The Omniscience of God

Psalms 139:1-6 TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

There is no occurrence that has slipped by God without His knowledge. God knows all things – from the largest animal to the most microscopic virus. There is not one inch upon this earth where something transpires that God does not know. The all-knowing God knows how you boast in Him, the extent to which you boast in Him, and for what reasons you boast in Him. God knows the heart of a person better than the person himself.

Oh, how great it is that the believer can boast in the God who knows all things! For God is never surprised by man’s actions nor earth’s natural disasters. God is not surprised by what may be a mishap to mankind, or something unheard of that man did not know was coming. God’s people have known this about Him throughout time – with Job, David, and Solomon and the writer of Hebrews being key examples. How great it truly is to know every day that your God knows what will happen and for what reason! Every action, every move, deed, decision, every situation that will occur, every person you will meet in a day, every bill you receive…everything up to the car wreck you didn’t see coming, to the child that dies in the womb – things that you still have no answers for – God knows. He alone knows. He knows how it will happen, as well as the reason for it. And you, the believer, can get ready for the unthinkable; you can get ready for the things that you have no clue are about to happen, so when they do, you can scream from the top of your lungs that you want now more than ever to find delight in God at that time. Then, and only then, can you enjoy the fact that God knows all things and the reasons for which all things occur, so that you can love and feel safe in boasting in the all-knowing God, whom you serve.

For the believer to boast in this allows him to enjoy God’s sovereignty. Any hardship in your family, any struggle in your private life, any financial situations – God knows them all. He knew they were going to happen, even how they were going to happen, and the very reason that they happened; and it is certain that it occurred to make Him more glorified through it. Do you, the believer, wish to find your happiness and find your contentment in God and the knowledge that He knows exactly why He has allowed you to go through problems? How often is it when believers come to the valley in life and have no vision? They forget the God that created them and the things around them – who knows everything that happens and ever will happen, for a purpose we may not know. Although believers may not find out what that purpose is at the time, or maybe even years (or ever), they can always know that God is glorified, and can praise Him for all things in which He knows. God’s people must boast in the fact that God allows His people to suffer, so that they can run to Him and find pleasure in Him for knowing all things. How much more honoring it is when His people run to Him in a time of need – the time of doubt – and jump into His arms and rest there knowing that He knows all things. This alone can give you reason and can be the cause of your affection to boast only in Him.

The Omnipotence of God

Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.’

Luke 1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.

God has done, and is able to do all things that He pleases. The power of God describes Himself: it is infinite, and there is no one that can change it in the slightest. The believer can boast in this power of the Almighty God, knowing that it was by the word of His mouth that He created the heavens and the earth.

God is unlimited in His power, and there is no scale to measure it. God’s power reigns above all of the creation that He has made. There are no influences on the power that He holds. If God wills something to be done, it is! No questions; no thought process; no “what if’s,” and no worrying about what other people may say. For when God pleases to do something, He does, and that is the final word. The largest and mightiest armies can try to overshadow God’s power, but it cannot happen. The ability which God holds in doing what He wills with His power is not only unlimited in its amount, but it is also unlimited in the way the Lord uses it. Whatever His will is pleased with is done. Many try to find ways around this power in describing God as being limited in what He can do. For believers to boast in God’s power, they need to see that it works in accordance with His will, and that what He wishes to be done in His perfect plan; He does. God will never contradict Himself in how He uses His power. God also will never use this power wickedly or immorally. And God will never use His almighty hand and word of mouth to deny His own nature in who He is, nor will He allow it to alter His plan in all eternity.

As for the believer, he must never try to fully grasp or understand how God uses His will. Rather, the believer should see the enormities of the power and limitlessness of God, and praise Him for His gracious character in allowing us to enjoy it. Oftentimes, men (and, yes, that includes believers) see themselves as untouchable or powerful in that they can achieve whatever they desire. It is most important when boasting in the gospel to realize that God could use His almighty power and merely speak the words He wishes, and whether the person be a believer or an unbeliever, his life is over. The believer can enjoy the Almighty God in whom they serve, for the word’s from his mouth speak, “Let it be” – and there it was. For the believer to boast in this, he must give God the glory due to His name. The believer must find delight in the perfections of God’s power, the certainty of His upholding, and the might of His will, which made all of creation. God can do whatever He wills, and that is all the believer can boast in. When the believer sees that God is the everlasting source of power, life, perfect activity, and is totally faultless, how can he not find his contentment with this God? How can the believer not boast in living for a God who can do all things? For there is nothing impossible for the Lord who is the maker of all things and the One who sanctions how creation is lived out. His unlimited power will endure forever, and there the believer can find rest in the arms of his God. But what leaves the believer in awe of savoring this all-powerful God is that we can know for sure that His power is always 100% perfect for His best, which is for our best as well. We see that God uses His character and His traits so that He may be boasted in among all people. Every way, every day, and every time God uses His power – from the tiniest bit of it to the enormous amount which kills thousands in seconds – it is made for His sake, and His name alone. The believer must boast in the power of God for the reason that God uses it to make Himself known and look glorious to the believer, so that he can not only glory in it, but become satisfied in it as well.

The Love of God

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The love of God for mankind is unfathomable: that He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die so that sinful mankind could come to know Him and boast in Him. This act of love is great and surpasses any display of love throughout all of time – past, present, and future.

Man can boast in the love of God because of the act in which God displayed His love. How thought-provoking it is that man can boast in God because of the death of God. The love of God for the gospel is deeper, stronger, wider, and longer than anything on this earth. God has planned throughout all of history a way in which the nations would see just how much He loves them. This loving God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take form in a human body so that He could then suffer for all of mankind. This act of love separates all types of love. For there is nothing that comes close to the act of the cross, where God sent His Son to die because of His love for humankind. How much more should the believer boast in the ability to know that he is saved by the grace which God gives to His chosen because He simply loves Himself. No doubt this may sound prideful, or selfish. But it is by no means so. God is a jealous God, and no man or individual should be boasted in, or be delighted in – especially by His flock – besides the Supreme Lord. For the believer to boast in this is to look at how much God loved them and thank God alone for His doing, and think nothing of himself or what he has done. Romans 5:7-8 best portrays this act of love in stating thus: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God shows His love for His chosen by planning that, while we were dead sinners bound to the pit of hell, He would then give His Son so that His elect could see His love and enjoy His love in bringing sinners to know His love. Imagine that the act of the cross, and all that happened before and after that event, was predestined to take place for you. It was predestined to take place so that you, the believer, when called into God’s elect people, would only boast and find all enjoyment in God’s love for His people! The believer needs to boast in this love that he was created for. It was created for God’s people to know and fall in love with. Yes, God’s love is for the believer to fall in love with.

God’s love must be boasted about. It is good to all of creation, and even more, it is the most compassionate love that exists, or ever will exist. There is no love on this earth that a husband has for his wife, or a mother has for her children, that can compare to God’s love for His people. The love of God for His church is the deepest, most pleasurable love that exists. This should call the one who is in this covenant of grace to boast in the fact that he can be filled with eagerness and be ablaze with a passion for boasting and glorifying God because of what He has done for him. How great is God’s love for His people! That God would enter into a covenant with sinners – a covenant in which God himself would allow men to enjoy himself like non-other and a covenat that would allow man to interact in a loving relationship with their father. This covenant is both Christ and the church loving one another. How are we doing? Do we boast in the fact that God wants to show His love to His people? Do we boast in the fact that God wants to have a relationship with His people? How often it seems that the bride of Christ starts looking for other loves (sometimes perverse loves) that are mostly of the world, and not everlasting in their fulfillment to the soul. I believe that the Puritans do an excellent job in explaining this truth of the gospel – how God loves His people and wants to redeem them – but even more in how we reap this benefit. John Flavel writes:

What an ancient Friend he hath been to us; who loves us, provided for us, and continued all our happiness, before we were, yea before the world was. We reap the fruits of this covenant now, the seed whereof was sown in eternity.

Wilhemus à Brakel writes:

How blessed and what a wonder it is to have been considered and known in this covenant, to have been given by the Father to the Son, by the Son to have been written in his Book, and to have been the object of the eternal, mutual delight of the Father and the Son to save you.

We, the church, should strive to be covenant keepers of God’s promises, and should most of all boast with all our hearts in the act of His love for allowing His people to delight in His promising love. God’s love will endure forever, and will continue in His covenant and promises throughout eternity.

The Grace of God

Ephesians 1:7-8 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The grace of God, which is the warmest and most caring aspect of His character, not only forgives man of sin and calls man to Him, but also always allows the believer to grow in knowledge even though he falls time and time again.

There is no human that deserves to earn the grace of God, which He gives to His church willingly. God’s grace not only calls the chosen to Him, but then provides a way of provision and guidance throughout life to them. Not only is there common grace which all of mankind encounters, but for Christ’s bride there is irresistible grace, incomprehensible grace, and saving grace which gives the believers hope and another reason to boast in the gospel. The believer, in order to boast in this, must look at two simple key truths of this great grace that God gives to His elect. Sometimes easily looked past because of their simplicity, these truths are essential to acknowledge in order for the believer to boast in the gospel. First, the believer needs to see that if it wasn’t for grace, he would have been slain by the Lord. And secondly, that the grace given to believers differs from that grace given to the rest of humanity. This grace is a grace that He will forever give to His sheep so that they can boast in Him! Once again God is doing a great work and is planning ways that He may be boasted in. And He does this through His chosen people.

The believer must boast in the good news that God did not kill him on the day of birth. How sad it is that the church often forgets, or ignores, simple truths of the very beginning of the gospel. Romans 6:22-23 states, “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It seems almost unjust for God to let mankind even enter the womb, let alone this earth. From the minute of conception, all of mankind has entered into an everlasting nature of sin, and stands before God as nothing but dung. Many individuals often ask the question, “How can God let someone go to hell?” My response is always, “How can God even allow one to enter into heaven and into a personal relationship of communion with the triune God which will one day be restored into perfection forever and ever?” For there is no reason for man to think he had anything to do with this grace. God simply allows man to live in accordance with Him or without, and is always glorified in it. How much more should the believer, the partaker of the covenant of grace, come and boast in this gospel which allows him not only to live in grace, but to serve – by grace – the Giver of grace.

One of the most important and easily forgotten truths of the gospel (and its dealings with grace) is that the man walking down the street who does not know of God, who hasn’t repented, has only common grace. Common grace which does not compare to the grace that God grants on behalf of His Son’s work to His bride. How much more should a believer boast in the gospel, when God, the Giver of great grace, calls him to become part of a family which he had no prior relation with. This grace that God gives to His elect is greater than any grace that man has ever had before the era of irresistible grace. This great grace that God called you into is only meant for the true believer. Bringing the believer from the pit of hell and eternal torment should first bring him into a zeal for boasting in God. Also, God bringing him to the glories and riches of heaven should then spark a passion and flame that does not stop burning; that only continues to be built upon with sound wood so that it can claim the grace of God and boast in it to glorify God.

We must look at these areas of the gospel and thank God for them, but there are other areas of the gospel in which one can boast when dealing with the grace of God. Oftentimes believers are called to suffer and go through trials or hard times in life and may think, “We are not going to make it!” The believer has to look at and hope in the gospel. Believers must see how the grace of God will help them and how it has given them all that they need to make it through these times. Now here one might ask, “How do I boast in that?” Only when believers see that the grace of God has already, at the beginning in justification, bought them and given them all that they need to make it through any season of life, will they then cherish the gospel, seeing how sweet it can be to the hurting heart in the time of pain. The believer of the gospel will boast in the gospel because the grace of God enables him to do so in allowing the believer to come to know this Giver of grace. The Giver gets the glory; the Giver is God; He is the Giver of grace; and it should be a desire and counted as a privilege to boast in this gospel truth that we partake in.