Hiding From God

Over in India a woman stretches high, the full length of her body, and then falls flat on her face in the sand. Marking a little place with her fingertips she again rises to her full height, walks to the place marked in the sand, stretches high in the air, and falls flat on her face. This she continues to do, working, crawling, agonizing her way along hundreds of miles over the hot land. The sun rises, sets, rises again, goes to its zenith, and sets. Day after day she continues this torturous journey until she has covered some twelve hundred miles. The end of her journey and quest brings her to a small idol, about five inches high, to which she bows down. The psalmist in the one hundred and thirty-fifth Psalm described them. “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.”

Poor woman! Bowing down to an unsympathetic, lifeless, speechless idol. She does not know the God described by the psalmist in the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, the God who searches us, and knows us, and is acquainted with all our way.

What a blessed thought—God knows me. God sees me. “I will guide thee with mine eye,” He says. There is no place, the psalmist declares, to which we can go, to get away from God. His presence is with us always. No wonder he cries out, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”

But, did you ever stop to think that that which is so wonderful to the saint, the presence of God at all times, is a nightmare to the sinner? To tell the sinner that God sees him at all times is terrible. To tell the wicked one that God knows everything that he does, certainly is not pleasing. It is a joy to the saint, but sorrow to the sinner.

Men cannot hide from God, says the psalmist. Adam and Eve tried to hide from Him, but God walking in the cool of the day called, “Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:8). The bloody hand of Cain could not hide from God, for God asked him, “Where is Abel?” Jacob, thinking himself to be left alone, found that he was face to face with God. Saul, who partially obeyed God, came abruptly upon the fact that God knew all about him, and he could not hide from God. David fooled his friends, and even lulled his own conscience, but God knew all about his hidden sin. God knows us, for He made us! What God knows He has revealed in His holy Word.

What God Knows Of The Human Race

God knows that our heart is wicked; Psalm 139:1–2. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. God says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God says “there is none righteous, no not one.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Their heart is hateful to God, full of evil, vain thoughts, darkened, prone to error, impenitent, unbelieving, blind, hard, rebellious, perverse, stiff, stony, and stout. Indeed, God says, “the heart of the wicked is little worth.”

The Bible tells us we are born with a nature that makes it easy for us to do wrong and hard for us to do right. You may not have found that your heart has done all of the things suggested above, but you will find that it has capabilities and potential possibilities for all of these sins.

It is said that a missionary went to a certain heathen country and translated the first chapter of Romans. When it was given to the people they were very angry, for they accused him of having written the history of their tribe. The missionary told them that he had never been there before, but they thought that he was lying. However, he simply translated the Word of God into their language, and revealed to them the fact which we all know—God knows all about us.

God also knows that our pathway is crooked. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” (v. 3).

One of the interesting facts brought out in John’s Gospel is that Jesus knew all about those with whom He came in contact. In chapter one He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree. In chapter two He knew those in the temple were not merely making an honest living in their exchange and sale of animals for sacrifice, but were making the “Father’s house a house of merchandise.” In chapter three He knew that Nicodemus, although religious, educated, and sincere, needed “to be born again.” In chapter four the eye of Jesus penetrated into the heart of the woman at the well. In chapter five He knew how long the man at the pool had been waiting. In chapter six He discovered that they sought Him not because they saw the miracles, but because they ate and were filled. Jesus warned Judas of the awful deed he was about to do! “Thou shalt betray me thrice,” He says to Peter.

“You cannot hide from God,
Though mountains cover you,
His eye our secret thoughts behold,
His presence all our lives enfold,
He knows our purposes untold;
You cannot hide from God.

“You cannot hide from God,
No matter what you do,
He meets you at Life’s every turn,
He knows your thoughts that blight and burn,
He weeps when His own Son you spurn,
You cannot hide from God.

“You cannot hide from God,
Though quietly you go,
He notes your footsteps ere they fall,
He hears your silent heartfelt call,
His knowledge rules high over all,
You cannot hide from God.

“You cannot hide from God,
You cannot hide from God,
Wherever you go, whatever you do,
You cannot hide from God,
His eye is fixed on you,
You cannot hide from God.”

“O Lord, thou hast searched—and art acquainted with all my ways.” Moses “looked this way and that,” and saw no man, therefore he slew, but God saw him. Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord, but God met him.

God knows our words are deceitful. “For there is not a word on my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether” (v. 4). How about your speech? Is it pure? Is it kind toward others? “Be ye holy in all manner of conversation,” writes Peter. “Thy speech betrayeth thee,” they said of Peter in the judgment hall. Read Romans 3, verses 13 and 14, and note that God speaks of the sinner whose “throat is an open sepulchre.”

I once heard a very interesting story of a woman who was somewhat of a gossip in a small town. She could stand on one side of the street and lick the doorknob on the other, so they said. One day she was in the office of the Daily News, and leaning up against the wall where were pasted several copies of back editions of the paper. It was warm, her dress was white, and some of the print came off onto the back of her dress. Unnoticed by her, she walked down the street, but was conscious of giggling and tittering whenever folks came near. She reached home, and there her poor little husband, who was greatly henpecked, was asked if there was anything on her back that should not be there. As she turned around he read in black print, “Daily News.” He could not resist the chance, and meekly and mildly said, “No ma’am, there is nothing there that does not belong there.”

Perhaps this is only a parable, but it illustrates how the tongue can be used to spread slander and vile things. If it is true that some of you have been getting out a daily edition of the news, why not get out a clean edition and not a scandal sheet?

We are told in Romans that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. “Love—is kind, is not puffed up, thinketh no evil, endureth a—l—l things!”

Twenty years ago, when I was a student in the Moody Bible Institute, a young man in Chicago by the name of Harvey Church asked an automobile salesman to come to his home to demonstrate a car. Two salesmen came, and one of them went to the door to ring the bell. Mr. Church invited him into the house and there slew him. The other salesman, becoming suspicious after a time, came to the door and Mr. Church murdered him also. He then took the car, got his best girl and rode around town for several hours. The police soon caught him, he was arrested and charged with the murder of the two salesmen. Of course, he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged which was the punishment of the State of Illinois at that time.

Harvey Church went on a hunger strike and refused to eat. They put nurses at his bedside and when he lapsed into unconsciousness they forcibly fed him. What for? Why, they wanted to keep him alive in order that they might hang him. A paradox you say? Yes, but the law of the State of Illinois demanded that Harvey Church should be hanged for the murder of two men. Man’s law is very exact. So is God’s law. When the day of hanging came he was so weak that he had to be carried to the scaffold, and the noose was placed around his neck, the trap sprung, and Harvey Church paid the penalty of the law’s demand with his life.

God says, “The wages of sin is death!” “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment!” Evil shall slay the wicked!

Did you ever notice the principles of God’s judgment? Paul outlines them to us in Romans 2? It is to be “according to truth”; “Every man according to his deeds”; “Without respect of persons”; “God shall judge the secrets of men.” In the first Psalm we read, “The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment—the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

But God has a remedy for these ills! He can open the eyes of the blind! He can unstop deaf ears! He knows what to do with “a wicked heart.” He can place our feet on the highway of holiness! “The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” He can cleanse our foul mouth, and our filthy tongue! Is anything too hard for the Lord? We cannot hide from God.

What We Know Of God

God promises “A new heart” and “a new creature in Christ Jesus.” “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh—I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes—I will also save you from all your uncleannesses” (Ezekiel 36:26–29).

I understand that this passage has a primary application to Israel, but God’s truths are eternal and what He has promised in the Old Testament He still is willing to do—“Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

God’s pathway is straight! Study Matthew 7:13. There you find two gates, two ways, and two ends. Psalm 1, “The way of the righteous, the way of the ungodly.” In Genesis 4 we have the story of two brothers. One proud, self-sufficient, self-centered, who could not control himself and so slew his brother; the other a humble man, obeying God for he brought a blood sacrifice. But it cost him his life to walk in the straight and narrow way.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

You must walk in the light of His eternal presence, not in the darkness of hell; take up your cross and deny yourself, not eat, drink, and be merry. It’s the narrow straightness of the railroad track that brings the train in at the proper destination. “I am the door; by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” “There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.” It is not just any way, not just any door, it’s not just any name, but it is the way, the door, and the name.

Our pathway is crooked—God’s pathway is straight!

“I’d rather walk with Jesus
Than roam the paths of sin;
I’d rather have His friendship
Than earth’s best honors win,
My one desire to please Him
As daily ways we trod,
And so we’re walking onward, upward,
Bound for Heaven and God!”

Enoch walked with God, and we have this witness, “Enoch before his translation had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

God’s ways are unchangeable, first as to eternal life, and second as to eternal death.

“He that believeth on the Son is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not shall not see life.” “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven, but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

Our heart is wicked—God makes us a new creation!

Our pathway is crooked—God’s pathway is straight!

Our words are deceitful—God’s Word is truth!

The psalmist closes this wonderful Psalm with a prayer.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” It is very interesting to study these words. “Search” means to uncover, to ransack. “Know” means to examine with a full knowledge of all parts. “Try” means to investigate. “See” means to penetrate. “Lead me” means to illuminate. Will you expose your life to God, your Creator,—the One who breathed into your nostrils the breath of life?

I have often heard Mel Trotter say that he was so low down he had to reach up to touch bottom, and yet his testimony is that God saved him.

In these days of sentimental poetry over the radio we have often heard this poem:

I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped, like a shabby old coat at the door,
And never be put on again.

It would be wonderful; but there is only one trouble with that poem—there isn’t any such a place. But we can start life anew with God. God knows all about us and has made provision for the forgiveness of our sins. Won’t you accept this God who knows all about you, Who has searched your heart, Who has tried you and found you wanting, but Who has provided a Substitute and a remedy in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?