the knowledge of God, and we're going to make a handful. This is probably the most distinctions that we'll make in considering an attribute. And we always have to remember the distinctions that we make in God's knowledge are for us. These distinctions that we discuss in terms of the knowledge of God aren't real in Him. God knows it all together, all at once. The distinctions are for us, and we'll begin by considering right at the outset two very important distinctions, the absolute knowledge of God and the actual knowledge of God. The absolute knowledge of God and the actual knowledge of God. Absolute knowledge is God's knowledge of all possible worlds. He knows all possible worlds, all possible people, animals, plants, and galaxies that could have been, all histories, all outcomes, every possible moment in all of those possible worlds. He knows all that. That's included in God's absolute knowledge. Now, two, actual knowledge. The actual knowledge of God is God's knowledge of all things that will come to pass. It's a very important point here. God knows things as their cause. Listen to Peter Sammons on this. He talks about actual knowledge. He uses it as actual or future knowledge. Future meaning it's going to come to pass, things he knows will come to pass. So, actual or future knowledge. He says, God does not know about an event because he looks to see that it will happen. But God knows about an event because He has ordained that it will happen. In that sense, then, it could be said that God's knowledge of an event is what determines that an event will, in fact, happen. Like Himself, the actual knowledge of God is free, independent, it's infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. And Louis Berkoff here in his systematic theology gives us a definition that really brings all these together. I probably should have started with this definition. He says, the knowledge of God may be defined as 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. And we further distinguish between God's internal triune knowledge of self and all things outside of Him. So we have God's absolute and actual knowledge, and now we distinguish God knows all things internal to Himself and all things outside of Him. God knows Himself in a unique way. We've seen this in John's Gospel, in the prologue, John 1, 18. In 1 Corinthians 2, 10, and 11, the Spirit of God is the one who knows the deep things of God. And as the redeemed, we are led into this knowledge, but only in a way that is fitting for our capacities. Perichoretic union, if you've heard of that term, it's a term that expresses the intraternitarian fellowship of God. There is a knowledge, a fecundity or fruitfulness, a blessedness that God possesses in Himself, and part of that is the intimacy of their shared knowledge with and of one another. So God's internal knowledge, and He knows all things outside of Himself, which, here's our last distinction, will be distinguished between simple and definite knowledge. Simple and definite knowledge. Definite knowledge is what He has chosen to ordain, and simple knowledge is what He has chosen not to ordain. This knowledge is immediate, meaning it's not mediated to him by another. He doesn't learn it. It's intuitive. He doesn't contemplate what might happen if X, Y, and Z take place. There is no logical reasoning in God's knowledge. Both of these are describing for us the fact that God's knowledge, again, is free and independent, just like himself. It's free. God did not have to create a world where Pastor Ed Foster exists. although we're glad he did. He didn't have to create a world where people settled in Fargo, North Dakota. It's always boggled my mind with how much of a frozen and windy tundra it is there, but he had people settle there. He didn't have to create a world in which the New York Yankees would beat the Twins in 13 consecutive playoff series, but he did. He has determined all these things and all things, and along with this in his wisdom he knows and determines the best means to bring them about. So the definite knowledge of God now, we'll consider the definite knowledge. And we could multiply scripture examples. The lamb slain before the foundations of the world. Our names being written in the Lamb's book of life. The son of perdition. The city you were born in, if we look at ourselves, the city you were born in, the parents you were born to, your height, eye color, education, all took place And the future will take place because of the definite knowledge of God, because He decreed it. These things have come to pass and must come to pass in the future. Think of the prophets, for example. How can God predict something and have it come to pass? It's because of God's definite knowledge of the future. If we didn't have this, can you imagine what turmoil would become our souls? The return of Christ and the glorified state of our glorified and our glorified bodies are all dependent upon this precious truth that God has determined and knows the future and it will come to pass. Jesus is building his church. He has promised that it will take place because he doesn't depend on anyone to accomplish it. His knowledge is unchangeable. It's infinite and eternal. And now to simple knowledge. Another way to think about simple knowledge is impossible possibilities. Impossible possibilities. From our perspective, the bones of Christ could have been broken. Yeah? If we're there and we're watching him die on the cross, they could have been broken. The soldiers had the capabilities to break all his bones without a doubt. But why was it impossible? Why was it an impossible possibility? Because it was not decreed. God knew it before the world. God decreed and predicted that they wouldn't be broken. Could Pastor Rendell have stayed with Gordon Taylor there down south where he began ministry? Yes. Yes and no. Yes, he could have. He could have made that decision when he was determining all these things and decided to move here. He could have chose the other, but no, because God decreed it. The same would go for us in Detroit Lakes. And all of you have at one point in time probably been given a decision that could have altered your future. But all of that wasn't really a possibility because God knew it and decreed where you would be this day at this point in time. He determined beforehand that you would be stuck here with me. But the good thing is that you won't suffer any purgatory if you spent any significant amount of time under my teaching and preaching. So you got that going for you. I jest. So Stephen Charnock, talking about simple knowledge, says this way. I don't know why it's called simple knowledge, by the way. Anyways, I like the impossible possibility term. He says, things that are possible to be wrought by the power of God, though they shall never in the least peep up into being, but lie forever wrapped up in darkness and nothing. Turn with me to Matthew 11, 21 to 23. If I could get someone to go ahead and read that, Matthew 11, 21 to 23. and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Siphon in the day of judgment than for you. How much more? Just to 23. You who are exalted to heaven will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until the So where is the simple knowledge in this? Where is the impossible possibility here? If the mighty works which were done in you had been done, they would have repented. If, skipping down, mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. We see simple knowledge right there, but the definite knowledge is that it didn't happen. God did not decree it to happen. And we move on to consider once again accommodation. Accommodation when we consider the knowledge of God. Why does scripture talk about God searching and looking as if receiving information and knowledge? says he searches the hearts of men, looking. It's because scripture, once again, is an accommodation. Remember that though God is not a man, he speaks to us, how? As if he were a man. He searches us. Listen to Spurgeon on the word search in the Psalms. He says, we must not let the figure run upon all force and lead it further than it is meant to do. The Lord knows all things naturally and as a matter of course and not by any effort on his part. Searching ordinarily implies a measure of ignorance which is removed by observation. Of course, this is not the case with the Lord. But the meaning of the psalmist is that the Lord knows us thoroughly as if He had examined us minutely and had pried into the most secret corners of our being." It's a wonderful quotation by Spurgeon there that really gets at the accommodating nature of Scripture. As Peter Sammons concludes his section in his book, he says, God's knowledge is different. God's knowledge is intuitive or natural to him. It's all internal. He does not experience or learn from an external source. God never learned anything. He cannot learn. God does not learn about something or become familiar with something after the fact of its existence. Rather, again, He knows matters in advance so that they will exist. The major distinction is that human's knowledge is derived where God's knowledge is causative. God's knowledge causes things. Causes things to come into existence pertaining to His definitive knowledge. So application. God knows our thoughts. He's omnipresent. And as we talked about when we dealt with His presence, His omnipresence, the way that He is present is He is present in power and present in knowledge. So a lot of the application carries over. But listen to Psalm 139, 1-4. O Lord, You have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together." We don't have any children here, but can anything be hid from God? No, nothing can be hid from God. He knows it all together. Your desires, your struggles, your pain, your trials, your sins, your good deeds. He knows them all. Don't hide them from Him. Bring them before Him. Let Him know the desires of your hearts. Let Him know the sin that you struggle with. Let Him know. Even though He knows all these things, it is His will that you acknowledge it, that you ask, confess, that you talk to Him. Even Jesus was to pray and request, and He knew well above all of God's omniscience. Psalm 2 says, ask of me. We skip over that too fast. Ask of me, and I will give the nations as your inheritance and the end of the earth for your possession. Did God determine that Jesus would accomplish salvation and receive his reward? Absolutely. Is there a problem with God having Jesus ask, pray, and suffer an agonizing death to receive it? No way. No, it is the wise means God used to accomplish his decree. It's the same with us. He might have you under some trial, and the means he is going to use to pull you out is your prayer and confession of your weakness, children or parents for your children. You know, does hiding, this is just kind of as we instruct our children, does hiding from mom and dad do you any good? No, because you cannot hide from God, which is what really matters. And this is sort of a half-baked thought. I reserve the right to recant at a later point. But I think that a big part of parenting and evangelism is really to help people open up to us, and hopefully, in turn, open up to God. We need to give people the freedom to talk about what's going on inside their minds and hearts. If people or our children get the sense that we're going to immediately condemn them the moment we hear about what they've been thinking or doing, then they are not likely to open up at all. We should not be surprised that sinners sin, that they think sinful thoughts. Even that Christians continue to struggle with sin and have sinful thoughts. If we are closed off to one another about our struggles, I believe we are in a bad place. And the same goes for people we interact with for our children. We want to have that open avenue. Confess your sins for us Christians, for us as a body. Confess your sins to one another, says James. And I understand there's wisdom in what you disclose, right? I mean, we're thankful that we're not open books to each other like we are to God, are we not? But what would it look like if we were regularly finding ways to confess our struggles with sin to each other so that we might better pray for and encourage one another? I know this is awkward for all the ladies here because none of you struggle with sin anymore, but for the men at least, we could take heed here. Any final thoughts, comments, questions before we conclude? There's always that mystery left at the presence of evil relative to knowledge of God, is what you're talking about. Yeah. And will that question ever be answered at this side of eternity or even in eternity? Yeah, I know what you're saying. I don't think we'll ever fully grasp it. I think that it's enough to know that God is our God and that He is working all evil for His glory and our good. But going back to, you know, I mean, the fall is not a bare permission. It's so that the Son would be exalted, right? The Lord Jesus Christ does not receive the exaltation and glory if there isn't sin. I mean, ha! And it says, all things were created by Him and for Him. So, yeah, that question comes up, but then it's like, I'm one who's been plucked out of eternal destruction. And it's happened on account of my Savior, on account of His death for me. So yeah, what a difficult question. But again, it's, you know, you look to Job. Does Job ever, he never gets the reason why. He never does. And I think there are people that live their entire lives asking that question rather than coming and embracing God. and knowing that if you have God, even in the midst of all the evil, all the suffering, if you have God, you have enough. Do you not? So, yeah. That's, um... I think about my brother, and I pray to God that he will come. How about me, and I pray to God, and I pray to someone, and it says that he will come. It started with a big man, There's just really things that you just can't, you just receive by faith. And I think it, myself, just looking at it sort of in a small way, that coming up to Savior was the most vital thing for God to do in history. And he knew that if the world continued on, just like some of the things referred to, without being cleansed, so to speak, by the flood, that the Savior wouldn't come. Something like that. It is, absolutely. It's an advancement of the Gospel. And so, yeah, the preserving of the eight people, and then the, however you want to describe it, not the recapitulation, but Noah serves almost as a new Adam. And God has preserved the line that the Messiah would come through, and he's going to come. So absolutely. And when we begin to talk about these things and looking at decree and the depth of God's knowledge, Paul, when he starts his doxology, which is what we'll close with, we don't have to close now, but he starts with, oh, you say, oh, when you can't fully describe the topic before you, oh, the depth. I mean, that's massive for us to grab hold of when we're plumbing into these deep topics, plumbing into things that we can never, we can't get to the bottom of it. Oh, the depths. Past finding out. Who has known? Who's become his, you know, no one, no one, no one. Unsearchable, past finding out, the depths. I think we're in that territory right now, without a doubt. Yeah, great comments, great thoughts, brother. Any other comments, questions? Yeah, I was just thinking as you were talking about the tribulations and trials and difficulties in this world and how If there might be a question, why is there so many problems? But if we think that we were commanded to count it all joy when we suffer trials and tribulations, and we think, so are we supposed to just suffer? Then we also hear that tribulation works patience, and patience, hope, and honor. So a lot of the problems that we have and the trials and the struggles are actually intended for our good and that we should receive them that way. We're commanded to count it all joy. And if we can really see that it's a benefit to us to suffer difficulties, which will ultimately guarantee to make us stronger and more like Christ and more so that would help to answer I was thinking of it in light of some people say well when there's so much evil in the world how can there be a God but a lot of the evil that people are talking about is just discomfort in their lives they call it evil but that isn't necessarily evil because And the only reason I know that's true is because the Bible tells us how to enjoy when these things happen. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, in another thought, what is the most evil event that's ever happened in all the world? The crucifixion. The crucifixion. But what came out of the crucifixion? A new creation. Salvation for all of God's elect. I mean, it's... The wisdom of God in orchestrating all this is just... Is something that's so far beyond us, but yet is the redeemed. We see it and we rejoice, and like we said, we take it by faith. But we do understand that that, you know, Genesis 50-20, you know, vision that we should have, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. I mean, it's... So... My favorite one is when the shipwreck team is told no one will be lost. And that was a guaranteed thing. But he also said, as they were playing down the lifeboat to get in, he said, if you get in, you will perish. Well, how can both things be true? Or are both things false? And I believe absolutely that both things are absolutely true. If they would have gotten the lifeboat, they would have perished. But no one would perish, and it's because In a sense, it was impossible for them to get in, even though they had free will to get in. It was impossible for them to get in because if they got in, they were perished. And then some would be lost, and it was promised that all would make it. Right. That's a great example. And all these things are... You know, a lot of this is retrospect. When we're in it and living it, you know, we don't have that God's eye view, right? We just know, I know when I wake up, I can make a whole lot of decisions. There's a lot of things before me that I can do and not do. But after I do them, I have no problem saying that God decreed that that would happen and be content with that. I mean, it's... That's why the scriptures are so precious. Because that gives you that insight. You can't see, but yet you can live by faith. Any final thoughts, comments, questions? Let's conclude with Romans 11, 33-36. 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! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to Him? For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time to discuss your knowledge. We thank you that you have given us fruitful time to learn and most of all to converse and to Discuss these things and to contemplate them. We pray that you would in fact Bless our thoughts and meditations on these things in the days ahead give us more and more to walk by faith and more and more to Give over to adoration to praise and to worship where we come to the end of our rope if you will Give us not to be those who would run into skepticism, but those who would run to You and say, Lord, I believe. Now help me to understand more. Help me to know where to give over to You. Give me greater clarity, greater understanding. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.