The Foreknowledge of God

00:01 We want to greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. It's a joy to be in the house of the Lord again. We missed being here last Sunday. We were worshiping with the Gospel Light congregation out in Missouri and had a great time with them in an ordination setting last weekend. 00:20 But it's good to be back home and worship the Lord here with the folks, brothers and sisters that worship and serve God here at Living Water. And just invite you this morning to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to the book of Isaiah. What can we share this morning that would encourage the saints? 00:40 Two weeks ago I shared on message on the sovereignty of God. And this morning I want to follow that up with a message on the foreknowledge of God. And what is it that sets God apart from idols? And of course there's a lot of things that sets God apart from idols. There is the fact that He is alive. 01:00 Idols are not. 01:02 It's the fact that He is in heaven. Idols are here on earth. It is the fact that He is active. Idols are passive. It is the fact that He knows that He can control the world and be in charge of the world. They can know and be in charge of nothing. 01:23 And so one of the things that Isaiah is keen to share with us in a number of passages in Isaiah is the fact that not only God is sovereign and in control of His universe, but that God has foreknowledge. And He knows what's going to happen in the future. 01:42 And He creates the opportunities. He creates the atmosphere for men to make decisions as it was in the Garden of Eden. He allows for free will people to make those decisions without interference from Him. 01:59 But yet He is in control of those decisions and moving history and even people's lives in the direction that He wants us to go, giving us opportunities, giving us the opportunity to say no to God, not because He forces us to, but because He allows us to, gives us the opportunity to say yes to God, 02:20 not because He forces us to, but allows us to. And He knows the end from the beginning. What can be a great encouragement this morning is not only that God is in control, but that God in His sovereignty knows what's going to happen. He knows what's going to happen. And He is very much knowledgeable for our future. 02:42 Now, I don't know about you, but there are some times that you receive news from someplace that just kind of knocks the props out from under you. Have you ever gotten news like that? And you say, "Man, I did not see that coming. I did not see that coming." Maybe it's a sudden death of a loved one, 03:00 or maybe it's words of adversity or a financial loss or someone getting sick with cancer or maybe losing a job or a broken relationship. All of a sudden you say, "Man, where did that come from? I didn't see that coming. 03:18 I don't know what to do with this." And we all have those experiences. And there's times then that I just have to take a step back from that and say, "You know what, God? I thank You and find security in the fact that You knew about this long before I did. And You're just now getting around to showing me. You're just now getting around to letting me know about it. 03:39 That's okay. That's okay. I'm not God. I'm not You. I don't have infinite wisdom and knowledge. I can't see into the future. But You can, Lord. 03:49 And I rest in that this has not taken You by surprise." We're coming up to the anniversary in a couple of weeks of the 9/11 experiences there that our country went through. In fact, some of you don't even remember 9/11. You're too young. It didn't happen that many years ago. 04:08 But when terrorists flew the airplanes into the World Trade Center. And when you saw that plane flying into that World Trade Center, we didn't expect that. Didn't see that coming. And when that trade center went down, we were just kind of standing there looking at the news reports and just, "Aww. 04:30 I mean, didn't see that coming." And then the second one came. We didn't see that coming. And the second one fell. Didn't see that coming. And it's just like, "God, what is happening around us?" And then the one out in Schwankesville, Pennsylvania, which was destined, I think, to go to Washington, 04:49 D.C., and then the one that flew into the Pentagon, he said, "Wow, God, I'm so thankful that You know about these things in advance. And it's not a surprise to You." But if you remember after that, there was a 9/11 commission that was formed to try to figure out who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. 05:11 Aside from the fact that the men who were flying airplanes were responsible, who was behind him? And everybody wanted to tar and feather George Bush because he was the president at that time. He had been in office for about nine months. And he was under the gun. How could you let this thing happen? 05:31 How could this administration allow this to happen? I remember the foremost question on that commission's mind was, "What did he know?" George Bush, that is. "What did he know and when did he know it?" What did he know and when did he know it? Well, we want to ask that question about God. What does he know and when does he know it? 05:52 And I think Scripture will tell us very clearly that God knows everything about everything in advance, well in advance, that He is omniscient, what we call omniscient. He has all wisdom and all knowledge of everything under His domain. 06:11 He is not one who sits around with questions about the future. He doesn't wring His hands wondering what people are going to do with the opportunities that He gives them. He doesn't wring His hands wondering what they're going to do with the temptations that come their way. 06:26 He knows, and yet He gives freedom to them to make those decisions. And all the while, whatever the decision is, God's plan is advancing. It's a mystery. We don't understand it. But we try to put it together in some way. We do not have a God who is growing in His understanding. 06:47 You and I have to grow in our understanding. I told a class today, I said, "One thing I know about each one of you is you need to grow." I know that because I need to grow. We grow in understanding. We grow in wisdom. We grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But because we have not yet attained, we don't have all of the information. 07:07 In fact, in any conflict or trouble or difficulty, we have to recognize that we don't have all the information oftentimes that we need to make decisions or accurately evaluate things until we get more information. That's not God. God has all the information within Himself, in His mind. He has it all. 07:27 He understands it all. The Bible says of Jesus that He is the one in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So we can take comfort in the fact that God knows. And when we need to know, He'll get around to letting us know and then doing it in such a way that we can trust Him. There are a number of verses that pertain to this. 07:49 But let's look at our text in Isaiah first. Isaiah 41, where Isaiah is talking about the futility of idols. The futility of idols, verse 21. "Present your case," says the Lord. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the king of Jacob. 08:07 "Let them bring forth and show us what will happen." So He's talking about these idols. Show yourself. Prove yourself. And prove how smart and how powerful you are. "And tell us and show us what will happen. 08:22 Let them show the former things what they were that we may consider them and know the latter end of things and declare to us things to come." So He's contrasting the true God who has the ability to not only know the past but to know and to share what is coming 08:42 and the latter things that are to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter like God does. And they can't do that. "So that we may know that you are God's. Yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. Indeed, you are nothing and your work is nothing. 09:00 He who chooses you is an abomination." And so God says, "I can tell you the future because I know the future. I can tell you the past because I know the past all the way back past the beginning, before the foundation of the world. I can tell you all about it. These idols know nothing. They can't predict the future. 09:20 By the way, Satan cannot predict the future. He does not know the future. God knows the future." And so He says in verse 25, "I have raised up one from the north and he shall come. 09:31 From the rising of the sun, he shall call on my name." He's speaking about Cyrus here who would come as a representative, as a king from the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians to the north and to the east. "He will come from the rising of the sun. He shall call on my name. 09:47 And though he shall come against princes as though mortar and the potter treads clay, who has declared from the beginning that we may know?" You see, God can declare from the beginning so that we may know. In former times that we may say, 10:06 "He is righteous." So there's a few verses that refer to the foreknowledge of God. Now go over to chapter 44. Excuse me. 42:9. "Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I declare." This is God speaking about Himself. 10:26 "Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Before they happen, I tell you about them." And God has done that in His word, given us clear indication about what is coming. He did that in relation to the people of Israel. 10:44 He did it in relationship to the prophets and the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and the coming of Assyria. He did it in relation to the prophecies of Christ. He's done it in relation to the end-time prophecies in the book of Revelation and throughout the prophets in the Old Testament. He says, "Before I do it, I tell you. 11:04 I know that you can know it because I've told you so." Then go over to chapter 44:6. "Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides Me, there is no God." Now when He says, "I am the first and I am the last," that is one way of saying, "I am eternal. 11:23 I am eternal. I am before it was. I am after it was." The breadth of all existence from eternity past to eternity future. "I am the God. I am the first. I am the last. 11:37 There's no other God, no idols, no person, no demon, not even the devil himself knows more or has more power than God." And verse 7. "And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me. 11:54 Since I appointed the ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them." In other words, I've appointed these things. I know it because I'm in charge. And these other gods or pretend gods, fake gods, pseudo-gods, if they're so smart, 12:15 why don't they tell you what's going to happen? "Let them show these to them. Do not fear nor be afraid. Have I not told you from that time and declared it?" Reminds you of what Jesus said when He told us in Matthew 24 and other passages about what's coming at the end of the age. Jesus said, "Lo, I have told you before. 12:38 Don't let it trouble you. Don't let it take you off guard. I have told you in advance. I know what's coming. I've ordained what's coming. And you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay if you follow Me." Now Psalm 147 says, "Great is our Lord and of great power. 12:57 His understanding is infinite." Isaiah 46:9-11. "Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, 13:16 saying, 'My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all My purpose.' Calling a bird of prey from the east and the men of My counsel from a far country, I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it." You get the point that it's about I, about God Himself and who He is and His power. 13:38 The real issue before us this morning is, is God in control of His world and accomplishing His purposes for it? Or is He a victim of the choices of free moral agents who have not yet made those choices? That's the issue this morning. Is God in control or is He a victim? 14:00 Does He have to sit back and wait to see what men are going to do, men and women are going to do, and then He moves in once He sees what they're going to do? Or does He know in advance and have a plan that is moving forward? 14:19 Excuse me. 14:23 Now you say, "Well, Brother Todd, that's a fairly easy question to answer." But you would be surprised the number of people who believe that God is limited to the choices that people make and that He really doesn't know what you're going to do until you get to that point and do it or at least decide to do it. 14:47 And supposedly that is to make God feel and seem more loving rather than this harsh God out there who allows and maybe even causes bad things to happen. They want a God who's kind of empathetic to the point, "Well, I really can't say. 15:08 I really can't ordain things. It's just all free will. Free will." And God is totally at the mercy of the choices that people make. There's an idea around that that makes God more appealing to the modern mind. 15:28 Well, it doesn't make it appealing to my mind because it's not scriptural for one thing. 15:32 But who would find a God appealing that is a victim, is not in control, is not in charge? But this is a very real issue that people face. This thing of foreknowledge is very much an overlap with the sovereignty of God. 15:52 We believe that man has a free will and that God does not interfere with that, but that man cannot oppose or thwart the plans of God. So I want to give you a few scriptures this morning to show us what God knows. 16:14 God knows, number one, what's going on in His universe. He knows what's going on in His universe. The Bible says in Psalm 147, "He tells the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names." God knows the number of the stars. We're learning more and more and more and more about further and further and further and further out. 16:35 And you can even have a star named. Some scam artist has designed an international star registry. And if you want to pay $49.95 or whatever the cost is, you can have a star named after yourself or after someone you love. By the way, that star is already named. There's no free names out there. God has them named. 16:56 He knows their names, the Bible says. "Job was challenged with the thought that his wisdom in knowing the secrets of the universe are unlimited. He knows the boundary of the sea, the depths of the sea, the gates of death, the breadth of the earth. He knows where light and darkness dwell. He knows the treasuries of the snow and hail, 17:16 the ways of the wild ox, the hawk, and the eagle and the wild horse." All of those just bombarded Job with questions, questions, questions until Job realized that he didn't know anything and that God knew everything. He knows what's going on in nature, number two. He knows what's going on in nature. The sparrows falling to the ground. 17:37 Sparrows falling to the ground. I wonder how many sparrows have died in the last 24 hours. Well, God knows. God knows. Matthew 10:29, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? 17:49 And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father?" Luke 12, a parallel passage says, "Not one of them is forgotten before God." The worthless sparrows. 18:01 "Not one of them is forgotten before God, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered." God knows the number of hair on your head. And that's not just a tally once a month. I don't remember how many hair. I heard it one time, how many hair a person loses every day. 18:21 It's like 100 of them or so. You lose a hair in the comb, God changes the count. One falls out on your pillow, He changes the count. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows all of His creatures. 18:33 The Bible says in Psalm 50, "I know all the fowls of the mountain and the wild beasts of the field are mine." He knows what's going on in His universe. He knows what's going on in nature, number three. He knows who's going to be born and their calling. Their calling. 18:53 Jeremiah 1, "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 'Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.'" Who formed him? Who formed him? God formed him. Where did He form him? In the womb. In the womb of His mother. Before that, He said, "I knew you. And before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you. 19:14 I set you apart. And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." And if God did that for Jeremiah, I believe God has done that for every one of us. God formed us. He knew us before He formed us. And before we were born, He had a plan for us if we will follow that plan. 19:35 God knows who is seeking Him. 2 Chronicles, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him." Whose heart is perfect. Those who are seeking the Lord, those who are sincere heart, those who have a perfect heart before God, God knows. 19:56 He knows what's going on in the heart, number four. He knows what's going on in the heart. He knows that in man's heart, in Genesis 6:5, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. God knew that. 20:12 1 Kings, "Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive. And do and give to everyone according to his ways whose heart thou knowest. For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men." Jeremiah 17, "I, the Lord, search the heart. 20:33 I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings." Ezekiel 11:5, "For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them." The Bible says in Psalm 139, "Thou understandest my thought from afar." Sometimes we think of that as being distance, 20:54 that God can be over there and I can have a thought and He'll know that thought. But it also can be applied to time. "Before is a thought or a word of my tongue, Lord, thou knowest it altogether." Time distance. So before I think it, God knows that it's going to be in my mind. 21:15 Not just from afar, but from afar chronologically. At any rate, God knows what is in man. The Bible says that no man needed to testify to Jesus about man because He knew what was in man. Hebrews 4, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, 21:37 but all things are naked and opened unto Him unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Your life is an open book. Your mind, your heart, our doings, our ways, our thoughts, our intention are an open book before God. We are as naked before Him without any defenses, without any shelter, 21:59 without any ability to hide from Him. He knows it all well in advance. Number five, He knows what's going to happen in the future. He knows what's going to happen in the future. 22:15 He said to Abram, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years." He told the people of Israel. He told Abraham many years before it happened, "It's going to happen. They're going to go down to another country. 22:34 They're going to be afflicted for 400 years." The Daniel visions. God knew what He was telling Daniel. If you read towards the middle of the book of Daniel, you find that Babylon, the lion, was going to be surpassed by the bear, which was the Medes and the Persians, Cyrus. 22:57 And that was going to be conquered by the leopard, the Greeks. And that was going to be conquered by the Romans, the dreadful beast and a revived Roman Empire at the end of time. God knew it. God's ordained it. God shared it. It's so accurate that even the liberals who don't believe the Bible have said, "This is way too accurate. 23:17 It cannot be prophecy. It must be history." Daniel couldn't have written it in advance. So there must have been another Daniel who wrote it later. Wrong. Wrong answer. Daniel knew it because God told him. Because God knew it. Because God orchestrated it. And by the way, 23:36 that orchestration is still coming with the revived Roman Empire that will usher in the one world government. So He knows what's going to happen in the future. 23:48 "I know that when I afflict," He says, "when I afflict the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, that he will not let the people go." Pharaoh hardened his heart. God hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart some more. God hardened it some more until finally Pharaoh's heart was so hard that God just kept hardening it. He said, "I know that of these plagues, 24:07 Pharaoh will not let you go." And then the tenth one, God said, "He will let you go because I know it. I've orchestrated this all." And while Pharaoh was a free moral agent to make decisions and was completely responsible for every decision that he made, God knew what those decisions were going to be and advanced the cause of God. 24:29 "Yes, I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards, he will let you go from hence." Number seven. No, number six. God knows what Christ would suffer and why. He knew that man would sin. 24:49 He knew it before He gave them that opportunity. The Bible says in Revelation that He was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 1 Peter says, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." So the plan of salvation, the lamb that was slain, 25:09 it happened before the foundation of the world and was manifest in the last times for you. Acts 2:23, "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." The determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. 25:29 "You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." God knew the Romans would be in charge. God knew that the Romans would be in charge of the crucifixion. He knew that there would be a crucifixion. 25:43 He described it in Psalm 22 and others where He described the effects of crucifixion. 25:52 And it was all known by God a thousand years in advance, 2,000 years in advance. Eternity in the past, He knew it. He knows the things of prophecy, the configuration of the nations throughout history. He knows the configurations of the nations when Christ will return. 26:13 He knows about nation invading other nations. In fact, in the Old Testament prophets, as He addressed the various nations, He knew what would happen to them. He proclaimed what would happen to them. He ordained what would happen to them. This nation will be attacked by this nation. Will be swallowed up by this nation. Will be replaced by this nation. 26:33 And He laid it all out in great detail. He knew the intricacies of the Messianic prophecies, the life details, the suffering and betrayal and death, the resurrection. 26:47 Someone has said of the 300 prophecies surrounding His first coming, statisticians have figured that the probability of all those 300 prophecies happening in one man's lifetime were one to one to the 93rd power. That's not very good odds. But then God is not a God of odds. 27:07 God is a God of design. God is a God of knowledge. That would be one to the 93rd power would be one to 93 with or one to one with 93 zeros behind it. 27:22 That's the odds of Jesus fulfilling all of those Messianic prophecies of His first coming. And then you add the 600 prophecies of His second coming. And you have, "Whoa, didn't see that coming." God did. God did. Specific things that people do, God knows. 27:43 And this is the crux of the issue right here. Does God know what people are going to do before they do it and have a plan of what to do with the mess? Or is He limited and a victim to respond only to what they have done? Well, let's look at a couple of scriptures here as we kind of try to package this up. 28:05 If you want to go with me to 1 Kings. 1 Kings. We already referred to Pharaoh. God told him in advance, "What's going to happen? Don't worry about this, Moses. I got it. I got it. You're okay. Everything's going to go according to plan. There's nothing for you to worry about. Just follow me. Obey me. 28:24 Do what I tell you to do. It's going to be all right. Going to be some suffering in the middle of it. Going to be some difficulties." But God says to Moses, "It's going to be okay. I got this. I got it." And God still has it. So 1 Kings 13. 1 Kings 13. 28:43 God is the God who can tell the future. So we have the account here where the man of God came to prophesy against Jeroboam and the altar in Bethel. And we won't go into all the details of this. 29:02 You can read about it. But the altar in Bethel was set up so that the people of Israel who had broken away from the southern kingdom, the northern tribes, would not have to go back down to Jerusalem to worship. So Jeroboam set up an altar in Bethel in direct disobedience to God's command. 29:21 And Jeroboam instituted idolatry to the northern tribes. And a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. This is 1 Kings 13:1 and 2. "Then he cried out against the altar." That is this man of God. 29:42 "O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold, a child Josiah by name." God's even naming the guy who's coming. "Josiah by name shall be born to the house of David. 30:00 And on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you. And men's bones shall be burned on you." And I'll just say parenthetically, to desecrate that altar. It was a desecration to burn men's bones on an altar. 30:19 "And he gave a sign the same day saying, 'This is a sign which the Lord has spoken. Surely the altar shall split apart and the ashes on it shall be poured out.' That happened. But what about this prophecy that a man by the name of Josiah would burn bones on the altar of Jeroboam in Bethel?" Well, go to 2 Kings 23. 30:40 2 Kings 23:16. "Lo and behold, didn't see this coming?" Oh yeah, we did. The prophet said it would happen. "Josiah king, one of the descendants of David, gathering the elders of Judah in Jerusalem to him, restoring temple worship, 31:01 restoring the worship of God to the people of Judah and going up to Bethel. Then the king defiled the high places," verse 13, "that were in Jerusalem, which were on the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, 31:20 the abomination of the Sidonians." 31:24 Let's see what verse I really want here. No, I want verse 16. "As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar." Now verse 15 says, "This was the altar which Jeroboam instituted at Bethel. 31:46 He turned and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed and proclaimed these words." Now what length of time had expired between the time when the man of God made 32:04 the prophecy and Josiah the king fulfilled the prophecy was approximately 250 to 300 years. How did this guy know that? God told him. God knew it. God pinpointed the place. God had in mind the time. 32:23 God had in mind the man and even knew the man's name. There's no way that anybody could have orchestrated this except God. Except God. God knowing the future. He didn't have to wait until Josiah was set up there wondering if Josiah is going to be able to pull this off or not. 32:44 Well, I said, "I'm going to set up a situation here where he can follow through and fulfill this prophecy." No, he knew it. He's not an impotent God who just sits back and waits for somebody to do something. He's very much in control. Now go back to Isaiah 44. I'm giving you some illustrations. 33:04 Isaiah 44. 33:09 While you're turning there, I want to remind you of the residence of Chilah in 1 Samuel 23:10-12. Saul was running. David was running. David was running from Saul. And he went to a little village called Chilah. And he did some good things for the people of Chilah. 33:28 But all of a sudden, Saul found out that David was taking refuge in that city. And so David went to God and said, "God, will Saul come up and get me?" God said, "Yes." How did God know that? Well, God knows. 33:45 God said, "Yes, he's coming." And then the more uncertain question because that was what Saul did. I mean, you could figure it out that Saul was after David. The more things happened the same, the more things stayed the same. Saul's out to get David. Okay, we can figure that out. But then the more interesting question, 34:04 uncertain, is, will the people of Chilah give David up over to Saul? God said, "Yes, they will give you up. And so get ready. Get ready and take the necessary steps so that you're protected." So again, God knew the future before people got around to making any decisions at all. 34:24 God knew it. Now in Isaiah 44:28-45, we're not going to read it all. 28 through 45:4. Yeah, we can read it. It's only a few verses. Verse 28 of Isaiah 44. 34:44 "Who says of Cyrus?" Now this is God talking about the restoration of Judah while they're in captivity or before they went to captivity. He's talking about the captivity and their return. He says, "Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. And he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, 'You shall be built. 35:05 And to the temple, your foundation shall be laid.'" So God's telling Isaiah, now there's going to be a guy by the name of Cyrus. We found out earlier he's coming from the north and from the east. And he is going to say to Jerusalem, "Be built." And to the temple, 35:28 "Be restored." Verse 45. "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. 35:46 I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches and secret places that you may know that I am the Lord who call you by your name and the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me. 36:08 I am the Lord. There is no other. There is no God beside me." How long did this happen before Cyrus actually lived and issued these decrees? It was Cyrus that issued the decree from Babylon that the people of Israel should return, that Israel and Jerusalem should be rebuilt. Nebuchadnezzar had taken it captive. 36:29 He destroyed it. Cyrus came along of the Medes and the Persians, said it can be rebuilt and the temple restored. How long between the prophecy and the fulfillment? Approximately 150 to 200 years. 36:44 God knew the king's name a long time before his parents were even born or his grandparents. Why is this important? Because the attack on the sovereignty of God is very real. And the attack on the foreknowledge of God is very real. 37:04 And we must maintain both if we're going to be settled in these times of turmoil. You say, "That's Old Testament, Brother Todd. What about some New Testament examples?" Well, there are a number of them. God told Paul, Saul, the things that he would suffer. 37:23 But one of the greatest ones was Jesus 37:28 in his conversation with Peter. 37:32 "Peter, before the cock crows, you will deny me not once, not twice, but three times." I mean, Jesus could have said, "Peter, you're going to deny me tonight." That would have been well within the human realm of understanding. 37:52 You could kind of figure that out. But before the cock crows, it's going to be early, early in the morning or in the middle of the night, you're going to deny. 38:03 And by the way, in one parallel passage, he said, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me thrice." Jesus didn't need anybody to testify of man because he knew what was in man. Jesus could tell Peter, "Go down to the lake. 38:22 Put your hook in the water." I don't know if he told him to use bait or not. It would have worked either way in this case. "And the first fish that comes up on your hook, open its mouth and see what's in it." Oh, enough for the temple tax. How'd Jesus know that? 38:41 How could he not know that? In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. So what is that left for us to conclude this morning? 38:57 That you can trust him. That you can trust him. When you get those news, pieces of information, disturbing news that knocks the props out from under you and your heart sinks down to your feet and you go limp because you didn't see it coming, you can say, 39:16 "God, I know that you knew it. And I trust you. That not only did you know it was going to happen, but you know the way through." There's a song that says, "My Lord knows the way through the wilderness. All I have to do is follow. Strength for the day is mine all way and all I need for tomorrow. 39:37 My Lord, how about your Lord? My Lord knows the way through the wilderness. All I have to do is follow." Let's pray. Lord, give us hearing ears. Give us understanding hearts. Give us following feet to follow where you lead. 40:00 Give us eyes of perception, ears of hearing, hearts of understanding, and a will to trust, to trust and obey, to follow you through the wilderness, 40:18 and to confess daily our dependence and our trust in the sovereign God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can even imagine. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.