Psalm 139 | How Well Do You Know the God Who Knows You So Well

Sermon Notes

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Mark Schledorn
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Psalm 139 | How Well Do You Know the God Who Knows You So Well

Exodus 20:18-19
“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal live.

John 3:17-18
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be save through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

In light of the cross,
God’s inescapable knowledge of me becomes “He knows me!”
God’s inescapable presence becomes “He is with me!”
And God’s inescapable power becomes *“He is for me!” *

Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is in your midsts, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with singing.

A.W. Tozer
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

A.W. Tozer
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell. ... Because God knows all things perfectly, he knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, he is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does he seek information or ask questions.”

R.C. Sproul
“To be separated from the Lord and cast into hell does not mean that a person will finally be free of God. That person will remain eternally accountable to Him. He will remain Lord over the person’s existence. But in hell, a person will be forever separated from God in His kindness, mercy, grace, and goodness. He will be consigned to deal with Him in His holy wrath.”

Derek Kidner
“David has moved on from contemplating his own thoughts and their nakedness before God, to considering God’s innumerable thoughts towards him. He is not exaggerating. Even in his own body. There is an unimaginable wealth of detail, every point of it from the mind of God. Such divine knowledge is not only ‘wonderful’ but precious, since it carries its own proof of
infinite commitment: God will not leave the work of his own hands, either to chance or to ultimate extinction.”

Will Storr
“We are living in an age of perfectionism, and perfection is the idea that kills. Whether it’s social media or pressure to be impossibly perfect twenty-first century iterations of ourselves, or pressure to have the perfect body, or pressure to be successful in our careers, or any of the myriad ways in which we place overly high expectations on ourselves and on other people, we’re creating a psychological environment that’s toxic.”
Selfie: How We Became So Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us

R.C. Sproul
“If there is such a thing as perfect hatred it would mirror and reflect the righteousness of God. It would be perfect to the extent that it excluded sinful attitudes of malice, envy, bitterness, and other attitudes we normally associate with human hatred. In this sense a perfect hatred could be deemed compatible with a love for one’s enemies. One who hates his enemy with a perfect hatred is still called to act in a loving and righteous manner toward him.”

Charles Spurgeon
“To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse Him their affection.”

John Linn
“The only way we will ever be fully loved and affirmed is if we are searched and known; yet being fully searched and known may be the exact thing that keeps us from being truly loved.”

John Linn
“But for Jesus on the cross, all David can say is verse 11. Why? Because on the cross Jesus is lost to the darkness. Jesus loses the light of His Father’s approval so you can receive he light of the Father’s approval even in your darkness. On the cross, Jesus is utterly exposed, naked, laid bare, ashamed. People walked by. They laughed, they jeered, they yawned. Even worse, His Father hid Him in darkness so that you never need be ashamed, so that He could shine the light of His approval on you, so that even when He looks into the depths of your heart, he can delight in you.”