And known of my just recently
I read you a scripture over here in Galatians don't turn to I've
already got it here He says but now Paul writing to the church
at Galatia, but now after you have known God or rather are
known of God we know His knowing us precedes our knowing him and
much more important that he know me. I'm such a small part of
this universe, such a small part of the kingdom of God's dear
Son, a multitude which no man can number, yet I can say the
Lord knows me, and you can say the Lord knows you, as thoroughly
and personally as if I was the only person on earth. He knows
me. He knows you. Lord, thou hast
searched me and known me." And verse 2, he knows my activities,
he knows my movements, he knows my down sittings and my uprisings. When I sit down to read, lie
down to sleep, rise up, walk, work, play, he knows my activities,
he knows every movement, and he understands my thought afar
off. He understands my thoughts. He
knows my thoughts. Now, the first thing that comes
to your mind is, isn't that disturbing? Isn't it disturbing to know that
God knows my thoughts? You don't want your neighbor
to know your thoughts. You don't want your dearest loved
ones to know all your thoughts, and yet He knows all my thoughts. Isn't that disturbing? Yes and
no. Yes, when my thoughts are sinful,
it's embarrassing that God knows my thoughts. When my thoughts
are self-centered, that's embarrassing, that's humiliating. I'm ashamed
and I repent. But I'm glad He knows my every
thought. I'm glad because He knows I do
believe. He knows I do believe. He knows
and be at all of this confusion of thought, influenced by the
world in which I live, the things I hear and see. He knows me,
and Peter found comfort in this. Peter denied his Lord, and Peter
was sort of, I imagine, an outcast for a little while, because he
denied Christ, and I know he was humbled, I know he was embarrassed,
and when the Lord He sat him down and asked him, after he rose from the grave,
Peter, do you love me? Yea, Lord. You know I love you. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know I love you. Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things. You know my thoughts. And these
disciples might doubt my love for you, but you know me. You
see, that's what he's saying. Isn't that what he's saying?
James and John may doubt I love you because I did curse and swear
that I didn't know you, but you know me. And that's comforting. He knows my thoughts about all. And he knows I love him. I'll
tell you another thing, he knows we're dust. And he knows our
frailties. And he knows our temptations
because he was a man and tempted and liked We attempt it, yet
without sin, in all points. Isn't that what it says? In all
points, yet without sin. Now then, look at this verse,
and you're going to look at it with me in a way that I haven't
looked at it before. I've encompassed this, my path,
my lying down, acquainted with all my ways. I've encompassed
it. The first thing you think about
is you surround me. You surround me. The Lord surrounds
me even as air surrounds me. He surrounds me and hedges me
in and is all about me. In him I live and move and have
my being. He surrounds me as air surrounds
all creatures that live, awake or asleep. But this word here
has another meaning in this scripture. You'll see it in your center
reference. It says, he willoweth me. He winnows me. And I took the time to look up
the word. And that's what the word is saying.
It's saying winnowers. And when you, what is that suggestion
but the chaff being blown out of the wheat. That's what they
used to do, bring the wheat in and they, I don't know how they
did it with fans or with, with people's waving things over it,
but that is wheat and chaff together, gathered together. And that winnowing,
that wind, Blowing across it, blows the chaff out, leaves just
the wheat. Boy, there's a lot of chaff in
all our wheat, isn't there? I wonder sometimes where there's
more chaff than there is wheat. But this same word I found is
used over in Luke 22. Let's go over there and look
at it. Luke 22, this same word, sifting, wintering, dividing. The same word is used right here
in Luke 22, verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you and winter you, sift
you as wheat. But now Satan wasn't trying to
expose the wheat in Peter, he was trying to expose the chaff
in Peter. That was his aim. That was his
goal. to make Peter nothing but chaff,
nothing but filth, denial. But when the Lord winnows us,
it's not to drive the wheat away, it's to drive the chaff away.
That's what he does. That's what he's doing to us.
He's working on us. He's winnows me, encompasses
my path, my lying down at all times. He's acquainted with all
my ways, but I tell you, Neither my best hours nor my darkest
hours will determine my eternal end." He determines it. He's
acquainted with my ways, all of it. And he went as the wheat,
blows the chaff down. And when Satan desired Peter
to sift him, he was going to blow the wheat out, leave nothing
but chaff. And he pretty well succeeded,
didn't he? But the Lord Jesus said, I prayed for you. I prayed
for you. that your faith fail not, that
your wheat fail not. There's not going to be any chaff.
It's going to be genuine wheat. And that's the way it wound up,
isn't it? Old Peter, when the Lord finished with him, he had
a whole lot of wheat. A whole lot of wheat. In verse
4, he says, there's not a word, not a word in my tongue. But
lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. And that comes down
to another disturbing factor. Another. But not really. Not really. Not a word. He doesn't know. But here's the
key. Altogether. He knows the whole
of it. The whole of it. Now you think
of this. My words, and I'm talking about
now, my good words. My words of praise. They're so
weak and lacking. Don't you wish you could praise
the Lord, like, in words of eloquence, like David Moses' song at the
Red Sea? But my words, my words are so
weak and lacking. My words in prayer are so poor. I hear the men say sometimes,
you know, the public prayer is high. And you pray and you want
to pray, you want to pray in a way that would glorify God
and grip the heart of people. But our prayers are so poor and
frail to convey our thoughts. They don't even convey my thoughts.
My words are so poor and so frail and so pitiful. My words in preaching. I don't think I've ever finished
a sermon that I wasn't depressed. joyful over the truth, but depressed
over my inability to preach it like it ought to be preached.
Grip hearts like they ought to be gripped. Glorify God like
he ought to be glorified. But thank God he knows this. He knows every word in my tongue. There's not a word, O Lord, but
you know it all together. And he doesn't expect me to be
eloquent as a polis. But my stumbling words and fumbling
words and faltering words are music to the ears of him who
knows what's behind it. That's it, everyone. It's not
how I say it. It's what I mean by it. Now that's
what he's saying. I take comfort, Lord, in the
fact you know my words. I know they're pitiful. I measure
him by some of the eloquent preachers and eloquent prayers and eloquent
appraisers, and I think, oh, I wish I could, I wish I could
do that. But he doesn't expect it of me.
But he expects the fault. He doesn't expect those eloquent.
Actually, actually, it would be condemning if I tried those
words. That's what sometimes happens to preachers and people.
They try to impress God with their eloquence of words, intellectual
words, and he's not impressed. He takes and loves the simple
words of simple people with sincere hearts. Now, I've got a hold
of that, that's settled. And one of the old writers said,
Had I 10,000 hearts, dear Lord, you know I'd give them all to
thee. If I had 10,000 tongues, they all would speak my praise
of thee." And he knows that. So you see, the very words some
people say, well, there's not a word in my tongue, oh Lord,
that thou dost not know altogether what the reason for it, the motive
behind it, the whole of it, the results of it. Yeah, it's all
right, as long as it's sincere. And I'll tell you, the Lord will
bless feeble, fumbling, faltering words that exalt Christ and magnify
his grace more than he'll bless eloquent, intellectual words
that magnify this flesh. I tell that story about the couple
that went to hear Spurgeon back in 1800 and something. The church was packed. They couldn't
get in Sunday morning. So they went to another church
where there was a well-known preacher. And when he finished
preaching, his husband and wife started out the door, and he
turned to her and said, what a sermon. What a sermon. What a sermon. She said it was
good. That night, they went to her
spudgeon. That man could preach Christ. And on the way out her
husband looked at his wife in a subdued voice and a tear, and
he said, What a Savior! What a Savior! That's the difference. And don't you know he hears them?
Who knows? And he says in verse 5, Thou
hast beset me behind and before. He not only knows us and beholds
us, But he besets us, he surrounds us, he hedges us in. That's what
Satan said about Job over here in Job 1.10. He said about Job,
he said in Job 1.10, he said, Satan, verse 9, answered the
Lord and said, Does Job fear you for nothing? You've made
a hedge about him. You made a hedge about his house
and about all that he hath on every side. You blessed the work
of his hands. His substance is increased in
the land. You hedged him about." That's
what he's saying here. The Lord has, behind and before,
he has beset us, hemmed us in. He's beset me behind to forgive
all my sins, all your sins. of the past, all our failures,
all our faults, all our foolishness, he's behind us to wipe it clean. He's before us to provide all
our needs, to lead us in the path of righteousness beside
the still waters and in the way everlasting. He's set me behind
and before and laid his hand on me. He laid his hand on me. I found an illustration of that
over here in Luke 13. He laid his hand on us. He laid
his hand on me. Luke 13. Let's look at this and
see if this is not what we've experienced too. Luke 13, verse
11. He laid his hand on me to make
me acceptable, accepted in the beloved. He laid his hand on
me to restore me to life. He laid his hand on me to make
me whole, put away my sin. And verse 11 of Luke 13, And
behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen
years, and she was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up
herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called
her to him. and said, Woman, thou art loose
from thine infirmities. And he laid his hand on her.
And when he laid his hand on her, immediately she was made
straight. That's what he did. He laid his
hand on me. And I glorified God. He did it. The work of the Lord. All right,
so he comes to this conclusion, verse 6. That's just too wonderful for
me. It's so high I can't reach it. I can't attain unto it. Such knowledge, God knows my
words, my thoughts, my down-sitting, my uprising. All together, such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It not only surpasses my
comprehension, it surpasses my imagination. I can't even think
like that. His omniscience overwhelms me. One writer said this, listen
to this. God's omniscience, he knows everything. At one view, he surveys all the
past, all the present, and all the future. His eye observes
not only the complicated systems of the universe, his eye sees
the movement of every planet every star, every cloud, every
wave of the sea. And at the same time, he observes
the slightest motion of the wing of the smallest butterfly. That's
awesome. His ear hears the praises of
the seraphims, of the angels, the rejoicing of the souls in
heaven, and the grateful hearts of every simple believer in every
distant land." He hears the whisper of the smallest child, but also
he hears every polluted word and thought that passes through
the heart of every son of Adam. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. Before him stands every event,
every act, every word of 6,000 years since the creation of the
world in human history, as well as all things that are to come,
and every act and every word and every movement is ordained
and ordered minutely for his glory. He works all things after
the counsel of his own will. That's our God. And that's the reason David says,
God knows all things. You know that scripture says,
all things are of God. He declares the end from the
beginning, and things which are not, as though they already are. and not a sparrow falls to the
ground without him. And every hair and every head
in all the world is covered. That's the reason this man says
that's beyond my comprehension and my imagination. I just can't
He said, I know that's true. That's the reason we worship
him. That's the reason we're so careful about the use of his
name. That's the reason we're all in
his presence. That's the reason I don't encourage
throwing songbooks around here and running up and down this
aisle and acting like a fool. Because our God, be still, you
know I'm God. And when you stand in his presence,
let your words be few. When you bow a vow, don't forget
to keep it, because the Lord doesn't take pleasure in fools. Someone says, where is God? Well,
David in the next few verses says, where is he not? Verse 7, Whither shall I go from
thy spirit? Spirit of this God. Whither shall
I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in the grave, thou art there. If
I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, thy right hand
shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
will cover me, even the night is light about me. The darkness
hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The
darkness and the light are both alike to thee. The highest, the
deepest, the remotest are his dwelling. He's wherever I am. He's where I shall be. He's where
I couldn't be. He said, I'll never forsake you.
I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. All right,
verse 13. Thou hast possessed my reins.
Your reins, and when you read this word in the scripture, R-E-I-N-S,
your reins, thou hast possessed my reins, that word is my inmost
soul. Thou hast possessed my soul,
my inmost soul. He owns me. I'm His. I'm His. Thou hast possessed
my reins, my inmost soul. Before I had a body, I was a person in His will and
covenant. I was a person in His Son, given
to His Son. before the foundation of the
world. Chose us in Christ before the world began. If you ever
connected this verse with us, I know it's written about Christ.
Proverbs 8, turn over there a minute. Thou hast possessed my reins. Proverbs 8. Turn over there to
that scripture, let's look at it. Now I know this is speaking
of our Lord Jesus, but was he ever without us? Think of these scriptures now,
before the world began. Paul said, I'm bound to give
thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Remember that
word, from the beginning. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation, the formation of the earth, the world. Now
read these scriptures. Proverbs 8, verse 22. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning. of his way, before his works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was." He said,
that's Christ. All right. The Christ is the
Christ of the covenant, the everlasting covenant. Before the foundation
of the world, he's the Lamb slain. And we were in him, in the mind.
It's like I said, God knows everything future, present, and past. He declares the end from the
beginning. When there was no depths, I was brought forth.
When there were no fountains abounding with water, before
the mountains, before the hills. Thou hast possessed me. That's
true. He owns us. The Father gave us to him. And
he loves us as he loves his Son. And he says, here you covered
me in my mother's womb, when I was just a seed in my mother's
womb, not even known by her. She didn't know I was that. But he did. And I was a person
then. That solves the abortion deal,
doesn't it? When did I become a person? I
was a person before he put me in that womb. And I was a person when that
seed, he covered me in my mother's womb. Turn to Jeremiah 1, listen to
Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5,
listen to this. The word of the Lord, verse 4,
Jeremiah 1, 4, but the word of the Lord came to me saying, before
I formed thee in the belly, before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. thee. You were a person. He possessed my reins before
the earth was. I knew thee, and before you came
out of your mother's womb, I sanctified you and ordained you to be a
prophet." Awesome. Verse 14, And I will praise thee,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. One of the hymn writers
said, I'll praise my Creator with my breath, and when my voice
is silenced by death, praise shall employ my nobler song in
glory with that blood-washed throne. I'm fearfully, wonderfully
made. Created in Adam, fallen in sin,
regenerated by Spirit, and one day a glorified body. That'll
be something to behold. I'm fearfully and wonderfully
made. God made Adam and said, that's good. Adam fell. That's an awesome experience.
And then he regenerated us. Gave us the life of Christ. He
made that life. Gave it to us. Someday he's gonna
make us perfectly conformed to the image of his son. Fearfully
and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works. Marvelous
are thy works. That's the gist of what we're
trying to preach here. It's of the Lord, salvations
of the Lord, redemptions of the Lord. Everything that's anything
is of the Lord. It's His work, and that my soul
knows right well. That my soul knows right well.
Now then, my substance was not hid from thee. when I was made
in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
And that lowest parts of the earth where I was made in secret
and curiously wrought is the womb. I wasn't made down in a hole
in the ground. This is the lowest parts of the
earth. That's no eye can see. That's a place that God miraculously,
mysteriously begins life. And my substance was not hid
from thee then, my strength, the body, my... everything about
me, every... My personality was formed then.
My height and... tone of my voice, my gifts, whatever
they are, it was all made right then, wasn't it? That's what
I understand. I was made in secret, curiously
wrought in my mother's womb. That lowest parts of the earth
will help you over here turn to Ephesians 4. And when talked
about the Lord Jesus, so many preachers somehow try to put
Christ in hell. They said, you know, the Apostle's
Creed, he descended into hell. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.
And over there in Peter said he went to preach to the souls
in prison, to Noah, the spirit that was in Noah. He didn't go
and preach to the people in hell. He preached to people here on
this earth by the Spirit of God through Noah in the days of Noah.
And when this, here in Ephesians 4, look at it, Ephesians 4 verse,
Ephesians 4 verse 9, Ephesians 4 9. Verse 8 says, Wherefore he saith
when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, gave
gifts to men. Now, he that ascended, what is
it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth. And your reference there is to
1 Peter 3, verse 19. That's talking about the womb.
That's talking about the same place that David's talking about
right here. Because Jesus Christ our Lord
was made also a body. A body has thou prepared for
me. And that body was buried in Mary's womb, the lowest parts
of the earth. That's the beginning. A child
is born, a son is given, but that's what that's talking about
there. And let me tell you this, verse 16. Watch here. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect. Unperfect. Not complete. unfulfilled, just
when that baby starts being formed, your eye saw my substance, my
whole being, my person, yet being unperfect, and in your book,
all my memories, all of them were written, my name, my person
was written in the book, written in the book of life, written
in the Lamb's book of life. While I was waiting to come to
church, I turned on my television. We come on at nine. I was going
to watch the first five minutes of our program, but I picked
up Charles Stanley, Atlanta. And what caught my ear is he
immediately said, what is this Lamb's Book of Life? I thought,
I want to hear this, what he has to say. Well, he said, I'll tell you
what it is. When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior,
God's penman, write your name in the last book of life. I thought,
of all the scripture and the word of God about that book,
why would this man do this to people? Is God's book, is God
in suspense, not knowing whose name's in the Lamb's Book of
Life, waiting to see what we'll do so he can write it in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Let's see what the scripture
says about this Lamb's Book of Life. First of all, turn over
to Exodus 32, verse 32. That's one of the first places
it's mentioned. Exodus 32, verse 32. Now, Moses wasn't quite as enlightened
as we are in this day. You'll have to forgive old Moses
for the way he words things. Because he said, you know, he
was so upset Israel had sinned against God, and the Lord was
about to destroy him. And Moses interceded for his people. He
loved them. He loved that bunch of ruffles.
And in verse 31 of Exodus 32, and Moses returned to the Lord
and said, Lord, this people have sinned a great sin and made them
gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive
their sin, if you will, but if not, blot me out of thy book
which your penman wrote." Who's God's penman? It makes good hillbilly
gospel singing, God's penman. But that's not God wrote that
book. That's his book that he's written. All right, let's go
to the book of Revelation. Well, let's go to Luke 10. Luke
10. He told his disciples one time,
in Luke 10, they came back and they were talking to him about
the devils being subject to them. And he said in Luke 10, verse
18, he said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you, notwithstanding. In this, rejoice not that the
Spirit is a subject unto you, but rejoice, rather rejoice,
that your names are written in heaven." They are written. Not
going to be. Not depending on you. Turn to Revelation 13, verse 8. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life, but the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
When that lamb was chosen, that book was written. When that lamb
became the lamb slain, the book was written before the foundation
of the world. Turn to Revelation 17, verse
8. Revelation 17, verse 8. The beast that thou sawest was
and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and
go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall want
her. whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was,
and is not, and yet is." Somebody may get upset with me by calling
the name of the man, but if he's going to go on national TV and
tell a lie, somebody needs to tell the people he's telling
a lie. Isn't that right? God's not waiting to see what's
going to happen, to see who's going to be in the Bride of Christ,
who's going to be in the The church of the firstborn who's
going to be in glory, who's going to make up the lamb's bride,
he knows. The Lord knoweth them that it
is. The Lord knoweth them that it is. I know my sheep. Those
Pharisees came to him and said, if you be the Christ, tell us.
He said, I told you, but you don't believe me. You don't believe
me because you're not of my sheep. My sheep, hear my voice, my Father
gave them to me. It's my father's book, it's my
father's people, it's my father's kingdom. He gave it to me. That's
just, let's be honest. It's unfair to be dishonest to
people because they take these things, like God's penman waiting
around. I've heard a preacher say, when
he dips his pen in the blood of Christ and writes your name
in the book of life. It's horrible. But sure makes good preaching
in this day. They can whoop that one up. It makes me so sad. I'm just
so sorry. So sorry. Thine eyes, verse 16,
let me give you this. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unborn, undeveloped, I say unconceived. He knew me
before I was conceived. And in your book, all my book
numbers were written by then, already written, which in continuance
were fashioned when as yet there wasn't a one of them. I didn't have any hand to shake.
I didn't even have a mind to grasp the gospel. I didn't have
a heart to make a decision. My name was written. I'm going to tell the truth, and the whole world can turn
against you. It's all right by me. It's okay. That's fine. Because
verse 17 says this, How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O Lord,
and I'd rather his thoughts be precious to me than everybody
in this town. Will I obey him? Now, the Lord does. That matters. His thoughts are precious, and
not of many things called precious. Precious blood. He's precious. Precious promises. And precious
to the Lord is the death of a believer. But his thoughts toward us are
precious. And how great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they're more in number than the sands
of the sea. When I wake, I'm still with thee. All right. Now
Spurgeon preached on this message, this psalm right here. And he said he, David brings
down to two conclusions, really three, three consequences,
three conclusions. Here's the first one, verse 19.
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, so depart from me, ye
bloody men. You that speak, they speak against
God. They speak against God. They
don't give God the true glory that's due his name. They preach
another Jesus, another gospel. So you depart from me. You fellas
that do that, depart from me. And you fellas are enemies of
God that take his name in vain. I don't want anything to do with
you. I'll pray for you, preach to you if you let me. But darkness
doesn't have any fellowship with light, and light doesn't have
any fellowship with darkness. So that's the first consequence.
There's a person that knows this God, can't walk agreeably with
someone who does not know this God. So he says, depart from
me. I'm walking with God. And he
says, your enemies are my enemies. I hate them that hate me, O Lord.
I'm grieved with those that rise up against thee. I hate them
with a perfect hatred. I count your enemies my enemies.
That's the conclusion. Secondly, here's the next consequence. Search me. Search me, O God,
and know my heart. Now listen to this. Search me.
I'm religious, all right. David was too. But you search
me, Lord. He said, thou hast searched me
and known me. Now he tells him, search me again. And here's what
he's saying. Search me, O God, Examine and lay bare my heart,
cry me, prove me by your word, and see if there be, see if there
be, verse 24, any wicked way in me, any hypocrisy, any insensitivity,
any lack of trust, any lack of commitment to the Lord Jesus
Christ. If I hate the wickedness in others,
let me hate it in myself too. Search me. Try me. See if I'm
a phony. Search me, oh God. This is the
man after God's own heart talking. This is the sweet psalmist of
Israel. Search me. Know my heart. Try me. Know my
thoughts. See if there's any hypocritical
way in here. I don't want to perish from the
presence of God. with a false hope, a false religion. And here's the third thing, and
lead me in the way everlasting. Christ is the way everlasting. He was ordained through the covenant
everlasting. And those who are in that way
are in the way of life everlasting. So Lord, by your providence,
by your word, by your grace, by your mercy, put me in that
way, and keep me there, and lead me evermore. All right. I hope that's a blessing
to you. It has to be, doesn't it? It's
God's Word. It just has to be.