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Today I want to consider the wonder of the knowledge of God.
This can be a hard subject to grasp.
Some boundaries to remember:
God does not think like us - His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways
God resides in eternity not bound by the constraints of time
God is not like us - though his desire is for us to grow to be like Christ
The knowledge of God knows no bounds as we will see today
I am reminded of a Psalm of David - Pew Bible pg.
419
There is nothing that God does not know.
Today I want to dive a little deeper into the knowledge of God which will deepen our understanding of the God of Wonder
Are you ready for the message God has for us?
Let’s dig in!
Knowledge outside of time
Remember what we have learned already God does not reside in time
There are some who claim that God resides in our time and sees time as a sequence of events
God exists only in the present
Knows only what is knowable
The future is uncertain and has not been decided
He sees time as a sequence of events
God does not know with certainty what people will do
In my studies of this someone provided me a quote from C.S. Lewis - READ
It is like C.S. Lewis spoke write into what some believe
When I think of an undecided future it seems to violate the law of entropy
This law states that there is finite amount of energy in the universe and the universe is using it up.
Eventually the energy will run out, this means that our universe in moving toward an end and God knows it!
More importantly the belief that the end is undecided contradicts teaching of Scripture
Pew Bible pg.
486
How can God declare the end if the end is undecided?
The Foreknowledge of God
There are couple of words we need to define
Foreknowledge - Knowledge of things or events before they exist
Omniscience - God’s infinite knowledge and understanding of things past, present, and future
This is what David spoke of in the Psalm we read at the opening of the message
David reminds us that God knows things before they happen
A problem with an uncertain future is prophecy.
They struggle with prophecy.
They try to get around it by claiming that God can settle portions of the future if He wants to.
Anytime God has foreknowledge it is because God is going to cause an event to take place
You can’t have it both ways, God has foreknowledge or He doesn’t.
God dwells in eternity and His knowledge not bound by the constraints of time
There will always be an element of mystery to the knowledge of God from a human perspective
Demonstrations of Foreknowledge in Scripture
The Betrayl of Judas - Matthew 26:20-25 Pew Bible pg.
665
Peter’s denial of Jesus - Matthew 26:31-35 Pew Bible pg.
666
Here is one from the Old Testament - Isaiah 44:24-28 Pew Bible pg.
485
Fulfillment is recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:23
150 years before Cyrus lived God tells us exactly what Cyrus would do
These are examples that show not only does God know what is the future from our perspective, but also what human actions will be
God and Jesus knew that Cyrus and the disciples would do these things but did not cause their action
We will come back to this in another sermon, but remember this for now: There is a difference between what God knows and what God chooses.
Thus Judas is at fault for betraying Jesus, Peter is at fault for his denial, the disciples at fault for falling away, and Cyrus set the Jews free and helped them rebuild
Conclusion
As I stated last week when our belief contradicts scripture we must take a closer look and be willing to change
When I think how confusing some these beliefs are I remember 1 Corinthians 14:33
It is freeing to know that I have a choice and that God had a plan to send Jesus because he knew people would make bad choices.
God has done everything He can to bring salvation and grace, we need to chose to follow Him
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