The ability of men to know anything
is very limited and can only manifest itself as events and
revelations are unfolded before them. Many men would imagine
that the knowledge of God is limited in this same fashion
when they consider that His foreknowledge is mere prescience or the ability
to know things before they occur. This is most commonly demonstrated
in the popular teaching that his election of a people is best
described as his mere ability to know ahead of time who would
choose him and who would not, and then basing his choice of
them on his knowledge ahead of time of their choice of him.
This is a ridiculous assessment of the knowledge of the High
and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, imagining Him who declares
the end from the beginning to be as limited in acquiring actual
knowledge as the men of His own creation. They presume that He
only possesses the ability to foresee the future, much like
Madame Ruby or any other two-bit fortune teller. God knows all
things because he is the one who creates and declares all
things to come to pass according to his purpose. There is nothing
that he does not know because there is nothing that can occur
apart from his defined, predestined purpose. 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. calling a
ravenous bird from the east the man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. So he does not merely
foresee what will inevitably occur, but he causes all things
to occur according to his sovereign will. I am the Lord, and there
is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
I have made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands,
have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. The true and living God is He
who inhabits eternity. That place where God dwells transcends
time, and nothing that is created can dwell therein. This is exactly
what Paul wrote to Timothy in describing him as that one who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be
honor and power everlasting. Amen. So there is no comparison
that can be made between that which the Lord knows and that
which man knows. God is the source of all knowledge.
We are but ignorant and quite hopeless creatures until he is
pleased to enlighten us. With that in mind, it seems quite
odd that men could become puffed up by the things which they have
been given to know, as if the things which they know have been
discovered by their own ability or effort. Paul warned the Corinthians
of that very danger, which arises out of the sunfulness of man's
flesh. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if
any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know. Nothing is more common than those
who think they know something and seek to lord it over others,
boasting in their discoveries or establishing their knowledge
as a standard by which truth can be known. There is but one
standard of knowledge, and it is he who said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Apart from a revelation conferred
by the Holy Ghost upon a man to know him, a man ultimately
is ignorant of truth. If the Lord has by that same
Holy Ghost conferred upon a man to know Christ Jesus the Lord,
then that man has knowledge of the Holy One. As long as there
are men upon the earth, there will be counterfeit knowledge,
which has its source in the imaginations of men rather than in the revelation
of a merciful and gracious God who is pleased to lead his people
into all truth. There will be false apostles,
false doctrines, and false gospels. Deception abounds in every age,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. This age in which we live is
most surely described here. Christ alone can give true knowledge
of holy things. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? If
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