In this sermon, Dr. Bob Jones Sr. emphasizes the limited understanding of human beings compared to God's infinite knowledge. He highlights the comforting fact that even though we may not fully comprehend God, we can still have a relationship with Him. Dr. Jones also emphasizes the omnipresence of God, stating that there is nowhere we can go where God is not present. He shares a personal anecdote about a preacher who encountered a modern type preacher and reflects on the importance of the old-time preachers and their faithfulness to God.

We now present Dr. Bob Jones Sr., internationally known evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, who during his earthly ministry was one of God's great warriors for the faith. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my faults of all. Thou compassed my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For as there is not a word in my tongue, but, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in Sheol, Hades, or Hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the elements parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as a day. The darkness and the night are both alike to thee. Now what do these verses say down to that place? Well, in simple language, they say this. God knows more than we know. He knows all things. He knows everything in the universe. He knows all the laws of the universe. He knows why we do what we do. He knows our frame, the Bible says. He remembers that too, thank God. One of the most comforting verses in all the Bible is, Thou knowest my frame, thou rememberest that I am dust. Now, He doesn't condone or justify any sort of weaknesses I have, but He understands them. It's a wonderful thing to have a God that understands my weaknesses. He understands my weaknesses. He remembers if we're made out of dirt. He knoweth our frame. He knows all about us. He's an all-wise God. Now, if He knows all about us, He's sympathetic in His attitude towards us. He doesn't condone sin. He'll punish sin. Like a judge I told you one time about on the bench that sentenced some boys to the penitentiary, some young men, and I saw tears roll down the judge's cheek. He was a tender judge, sympathetic judge, but a just judge. Now, He did His duty, though His heart was breaking. I cannot believe that God Almighty ever lets a man go to hell without a pain in his loving heart, because God's a God of love. He so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, and who said believe in Him should not perish but have a lasting life. Now, a God that loves sinners, certainly He doesn't let a sinner go to hell without a pain in his heart. Love can suffer and feel pain. God's a God of love. He's also a God of justice. Now, God knows all about us. He's sympathetic. He'll punish us however tenderly He may feel towards us if we deserve punishment, but He loves us. Now, knowing our strength and knowing our weaknesses and knowing our shortcomings, He knows what we need and knows how to supply the need. So, it's a wonderful thing to have a God that knows, isn't it? Isn't it a wonderful thing to have a Heavenly Father that knows us and knows what we need and where we're weak? He's so wonderful. No one of the psalmists says that's too far for me to reach, that's too high for me, that's so much above me I can't understand it, but I know it's so. You can know a good many things that you can't quite understand. You may not understand the law that makes the sun come up in the morning, but you know it rises in the morning. You may not know the law that makes the sun go down in the evening. A little child doesn't know the law, but he knows the sun's coming up. You can know things you can't understand. And that's a wonderful thing, though, that we look up to God and we know that God knows so much that we don't know and can't understand, but we know enough about Him that He loves us and He's sympathetic and tender and pities us. Now, we have a God that knows, the psalmist said. Now, next place, we have a God that's everywhere. He's there with the goods to deliver when we need to have the goods delivered. That's the kind of God He is. If I take the wings of the morning and fly away, you can't get out of reach of God. Where would you go? He inhabits eternity. You can't find anywhere God is. Eternity? You can go back and back and back and back forever. You're still in eternity. You can go on and on and on and on forever, and you're still in eternity. You can go up and up and up forever, and you're still in eternity. You can go down, down, down forever, and you cannot find the flooring in the house of eternity. Now, the Bible says God inhabits eternity. That's His dwelling place. Thus say the high and lofty one that is habith eternity. The house of God is eternity. God's everywhere. Now, isn't that wonderful to have a God like that? You know, you think about old Elijah getting out there one day, and the false prophets going to see what their gods could do, and they were there for the same. We're going to demonstrate what kind of gods we have. And the God that answers by fire, He's God. So they put on the wood and cried out, so there God stands. But their gods couldn't answer. Their gods were helpless in the hour of crisis. But old Elijah said, I'll show you what kind of God I have. And he called out, called out for God to come and answer by fire. And God came. Isn't it wonderful to have a God that you can, when I'm speaking respectfully, I hope irreverently, isn't it wonderful to have a God that you can show off? You know, I get such a thrill out of this thing. I get Bob Jones University, if you'll excuse me just a minute. I want you to listen to me. You know, I think about these schools in America, with their conventions, with all their backing, great memberships in the denominations, rich men on their boards, all the influence of great membership. I can see how they can build schools, humanly speaking. I can say, well, they've got a school out there, they've got a lot of folks to help them. State convention, great big annual conference, a big Presbyterian Synod. They've got help. You can look around and see the source of their help. And people come out of the other Bob Jones University and they say, well, this school, a denomination school? No. No. Well, what kind of school? It's just a Christian school. Well, who's back of you? Well, there's nobody special except God, except God. You know, we want Bob Jones University out here to be a place where we can show God off, right? And folks come around here and say, how did it happen? We say, God. And we're telling the truth You can't tell me. You can't tell me we did it. I didn't do it. Bob didn't do it. Nobody around here wants anybody to think any of us did it. God did it. It is wonderful to have a God that you can point to and say, God did it. You know, I'm going to talk on the errors that people are making in modern Christian programs. The things that they are doing, so many things that they don't mean to do it, but they're hiding God. It's so easy to hide God. So easy to hide God behind ambition, structure stuff. You can have a showman ship that's so big, if you don't watch out, you won't find God. You know, I've seen that so many a time. I remember after World War I, when I spoke at the Methodist Centenary of Columbus, Ohio, and spoke at the Evangelistic Hour, the great big tent, and Bishop Cannon was there, and the Chandler Committee, I think I told you about before. And one day, a modern type preacher walked up one of those good old time camp meeting country Methodist preachers. You know, it's a wonderful thing, those old time fellows. They were great boys, those men were. So he walked up to him, and I was standing there, and I got an idea myself. I've used it many a time since. Most I've learned, I've just picked up listening to some fellow out in the woods. I get more from some of those fellows than I can some of these highbrow PhDs. So somebody said, isn't this the biggest religious show you ever saw? This old countryman said, I've been looking around here for God. I want to find God around here. So I went on over there, and I said, you can get your show so big if you don't watch out, you won't see God. And they'll think of the great showmanship, the crowd, the crowd, the throngs. You have to be careful when you put up nice modern buildings like that out here at Bob Jones University. Don't watch out, people come by and look at the buildings and say, isn't that a remarkable, rather modernistic type plant out there, isn't it? Have to be awfully careful. If you don't watch out, you'll be shoving God around, and God won't be shoved around. You can't treat God Almighty like that. Did you know you can get your ritualism so wonderful and spectacular and attractive? And ritualism's all right, I'm not talking about it. Have to watch out. Every time we put up a new building out here, we preach a little harder, a little straighter. And every time we get a new PhD in the faculty, we put on a little more spiritual emphasis. You have to watch out. If you don't watch out, if you don't watch out, sooner or later, you lose sight of God. The Bible always lifts him up every time there is God, God, God. And the Bible says, pride goeth before destruction, and the Holy Spirit before fall. Have to watch out. Many women, it's a wonderful thing to have a great God. It's so wonderful to have a God that you can show off. You know, I'd like to get around some of these little poor, miserable heathens, and let them show me that little house garden I'd like to point to the date on and say, look what my God's doing. And then when the evening comes and the sun goes down and the curtain of night's being drawn, and I watch the stars come out, and somebody says, yes, my God. I say, look up yonder, my God, he's busy lighting the stars in the sky. It's wonderful to have a God, isn't it? Big God. A God that knows all things. A God that's everywhere. And yet it's a little scary, because the psalmist says here, he sees when it's dark. He's a God from which men can never hide. That's what I want to talk to you about this morning, but I didn't get to it. Maybe I'll get to it some other time. The psalmist said he's a God. A God you can't hide from. A God you can't get away from. What a God. Say, listen, do you know him? Oh, I didn't ask you if you're a church member. Maybe you're a Methodist, a Baptist, a Pentecostal, an Episcopalian, Protestant or Catholic. I didn't ask you that. I asked you if you know God. When you say our Father, do you know what you're saying? Is he your Father? You've no right to call him your Father unless you're converted. We are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. It's presumptuous for you to call my Father your Father unless you've been born again. You have to be born again to call him Father. You become a child of God when you're born a second time. And you become a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. As many as received him then gave you the power or the right or the authority to become children of God. Now, don't call my Father your Father unless he is your Father. If he's your Father, we are brothers and sisters. It's all right, but don't you try to claim my Father for yours if you're not a Christian, because he isn't. But isn't it a wonderful thing to be saved, to be a Christian? Call God Father. That's what the psalmist is talking about. God everywhere knows all things and sees all things, and he's my Father, our Father. We're so glad we can say that. We don't deserve to say it. We're not worthy of it, except he's always made us worthy because we trusted Christ. Gave us a new life. We haven't been good children. We know that. We're awfully sorry. We try to be better. Help us to be better. Forgive us for all our weaknesses and shortcomings, and help us to be good children, faithful to Jesus Christ. We pray in his ever precious name. Amen. You have just heard Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., internationally known evangelist and founder of Bob Jones University, who during his earthly ministry was one of God's great warriors for the faith. This program is sponsored by Bob Jones University.