Bible Reading:
Psalm 139 Verses 1-12
God Does Not Change
Knowledge is useful. Knowing things helps us through our life. Knowing fire is hot is handy. Knowing that falling a long way on to a rock is likely to be harmful is useful. It is good to know how to do things. I have heard that a little baby learns more in its first few years than it does in its whole later life. Our knowledge grows with the passing of time. We learn things every day. Information comes to us that we did not have before. We experience new things that change us and knowledge of that new experience is now in our heads where it was not before.
We forget things too. Did you ever meet someone you know and forget their name - or sit in a test or an exam and think, " I'm sure I knew that last week - but now I don't!"? We know how very awkward forgetting things can be. We change - we learn things and we forget things.
God has ALWAYS known everything. God is not at all limited like we are. We read in Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. God is now just the same as He always has been and always will be. God is unchanging. God is everlasting; He had no beginning and will have no end. It is not the case that since God began He has not changed. God is eternally unchanging. God never had a beginning. God was there before He made the universe. When the whole universe is gone God will still be there . Hebrews 1:10-12 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. The Lord Jesus Who is also God is described in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever. Micah 5:2 says of The Lord Jesus, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." From eternity past, present and future - God and The Lord Jesus and The Holy Spirit are one eternal unchanging God.
The Bible tells us that God is The God of knowledge. Acts 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. The Bible speaks of God having perfect knowledge in Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? Perfect here means complete or whole. The fact that God never changes tells us something about His knowledge. God has always known everything there is to know - and He always will. His knowledge never changes. There is nothing more for God to know. All except one area of knowledge - but we'll talk about that later.
How often do we have to ask about things? How often do we puzzle over things and wonder about them? The world is full of detailed complicated objects and events. Things happen that we cannot understand. There are people who seem to have a lot more knowledge than we have - but often you ask them something and they don't know either. God knows absolutely everything in the whole universe in all of time, past present and future. There is nothing that has happened, is happening now, or will happen in future that God does not know about. At the end of Johns Gospel (chapter 21:25) we read that if everything The Lord Jesus did in His life the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. God knows every detail of what The Lord Jesus did and is well pleased with all of it. Think of knowing all that is written in a world full of books - and that is just one persons' life. God knows all about every person's life.
Remember the Tsunami in the Far East. God always knew that it would happen and exactly why - not just the reasons in the earths crust and the rocks in the sea bed - God knows the reason in His great purposes for mankind. We cannot explain these things - we do not know the truth about them. Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
There is nothing God does not know. God is great beyond measure and understands things that we cannot.
Much in modern life is complicated. We rely on experts who know about such things. When we're ill we go to the doctor because the doctor knows how to fix people. The more the doctor knows the more likely he is to help us. When your TV needs mending would you take it to the vet?
When it comes to eternal things to do with our eternal soul who better to go to in order to find out about such things than The Eternal God Who knows everything?
God, in His mercy and grace keeps some things from us but He has told us many things that He knows that we need to know. God has given us The Bible, His word to each of us.
God has given us His law to show us how sinful we are. God's anger against sin is a terrible thing when seen as something unchanging. We sometimes get angry. Our anger flares up and then is gone because we change. God's anger, His wrath against sin, is unchanging. God has always known who He is angry with and why. God cannot change what He knows about sin. All who do not repent will know God's unchanging anger against their sin for eternity. Such people deny the truth of God's existence and God's anger is against them. Psalms 73:11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? The Psalmist replies in another Psalm Psalms 44:21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. God will call each of us to account for what He knows about us one day.
God knows everything about me and about you. All the secret things we'd rather nobody knew - God knows in detail.
God has made it known that He is merciful and gracious by sending The Lord Jesus to save sinners from His anger and judgement. Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. God forgets the sin each repentant sinner has done all through their lives. This is not by accident - it is deliberate. God no longer remembers the sin of anyone who trusts The Lord Jesus. God's anger against such a person's sin is put on The Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross. The sin is reckoned against His account. His righteousness is reckoned to them. God gives the ability to people to repent of their sin and to turn from it.
This is some of the knowledge God has that He knows that we need to know. In His mercy and Grace He has told us. The Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners from their sin. This is the best news a sinner could hear. God knows what He will do for every sinner who asks Him to save them from their sin, He has always known. He has promised to save all who come and ask.
It is only possible because God has shown He is merciful and gracious by sending The Lord Jesus to save sinners from His anger and judgement. Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. God forgets the sin each repentant sinner has done all through their lives. This is not by accident - it is deliberate. God no longer charges sin to anyone who trusts The Lord Jesus. God's anger against such a person's sin is put on The Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross.
