understanding of the universe, and we do so because it is rational. It’s comprehendible. Did you know that mathematically there is no such thing as true randomness? This universe is designed! It only makes sense that it has a creator. That creator knows you, knows your heart, and LOVES you enough to die for you.
BID.
1. Turn to Jesus
2. Repent of intellectual laziness.