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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadR.A. Torrey Collection: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God): 07- The Omniscience of God
TOPIC: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God) (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 07- The Omniscience of God
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Ch 07 The Omniscience of God
I. GOD IS OMNISCIENT.
1Jn_3:20 — "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."
Job_37:16 — -"Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?"
Psa_147:5 — "Great is the Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite."
Proposition: God "knoweth all things." He is "perfect in knowledge." "His understanding is infinite." Literally, "of his understanding there is no number." )
II. WHAT GOD KNOWS.
Pro_15:3 RV — "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch upon the evil and the good."
First Proposition: He sees all that occurs in every place and keeps watch over the evil and the good.
Psa_147:4 — -"He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."
Mat_10:29 — "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Second Proposition: He knows everything in nature, every star and every sparrow.
Psa_33:13-15 — "The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works."
Pro_5:21 — "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings."
Third Proposition: "He beholdeth all the sons of men" and "considereth all their works.' "The ways of men are before" His eyes, and "He pondereth for maketh level all his goings."
Psa_139:2-3 — "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways."
Fourth Proposition: He knows all man's deeds and experiences.
Psa_139:4 "For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether."
Fifth Proposition: He knows all man's words.
Exo_3:7 — "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."
Sixth Proposition: He knows all man's sorrows.
It seems sometimes as though He does not. It must have seemed so sometimes to Israel in Egypt, but He did and in time proved it.
Psa_139:1-2 — "O Lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off."
1Ch_28:9 — "And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off forever."
Seventh Proposition: He understands all our thoughts afar off.
Mat_10:29-30 — "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Eighth Proposition: God's knowledge extends to minute particulars.,
Act_15:18 RV — "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."
Isa_46:9-10 — "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, and I will do all my pleasure."
Ninth Proposition: God knows what shall be for all eternity.
(Compare to 1Pe_1:20 RV — "Christ: who was foreknown indeed
before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times." See also Mar_13:32.)
Mat_20:17-19 — "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them: Behold we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him; and the third day he shall rise again."
Exo_3:19 RV — "And I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, no, not by a mighty hand."
Act_3:17-18 — "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled."
2Ki_7:1-2 — "Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD: Thus saith the LORD, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whom the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof."
Psa_41:9 — "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."
Gal_1:15-16 — "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
1Pe_1:2 — "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you and peace be multiplied."
Tenth Proposition: God knows from the beginning what each individual man will do.
Eph_1:9; Eph_1:12 — "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ."
Eph_3:4-9 RV — "Whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to-wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellowmembers of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the lest of all saints, was his grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God, who created all things."
Col_1:25-26 — "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.
Even the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations."
Eleventh Proposition: The whole plan of the ages and each man's part in it has been known to God for all eternity.
There are no afterthoughts with God. We may exclaim, "O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!" ( Rom_11:33).