The all-knowing yet Knowable God

Last week we looked to the account of creation to show us the power of God. We discussed how creation shows us the majesty and incomparable power of Yahweh.

This week, we will look into another attribute of God. His omniscience.

Omniscience is defined as knowing all.

This is complete knowledge not just of creation but complete knowledge of past,present, and future. This implies that anything that can be known is possessed by God.

It is then impossible to separate God’s omniscience from God’s omnipresence. Omnipresence is the idea that God occupies all space and time. He exist not only in the present but also in the future. God is timeless. God had created time. So therefore he is outside of it. If God is exist both in that past, present, and future. He has seen all and knows all.

So then God’s omnipresence intersects with his omniscience.

What is the source of his knowledge?

I. The Source of knowledge.

Isaiah 40:13–14 CSB

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who gave him counsel? 14 Who did he consult? Who gave him understanding and taught him the paths of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

Has it ever occured to you that nothing has ever occured to God?

These verses we just read of course are rhetorical questions.

Knowledge is not something that exist outside of God but rather all knowledge is contained within him and flows out of Him into his creation.

So in other words, knowledge is not something that God gains but rather something the He possess. He is the source of knowledge.

II. The Implications of Omniscience.

#1- He knows the future.

Isaiah 44:7 CSB

7 Who, like me, can announce the future? Let him say so and make a case before me, since I have established an ancient people. Let these gods declare the coming things, and what will take place.

Isaiah 46:10 CSB

10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

There is nothing that takes place outside of Gods knowledge.

When we understand this to be we can rest in the future. There is nothing ahead of you that is unknown.

Sometimes in trials we look at our life as a runaway train.

As if at any moment our life could go speeding down the tracks toward an unknown destination. As we stare out the window as life goes flying by toward a place we have never known, a place of dread and uncertainty. The fear of being lost and destroyed overwhelms us.

However, We find both in the journey and at the end of the track, God . WE find God who is not worried.

We find God who has not left us.

Psalm 23:4 CSB

4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

We find God that knows the beginning and end of our journey.

In his knowledge he has given you the strength you need to endure.

He has given you the peace you need to have joy.

He will increase your capacity to trust Him and to face yet another uncertain path.

There is nothing that he is not aware of. There is no situation that is outside of His concern. His omniscience ensures these things to be true.

Tim Keller made this statement:

“What do you think worry is? Let me tell you what worry is. It is a frustrated aspiration to omniscience.” - Tim Keller

In other words, we do not need to know all things When we have a loving God you knows all things.

We can trust him because He is omniscience.

# 2 - He Knows You.

Psalm 8:4 CSB

4 what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?

Psalm 139:13–16 CSB

13 For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

The only person who really knows you is Yahweh God. He knows your most innermost thoughts. He knows you beyond the masks we wear. He knows every struggle, every lapse of faith. He knows every motivation of your heart. He knows every good deed and every secret sin.

Listen to this quote from James Boyce:

For an unsaved person this powerful, pervasive knowledge seems intrusive and frightening, and with good reason. God is the end-time judge with whom we must reckon. Strikingly, the response of the psalmist is not fear. He is not trembling when he thinks of God’s omniscience. On the contrary, he shelters himself in God’s knowledge and marvels at it. For the psalmist, God’s knowledge is not a threat; it is a refuge.

James Montgomery Boice

If you are here today and you have been rejecting so great a gift as salvation, then God’s omniscience is something to fear because nothing is hidden from Him.

Hebrews 4:13 CSB

13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

How often do both believers and unbeliever alike, live as if God is not watching?

Yet even with this complete knowledge of all your strengths and weaknesses; victories and failures. He loves you more than anyone else can or will.

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jeremiah 31:3 CSB

3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.

Even with all of this knowledge God has decided to make himself known.

Acts 17:27 CSB

27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

III. He can be known

A. Through His Creation (general knowledge)

Romans 1:19–20 CSB

19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

Job 26:14 CSB

14 These are but the fringes of his ways; how faint is the word we hear of him! Who can understand his mighty thunder?

B. Through His Son.

Hebrews 1:3 CSB

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Philippians 3:10–12 CSB

10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. 12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

C. The Holy Spirit and The Word.

John 14:26 CSB

26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.