Heavens Light 4-23-11 The Display of God’s Glory and Excellence – The Ultimate End

The Sovereignty of God
God’s Purposes
The Display of His Glory and Excellence – The Ultimate End
God has many purposes for which He made the creation. Indeed everything He has made has a specific purpose to fulfill in the grand scheme of His plan for the ages. Everything has a very wonderful and awesome reason for existing, and all things ultimately work out into conformity with the purposes of God as we have seen. In fact everything that God does has its own purpose.
Proverbs 16:4 – 4 The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. NASB
Consider these verses in Ephesians 1…….
Ephesians 1:11-12 – 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. NASB
In these verses, the salvation of the saints is seen to be “predestined according to God’s purpose,” but notice that this is not God’s highest purpose. Oh no, here it says that the predestination of salvation is “to the end that we……should be to the praise of His glory!” Learn then that the salvation of men is NOT God’s highest purpose, but it is works to the higher purpose of the “praise of the glory of God!” So when we ask the question, what is the highest purpose of God in creating all things, what do you suppose would be the answer? What purpose is it which makes all purposes subservient to it? What is the chief end for which God created all things? I think it can be most clearly summed up in the statement……

Dear reader, God is a being of such awesome wonder and infinitely profound beauty that the expression of His being is the highest and most glorious idea or concept that can be conceived. Further, the experience of knowing God in an intimate personal relationship is the most fulfilling and exhilarating reality that exists, and it is the highest purpose for which mankind was created. As the Westminster Catechism states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians ……
1 Corinthians 10:31 – 31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. NASB
Here the Apostle sums up all our human purposes, he says “whatever you do…..do it all to the glory of God!” Dear Reader, here we have purpose, here we have meaning!
This is in fact also what the Lord Himself taught us when He gave us the great commandments. He said all the Law and Prophets depend on these two commandments. In other words, you can sum up the entire Old Testament in this……
Matthew 22:36-40 – 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him,  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” NASB
Here Jesus tells us the chief purpose for our existence. It is to “love God”, to worship Him with everything that is within us. Consider the meaning of worship, “to ascribe worth or value to something” in relation to God’s highest purpose. God seeks to manifest or show forth the Excellency of His character, and we are commanded to “love Him and praise Him and revere Him.” This is why sin is such an abominable failure on the part of mankind, because he thereby fails to glorify God, the highest purpose for which he was made and also the highest purpose God has for making Him.  This is also why one sin is considered a violation of the whole law…
James 2:10 – 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point , he has
become guilty of all. NASB

If you would like to know how to know Jesus Christ and be ransomed from your sins and enter into eternal life…..click here to find out how….. http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/2425
Or read more about the Christian Gospel here:  http://www.ligonier.org/welcome_whatisthegospel.php
If you have comments or questions, please do respond to shaan@heavenslight.org
If you would like to be added or add someone to this email list, just reply with “sign me up” and the address you want it sent to. May the Lord bless you and keep you!
Pastor Shaan Sloan
Heritage Christian Fellowship – ABQ
505-348-5092
The Lord is the Strength of My Life

Heavens Light 4-4-11 God’s Knowledge

 

God’s Knowledge

Psalms 139:4

Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all. NAS

 

Knowledge

God knows everything. Because God is the source of all things, making everything from nothing, He is therefore the source of all knowledge and wisdom. Let us examine a definition of Omniscience to try and understand how complete God’s Knowledge is…AW Tozer writes.…

“God knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.”

We could add to this that God knows all of the data of every possible cause and effect, feeling and desire, creature, event, and every other thing that can be named. His knowledge is complete and eternal. The Scripture plainly declares that God knows everything….

1 John 3:20 – 20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and

knows all things. NASB

Isaiah 40:28 – 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. NASB

Psalm 147:5 – 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. NASB

Rarely would someone argue that God does not know the past, but what about the future. Does God know the future? The Scripture plainly declares that God knows the record of the future, in fact the future is the outworking of God’s decrees made from before He created the world. He knew in eternity past the entire record of history for all eternity. Predictive prophecy proves this again and again. God speaks about future events before they come to pass. Consider how many prophecies in the Bible have already been fulfilled!

Isaiah 46:9-10 – 9 "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no

other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning

And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; NAS

Isaiah 44:7-8 – Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come– yes, let him foretell what will come. 8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." NASB

In Psalm 139 the Scripture speaks of God knowing our thoughts and words “before there is a word on our tongue.”

Psalms 139:2-4 – 2 Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. 3 Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all. NAS

There is nothing that escapes His notice, and nothing can be hidden from Him. He is aware of the events of the past, present, and future as if they were all laid out before Him. As His being is perfect, so is His knowledge. Being perfect in knowledge, He is therefore all-knowing and never confused, misled or surprised.

Hebrews 4:13 – 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. NASB

Nothing escapes the attention of God. He see all things even the inner thoughts of man. Jesus said that “all of the hairs of our head where numbered,” (Luke 12:7) and that not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from His attention (Matt 10:29). Our very thoughts and intentions of our hearts are “open and laid bare before the Lord.” He knows our thoughts(Eze 11:5) before we even express them. Indeed there is no place where we can hide from God, He sees every hidden thing in full view, and He even understands the intentions of our hearts better than we do. He is God!

1 Kings 8:39- 39 then hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, for Thou alone dost know the hearts of all the sons of men, NASB

1 Chronicles 28:9 – 9 "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. NA

Proverbs 5:21 – 21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his paths. NASB

AW Pink writes of God’s knowledge of our sins;

“Neither the darkness of night, the closest curtains, nor the deepest dungeon can hide any sinner from the eyes of Omniscience. The trees of the garden were not able to conceal our first parents. No human eye beheld Cain murder his brother, but his maker witnessed his crime! Sarah might laugh derisively in the seclusion of her tent, yet was it heard by Jehovah. Achan stole a wedge of gold and carefully hid it in the earth, but God brought it to light. David was at much pains to cover up his wickedness, but ere long the all-seeing God sent one of His servants to say to him, “You are the man!” And to writer and reader is also said, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)

Proverbs 15:3 – The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good. NAS

             Job 34:21-22 – 21 "For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps. 22 "There

is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. NASB

Psalms 90:8 – 8 Thou hast placed our iniquities before Thee, Our secret sins in the light of Thy presence.

NASB

 

S Lewis Johnson summarizes God’s knowledge like this…..

·   Intuitive –  God knows everything by default, His knowledge exists within Himself

·   Simultaneous – God knows everything in one simple act, instantaneously, not gradually

·   Independent – God knows everything apart from any learning, He cannot learn, because He knows all things from eternity, His knowledge comes from Himself

·   Distinct – God knows everything clearly, without ambiguity, specifically not generally, absolute

·   Infallible – God’s knowledge is unfailing, certain, accurate in every detail

·   Immutable – God’s knowledge never changes because He learned a new fact, it is not subject to anything outside of Himself

·   Complete – God’s knowledge is infinite, the scope or extent of it is exhaustive, He knows all things actual and possible, all events, all creatures of the past, present and future

 

Consider how God’s knowledge is related to His Sovereignty. If God be All-Knowing, than nothing can escape His attention or somehow surprise Him. He is intimately aware of everything at all times, knowing it all from before He ever created the world. God knows everything FREELY because He has willed them to be and has providentially brought them about.

Ephesians 1:11 – 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, NASB

 

 

If you would like to know how to know Jesus Christ and be ransomed from your sins and enter into eternal life…..click here to find out how….. http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/2425

 

Or read more about the Christian Gospel here:  http://www.ligonier.org/welcome_whatisthegospel.php

 

 

If you have comments or questions, please do respond to shaan@heavenslight.org

If you would like to be added or add someone to this email list, just reply with "sign me up" and the address you want it sent to. May the Lord bless you and keep you!

 

 

Pastor Shaan Sloan

Heritage Christian Fellowship – ABQ

505-348-5092

The Lord is the Strength of My Life