The omniscience of God can be a terrifying reality, but also one of the most comforting truths of His character. He who knows us the best, loves us the most.
"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."
- Psalm 139:1–2
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Transcript: Hi. Welcome to "5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer." I'm so glad that you joined us because we're studying the attributes of God and today we continue our study on the omniscience of God—that God knows absolutely everything, both actual and possible.
Listen to this verse of Scripture taken from Psalm 139, beginning at verse 1. "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." And a few verses later he says, "[Even] before a word is [on] my tongue, [behold], O LORD, you know it [altogether.]"
Now, I want us to think for a moment. Would you visualize a library that's all about you? Let's suppose that this library includes everything that you have ever done, everything that you have said, everything that you have ever thought, the stream of consciousness that goes through our mind when we're awake, all that is recorded. I can tell you that it would be a huge library all about you. And God has all that knowledge but it is it is even more mind-boggling than that. You know, as I study these attributes of God I trust that I'm helping you to understand God better but I want you to know that it's also helping me to understand God better.
These studies have actually expanded my own understanding of God and there are times when I get to a certain place where I say— "God, I can't take it anymore. There's mystery, there's awesomeness, there's such greatness I can't get my mind around it." And now I want to give you one of those moments. No matter where you are, no matter what you are doing I want you to concentrate very specifically. If God knows all things actual about us and also all things possible that means that He knows exactly what we would have done if we had been born to a family in Africa or a family in Asia. We'd have said many different things, we'd have thought many different things, we'd have done many different things and God knows all that too.
Well, of course, immediately you have to expand it to all the families in the world, that God knows exactly what we would have done in different families and in different circumstances. His knowledge boggles our mind when you think of the expanse of it. And by the way, He knows the number of grains of sand that were on your shoes when you got dressed this morning. Nothing is hidden from His sight and as David goes through this Psalm—Psalm 139—he explains this.
And now I want to remind you of something, that what we need to do is to ask God to show us what He sees when He looks into our hearts. David begins the song by saying "O LORD, you have searched me and known me" and he ends it by saying "search me." What David is saying is, "God, I know you've got me cased. You know every single detail about me but now show me what you see."
You know, Robert Fulghum wrote a book entitled, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It's a delightful little book to read but in it he tells the story of how during the fall when kids were raking leaves they used to hide in the leaf piles. And some kids hid so well that nobody could find them. So now as an adult, he's watching the very same thing happen as he looks out of his window and he notices that there is a kid that hides so well that he can't be found. He said that he wanted to go out there and just light the leaves on fire. Well, thankfully he didn't do that but apparently he shouted at the kid "Get found!" And the kid was so scared he came out of the leaf pile and ran all the way home and probably cried to his mother.
From my heart to yours today: Get found. You may be hiding under your own pile of leaves. You may be hiding in the garden like Adam was and God said to Adam, "Where are you?" Not for God's benefit but He wanted Adam to tell Him. Because God knows exactly where you are. Come before Him with all your doubts, your regrets, your hurts, your pains, your circumstances, your fears because He sees you. Say, "O God, I'm not going to run from you anymore. You know all about me. I'm going to get found." And in the process God will lead you in the everlasting way, which is what this song ends with, that God directs those who are willing to come before Him and say, "Lord, you know it all anyway. Here I am; find me." Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope that you join us next time as we continue our study on the omniscience of God. And today, my friend, just go with God.