Sermon On “Does God Read Every Thought?” By Sister Anne On 8th December, 2025 (Part 2) скачать в хорошем качестве

Sermon On “Does God Read Every Thought?” By Sister Anne On 8th December, 2025 (Part 2)

Contiuation: Psalm 139:2, 4, 23: “You know [the psalmist is talking to God] when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. . . . Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. . . . Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts.” Six Vast Implications So, from numerous angles, the Bible teaches that God knows our thoughts. He knows our feelings. He knows our attitudes, our inclinations and decisions before they show themselves in outward action. Now for the really interesting part. Some of us may think, “Well, this is just so obvious. Good grief, He’s God. Yes, of course.” And then we just move on to the next question or issue instead of pondering the implications of what many of us just assume is a given because that’s what God does; He knows all things. But let me spell out a few of the implications so that this can rest on us with some sense of glory and significance: 1. God sanctifies us from the inside out. God’s great work of sanctification — that is, making us holy — works mainly from the inside out. That’s the way God does it. It’s the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Paul prays; “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). “The Great Physician does not do His heart surgery blindfolded; He sees what He’s working on.” Now, if He’s going to change John Piper’s attitudes and inclinations so that they conform more closely to Christ, HE NEEDS TO SEE WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED (All-Seeing). He must know my heart if He’s going to do work on my heart. THE GREAT PHYSICIAN DOES NOT DO HIS HEART SURGERY BLINDFOLDED; HE SEES WHAT HE’S WORKING ON. He sees my pride, my greed, my fear, my lust, my anger, and all the inclinations and potential decisions that are welling up from them. He does His sanctifying surgery from the inside out. He would be a bad surgeon if He could not see the cancer He was working on. 2. God can set a guard over our mouths. There’s another way that God limits the evil of our lives besides that internal transforming surgery. The psalmist prays in Psalm 141:3; “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; KEEP WATCH OVER THE DOOR OF MY LIPS!” Besides working on the heart directly to sanctify us, God also can put a guard at our lips, SO THAT AN INTERNAL THOUGHT OR EMOTION DOES NOT GET EXPRESSED AND HURT MORE PEOPLE. But God could not do this IF HE COULD NOT SEE THE THOUGHT that was about to come out of my mouth and stop it. “I see that coming. I’m not going to let him say that. He’s my child.” He could have changed that deep down in my heart, but for reasons of His own, He sanctifies me in various ways, and one of the ways is this: “I see that thought coming. No way. I’m going to save him a lot of trouble at this elder meeting or in this sermon to keep that from coming out of his mouth.” 3. God discerns good and evil motives. IF GOD COULD NOT SEE HIDDEN MOTIVES, HE COULD NOT DISTINGUISH GOOD AND EVIL. Many outwardly good acts are hypocrisy because there is so much evil intent on the inside. God would be no better off than we are in knowing people if He could not see the heart. He would be liable to call a Pharisee godly, when in fact the Pharisee is a whitewashed tomb. ALL BEHAVIOR GETS ITS TRUE VIRTUE FROM ITS MOTIVE. God could not know virtue. HE COULDN’T KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG, GOOD FROM BAD, IF HE COULD NOT KNOW THE HEART.