The knowledge of God

 

1)      According to SmartMoney.com, a very good field is the “supplemental education business.”

2)      This industry is taking in nearly $2 billion each year.

3)      People are paying for private tutors, tutoring centers, test-prep houses, and supplemental education options.

 

4)      This information tells us that knowledge is of great interest to people.

5)      People want to know more and learn more because there is much to learn.

a)      Imagine a ruler that is 12 inches long.

b)      Man’s knowledge ,by the time 1845 came along, has been compared to one inch on this ruler.

c)      From 1845 to 1945 (100 years) man’s knowledge grew by leaps and bounds.

d)     That “once inch” on the ruler expanded to three inches.

e)      In 100 years knowledge just exploded.

 

6)      From 1945 to 1976, just about 30 years, we can no longer measure man’s knowledge by our imaginary ruler.

7)      Rather than use a ruler, The distance is estimated to be about 550 feet tall – 6,600 inches.

a)      We live in a time of great knowledge – major breakthroughs on all types of fronts.

b)      We can buy dictionaries that give us knowledge of words.

c)      We have access to all types of educational classes that informs us about various fields.

 

8)      We have a knowledge of the earth, space, the beasts of the field, science, medicine, etc.

9)      If we were in the adult VBS we heard that men have mapped out the human genetic code.    

a)      This was accomplished in 2003.

b)      Scientists have identified the 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA.

c)      All the data that has been gathered is going to take a very long time to process.

d)     We have knowledge oozing out of almost every corner of the world.

 

FROM TIME TO TIME PEOPLE (AND THIS INCLUDES CHRISTIANS) NEED TO HEAR THAT WE ARE MERE MEN. IT IS TRUE THAT..

 

a)      We surely live in the most advanced culture that has ever existed on the planet.

b)      We have technology that would be unthinkable to most people 50 and certainly 100 years ago.

c)      In the grand scheme of things, we are puny human beings who are often over inflated.

 

2)      With our knowledge, we cannot stop the flooding that has put some towns under water.

3)      We cannot stop hurricanes, tornadoes, raging fires and earthquakes.

4)      We can make some weather predictions and help ease the trauma, but there is little else we can do.

5)      Tonight we want to think about God, and especially God’s knowledge.

a)      When we consider God’s knowledge compared to ours, we see how limited and frail we truly are.

b)      Throughout both testaments we find much information about what God knows.

c)      Tonight I want to study God’s knowledge from the Old Testament and next week the New Testament.

 

6)      Our beginning text is Ex. 3:7.

a)      Here we have God saying: “I have seen my people’s affliction.”

b)      God had knowledge of His people’s troubles.

 

7)      Sometimes a person may reason that God does not really understand their situation.

a)      Somehow God is limited in grasping the full meaning of what someone is experiencing.

b)      The nation of Israel was in bondage and doing “hard labor.”

c)      We may have a generation that may not be familiar with the concept of hard labor.

d)     Hard labor means exactly what it says.  Someone is assigned to do hard and possibly heavy work.

e)      Imagine having a pick (something like a giant hammer) and having to smash rocks for 12 hours a day.

f)       That would be hard labor.

 

8)      Ex. 2:23 says the nation of Israel was in “bondage” and they were “groaning” (verse 24).

9)      God was 100% knowledgeable as to what His people were facing.

a)      Finally Israel was delivered.  When the nation was freed, God knew something else.

b)      Num. 14:27 says God knew His people were still not happy after their deliverance.

c)      Part of our VBS talked about the spies sent into Canaan (Num. 13).

d)     10 of these spies gave a bad report; they did not think the land of Canaan could be taken.

 

10)  These unfaithful men returned, gave an evil report, and the nation believed them.

11)  God knew what the people were saying about not being able to take the land (verse 27).

a)      Today if we are not present for a conversation, we may not know what was said.

b)      We need to rely on hearing the conversation from someone or something else.

c)      God is not like that.  Scripture affirms God is in all places at all times.

d)     There is nothing that God fails to hear, see, or witness.

e)      From heaven He knew what happened in Egypt and what happened with the evil reports.

 

12)  The first passage I want to read tonight is Deut. 31:21.

a)      This verse is a remarkable text.

b)      It tells us that God knows so much about us, we do not need to say anything.

c)      If something is just in our mind (it is never said), God knows it.

 

13)  Deut. 31:21 – READ

a)      This At one time or another all of us imagine something.

b)      We may never tell anyone what it was.  We may never put it down on paper.

c)      Maybe we think about it for only one time, and it is just for a few seconds.

d)     We may think that no one will ever know what we thought; the imagination is buried (hidden).

e)      God says He knows what we think. 

f)       Even if what was in our mind was there for a split second, He has captured it all.

 

14)  This is true knowledge; this is full knowledge.  This is God’s knowledge.

15)  Full knowledge is the right way to describe God and His understanding of things.

a)      Next on our list is a well known verse, 1 Sam. 16:7.

b)      This is the story of Israel getting a new king.

c)      Saul had been rejected by God and it was time to select a replacement ruler.

d)     Samuel was instrumental in helping install Israel’s new king (this was David).

 

16)  Samuel asked that some young men be brought before him and God would tell him which one to pick.

17)  The first one came and Samuel thought to himself, “this is the one.”

18)  Verse 7 – READ

a)      Our knowledge of something is often little more than a guess.

b)      A few nights ago I was entering a grocery and passed some watermelons.

c)      I looked at those melons and thought back to a time many years ago when visiting a member of the church.

 

19)  I was at the home of a faithful Christian couple and they had watermelon.

20)  They had good melon.  The husband asked me if I knew how to pick out a great watermelon.

21)  I told him I had heard different techniques over the years.

a)      He told me all my ways were bad; he had a way that “never fails.”

b)      He said look for a very dry part of the vine on the end of the melon.

c)      I think his tip was good, but I am not sure it is fool proof.

 

22)  We often evaluate things from an outward perspective; sometimes that is the best we can do.

23)  Verse 7 tells us how God’s knowledge operates.  He sees it all.

a)      Our skin is no barrier to his knowledge.  Our keeping silent does not interfere with his knowledge.

b)      If a thousand people in a group are talking, that does not affect God’s ability to know and understand.

c)      God is the omniscient (all knowing) deity.

 

24)  In some respects the knowledge God has is frightening.

a)      2 Kgs. 19:27 has God telling some people this:

b)      “I know your sitting down, your going out, and coming in.”

c)      How many times have we said to someone, “I didn’t know you were here”?

d)     God knows every single time.   What we fail to see and hear He sees and hears.

e)      In this verse God even said He knew the evil things people were saying about Him.

 

25)  Most of us in our lives will have some bad things said about us.

26)  What is said may be from a friend, an enemy, or a casual acquaintance.

27)  A lot of that information may be things we never hear.

28)  God hears every single word.  He even knows what people think but do not say.

29)  A time is coming when the unsaved will account for all they said and thought.

a)      2 Chron. 16:9 say God’s “eyes” run “to and fro throughout the whole earth.”

b)      There is not a single thing on the earth or about the earth God does not know.

 

30)  If we picked out any creature in the world God would know all the facts about it.

a)      He would know how many have lived, how many are living, and how many will live in the future.

b)      He could tells us where each one is, how much each one weights, and the age of each.

c)      He could tell us how each will die, when each will die, and where it will die.

 

31)  When we start to compare God’s knowledge to ours, our knowledge looks pathetic.

32)  All the sudden man looks like he really is a created being. 

33)  There are many things we can do, but the Creator is the one who is truly powerful and knowledgably.

34)  We have made giant progress in the last 150 or so years, but we nothing compared to deity.

35)  Job 21:22 asks a thoughtful question and I want to read this verse as well.

a)      This is part of one of Job’s speeches; Job was still complaining.

b)      In this book we find that Job got many things wrong.  He made some mistakes in his suffering.

c)      There were some things he got right, and this was one of them.

d)     Verse 22 of Job 21 – READ

 

36)  Our world thinks it can teach God a few things.

37)  Many have the idea that we are the ones in charge.  After all, we have put people on the moon.

38)  We can put space vehicles in orbit around this planet.  We can fly through the air using planes.

39)  We can transport giant loads of cargo quickly and easily.  We can fly at the speed of sound.

 

40)  When compared to God, our accomplishments are so feeble they are almost embarrassing.

41)  We can put a man on the moon, but can we make a moon?

a)      Can we make a star?  Can we make a man?

b)      We lack the knowledge and certainly the power to do all these things.

c)      God’s has full knowledge of us as individuals.

d)     God also has full knowledge of nations, Ps. 66:7 – “His eyes observe the nations.”

 

42)  I did a little looking the other day on the subject of abortion.

43)  It is estimated that 46 million babies are aborted every year in the world.

44)  That equals about 126,000 innocent children every single day.

45)  In the U.S. the daily number has been estimated at approximately 3,700 per day.

46)  God is a patient God.  Killing almost 4,000 children a day must test the limits of deity.

47)  God knows each one of the children killed in the abortion clinics of this country.

48)  He knows their suffering as their lives are brutally ended.

49)  A time will come when God’s knowledge of sin reaches a tipping point.

50)  Sometimes we learn about things time after time and we finally say, “enough.”

a)      God does that with nations and He can certainly do it with America.

b)      Tonight the focus is not on God’s knowledge of this country; it is His knowledge of us.

c)      God knows everything about us.  

d)     One day that knowledge will be used to save us eternally in heaven or send us away.

e)      What will our fate?  We surely know the answer to that question.

f)       We cannot hide who we are from God.