If you have your Bibles, you
can turn back with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 69. Psalm 69. If my memory serves me correctly,
this is the 53rd consecutive Father's Day that
I have been in the pulpit preaching on Father's Day, 53 of them in
a row, dating back to before I was married and before I became
a father myself. And so I consider it a great
privilege to be able to still be in the pulpit this morning
and to be able to address you, dear ones that have gathered
here. I do honor the memory of my own
father, who passed away on May the 14th, 1968. Been gone a long
time. But I do indeed honor his memory. I have never made it a practice,
I've never succumbed to the temptation to preach what is commonly called
a Father's Day sermon. a Mother's Day sermon, Christmas
sermon, or New Year's sermon, anything like that. I always
waited on the Lord to lead and to direct and to guide in the
choice of the message, feeling that if I had liberty, liberty
to preach something when I can preach it, then I will. I do
not have what you would say is a Father's Day message today,
but beloved, I want you to know that all fathers here should
listen to the message, because the message is for them as well
as for everybody else. So enough said about that. I
direct your attention to the 69th Psalm and verse 5. And there is a relation between
Psalm 139 that I read to you earlier and this psalm, but verse
5 is my text today, an unusual verse of scripture, a confession
made by David that I think all of us should look at for a while.
Oh God, says David, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are
not hid from thee. What a confession! O God thou
knowest, you know about my foolishness, and my sins, they are not hid
from thee. It seems that the best of men
have a measure of foolishness in them. David here, A man after God's own heart,
as was mentioned a while ago by Mitch. Here he is, he's confessing
and saying that God knows his foolishness. David, were you
a foolish man? Well, apparently he figured that
he was. He felt that he was. Sometimes that foolishness shows
itself in good men. And it did so in David's life,
as you recall. But how understanding we ought
to be with others who are foolish, when we remember how foolish
we are ourselves. And my, how sincerely ought we
to rejoice in Christ, our Redeemer, who is made of God, unto us wisdom,
wisdom. My wisdom, if I have any, is
Jesus Christ. The wisdom of the saints is Christ
Jesus. But how sincerely are we to rejoice
in Christ, who is made of God unto us wisdom, when we see the
folly that is bound up in our hearts by nature, and which too
often shows itself in our talk and in our acts. It ought to
make us have a deeper appreciation And this morning my goal is that
we would appreciate Christ more in the light of what we are by
nature in our foolishness and in our sins. Now the word foolishness
denotes any deviation of the mind from what is true, what
is good, what is right, what is wise, what is prudent. and one who acts without counsel
and whose will is too hard for his understanding. He has no
reason for what he does. He just does it because it feels
good or it's something that he wants to do, just because he
has a mind to do it. Well, beloved, I'm sure that
most of us will certainly see that there is a part of us that
wherein reigns a great measure of foolishness. Psalm 38 and
verse 5 said, My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness. My wounds stink. Think of that.
Because of my foolishness. Now beloved, the Bible talks
about people having wounds without cause. And it says that those who tarry
long at the wine glass will have wounds without cause. And isn't
a whole lot of the wounds that people suffer in life not only
because of drinking, but also many other things is due to their
foolishness? The wounds that they have is
due to their foolishness. Proverbs 22 and 15 says foolishness. is bound in the heart of a child,
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Well,
apparently the rod of correction, which in the last 50 years has
been left off, we find foolishness rampant. Very little foolishness
that is driven away in childhood anymore. Very little of it. Now Mark's Gospel chapter 7 verse
21 through 23 says, for from within out of the heart proceed
blasphemy, pride, foolishness. Out of the natural heart proceeds
this foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. And one of the marks of a true
believer A true believer in Jesus Christ is that he knows that
there is folly in him, and he is willing to admit it and confess
his sin before God. If we say, the Bible says in
1 John, that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. So, beloved, we are to admit,
if we say, as the Pharisee did, God, I thank Thee that I am not
as other men, well, we shall go home as he did, without the
justification which comes from God only, through a frank and
honest admission of our foolishness and our sin. It is the poor sinner
who stands afar off with the publican and cries, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner, whose foolishness and sin shall be blotted out
and justified before God. So you see, it's got a lot to
do with the attitude of the individual. A true believer has seen his
own heart. He's discovered, had discovered
to him his nature in such a way that he will not take the ground
or the position that he's not like other men. When he sees
other men foolish in their acts and deeds, he will not say, well,
I'd never do such a thing as that, or you'd never catch me
involved in anything like that. But a child of God will admit
he's just like everybody else, cut out of the same piece of
cloth everybody else is cut out of, that he's a sinner by nature,
and choice and practice. There is one solemn thought which
deeply impresses the man who is right at heart, but who sees
his own foolishness and sin and mourns over it, and that thought
is that God himself sees it, and sees it more perfectly than
we ever will. Now what David says, God thou
knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee. Not
hid from thee. Both the darkness and the daylight
is the same to God. Our foolishness is known to Him. God sees everything concerning
every man. But most do not care that God
sees their sin and foolishness. You ever met anybody like that?
Brazen people that don't care whether God sees their sin and
foolishness or not. It is the man in whose heart
the Lord has done a work of grace with a broken heart who cries
out, O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from
thee. And this is why a believer values
so highly the precious blood of Jesus Christ and His perfect
righteousness which He, God, has provided for us. Oh, to believe in the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ! desperately in need of
righteousness, and that's the only righteousness there is.
Have no other righteousness except the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You that are here without Christ,
you have no righteousness with which to stand before God. And
the blood, oh the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from
all sins. Cleanseth us from all sin. So beloved the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus. Now beloved omniscience, that
is the all-seeing God, still sees sin, yet the justice of
God does not see it any longer in the believer. God is able
to see just as well as He ever could. And He sees sin, but the
justice of God does not see it any longer. God knows that we're
all sinners, but He imputes to all believers the righteousness
of Christ, and looks upon them as they are in Him, and sees
them perfect in the Lord Jesus, and complete in Him. He cleanses
us in the precious blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us. We are cleaned in His sight.
Clean every whip, the Bible says. Hear me, what a wonderful atonement
is this. that the Bible speaks of which
hides from God that which cannot be hidden so that God does not
see what in another sense he must always see and forgets what
it is impossible for him in another sense ever to forget what a wonderful
atonement that is you think on that brother sister let me just
give you that again What a wonderful atonement is that which hides
from God that which cannot be hidden, your foolishness and
your sin. So that God does not see what
in another sense he must always see and forgets what it is impossible
for him in another sense ever to forget. This is through the
atoning work of our Redeemer the Lord Jesus. Now in a just
and judicial way God cast our sins behind his back and ceases
to see iniquity in his people because they're clean through
washing in the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. Now I want to focus our attention
upon this great truth of the omniscience of God this morning. I want us to think about the
God who knows all things and the fact that He knows all things
and how perfectly He knows our foolishness and our sins are
not hid from Him. First of all then, concerning
God's knowledge of man's sins, let me say that it must be so. It must be so. God being who
He is, He must know our sin. God must know our foolishness,
for first of all, He is infinite in knowledge. We cannot believe
or worship a God, can we, whose knowledge is limited or incomplete? Can you worship a God whose knowledge
is limited or incomplete? That condition belongs to the
creature. the finite, but not to God the
infinite, the creator, the great first cause of everything. God
knows all the past and all the present and all the future. He
even knows all the things that might have been and are not. All things knowable must be known
to God the Most High. His very nature implicitly and
so He much implies it. His very nature implies it. And
so he must know my foolishness, for I know something of it myself. I know something of it, so God
surely does. He must know much more than I
know. God must know perfectly what I only know in part. Yes, the infinite knowledge of
God is an absolute certainty, and consequently His knowledge
of the folly and sin of every heart is beyond all question. Moreover, God not only just knows
everything by His nature, but God is everywhere present. God
is omnipresent. He's everywhere. At all times,
He is in every place. And so our foolishness and sin
must be known to Him because God was there when it was manifested
in your heart and in your life. No, it is not that you committed
some sin or act of foolishness and that somebody reported it
to God. It is not that. No, no. He was
there during the doing of it and this is the reason why that
we need to take this so seriously is that God not only has heard
about your foolishness and your sin but he was there when it
happened therefore my friend you have to submit yourself to
God as one who sees and has witnessed your foolishness and sin But
you say, the blinds were drawn and the door closed, and I did
everything I could to conceal the situation. Yet, He was there. He was there. He observed your
every move, your every thought. Remember Psalm 139. Maybe you'd
want to read it over again. I don't have the time to go over
all of that this morning with this, but you reflect upon it
again. There is no darkness that hides
from God. What was it David said? My sins
are not hid from Thee. There isn't anything, no darkness
that hides from Him. We said a little earlier, Psalm
139 says, both the night and the light are the same to God.
No screen that can be used to shut out the glances of the eye
of God. There ain't no way to shield
yourself from it. He does not see from a distance. No, he's
right there on the spot, the presence of God. He's right there. You would not, I hope, put God
down on the level of one who has eyes and sees not. Surely you wouldn't do that.
My friend, He is never blind or blindfolded. God sees all. He that made the ear, shall he
not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? Yes, both the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, God's made even both of them, and He exercises
the right to both hear and see. everything about us. The fact
that eyesight and hearing comes from him proves abundantly that
he possesses these faculties himself. He sees and he hears
in every place and there was never anything done of man without
his knowledge. He knows it all. The secret unsolved
murder, the silent plot where everybody had sworn to secrecy,
All is known to God. There was never a thought in
the human mind, and even if that thought was never put into words,
that God did not see, and that God did not hear. The poet said
this, My thoughts, before they're my own, are to my God distinctly
known. He knows the words I mean to
speak, air from my opening lips they break." So you see, brethren
and sisters, we cannot hide from God. God is everywhere and God
sees and God hears. Now, does not this make the fact
certain that He knows my foolishness, that my sins are not hidden from
Him? Does it not prove that all of
this is true that David is talking about? Isaac Watt put it this
way. Isaac Watt's the old hymn writer.
Listen to these words. In all my vast concerns with
thee, in vain my soul would try to shun thy presence, Lord, or
flee the notice of thine eye. Thy all-surrounding sight surveys
my rising and my rest, my public walks, my private ways, and secrets
of my breast. If winged with beams of morning
light, I fly beyond the West, thy hand which must support my
flight would soon betray my rest. If o'er my sins I think to draw
the curtains of the night, Those flaming eyes that guard by law
would turn the shades to light. The beams of noon, the midnight
hour are both alike to be. Oh, may I ne'er provoke that
power from which I cannot flee. Those are great words, words
of truth. Now then, we've established the
fact of God's omniscience, that He knows all of our foolishness
and all of our sins. Second, let me ask, God knows
also in what particular way does He, if God knows, then what particular
way does He know? First of all, might we say and
conclude here this morning in this very brief statement that
it is a complete knowing The Lord knows us all together, our
public service, our private thoughts. The Lord not only knows the action,
but the motive behind the action, and the thoughts that came after
the pride and the self-seeking in our hearts. Everywhere man
is right in his own eyes, says the Word of God, but the Lord
pondereth the hearts. Now the word pondereth means
that he weighs us. the specific gravity of our actions. He weighs the gravity of our
actions. The fining pot is for silver
and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the heart. There
is nothing hidden from God's eye. Every separate part of us
is open to his perpetual inspection. Think of that. His knowledge
is complete and baffles all evasion. Second is the knowledge of a
holy being. We may see all we can, yet do
not see all that can be seen. Now think about that with me
a little bit. Think of an artist who paints
a beautiful, brilliant picture, and you've been in the valley
where that picture was painted, and you say, well, oh, there's
things there that I never saw. Things in that picture that I
never saw when I was looking out over that valley. And brother,
sister, that's the way it is with God. When God looks at a
man's life, He sees infinitely more in it than the man himself
ever saw in it. God can look at you and He sees
things about you, things that are true about your life and
your failings and your foolishness and sin. that you don't have
a clue about. But God sees it all, because
the Lord's eyes are as a flame of fire. Being Himself essential
truth, He truly discovers everything that is within us, and He makes
no mistake about the judgment. No mistakes. He knows us as a
holy being, and many a thing that looks as white as the driven
snow to us, is absolutely as black as hell to God. You say,
that was pretty good. I've had a good day. I've been
good today. Oh yeah? That's your judgment. You got bad eyesight. You're
not seeing real well. But God has seen everything perfectly. He's a holy being. And He sees
exactly all the tarnishes We see not as God sees, friend.
We do not. When once we get to heaven, we
shall realize how foolish we were to think as we did on earth
and form the opinions that we did here on earth. How foolish
we were. Now we see through a glass darkly,
Paul put it, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but
then shall I know even as also I am known. Does that scare you? The day is going to come when
you're going to know even as also you are now known by God. The eyes of a perfectly holy
God sees more than the eyes of your wife, your husband, your
children. They know you, no doubt. They
know you. But not like God knows you. Not
like God sees you, my friend. Not like the Lord sees you. Next,
He knows our sins as a judge. There will be no need to call
witnesses in that last dread day, for the judge knows all
about us. He saw it all, heard it all,
and besides that, he has written the record of man's sins in a
book. Revelation chapter 20 verses
11 through 15, 12 through 15. Your sins will be a damning witness against you at the judgment seat,
your sins and your foolishness. He will shine an eternal light
into your soul on that day and revive the memory of all your
sins that you had forgotten yourself. There cannot be a more terrible
hell than for a person to be in the grasp of their memory,
their enlightened memory. and their conscience in hell. That hell is made what it is
by the memory and by the conscience. Your conscience if you die and
go to hell. Do not leave this world with
your sin uncovered. Do not leave this world with
your sin unforgiven, unremitted. Forgiven. Do not leave this world
because, my friend, you go off into eternity and go before God. Judgment. Judgment. Yet so it
will be. I beg each unconverted soul here
to remember now that his foolishness and sin are known to him to whom
you must give an account at the day of judgment. Your sin is
known to him. One more thing before we leave
this thought. And what God knows, and He knows all, will also be
published. If God knows about our sin and
our foolishness, it is tantamount to everybody else knowing it.
All you say, I trust it won't be so. All we trust it won't
be so. No, my friend, everybody will
know it, for there is nothing covered, the Bible says, that
shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Now, I'm talking about the unforgiven. I'm talking about those whose
sins have not been blotted out and forgiven. That all their
sins will be open, open at the judgment. reading the other day after an
old writer who was talking about this and he was talking about
how that if people had their choice living in this life, people
that were yet living, whether or not to tell everything they
know about themselves and reveal everything, everything about
themselves publicly or to die that he said that most people
would choose just to die. They wouldn't want that to happen.
They just would not be able to face up to what their foolishness
and their sin. And beloved, I'm convinced that
that is true. I'm convinced of it. Every idle word that men shall
speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.
Can we bear to have it known? All of it known? Can we bear
to have it known? Well my friend, I'm leading up
to something and so let's go on. Those who have deceived and
deluded shall discover what you were. Those that you've deceived And it shall be to your everlasting
shame and contempt, unless we find shelter in the five bleeding
wounds that was received on Calvary. The bleeding wounds of our precious
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, thirdly and last, what
then? If God knows all of our sin,
if He's omniscient, and if He knows all of our sin as a Holy God, and if He knows all
of our sin as a judge would know, then, what then? If God sees
all and He does, and in the particular way I've tried to describe, well,
what then? First, how terrible not to be
mindful or to be conscious of this. Oh, wouldn't it be awful
to die in a man's sin? Wouldn't it be awful to die in
sin? I don't know that I have the ability, or any other man
I ever heard preach, have the ability to describe how awful
it'd be for a man to die in his sins. But it'd be awful. All eternity, the wailing and
the gnashing of teeth. All throughout eternity, the
mourning, the mourning, the mourning over failed opportunity over
a life that was used to no purpose, that was used in sin. How terrible. There was a man I heard about
one time, and I might have told this story one time, that was about to rob a house,
break into a house. And he took his little boy with
him to help him carry out the loot out of the house. And they
got to the house, and the man looked all around and said to
his son, There's nobody here, boy. But the boy said, Dad, there's
one way you did not look. You did not look up. God sees
you, and He sees what you're doing here. Just so we are not
seen of men, well, we better look up, my friend. Somebody
said, just so that somebody don't sin. Well, we better look up. Because we've established here
this morning that God sees your foolishness and your sins are
not hid. Do you see, my friend, that a
man who has that attitude, that he never looks up, he's not conscious
of the fact that he's going to die on his sin, and that his
sins are great. Well, he despises God. His presence has no effect on
him. He can stand with both hands while people are not looking,
but when God is looking and he knows that, then my friend, he's
despising the Holy God of the Bible. While the presence of
any mortal man would have stopped him from his evil deed, the fact
that God sees him won't stop him. He despises God. Well, so much then for the word
of the to the lost, what then? Well, what then, O believer?
Lastly, the foundation of God stands sure, the Lord knows them
that are His. Well, let me make this statement
because I wanted it to be a statement that was my heart's testimony
in the light of my advanced years. Let me say that it takes all
the faith that I can muster in the atoning blood and in the
divine substitute to gird up the loins of my mind that I may
face eternity without fear. Now, let that be a word to you. My friend, the only way to escape
the awful judgment of God because of our foolishness and sin is
the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you must, you
must hide yourself. You must flee to Jesus and hide
yourself in His five bleeding wounds. The Lord knows. The Lord knows. You remember
Peter said that one time, O Lord thou knowest. Peter said, the
Lord said, do you love me Peter? He said, Lord, Thou knowest that
I love Thee. And the Lord knows, and this
is the best thing that He knows about us, is He knows that we're
clinging to Christ alone. He knows that we are. And unless
I am utterly deceived, I can truthfully say to the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the words of the old hymn, other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee, on thee. Search me, O God, and
know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Pray with David, wash me thoroughly
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. In 2 Samuel
12 and 13, And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against
the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The
Lord also hath put away thy sin. Isn't it something? that David
will never have to face his sins before God because they have
been put away. They were put away. Put away. Romans 8 verse 1 says, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
no judgment awaiting those who are in, in, in, that's like being
in the ark in Noah's day. Getting in the ark. And those
that are in Christ, there is no condemnation. And then John
5, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed over the judgment. Passed over the judgment by being
in Christ, by believing on the Son. It's faith in the Son of
God. And then in Romans 8.33, Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Now brethren, sisters in the
Lord, this is what we believe and rely upon as this life is
passing from us. Who shall owe anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that gives us a standing
before Him just as if we had no foolishness and no sin. It
is God that gives us that standing. Isaiah 44 and 22, listen to these
words, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions,
and as a cloud thy sins, return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Thou hast bought me no sweet
cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of
thy sacrifices. But thou hast made me to serve
with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities. And then verse 25 says, I, even
I, am he that blotted out thy transgressions for mine own sake. For my own sake I blotted out
your transgressions and will not remember thy sins. I will remember your sins. Hallelujah. Alleluia. Praise be unto God. He's blotted out our sins, our
transgressions, for His own sake. You say, well, surely He did
it for my sake. Well, we're the benefactors,
no question about that, of the benefiters of it. But He did
it for His own sake. for His own sake, because He
made you His people, it pleased Him to make you His people, and
therefore He would justify you, and because of His own promise,
He would not have you to stand before Him any other way, but
as perfect and righteous as His Son. So He says, I blotted out
your transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember thy
sins. Jude 24, Now unto him that is
able to keep you from falling, present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I'm interested
in that. Faultless. Being faultless. Psalm 32, verse 1 and 2, Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven. Well, happy is the
man whose transgressions are forgiven, seeing that God knows
them all. whose sin is covered like the
ark was covered with pitch. Our sins have been covered before
God. Covered over. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord no longer charges iniquity. The Lord does not charge iniquity
any longer to His people. Psalm 32 verses 1 and 2. You can read it there for yourself.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, accredit
sin, charge sin. He charged all of our sin to
Jesus. And Jesus paid for them all.
And now He charges the righteousness of Jesus to us. The Bible says
that Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for it that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word. That he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. Isn't that a
marvelous, marvelous statement of truth? Well, hallelujah. I'm very interested in these
things. Seeing that by nature, I'm a
sinner and still much foolishness in me. And my old mother used
to say, there's no fool like an old fool. And you know, every
one of us, as we've said, have a measure of this foolishness
that shows itself every once in a while. And the older you
get, you're not immune to that. And so every once in a while,
every once in a while we're reminded of where we would be if it wasn't
for the grace of God. And where we would be if it wasn't
for that atonement. That atonement that the Lord
Jesus has provided. My advice to any of you this
morning that do not know Christ and do not feel in your own soul
that your sins have been blotted out and that you could die at
peace and rest knowing that the blood of Jesus has covered your
sins. Flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. Seek Him. Seek Him with all your
heart. Cry out to Him. Look to Him. Trust in Him. This is the only
escape from your foolishness and your sin, is the Lord Jesus
Christ and His shed blood and imputed righteousness. May God
own the message.