(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So this morning I'm going to be preaching about God's natural attributes, God's natural attributes. In the last few weeks we've just been working through some different things about God, the concepts of God, and I'm going to get into the natural attributes of God over the next couple weeks. And really, when we're talking about the natural attributes, we're talking about as opposed to God's moral attributes. There are God's natural attributes and then there are His moral attributes. And these are important to understand because we have to remember through this whole series what we're trying to do is, from the perspective of a finite man, understand an eternal and infinite God. And really, all we know about God is what He has revealed to us in the Scriptures. And what He has shown us in the Scripture are His attributes, both natural and His moral attributes. His natural attributes are things that are unique to Him, things that are unique and only belong to Him. Whereas His moral attributes, those are things that we also should seek to possess and to practice in our own lives to be like Him. Obviously, there's a lot of ways we can never be like God, and we find those here in God's natural attributes. And really, people have broken this down in different ways, and there's really eight points to this whole thing, and we'll go over several of them over the next few weeks. This morning we're going to just talk about God's self-existence. That's one of His natural attributes and also His omniscience. That's another one of His natural attributes. We've already talked about another two last week when we talked about God's unity and His Trinity. Those are natural attributes to God. But we're going to get into, over the next couple weeks, His self-existence, His omniscience, His omnipotence, His eternality, and His immutability. Sorry, these are words that I don't say often. But beginning this morning, we're going to look at God's self-existence. And I'm just going to touch on this one because I feel like I've already talked about this several times throughout this series. But basically, the natural attribute of God's self-existence is the fact that God is the cause of Himself. God is the cause of Himself. His existence does not need to be accounted for. We've talked about this a little bit, and it was kind of interesting. Even this week, we were driving out to the ladies' retreat with my daughter, Karen, and we had a brief discussion about this, about, well, think about the fact that God has always existed. Well, where did God come from? I don't remember exactly what we said, but I think every person kind of has this thought. If they think about the things of God, if they think about life and stuff like that, eventually they arrive at this place like, well, where did God come from? And that's when our head starts to hurt. When we just say, well, God has just always been. We can't explain it again because we're a finite man, but that is one of God's natural attributes, that God has simply always existed and that He does not have to give an account of His existence to us. He doesn't have to explain the fact that He always has been. He just is. And what we mean by God's self-existence is the fact that God is independent of all others. His being is continuous and perpetual and independent of everything else. He's not relying on somebody else to keep Him in existence, much like we are. Now you're there in Romans chapter 11 verse 33. It says there in verse 33 of Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out, for who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? Look, God doesn't owe us an explanation. Nobody came and gave God His existence. No one brought God into existence, and now He's somehow accountable for His existence. God simply has always existed in and of Himself and owes no explanation for that. And that's why we probably have such a hard time with that, because we want to understand and be able to explain everything. There's just some things about life and reality we just are beyond our comprehension. Now unlike man, we do rely on God for existence. We are not independently self-existent. We rely on God to exist. And we all know the chapters, the chapter in verse 11, Genesis 1, right? In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. And God is the one that made us in His image. Now if you would, keep something, well you're still in Romans, just stay there. Again, I'm just going to touch on this point. Bible says in Colossians 1 verse 16, for by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things exist. So again, God's natural attribute is that He is independent in His existence. But everything that He created, which is all things, all those things, including us, rely on God for their existence. You can see how we differ in that way, why these are God's natural attributes and not our own. Bible says in Acts 17, for in Him we live and move and have our being. That's what Paul told the men in Athens, that it was in the Lord that we live and move. And what have our being. By Him all things consist. God exists independently of Himself, but we all rely on Him for our existence. And if you look there in verse 36 of Romans 11, it says, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen. And again, I'm just touching on this point, when we start to think about this, the fact that the Lord just says, I am that I am. That He is from everlasting to everlasting. That He is independently existent and accountable to nobody. Rather than sitting there trying to philosophize about that or understand that, we should just do what Paul did here in Romans and just say, to whom be glory forever, amen. And just glorify God for who He is and just know that there's some things about Him we're not going to understand, but that should just make us appreciate the things that we can understand about Him even more. When we go into the scriptures and understand that there's a lot that God has revealed to us about who He is and what His nature is like, that should make us more grateful for that. The fact that there are some things that we can't comprehend. Now again, I'm going to move on from God's self-existence because that's not really one I don't know if I can explain all that well, but we'll go on to the omniscience of God. And when we talk about the omniscience of God, we're talking about the fact that God is all knowing. Stay with me because I am going to make an application. I know these are kind of theological or philosophical sermons in a way, but I'm always trying to make a very personal application at the end and we will do that here. So stay with me. These attributes are important. God wants us to know these things about Him for a reason. And if we understand these things about God, it will change the way we live. At least it should. God is omniscient. This is another one of His natural attributes, meaning He is all knowing. Now you might think your mother was that way growing up, right? How did she know? Right? But she wasn't. She was limited. That's called intuition. But if you look there in Romans chapter 11, verse 33, it says, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. God's wisdom and knowledge is deep and it is rich. In fact, it's all knowing. God knows everything. There is nothing He does not know. Now there are some just general examples of this, of His omniscience, the fact that it is all inclusive. When we say that God knows everything, that means there's nothing He does not know. Bible says in 1 John, for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. So what does God know? Everything. He knows all things. And you can kind of see where we're going with this in 1 John because he says, if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. The fact that God knows everything should kind of put us on our toes when it comes to the things that we think and say and do because God knows it all. Another example of God's omniscience is the fact that not only is it all inclusive, there's nothing He does not know, but also the fact that it is eternal. God understands, He knows everything past, present, and future. God does not forget like we do. We'll try to remember what happened last week, last year, whatever, things fade away from our memory. That's not the case with God. God is all knowing, He remembers everything. He knows the past, the present, and the future. If you would, go over to Isaiah chapter 46, Isaiah chapter number 46. The Bible says in Acts 15, known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. So even before the world began, God already knew the future. He already understood everything that was going to happen. God already knows everything that is still going to happen. You're there in Isaiah chapter 46 of verse 9, it says, remember the former things of old for I am God, there is none else. I am God and there's none like me. Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. He declares from ancient times the things that are not yet done. How is He able to do that? Because God is omniscient, because He knows everything, there's nothing He does not know, but also He knows everything that is going to happen and He knows everything that has happened. And you say, well that's kind of a, you know, how does that affect me? What has it got to do with me? Well think about this, if God knows all of His works from the beginning, that means He knew that you and I were going to come around. I'm not just speaking, you know, we could talk about just mankind in general, of course He understood that, or we know that, but also us as individuals, you know, we didn't catch God off guard, you know, even as humankind in general, as mankind in general, it wasn't like God went, whoops, you know, what happened here? It's not like God just set the wheels in motion and stepped back and wanted to just see what would happen and oh, we came about, you know, we're made in the image of God. And God, knowing everything that was going to take place, went ahead and made us anyway. He knew that man was going to sin against Him and fall and that everything that was going to result from that was going to take place. But He also knew that He was going to send His Son to die for us, that He was going to give us eternal life and that there was redemption also. So God knew everything that was going to happen, even man's part, our existence is intentional. You know, we did not just crawl out of some primordial ooze, this is not an accident. That's what this means. If God knows everything, past, present, and future, if He is all knowing, that means that our existence is intentional and it wasn't just an accident. If you would go, just stay in Isaiah, I'll read to you from Ephesians. It says in Ephesians chapter 1, wherein He hath abounded toward us, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, and it says that in verse 10 that we have obtained an inheritance according to the purpose of Him. So God has abounded toward us. God doesn't regret the fact that He's made us. He knew what was going to happen and He went ahead and did it anyway. Now of course, you know, there have been times where it's repented God that He made man and He punishes man, but think about this, what's stopping God, if He's independent and He's omniscient and He's self-existent and is accountable to nobody, what's just stopping God from just wiping His hands of the whole thing and starting over? Nothing. I mean, He could have done that at any time, but He went ahead and did that and now has abounded toward us, He has made known unto us the mystery of His will, and we have obtained an inheritance according to the purpose in Him. Everything that God has done is intentional because He is all-knowing, including the fact that we were going to fall and our redemption through Christ. And this all works to what? To the end of God's praise. That's why it says there in Isaiah, where you are in verse 46, or I'm sorry, this is actually in Ephesians, it says that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Look, if God has abounded toward us, if God has made known unto us the mystery of His will, if we have obtained, you know, all these things have happened, we've got this purpose according to Him, God in His omniscience went ahead and made us and allowed sin to come into the world and has redeemed us, you know, that's all to the end of God's praise. God be praised that He didn't just go, well, let's try that again. Let's just start all over and just, because then we wouldn't exist. We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be, you know, enjoying anything in this life. So those are just some general examples of God's omniscience, the fact that God is all-knowing. I do want to talk about for a minute some particular examples of God's omniscience, some particular things. Again, talking about the knowledge of His creation, the fact that God, you know, already knew what was going to happen with fall, but even beyond that, God, you know, nothing about God's creation is something that catches Him off guard. And when you really start to understand this, that God, you know, man delves into these, you know, into sciences, you know, he gets into biology and chemistry and geometry and he gets into all these different sciences and a lot of those things are very fascinating and they're very deep and it takes a lot of study and it takes a lot of effort on our part to comprehend a lot of these things. We get into the physics and all of that and, you know, theories of relativity and all these things that man spends his time trying to figure out and comprehend and theorize about, God already knows all of it and God knows way more than that. Bible says He telleth the number of stars. He telleth the number of stars. You know, we're up here in Tucson, we're surrounded by these observatories and man looks out there and he sees this great, you know, sea of stars and he's trying to name this one and name that one and trying to peer into the farthest reaches of the galaxy and the Bible just says that God just, He telleth them all. You're telling meaning like He counts them like a bank teller, right? God just says, well, I know exactly how many they are and it's not because He went to a university for eight years and took the time, it's not because He went up to the science center on Mount Lemmon and gazed through Himself and got a scratch of paper and sat there and said one and two. He just knows that. That's what it means like the fact that God is omniscient, that He is all knowing. He knows His creation. He telleth the number of stars. He calleth them by their names and I don't think it's like gamma x 6 1 8 3 or whatever. These astronomers give these really unattractive titles to these stars. I guess it's for cataloging or whatever but that's an interesting thought, you know, that God in His omniscience knows everything about His creation. So when we step back and people want to be so impressed with the knowledge of man and of course, you know, there are things from man's perspective that are impressive. You know, when we talk to somebody or we hear somebody speak who's, you know, has some knowledge and some understanding and has some, you know, some intellect, we like to listen to that. But God is so much far, you know, so far beyond anything that we've even begun to understand. His understanding is, you know, way beyond ours. Our thoughts are not even close to His thoughts. Bible says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight but all things are naked and open under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. God beholds His whole creation, there's nothing kept secret from Him. Go over to Psalms 103, Psalms 103, and this is an important attribute of God to understand. You know, this is something that can, you know, again, I know this is kind of an intellectual-ish sermon as much as I can be intellectual, I guess it is, but, you know, it's not exactly maybe the most motivating sermon, maybe it's not a face-dripping sermon, but, you know, these are important attributes to understand because, you know, if we think about these things, these are things that can, you know, affect our lives. These are things that if we allow this to sink in, you know, it will change the way we live, at least it should, or it might even bring us some comfort in our lives. The Bible says in Matthew 10, for example, speaking of God's omniscience, Jesus said, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. So you know, we often think, well, no one cares about me, no one knows about what I'm going through, I have no one to talk to, no one understands what I'm, you know, having to endure right now. But the Bible teaches us that God knows everything about his creation, that everything that he's done is intentional, that means that you're intentional and that he knows everything there is to know about you. And that not even a bird can fall to the ground without God knowing it. And look, there's a lot of birds in the world, and there's a lot of birds falling to the ground every single day and God knows every single one of them, you know, that should bring us some comfort. And that's what Jesus is expressing here, he's saying, look, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father? Look, he notices you, that's why it goes on and says in verse 30, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Oh, that's great that God can tell the number of stars, but what does that mean to me? Well, he's got your hairs numbered too. You know, he's got, he has you in mind. He understands everything about his creation, including us ourselves. You're there in Psalms 103, it says in verse 13, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Look, if God knows everything, you know, he knows those that fear him. And you know, that's, that should be comforting to us because of the fact that, you know, we want God to pity us sometimes, don't we? You know, show us mercy, that's basically what he's saying. Why is that? Verse 14, for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. You know, God's omniscience, his understanding of everything about creation, including us, can bring us comfort in the fact that he remembers what we're made of. He knows that we are sinful, fallen people, that we have faults, that we're not perfect, and you know, if we'll just choose to fear God and seek his mercy, he will pity us. You know, sometimes when our own children need punishment, we should, we may and should show pity and let them know that there is mercy, you know, to be found. Not only in ourselves, but that is an attribute of God, that, you know, we can have pity from the Lord if we fear him. So he has knowledge of his creation, including us, right? All our hairs are numbered, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. You know, this could also be a word of warning as well, you know, that should cause us to take heed to our actions, because if God knows everything, that means he knows everything that we do. Even when nobody else is looking, when nobody else is around, when nobody else can see, God sees. No matter where we go, no matter what we're doing, God knows our actions. Go over to Psalms 139, Psalms 139. The Bible says in Proverbs 15 that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God's eyes are in every place. A man so often gets this idea, well, God doesn't see here, and you see that throughout the Scriptures when Israel would get backslidden, often what they would say is, well, the Lord doesn't see. And a man is tempted to say that and say, you know, where is the promise of his coming? You know, since the beginning of the creation, all things continue as they were. And they think, well, God doesn't see, he's far off, it just seems like he's not paying attention. No, the Bible says that God's eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. And just because God isn't acting doesn't mean he's never going to act. We know that one day God is going to interject himself into humanity. He is going to change history. He's going to go ahead and just judge this earth, right? So God does behold. He should never have this attitude that God doesn't see. The Bible says he does see. Look there in Psalms 139, verse 1, oh Lord, thou has searched me and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising, thou understandest my thought afar off. He understands your thoughts, our thoughts, afar off. What does he mean? Is he talking geographically here, that God has telekinesis even over great distances? No, he's talking about the fact that God knows the thoughts that you think before you even think them. And God already knows what's going to pop, you know, what foolish notion is going to pop into our heads next, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. God knows what's going to come into our mind before we even think it. Thou compassed my path, he says in verse 3, and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. God knows everything, that we're going to go to Psalms 49, Psalms 49. God has knowledge of all of our actions. His eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. So you can see how that's a double-edged sword. That could work for us or that could work against us. If we're fearing the Lord, you know, we'll have pity. We'll have mercy. When we do mess up, God will, you know, extend mercy toward us. Not only that, but God has knowledge of every word that is spoken. It says in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account therefore in the day of judgment. Now, I don't think that means that God's going to, you know, that time that you and your buddy spent, you know, talking about football for an hour or whatever, you know, that you're going to have to give an account for those idle words. What he's talking about is, you know, more about people who are being flippant about the Lord, is what I believe this is, you know, the actual application. People that are just very flippant about God, they're just idly talking about the Lord. Oh, who is the Lord? You know, they're going to give an account for that. That's why the Bible says that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. It's just they're either going to do that now or they're going to do it in the day of judgment. They're going to give an account for every idle word. I should have had you stay in Psalm 139. I'll read for you from verse 4. It says, for there is not a word in my tongue, but oh Lord, thou hast known it all together. So not only does God know our thoughts afar off, but he knows that every word that is in our tongue, thou knowest it all together, thou hast beset behind me and before me and laid thine hand upon me, such knowledge is too wonderful me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it. So even the Psalmist here who understands these things about God's omniscience is that it's too high for him. He can't attain unto it. God knows the thoughts I think before I even think them. God knows the words that I speak before I even speak them. God even knows the things I'm going to do before I even do them. And that should cause us to praise the Lord, praise God for his mercy and his grace. Not only does God know our actions and know every word that we speak, but he knows all of our thoughts. You say, well, I just won't do anything wrong and I won't say anything bad and I should be all right. And that's good. Look, I'm not saying don't do those things. We should try to do what's right and say what's right, control our tongue, make sure we're not getting into sin, but even it goes farther than that. And see, this is where it really gets tough because people, it's real easy to clean up the outside, isn't it? It's real easy to just start saying and doing the right things, especially when you only have to do it in front of people when they're watching. If we're just doing it for man, that's easy. I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't take effort, but look, people do this all the time. It's called AA. People get sober, people clean up their lives, people get their act together all the time. They get out of debt, they whatever, they get off drugs, they kick this habit, they kick that habit, they start this good one, whatever. People do that all the time, but where it really gets difficult is when you start to deal with what's inside, the inward things. And the temptation often is to never deal with those things because man can't see that. I can't see what you think, and I can't see what's in your heart, none of us can, but God can. And this is why it's important to understand about God's omniscience. Even if we're church-going people who know how to talk the talk and walk the walk, but what about on the inside? Because that's really what matters the most, because whatever is within eventually will come out. Whatever we think in our heart is going to come out of our mouth. It's going to come out in our actions. We are going to express how we truly feel inwardly eventually. The Bible says in Psalm 94, you're going to Psalm 49, if you're not there already, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity. That's very true. If you've ever gotten to the practice of just trying to be, what's the word now they're using? Intentional. You're just trying to think about what you're thinking, trying to observe your own thoughts kind of from a third person's perspective. A lot of times you'll catch yourself going, that was really dumb thought. That was really stupid what I just thought. There is no point to what I was thinking about. What I just spent 20 minutes thinking about has no relevance or any bearing on my life whatsoever. Yet, there we go. That's not always a sinful thing. That's not always bad. That's just a fact of life. Sometimes we'll sit there and just think about things that have absolutely no value. Sometimes people work really hard to avoid thinking. They'll sit there and just sit in front of a television and just do the thinking for me. It's just more vanity there. This could also maybe help us with if we have a past, if we have a troubled past. We have these intrusive thoughts. People have asked me about this. How do you handle intrusive thoughts? I have things in my past that happened 20 something years ago and just out of the blue I just think about that. Some situation when I was ... It's usually like 10, 11 at night when you're trying to go to sleep and you start ... It's like, why am I even thinking about that? Something that I said or did or some situation I was in years ago and I'm still beating myself up about it. Look, it's vanity to sit there and think about that and you need to get over that. That could either be a comfort to us or it could also be a word of warning. We might have it all cleaned up on the outside, but we need to make sure that we clean that which is within too. Make sure that our thought life is what it ought to be because God knows even our thoughts. We can hide our thoughts from one another for the most part and again we'll get to this, it will eventually come out what we really think, but God already knows that well in advance before you even thought that thought in fact. God's omniscience, it should affect our behavior both outwardly and inwardly. Look, God knows our actions so let's act right. God knows what we're going to say so let's make sure we're controlling our tongue and speaking correctly and all of that, but beyond that God knows our thoughts, all of them. So let's focus on our thought life as well and that's really again probably one of the more harder things to do in the Christian life. He said in Psalms 49 verse 3, my mouth shall speak of wisdom. So there you go, you want to learn how to speak, what is God going to be pleased with as far as your tongue? Well, speak of wisdom. Speak of the word of God, speak of the things of God. Now I'm not saying that's all you can ever talk about, right? Obviously we're going to talk about other things in life, we're going to talk about the weather, we're going to talk about what we did that day and everything, but if we're never speaking of wisdom, if we're never speaking about the things of God, if we're never thinking on the things of God, something's not right. We need to work on that. You know, these things should be coming out of our mouth because we've been dwelling on them. That's why he says my mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. But you're not going to speak of wisdom until your meditation is that of understanding, until you've been meditating on the word of God, until you've been thinking on the word of God, until you start doing that, it's never going to come out of your mouth. But what is going to come out of your mouth is all the other things you have been thinking about, all the other things you have been meditating upon. All the worldly things, all the ungodly things, maybe even sinful things, those things will come out of our mouth. He said in Psalms 19, verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. We should want our thoughts and our speech to be acceptable in God's sight, even if it means it's not acceptable in man's sight. Even if they say, hey, you can't say that, well, if it's God's word, I can. If it's the way God feels about it, I'm going to go ahead and say it. They're going to say, well, you can't say that about the LGBT community. You can't say that about whatever sin or whatever group. I'm going to go ahead and say it. And not only that, I'm going to think about it. And I'm going to go, you know what? God's right. I'm going to say these things because it's what God wants. I'm not going to say those things if I don't meditate upon it. You ever wonder why a lot of these Baptist preachers aren't preaching on these things? While they're not preaching on the homos, while they're not preaching on divorce and adultery and drunkenness and fornication, while they're not preaching on these sins that are just running rampant in our society, it's because they don't think about it. Because they couldn't care less about these things because they're not meditating upon it. They're not reading their Bibles. They're not praying. They're not getting into the word of God. They don't care. Otherwise, it would come out. Or they're compromised. And I don't want to start going off on all that. But we need to let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in God's sight, even if that's acceptable in man's sight. That might even mean on the workplace. The dirty joke gets told and you don't laugh. You're going to be on the out, believe me, I know, when you're known as the Christian. When your meditation is not beers and deers, like it was in northern Michigan for me, they're going to go, oh, he's not about that life. He's one of these Bible thumpers. Well, you know what? Who is going to be pleased with that? The Lord. And if man isn't pleased with that, well, you know, he could take a long walk off a short pier for all I care. Because I want my thoughts and my speech and my actions to line up with what God wants. Why? Because I want God to pity me as a father doth his children. And this is important because of the fact that what we think about inwardly, how we feel about things or people, will eventually come out of our mouth. And we will reveal it. Our inward thoughts manifest outwardly. That's why it's important that we work on this, you know, as God's people. Go over to James chapter number three, James chapter number three. The Bible says in Luke chapter six verse 45, Jesus said, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. How does he bring forth that which is good? Because it's what's within. It's in his heart. He doesn't find it somewhere else and then bring it out, he brings it out from within. But an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. Why? And we all know this. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. This is such a powerful truth that we can apply when we're trying to understand human behavior and why people do the things that they do, why people say the things that they say. You know, this is something that is really helpful when you're trying to detect when someone is being deceptive. If you really listen to the things that people say, they will tell you what they mean if you can learn to listen. And that's like a whole other thing. The application is this this morning, is that we need to make sure that what is within is right. You know, and why? Because God knows, God knows what's already in there. God knows the thoughts we think before we even think them. Look, we can polish up the outside, we can talk right, we can do right, and still be wicked inside. That was the problem with the Pharisees, wasn't it? He said, you know, you're like whited sepulchers on the outside, but within are full of dead men's bones. You know, we can be just as guilty of that. Maybe not to the point that they were as far as denying Christ, obviously, but you know, God's people can be the same way. They can come to church, and they can get the hair just right, and they can wear everything just right, and they can say all the right things on Sunday, they can say all the right things on Thursday, they could say all that when they're around God's people and then go out and live like the devil. You know, and still be safe, still go to heaven. They can still be full of rottenness and envy and bitterness and strife within. And that's what he says here in James chapter 3 verse 13, excuse me, James chapter 3 verse 13, who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Who is the wise man? It's not the guy who tells you, I'm the wise man. That's usually probably the biggest fool in the room. He's gonna go around and tell everybody how it is. He probably knows nothing. That's why it says let him show out of a good conversation. You should be able to observe people and say that person has wisdom, that person does not. And how do you tell? By the way they live their lives, by their priorities in life. That shows whether or not the level of wisdom that they have, they show it, right? By their works. That's why it says let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. So is it possible for God's people to have bitter envying and strife in their hearts? Absolutely. And if we're all honest, we've all probably seen it in our own hearts, being in the position that I'm in, I've seen it in other people's hearts. They might even come into a local church and start to be bitter and envious towards other people in the church. It's not right. And look, again, that's the hard stuff, isn't it? It's easy to look right and say all the right things, but dealing with things like this that are within, that are in our hearts, this is where the real work of the Christian life begins. This is where the only person that can really help you is God. This is where prayer comes in, this is where Bible reading comes in, this is where memorization comes in. This is the blood and sweat, the toil of working on the Christian life to get that which is within right so that it comes out right. Make the outward match the inward. Look, if God knows everything, if God knows what we do, if God knows what we say and God knows what we think, what we need to work on in the Christian life is making what's on the outside match what's on the inside, as long as what's on the inside is good. If it's the bitter, envying strife, first fix that which is within, like Jesus told the Pharisees. Clean the inside of the club and then worry about the outside. Get right within. And that's why we should never judge people that come into church based on their appearance. If they're not wearing the best clothes or if they have a rough exterior, we shouldn't judge them over that because of the fact that everyone has to start somewhere in the Christian life. People can doll themselves up and make themselves look good and still come in and be just as wicked as hell. Be more wicked than the guy that maybe doesn't look the part, right? So you can't judge everything based on the exterior. Make the outward match the inward. Go over to Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter number 3. We'll close here in Colossians chapter number 3. I want us to notice in Colossians chapter 3 how the inward and the outward relate to one another, how these things work together in Colossians chapter number 3. The inward and the outward work together in the Christian life. If it's out of the good treasure of our heart that we bring forth that which is good, that's what we have to work on. We say, I want to be the guy that has meekness of wisdom. I want to show the good conversation. I want to say and do the right things. Well then start thinking the right things. Start meditating on the right things. He says in verse 12 of Colossians 3, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind. Again, so these bowels of mercy, that's something that is within. We should seek to be merciful people within. Within we should think we should be merciful towards other people. Not just quick to judge people, not quick to condemn people, suspect people. What we need to do is have bowels of mercy. Where are your bowels? It's talking about your abdomen region. This is that which is within, your bowels. Have mercies within, kindness. These are things that should be our inward attributes. Not just things that we just, it's time for me to be nice and say good morning and smile and shake. No, these are things that we should do that, but it should come from within. Otherwise it's just an act. Otherwise it's just fake. Otherwise it means nothing and it's not going to profit anybody because it's real easy to just smile and nod and say good morning on Sunday and say God bless you. It's another thing to show people mercy and kindness and gentleness and meekness, which is what people really need. I'd rather have somebody be a little bit curt to me in a greeting or maybe just ignore me completely but when I'm in need they show me some kindness, they show some mercy. What's going to benefit me more? Someone just faking a smile and shaking my hand or someone actually caring about me and showing me mercy and kindness. Those are the things that are going to help us, but these are things again that have to be within. These aren't things you can just put on and put off. These are things that have to be in what? The bowels, the humbleness of mind, right? The way we think has to be humble, meekness, long suffering. Again so if you look at verse 12, these are things that are within. Bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering and then look at verse 13. These are external things. Forebearing one another, right? Look if you have kindness, you have bowels of mercies and kindness, if you're meekness and long suffering you're going to do what? You're going to be forbearing one another. What does it mean to forbear with somebody? It means to be patient with people. It means to be long suffering. And what does he say? Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. Look if you come into a local church, guess what you're dealing with? You're dealing with people. You're dealing with sinful people. Nobody here is perfect. People are going to offend one another. People are going to rub one another the wrong way. People are not always going to get along. But you know what? The Bible says that we need to forbear one another and it says we need to forgive one another. But again these are outward things that we do, right? The forgiving, the forbearing, these are things that we extend outwardly but it has to come from within. Otherwise it's not genuine. Otherwise it's not real. Otherwise it will not last. It has to come from bowels of mercy. It has to come from a humble mind. It says there, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And this is what always blows my mind when I see Christians get short with one another. When I see them have an unforgiving spirit towards another Christian. It's like, well, did you forget the fact that Christ forgave you? You know, we're asking you to look over this small fault in somebody. This little wrong that they might have committed and maybe they really did you wrong. Maybe they did something wrong. They've offended you. You know, we're asking, the Bible's saying just look past that. Be forbearing. Be long suffering. Why? Because the fact is that Christ has forgiven you way more. Especially when you consider the fact that God is omniscient and knows not only the things that we have done and the things that we have said but even the things that we have thought. And look, if we're being honest, we've all probably had some bad thoughts. Some wicked thoughts. Even when we're doing right and saying right. And God has forgiven all of that. And you know, so that should be your motive. Right there. Because God has forgiven me so much. The least I could do is have a little humility, a little meekness, a little long suffering and extend that towards other people. Be forgiving. He says, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, verse 14, and above all these things put on charity, that's love, which is the bond of perfectness and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. So again, where is the peace of God to rule? In our hearts. Right? This is an inward thing. To which you are called in one body and be thankful. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And it's interesting there that he says there in verse 15 to let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Then he says in verse 16 to let the word of Christ dwell in you. God wants these things to be in us. We know that these things should be in us. We know that the peace of God should be in our hearts, but we so often don't have it. We know that the word of Christ should dwell in us, but so often it's not there. Why? Because we don't what? We don't let it. It's not that God's holding out like, oh, do you want the peace? Do you want the word of God to dwell in you? He's not dangling it like some carrot. He's like, look, let me give you the peace. Let me put the word of God in you. Let me put this and let it dwell in you richly. The problem is we just say, no thanks. I don't want that. I don't want to think about the word of God. I don't want to read the word of God. I don't want to meditate on it. I don't want to memorize it. I don't want the word of God to dwell in me richly. Well, you know what? Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them. And when you see people get easily offended and you see people that have no peace, it's because the word of God is not dwelling in them richly. That's why they don't have the peace of God ruling in their hearts. These things are related and these things are inward. These are the things that we need to work on, that which is within, because then it will come without. That's why it says in verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Why? So that you can just be wise and everyone can just admire how wise you are. No, why? So you can teach and admonishing one another, teaching and admonishing one another. We should seek to have these things within so we can edify each other. Being able to teach and admonish one another in psalms and in hymns and in spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So you can see again, as I asked to notice how these things are both inward and outward. We work on having these things within so that they come without. We work on getting the word of God in us richly. We meditate on the word of God. We let the peace of God rule in our hearts so that we can outwardly teach and admonish one another. We learn what the word of God says so we can take another brother and sister aside and say, hey, let me admonish you with meekness of wisdom and show you what the Bible says. Let me gently guide you along in the Christian life instead of just trying to beat people down and just say, you know, and writing people off. What we need to do is gently admonish one another. That's only going to happen if we first deal with our own hearts and let these things dwell in us. It says in verse 17, and what do you ever do in word or deed? Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father by him. So that's the application. You know, I know we started out with kind of a, you know, maybe a bit of a, I don't know what the word is, abstract idea, you know, when we're talking about the omniscience of God. But you can see how it's important. You know, the fact that God knows everything that we say, God knows everything that we do, and most of all, God knows everything that we think. You can see how this comes down into our day-to-day life, even such a, you know, broad concept of God's all-knowing, you know, nature. Well, that should have a major impact on our lives, and it should have a major impact on the way we treat one another. You know, God's going to, we're going to give an account for the way we treat one another. And God wants all these things to be within us, all these good things, the meekness, the wisdom, the understanding, so we can teach and admonish others. So you can see that, you know, when we start to understand the omnipotence of God's nature, you know, He sees all that we do, He knows everything that we think and say, it really should change the way we live, and it should change the way that we treat those around us. Let's go ahead and pray.