Essentials about Jehovah

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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September 10, 2016

00:01: Well, tonight we are beginning a short mini-series entitled The Essentials of the Faith.
00:14: Would you pass this out for me, son? I have a handout for everyone.
00:24: It has a lot of blanks to fill in, so you guys will try to make sure they all get filled in for you.
00:31: The title of this lesson is actually The Essentials of Jehovah, Jesus, and Justification.
00:46: That's the title I came up with.
00:49: And it's interesting that I would use that title because, I don't know if you've ever noticed or not, I don't use the name Jehovah very much.
00:58: Normally, when I make reference to the name of God, which is considered the sacred name, normally I will pronounce it Yahweh, or with a hard H, Yahweh.
01:12: Normally, I don't use the word Jehovah.
01:15: Jehovah is actually a Germanic change because you won't see the hard J sound in Hebrew.
01:30: In fact, Jesus, not Jesus, is Yeshua.
01:33: You don't see the hard J sound.
01:35: That's a Germanizing of a word.
01:39: And also, Jehovah comes from the inclusion of additional vowel sounds that were placed there so as to not properly say the sacred name.
01:53: It was the combination of Yahweh and Adonai placed together.
01:56: It became Jehovah and added a different way of saying it because the Jewish people didn't want to say the sacred name.
02:08: In fact, if you ever look online and you'll see somebody writing from a Jewish perspective, a lot of times if they write the word God, they'll write it like that.
02:18: They won't put the O in there.
02:21: And again, that's just sort of their way of not even saying the word God.
02:24: They say G slash D.
02:27: And it's sort of like being safe.
02:29: I don't want to misuse God's name.
02:32: I don't want to break the third commandment.
02:34: So in my attempt to not misuse the name, I'll just simply write G slash D.
02:41: And they'll know that I'm referring to God.
02:45: So again, the title of the series is The Essentials of Jehovah, Jesus, and Justification.
02:50: The only reason that's the title is because I like the alliteration.
02:54: There are three lessons in this series.
02:57: Essentials about Jehovah, Essentials about Jesus, and Essentials about Justification.
03:04: And the reason why I chose that is because this is not a systematic theology lesson.
03:11: But if I were going to boil down what is essential in systematic theology, and that is one of my favorite subjects both to study and to teach is systematic theology.
03:24: If I were to boil down the basics of systematic theology and say, okay, these are the things that everybody needs to know, it would start with what do you know about God, the Father, Jehovah? What do you know about Jesus, the Son, also Jehovah? What do you know about your own salvation, your justification before God? Because honestly, if you go out and you speak to the cults, you speak to the Jehovah Witnesses, you speak to the Mormons, you speak to the oneness groups, where they veer is normally in one of those three things, if not all of those three things.
04:08: What they think about God, what they think about Jesus, and what they think about their own salvation.
04:15: So when we talk about essentials, this is really the nuts and bolts of our faith.
04:22: Last night we had our Dads and Dudes meeting, which I was thankful to get to start back.
04:28: The Dads and Dudes are doing a study of the book of Galatians, one of my favorite books of the Bible.
04:33: Of course, I love the whole Bible, but Romans was my favorite.
04:35: We already did that one.
04:36: So now we're doing Galatians, which is sort of like a mini-Romans.
04:41: And one of the first things Paul says in Galatians, and we talked about this last night, he says, if someone comes to you preaching a gospel that's different than the one we've preached to you, let him be accursed.
04:57: He says, if somebody gives you a different gospel, not that there is a different gospel, not that there are multiple gospels, he's saying, but if somebody teaches you something that's contrary to what we have told you is the gospel, let him be accursed.
05:08: So I sent my Dads and Dudes group, normally I give them a question to go home with to come back to our next study.
05:17: And the question that I sent the Dads and Dudes home with, I said, I want you to go home and I want you to think of what are the essentials of the gospel.
05:30: What would someone have to do to be in the crosshairs of Paul's accursedness, Paul's curse in this passage, when Paul says a person has added to the gospel and they're accursed, or they've subtracted from the gospel and they're accursed.
05:48: So that's sort of what this is.
05:50: It sort of ties into what I'm doing with the Dads and Dudes because we're going to talk about what those things are.
05:56: We're going to talk about what the essentials are.
06:00: And so tonight we're going to look at the essentials of Jehovah.
06:05: So if you want to open up your Bible, we're going to go all the way back to the first chapter and the first verse.
06:12: And most of you probably don't have to go there and look at it.
06:16: You could probably quote it.
06:17: You might even be able to quote it in different translations.
06:20: But let's go look at it anyway.
06:22: Go back to Genesis chapter one and look at verse one.
06:29: Genesis chapter one and verse one.
06:35: We begin with the most essential part of God.
06:43: Genesis chapter one and verse one says this.
06:48: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
06:57: The most profound and essential, or rather the most profound and simple essential in regard to God is that He is.
07:11: It may not sound like much, but you realize we live in a world where a lot of people think He ain't.
07:18: That's not good English, but you know what I mean.
07:22: We live in a world where a lot of people believe God is not.
07:26: We live in a world where a lot of people, in fact just last night we were talking again in our Dads and Dudes and one of the young men, he said, well how do you share with somebody who's an atheist? And I said, well, number one, I don't believe in atheists.
07:42: Because if you press a man, he will have to tell you at best he's an agnostic.
07:50: At best he doesn't know.
07:53: No one knows that God doesn't exist.
07:56: And they say, I believe He doesn't exist.
07:59: Okay, but you don't know that.
08:02: So you become an agnostic.
08:04: An agnostic is a person who doesn't know.
08:08: It's just like I've said, and I don't know if I've said this to you before, it's just like somebody saying there's no gold in China.
08:16: You can't prove that unless you know everything there is to know about China.
08:20: You have to know what's inside of every mountain.
08:22: You have to know what's inside of every well, what's inside of every river, what's inside of every Chinese person's mouth to prove that there is no gold in China.
08:30: You can't know that.
08:32: Now you can say, I don't believe there's gold in China.
08:35: But you don't know.
08:37: See, the atheist deals in the realm of faith.
08:41: He believes there's no God.
08:45: That doesn't mean he knows it.
08:50: But you see, the Bible doesn't even give the atheist the time of day.
08:54: You know what the Bible says the atheist is? He's a fool.
08:58: What'd it say? Well, yeah.
09:01: The Bible says the fool who says in his heart there is no God.
09:05: And at the very beginning of the Bible, you know what it says? In the beginning, God.
09:13: It doesn't say in the beginning there was eternity and we have to figure out where this being came from, who is called God.
09:22: No.
09:23: It certainly doesn't say he was born on a planet that surrounds a star called Kolob like the Mormons teach.
09:28: No, that doesn't, that isn't it either.
09:30: It just says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
09:35: It's the most simple and yet most profound verse of the Bible in regard to the essentials of God is the belief that he is.
09:41: The simple belief is that God exists.
09:50: Yeah, yeah.
09:52: It's like an Australian carpenter who hit the nail on the head when he said us arguing about whether or not God exists is like fleas on the back of a dog arguing about whether or not the dog exists.
10:04: It's foolish.
10:19: Well, when an atheist says, I don't have faith, I believe based on the evidence.
10:28: And if you ever talk to an atheist, they'll say, no, no, I don't exercise faith.
10:31: I believe what I believe based on the evidence.
10:35: And you say, now, wait a minute, what evidence? How are you addressing the evidence? You're having to exercise faith.
10:41: I had one man tell me he was incapable of exercising faith.
10:45: Everything, every decision he'd ever made, everything he'd ever done was based on the evidence.
10:49: It wasn't based on faith.
10:50: I said, you came in today, you sat in this chair.
10:53: It was in my office.
10:53: I said, you sat in this chair and you had faith that the chair was going to hold you up.
10:57: No, no, I pushed down on it before I sat down.
10:59: I made sure it was going to hold me up.
11:01: I said, now, wait a minute, you drove a car here.
11:04: You had faith that the brakes were going to stop you.
11:06: He said, no, no, I put those brakes on myself.
11:08: Now I'm getting frustrated.
11:10: I said, you would get into my car and go with me to McDonald's if I invited you and you've never looked at the brakes on my car.
11:20: I said, you always exercise faith every day.
11:24: Everyone does.
11:27: Faith is not what people think it is.
11:29: People think faith is blind.
11:32: Faith is not blind.
11:33: Faith is a belief based on what we see and understand.
11:38: And one of the things that we see and understand is that we live in a world of order.
11:42: We live in a world that's not chaotic.
11:44: Every day the sun and the moon and the stars all function orderly.
11:51: Wouldn't it be weird if you got up tomorrow and all the trees were upside down? If you got up tomorrow and all the water was frozen and all the air was too cold to breathe? And wouldn't it be weird if that changed every day and there were no seasons or times for those things? It was just chaos every day? But you don't live in that.
12:11: You live in a world of order.
12:15: And to have order without an orderer is to me beyond my capacity for faith.
12:23: And that's what we talk to the atheists.
12:25: We say, you have faith and order without an orderer.
12:28: You believe in science without transcendent truth.
12:34: You see, science is based on the idea that what happened today is going to be...
12:39: We can judge what happens today.
12:41: We can predict what happens today based on what happened yesterday.
12:43: If ice froze at 32 degrees yesterday, it'll freeze at 32 degrees today because there's consistency.
12:49: If it froze at 32 degrees today, it'll freeze at 32 degrees tomorrow.
12:52: That's consistent, right? That's how science works.
12:55: It's called the scientific method.
12:56: If you can repeat a process and create empirical evidence based on a hypothesis, which becomes an experiment, which becomes a repeatable experiment, which then becomes scientific truth or scientific fact based on the repetition of an experiment, correct? You say, but why? Why is it that every day water freezes at 32 degrees? Why is there that standard? You see, without a transcendent lawgiver, you have no reason to be confident in a transcendent law.
13:39: A law that rises above the natural.
13:45: So as I said, when I talk about faith and the atheist talks about faith, typically we are talking in different languages because when he says faith, he means belief in something without any evidence at all.
13:58: And I say the evidence for God smacks you right in the face.
14:01: Number one, he put it inside of you.
14:03: You know he exists because he put that knowledge inside of you, but also he says, look at the stars, the sun, the moon, and the heavens declare and testify that God exists.
14:16: Look at a leaf.
14:17: I love looking at leaves on trees that fall.
14:19: You pick them up and the leaves have these branches inside the leaf.
14:25: Sort of like a tree.
14:26: Tree comes out of the ground and it branches.
14:28: Well, the leaf is like a little tree.
14:30: It has a stem and there's little branches.
14:33: You know those little branches are almost like the veins in your body.
14:35: They deliver nutrients out to that leaf and it's so intricate, down to the microscopic level.
14:43: You see, Darwin existed in a time when there were no electron microscopes.
14:50: There was no way to see beyond the simple cell.
14:55: Darwin thought the simple cell was simply a mass of protoplasm anyway.
14:59: He didn't know there was anything beyond that.
15:01: But the cells of your body are like miniature factories that take in energy, produce waste, and they have this entire function that's going on inside of them.
15:14: There's complexity down to the nano level that we can't even yet see.
15:22: And yet we look at that and say the universe hiccuped and here we came.
15:27: It's foolish.
15:30: Well, that's what I mean when I say the atheist believes.
15:32: He has faith.
15:33: We have faith.
15:34: Based on evidence, he simply says this.
15:36: The atheist says I have faith that all of this order came out of disorder and all of this logic and reason came out of chaos.
15:46: And I say that's about like having a tornado hit a junkyard and producing a 57 Chevy.
15:55: All the parts may be there, but without intelligence, it's not all going back together.
16:01: Doesn't make any sense.
16:07: Yep.
16:09: So that kind of getting back to where we were, but does that answer, does that get what you're asking about, Ms.
16:16: Rosanna? Getting back, I want to talk about three areas of God's existence because the Bible assumes that God exists.
16:25: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
16:28: That's an assumption.
16:29: The Bible doesn't seek to prove it.
16:31: You know why? It's not necessary.
16:34: God has told you he exists in your heart.
16:36: He showed you that he exists in this orderly universe.
16:39: It's not necessary to prove.
16:40: It's there.
16:41: The Bible doesn't make that leap.
16:43: Doesn't need to.
16:53: Nope.
16:54: We begin with the presupposition that God exists because without him, nothing else makes sense.
17:03: So out of that, we come to the question, well, God exists.
17:09: What do we know about it? I'm going to give you the three major headings.
17:13: As you'll notice on your sheet, there are three major headings, the blank of God, the blank of God, the blank of God.
17:19: Do you see those? Well, the first one is the life of God.
17:29: The life of God.
17:32: I know that sounds kind of funny, but I promise it'll make sense.
17:36: The second one is the limits of God.
17:40: And remember, we're speaking primarily of God the Father.
17:44: If you want to say Jehovah, Jehovah does get applied to all three persons of the Trinity, though.
17:49: You heard me earlier say Jesus is Jehovah.
17:51: There are times when Jesus is referred to as Jehovah.
17:54: But we're speaking specifically of God the Father, what we would call the subject of theology proper.
18:00: There's theology proper, Christology, pneumatology, and all three together is where you come to the doctrine of the Trinity.
18:05: But the life of God, the limits of God, and the love of God.
18:11: This is a big alliteration lesson.
18:14: It's just love alliteration.
18:15: Just love it.
18:19: The life of God.
18:22: When I say the life of God, I do not mean that God is a person like you or me.
18:30: What I mean is that God is a living being.
18:35: God is not a computer.
18:38: God is not some type of a cold, unfeeling mass of energy.
18:47: Some people do believe God is simply just the spiritual energy of the universe.
18:52: You'll hear people talk about, I'm a spiritualist.
18:54: And the universe itself has a personality.
18:58: They won't say he or she is God, but they simply talk about the spiritual energy of the universe.
19:03: You'll hear people say that on Facebook.
19:05: You'll see people put down, they'll say, well, I'm sending good vibes your way.
19:08: People don't say, I pray for you anymore.
19:10: I'm sending good thoughts because they don't want to say the word prayer.
19:12: Or they'll say, I'm sending good vibes or I'm sending energy your way because they believe.
19:17: And I remember that I was witnessing to a guy outside during the Trump rally.
19:21: And this lady behind me trying to interrupt.
19:27: If you ever saw Woodstock videos where the people just sort of with their flowing dresses and just, this is what is happening behind me.
19:38: I had a little, and she's going, we're all energy.
19:42: We're all energy.
19:50: God is not just a mass of energy.
19:54: God is a being.
19:56: And God is a living being.
19:59: And that sometimes, sometimes we go too far one way or the other.
20:04: Either we think of God as sort of like a celestial man.
20:08: Sort of like Santa Claus.
20:10: And we make him too much man, not enough God.
20:14: Or sometimes we make him too much ethereal and too much spiritual and not enough being.
20:20: So we need to understand God as being.
20:21: And when I say the life of God, that's what we're talking about.
20:24: God is a living being.
20:26: He's a being who has always lived.
20:27: And that's the first thing.
20:28: It's his eternality.
20:30: The eternality of God.
20:31: Eternality is kind of a funny word.
20:37: But it's an important word.
20:41: Because even though God is a living being, God isn't a being like you.
20:47: Because the reason why you're a living being is because at some point you came into existence.
20:55: You ever thought, you ever sat around thinking about the fact that there was a time when you didn't exist? I mean, really thought about it? My parents know there was a time when I didn't exist because they preceded my existence.
21:10: They saw me come to be.
21:13: They saw me take my first step.
21:14: They saw me make my first major error in life followed by many after.
21:21: But they remember when Keith was not.
21:24: I don't.
21:27: And it's hard for me to even wrap my head around it sometimes.
21:30: The fact that there was a time when I wasn't because I am.
21:38: There was never a time when God was not.
21:40: Turn your Bibles to Psalm 90.
21:44: I love this passage.
21:45: I love...
21:47: Anytime you ever speak to a Mormon, if they want to talk about the fact that God was a...
21:52: And normally they don't anymore, by the way.
21:54: If you do talk to Mormons nowadays, they don't address some of the more obscure teachings of their faith.
22:00: They try to make themselves very normal, just another denomination kind of thing.
22:03: And I say, well, if you're another denomination, why are you trying to win me to your denomination? I'm quite satisfied in my non-denominational church.
22:10: But whatever, whatever.
22:11: But here's a verse that's important.
22:14: Psalm 90 verse 2.
22:15: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
22:31: That is the best way that we can describe that which is undescribable.
22:38: You see, we think about God living on a timeline like us, just infinitely longer.
22:44: God doesn't live on a timeline like us.
22:46: You see, there was a time when you were not.
22:48: There was a time when you are.
22:50: And there's coming a time again when you will be not.
22:52: I mean, at least in this flesh.
22:54: You're going to go.
22:55: Your spirit will continue on.
22:57: But there's a time you're in between two poles.
23:00: The pole of here and the pole of God.
23:01: And that's where you are right now.
23:03: And you don't know where you are on the line.
23:05: But you're on the line somewhere.
23:08: God doesn't have that line.
23:10: He doesn't have a beginning.
23:11: He doesn't have an ending.
23:12: This is like, this is basic.
23:14: I told you this is basic stuff.
23:15: But isn't this good stuff? Because this is important.
23:17: Because this is the kind of stuff your kids and your grandkids are going to ask you.
23:20: Mama, where did God come from? Where did God come from? And you know why we have that question? Because we live in the world of cause and effect.
23:38: Everything that we know is the effect of another cause.
23:44: You're the effect of the cause of your parents.
23:46: They're the effect of the cause of their parents.
23:48: And so on and so on.
23:50: You live in the world of cause and effect.
23:52: Everything is an effect of another cause.
23:55: And this is how you explain it to your children.
23:57: You sit down and you say, there must be a first cause that itself is not an effect.
24:09: There must be a first cause.
24:15: Scientifically it has to be.
24:16: You can't go back and back forever.
24:19: There has to be something.
24:20: That's why there's this argument for the Big Bang.
24:23: Because they know there has to be a first cause so we'll make it a big explosion.
24:27: And you say, well what exploded? And they'll say, particles and matter exploded.
24:33: Well what caused it? What was the cause before the cause, you see? There must be a first cause.
24:42: And that's God.
24:44: God is the uncaused cause.
24:47: He's the unmoved mover.
24:53: That's hard to wrap your head around, but it must exist.
24:57: There must be a first cause for any effect.
25:01: Because if there was ever a time when there was nothing, there would still be nothing.
25:09: Because guess what? Nothing comes from nothing.
25:15: You put nothing in a jar, you set it on the shelf, a billion years from now, guess what's going to be in the jar? Nothing.
25:23: Because nothing comes from nothing.
25:26: It's called...
25:28: Huh? Yeah, yeah, that's right.
25:31: Ex nihilo, nihil fit, is the Latin, which means out of nothing, nothing comes.
25:39: That's the truth.
25:41: If there was ever a time when there was nothing, there would still be nothing.
25:46: There must be at least one thing that has always been.
25:51: That's how you explain your case.
25:52: There must be one thing that has always been for there ever to be anything else.
25:57: There must be a first cause.
26:00: And that first cause is God.
26:04: So, the eternality of God is a very important point.
26:11: And again, I like to explain that because children ask that question.
26:16: And it's a legitimate question.
26:18: Because that's how they learn.
26:21: Don't ever get upset your children ask you questions.
26:24: Especially hard questions.
26:25: Because that means they're thinking deeper than maybe you thought they could.
26:31: A lot of times they're not asking those questions because they're trying to abandon the faith.
26:36: They're asking those questions because they're trying to understand the faith.
26:41: Questions are not bad.
26:42: Questions should be nurtured and answered.
26:44: And if you don't know the answer, that's your impetus to learn.
26:51: So, the eternality of God is the first thing that I think we should all understand.
26:57: There are people who deny it.
26:59: There are people who believe God had a starting point.
27:03: There are people that believe God is one of many gods.
27:07: Created by other gods.
27:10: Infinite regression of gods.
27:11: That is another doctrine in Mormonism.
27:13: And I don't keep like I'm beating up Mormonism tonight.
27:15: It just so happens that the infinite regression of gods is a false teaching out of Mormonism.
27:21: That is the idea that it simply goes back forever.
27:24: There was always a god that preceded the god who is.
27:27: And there was a god who preceded him and a god who preceded him and a god who preceded him.
27:30: And it goes back eternally.
27:35: Now in a sense we can say okay, well we believe that God is eternal.
27:38: So there's a sense in which we're both believing something that's difficult to understand.
27:42: We believe simply God's eternal.
27:45: But this whole infinite regression idea denies the very scripture which says before me there was no god formed and after me will no god be formed.
27:54: God says that in Isaiah.
27:56: I mean it's very clear.
27:57: There wasn't a god before and you're saying there were many.
28:00: Infinite.
28:02: It's not true.
28:05: The next thing under the life of God is his eternality should be understood.
28:10: He's eternal.
28:11: The second is his sovereignty.
28:23: I shouldn't be able to have that much trouble being his neighbor the church.
28:26: You know.
28:33: Turn to 1 Chronicles 29.11.
28:40: Here in Psalms.
28:40: Take a left.
28:42: Go over a few books.
28:43: 1 Chronicles 29.
28:58: Verse 11.
29:00: It says, Yours, O Lord.
29:04: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
29:19: Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
29:27: A.W.
29:28: Pink said this.
29:30: He said, The sovereignty of God.
29:32: What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God.
29:37: The kingship of God.
29:39: The godhood of God.
29:41: To say that God is sovereign is to simply say that God is God.
29:50: Sovereign Grace Family Church.
29:52: That's our name.
29:54: It's obviously that we put special emphasis on this doctrine.
29:59: And I don't want to beat a horse that we have thoroughly beaten in the past because we've talked about the sovereignty of God a lot.
30:07: But I tell you this.
30:08: There is no more repugnant idea in the minds of many men than the command of God over his universe.
30:15: That God is the commander and chief of the universe.
30:18: Some people want to deny God that because of all the evil in the world.
30:21: And they say, Well, if God controls everything, why is there evil in the world? And because there's evil in the world, I can't believe that God's in control.
30:28: Thus you have this argument about how God exercises his authority over the hearts of men and how God allows men to exercise their wills and their moral depravity and those things.
30:40: So it leads to a lot of questions.
30:42: But the reality is, I believe that the Bible is clear that God is sovereign even over the hearts of men.
30:54: There are very clear teachings in the scripture that God does as he wills in the heavens and in the earth.
31:01: Daniel chapter 4 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand and say to him, What have you done? There's not a man in the world who can look at God and say, God, you can't do that.
31:20: I've heard people say that.
31:21: I've heard people say that you can bind God with your word of faith.
31:29: You heard that word of faith teaching and they'll say you can bind God's will.
31:33: I heard a guy, I showed the video I think one time.
31:36: The guy said, When I pray, God sits up and takes notice and he listens when I put a command on his will.
31:48: That's crazy talk.
31:53: And that God is not God.
31:57: I remember the guy who came into my office and was telling me God can't do anything in this world.
32:02: He can't do anything unless we invite him in or unless we call upon him.
32:08: He doesn't involve himself at all.
32:11: Heard a guy, I remember I had this on recording.
32:14: One night I had the Christian program playing in the background of the house and I had a TiVo which is you can record live TV and rewind live TV.
32:24: I don't have it anymore but I used to have it.
32:27: And this guy said, on the TV he says, God can't get involved in your life unless you invite him.
32:40: And I said, Back it up and hit record.
32:44: And I said, Jennifer, listen to this nonsense.
32:48: This man just said that the God of heaven and earth who created all things and sustains all things by the word of his power can't get involved in my life unless I invite him.
33:01: Now what kind of nonsense is that? And that's exactly what it is.
33:08: You see again, and I've said this before, I think the biggest problem that we have is we live in a society that values democracy.
33:20: Democracy is that every person gets to have his say and every person gets to put in their two cents whether it's voting or whatever.
33:29: Every person gets to say what have you.
33:33: And I'm going to say something and I don't want y'all to get mad at me.
33:39: I don't want you to think about what I'm going to say.
33:42: Number one, America is not a democracy.
33:44: Just so you know.
33:45: America is a democratic republic.
33:49: It's not a democracy.
33:50: There is a difference.
33:51: A true democracy is the most dangerous form of government in the history of mankind because in a true democracy 51% of the people can vote the death of the other 49%.
34:04: A true democracy is the most dangerous form of government in the history of man.
34:08: A republic is designed to protect people from a democracy.
34:13: A republic is designed to maintain the rule of law over and against.
34:18: 51% want to take your house? The republic is designed to keep you the 1%.
34:24: 99% want to take your house? The republic is to protect that 1% from the 99%.
34:33: Just so you know.
34:34: Just be careful when everybody says, oh, we're a democracy.
34:37: No, we are a democratic republic and there is a difference.
34:39: Actually, we're a constitutional republic and the constitution is designed to protect you and your land and your property from that 99%.
34:47: Even though it's been misused and misunderstood and unfortunately our governmental system is misinterpreting the intention of the founding fathers and now I've gone way off topic but you understand where I'm going with this.
34:59: God is not up for a vote.
35:02: He's not running for God.
35:05: He's not campaigning for God.
35:08: He's already there.
35:10: And ultimately, He's sovereign and we don't like that a lot of times but that is what the Bible teaches and I think when we get our minds wrapped around who God is as not only the eternal God but the sovereign God it will help us understand better our faith.
35:27: Number three is the Trinity and since we are going to spend a lot of time in the coming months doing our study of the Trinity I will simply give you the essence of the teaching right now.
35:44: When we say that God is Trinity we mean this.
35:48: God is one God one being but that that one being is shared by three persons and there is a distinction between being and person.
36:04: You might say well I don't understand the distinction between being and person.
36:09: You absolutely do because if I pick up a rock it has being but it has no person.
36:22: I am a man I have being and I have person.
36:29: God has one being and within the being of God there are three persons.
36:37: Doesn't mean there's three gods.
36:39: You see the Muslims will say we believe in three gods.
36:42: That's not true.
36:44: The Mormons do believe in an infinite amount of gods so to them the idea of the Trinity is not important.
36:48: The Jehovah Witnesses deny the divinity of Christ and the personality of the Holy Spirit and in doing so deny the Trinity.
36:56: The Oneness Pentecostals believe that Jesus is the Father and the Spirit.
37:01: It's a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity where there is no separation of the persons.
37:06: There's no distinction made within the persons.
37:10: So we'll get to that again later in the series when we get to that well in the next series when we talk about the Trinity.
37:15: But ultimately what we need to understand is when we talk about God we can talk about Jesus as God.
37:25: We can talk about the Holy Spirit as God and we can talk about the Father as God.
37:31: But we need to understand when we do that there is a distinction that needs to be made.
37:38: Jesus is not the Father and the Spirit is not Jesus.
37:48: If those distinctions are made in Scripture they should be made in our hearts and our minds.
37:53: I want you to think about what Jesus said.
37:56: He says, I am going away and if I go I will pray the Father and He will send you another Comforter.
38:04: That's Jesus talking about the Trinity right there.
38:07: He says, I'm going to the Father and the Father is going to send the Spirit, the Comforter.
38:12: And there's three of us and yet there's only one being.
38:17: We share that being of God.
38:20: And so within the Trinity there is intercommunication, interrelationship.
38:25: You realize some people believe that God created people so that you have someone to love? I've heard people say that.
38:31: God created a human being so he'd have someone to love.
38:34: You realize that love is eternal because God has eternally loved within Himself? The Father, the Son and the Spirit have had a relationship.
38:42: Go to John 17 and read it.
38:43: Glorify me with that glory which we had before the world was.
38:46: Jesus said this about Himself to God.
38:49: Glorify me with that glory which we had before the world existed.
38:55: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have eternally existed in relationship within the Trinity.
39:04: And thus love has always existed because the Father has always loved the Son.
39:08: The Spirit has always loved both the Father and the Son.
39:11: That is not something that came into existence when God made something to love.
39:16: That's not the right understanding.
39:18: So anyway, we talk about the Trinity and now we're talking about who God is.
39:23: We're saying He's eternal.
39:24: He's sovereign.
39:26: He's triune.
39:27: That's another word you can say, triune.
39:31: And then His ability.
39:34: The ability of God.
39:35: I guess we'll stop at the life of God.
39:38: I didn't even get to the first third of the first lesson.
39:41: We can go a little further, I guess.
39:46: Ability.
39:47: The ability of God.
39:51: The ability of God.
39:54: There are three omnis which are used to describe God.
39:57: Do we know what they are? Omnipresence is the first one that if you just want to write them in the order I have them, but you're right.
40:05: Omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience.
40:15: Omnipresence.
40:16: If you want to write down a Bible verse, Psalm 139.
40:20: Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
40:25: If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
40:27: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall take hold of me.
40:35: If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light shall be about me by night, even the darkness is not dark to you.
40:41: The night is bright as day for the darkness is as light with you.
40:45: Can't hide from God.
40:46: Jonah taught us that.
40:49: Went down into the ship and tried to hide from God.
40:54: That didn't work.
40:59: God is everywhere.
41:03: People say sometimes, and if you've said this before, I'm not challenging you except for to think.
41:11: I'm not calling out error or anything.
41:14: Some people say, well, hell is separation from God.
41:19: You've heard that? People say, well, that's what makes hell hell is God's not there.
41:24: God is there.
41:26: What makes hell hell is not that God's not there.
41:28: What makes hell hell is God's grace is not there, but his wrath is there.
41:35: There is no where God is not.
41:41: Exactly.
41:42: The only thing about hell that makes hell hell is you get the unmitigated.
41:55: No grace and no mercy.
42:03: So God is everywhere.
42:05: Omnipotence means all power.
42:06: By the way, omni simply is a prefix meaning all.
42:09: So omnipresence means everywhere or all present.
42:14: Omnipotence means he has all power.
42:18: He calls himself God almighty.
42:20: Matthew 19 26.
42:22: Jesus said, with man, this is impossible.
42:24: With God, all things are possible.
42:28: Finally, omniscience.
42:29: He has all knowledge.
42:34: Psalm 139 1 through 6.
42:37: You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern the thoughts from afar.
42:44: You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
42:48: Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, you, O Lord, know it altogether.
42:53: You hand me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me.
42:57: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
42:59: It is high.
42:59: I cannot attain it.
43:02: God knows more than we ever will because his knowledge is without limit.
43:09: God never learns anything.
43:10: That's what drives me.
43:13: When you think about things that you make your head spin, drives me into a frizzy thinking about God has never learned anything.
43:21: Neither will he ever because all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are his already.
43:33: The next part is the limits of God.
43:36: I can really do these rather quickly and I think I will.
43:39: If you'll give me five minutes, I can take you through these because I want to show you how all of this sort of fits together and I hate to just cut it off and have to start again next week.
43:51: So if you'll indulge me for five extra minutes, I'll get through these.
43:55: The limits of God.
43:57: Some people don't even like that I use the words how can you limit God? You just said he's all powerful.
44:01: You just said he's all present.
44:02: You just said he's all knowing.
44:04: How can you limit God? Well, let's go through them very quickly.
44:07: They're on your list.
44:08: God is truth.
44:11: Thus he cannot lie.
44:14: Hebrews 6.18 It is impossible for God to lie.
44:21: You see, God is limited by one thing.
44:23: God is limited by his nature and it is opposed to his nature to lie.
44:31: Number two, God is holy.
44:33: Thus he cannot sin.
44:37: James 1.13 Let no one say when he is tempted I've been tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.
44:47: Habakkuk 1.13 God's eyes are too pure to look upon evil.
44:51: That doesn't mean he doesn't see you when you do wrong.
44:54: What it means is when he looks upon you he does not look upon you with favor.
45:00: God does not look upon sin with favor.
45:02: His eyes are too pure for that.
45:05: Number three, God is immutable.
45:09: Thus he cannot change.
45:10: Immutable is I-M-M-U-T-A-B-L-E Immutable means cannot change.
45:19: We talked about that I think in one of our last lessons before we took our break.
45:23: If God could change he would either cease to be perfect or he would need to do something to be perfect.
45:32: God's perfection proves he cannot change.
45:35: If God changed for the better he wasn't perfect to begin with.
45:38: If he changed for the worse he ceased to be perfect.
45:39: And if he changed in a lateral change in any way there was a need for a change and thus he was imperfect.
45:45: His perfection demonstrates his immutability.
45:50: Malachi 3.6 For I the Lord do not change.
45:54: Number four, God is righteous thus he cannot tolerate sin.
46:06: You realize beloved that sin is never given a free pass.
46:10: Ever.
46:11: There's never a sin that has ever been committed that has not and will not be justly punished.
46:19: You say now wait a minute I'm a sinner.
46:23: That's why you believe in Christ because in Christ he took the punishment you deserve.
46:28: The punishment was meted out in him.
46:30: That's the penal substitutionary atonement.
46:35: Penalty.
46:37: Substitute.
46:38: Atonement.
46:39: Atonement.
46:40: Two that are separated are brought at one because of the penalty which has been met by the substitute.
46:46: Very important.
46:50: Finally, number three, the love of God.
46:53: We've looked at the life of God, the limits of God.
46:56: Let's look at the love of God.
47:00: So important because I think sometimes as a reformed guy sometimes people use the word Calvinist I think sometimes people think that we're at least the preachers we kind of get the rap that we're not loving.
47:19: That we don't teach on God's love.
47:27: And I think that's misunderstood.
47:29: Some of the greatest teachers of God's love have been reformed.
47:36: Amazing Grace, John Newton written about God's love and His grace.
47:44: But I think the thing that people don't understand is we do make a distinction in God's love.
47:50: And this is the part that throws people for a loop.
47:53: Because, and this is the two things.
47:55: God has a great love for mankind.
47:58: But God has a special love for His covenant people.
48:03: God has a great love for mankind.
48:06: But God has a special, particular love relationship for His covenant people.
48:14: You see, God's love is what allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
48:19: God's love is what allows even the most wicked man to take breaths every day and his heart to beat in his chest.
48:25: And for him to be able to get up and go to work and come home and have a family that he loves and that loves him.
48:31: God's love allows even the most vile of men to experience some of the most beautiful of blessings.
48:49: God's disposition is a disposition of love.
48:56: His disposition is one that commands all men everywhere to repent.
49:02: Knowing that all men will reject that, but yet God still offers that as an avenue of grace.
49:12: If you will repent, God will save you.
49:14: I can say that to any man.
49:16: Now I know that the Bible teaches that no man will outside of the work of God.
49:21: No man will outside of the regenerative work of the Spirit.
49:24: I know that, but I can say to any man, if you will repent, Jesus will not reject you.
49:29: If you will repent, Jesus will not turn you down.
49:33: All that come unto me, I will in no wise cast out.
49:38: Jesus said that in John chapter 6.
49:41: I can say that to anyone.
49:44: God has a disposition of love, but he does have a particular love for his people.
49:52: And his people are all who come by faith in the gospel.
50:01: And that goes all the way back to the first chapters of Genesis.
50:05: The Bible says God preached the gospel to Abraham.
50:08: Galatians tells us that.
50:09: It says Abraham believed the gospel.
50:11: You mean Abraham believed that Jesus Christ was going to die on the cross? I don't think Abraham had all the knowledge of the gospel.
50:19: But I do know this.
50:20: The Bible says Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him as righteousness.
50:24: His faith.
50:26: He was saved by grace through faith the same way you are.
50:31: He was saved by grace through faith the same way anybody has ever been saved.
50:36: No one has ever been saved by their own merits.
50:43: Everyone who's ever been saved has been saved by the loving and gracious gift of God.
50:51: So, when we think about the essentials about Jehovah, have we had them all? Not even close.
50:58: But some of the things that I think everyone should remember is that in his life, he's eternal, he's sovereign, he's triune, and he's powerful.
51:07: That's the ability.
51:08: He's omniscient, omnipresent.
51:11: And, uh, uh, can't think.
51:14: Lost my head.
51:16: What was it? Omnipotent.
51:18: Thank you.
51:20: Limits.
51:20: He's limited by his nature because God is holy.
51:24: And in his love, he has a general love for mankind and all men experience that.
51:30: But he has a special love for his people.
51:32: And that love is expressed through his son Jesus who we're going to study about next week.
51:38: Let's pray.
51:38: Father, I thank you for your word.
51:40: I pray that this has been fruitful for your people.
51:42: I pray it's been helpful in helping them understand better their faith in the God whom they serve.
51:47: And I pray, Lord, that you would use it to draw them closer to you.
51:51: In Christ's name, amen.