The LORD God is the creator of all living things. He sees the thoughts and the intentions of the human heart; He is Spirit and sees not what man sees; He sees spiritual things; as He says, " You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? " (Luke 11:40)
So He sees the human heart, for it is spirit, even though it is carnal. When we ourselves do not know our motives and intentions of the heart, He knows them. We may think, "My motives are right; I will stand before Him and He will agree." Are our thoughts God's thoughts? Are our ways God's ways? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. What we think can never be, unless we think with the mind of God according to the Word of God; we can't even begin to think how He thinks, unless we know His Words, which are His revealed thoughts. The heart of us is deceitfully wicked - who can understand it? Will it not even trick us saying, "I can understand myself"? Our hearts are constantly flattering ourselves; as it says, " Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; There is no fear of God before his eyes. For it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it. " (Psalm 36:2)
So if we're led by our own thoughts or our own understandings, we're in darkness; for our heart is deceitful, filled with iniquity, darkened by the ignorance which is in us; and where there is deceit, there is no truth; where there is no truth, no light. Our hearts are not trustworthy servants; even the apostle says, " I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. " (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)
But rather it is well to say, " I have borne chastisement; I will not offend anymore; Teach me what I do not see; If I have done iniquity, I will not do it again. " (Job 34:31-32)
But we see that God's Word brings light; as it says, “The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalms 119:130) And, “The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” (Psalms 12:6) So His Word also purifies and sanctifies. As the LORD declares, "Is not My word like fire? And like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29) For God's Word is powerful and sharp; it is like this when He is far so that when He comes, He will not have to be powerful in deed. For just as a sword slices, disclosing our hidden guts, sinews, and organs, by it's division of the flesh, so God's Word " is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. " (Hebrews 4:12-13)
For we're an open scroll to God; He knows our words before we speak them; He knows our going up and our sitting down; nothing is hidden from His sight. “If I say, 'Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,' Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.” (Psalms 139:11-12) And then it says, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalms 139:16) So your thoughts are on display; they are put on the big screen! You're secret thoughts proclaimed abroad, publicised for all to see - the things you think, on public display! You're afraid of a camera, which can only see in the light; if it's dark, you must first shine a light to capture a shot. A camera can only see the outside of a man - if you want to see the inside, you must swallow it. From afar, what is it? Up close, what could it be? But it is not so with they eyes of the Father: darkness is as light to Him, darkness and the light are the same. He who created the outside, made the inside as well. He is near, yet He is far away; He is seated in the heights and nothing escapes His notice. When you want to get a shot of the city, you must go high - but who is higher than the Most High? What is outside of His panorama? What can He not zoom into? A hair falling from the head, He sees; all the stars in the skies are numbered, and He gives them a name. What can you truly disclose from Him? Everything hidden in you is public to Him. What is your secret that He doesn't already know? He who created the eye of a falcon, are His eyes not greater? The falcon can see even from great heights, yet He created their eye. He who created the owl to see in the dark, can He not see likewise? He who made it possible for x-rays to see the inside of man, can He not see even to your inmost spirit, having created it? He is not seen, yet He sees all. He created you, and He cares for you. As it says, “What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalms 8:4)
Is there any place on earth that you can hide from God? Is there any place where He isn't? If we make our hiding place in the depths of the earth, He is there; if we make our homes in the west, even in the east, He is there. Does He not fill all things everywhere? Aren't His eyes everywhere? He is Creator of every eye of every beast, of every man and of every angel. When you think you're alone, looking out through your eyes, He is there. As you are reading this - behold! His mighty Cheribum are under His throne; they are covered with eyes on their wings, inside and out. God sends His angels out and calls them "Watchers", for they watch. He sees all, but He is not seen by any. Yet it says of Him, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor.” (Habakkuk 1:13) For God seen what was happening below on Mount Sinai while the people were building a golden calf and worshiping it; He seen before Moses did with his eyes or heard the sound of a party in the camp. God seen where Jonah went to get away from Him. He seen Saul hiding among the baggage. He hears the cries of the humble on earth, and He Himself is their Avenger; He seeks for those who seek Him; so listen to what the Psalmist says! "He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge — the LORD — knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath." (Psalm 94:9-11)
God's sovereignty can be a great comfort to us, but it could also be a great discomfort; for it is a most fearful thing if we're in sin. But still: He sees it all, yet you're still alive! And who are we that He is mindful of us? As the man of God in his distress says, " What is man that You magnify him, And that You are concerned about him, That You examine him every morning And try him every moment? Will You never turn Your gaze away from me, Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle? " (Job 7:17-19)
So God does not look at man as mankind looks, that is, according to outward appearance. Our eyes see natural things, but God sees spiritual things, for He Himself is Spirit; everything spiritual is unseen, and the spiritual is what God sees. Everything hidden will be brought to the light; all things concealed will be revealed and made know to all. What He sees will be seen by all; no-one sees Him now, but then He will be seen by all. The dead will rise and behold their Maker; and our hearts, which men do not see, will be revealed to all at His visitation; and that which is secret and silent will be known and proclaimed throughout; and that which is invisible and covered will be clear and exposed. The things we presently see are passing away, but the things unseen remain forever; and God's judgment is eternal; the judgment of the LORD is from inward to outward, from the heart to the flesh; and in the end, only the spirit will remain and all that can withstand the fire. So knowing the fear of the Lord, we warn others, and hope for the mercy and lovingkindness of God, by which only we can stand before Him. For it is clear by our works, no man is justified before God. For if a man gives to the poor, but for a pretense, to receive praise of men, will it be well with him? Does God not see the heart? Or the innocent man who is beaten under false accusation, will not God see that he is truly innocent, although by human sight he is condemned? Is this not what the apostle means when he says, " He who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you who though having the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? " (Romans 3:27)
For “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:29)
God's judgment is always in righteousness and justice, and in that day, He will bring all into judgment - the living and the dead. The Lord's judgment is not short of being executed today either; as it says, " If the righteous will be rewarded in the earth, How much more the wicked and the sinner! " (Proverbs 11:31)
All of His judgements which happened beforehand were written down for our admonishment today, that we wouldn't follow their examples of disobedience; as it explicitly says, " Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. " (1 Corinthians 10:6-11)
And the "them" written about were God's own people whom He redeemed; so He is not partial to anyone. So how much more is His judgement upon the rest of the world? For He judged the whole world in times past with a flood in the days of Noah; and this is what God saw when He judged the earth: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to His heart." (Genesis 6:5-6)
So we see that God saw their heart and their thoughts and their intentions, judging them by them. And if their mind was sinful, how much more their actions? For the mind governs all the members of the body. So if the mind is sinful, then the entire body is also given over to wickedness. Likewise it is said over and over that the kings of Israel, which are the heads of Israel, made Israel to sin (1 Kings 14:16, 1 Kings 15:26, 1 Kings 16:2, 1 Kings 21:22). For the king is head of Israel and Israel is the body. So if the head is wicked, then so is the body. If we were honest with ourselves, we would see that our thoughts are no better than these in the days of Noah; and it is no laughing matter, for the LORD God does not laugh at sin, but He abhors it. It says, “The devising of folly is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men.” (Proverbs 24:9) So even the planning of foolishness is sin; and how much more is the act?