The Attributes of God

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The attributes of God What a subject to even attempt to address.
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I want to begin this evening with the words of men far better prepared than I to discuss this subject some of the things that they have said
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Since I came to Northampton I have often had sweet complacency in God and views of his glorious perfections and of the excellency of Jesus Christ God has appeared to me a glorious and lovely being chiefly on account of his holiness
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The holiness of God has always appeared to me the most lovely of all his attributes the doctrines of God's absolute sovereignty and free grace and showing mercy to whom he would show mercy and Man's absolute dependence on the operations of God's Holy Spirit have very often appeared to me as sweet and glorious doctrines
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These doctrines have been much my delight God's sovereignty has ever appeared to me a great part of his glory
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It has often been my delight to approach God and adore him as a sovereign God and ask sovereign mercy of him sometimes only mentioning a single word caused my heart to burn within me or only seeing the name of Christ or the name of some attribute of God and God has appeared glorious to me on account of the
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Trinity It has made me have exalting thoughts of God that he had subsist in three persons father son and Holy Spirit The sweetest joys and delights
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I have experienced have not been those that have arisen from the hope of my own good estate But in a direct view of the glorious things the gospel when
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I enjoy the sweetness It seems to carry me above the thoughts of my own estate It seems at such times a loss that I cannot bear to take off my eye from the glorious pleasant object
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I behold without me to turn my eye in upon myself and my own good estate Once as I rode out in the woods for my health in 1737 having alighted from my horse in a retired place as my manner commonly has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer
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I had a view that was for me Extraordinary of the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man in his wonderful great full pure and sweet grace and love and meek and gentle condescension
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This grace that appeared so calm and sweet appeared also great above the heaven The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception
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Which continued as near as I can judge about an hour Which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud
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I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not Otherwise how to express emptied and annihilated to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone to love him with a holy and pure love to trust in him to live upon him to serve and follow him and to be
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Perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity I have several other times had views very much the same nature and which have had the same effects
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Those are the writings of Jonathan Edwards here is a man who Loved the attributes of God loved the holiness of God and the the sovereignty of God something you hear very little about a man about 200 years earlier wrote
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Nearly all the wisdom we possess that is to say true and sound wisdom consists of two parts the knowledge of God and of ourselves
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But while joined by many bonds which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern
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Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he is first looked upon God's face and then descends from Contemplating him to scrutinize himself
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As long as we do not look beyond the earth being quite content with our own righteousness wisdom and virtue
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We flatter ourselves most sweetly and fancy ourselves all but demigods Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God and to ponder his nature and how completely perfect are his
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Righteousness wisdom and power the straight edge to which we must be shaped Then what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness
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What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink and it's very foolishness As a consequence we must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state
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Until he has compared himself with God's majesty For how can the thought of God penetrate your mind without your realizing immediately that since you are his handiwork
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You have been made over and bound to his command by right of creation that you owe your life to him
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Of course that is from the Institutes of the Christian religion by John Calvin. Here are two men who understand what it is to contemplate the attributes of God and to recognize the centrality of the attributes of God to Christian theology
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There is no way no matter how long we would stay here this evening or how many scripture passages we would read and how much
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Discussion we might engage in for us to exhaust the subject of the nature and attributes of God Indeed Job said in Job 26 14
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Behold these the fringes of his ways and how faint a word we hear of him But his mighty thunder who can understand so even though God has revealed himself.
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We know that his revelation of himself is not exhaustive God has not told us everything there is to know and there will be many who will ask you questions about the nature of God and Eventually we come to a point where we simply don't have any more answers because God has not revealed anything beyond that point and Some will say well that means that what you say about God is therefore not true
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But that assumes we have to know everything there is to know about God and I would submit to you that we as creatures will
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Never know everything there is to know about God Or if we possibly could do that then he would not be
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God for God is infinite and eternal and unlimited and we as creatures are limited and infinite in our understanding
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So as we look at the nature and attributes of God We do not suppose or presume to think that we are exhausting the subject
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But we will attempt anyhow to present the biblical perspective on who
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God is And what God has revealed about himself? Now in doing so in trying to create an outline
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We Recognize immediately that you simply can't put God upon the examining table and draw nice neat lines and Dissect him or anything like this
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Many of the categories that we'll look at this evening will overlap with one another and will be directly related to one another and it
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Is very difficult to keep the two Aspects of one point from from our
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Our consideration at the same time and it's a difficult subject and so I ask you to really put some effort into concentration this evening and Looking with me at the
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Word of God in regards to the nature of God we begin With what
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I consider to be the most foundational fundamental revelation of God in Scripture and that is what
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I have called his Solitariness that is his Being the only
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God there is only one God and I have put down five
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Subcategories that we could subsume under the topic of his solitariness We mean by that broadly the fact that he is the only true
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God that he is the only true deity, but flowing from the concept of Monotheism the fact there is only one
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God There are a number of other issues that we might want to look at for example The fact there is only one
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God leads us to understand his unity the unity of God while we confess the
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Trinity we must recognize the Trinity comes from tri unity and We must never allow our commitment to monotheism and to the unity of God The fact that there is only one being of God to be lost in the discussion
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The Israelites in the great Shema of Deuteronomy 6 4 would say hear
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O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one and And in so doing they were confessing that there is but one
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God for them and that this God is a Unity that this is not a council
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This is not a a group of beings functioning as one God But that God's being is indivisible that God's being cannot be divided up into small parts
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Or even into three parts as some Christians are want to do in Misunderstanding the doctrine of the
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Trinity so we see unity we see simplicity This is connected with unity
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That the being of God is one There are not different kinds of being in God in the in concept that that You might have a basic being of God and then a more advanced being of God or different kinds of being of God God's Being is one and hence is simple and not complex or divided up or of different kinds
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We see also the uniqueness of God This is important to recognize for since God is unique there is nothing to which we can compare him if We make the attempt we must always do so with great care because of the fact that we may
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Go too far and in comparing to him to something in the created order
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End up teaching a falsehood about him Something that is unique cannot be compared to anything else.
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That's something that's the definition of uniqueness and in light of that Any of the
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Analogies that we would utilize will necessarily come short will necessarily fall short at some point in The description of God Now the
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Bible talks to us about the fact that there is none like God That he is unique in Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 6.
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We read that no one is like you Oh Yahweh, you are great and your name is mighty in power
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In Isaiah chapter 44 verses 6 through 8 we read this is what Yahweh says Israel's King and Redeemer Yahweh Almighty I am the first and I am the last apart from me
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There is no God who then is like me let him proclaim it let him declare and lay out before me
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What has happened since I established my ancient people and what is yet to come yes? Let him foretell what will come do not tremble do not be afraid
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Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago you are my witnesses is there any God besides me
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Yeah, there is no other God. I know not any in the 77th
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Psalm verse 13 we read that your ways O God are holy what God is so great as our God and the 113th
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Psalm verse 5 we read who is like Yahweh our God the one who sits enthroned on high and So it is throughout the testimony of Scripture that God is unique.
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There is none like unto him in all the universe We also understand from the fact there is only one
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God his Absoluteness and what does this mean? I think this is very important Since God is the only
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God since God is the creator of all else that that then is Everything within the creation
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Can only find its true meaning Can only be properly defined itself in reference to an absolute center point
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And God since he is the only God and the creator of all is that absolute center point
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Whenever we attempt to define something We have to attempt to define something in regards to some some center
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If we have an object an object out here, just whatever we might call it if there is no center point to which we can relate it and And everything else that might be in the created order then
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We have no way of defining anything We have no way of saying there is truth or there is love or or there is right or there is wrong without an absolute center point and God is that absolute
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We speak much today of the fact that the philosophies of man are completely relativistic
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You've got your truth. I've got my truth The word truth doesn't have any meaning in that in that in those two sentences
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Why because man has has jettisoned the concept of there being an absolute In the field of ethics we have no right and we have no wrong because the idea that an absolute
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God an eternal personal God has revealed what is right and what is wrong has been has been abandoned and So the fact that there is one
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God That that he by his being has created all else that is provides for an absolute center ability to define and to have order and meaning in this world and Finally we see from the solitariness of God his self -existence
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This is an important thing for us to emphasize over against the Eastern philosophies that are simply flooding our nation and are finding a much more ready acceptance amongst our people than anyone ever would have thought and A much deeper inroad into for example our public educational system than most
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Christians have any idea God is self -existent
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That is God is not dependent upon Anyone or anything else
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I? Have shuddered in horror hearing Christian preachers in sermons speak about how
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God had to create because he was lonely or He wanted to Express his love to man and so he created and there was a there was an emptiness in God that is filled by the creation
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As if God were dependent upon or in need of anything or anyone God is self -existent
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Nothing pre -existed him His existence is not owed to anything or anyone
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He is the grounds of all other existence now. This is over and against all those concepts of pantheism
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That are sweeping our nation Shirley MacLaine staying on the beach saying
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I am God. I am God. I am God No, she's not that concept that God and his creation are
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Interconnected and dependent upon one another is utterly foreign to the biblical revelation of who
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Yahweh is completely contradictory Okay These are important things to remember now moving to the next point under Natural attributes what we refer to here are those attributes that describe the being of God his
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His living essence those things that apply to Him as he exists, for example spirituality our
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Lord Jesus taught in John 4 24 God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
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The nature of God is spiritual Spirit The King James has
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God is a spirit as if he was one spirit amongst many spirits. That's not really accurate
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God is spirit his being if you wish to ask what the Substance of his being if you wish to use that kind of terminology is he is spirit
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He is not limited to the physical realm for he is the creator of the physical realm
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He is not limited as we will see later to the time space
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Situation in which we find ourselves as created beings for he is spirit He is personal
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In that great passage in one of the greatest revelations of God's being in Exodus 3 14
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God said to Moses I am who I am This is what you were to say to the Israelites.
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I am has sent me to you We are going to come back to this passage again, but the point here is that God is
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Personal he uses personal pronouns. He recognizes his existence over against the existence of the created order
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God is not an impersonal force We hear today much about higher powers
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There is a higher power Well, yes, there is a higher power, but it's not just a power 120 volts surging through the lights above us is a higher power than I'd like to encounter, but I don't worship electricity
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God has great power But he is personal he reveals himself as Yahweh.
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He came in personal form the person of Jesus Christ He dwells within us in personal form in the person of the
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Holy Spirit And so the Christian God is not a God that is simply a power
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This is an opposition to what I would in all seriousness submit to you is the official established state religion of the nation in which we live naturalistic materialism the concept that Everything we see around us can be explained by the operation of natural laws
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And it has come to the point where those Many of those who are within the scientific community worship the very laws they say brought about creation as we see it today and So there is almost a a reverence.
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I recently a Gentleman that I talked to talked about being in awe before nature rather than being in awe before nature's
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God that is idolatry and So we speak of the personality of God.
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He is not a set of rules He is not a higher force. He has revealed himself as personal having a will that he is working in this world and Thirdly we see that he is living
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Jeremiah 10 10 through 11 But Yahweh is the true
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God. He is the living God the eternal King When he is angry the earth trembles the nations cannot endure his wrath
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Tell them this these gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens
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So we have a description here of Yahweh as the true God the living God. In fact, he is the source of all the life
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The fact that there is life coursing through your body right now that you are able to think that you are able to write that you are able to to consider with me this evening these things concerning the nature of God is
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Due to the fact that God in his mercy and grace has granted to you every second of your life that very life that is yours
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It is a gift from God One that we should be very thankful for but very frequently are not
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So God is the source of all life. He did not receive his life from anyone else He is the source of life
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He has always had life and is his to give or to withhold as he sees fit
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We move now to those attributes pertaining to his infinity and what do these refer to?
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Well the first and foremost in my mind the one that to me is
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Most Misunderstood amongst Christians That is to me so central to a proper understanding of The rest of the attributes of God and the work of God in this world is
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God's eternity God's eternity What do I refer to when
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I talk about his eternity? I refer first to his timelessness
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Not his extended existence within time But to his timelessness
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Now it is right here that we know that we encounter a great difficulty for we cannot conceive of timelessness
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We are temporal beings our thought patterns our whole way of thinking our language itself is
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Completely based upon our existence within time We have never experienced anything outside of time and Therefore to speak of God's unique existence outside of time is
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Truly beyond our full comprehension yet. We must make the attempt where God has seen fit to reveal himself in this way
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For example the psalmist Moses in the 90th psalm
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Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth the world from everlasting to everlasting you are
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God From everlasting to everlasting now to us that simply bespeaks an incredible amount of time and Yet as we begin to think about it we begin to think about the nature of time and creation and things like this
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We begin to understand that Surely the way in which God has revealed himself to us is simply an accommodation to our limited ways of understanding for if we suppose
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That God has simply existed eternally Then we are forced to recognize that at some point we must confess
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That time is as eternal as God is Separate from God and in fact is superior to God for if God is constrained by it and Has always been in that situation
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Then time had to pre -exist God himself, but that is not logical When God speaks in Exodus 3 14 and says
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I am who I am When he speaks to Moses in that way
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He speaks to us of his eternal existence now if God is timeless
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What does this mean to us? Well, I have drawn a world famous Visual aid on the board
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It is simply a straight line. Well relatively straight those in the back room can see it's planting somewhat to the right
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There's a straight line if we understand this is time we understand that time progresses That despite all of our scientific fancies to the contrary
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Time is going in one direction Let's say this is the beginning down here And here's the end down here
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To confess the eternity of God the timelessness of God is to confess that that is time and The entire board upon which it is written is
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God if this entire board
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Represents the being of God and this within it is time. What does this tell us? It tells us first of all
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That God is present Equally and fully in every point in time.
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It tells us as well that all points in time are Instantaneous to God it tells us that God is not
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Experiencing a progression of events if God were experiencing a progression of events
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What would this tell us about God? would tell us that God is growing and experiencing and changing and Sadly enough there are many today
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Because of their unwillingness to confess the eternity of God and if you're thinking with me, you know what flows from it
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You see the immutability of God you see the sovereignty of God the absolute providence of God flowing from it directly from it and So in an attempt to get away from that Much in modern theology has decided to jettison this that God does experience a succession of events
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That he is growing changing But one must confess that is utterly different from the
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God of Scripture, so we see that all points in time
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Are instantaneous to God that time itself then?
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Time and all the actions in time are what? Creation of God time can only be one of two things it can either be the creation of God and hence determined by him and Directed by him or it exists separate from God outside of his control as a separate entity
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Uncreated and hence equal or maybe even superior to God the second thing that flows from the
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Eternity of God is the immutability of God Immutability what does that mean he's changeless
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God does not change Psalm 102 verses 25 through 27 in the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens the works of your hand
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They will perish, but you remain they will all wear out like a garment like clothing you will change them
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And they will be discarded, but you remain the same and your years will never end
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James speaks of this in James chapter 1 verse 17
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Every good and perfect perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights Who does not change like shifting shadows?
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God does not change God is immutable if God could change
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Let's say today God exists in state a But tomorrow he exists in state
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B There's been a change Now let's say that we confess that in state
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B. God is perfect complete. What does that say about state A? Imperfect incomplete
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If God changes he can either change for the better which means he wasn't perfect in the first place
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Or change for the worse which means he's now not perfect in the first place In either way we will be denying the very essence of deity himself so God does not change
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He is immutable Certainly I recognize that Those who wish to avoid
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The idea or concept that God is eternal and hence provident over all creation in so doing
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Jeopardize the immutability of God Unfortunately in our culture today.
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It doesn't seem to be very important to people whether you do that or not We see from this as well that he is perfect for if he is timeless if he is eternal
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What does that mean in regards to the perfection of his being? Since he does not experience a progression of events since he is not limited to time as if time were something greater than he and Since he is the only
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God the creator of all else that is would he create something that would cause his own
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Being to be less perfect. Is there a possibility of change in him so as to become imperfect?
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No He is perfect. He is complete. There is nothing that he lacks And of course we've seen a lot of that before and we talked about his absoluteness and self -existence
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But we also see something that starts striking closer to home when we think about the decrees of God the decrees of God What are the decrees well the decrees of God are immutable as well because God is but the decrees of God Such as those
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Which we speak of at the beginning of the Westminster confession of faith where we in Talking about the nature of God and the attributes of God the
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Men who drew up the Westminster confession of faith Spoke of the fact that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass
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Anything that happens within time is a part of the decree of God We have examples of this
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In Ephesians chapter 1 we are told in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him
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Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will God is described as the one who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will
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Everything what this tells us is that when this came into existence when time is created
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God's decrees as to what will happen in our experience as we experience the temporal progression are
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Simply a recognition of God's control over his own creation.
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That is that when God created time in its fullness in its completeness before him It was he who decided what was going to happen and not someone else
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That's what God's decrees are From his perspective from our perspective.
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We see the decrees working out in time But if all points in time are instantaneous to God Then the decrees of God simply recognize the fact that when
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God created time when God created the universe itself That it was he that determined its beginning middle and that it was he who freely chose to make it work the way that he chooses to work it for the ends he chooses and He was under no obligation to do it that way.
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That's the way he chose to do it now
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This also helps us to understand God's foreknowledge now use that term To refer to the idea that God has knowledge of future events before they take place within time
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Surely he does if we see this I Am NOT using the term as it's used in a
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New Testament The term as it is used in the
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New Testament Does not refer to what we normally think of when we think of foreknowledge
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For the Old Testament background of the term foreknowledge in the New Testament Actually refers to the gracious choice of God to enter into relationship with someone
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Never do we read in the New Testament of God having foreknowledge of Events it's people that he has foreknowledge of but here we're using it more in the philosophical realm
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And that is in the standard way of what most people think of God knowing the future have you ever wondered?
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How God knew the future? Have you ever wondered how The prophets could prophesy the future if God is going along a timeline
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With the future indistinct unclear or uncreated If he is experiencing time as we are experiencing time, then
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I would submit to you. There is no way he could know the future Not with certainty
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You say well Satan can know the future can he not in a sense But I think that is only due to the fact that he has access to a whole lot more information than you or I If we had access to as much information as he has access to Then we could make some probably pretty good
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Guesses as to what's going to happen in the future, but that's exactly what they are they are guesses That's how you can know what a false prophet is he's not going to get it all the time
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He may get some Deuteronomy 18 He may have good enough information to be able to figure out that something's going to happen
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But he's not going to get it all the time he's not going to get it all the time and in fact one of the very
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Challenges laid down by God that we'll look at a little more detail here in a second from the book of Isaiah when
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God challenges the false gods is Tell me what's going to happen and tell me what did happen in the purpose for it look at just in a second
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But let's look at this line just for a second talk about foreknowledge. Let's say um. Here's the burning bush with Moses, okay?
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and then here's the cross and We'll get real eschatological tonight and say we're down here real close to the end
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If you're a post -millennialist, please forgive us you know Let's say that's the sequence of events now
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Back here God knew about this God knew about the cross there read
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Isaiah God knew about it. How how did he know when?
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Isaiah prophesied The coming of Cyrus And I know a lot of modern
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Bible scholars to reject all this reject Even the possibility that Isaiah could have done that because they don't believe in miraculous exist anyways
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But when Isaiah prophesied the coming of Cyrus a hundred years before Cyrus came how did
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Isaiah know? Well God revealed it to him, how did God know? God simply foresaw it
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Well does that mean this existed outside of God's creative action no God had created the whole thing
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God knew it was going to happen and there was no chance in the world that it wouldn't happen No contingency not a popular position today
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Church in America No contingency But if you know anything about the history of theology you know
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That I stand firmly smack dab in the middle of Reformation theology to make that statement
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Calvin Luther Sharnock Edwards Read any one of them.
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I'll say the exact same thing No contingency God is not at the mercy of faith
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God has created time it exists to him I would much rather have
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God in control of determining the actions in time than not in control of determining the actions in time
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I'll take the tough questions that come as a result of that any day over the concept that God might not know what's going to happen if you'd rather avoid the tough philosophical questions and Believe in a
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God who doesn't know what's gonna happen in the future. I'll take the tough philosophical questions and trust in him That's a nice trade -off
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So God is just as much present the burning bush as at the cross as right here with us today
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Burning bush is just as much a reality to God for us. We look back on it because that's where we are
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But not for God So this is how
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God has knowledge of future events. It's not that he has a crystal ball looks into the future He created the future
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He's already there. He's present there He knew what was gonna happen one of the neatest things about this is there's a purpose then and everything that does happen
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This folks is the theology that underlies Romans 828. Did you hear me?
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Romans 828 We know that God causes all things to work together for good of those who love God them that called according to his purpose
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This is the theology that underlies that For we can confess that there is a purpose in creation
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Modern man is utterly and completely tetherless floating around upon a huge huge sea
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We look out at the stars and we see this this huge creation around us and we're left this insignificant little blob of dirt
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No purpose Jacques Monod But speaks of the the chance roll the cosmic die
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That resulted in us No purpose. No meaning Just us but as a
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Christian, we know there's a purpose in creation because God who created this is personal and Purposeful now
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Isaiah chapter 41 Beginning in verse 21 Present your case says
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Yahweh set forth the arguments says Jacob's King Bring in to tell us what is going to happen
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Tell us what the former things were so we may consider them and know their final outcome or declare to us the things to Come sing for joy.
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Oh heavens for the Lord has done this shout aloud Oh earth beneath burst into song you mountains you forests and all your trees the
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Lord has redeemed Jacob He displays his glory in Israel. This is what Yahweh says you redeemer who formed you in the womb
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I am Yahweh who has made all things who alone stretched out the heavens who spread out the earth by myself
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Did you hear what he said? He did the same thing up in Isaiah chapter 44 verses 6 through 8 that is okay you
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God You who pretend to be God? Here's your challenge. You want to prove you're a god.
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Here's how you do it Here's one of the things that the true God can do in fact,
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I would submit Give the same test a lot of modern theology give the same test of what is the test?
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Tell us what's going to happen in the future. Tell us what's going to happen They can't why because they can't see the future.
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They're not eternal. They don't exist outside the realm of time But that's not that's not the only challenge.
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Did you notice it? You notice it this is the other challenge tell us what's happened and The purposes for which it happened.
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I had read that passage many times before I ever stopped Tell us what happened not just a bold recitation of Historical facts, but tell us what happened and why it happened
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See we can look back on our lives and we can see tragedies or difficulties and we don't know why it happened and God has never promised to tell us why it happened in this life, but he knows you see the whole underlying concept is whatever has happened has happened for a purpose and The true
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God is the only one that knows what that purpose is now. Sometimes we get to see sometimes we do get to see but sometimes we don't and The true
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God lays down the challenge to the false gods Okay, you want it you want to win the the war here of the gods you tell us what's going to happen in the future?
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You tell us what's happened in the past and the purpose for which it happened They won't do it
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Can't But the underlying concept the underlying thought is that God can
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God can tell you what's going to happen in the future with absolute certainty He can tell you what's happened in the past and the exact purpose by which it came about That is the
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God of the Bible that is the God of the Bible so obviously
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God's decrees are eternal whatsoever takes place
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Is that his hand? He has determined it. He has decreed it and So we see obviously if this is the case that God is supreme
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He is sovereign over all that happens. God is
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King. He is ruler first Chronicles 29 11 Yours Oh Yahweh is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is yours
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Yours Oh Yahweh is the kingdom You are exalted as head over all wealth and honor come from you
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You are the ruler of all things in your hands our strength and power to exalt and give strength to all second
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Chronicles chapter 20 verse 6 Oh Yahweh God of our fathers. Are you not the
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God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you
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Job 23 13, but he stands alone and who can oppose him. He does whatever he pleases
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Psalm 115 3 our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him
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Psalm 135 6 Yahweh does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth and the seas and all their depths
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Listen to this description Isaiah chapter 40 verses 12 through 17 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
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Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
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Who has understood the mind of Yahweh or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did Yahweh consult to enlighten him and who taught him the right way?
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Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket.
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They are regarded as dust on the scales He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires nor its animals enough for burnt offerings before They are regarded by him as worthless worthless and less than nothing the same prophet
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Isaiah chapter 43 verses 12 through 13. I Have revealed and saved and proclaimed
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I and not some foreign God among you. You are my witnesses declares Yahweh that I am God Yes, and from ancient days.
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I am he no one can deliver out of my hand when I act who can reverse it
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And Isaiah 46 9 Remember the former things those are long ago.
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I am God. There is no other I am God. There is none like me. I make known the beginning from the end from ancient times
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What is still to come I? Say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please
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Can we get much clearer than this? I? Don't think so. I don't think so and yet and yet as Charles Haddon Spurgeon Said long ago
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Men will allow God To be a kind and benevolent father
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Men will allow God to to be in his workshop creating the stars and the galaxies
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Men will allow God to be the giver of gifts But when
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God mounts his throne That is when men begin to gnash their teeth and curse and swear
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For they will not allow for a sovereign God They will not allow for a
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God who sits upon his throne and who rules and reign There is nothing no doctrine of the faith more hated by worldlings and the sovereignty of God and I would also submit to you that in all of our lives
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No matter how much work God has done in our hearts there still remains that indwelling sin that rebellion that is ours and Though we may with glad voice own the sovereignty of God and confess the sovereignty of God We at many times
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Deny it and still hate it. It was the prayer of people like Calvin and Edwards and others
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God make me to love your sovereignty Make me to love your holiness for in their mind
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There is an intimate connection between God's holiness and his sovereignty and I confess as I read the lives of some of the great
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Christians in the past And I see them with patience
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Glorifying God in the midst of tribulation When I see
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Sarah Edwards upon receiving the news of the death of her husband saying oh
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May I not do anything That would in any way detract from his glory
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Glory of God. May I may I may
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I kiss the rod? May I thank God? that we had him as long as we had
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I Confess to not being to that point God is sovereign
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God is supreme and I would submit to you that what we discussed this evening Regards the nature and attributes of God if you will step back from the heated theological battles of our day if you can step back just a little bit from the from the battle between the
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Calvinist and the Arminian You will see that fundamentally and foundationally
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The difference is right where we are right now. That is in regards to the nature
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Attributes of God if you will pick up a systematic theology written by an
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Arminian You will discover that the nature and attributes of God primarily his immutability or his omniscience and normally both
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Will be seriously compromised. It's a must.
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So this is where you have to start making your decisions in Teaching on these subjects before I have said the classes look if you don't want to be with me at the end of the class
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And it would be over a week's periods of time If you don't want to be where I will be at the end of this class in regards to the doctrines of grace in regards to the sovereignty of God and salvation
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Predestination election everything else you've got to start disagreeing with me now
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Get rid of it now Chop out Isaiah chapter 40 through 48 get it out of your
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Bible. It's the only way you're going to survive Because this is so fundamental and foundation
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When we look at the religions of men these things simply aren't there why? Because if we look at Paul's discussion
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Romans chapter 1 of the nature of sin one of the basic elements of the doctrine of sin in the
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Bible is the fact there is a twisting and turning a perversion of the creator creation relationship and I would submit to you that probably the deepest root of sin in the human heart is our
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Assertion of our own sovereignty over against our Creator almost any sin you can think of I Will eventually be able to trace it almost anyone you think of That's the nature of sin we wish to place ourselves upon the throne and any challenge to my sovereignty and I come up with my
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Dukes Have you ever wondered those of you who share with me our commitment to reform theology?
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Why in the world it is that Christians that up until we started discussing this issue were just our greatest chums
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Just about rip your lips off when you bring the subject up and Say man, you're a freak.
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You're a radical. You're weird. I don't want to talk to you anymore This is why Because this strikes at the very root of sin in our heart the fact that we simply do not wish to confess
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God you are creator. I am your creation You have complete right to do with me as you will the rebellious heart
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Do that Will not do that, okay
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Now speaking of creator, let us look at the attributes of God pertaining to creation itself
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That God is the creator God is creator in the beginning
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God created the heavens and the earth In Colossians were told that for by Christ all things were created things in heaven on earth visible and invisible
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The thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things are created by him and for him He is before all things and him all things hold together
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The psalmist in the eight night psalm verse 11 said the heavens are yours and yours also the earth
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You founded the world and all that is in it. You create the north and the south Tabor and Herman sing for joy.
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It's your name and So the Bible confesses that God is the creator of all that is
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Everything is owes existence to God. What does this mean?
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Well We've already seen that this means that there is a complete independence on God's part from all else
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For he obviously existed before his creation and hence cannot be dependent upon it but we also see from our perspective the complete dependence of all things upon him and I Cannot help but be amazed.
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I cannot help but wonder at the graciousness and mercy of God Who continues to sustain the life of an absolute rebel?
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That's every single one of us. Oh It's easy to look at those who simply flaunt it in the face of God Today, I listened to a radio program in this the talk show host herself was saying.
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Yeah, we got God out of the classroom She was proud of it as an aside
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I would assert that she is therefore taking good responsibility for putting cocaine marijuana and speed into the classrooms, but that's another issue
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She was proud of it and we can all go. Yeah Well, I'll tell you God sure is merciful, isn't he?
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If I were God I'd just Snuff her out and yet the same man whose words
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I read the beginning this evening Jonathan Edwards in that same passage from his memoirs
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Spoke about the fact that when he had this these conceptions these
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Visions, I hate to use that term in our culture anymore but these understandings of the sovereignty grace of God and the
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Magnificence of his holiness, you know what the result always was he saw his own sin
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Here was a man that from our perspective just lived a godly godly life and Yet I would submit to you that the more and more we see of the true
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God The more and more we will see our own sin how deeply rooted it truly is
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Edwards said that the term that was always in his mind was infinite upon infinite infinite upon infinite
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His sin in God's sight. I've had people say well Who do you think you are telling me?
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I'm a sinner I Said to one lady who told me that once I said ma 'am
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There's one or two possibilities either you've got an incredibly high view of yourself or you've got an incredibly low view of God And it's probably both the beginning
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Calvin had said As long as we don't look up at God We can be pretty impressed with ourselves
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Our righteousness our good works But as soon as you begin to look at him what before Impressed you as righteousness will be seen for the vile filth that it really is.
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God is omnipresent omnipresent Psalm 139 beginning verse 7 where can
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I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence if I go up to the heavens you're there if I make my bed in the depths
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You're there if I rise in the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea even there your hand
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Will guide me your right hand will hold me fast 23rd chapter of the prophet Jeremiah am
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I only a God nearby declares Yahweh and not a God far away Can anyone hide in secret places that I cannot see him declares
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Yahweh do not I fill heaven and earth declares Yahweh God is bigger than that which he has created and Hence the
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Bible teaches us that he is present in all points of his creation Not in a situation of dependence
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Like our pantheist friend would do Our pantheist might hesitate to walk across the grass for fear of crushing
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God Yes, God is there, but not in an interdependent way
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Okay God is omnipresent God is also omniscient.
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He has all knowledge The Writer to the Hebrews said nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight
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Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account And the same psalmist and psalm 139 said you know well when
01:00:02
I sit down and when I rise You perceive my thoughts from afar You discern my going out of my lying down you are familiar with all my ways before a word is on my tongue
01:00:14
You know it completely. Oh Yahweh. I think there's something uncomfortable about that.
01:00:26
It can be a great Comfort to the believer to realize that God has that kind of knowledge
01:00:35
We know why he has that knowledge. We've already seen that we Understand that here we have the direct
01:00:42
Affirmation from Scripture that he does have that kind of but it can also be frightening when we sin
01:00:51
We are deceiving ourselves every time we think that we do something in secret
01:00:58
For God sees it all God sees it all. God has all power.
01:01:06
He is omnipotent The psalmist said in Psalm 62 verse 11 one thing God has spoken two things have
01:01:12
I heard that you Oh God Job 12 13 to God belong wisdom and power counsel and understanding are his
01:01:25
Job 36 22 God is exalted in his power who is a teacher like him and from Exodus chapter 15 verse 6
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Your right hand. Oh Yahweh was majestic in power your right hand. Oh Yahweh shattered the enemy all power is his
01:01:46
He is the Almighty Therefore all other power is obviously derivative from him including
01:01:58
All power that is utilized to commit evil or to commit good
01:02:07
All power is subservient to him since he has all power finally
01:02:22
Providence Providence for example in 141st
01:02:28
Psalm verse 10 141st Psalm verse 10 The psalmist prays let the wicked fall into their own net
01:02:38
While I pass by in safety, you see now, what does that have to do with Providence? Well think about it
01:02:44
The psalmist is praying that God would be providentially active in Watching over him and in the results of his life
01:02:57
Surely the psalmist must have felt then that God is active in the world Providentially which is what
01:03:04
Providence is. Providence to me is Is simply The outworking of God's eternal decrees in time
01:03:16
Providence to me is the the outworking of God's eternal decrees in time. It is our experience of the eternal decrees in time.
01:03:38
The Bible says something very difficult in Exodus 4 11 In the interview with Moses Yahweh says to him
01:03:47
Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute?
01:03:54
Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not
01:03:59
I Yahweh? There are certain
01:04:05
Rather popular quote -unquote Bible teachers in our land today
01:04:13
Who would accuse you of direct blasphemy and heresy? Say that God is in any way connected with Sickness and yet God says
01:04:29
Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Remember what happened in John chapter 9
01:04:36
Jesus and the disciples are passing by the blind man Disciples thought like a lot of today's health wealth gospelers
01:04:46
Lord Who sinned? This man or his parents that he should be born blind.
01:04:55
I remember the first time it struck me what they're actually saying He was born blind
01:05:02
They said who sinned this man or his parents, how could he have sinned?
01:05:09
Believe it or not. There were rabbis who believed That you could sin in the womb
01:05:16
You commit sin in the womb and therefore Blindness was the punishment of God for a personal sin.
01:05:27
What did Jesus say? either one he was born this way so that the
01:05:36
Works of God might be worked in him and I know I've heard so many sermons in which the people have
01:05:47
Well, there's no punctuation in the original so we need to move it down here and have tried to rearrange sentences so that The fact that God was active in bringing the situation about could be erased
01:06:03
Oh, we don't want anybody thinking we think God was a part of this Providence God says in Isaiah chapter 45 verse 7.
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I form the light I create darkness I bring
01:06:25
Shalom, but ah, ah, I Create Calamity rah is evil
01:06:38
I Yahweh do all these things. It's there in your
01:06:48
Bible I've heard very few sermons on it of late, but it's there
01:06:54
It's there. God is problem When there is a disaster, it's God caught off guard.
01:07:03
Oh, well, he just permitted that to happen could he have stopped it if you wish to if you have the ability to stop something and you don't
01:07:14
What does that mean? God is problem the moral attributes of God goodness
01:07:26
Goodness 2nd Chronicles 641 now rise Oh Yahweh God and Come to your resting place you and the ark of your might may your priests
01:07:37
Oh Yahweh God be clothed with salvation. May your saints rejoice in your goodness 27th
01:07:45
Psalm verse 13. I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living
01:07:53
Psalm 31 verse 19 How great is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you which you bestow in the sight of men on those
01:08:01
Who take refuge in you? Psalm 69 16 answer me.
01:08:07
Oh Yahweh out of the goodness of your love in your great mercy Turn to me in Psalm 147 5 they will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness
01:08:21
God is good God is great. God is good. Thank you for our food.
01:08:28
It's a pretty good prayer a lot of theology packed in there God is great
01:08:34
God is good So you should thank him for your food when we say though that God is good
01:08:44
We need to be careful about what we're saying We say that God is good.
01:08:51
Are we saying there is a standard of good that exists outside of God to which God Lives up to it.
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I don't think so. I Think what we're saying is that God is the very standard of what good is.
01:09:12
Oh But people say wait a minute. I've heard atheists just go nuts when I say that That means whatever
01:09:20
God says is good is good it's completely arbitrary God could have created a world in which murder and rape was good and And prayer and worship was bad.
01:09:32
Yeah, I could have but he didn't He didn't Besides that I would submit to it's impossible for an absolute eternal and infinite being to be capricious or arbitrary
01:09:45
You hear what I'm saying? If you are infinite eternal and absolute
01:09:54
Then capriciousness and arbitrariness is no longer a possibility. God is good because he's goodness itself
01:10:07
God is holy God is holy Exodus 15 11
01:10:14
Who among the gods is like you oh Yahweh who is like you? majestic in holiness awesome in glory working wonders 1st
01:10:26
Chronicles 1629 ascribe to Yahweh the glory do his name Bring an offering and come before him worship
01:10:33
Yahweh in the splendor of his holiness Psalm 29 2
01:10:42
Ascribe to Yahweh the glory do his name Worship Yahweh in the splendor of his holiness sound familiar even repeated it twice
01:10:53
Psalm 93 5 your statutes stand firm Holiness adorns your house for endless days.
01:11:00
Oh Yahweh and Isaiah chapter 29 verse 23 when they see
01:11:06
Among them their children the work of my hand they will keep my name holy They will acknowledge the holiness of the
01:11:14
Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel and How could we possibly forget?
01:11:23
The incredible vision of Isaiah in chapter 6 of his prophecy Isaiah chapter 6 in the year of King Uzziah's death
01:11:39
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple Seraphim stood above him each having six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet
01:11:50
With two he flew and one called out to another and said Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Yahweh Sabaoth Holy holy holy
01:12:02
It's the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and The foundations of the threshold trembled the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke
01:12:13
Then I said woe is me for I am ruined. I am undone
01:12:20
Because I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king
01:12:28
Yahweh of hosts three times these holy angels say holy holy holy perfection of holiness part of God's holiness is
01:12:50
Is Referent to his complete otherness from everything else
01:12:59
Part of the concept of holiness is a complete separation a complete otherliness
01:13:10
There is a complete separation in God Not only all that is other than God But from all that is in any way opposite of his own glory his own being
01:13:28
Holiness describes a consistency of God in regards to such things as righteousness truth right justice
01:13:41
The idea that there has ever been or could ever be something unholy in God Is completely foreign to the scriptures
01:13:53
Completely Against what the scriptures teach about God. I don't know that I I know that I cannot
01:14:05
I don't know that I ever will be able to express
01:14:12
In words the holiness of God. I've read books about the holiness of God And when
01:14:21
I got done with it, what I realized was that All I had Was a vague feeling
01:14:30
About what the holiness of God is because Whenever I read people who
01:14:40
I know have Have really gotten a hold on it About the closest you can come is is when someone else knows the holiness of God is
01:14:53
You sort of look at each other and you go you know what I mean they go yeah,
01:14:59
I Can't express it. I know that it's intimately connected with the sovereignty
01:15:11
It's intimately connected with his immutability, but I don't know that I can explain.
01:15:20
I don't know that I can express it, but I do know That if a time in your life has ever come
01:15:28
Where God in his grace, and I believe fully and completely there is a gift of God's grace
01:15:36
It cannot be debated it cannot be won an argument format It is a work of God, but I believe there comes a time
01:15:46
I Know there came a time for me when
01:15:53
I all of a sudden saw God differently and his holiness became something
01:16:03
That was an object of my love not my dread. I don't mean that in a familiarity sense
01:16:10
I Still have a great dread of God and his holiness look at Isaiah. That's right
01:16:17
That's right because when you really see God's holiness you see your own lack thereof but It didn't it was no longer something that just simply disinterested me
01:16:31
There was a time in my life when I would openly confess the discussion of the holiness of God would not really have
01:16:40
Flipped my switch It was just sort of like well. Okay. Yeah, God's holy, but at the same time
01:16:48
I could learn to love God as a sovereign
01:16:53
God And I can't explain to you how it happened But if it's happened to you, you know what
01:17:00
I'm talking about And if it hasn't you think I'm just wandering around the room talking about weird and strange things
01:17:09
But if if it's happened, you know, you know what I'm talking about and you know that you were changed
01:17:19
You know that you haven't been the same since then you look at God and yourself and the world differently and there just seems to be a
01:17:32
Connection between people when that's happened to them because you talk about things you go. Yeah.
01:17:37
Yeah That's right, you know, I don't I don't know how else to describe it, but I know that when
01:17:46
Jonathan Edwards talks about weeping for an hour in the woods because of a
01:17:55
Sense of the holiness of God I've never wept in for an hour in the woods, right?
01:18:02
Cuz my heart's too hard Don't spend enough time in the woods thinking about it, but I know what he's talking about.
01:18:10
I know what he's referring to holiness of God God Is holy in such a way that all of men's concepts of the gods or God?
01:18:25
Will never have this Because there is something in man that innately fears and Runs from the holiness of God Isaiah says
01:18:39
I'm undone Peter staying in the boat Jesus comes to see as Peter say
01:18:45
I can't get out of here. I Can't get out of here Lord. Yeah I'm I I gotta get out of here.
01:18:53
I gotta run when the church starts proclaiming the holiness of God Truly and completely and his demands and claims upon our lives as sovereign
01:19:10
Lord and ruler When that happens, you're gonna see a completely different church The vast majority of the folks attending today ain't gonna be there the next time holiness
01:19:28
Righteousness and justice God is just Job 8 3 does God pervert justice does the
01:19:33
Almighty pervert what is right? No Job 36 3 I get my knowledge from afar.
01:19:39
I will ascribe justice to my maker The psalmist in Psalm 7 verse 6 arise
01:19:47
Oh Yahweh in your anger rise up against the rage of my enemies awake my God decree justice
01:19:55
Psalm 9 8 he will judge the world in righteousness. He will govern the people's with justice righteous righteousness and justice
01:20:05
Are part of the very nature of God Psalm 33 5 Yahweh loves
01:20:10
Righteousness and justice the earth is full of his unfailing love is tested
01:20:17
Beautiful beautiful word in the Old Testament Psalm 99 for the King is mighty. He loves justice
01:20:24
You have established equity in Jacob. You have done. What is just and right? God is just God is righteous.
01:20:34
He will punish sin The final outcome of the creation itself Will be one that is in perfect line with justice and righteousness.
01:20:42
Can we see how that's going to happen? Can we see clearly exactly how the final end of the creation will be that which results in justice and righteousness
01:20:53
Prevailing and being the final outcome no We know that it will happen But we can't always when we look at the things around us know exactly how it's going to take place
01:21:03
But we have his promise that it will the God of Scripture is a
01:21:08
God of wrath. Oh Yes, many modern theologians think this concept went out with the
01:21:14
Enlightenment Psalm 711 God is a righteous judge a
01:21:19
God who expresses his wrath every day Psalm 21 9
01:21:25
At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace in his wrath Yahweh will swallow them up and his fire will consume them
01:21:33
Listen to this next verse Psalm 76 10 listen closely surely your wrath against men brings you praise and The survivors of your wrath are restrained
01:21:50
God's wrath is not simply a unfocused uncontrolled rage
01:21:57
It is the perfect complement of his love It is just as much a part of his nature as anything else.
01:22:04
I Have said so many times before if when you look at the cross of Calvary If you do not see there the wrath of God you have not seen the cross
01:22:18
If all you see in the cross is love you've missed it The height of God's love is seen there.
01:22:30
Yes But it's true height will only be appreciated when you recognize That the same time the height of his wrath and hatred of sin is expressed there just as clearly just as clearly the
01:22:51
Prophet Jeremiah said in chapter 23 verse 19 see the storm of Yahweh will burst out in wrath a whirlwind swirling down the heads of the wicked
01:23:01
And it will happen and God will receive praise and glory in the exercise of his justice
01:23:15
God is love We all know that that is the favorite watchword of those who would deny his wrath his justice
01:23:25
His holiness his sovereignty his providence and everything else. Oh God is love
01:23:32
What kind of love are we talking about We're talking about a love that would nail his son the cross of Calvary We're talking about a love that will chasten you if you are a believer
01:23:46
It will bring tribulation and difficulty into your life to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ That is the kind of love that we're talking about.
01:23:55
We are not talking about sloppy agape We are talking about real love love that has an end in sight and does what is right to reach that ultimate end
01:24:07
The final and complete betterment of the object of love We know little about love in our nation
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God's love He is love But you'll never fully appreciate his love unless you appreciate his wrath his justice
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People want an unbalanced God They want a God that's all the nice warm fun stuff, but nothing else
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Unbalanced we don't we don't we do not appreciate a human being that is unbalanced and Yet we want a
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God that's way God is love. We need to understand what his love is all about God is a
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God of mercy and grace to Psalm 25 6 says remember.
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Oh Yahweh your great mercy and love for they are from of old the term chesed
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Translated loving -kindness in the New American Standard unfailing love and the
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NIV It's found more times in the Old Testament And the word love is in the new there is a perfect balance in Scripture between the love of God the holiness of God and the justice of God That is why in our nation today
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Where so little notice is taken of the Old Testament outside of simply devotional readings once in a while Where it has been so stripped of reality and historical foundation
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That most people don't believe that what it says can need needs to be taken seriously That is the reason that we have such an unbalanced view of God Is the
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New Testament that speaks so much of the love of God? When one sees the background of that when one sees the holiness of God that underlies all that in the
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New Testament Then one is struck with awe and wonder at the cross That is what galls me so much about so much evangelical preaching today
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Don't talk about sin Don't talk about the holiness of God. Don't talk about repentance
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Just off from Jesus Well, that's wonderful, but Jesus just didn't walk out there and say hey here
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I am He said unless you believe me you'll perish like one.
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He is gracious He is merciful and the only way that we will really understand the depth of his mercy and grace is to understand the depth
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Of sin and holiness and righteousness and God our own sin God's holiness his really his hatred of that but finally
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Truth Exodus 33 19 Yahweh said I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you
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And I'll proclaim my name Yahweh in your presence speaking to Moses And he says I will have mercy on whom
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I will have mercy. I will have compassion whom I'll have compassion You say well that have to do with truth sounds more like mercy and grace.
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Yes it is primarily in regards to mercy and grace but I Submit to you as well that the only way we will ever
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Know truth Experience truth be able to grasp hold of truth
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Is to worship the God of truth the same God who says to Moses I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy you don't believe
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God can do that You're not talking about the true God You're not talking about the God of the psalmist in Psalm 31 5 into your hands
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I commit my spirit redeem me. Oh Yahweh the God of truth Yahweh is the
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God of truth It is Yahweh who revealed himself to Moses said I'll have mercy on whom
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I'll have mercy Psalm 43 3 send forth your light in your truth.
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Let them guide me Let them bring me to your holy mountains the place where you dwell Isaiah 45 19
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I have not spoken in secret from somewhere in the land of darkness I have not said Jacob's descendants speak me in vain.
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I Yahweh speak the truth. I declare what's right, of course
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Where else could you possibly go but to John 14 6? He has answered.
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I am the way and the truth in life. No one comes to me comes to the father except to me
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You want truth. Oh Yes, I'm a truth seeker
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Run so many people. I'm a truth seeker then go to the source of truth
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Go to the one who makes defining truth possible the absolute God. Oh, no,
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I want to keep speaking truth No, you don't Why keep running from the holiness of God?
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God is holy. That's true That's true the