Apologetics Session 17 - Theology - Part 2

Tonight. Russell can you open us up in prayer tonight? Father guide us in your grace you and give you thanks.

Amen. So last week we were introduced to theology and we talked about the many ways that God has revealed himself, most particularly in these last days through his Son Jesus Christ and also obviously through the written Word of God and we said you know by his grace now we know him and praise God that he has done that he's revealed himself and we can know him and we can know who he is and we did our best to start describing how the scriptures lay out the eternal nature of God, the omnipotence of God we talked about, the fact that he is the sovereign creator.

We started talking about a lot of things and I gave you guys some homework. Anyone was here last week? Most of you guys were and it was in a cross that I gave everyone an acronym. Billy was gonna have dinner and his mom said it's gonna be liver and peas tonight and Billy's like oh and his mom says don't worry Billy I'll let you have jello first and Billy says ooh jello first.

That is your acronym folks o-o-j-e-l-l-o-f-i-r-s-t and we said forget about the copyright on the jello we don't care about that. Jello gentlemen. That acronym has helped me over the last 25 years remember the eternal attributes of God and we talked about some of them being communicable which God has passed on to his creation and some incommunicable which means he keeps for himself that he's not when he creates a being that they're not going to be translated like omnipotence.

He doesn't create an omnipotent angel or an omnipotent human being and we talked about omnipotence last night or last time but the ooh jello first. O, omnipotence and you guys can guess. O, omnipresence.

It could be in any order right? J is justice. E-L is the only double one. Eternal life. Everlasting life. L, the other L is love. The other O is whichever one you didn't say the last time. F is faithfulness.

I is immutability. R is righteousness which is a little different than justice. So we'll talk about both. S is sovereignty and T is truth. Now there are a few other things that we spoke about as far as God's attribute like his transcendence and things but I think this acrostic helps us get a good picture of who God has revealed himself to be and that's where we are right now.

We're going through these attributes and the last time we we just got started we talked about the omnipotence of God. We read quite a few scriptures. We talked about what his power means to the believer and both to the unbeliever.

Well one thing we didn't talk about last time I'm not sure if I didn't have the verses written down for this but we talked about you know his incredible power that he can do whatever he wants however he wants there's nothing impossible with God but what we didn't talk about last time when we talked about what does it mean for us the believer we talked about his protection for us his providence over us his keeping all his promises those kinds of things he has the power to do all these things so we can trust in him and lay our lives before him but what I didn't say we didn't look at the scriptures to talk about his power working in us that actually his power works within us and we see that in several places but Colossians is one Philippians chapter 2 is another where his he works mightily within us in Ephesians is another one and to think that God Almighty is infusing us with his power even when he says you shall receive power and become my witnesses you know to Samaria to Judea to even the uttermost parts of the world Jerusalem first and then the uttermost parts of the earth that God provides the believer with power in his life so that's an incredible thing to think about that you know the very power of God works within you and he is going to continue to work in you to do miraculous things and not necessarily what we would call the supernatural things but the changing of our lives into the conformity of the Sun Jesus Christ is a miracle in of itself and he's going to continue to work through his power to do these things in our lives and it is a great great promise that he has given us so he's given us a wonderful power even us so any comments on power before we go to omnipresence God's power or the power.

That he provides in our life. Well I'm reminded of the disciples and what they did through his power and also the seven sons of Sceva and how they wanted to sort of appropriate that power but because they didn't know him didn't have.

It so yeah Paul we know Jesus. We know. But who are you. Yeah. And Matt's favorite verse I can do all things through a scripture verse taken out of context. Philippians 413. The you know the context there is.

Obviously Paul has gone through so much. And he says if I'm a based if I am bound I still can walk with joy and walk in faithfulness before the Lord. And I can do all things through Christ. He strengthens me.

And that power to do those things to continue to go on to continue to trust to continue to have faith in the midst of crises and suffering. The Lord gives that power to his to his children. And thank God for it.

So power omnipresence all these attributes are fantastic. What does omnipresence mean. I represent everywhere everywhere at the same time. That's the one that always trips me up. Okay. And what I mean by that is I really don't think about that too much.

I think about him being everywhere. And we talked about it being not pantheism in a sense that God's in this table right. Or God's in this chair. Pantheism is saying that well God is everything and everything makes up God.

No God is transcendent over his creation. He is separate from his creation. But he watches over his creation. And he is on the present within his creature or through his creation. Let me read this quote from.

Got questions move that once in a great psych. Yeah we like that website. Yeah. It says this although God is present in all time and space. God is not locally limited to any time or space. God is everywhere and in every now.

No molecule or atom atomic particle is so small that God is not fully present to it. No galaxy is so vast that God does not circumscribe it. I like that. But the time thing really blows my mind. Yeah.

Because it's like I can I can kind of grasp the that God can can like everything is in his presence. Everything is his sight his his ability to perceive. But then that timeless factor like all things are in his presence it collapsed in one moment and or a moment.

Isn't even the right word is omni-temporal. Yeah. We're gonna have another quote about the omni presence that gets into the time thing in a second again but that I think the.

Time thing really blows my mind. I think of him as outside of time so almost as if since time was his creation as well. He's not existing through time the way we are. He's outside of that. He could you know.

I almost think of it sort of in our own primitive terms as kind of like a flip book like he can flip backwards or forwards however he wants. He can look down the corridor of time backwards or forwards however he wants because he's outside of it.

Piggyback on something you.

Say it or talk about omnipresence years ago. He has relationship with everything he created which is something the mind can't even get their head around but everything he has a relationship with.

It's amazing. So let's start reading some verses again with each one of these categories that I'm going to talk about. I probably have 15 to 20 verses in the document but we're only going to go over about five so so you know after after this is all done I'll provide a link to this and you can just toss it in and look at all the other verses because there's a lot of them for each category.

So does someone have Isaiah 66. One I did okay be the second and it says one B.

Second okay what is the house that you would build for me and what is the place.

Of my rest probably probably. Put put should have put a and B then won't you.

Just follow directions. This is the Lord. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me and what is the place.

Of my rest. Okay that's what. That was my sense. Yeah. So heaven's my throne the earth is my footstool. How can we describe the expanse of what what is in God's presence. You know he's there in heaven he's there on earth he he sees it all.

He's he's right there. And obviously we can't contain him in a building made by a man. Right. That is not going to happen. Although many people treat God like a like a puppet or a statue or you know something that they can contain and box in and do whatever they want with it that's that's not the God of the Bible.

Someone have first Kings 827. But will God indeed dwell on the earth.

Behold heaven in the highest heaven cannot contain you how much less this.

House that I have built. So that's very much the same kind of idea as the last verse. Who's the builder there. So first King. Yeah Solomon had a great idea in his mind and he wanted to honor the Lord and obviously wanted a place where Israel would worship centrally.

But that building was not going to contain God the Lord. Not at all about Jeremiah 23 23 through 24. My God who is near declares the Lord and not a God far far off. Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him declares the Lord.

Do I not fill the heavens and the earth declares the Lord. So there's a lot of rhetorical questions in there. Hmm. Is he a God who's near and not a God who's far off. Can a man hide himself in hiding places so he doesn't see.

It's rhetorical questions. The answer is no. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth. And that rhetorical question answer is yes. And there's going to be some implications to all this in our lives and the unbelievers lives.

Well let's read a few more verses regarding this. Well I only have I only selected one more. We'll read this one. Psalm 139 is a. There's a couple of sections here so it's longer. Do you have that check.

Yes. Verse 7. Where shall.

I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence. If I ascend to heaven you are there if I make my bed and show you are there. And then verses 11 and 12. If I say surely the darkness shall come over me and the light about me by night even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the.

Day the darkness is as light with you. Is there any place that God does not see. Where can I go from my spirit. I guess I didn't quote some of that stuff because it says if I make my make my bed on the wings of the morning and sail to the outermost parts of the sea and there's no place there's not going in.

Is that.

Good news or bad news. It's good news for the same bad news for the unsaved.

This is relative. Well let's think about what this means. Right. We're out of need. It wasn't good news they were trying to hide from God. I think we all get in the hide mode sometimes where we're a little bit ashamed of what we've done.

But let's talk about the benefits of the Lord always being there. There's a lot of verses in the scriptures right. This is I will always be with you. Guy says that in Joshua early on when I the Lord commands him to be strong and courageous do not fear for I'll always be with you.

And of course we remember that from Matthew 28 as well where he is giving the Commission to the disciples. You know the Great Commission to go out and make disciples of all those nations baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit.

You were so I will never leave you or forsake you. Right. There's a lot of verses that talk about so will he ever leave us or forsakes. No he can't hit. So he will always be there. And there are a lot of scripture verses that talk about us not fearing because he's right there with us.

So when you're right there with your wife and you hear the report she has cancer he's there. He's there with you. Sometimes we might not feel like his presence is there with us. And during some of these difficult times you know you lose your job or someone is mistreating you some way and you think oh Lord where are you in all this.

But these things we need to have locked up in our minds and in our hearts to know he is there and he is a good father. And we're going to find out you know later we're going to talk about his faithfulness and the things he does in goodness and righteousness.

He never does anything bad. But he's there with you when you're in trouble when you're in need he knows all the things that you're going through and he's right there beside you. Sometimes we don't feel that way but studying the Lord for who he is and kind of breaking down the scriptures.

You know this is kind of a topical study right. Even we're studying the nature of God and his his attributes. But these things we need to lock up to know who the Lord is and what he's done for us. So is there any other any other thing comforting about him always being right there.

I mentioned maybe a couple things but provision. He knows what we need and provide. CS Lewis says this. This is our other time verse which is interesting. Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments following one another.

If a million people are praying to him at 1030 tonight he need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call 1030 1030. And every other moment from the beginning of the world is always present before him.

That's another one hard to get your head around. So it's like you know if we try to do something we have to do it serially. Right. Yeah. Okay this guy prayed. I better listen to that listen. You know that's not the way God is.

God can can handle everything in a moment or expand everything you know. And time just doesn't matter to him. Because he's over time. He's outside of time. This is Matt said. And to know that your need or your prayer is his child comes before him.

Just as importantly as another believer who's praying at the same time maybe for something totally different. It's not going to whiz past him because he wasn't paying attention to. Right. It is a great comfort to know God is that amazing.

And can handle all of these things by his wisdom and his power and just by his essence just by who he is. And Ron I didn't see you come in. But it's good to see you back there. I'm here. Yeah you and your wife are having a competition on how beat up you can you can both be.

It's good to see you. Any other thoughts about God's omnipresence for the believer. Is it always comforting. Is it convicting sometimes. Mm-hmm. And we don't always.

Realize it we should though right right. When at times it doesn't. God's with us.

When we turn that computer on he knows what we're looking at. I wouldn't go.

Ahead. Do you know that there's a lot of passages that talk about the fear of God and I think of that and I'm right or wrong but I think of that as an awareness of God of his existence of like you said about time and space and everything that it's an awareness and there's a lot of different verses that speak to the fear of God and I don't I don't know that it's something that we have to be afraid of it's reverent but it's it's an awareness of you know like.

You said of reverence to it's a purifying force in our life because you know even even the Lord said if you know if the servant knew at what time his master was going to come home he would have made sure his house was in order.

And you know kept things you know operating the way they're supposed to be instead of slacking off. Well for the believer the true believer and obviously the Lord has left us as stewards over the life that he's given to us and and the experiences and relationships we have with other people.

We are stewards of all the things that take place in our lives. And he is right there it's it's not like oh you know the master's gone away and you know I can I can goof off for a while. There's a purifying factor in this knowing that he's right there with us and we want to please him in all aspects.

We want to walk in a manner worthy of our Lord. And it's a joy when you are doing that. And it's pretty convicting when you're not because he knows when you are like I said turning on the computer turning on the TV you know doing whatever you're doing that might not be something that he would do like if the physical Jesus Christ was in your presence.

And you've heard this kind of thing before. Right. If Jesus was right there with you would you be watching that movie that you were watching right now. Well he is. So it is a very healthy thing for us to remember these things.

And it's a purifying factor in our lives now for the unbeliever it it's it's not necessarily convicting but because it yes the Holy Spirit does convict the unsaved world of sin righteousness and judgment.

So there's a conviction of the righteousness of God. And they understand that even though they're suppressing it in their hearts and they're not worried necessarily about you know walking in God's ways.

They know they're making you know steps in their lives that are going to be judged one day. But they try to suppress it suppress it suppress it. But I think when I think of the omnipresence of the Lord that there is nothing that's ever going to be hidden.

You know the unbelievers try to do their their deeds in darkness so that men don't see and men might not see. But the Lord sees all. So there's not going to be anything that an unbeliever ever does that is not revealed certainly at the last day.

But everything is going to come to light. And that's a scary thought. Yes it's a.

Very scary thought for someone who's an unbeliever. Hebrews 4 13 says every creature is not hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to the.

Eyes of him to whom we must give in again. That's a good one. There's a lot of them like that too. I don't have written down necessarily in this but but that is that is the reality for the unbeliever and and that's why we preach the gospel because we don't want anyone to go through being in a situation where they have rejected God their whole life and then come before him to give an account.

Of their deeds because they will. I mean it's the when we speak the word word sweet-smelling savor to those that are going to be saved. And we stink to everybody else. Yes um. And we should make ourselves stink a little more.

Yeah.

You're right. We're gonna smell one way or another okay. God's justice that's next on the list. How would you describe justice. We all want justice. When we think of justice what is what is justice in general.

We think about a court system.

When somebody's violated the law or broken the law he's got to meet justice.

For that violation do payment for an act. Okay. And you were gonna say something similar a just result of actions. And and we like justice. Right. We we we want things to be made right. Things that are not right.

We want things to be made right. God is totally just and he will not overlook sin. He will not overlook things to sweep things under the carpet to be bright. It's impossible to bribe God. He will never do anything that's unfair.

All his judgments are perfect and just. He's the Supreme Judge and he must judge those who violate his law. And that's a very comforting thought to those who love the law of God and love him. Amen. So yeah we'll talk a second about what that means to the believer in the unbeliever.

But let's turn to a few verses said Deuteronomy 32. For this is one of my favorite verses. Deuteronomy 32 has that one. I do. And I've marked out. Let me see right here 32 for it says. Okay. Fourth verse.

Okay he.

Is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are justice and the God a God of truth without injustice righteousness and upright is he I love.

That verse I mean it's great. The only problem is that I'm going to use it probably again. For God is truth and God is faithful to use it two more times. But that that really is a beautiful picture of our Lord 32.

For how about 2nd Chronicles 19 7. Does someone have that now. Then let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do. But there is no injustice with the Lord our God or partiality or taking bribes.

That's the kind of judge we want. Impartial right. And we'll have no part in unrighteousness at all. Okay how about some. You know I think I didn't write a lot. You know there's like I said I have about 15 or 20 in each section.

There's a lot in like Psalm 89 to 99. I can't remember how many times it talks about the Lord being the just judge over all the earth. This is one of them though. Psalm 89 14. Righteous and justice are the foundation of your thrones.

Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Amen. When you think about the Lord the foundation of his throne righteousness and justice. And the different. We might as well talk about this right now.

The difference between righteousness and justice is. Can somebody maybe think about that. And like what's the difference between righteousness and then justice. Is it. Are they compatible or they complimentary.

Or you know how does one. Or are they equivalent like I said I think back to.

The court system if you violate righteousness you will face justice. So.

I would say they're complimentary. Yeah because being right totally right doing right all the time is righteousness. If any of these things on the righteousness side is broken or violated then justice takes over and must judge that and penalize and penalize that which is you know broken the righteous law of God.

So they're hand-in-hand they're not exactly the same but but thank God he is a righteous judge. Let's turn to Revelation 15. Three. Someone have that.

One. That's Russ. Okay that's a long one Russ take your time. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God. And one song the Lamb sang. Great and amazing are you. Are your deeds Oh Lord God the Almighty.

Just and there you were. Just just and true are your ways Oh King of the nations. And just in there again the.

Justice of God. And it looks like we have. I have one more circled in this section. So Psalm 98 8 9. You got that. Yeah. The rivers clap their hands but the hills.

Sing for joy together before the Lord for he comes to judge the earth he will.

Judge the world with righteousness and the people's with equity. And sometimes we read that and we know that this versus that sometimes we think how long the Lord like the the Tribulation Saints we've seen Revelation where they have seen wickedness being poured out on the earth.

And they're saying Lord how long. How long before your justice and your righteousness comes. When you think about justice for the believer God's justice how can we be. How can we be encouraged. How can we be comforted by the fact that God is a just God.

For up you know I was.

Listening to you know survivor of Hitler's Holocaust the justice will come because Hitler and his SS soldiers will face justice better this world than the next but they will face God's justice so anybody that commits a crime here in any way if they're not judged down here they'll be judged in eternity.

That's.

Guaranteed and that is a comfort. It is a great comfort because we're not going to see man necessarily institute righteous government all the time. Now the government and the authorities have been given by the Lord but they're supposed to institute righteous judgments and righteous laws.

And when that happens that's that's a wonderful thing. But it doesn't always happen. Does it. Sometimes we see things that are very very evil on the part of governments and men. But we need to hang on to these verses in Matthew chapter 5 where we see that blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the king or no.

I guess it's the rest of the humble for there's a king of heaven blessed the poor in spirit it's not for they should oversee God. That's the peacemakers. But you guys know the Beatitudes and in the middle of those Beatitudes there is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

They shall be filled they shall be satisfied. I hold on to that verse because there's a couple there's a couple levels to that verse. I think because one is if you are if you have the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 first of all you want your own life to be filled with righteousness and we often don't measure up to that God's righteousness.

But one day we will because we're going to be conformed to the image of Christ and he is going to transform our corruptible state into an incorruptible state where we will sin no more. So we will be filled in that sense our longing and thirsting for righteousness in our own lives.

But there's also an expanded view of that which is we also want to see God's name glorified on this earth and righteousness ruling and reigning on this earth that we would not see injustice anymore. You know babies killed in the womb.

We talked a lot about that recently and many many other things you can think of where men do evil things. And sometimes we lose fact or we lose sight of the fact that God sees all he knows what's going on.

All things are going to be revealed and his judgment is going to come and he's going to bring about righteousness in our timing. We would say well it should happen now. You know why doesn't happen now.

It needs to happen now. That's when we need to just trust the Lord because he knows exactly what he's doing and he will judge in righteousness. It is going to happen. And of course the way we've been studying the end times recently it's been very very much on our minds that that judgment could be ushered in at any moment.

Really so as believers we have a great hope that there is going to be righteousness restored on this earth and we can count on that because our God will judge the nations in equity. So anything else you can think of as far as God's justice for the believer.

Well.

First of all we don't think I know we're talking about justice in a general sense but as human beings we don't have the capability understanding justice. We simply do not. God's justice is completely different than we can put and capsulize.

And you read through Psalms on every on all aspects of how they reach out and try to figure out judgment. That's that's the trap. Trying to figure out his justice. You cannot do that just from the simple fact that he's omnipresent and omnipotent and he and he sees the before during and after that that he knows justice.

But we have a great hope you know. And there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Romans 8 1. And so you know the appreciation that he did for Jesus Christ allows to have that type of justice be manifested in our lives.

And and that's that's the great hope. But to fall into the trap and I think that that in darkness plays with our minds in that sense because it's like poking a finger at us saying okay where's God now.

Where's God now. Figure it out where's God now. Where's God now. And people can fall into that trap of what is happening in their lives and actually be stuck in it they cannot get out of it. And and I think there's a good case to say that a lot of people have walked away from the Lord because of that because they were looking for that justice instead of you know realizing that if he was truly a just person the way we think we wouldn't even be here like you like we wouldn't be existing right now.

Well there are many people in.

The scriptures who stumbled over yeah the God they expect as opposed to the God who is amen. Yeah because there are many that would say well if you were God you would do this exactly like we would know exactly what God because like that.

Can a loving God let evil continue to exist. Well we have to remember his time is not our time like you said he's above time you know. So one day it says a thousand years to the Lord God will inaugurate his justice in his time.

Now I.

Didn't mention this but Ivan touched on it just now which is for the believer. We also deserve God's justice because we have all fallen short. We all deserve the good health right. But we know his justice has been satisfied through the offering of the Son Jesus Christ.

Amen. So is that a little bit of a reason to rejoice. Yes indeed absolutely. We know that his judgment is not going to befall anybody who puts their trust in Jesus in the sacrifice of his son just as Ivan's.

Quoted in Romans 8 no condemnation now there is a no condemnation now not.

Tomorrow right. I'd like to refute one thing. You said mm-hmm you said we can't know justice. We can know justice where he's told us where it's just that's true. It is communicable. This is communicable.

Yeah I for an eye. Mm-hmm. That's justice. Right. For example. So we can't get too esoteric and I have been much learning has made you insane.

It's funny. Well you know one of the things suffered that same accusation.

Right here in good company. Look. We look about when Samuel was was looking and he was told from from God to pick another person and and he was very in fact said don't look at don't look at a person. Look at.

He's looking at his heart he's looking at the motivation he's looking at what is going on there which is a different type of justice than compared to human beings. Look at. I'm gonna use.

Dave I was just gonna say that God gave us the Ten Commandments so that we could recognize you know what what sin is and how. Because you know we try to follow the Ten Commandments but we fall short but it those commandments so give us a recognition of what sin is.

So even if we can't follow that at least then we can identify and and. So that somehow works into our seeking of justice as well and.

And we remember the Galatian versions right that says the law was given to be our to our tutor right right to lead us to Christ because we couldn't keep the law the law was always there demanding this perfect obedience to it and it was it was given by the Lord to show us yes we failed and we need a Savior.

Yeah and.

That's a good thing that reminds me of another C .S. Lewis quote he said there is.

A straight line. That's how we know when something deviates. Okay to the unbeliever. Similar to what we've been talking about though. Obviously the unbeliever. Their works are going to be judged. Their life is going to be judged before.

They're gonna give an account for what they've done everything they've said they've thought again. A very scary position for someone who has not put their trust in and wants to live by their own way. So.

But that's going to be fair in his judgment. No one is good going to get anything they didn't deserve. He will be fair in his judgment. Okay. EL. Eternal life. This is similar to what we talked about before where we said.

God has the attribute of a saty which means he's self-existent. Nothing brings him to life. He is not a created being. He has never he has never not been. Remember I messed up with a double negative before.

He has never not been he will always be. That's easier to say because it's on the positive side. He contains life within himself. No one is gonna kill God. It's impossible to kill God even though it's was it written on the subway in New York.

City or whatever. No God is in God area you know Frederick Nietzsche. Yeah God.

Is dead yeah she is dead yeah God exists. Now let's read a few verses and talk about what that means to us and just be in awe of who he is. Isaiah 43 13. Also henceforth I am he there's no one can deliver from my hand.

I work and who can.

Turn it back. Oh man what are you reading out of there.

Could you read the first part again. I'm henceforth. Oh so I'm sorry. I also. Hence forth. I am he. There is no one that can deliver from my hand. I work. And who can. Well it talks about his sovereignty.

Again I acted. Who can reverse it. Again. We'll talk about that. But henceforth. I have his eternity. Even from eternity. I am in the NASB now. I didn't look up the Hebrew word on that because there's like I said I have 20 verses that point to his eternality and his his life existing you know all in of itself.

Somebody else have maybe have KJV or NKJV on that. Just for kicks. It's Isaiah 43 13.

Oh okay indeed. Before the day was I am he and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I work and who I revert. I work and who will revert whoever who.

Will reverse it but I think. But the point of this particular thing is is from all eternity he has been. Let's read Colossians 117. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together before all things.

That's the you know there's a lot of other nuances that come out in all these words. Obviously he's a creator of all and he sustains all things he holds up. So there's more than just his eternality. But that's that's part of that verse.