Romans chapter 11 and verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. A while ago we were looking at a number of God's attributes, His characteristics, and we would like to resume that study by looking at God's knowledge or God's wisdom here this morning. There was a teacher at Edinburgh University called Dr. John Bailey. He taught a course on the doctrine of God and he opened his course with these words every year. Gentlemen, we must remember that in discussing God we cannot talk about him without his hearing every word we say. We may be able to talk to our fellows as it were, behind their backs, but God is everywhere, yes, even in this classroom. Therefore, in all our discussions, we must be aware of his infinite presence and talk about him, as it were, before his face. And that's an especially relevant comment when we are talking about God's knowledge, God's wisdom. I'd like to begin by giving you a definition of God's wisdom from one of the systematic theologians, Louis Berkow, and then we'd like to try and simplify that. This is what Berkow says. The knowledge of God is that perfection of God whereby he, in an entirely unique manner, knows himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act. I'm going to read that again. The knowledge of God is that perfection of God whereby he in an entirely unique manner knows himself and all things possible and actual in one eternal and most simple act. It would take most of us a long time to fully understand that sentence. I would like to try and put what is taught in that sentence in six Very simple statements. First of all, God knows every time. God knows every time. He knows the past, every part of it. We know some of the past. He knows all of it. We know by remembering by recollecting. Our knowledge of the past is not in front of us all the time. It's not present to us. We have to, as it were, drag it out of our files in our memory. That's not how God knows the past. He doesn't know it by remembering, by recollecting, by, as it were, pulling something out of his memory. The past is as present to him as the present and as the future. The past is always before him. He also knows, of course, the present. He knows every event, every occurrence as it occurs. He knows all current events, everything at every point of time throughout the world. We live in one time zone. We know a little about what's happening in this time zone. We know probably less and less as we go either side of that time zone. But God knows every time zone. Present to Him is every moment in the present. and he also knows the future. Now, we might have some knowledge of the future, an uncertain kind of knowledge by predicting, by forecasting, by estimating, by looking at a trend and saying, well, that's where that will be in a year or a decade's time. That's not how God knows the future. It's not by forecasting. It's not by estimating. It's not by making an educated guess. His knowledge of the future is certain and it's as certain to him as though it has already happened or as though it were happening right now. In Isaiah we read, remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand." The New Testament puts it this way in Acts 15-18, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. God knows every time, past, present and future. This is a practical consequence. This fact, this truth about God impacts us. It can convict us or it can comfort us. It can convict us because This means God knows all my past sins. That's a thought. That's a worrying thought, isn't it? But it can comfort us in this uncertain world to know that He knows the future. That all the prophecies He makes in the Bible are not just forecasts, they're not just estimates, they are certain and sure, every jot and tittle. Dabney says of this future knowledge of God, this department of the future is so vast, so important in God's government, that if he could not foreknow and control it, He would be one of the most baffled, confused and harassed of all beings. And his government would be one of perpetual uncertainties, failures and partial expedience. Therefore, the knowledge that God knows every time, past, present and future, can be a wonderful comfort to us in all our uncertainties. God knows every time. But secondly, God knows every place. Earth, heaven and hell. He knows every place on this earth. Whether it be the middle of the desert, or the centre of the busiest city, whether it be the top of the highest mountain or the bottom of the deepest depth, whether it be the furthest star or the very place we're standing on, He knows every place on this earth and everything that's happening on every place on this earth. There is not a square inch or foot or meter of this earth that is unknown to God. What a knowledge! What a mind! But he also knows every place in heaven. That means no one will be overlooked or forgotten. We think of heaven as this vast place full of people of every kindred, tribe and nation and tongue. We think perhaps of ourselves sort of maybe just somewhere out in the middle of it all. Unknown. Unseen. Overlooked. But no, God knows every place in heaven and everyone in every place. None overlooked. None forgotten. None insignificant. No corner where He is not present and knowing. He is present to every saint in heaven. Knowing them, though there be millions there, knowing them as though there were only one of them there. And as we are singing in Psalm 139, He not only knows every place on earth, every place in heaven, but lo, he said, in hell thou art there. None can escape his gaze, his knowledge. None can think that though there be many millions there, that God will somehow forget them. He knows everyone in that place. Again, this knowledge of God of every place can be convicting, worrying, terrifying. He sees me when my parents don't. He sees me in my bedroom. He sees me at my computer. He sees me with my friends. He sees me whether I travel to the ends of the earth to escape Him, His Church's Word. But it's also wonderfully comforting to the Christian in the midst of all their cares and concerns that God knows their place. He knows their situation and circumstance. There's a story told of a lifeguard who worked at Newport in Rhode Island and somebody was interviewing him and asked him this question, how can you tell when anyone is in need of help when there are thousands of bathers on the beach and in the water making such a noise? To which he answered, No matter how great the noise and confusion, there has never been a single time when I could not distinguish the cry of distress above them all. I can always tell it. And that's true of God too. Above all the breakers in this world, God hears your cry. He knows the place you are in, your circumstances. However weak the cry, however noisy the world, He knows. No wonder the writer to the Romans says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. This is a great comfort. to the Christian. He knows every time. He knows every place. He knows every subject. Thirdly, maybe some of us here, maybe most of us have an area that we consider ourselves maybe quite well upon, maybe even specialists. But if there's one thing we learn when we become knowledgeable or specialist in a certain area, we learn how much more there is to learn and how impossible it is to learn, even in that very narrow specialist area. I don't know if it's still on, but I remember a program when I was young, Mastermind, and they used to have people who would come, really clever, brainy people, and they would always have a section of the show where they would have a specialist subject and it would be often the most obscure, tiny areas of knowledge. And yet in that small area, there was such a depth, you wouldn't be able to answer one question in their specialist area probably. and they call them masterminds. Oh, how puny the mind of man compared to God, the great mastermind, whose every subject is a specialist subject. He knows all subjects. He's a specialist in them all, every tiny area to the deepest depth. He knows every fact. You walk into, maybe you've got a library. You might know all the books you have by name. You might. But do you know what's on every page? Hardly. And then you walk into a library perhaps with thousands of books. You haven't got a clue what's on every shelf, never mind what's on every page. God knows your library. Every word. In every library. In every place throughout the world. What a librarian. What a mastermind. He has a degree. In every subject. Not just a first class honors. Not just a doctorate. He has the highest degree of knowledge. An infinite degree. in an infinite number of subject areas. And yet, God has never learned. He's never learned. It's never, as it were, occurred to him, oh, he's never had an oh moment. Like we do, oh, we didn't realise that. Oh, I didn't know. Oh, that's something new. God's never had an oh moment. He's never come across a fact he never knew before. He's never heard something that hadn't occurred to him. He's never seen a book written. And he's learned something from it. He has never learned as we have to. We learn progressively, by reasoning, by deduction, by observation. And even then, there are great gaps in our learning. God's never learned like that. Everything has been known to Him from the very beginning. Everything that's possible to be known. He knows every single subject in the whole world without a gap. Isaiah 40 says, Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel? And who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment? And taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding? It is said here also for us in Romans 11 verse 34, Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Who has ever taught him? Before we call, He knows what we are in need of. And again, this can be very convicting knowledge and very comforting knowledge. It can humble us. The Psalmist said in Psalm 139, 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. Oh, only every teacher, educator, professor would come and believe this. Oh, what a humbling truth. He that thinketh he knoweth anything knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Here we have Paul. looking at all that God knows about his purposes and plans. All he can do is cry out in exclamation, oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. How humbling. How comforting. The very hairs on your head are known to Him. How many hairs do we have? An average apparently is over a hundred thousand. The very hairs on your head are numbered. Why do we worry? That's what Jesus Himself said. He knows every time, every place, every subject. Fourthly, every person and of course the greatest person of all is Himself. He knows Himself. That's astounding. You don't know yourself, I don't know myself and we are so limited. We're so finite. Who has ever understood themselves? Who's ever fathomed what we are? As Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You think you've figured yourself out, then you do something, you think, I'm an utter puzzle even to myself. I'm such a conundrum. There's so many bits and parts of me that I have no idea about. We're a constant surprise, unpleasant surprise usually, to ourselves. Then we think of this infinite being, so awesomely and eternally great, and he knows himself inside out. every dimension, every part of His being. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10, For the Spirit, that is the Spirit of God, searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. God knows Himself. Yeah, even the deep things. He knows, of course, every creature. Everything He has made, He knows you. Oh Lord, said the psalmist, thou hast me searched That means investigated, ransacked. Thou hast me searched and known. Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up. Yea, all my thoughts are far to thee unknown. Before I speak, the words are known. Even in the darkness, that's like the midday sun to thee. He knows every person. Again, how convicting. Again, how comforting. The Lord knoweth them that are His. What a comfort to the Christian in the midst of the millions and the billions in this world. The Lord knows the kings and the presidents. These important people that we read about every day in our papers. And these important people in our communities. Oh yes, the Lord knows. But does he know me? The Lord knows them that are his, said Paul. And this is a great comfort. Remember, Peter, when he was being challenged by the Lord, do you love me, Lord? Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. He uses the knowledge and the wisdom of God as a pleading, as a prayer, as an argument. Thou knowest all things. In the midst of all the mess of my life, all my failures, Lord, Thou knowest me at the core of my being. Whatever at times overwhelms it, and diverts it, thou knowest, I love thee. God knows every time, every place, every subject, every person. Thirdly, God knows every possibility. Maybe the children here might want to think of this along these lines. Imagine we have a football pitch and here is the goalkeeper with the ball at this end. How many different ways can that ball travel through the team to the other end? How many possibilities are there? We might be able to think of ten or twenty, maybe a hundred, but there are thousands. There are probably millions of ways. God knows every possibility in every circumstance, in every situation. Berkov said this, God has an infinite knowledge of possibles other than those he purposes to actualise. He knows every possibility in every circumstance. Isn't that astonishing? Again, this is very convicting. It brings us to see how little we know. Remember James, he says, if any man lack wisdom. Now, we might be at a very important point in our lives a big decision to make. And we might try and weigh up, well, if I do this, then this and this and this might happen. If I do that, then this and this and this might happen. If I move here, if I marry this person, if I take this job, if I pass this exam, whatever, then this and that and this and that. We think through the consequences and then we decide, well, do we want to follow that route? And how many times we've been in these situations and we've thought, well, we know the possibilities and therefore we'll take this decision and then lo and behold, something completely unexpected happens. We had no idea that this could happen. We knew some possibilities, we didn't know all possibilities. Well, at every decision point in our life, God knows every possibility. He knows whatever will happen, whatever route we take. And that is why James says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. He knows the consequences. Why try and guess them when we can consult with the great knower? of all the infinite number of possibilities. What a comfort this is. Because it not only says, let him ask of God. It says, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. When we come to some people and we say, look, I don't know. I thought I knew, I don't know. Can you show me the way? They might laugh at us. I say, we thought you knew. We thought you were quite a climber, but you don't even know that. We can be upbraided, we can be rebuked, we can be put down when we admit our ignorance. But not God. He upbraideth not. When we come to him and confess, Lord, we don't know, we haven't got an idea. what to do and what might flow from what we do. He's not going to laugh at us. He's not going to mock us. He's not going to make us feel small. He's saying, I give to all men liberally and upbraideth not. God knows all the possibilities. Finally, God knows every means to every end. Maybe again we can illustrate this for the children's sake. When you're picking your football team, you might choose such and such a person as a goalkeeper because you know they're quite good with their hands, such and such a person on the wing because you know they're fast and so on. your knowledge of the people, their abilities, their characteristics, to the end you want to accomplish, which is to get that ball from there to there. You not only know the end you want, you try and fit the means to that end. That's what we mean when we say God knows every means to every end. Now of course, when we try and, even on a football field, arrange the means to an end, it very rarely turns out that way. Because we can't tell every possible reaction, variation. We might misfit a means to an end. We might put someone in the wrong position. God doesn't do that. There are no misfits. There are no accidents. There are no unknown unknowns to God. He decreased the end and the means to every end. See, some people say, well, God knows the future because, well, He looked ahead and He saw what men would do and therefore He wrote that down in His book. And some other people say, well, God has decreed the end. It's not just that he saw what men would do, no. He decided what would be done, but he's left all the means up to men. How that end will be achieved, well that's all kind of in a state of flux and uncertainty. It all depends on human freedom. And people think the only way to Maintain man's freedom and God's sovereign purpose is to kind of mix together this strange recipe of God knows the end but the means is a great mystery. That's not what the Bible teaches. He knows the end and he knows every means to that end. Think of the cross. God knew that end. He had foreordained it. But what Pilate did, and Herod did, and the Jews did, and the Roman soldiers did, was that all just chance? Was that all just happenstance? Was that just good luck? No. God decreed the means as well as the end. He put in each place at each perfect time, the perfect person to accomplish each means towards that great end of the crucifixion. Pilots of fear and cowardice, Herod's cruelty and political acumen, the soldiers' brutality, the Jews' jealousy, every single person he foreordained their characters and their disposition, every single situation and circumstance, all of these links in every chain, foreordained by God, every means to every end, and in so doing, in no way violates the freedom of the creature and therefore the responsibility of man. Pilate chose, he wasn't forced into it, he acted according to his nature. Herod the same, the Jews, they weren't like machines, they were making moral, responsible choices for which they shall be accountable. God decrees the end and the means His sovereignty is intact, so is man's responsibility. In Acts 4 we read, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Thus, says the confession of faith, the liberty or contingency or freedom of second causes is not taken away but is rather established. God knows every end and every means to that end. In conclusion, God knows But more importantly, God is wise. There's a lot of concern today about the big brother society, the idea that government and companies are gathering data and information on us and we're afraid of that because we fear that they will misuse that knowledge. They have all these facts. How will they manipulate them? How will they gather them? And how will they use these facts against us? There's knowledge there, but there's not wisdom. Wisdom is the moral use of knowledge. Or, as Berkhoff puts it, that perfection of God whereby he applies his knowledge to the attainment of his ends in a way which glorifies Him most. This is far more wonderful than even the knowledge of God, that God is wise and that God will make the best possible use of that knowledge to attain the best possible end and aim. Isn't this a great cause to be thankful? God's wisdom. He knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. God knows, but God is also wise, and he'll achieve a wise and noble and admirable end. God teaches. He doesn't keep all His knowledge to Himself. He teaches us. He teaches us through creation, providence, revelation, but especially through the incarnation, through Christ. Paul said of Him, In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Here is the one God has invested His wisdom in. And especially, God reveals knowledge through a crucified Christ. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God knows. God is wise. God teaches. God learns. Did you not just say, minister, that God never learns? That's right. But God learns in Christ. Isn't that amazing that the infinite became finite, that all-wise, the all-knowing, went into a state of not knowing and having gaps in his knowledge. We read in Luke that Christ in his human nature increased in wisdom. He went from lacking wisdom to having wisdom. God learned how to learn in Jesus Christ. and even admit it, not knowing. We find it so hard to say, I don't know. Christ said it. Of that day, the day of judgment, and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son. The Lord Jesus knows what it's like not to know. To be ignorant, we use that not in the pejorative sense, but in the sense of just not knowing, being in that state of not knowing what's about to happen or what will happen in the future. He could have known. At any time he could have tapped into, as it were, his divine nature, his omniscience, but he chose not to know. He chose to learn. He chose to be a real human in this world. And therefore, we have one we can come to who sympathizes with us as we try to learn, as we try to know, as we try to become wise. We come to one who himself has learned, who has been a student, who has been a learner, who has been a pupil. Oh, the depth. the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. We worship God for knowing all, but we can also worship Christ for assuming that state and that nature in which he was prepared to say, I don't know. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we are so ignorant, so foolish, so unknowing, so unlearned. Have pity on us. We learn so slowly. We unlearn so quickly. We lack wisdom. We ask that Thou wouldst give it to us, Thou Great Fount of Knowing. O impart it to us in Thine own wonderfully uncritical way. And above all, make us wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ. Amen.