Well, thank you very much, Mark, for the opportunity to preach here this evening. I'm really blessed to be here. I do bring greetings from Dundalk Baptist Church to all who are gathered, and we do pray for you and for this church here. Turn, if you would please, to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. And I'm going to be ambitious here this evening and try and preach from the whole psalm. So bear with me as we open up God's word together. Psalm 139, beginning to read at verse one. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassed my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue but lo, O Lord, thou know'st it all together. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knows right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. O God, depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, and am not aggrieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Let's just go to the Lord in prayer before we look at this psalm together. Heavenly Father, as we bow in your presence now this evening, we are blessed beyond measure to have the opportunity to study your word together. You by our Holy Spirit have inspired this word and we ask that you indeed would have your hand upon speaker and hearer alike. That you by our Holy Spirit may take the word, apply it to our hearts and use it to help us to conform more and more to this image of your dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us Lord to be those who would listen attentively to the message that you would have us to hear this evening. That we might go from this place changed by being in your presence and having studied your word together. For it is in Jesus Christ's wonderful and precious name we pray. Amen. So this evening I'd like us to consider this great psalm which teaches us some wonderful truths about God. And there are four main divisions in the psalm. In the first verses 1-6 we see that God knows all that is in the heart. The second part is verses 7-12, God is everywhere present. In the third part, God knows us from the beginning of our existence, from verses 13-16. And the fourth part, God's thoughts towards us are precious, verses 17-24. So first of all, why are we looking at this subject this evening? Well, to tell you the truth, it's my firm belief that if we understood more about God's character, it has the potential to revolutionize how we think about God. And you don't have to be doing door-to-door work very long, or on the streets, or doing evangelism very long. But someone will say to you something along the lines of, well I like to think of God like this. Or, I don't think God is like that, I think he's like this. So what does God Himself say about Himself? How does He reveal Himself in His Word? The problem with all of these statements is that they are based on the thoughts and ideas of the person themselves. They are a subjective understanding of what God is like, rather than an objective understanding as defined by the Word of God. So although we might not like to admit it, even as Christians we can have a similar attitude where we limit God and drag Him down to our level. So often what happens is, as Christians, we tend to think of God in certain ways and we put Him into a box because that's how we can manage to understand Him. But that's not what we should be doing. We should be understanding God as he has revealed himself in the scriptures. So when we consider who God is, we should always base our thoughts and ideas, not on our own opinions, but on what is revealed to us about God in the scriptures. Because there and there alone is the truth about God. Not in man's ideas about God, but where he has actually revealed himself as he truly is. So as we study this psalm together, let us understand a little bit more about the character of God and how he relates to us as human beings. So we see in verses one to six, God knows all that is in our hearts. In verse one we read, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. And so the opening verse of this psalm is a description of what God has already done. He has searched and known us. And the word searched has the idea of a close and thorough examination. And as a result of this examination, the Lord knows everything about us. So when we read this word, think of the microscope, or a magnifying glass, where you take something and it magnifies it to a great degree so that you can see everything in detail. So this is a detailed examination, a thorough examination of us as human beings. God knows us intimately. He doesn't just know about us. It's not just that, you know, oh I know that person, or I know a little bit about that person because of what I've seen on the television or I've seen on the internet. No, no. God knows us better than we know ourselves. Because he has searched us and known us. And because of that there is nothing in my life that is hidden from God. He knows me better than I know myself. He is omniscient. He knows everything that there is to know about everything. Think about that for a moment. There is nothing in this entire universe that God does not know. Everything is known to Him. The very thoughts of our hearts, those things that we think are hidden from His sight are not. He knows them intimately. And the psalm begins with this idea and the rest of the psalm is built on this foundation that He knows us intimately. Verse 2a we read, Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. And this is the idea that God knows all that we do and say and think. He knows when we get up in the morning. and when we go to bed at night and all of our activities in between, there's nothing that we can do to surprise Him. Nothing can take Him unawares because He knows everything about us. Thou understandest my thought afar off. And there is nothing that we can decide to do that God has not already known about. So even when we decide to do something, God already knows about it. So He knows our thoughts afar off. Even before those thoughts come into our minds, He knows about them. That's how well and how intimately He knows them. So every thought that you or I can think is seen by God. And how ashamed would we be if those around us knew what we were thinking all the time. And we need to remember that the next time we are tempted to sin in our minds. Because Thankfully God knows our thoughts and we don't walk around with this big screen behind us showing all of our thoughts all of the time because we would be mortified by what others might think of us as soon as they see what goes on in our minds. But God does, so we can't hide anything from him. They compassed my path and my line down, and are acquainted with all my ways. So the word translated compasses could also be translated as winnow. Now to winnow means to separate the wheat from the chaff. It means when a farmer harvests the grain they bring it into a barn and then they thresh the wheat to separate out the chaff which blows away in the wind and that kernel of wheat which is good for making flour. And so the wheat has to be separated from the chaff. And so that's what God has said He will do. He will winnow us. Even the scriptures say that the Lord is coming and behold He has the winnowing fan in His hand. And so He is going to separate the wheat from the chaff at the end of time. So the picture here describes God stripping us of all the useless bits of our lives and leaving what is real and substantial and acceptable to Him. And of course He does this perfectly when we go to be with Him. So at the moment we are imperfect. We still have sin remaining within us. But the process of sanctification is one of winnowing, where we are constantly more and more conformed to the image of the Son of God. One artist put it this way, apparently Michael Angelo when he was asked about the Statue of David, he said, how did you know how to carve the Statue of David? And he said, I took a block of stone, and I chipped away everything that was not David. And that's what God does with us. He takes us as diamonds in the rough, uncut stones, and He cuts away at us so that we can be more and more conformed to the image of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 4 we read then, And so God knows all that we are going to say even before we say it. And not only that, He knows what we really mean even when others don't. Sometimes we can be disingenuous in what we say. Or we can say things that we don't actually mean. But God knows about that and even that sort of disingenuous talk and speech is known to God and there is no room for hypocrisy in our dealings with Him. So He knows us so well that there is no point in us trying to hide things from Him or to think that He doesn't know what we mean when we say it. In verse 5 we read then, And so this is the same as a seed being laid to a city. We're restricted because there's nowhere we can go to get away from God. He completely surrounds us. So not only are we known of God so well, so intimately, but He completely surrounds us and so we have nowhere to go because of who He is. And then in verse 6 we read, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. So all of these truths are more than David or any of us can understand. And this is a proclamation of David that these truths are so far from his understanding that he It's just lost in wonder, love and praise of God. When he says that knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high. I cannot attain to it. So then in verses 7 to 12, we see that God is everywhere present. So first of all, we've seen that God is omniscient. And next we see that God is omnipresent. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word omnipresent as present everywhere at the same time. There is only one being in the universe that can be that, and that is God himself. It is part of who he is that he is omnipresent. He is completely and wholly present everywhere at all times. Just think about that for a moment. There is never any point any time, at any point in space, where God is not present. He doesn't spread himself out like some massive blanket, but he is present in all his fullness at any point, in any space, at any time. So he is completely present everywhere. And it is only God who can be that. It is only God who can do that. It is the very essence of deity that he is omnipresent. There is no place where God is not. And so we see this concept clearly in these verses from Psalm 139. Both in the use of spiritual and literal places, David shows that God inhabits everywhere. In verses seven and eight we read, whether shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. God is Spirit. He is not like us. God is not like us. He is not made up of atoms and molecules, but He is essentially Spirit. He is not limited to a body or defined by space or situation. That's how he can be omnipresent. And it's precisely because God is spirit that he's able to be present everywhere at all times. And so David asks these two rhetorical questions, even though he already knows the answer, to illustrate how utterly useless it is for anyone to try and flee from the presence of God. Because God is infinite in terms of space and infinite in terms of time. It's completely futile to try and get away from God because no matter how far we try to go, we would never be away from the presence of God. And it's precisely because God is present everywhere that he is omniscient or knows everything. So these two characteristics or attributes of God are intimately linked. He is omniscient because he is omnipresent. He knows everything that happens at all times because he is there in all his fullness at all times. So both of those things are intimately linked. And then in verse 9 and 10 we read, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall bode me. So David uses the metaphor of travelling as fast and as far away as he can think of, as far as is possible for him to go. How far is the east from the west? It's as far as it can be at two points on the compass. And the same with the north to the south. And so it's the same here that David uses these two metaphors. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. For the Hebrew mind, the uttermost parts of the sea was the furthest extent of the earth. And he is saying that if I go as far as I can, as fast as I can, then it doesn't matter. God is always there. So David doesn't just have in mind this kind of science fiction idea where you see that if somebody travels at the speed of light then you might talk about Star Trek and its warp drive and all of that sort of stuff. But what David is talking about here is the fastest thing that he knew was the morning light. And so he makes the point that if he tried to get away from God as fast as he could, God could be where he went and so it would be a pointless exercise. No matter how far or how fast we try to get away from God, He is always there. And that's important for us to remember. In Isaiah 46, in verse 9 and 10 we read, I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. So God knows everything and He is in control of everything. And so we read in verses 11 and 12 of the psalm, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as a day. The darkness and the lights are both a light to thee. So darkness means nothing to God. Sins committed in the dark are seen just as clearly by God as those committed openly. We can't hide anything from God. The Gospel of John says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Why are burglaries committed at night? Because people think that they won't be seen. And they may not be seen by human beings, but they will definitely be seen by God. So we could also think of this in terms of hopelessness. When there seems to be no end to the darkness, no light at the end of the tunnel, God sees us plainly and no matter how we may feel, if we are a child of his, he will never leave us nor forsake us. So sometimes we come to the point where it's so dark and there seems to be no end to the trials and difficulties that we're going through. It's not that God doesn't know about those things. It's not that God is not present in those things or doesn't even, is blind to those things. He knows everything. and He is in control of everything, and He is using those difficulties and trials for our good. It says in Romans 8, 28, So even in the midst of the darkest and deepest trials that we are going through, God is not absent. In fact, He is using them for His glory. And so if we are under deep conviction of sin and there seems no hope for us, God sees us and commands us to repent. And if we do so then he can take us from the kingdom of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of his marvellous light. So even if we are under conviction of sin this evening, and it seems all dark and dismal, God has prepared a way for all those who put their trust in him to be brought into relationship with him through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross of Calvary. and has made it possible for everyone who puts their trust in Him to come into the presence of God, to dwell in light eternal for all eternity. So God knows us from the very beginning of our existence, verses 13 to 15. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. So David says rightly here that it is God who has created him. But not only did God make his physical body, but every other part of him as well. What makes you? You, your very soul, was created by God and so he knows us intimately. And so we're back again to this idea that has searched me and known me. So from the very beginning, God knows us. From the very beginning of our existence. He has created us in our mother's womb. The miracle of pregnancy is a wonderful thing. And childbirth is part of God's wonderful creation. Those two things are blessed by God. And children are a blessing from the Lord. And David is rightfully praising God when he says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And so in the original language, this is the idea of mankind being distinct from the rest of creation. There are things about us that confound evolutionists. Evolutionists would like to tell us that we are animals with a big brain, an ape with a big brain, but that doesn't even begin to explain what us as human beings can do. Art, science, engineering, abstract thought, all of these things are part of being created in God's image. Not only that, but we've been given dominion over the creation by God, so therefore He has made us in His image and part of that is that we are distinct from the rest of creation. Why was there no helpmate found for Adam? Because there was no part of creation yet made that wasn't equal to him until Eve was created from Adam. So those two parts of the creation story are so important for us to understand. That is God has created us distinct from the creation in order to have us to have dominion over it. And so in verse 16 we read, Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members were written, which in countenance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them. So God, of course, knows everything about us, including how long we will live and when we're going to die. We don't know. Sometimes we might think that we have many, many years left on this earth. But God alone knows the end from the beginning. He knows when our days have been numbered for us. And then in verses 17 to 24, we see that God's thoughts toward us are precious. In verses 17 to 18, we read, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. So how wonderful it is to think that God is thinking of us. For God to be interested in us at all is a miracle. But not only is He interested in the major decisions in our lives, He is actually interested in the most mundane aspects of our lives. He knows everything about us and He is interested in every part of us and every part of our lives. There is nothing that is unknown to Him. So if you're a child of God here this evening, there is no part of your life that God is not interested in. There's no area of your life that He's not willing to bless you in, if you will but submit to Him. So He is so intimately aware of everything that goes on in our lives, that He knows us intimately. And as well as that, He will answer all our prayers if they are within His will. Even if they are about losing our car keys or who we are going to spend our life with, both of these decisions and difficulties and things that we bring to the Lord are known of Him. Nothing is too mundane and nothing is too large because He is omniscient and omnipresent. So again, when we come to Him in prayer, we're not coming to someone who does not know us. We're coming to someone who knows us so well that He is already willing and able to answer our prayers. Of course, with the caveat that we are praying what is in His will, even before we ask it. Even though our prayers may be imperfect, He knows the end from the beginning. And so from verses 19 to 22 we read, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. These are harsh words. David hates those who hate God. He considers them his enemy. And should we not have the same attitude towards sin in our lives? Our sin disgusts God. It's deeply offensive to Him. So we need to have perfect hatred towards sin. We need to count it as rebellion against God, as a mark of our enmity against God and therefore has to be dealt with and slain and mortified as much as possible. When it arises we should cut off its head as soon as it arises and not allow it to gain a foothold in our lives. Because in verses 23 and 24 we read, So with the help of the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin and then convincing us of righteousness, we should strive to be holy in every area of our lives. Now there are sins that we commit that we are not even aware of. And David here asked God to test every part of his life, even those places that he is not even aware of himself. so that he would have been made perfect. You see, David knows how deceitful the human heart is. And he knows that even though he may think he is a righteous man, it is only by God searching him deeply and examining him closely that he would be proven to be righteous. And we need to have the same attitude in our lives. David is willing to acknowledge that his standards are too low. His standards are far short of the holiness that God calls of His people to. In scripture we read, be holy as I am holy. That's perfect holiness. That's a standard that none of us can attain to. But yet God calls us to have that attitude towards sin. Then we will be always killing it. Always seeking to destroy sin in our lives. Always seeking to be more and more conformed to the image of the Son of God. So first of all we see, search me. Why does he want him to search me? Because David seeks God's salvation. And so if we are to lay hold of the salvation provided by God, we must be willing to be thoroughly examined by him. So it's not enough just to come to God with a glib attitude, thinking, oh, I'm just going to come to Him now, and I'm going to submit this small part of my life to Him, I'm going to make this decision, and yet I'm going to hold back as much as possible. No, no, no. We must be willing to be searched and thoroughly examined in accordance with the Scriptures, against the perfect standard of holiness that God has called us to, so that we might know His salvation. know me because I seek your fellowship. And so David is calling upon God to know him because he wants to be in relationship with God. It's a wonderful blessing that we have as the people of God to be able to enjoy a meaningful relationship with the living God. That's what fellowship is. It is a shared life. And it means that we can enjoy being in the presence of God here and now by prayer and in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And when we go to be with Him in glory, we will have that wonderful blessing of God dwelling with His people for all eternity. And so God wants to know us. And so one of the benefits of being saved sinners is that we can enjoy fellowship with Him forever. Not just later, but here and now. and try me because I seek your service. If we are to be used by God, we must be tested to ensure we can endure in times of great trial and tribulation. Sometimes that's what testing is for. If you think about a bridge when it is built, A bridge is built and it's put under stress and under a large amount of stress so that when the large vehicles go across it, that it won't fail. It's the same with us. This is the testing that we're talking about here. It's the idea of examining us and testing us to show that we will stand up in a day of difficulty. Because once something is tested and shown to be the right strength, then it can be used. But before that, it is untried and untested. And something that's untried and untested is unreliable. So God wants us to be, if He wants to use us in His service, then He must test us so that we can show that He can use us for His glory. And see me because I seek your comfort. So what a wonderful comfort it is to know that if we are a child of God, then He sees even us, even when we're suffering. And in fact, He is using suffering for our benefit even though we don't see it at the time. So even though we might be suffering greatly, And though we don't see how God is using it for our good and how he is going to use it in blessing us. Yet because it is God who is doing it and knows us intimately. And again, O Lord thou hast searched me and known me because he knows us. He knows what we're capable of and He knows what we can endure. He says in His word, He will not test us beyond what we are able but for every temptation will provide a way of escape that we may bear up under it. So even the trials and difficulties that we go through are measured so that we can deal with them. He doesn't test us beyond what we're able. and finally leave me because I seek your guidance. Left to our own devices we would soon wander off the paths. If you think of it this way, a sheep getting lost happens so easily. It's not that a sheep in his mind thinks, oh, I'm going to just walk over there and get lost. That's not how a sheep gets lost. How a sheep gets lost is he sees a bit of grass and he says, right, that's a much juicier piece of grass than I'm chewing at the moment. I'm going to chew that one. And then he goes and chews that one and he chews the next one and the next one. Before he knows it, he's way off out in the distance. Because He hasn't been led. He's been following after what He thinks that He needs. And so we, as the people of God, need to constantly be turning back to God and following after what He says to us in His Word, so that we might not be wandering off the path. We need to be constantly looking to Him for guidance by His Holy Spirit in every area of our lives. Because only then can we hope to endure to the end. Now it's true that we can never get away from the presence of God, either physically or spiritually, nor would we want to given the protection that he offers. But never forget that whether we like it or not, God sees everything and we should bear this in mind the next time we are tempted to disobey him. So when we read in the psalm, O Lord thou hast searched me and known me, we need to remember that yes, he accepts us as we are. He brings us into relationship with him through his word and through the preaching of his word and by his Holy Spirit. And he keeps us in fellowship with him. And if you're not a believer here this evening, then you need to begin that process. You need to come to Him in repentance and faith to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your only means of salvation. That He has lived a life that we could never live and died the deaths that we deserve to die so that we might come into relationship with Him and we might enjoy the presence of God for all eternity. You have a Psalm to finish with Mark? 139? That's too bad. Psalm 139. O Lord, Thou hast searched me unknown. Thou knowest my sitting down and rising up. Yea, all my thoughts are far to Thee unknown. O Lord, Thou hast searched me unknown. Thou knowest my sitting down. ♪ In love, yea, all my thoughts ♪ ♪ Are thought to thee, I know ♪ ♪ My footsteps and my lying down ♪ ♪ The compass sets away ♪ Now also most entirely God, I've waned with all my ways, for in my time Not any word can be, but all together, oh, oh, Lord. It is worthy. Behind me for thou hast beset, and laid on me thy hand. Such knowledge is too strange for me to hide, to understand. From thy spirit earth shall I go, Or from thy presence fly. Ascend, I am, O how I bear! There if in hell I lie, ♪ Take I the morning wings and dwell ♪ ♪ In utmost parts of sea ♪ ♪ In there, Lord, shall I hand me lead ♪ ♪ Thy right hand, Lord, shall guide me ♪ Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come before you now and we conclude our service of worship. We ask, O Lord, that you indeed would search us and try us and see if there be any wicked way within us. As we come into your presence, Lord, we know that you do see every single part of us. There is nothing, O Lord, that is hidden from your sight. And so, Lord, you have searched us and known us. You know are rising up and are sitting down. And so Lord, we come to You as Your people, just as we are, to seek Your face. We know that apart from Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His supreme sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, none of us would be able to stand in Your presence, for You dwell in consuming fire. So Lord we come and we confess that there is still sin within us and we need your forgiveness and your cleansing each and every day. We thank you Lord for the time that we can spend together in your Word. The time that we can spend together listening to the Word that you have given to us. And we pray, Lord, that as we have studied your word together, that the message that you would have us to learn from your word would be applied to our hearts and our minds, and we would go from this place to be more conformed to the image of your Son. Oh God, we pray that you would be with us in every aspect of our lives. Help us to be your people, set apart for you, holy as you are holy. For it is in Jesus Christ, wonderful and precious name we pray. Amen. just to say that we're going to have a cup of tea and a bit of good food as well. And we'll just give a word of thanks for the refreshments. Father, we thank you for the things that we shall receive. We give you thanks for every good and perfect gift and for these things now that we shall receive in the Savior's name. Amen.