Attributes of God Pt1

The Sovereignty and Attributes of God

Getting this to record. The next topic, the next couple of topics have to do with the sovereignty of God, the attributes of God. And so, we're going to take a couple of weeks to go through it and the different aspects of the character and the being of God.

And so, I hope that that will be profitable to us, because you can never get enough known about God. I mean, that really is the essence. You remember what Jesus said, he said, this is life eternal, what?

To know thee, the only true God. And I will say this, that I do believe, well, let's pray first. George, would you pray?

Father, we thank you for this fellowship. We thank you for the beautiful blessing, having granted us the moment to take advantage of learning from your words, to be made more into the image of Christ and to be fruitful in kingdom work.

We thank you for.

These things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, as I was saying, I think there is a real neglect on people's part, not to truly seek to understand, not that God is, but who he is. In other words, and I'll read something from a book by Arthur Pink, and it's called, Gleanings in the Godhead, this volume, and he's got a whole series of things.

But one of the things he says, let me just read that to you. He says this concerning, he's talking about the solitariness of God. And he says this, perhaps the title of the chapter is not sufficiently explicit to indicate its theme.

This is partly because so few are accustomed to meditate on the personal perfections of God. Comparatively few who occasionally read the Bible are aware of the awe-inspiring and worship-provoking grandeur of the divine character, that God is great in wisdom and wondrous in power, yet full of mercy is assumed by many as common knowledge.

But to entertain anything approaching or inadequate conception of his being, nature and attributes, as revealed in scripture, is something which very few people in these times have done. God is solitary in his excellency.

And so what I think he's saying at the beginning of his book on the attributes and being of God, and it's really a worthwhile book to read, is that many people just take the reality of God being as just common knowledge when it's not.

And not only that, but I believe we make too much of ourselves and too little of God. In other words, do we really contemplate not only that God is, right, because we first have to believe that he is and he's a rewarder of those who seek him, but to really think about God in his personal character and being.

And so many people just kind of go right past that and never spend much time on the reality. I wrote some scriptures down, and the first ones on the left we'll look at a little bit, and then if we get to the ones on the right, that's fine.

But would you agree that we make so much of ourselves, and we make so much of man, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't commend men for great things, and there's been great men, but certainly to make so much of man and so little of God, I do think that we miss, if you will, so many blessings that we could have, because again, well, the subject for this morning is, in a sense, the incomprehensibility of God.

What does that mean to you when I say incomprehensibility? That's what I thought. It means that God is beyond complete understanding. Would you agree that God is beyond complete understanding? In other words, it's never going to get to that point where we can say, I understand everything about God.

God is so far beyond us and so far above us, and we'll look at some scriptures on that, that it's impossible for us to fully comprehend him, and yet he's been pleased to reveal himself to us in a way that we can have some understanding, right?

And even that is, if you will, it blows my mind. Just take like what it says in Psalm 90. It says, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Okay, how many of us can even begin to comprehend everlasting to everlasting?

Being finite creatures limits us to understand someone who is infinite, agree? That we can't, I mean, we get to the point, we talk about someone who's, I don't know, how old the oldest person in the world is right now.

Maybe it's 107 or 108. Actually, I saw an article the other day with some, was it a Japanese woman or something? She lived to be 109 or something like that, and she was revealing the secret of life and how to do what she ate and what she didn't eat, and she took a shot of booze every day, and she said that kept her going to 100 and whatever it was.

And we look at that and we say, man, that's amazing. Or we could look even at the, in the beginning when men lived 800 years, 900 years. Methuselah lived in what? He's the oldest recorded man. He's 969 years, but try to take that and put it in an everlasting setup.

Put it in a no beginning kind of thought. When you start to meditate on that, I will say this to myself, when I start to meditate on that, I become very fearful. It becomes so awesome in my mind when I can even begin to grasp that, that God has no beginning and no end that I become fearful because when God is pleased to smile on us in that way, and we begin to even just understand a little bit of Him, it's mind boggling.

I just thought of this, and I'll ask you to look at this with me because it's in Job 26. It should be Job 26. Let's take a look at that. And again, all I want to do this morning is really try to set in our mind some thoughts that are really hard for us to understand.

All right. It's in Job chapter 26. Pick it up with me in verse six. And this is Job answering and talking about how frail man is and how great God is. And in verse six of Job 26, it says, Sheol is naked before Him and destruction has no covering.

And He stretches out the north over empty space and He hangs the earth on nothing. And He binds up the waters in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. And He covers the face of His throne and spreads His cloud over it.

And He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven trembled and are astonished that is reproof. And He stirs up the sea with His power and by His understanding, He breaks up the storm.

By His spirit, He adorns the heaven. His hand pierced the fleeting serpent. Look at verse 14. Indeed, these are the mere edges of His way and how small a whisper we hear of Him, but the thunder of His power, who can understand.

I mean, that's of all that we could comprehend, that God has been pleased to allow us to understand. God declares that it's just the mere fringes of His way. And again, I say to you that as you and I think about the character of God and the being of God and the attributes, if you will, of God, that if we were to really set our mind on it, it is truly mind-blowing.

It's beyond our understanding. And even the psalmist says that in Psalm 145, it says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And guess what it says? His greatness is unsearchable. His greatness is unsearchable.

Again, not that we can't know Him, but to know Him in His magnitude and in His immensity and in His eternality. And then as we look at it in His omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence and all those omnis that are out there, that it really is something that should cause us, I think, in a sense, to lose our breath.

If it weren't for Him reaching down to us, and think of that in that way, that God, well, let me ask you a question. Was God obligated to reveal Himself to not at all, right? Was God obligated for His own glory to manifest Himself?

In other words, was God altogether glorious before there was anything? Sure. And that was within the Godhead, right? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And yet, God has been pleased to reveal Himself in such a way.

And in Psalm 147, it says, Great is the Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. And again, it's very hard for creatures of space and time to understand one who is outside of space and time, and who caused space and time to come to place, to cause men to have a definitive beginning and a definitive end.

And yet, the God who reveals Himself to us says that He has no beginning and no end, and that you and I should be able to grow in our understanding of that. And like I said, so few people have a desire to see God more and more.

Is that not what Paul many times prays for? He prays that the eyes of our understanding would be open, and that we would understand why. You remember what it says? It says that we would understand the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of the love of God, which is in Christ.

Again, that one came from that side, right? That one's the paper towel. That's the tiny ones there. Maybe they're playing dodgeball next door. So just think about it. How much do we really give to just being alone with God, not just asking God for things, but asking God to reveal Himself to us?

Because again, as I think about it, one of the best ways to learn more of God is to consider who He is, His attributes, His being. Because you know, there's a lot of people that don't even believe in that sense.

Like in other words, we have emotions. Do we not believe that God has emotions? Now, I'm not saying that God is moved by Him, because we could talk about the fact that God is simple, and I don't mean simple in the sense of God doesn't know what He's doing, but God is not made of things compounded.

God is, right? In the beginning, isn't that the way? It's interesting how the Bible opens up, right? In the beginning, God. There's no explanation in that sense, right? There's a declaration. There's a revealing.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so many people will say, well, who created God? And what's the answer is, from a Christian perspective? No one. God is. And that is baffling to a lot of people.

I've talked to people about that very thing, and people have told me, well, that cannot be, because everything has a beginning. Well, you see, from a finite standpoint, everything does have a beginning.

It has to have a beginning. And yet, we're talking about one who is outside of that, outside of time, outside of space, and the incomprehensibility of God doesn't mean we can't know Him. But I'll tell you what Sproul said under this topic.

He said, There is always more of God than we apprehend. There is always more of God than we apprehend. To me, it's like, have you and I not read our Bibles, and it causes us to think about something, and then at a later date, or at another time, we read it, and what does it do?

It causes us to think about something else. And so, as the Word of God is living and powerful, and the Word of God becomes, it ought to be fresh every time we read it. I'm not saying that's, I'm not saying you get a postcard from heaven every time we open our Bibles.

I mean, that would be great. But there is this reality that the more you study God's Word, the more you become acquainted or in line with what God requires of us. Well, the same way, and like I said, many people will think that, just take it from the standpoint we're made in the image of God.

And so, many people just divorce from their thinking the fact that that if we are a being, then God is a being, right? If we are moved, then God is moved, and we read about those things. Not that God has changed in His character in any way, but let me show you something.

I just, we're in the book of Job, and I just like Job so much, we spent two years in a study on Job, but go to Job chapter 35, and I want to show you, I hope it's in 35. Oh, yeah, okay. Look in Job chapter 35, and look at this.

And here's one of the friends, or supposed friends, and I'll read it from verse one of Job 35. Moreover, Elihu answered and said, Do you think this is right? Do you say my righteousness is more than God's?

But you say, what advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned? Well, now look at his answer. I will answer you and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and see.

Behold the clouds which are higher than you. If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give him?

And what does he receive from your hand? And your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man. See what he's saying there? He's saying that God in his being, in his character, in his essential glory, there's nothing that can be added to it.

There's nothing that can be taken from it. And as I said, that's why God was pleased to create. God did not create out of necessity. And God was eternally content to dwell in, I don't even know how to say it, what was here before this?

Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, how could, how can we even begin to, what was here before when there was nothing? What does nothing mean? You see what I'm trying to say? It's just, again, we cannot, we can go, it's almost like what God says about the oceans that he said and you can go thus far, but God says you can't go no further.

And in a sense, we can search out God and we ought to search out God, but we can only take it to a certain point. And that's where God dwells in his absolute essence and character. Look, I'm not going in order, so I'm jumping around.

I want you to look at first Timothy for a minute. Let's look at first Timothy. First Timothy chapter six, to set this up, look what he says. In verse 11 of chapter six, first Timothy says,. But you, O man and God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life to which you were called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until the Lord Jesus Christ appearing, which he will manifest in his own time, he who is blessed and only potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Now look at verse 16, Who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light, which no man has seen or can see, to whom the honor and everlasting power. Amen. Remember what we just read in Job, where it says that these are just the mere fringes of everything that we can perceive, is but the mere fringes of the power of God, of the glory of God, of the wisdom of God.

And if you put that in an eternal state, do we really understand that eternity is going to be an ever learning process? You know how people have this conception of heaven? Well, I don't want to go to heaven.

They just play hops and they're sitting on clouds and you know, and all that stupidity that comes out of people's minds. But if you and I think about it, listen, we are going to learn more and more about God for all eternity.

I can't even conceive of eternity, nevermind learn more and more, but yet there is this reality and the scriptures truly declare it that we are going to continually grow and learn more and see more of what God has purpose for us, but also to learn more of him.

And again, that's why it says this, that he will manifest it at his appearing, and he alone has that immortality, which no man can approach. And to me, that's what Paul says. He says this, he says, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who has known the minor Lord, who has become his counselor, who has first given to him and shall it be repaid to him for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

Amen. When you start again, it's going to take effort on our part to really try to understand, if you will, those things which are really beyond complete understanding. What does it say in Isaiah? It says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my way, says the Lord, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It should really, I get very upset when I hear people talk about God as if he's the man upstairs. I don't know how you feel about that, but, it annoys me, it offends me, it causes me to want to exclaim, God is not the man upstairs.

God holds, you think about it, God says he's named every single star. I was walking my dog this morning, it was about five o 'clock, and I looked up, and the sky was fairly clear this morning, and I saw the Big Dipper, and I saw, I think I saw the Little Dipper, and then I saw a whole bunch that I have no idea what they are.

I know there's the, what else is there, there's the Orion's Belt, right, and then there's Pallades, and then there's the Bear and the Cubs, and, you know, but just think about this, God says he named every single one of them, and again, I am trying to cause myself and cause us to try to contemplate what really is beyond contemplation, and it's not an easy task, and I think it takes effort, it takes, it takes time alone with God, and so you could think about it from that standpoint, how much time do we, if we had to do a pie chart, right, you know what a pie chart is, everybody knows what a pie chart is, and you had to put within that pie chart, just my own thinking, so it's pie chart, right, and in the pie chart, you usually will break it out, you'll say this percentage to this, and this percentage to this, and so on, right, and usually there's one that's bigger than the other, or some are smaller, whatever it is, let me ask you a question, how much time do we spend on asking God for things, so let's just say things, I would say that makes a pretty, pretty big chunk of that pie, wouldn't you agree, and then there's other things, you know, maybe it's, maybe it's is worship in here, and then there's confession and whatnot, but let me ask you a question, how many of us just spend time, what portion would it be if we were just to meditate, yeah, meditate on God's character, God's being, how much of our life is occupied by that, would it be one of the bigger portions, or one of the smaller portions, like I said, I think when it comes to things, we probably have to admit that that might very well be in the biggest category, but I will say that I believe that that's probably one of the most profitable categories, to just consider God in his being, what do you think Jesus did as he communed in prayer many times all night, do you think he meditated on the goodness and the greatness of his father, and yet he was the eternal son of God, how many of us can say that we've ever prayed for a whole night, anybody want to lie, no, we can't, it's very hard for us to consider these things, and to put them in, if you think about when Jesus, when the disciples asked the Lord to teach him to pray, remember, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, there it was, that's the opening, if you will, that we should come to God, and we should come to him as God, and many people missed, if you will, the forest for the trees and that, because they're more concerned with what either God can give, what God can do, or maybe we want God to do something to somebody else, or things like that, all right, I'm going to take a few minutes, it's 10 o 'clock, or a little bit after, I want to read something to you, and I'm going to ask you to go back to the book of Job, the book of Job is a really interesting book, if you haven't read it for a while, you should try it, read through it again, I want you to go to towards the end of the book of Job, when God comes, because if you remember, the outline of the book is, Job goes through all these trials, right, remember the whole thing when Satan came for the Lord, and he said that Job worshiped God for nothing, and that God had put a hedge around him, and God gave him permission to touch his life, and his kids, and all that he had, and then the friends come, and they have their input as to what the problem with Job is, and that's really a terrible outline, but anyway, as you get from chapter 38 through chapter 42, God himself speaks to Job, and God calls Job out, look at it in chapter 38, just let's read it just for a few minutes, we can't, God's words much better than my words, so it says, then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Prepare yourself like a man, I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations to the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know.

Who stretched a line upon it? To where, to what were its foundations fastened? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb?

When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, when I fixed my limit for it, and set bars and doors, when I said, thus far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop.

Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? He takes on form like clay under a seal, and stands out like a garment.

From the wicked their light is withheld, and their upraised arm is broken. Have you entered the springs of the sea? Have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place, that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the path of its home?

Do you know it, because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great? Have you entered the treasury of snow? Have you seen the treasury of hell, which I reserved for time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

By what way is light diffused, or the east wind scattered over the earth? Who has divided a channel of the overflowing water, or a path for a thunderbolt, to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, and a wilderness in which there is no man, to satisfy the desolate waste, and to cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass?

Has the reign of Father? Who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice, and the frost from heaven? Who gives it birth? The water is hardened like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the cluster of Pallades? Can you loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Maseroth in its season? Can you guide the great bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you set their dominion over the earth?

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go and say to you, Here we are? Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?

Who could number the clouds by wisdom? Who could pour out the bottles of heaven, when the dust hardens its clumps, and the clods cling together? Can you hunt to pray for the lion, and satisfy the appetite of the young lion, when they crouch in their dens, or lurk in their lairs, to lie awake?

Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about? And then you can go on and on and read through this, and what's interesting, he comes to the point where as he goes through this, and he continues to go through with Job, just flip over to chapter 42, I get so excited about this, I wasn't going to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway.

So he continually takes Job down. Can you imagine Job at this point? He's been, he's complained, he's never cursed God, but he has complained, and he has issued misunderstandings. So look at the first verse in chapter 42, Job answered the Lord and said, I know you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

You asked, who is he who hides counsel with knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I don't understand, things too wonderful to me, which I do not know. Please listen and let me speak, and I will question you, and I will answer you.

Previous to that, in chapter 40, just so you see it, he said, moreover the Lord answered, and Job, shall one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I am vile, what shall I answer you?

I lay my hand over my mouth once I have spoken, but I will not answer, yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. Interesting verse six of chapter 40. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, now prepare yourself like a man, I'm going to question you, and you shall answer me.

And he goes at him again. And you see what, if you read through these final chapters of the book of Job, you will find that it just causes Job to become breathless. And in a sense, we ought to be breathless at times about the character of God, and the being of God, and the power of God, and the immensity of God, and that God knows the thoughts that come into our mind, every one of them before we even think them.

And yet, as I said, in contrast, how many men take God's name and use it in a wrong way? Or how many people will say, God is the man upstairs, or they hear lightning and they say God's bowling. You talk about stupidity, to me, that's a pretty stupid thing to say.

There's lightning and it's God's bowling, like God is a man who goes to a bowling alley. And so we seek to glorify him a little bit, because we say, his bowling ball is heavier than anybody else's. I hope that at least we begin to understand that the God that we worship is beyond our full comprehension, and that we would learn to want to know more, and more, and more of him.

And that's why, like I said, I will say in my own testimony, Arthur Peck has a gleaning series, and it's seven volumes of books. And it's gleanings from Elisha, it's gleanings from Paul, it's gleanings from a couple of others.

But this one, when I bought this book, I've had this book, I don't know, probably 40 years. And when I first read it, it just opened my heart in such a way to read about these things, these characteristics of God, the being of God, the attributes of him.

Like I said, his immensity, the fact that he dwells in the light that no man can approach. It ought to really cause us, as I say, we have too high a thought of man and too little a thought of God. And I've said this from the pulpit, I've said it at any time.

The problem with man is he seeks to make God come down to us rather than us reach up to God. And again, all the foolishness of man, and all those things. As you read through the last part of Job, and as you read through the scriptures themselves, when Paul says that now unto him who is able to do what?

Exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think, do we really understand that we are praying to a God who is without rival, without challenge, without equal? When Jesus said that with men things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

Do we spend time in our daily lives meditating on those characteristics of God? Or, as I said, what takes up the biggest piece of our pie chart? Is it what God can do for us? Because, you know, I don't know, maybe you'll agree, maybe you won't.

Many people treat God as if he's the genie in the bottle, right? You call upon God for this, that, the other thing, and then when you're done, you put God, like the genie, back in the bottle, right? And God cannot be contained.

He even says that. He says, the heavens of heavens cannot contain me. And he says other things like, if I were hungry, would I tell you? And especially what it says in Job 35, and it's not just in Job, but it's in all places, we really can't add anything to God, except if you take it from, like in other words, God in his essential glory is absolute glorious, right?

Nothing could be added to him, nothing could be taken from him. In his manifested glory, we can, in that sense, add to the glory of God by our worship of him, our praise of him, our obedience to him, and that brings God a glory, but it's not, again, God doesn't get bigger as we worship him.

And God doesn't get smaller as men violate against him. God is forever, eternally complete. Okay, thoughts, questions, comments? What do you think?

The topic of incomprehensibility, everything that you said, I agree with. I think from the human perspective, I think we also can run the risk because of deductions made from scripture. We can go to the extreme and make claims about God that you shouldn't, or you need to be very careful how you lay them out, because not maybe for one, but because of who may be hearing can start to think about God in categories that they may sin.

So, you know, like what God can or can't do, I find those topics sometimes, you know, a little bit, I mean, it also depends who you're talking to, right? But if I'm talking to somebody who I'm trying to witness to, those are topics I don't go into, because what I think God can or can't do, maybe differ, right?

Or it may lead that person, because if that person sees me in a light where, oh, George seems to know what he's saying. And I might lead that person down a path that is not right. So the incomprehensibility I think is a complex one.

Just like with Job, and I like that you brought that up, because to me, the way I see the story of Job, God witnesses right from the beginning and at the end that Job spoke right. Job was a righteous man.

He spoke right. His friends spoke wrong. So when I read, who is this that darken counsels? I don't think it was so much that Job did wrong, but Job was wanting something that wasn't for him.

Yeah. And if you think about it, what does the end of the book of Job say? God tells his friends, you better ask Job to pray for you because you're wrong and he was the righteous one and he does pray for him and he does.

And I think I understand your point. And I agree, we shouldn't go any further than the scriptures allow us to go. But should we not go as far as the scriptures allow.

Us to go? Oh, definitely.

Right? And so again, when, and we're going to get into that topic of what you just said, as we look at the topic of the omnipotence of God or the sovereign rule of God, there are certain things that we could say from a scriptural standpoint that God can't do.

He says he cannot change. Right? I mean, now I wouldn't try to explain that in its totality, but I would say, because that's what it says in Malachi, I've changed not right. Or in Hebrews, where it says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So I can say that, right? I can say, God can't lie. As long as I explain it, is that if God lied, he would be going against his character and God's character does not change. Therefore, that's a, that's almost as silly as the question.

Could God make a rock so big you can't pick it up?

Right? So those are the very kind of studies started this morning. That's the thing. So somebody, God can't lie. I would say God won't lie because, and here's the reason why I agree with the fact that God can't lie, but I won't put it in those words only because someone could take it as though, well, then if God tries to lie, it's that he can't lie.

And so it makes the ability. I got you. I understand. So you're saying rather than putting it in a negative, you put it in a positive. God won't lie because he's God. Yeah. Or he won't change. Or he won't change.

Because his being is perfect from the beginning. So I agree with you, there has to be a more, a wider explanation if we don't word it right. But there are certain things that, and again, I agree with you also that knowing your audience, like, I think I can say that to you in this setting, that God can't lie.

But I wouldn't say it maybe in a setting with an absolute atheist, because again, it could lead down the wrong road. Right. So I agree with that. But again, as we close this morning, I just wanted to, and in the next couple of sections is all that we will cover.