Systematic Theology (part 9)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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A loving and most gracious Father, Lord, we are here this morning to reflect upon who you are, how you've revealed yourself to us in the pages of Scripture, and how,

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Lord, you sent your Son and you gave us your Spirit, that we may know the one true

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God in the perfect Trinity. Open our eyes this morning that we would adore you and that we would worship you as you deserve to be worshipped.

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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. All right, so we'll do a very brief review and then we'll get into our new material.

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This is probably the class that you're going to take the most time to go through. This is theology proper.

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We're looking at the doctrine of God. And there's very few places where we can just sit and rest except in the presence of God himself.

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So you have in your handout the biblical presentation of the

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Trinity, and we looked at the attributes of eternality, power, and omniscience, and we started omnipresence.

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We'll continue that today. But for the first three attributes, eternality, when you look at those references there, the

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Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal. Well, what thoughts come to your mind as you reflect upon the eternal nature of each person of the

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Trinity and how this eternal God relates to us as temporal beings? God is not the new guy on the job.

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And that is the thrust of Psalm 90, where Moses is talking about the eternal

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God, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Here we are in the wilderness. We don't know where we are going.

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We don't look to the mountains because even before the mountains were created, from everlasting to everlasting, excellent.

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And any other thoughts on eternal nature of God and how it should evoke worship?

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Just a comment on the Holy Spirit. And if you remember, the reference in Hebrews 9 talks about the eternal spirit and the eternal inheritance that we have.

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Even though we begin in time, we are going to spend all of eternity with God and the spirit of God, the eternal spirit of God is the one who assures us that we will indeed spend all of eternity with God.

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So as we reflect upon the nature of God, there is great confidence for us. And as our eyes are open to the nature of God who is so different than us as temporally created beings, we trust in Him and we open our hearts in worship to Him.

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How about power? What about the power of the

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Father, power of the Son, and power of the Holy Spirit evokes worship or brings your heart low, bow down before our mighty

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God? Amen. We think of arm power, we think of a lot of different powers, but when we think about the category of God's power, that is just transcendent.

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We can't even visualize what it means to create ex nihilo. That's incredible.

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In fact, what you quoted goes well with the power of the

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Son in 2 Corinthians 12, 9 where Paul was also looking at this thorn in the flesh and Christ says to him, my power is made strength.

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Give me a second, I'll say that rightly. Perfect. My power is made perfect in weakness.

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And so we get to see how this power of this omnipotent

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God is with us, not just to make us sufficient on our own, but to showcase

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His power through our weaknesses. And therefore we get to be agents that bring glory to God as His power is revealed even in our brokenness.

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And for us, and that's outward, and when we look at it inwardly, we have the power of God Himself indwelling us, and what encouragement should that be?

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Any other thoughts on power? Again when we talk about the power of the

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Father in 1 Peter 1, 5, it talks about how we by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation made ready to be revealed in the last time.

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And once again, it's the power of God that guards and superintends each of our lives that we would reach our destination in heaven with Him.

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Alright, so the last attribute in review, omniscience. What about the omniscience of God ought to evoke worship?

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How ought we to think of the omniscience of God today in each of the persons of the

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Trinity? Is it terrifying that God is omniscient? Yes, Corey, amen.

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All things actual and possible, God knows it all, and He sovereignly decrees what is according to His perfect will, and we can trust in Him.

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So the verse in Jeremiah 17 is, I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, and we see how

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God's knowledge of those who do good in order to reward them and those who do evil in order to judge them.

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And God is omniscient, so He, you know, your labor is never in vain because the Lord knows what you do unto

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Him. And likewise the wicked have no hope of escaping from, you know, like God was not sleeping when wickedness was being committed.

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Revelation 2 .23, we have a similar verse for Jesus, I am He who searches the mind and heart, and there to Thyatira, He talks about the church, how

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He knows what they are doing, and likewise He talks about the wicked there, the woman

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Jezebel, and how He will reward according to their wickedness. And then in 1

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Corinthians, we saw this interesting passage about the Spirit of God who indwells us, who knows the mind of God, and who reveals the things of God to us.

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And so it just gives you a picture of how our knowledge, you know, just as how we are created in the image of God and we reflect

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Him, we now get to know things through the Spirit, by His Word, things that would not be possible for us to know otherwise.

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And one of the joys in heaven is we are going to get to keep knowing Him forever and ever.

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Things that we now enjoy and cherish in part, we will continue to grow in for all eternity.

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And that's a great hope as we look forward to what God has, that we would get to know

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Him in greater measure. So that brings us to the third attribute, and this is omnipresence.

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And we defined it as being in every place at the same time. And on the one side, because God is everywhere, there is no place where you cannot enjoy

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God. God is everywhere, no matter what circumstance, what situation, what place you are in. And also,

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God is able to save and rescue His people. There is no place too far for His hand to reach.

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Thank you. I would gladly be corrected, rather than spout things from here that are wrong.

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You are right. God's presence extends into hell. And those in hell will face the wrath of God, not

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His mercy and His grace. I should have been more precise in saying it's the elect who get to enjoy

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God's presence. Well, you're here or not, there is no place that you can... Like, we're going to be looking at one of the references where the psalmist says, you know, where can

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I go? And, you know, you're always there. But there is going to be a place one day for those who don't trust

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Him. They will be in God's presence, but it will not be enjoyable.

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Thank you. All right. So we looked at the attribute of the Father and how

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He is a God. The verse was, Do I not fill heaven and earth? Am I a

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God at hand and a God not far away? And he talks about how he is with those false prophets who are dreaming things and making up stories for God.

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And he says, I am there, right there, when people make these false claims about me. So the presence of God reminds us that...

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and just as a deterrent to sin, how inclined would we be to sin when we are conscious of the fact that God is right here?

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You know, there may be many circumstances we would like to justify, explain away, but if God were right here with us, as He truly is, that ought to put a check in terms of how we want to glorify

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God in the choices we make. All right. So let's come to the new passage. And this is in...

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we are going to look at the omnipresence of the Son. If someone can read

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Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, we will begin with new material.

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Matthew 28, 18 to 20. Thank you, Carol. The previous passage, when we think of the omnipresence of the

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Father, the challenge for us in our minds is always to remember God is in heaven, on His throne, ruling perfectly.

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And yet, this God is not limited in heaven. He is with us. God the Father is truly omnipresent.

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Now when we look at the Son and His omnipresence, the Son of God... Oh, one of you actually emailed me this week about a passage in Hebrews.

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And it's... Jesus is probably the most enigmatic person you'd ever meet.

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Because we had this series in Sunday school talking about the humanity of Christ and the divinity of Christ.

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He has two natures. He is eternally the Son, and He took on His body at a certain point in time.

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And so when we think of the omnipresence of God, once again, we need to remember there is much that is revealed about who the second person of the

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Trinity is. And what about His physical, corporeal body? Where is the physical body of Jesus Christ?

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Or I should say the spiritual, the glorified body of Jesus Christ?

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It's the right hand of the throne of the Father. And I think the Bible is pretty explicit, talking about how

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He is. And in fact, in Acts, we get to see the Son sitting, standing up in Stephen's martyrdom.

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And there is a location where we have the physical body of Jesus Christ.

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Do some Christians, some quote -unquote churches, talk about the body of Christ here on earth?

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What do they mean by the body of Christ here on earth? Is this what it is they are? Does this verse give credence to them?

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But before that, in what ways do people sometimes think that His physical body is here?

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Okay, so there is some sense in which they would take John 6 incorrectly and they would take the bread to somehow become the body of Christ or in some physical way that Jesus is here.

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Now, Matthew 28, 20 is not talking about that.

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It is not talking about the physical body of Jesus Christ. It is talking about the deity of Christ and the fact that He is indeed omnipresent, that He is truly with us today, not in His glorified body.

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So, let's now come to the context of this verse. What's happening in this

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Great Commission passage? Just think about the physical presence of Jesus Christ, what it is that these disciples are going through, and why this, the very end of Matthew, is one of the most encouraging verses for them, for these disciples and us to have today.

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In the context of what is happening in the end of Matthew 28, in the end of Matthew. Yes, we will talk about the

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Spirit in the next section. But yes, the Spirit hadn't come to indwell believers until this point.

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So they are, I think if you just take the first part of what you said, here is Jesus, three years, three and a half years,

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He has been with them intimately, giving them salvation, helping them understand the truth about God, who

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Jesus is. He has been with them in all the ministry that has happened. He has equipped them. And here

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He is, the greatest tragedy, the cross, the greatest victory, the resurrection, and then

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Jesus is now going away, and there is a world that is anti -Christ, if you will.

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You know, they have just crucified Christ, and that's the world that Jesus is saying, you need to now go, you know, all authority in heaven and earth given to me, go, therefore, okay.

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You know, we know what the Romans want to do, we know what the Jewish authorities want to do, and Jesus is leaving.

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And Jesus is assuring them that He is indeed with them. To the end of the age, and I think that can talk about various faces in the history of God's redemptive plan, post beginning of the church, and there is no place, literally, that Jesus is not present as His authority is executed through the lives of feeble and frail people like these apostles and like each of you here today.

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Did someone else want to add to what? Yes. Would it be okay to say my mind hurts?

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Isn't that just so wonderful? You know, just to look at these ways in which we know, and there is certainly truth to all of these elements that we just described.

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I think Pastor Mike quoted, was it Sinclair Ferguson? What's God doing at any point in time? You know, He's simultaneously exercising all of His attributes perfectly at this moment.

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And, you know, when we think of the omnipresence as one of those attributes of God, you know, it's... and you actually brought together

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His sovereignty in terms of how He handles with creatures that are made in His image to be able to make choices on their own and how

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God's sovereignty and responsibility work together, how God is superintending, providing for, and sustaining, and yet, you know, the prime mover in all of these things.

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So I think you just brought together many aspects, and I didn't know that there were three... So you said that there were three primary ways in which people are...

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No, but I think everything that you said, I cannot think of something that would be biblically contradicting.

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I mean, the theory would not contradict what the Bible says. I think the challenge for us is, as finite creatures, you know, to try to put all of those things together would be very difficult.

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In fact, even if we just go back to omniscience, I try to think that one of...

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I think the next one is holiness. When I think of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of even saved creatures, and I try to put them together and I say

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God is actually omnipresent with them, to me, that just doesn't compute. And then

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I realize the patience, the loving -kindness, the mercy. There are other attributes of a God that just are at work here that, in my mind,

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I just can't comprehend. How can this be? And yet God is so exercising all of his attributes in such a wonderful way to bring us to our destination.

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So I think what you said is great and I think that's really the purpose of this Adventures in Theology is we know some truths about God and we want to ponder on them to reflect upon the weight of what it means when we read something like I am with you always to the end of the age.

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And how ought that to impact the way that I live my life today, what

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I'm looking for to happen tomorrow, or when I'm on my deathbed ready to pass on into eternity.

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And as we look at these things that are happening in our lives, we want to always keep our eyes focused upon the omnipresent God that our hearts would be in worship whether it's for today, tomorrow, or for the end of our lives.

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Thank you. I will not answer that.

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We are talking the Trinity here. Any other thoughts on the omnipresence of the

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Son? Emmanuel, God with us, he took on flesh on our behalf and showed us what it means to live a perfect life and even though he is now at the right hand of the

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Father, he truly is with us. Let's move to the next passage. If someone can read we're going to look at the

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Holy Spirit and his omnipresence. Psalm 139 if you can read from verses 5 to 10.

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If you have trouble with understanding the Father being on the throne and everywhere or even the

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Son with his body and his presence true presence and with us

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I think the Spirit probably should be the most easy for most of us to understand. And I think this is a good passage to look at.

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Who has Psalm? Thank you Haley. And I think there was a one of you mentioned earlier where the disciples have not had the indwelling

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Spirit while Jesus was with them. When he went up into heaven he sent he sent another comforter the

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Holy Spirit who would indwell them. So in the Old Testament you have the

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Spirit of God coming upon the saints leading them and guiding them but you don't have the ongoing presence of the

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Spirit in the believer's life. And for us here we are looking at Psalm 139 as believers we have the

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Spirit of God indwelling us and he will never leave us. We have other consequences of this you can grieve the

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Spirit but the Spirit of God is with us always. Now we look at this particular passage,

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I mean Psalm 139 is I'm sure in the favorite list of many of you, although we ought not to have favorites in the verses.

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Psalm 139 is just one of those passages that evokes the loving kindness of God the goodness of God that just watches over each of us inside and out in this particular passage actually verse 6 such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high

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I cannot attain it and I think that's one of the one of the joys of knowing who our

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God is our God is not someone that we can just comprehend and put a box around him and understand him. He just extends beyond everything that we can even think of and so as we think as we understand more, as the word of God becomes more alive in specific ways as we connect verses together and say oh wow

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God is so big and yet he is bigger and grander and greater and our finite minds can never fully encompass him.

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But in verse 7 he says where shall I go from your spirit, where shall I flee from your presence and then he gives the limits, you know, go up to heaven as high as I can go

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God's there and then as low as I can go in Sheol he is there. I take my wings in the morning, go all the way east and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea and no matter where I try to extend my limits,

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God is already there. And then he concludes in verse 10 in this section your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall hold me.

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And again theology is not just an academic exercise. It's not about how well can I understand the omnipresence of the spirit

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I know some of the medieval theologians had all these concepts they were trying to figure out spirits, how can

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I limit them to a point in space and that's really not the issue here.

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The issue here is the active volitional goodness of God that is present in our lives no matter where we are.

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So let me stop here let me maybe open this up for a few moments.

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Think about the omnipresence of God whether the spirit of God or the other persons of the

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Trinity and how this is a source of encouragement to you.

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Maybe today maybe in the past or as you just reflect upon what we are reading here what are some things that come to your mind in terms of worshipful heart attitudes toward our

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God. I just want to think about that for a moment. If I were to die right now or I knew

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I was going to die which would be much more for you for us to ponder on the very fact that God is there.

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Yesterday we went to this truth and how men like Tyndale died for the gospel and it's just the confidence that believers can have this is not just a flip of the coin there is this

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God who is with me even in the darkest of times and I think when we think of that even death and then what else can come my way before I pass on into eternity that is too hard for God to be present with that God is too busy to be in my life at that point in time if God is there with me in my deathbed certainly is here with me in these events in life that come by which on my own

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I may not have the ability to face we talked about the power of God and Paul talking about the thorn in his flesh my power is sufficient for you because I am with you and my presence will uphold you through this time what else about the spirit of God and his omnipresence his presence with us at all times

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Amen I think we also heard earlier about the revelation of God to us and now by his spirit and I don't know how many of you can remember this especially coming from a

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Christian background at some point in time your eyes are open and you realize that this is not a God far away he is with you as he is communicating to you through the word

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I was reminded of 2nd Kings chapter 6 where the king of Syria comes against Israel and Elisha is the prophet and you have this

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I'll just read you don't have to turn there and the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning saw the army and the chariots all around the city he says alas my master what shall we do he said don't be afraid for those who are with us are more than those who are with them and Elisha prayed and said oh

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Lord open his eyes that he may see and so the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha and then the event goes on as God works powerfully in this political situation you have the angelic hosts that God has sent to protect and when we just think of that event it just literally opens your eyes once again in terms of the provision of God and then when we go one step further that the

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God of all of these hosts is actually with us and that our eyes would be open consciously to worship him as we pray to him as we hear from him in the word of God alright so when we think of God as Emmanuel the triune

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God he who is with us who can be against us and we ought to be enjoying his presence in our times of worship alright so let's go to the next attribute of holiness who wants to define holy what does it mean to be holy holy you can think of 1st

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John 1 .5 God is light and in him is no darkness at all it's like figurative language in terms of how

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God is holy and without sin he is separated from all evil and sin but S.

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Lewis Johnson says this he says as to be healthy is more than not being sick so holiness is more than the absence of sin it is a positive healthy state of being right and pure I think that was a good definition in terms of both the righteousness and the purity and the wholesomeness of God in contrast to the absence of any kind of evil wickedness or sin some other definitions include perfect purity integrity and many a time when we think of holiness we can look at it from our perspective how are we called to be holy one of the actually that may be easier for defining in what ways are we called holy or called to be holy and I think the creator creature distinction comes to the fore here and I think we are going to see a passage where that sense in which believers when we are called to be holy are set apart sanctified laid aside for the

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Lord and in a distinct way in contrast to the world and everything else around us and we will cover that and I think one of the definitions here that goes with that is consecrated to God or is worshipped that which is separated to the service of God alright with that let's get into the triune aspect of holiness we will look at revelation 15 in a moment but I want to pick another passage first one that is much more explicitly focused on the father and his holiness and then we will touch on revelation 15 so if you can turn to first Peter 1 and if someone can read verses 14 to 19

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I think that's a good place for us to begin with first Peter 1 14 to 19 yeah 14 to 19 so here when we look at the holiness of God and the mandate that it plays upon the believers life we want to begin with the nature of God first so what are some things pertaining to the holiness of God that you see from this passage because he is holy he cannot judge partially he has to judge impartially it is one of the attributes the moral character of who he is and therefore his actions will conform to his character and I think this is one of the key things that most non -believers get confused about as if you know a moral standard is this you know abstract impersonal entity that is out there and God somehow measures up to that and therefore you know we need to measure up to this abstract principle the

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Bible is explicit that all of these whether it is justice or any of the other executions of holiness they find their source in the character of God it is because God is just we understand what justice is we understand the standard of justice that we are called to live out and therefore you know when you see the

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Bible especially in the New Testament you will see here is what God has done for you here is who God is and therefore you must do this if you look at Exodus 20 you know this is the

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God that drew you out of Egypt and here is what he has done for you here is how you must worship him and the holiness always finds holiness of the believer always finds its goal and focus in the nature and character of God and here we are told

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God is holy in verse 15 he who called you is holy and we are kind of getting ahead of myself but you have to think of the relationship of the one who is holy to the ones who are called to be holy so God calls us and we are now going to be seeing in the next verse there is a covenant relationship between the holy

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God and the people who are called to be holy by him there is a quote from verse 16 let me just read that for you as it is written you shall be holy for I am holy and there it is from Leviticus 11 44 and 45 and there we see for I am the

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Lord your God Lord Yahweh covenant keeping God your God and then he says consecrate yourselves therefore set yourselves aside apart from the rest of the world you are special to me and be holy be separated be pure be righteous because I am holy be holy for I am holy and then we have a very interesting if you remember

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Leviticus 11 this is about food laws dietary laws so here he says you shall not defile yourself with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground for I am the

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Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God you shall therefore be holy for I am holy so there are areas in which we see the aspects of righteousness and moral actions and you see other areas in which you are separate, different, distinct because God calls you to be distinct and here is a quiz

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I just found this out by myself what is the penalty for eating an unclean animal or swarming thing what is the penalty if you broke the

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Sabbath in the Old Testament not now sorry to be careful that's right it was severe you were to be stoned to death for breaking the

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Sabbath now what about this what was the penalty in the Old Testament for eating an unclean animal

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I mean you know what Peter does in Acts 11 when God says go and rise and kill and eat no no no the

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Old Testament is explicit your word says I will not do it and there is an end of a dispensation there but close what happens is you are defiled you become defiled and so you need your ceremonial unclean you cannot participate in the worship and the fellowship of the saints so what will happen if you did violate this law is you are considered unclean and you cannot come before the presence of God and worship that's what happens by the defilement there is no some of the other laws have a strict penalty from what

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I understand the Jewish people added penalties to it if you eat certain animals you would get four strokes or something like that but in the

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Old Testament there is no penalty other than the fact that you are actually cutting yourself off from the presence of God for a season and that's the sense of holiness my

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God is holy and you are called to be holy you are to be different from everyone else and you are to be like your

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God and so if you just now come back to 1 Peter 1 and then the charge here now again looking at the ethical moral ramifications of the righteousness of God the call there is conduct yourselves with fear throughout your times of exile and verse 14 do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance so here is how we used to live here is our human nature if you will left to itself but now that we have been called by one who is holy and he concludes in verse 19 you've been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ the lamb without blemish or spot without any unholiness without any impurity this is the standard this is the person who has made a covenant with you and called you and he is a fair judge and you want to live your life in a way that would be pleasing to him all right let me stop there for a moment so just thinking about the holiness of the father and how that draws us to a life of holiness and pleasing toward God any thoughts on the holiness of the father yes excellent point and let

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Charlie comment and then I will those are great points actually I do

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I'll probably read up a little more before we are almost out of time when I come back next week but I've heard more than you know

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I've heard several theologians talk about how holiness is one of those central aspects of God as who he is and that it like you said

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I think you used the word dynamic things flow out from that I do want to say something and I think that's important I because we'll be closing in a few moments

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I'll just say this now we'll pick this up next week when we think about the holiness that believers have and you mentioned this very well we think of salvation as justification sanctification and glorification the justification the place where we are declared not guilty and where our sinfulness is placed in the show on the shoulders of Christ where he pays the penalty for them and therefore

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God is a righteous judge when he declares is not guilty he has already paid he has already poured out his wrath on Christ on our behalf and so when he gives us the active righteousness of Christ you know there is something that we actually gain that we did not earn on our own when we talk about sanctification that's the root word is holy you know being made holy being sanctified and again it is we'll see in a moment next week next time the spirit of God is actively involved in sanctifying us he is the

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Holy Spirit who is involved in making us conform to the image of Christ who is the

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Holy One who has lived the perfect life we could never live and so we have the work of God in sanctification and then we have this passage talking about our necessity to not conform our actions our conduct to that of the world to separate from we have a responsibility there is a there is this is justification is monogistic

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God does all of it on his own and synergistic in sanctification where you see from Philippians 2

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God is the one who gives the will he is the one who enables us and we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and so this becomes this beautiful walk with the

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Lord as believers today as we day by day are being made more and more like Christ so and you know much as we look forward to that state of glorification when sin will no longer be in our presence anymore because we'll be in the presence of God and glorified forever there is this face in time and space where God works through frail creatures like us where his holiness is transforming horrible sinners like you and me and that brings glory to him because he is able to bring out from wretchedness beauty that will last forever all right let me stop here any thoughts or comments let's pray our most holy

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God our righteous judge we come before you this morning fully remembering that we deserved your wrath and judgment and even

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Lord as we look at your attributes in the pages of scriptures your presence with us your holiness that you have granted us and Lord your love that has been poured forth on the cross and shared by your spirit

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I pray father that you would give us hearts that continually overflow with love toward you give us eyes that would look to the pages of scriptures to be filled with knowledge of who you are give us eyes oh lord to see the events in our lives as opportunities to draw closer to you to worship you and give glory to your matchless name but this morning as we continue our worship