The Importance of Attributes-MVBA message

Worshiping God as He Declares Himself to Be

Well, before we jump right into the message, I just want to tell you guys that it's an absolute privilege to have everybody here in this building, and the opportunity to go through some texts with each other, and to preach on the texts I've selected today with us here.

It is a little bit different of a challenge thinking about it, because there's pastors here in this building, and so it's kind of strange being a pastor, preaching with other pastors listening. But it's going to be the same message, if there wasn't any pastors here either way.

So that's the God-glorifying thing, that we're going to be sticking to the Word of God alone for this. But before we begin, I'm going to go ahead and start with a word of prayer. I would invite you to please start turning to your way to Revelation chapter 4 as we go.

And I know you might be thinking in the back of your head, he's not talking about eschatology today, is he? Because I bet we could all get a different understanding of what we're about to read. But we're going to be focusing on worshiping God, is what we're going to be focusing on here today.

So be keeping that in the back of your mind. But just let us open in a word of prayer as you turn that way with your Bibles or your respective devices. And if you don't have something like that with you today, there should be a Bible in arm's length for this church.

So please, Revelation 4, and let us begin with a word of prayer. Lord God, as was already prayed, Lord, I just want to lift up each one of these churches that are here today, Lord. God, I would just pray that the things that they are going through, and the praises that they have, that you would hear those things, that you would be glorified in those things, Lord.

And we want your will to be done in those churches, Lord. God, I would just pray that you bless each one of the men here that have the privilege to be able to preach upon your name and be built upon your rock, and to go through your word, Lord.

I just pray that you keep them true to the word, as well as myself in that area, Lord. God, I just pray that those churches, that they just might, continually focusing on worshiping you as you describe yourself.

Would be in your word, Lord, and that you would be glorified in it all.

Lord, lift up this message today, and Lord, I would just pray that it would be anchored upon your scripture, and that there would, if there's error that is said, that no one would hear it, no one would remember it,.

But the only thing that would be remembered would be your word above all else, Lord.

We just want your will to be done, and we say this in your name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Amen.

So, turn with me to Revelation chapter 4, and I don't have my sermon notes, so I go, and just as a precursor, as we're turning there, my face is red, because I was out evangelizing yesterday for eight to ten hours at Pocahontas, at the Temple Open House, and so that's why my face might be a little red, and another thing is my throat literally feels like it's on fire right now, I've been talking so long, so if I need to take a pause to cough, I apologize for that.

But also, just in Revelation chapter 4, where we're going, it's been a habit of mine, as we have the opportunity to live in Twin Falls and to travel out here to Hagerman, with how I'm situated with work and whatnot, I get the privilege of having a 40-minute drive to really meditate and pray upon what the message is going to be, and so usually in that time, there'll be prayer that's consistent of that, and I'll usually have my wife read my sermon notes as I drive.

And so as she was reading it today, she got done reading it, and she was like, Brady, this is going to be a long message. And so I will try to cut down a little bit for us so that we can be able to get lunch, but when she says that she can recognize that it's going to be a long message, I was like, okay, I've got to maybe think about this a little bit more.

But we're going to be in Revelation, let me open up here, Revelation chapter 4, verses 8 through 11, and we're going to be really focusing in on that portion of Scripture, but we're going to be also going into chapter 5, and we're going to read verses 1 through 14, because we see God being worshipped in that text, and I think it's really important for us as church members and churchgoers to see how God is worshipped so that we can mimic that worship to Him.

So let us read in Revelation chapter 4, verses 8 through Revelation chapter 5, verses 1 through 14. So this is going to be a mighty portion of text here. So it says in verse 8, And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within.

And day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they existed and were created. Let's continue on into chapter 5 here.

And it says,.

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside, and on the back a seal, a sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping.

Behold the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne four living creatures and the elders and lambs, standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

And He came, and He took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, having each one a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals. For thou wast slain and did purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders and the numbers of them, was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Most worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessings.

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all the things in them, I heard them saying to him who sits on the throne, May the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Like I said, this is a cool text.

This is something that would take a long, long time if we wanted to dissect everything in here.

We're going to focus on worship here today,.

So let us pray one more time before we jump right into Revelation 4, verses 8 -11. Lord God, we just thank you so much for this text in here. God, we thank you for the privilege it is to worship you as you are, Lord.

And God, I would pray that this text would force each one of us to worship you more properly and worship you in the proper manner and worship you, Lord, as you described yourself to be. Lord, that it might just give us a deeper theology in this area, a deeper Christology, that we might know your Son, Jesus Christ, even more today, Lord, and that we might worship him as God in flesh.

Lord, this is only and can only be done by being built upon your foundation, Lord. And so, God, I just pray that we be planted upon it here today and throughout these next coming weeks and months and years as we go back to our churches, Lord, and continue to present each other with the gospel of this good news that we have.

So, Lord, once again, let you be glorified today, Lord. Just your will be done. We just say these things in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. So, before we begin in here, church, I want to go back to verses 8 and 11 and help us understand kind of a little bit what's going on here for context.

If you don't know, this is the book of Revelation, not the book of Revelations. It's one singular. Not only that, it was written by John, so on and so forth. There's a lot of different understandings on how we should be looking at the book of Revelation.

But the point that I think that we can take from this is that the book of Revelation is full of symbols. Full of them. Chalked full of them. And so, in here, we see God sitting on his throne, and there's a lamb that comes out, takes the book from him, and he's worthy to open this book that nobody else can do.

Nobody else can do this. And we see that the lamb is talked about as being Jesus Christ, the lion from the tribe of Judah in there. I want to be clear that the worship that is directed to God on his throne is the same type of worship that is directed to the lamb.

And in Revelations chapter 19, and I think this is important that we point this out before we jump right into this text, but Revelation chapter 19, verse 10, says this,. And I fell at his feet and worshipped him.

This is speaking of John worshipping this angel that is talking to him. He says,. And I fell at his feet and worshipped him. And he said to me, Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God. We are to only worship God alone in all things, and we should never try to worship one another, that's a great thing, because they do not deserve to be worshipped.

Period.

And so we see that the lamb that was worshipped never rejected the worship that was being given to him. Because why? What did Revelation chapter 19 say in verse 10?

Worship God.

And that is what the lamb was, who the lamb is. It is God, Jesus Christ, God in flesh, receiving worship as he deserves. So let's now go back to Revelation 4, and I think it's important to point that out so we can understand that worship is meant to be placed in the proper place, into the proper being.

So let us look at now verse 8, and we're going to dissect this a little bit, and I want you to be paying close attention to the attributes of God that are spoken in here. The title that I've given this sermon, this message, is The Importance of Attributes.

The Importance of Attributes. Attributes have been not only on my mind here lately, but it's been on our entire church as we look at the attributes of God throughout the scriptures. It's something that we've been seeing every single Bible study, every single prayer meeting, every single Sunday worship service, is that we keep on seeing that there's noncommunicable attributes that God alone possesses, and we are quick to identify them.

It's been a pleasure to see them. So let us look at what attributes are being spoken of here by those worshiping God. It first says in verse 8, let's read the whole verse, it says,. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night.

They do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Now immediately I would hope that your mind goes right back to Isaiah chapter 6, where once again Isaiah sees God on his throne, and he sees the cherubim and sephirim calling out to each other,.

Holy, Holy, Holy.

And we see in John chapter 12, verses 37 through 40, it says in that text that who was it that Isaiah saw on that throne? He saw his glory speak with Jesus Christ. We see this theophany, this Christophany is what that would be called, a picture, an image of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, a visualization of Isaiah seeing Jesus, God the Son, on the throne.

And so we see that this Holy, Holy, Holy has been being sung by angels of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, with God from creation. It's been always happening in this way. And so we see what the definition of Holy would be according to Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3.

Holy is an attribute of perfection, sinlessness, and inability to sin, a pure and sacred thing. And there have been several books written on the holiness of God, and that is just a quick, short summation of the definition of Holy.

And we see that the angels are singing that to God. Let us continue on and see what the next attribute that is spoken of here in this text. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord. And I want to pause there. That title, that name, Lord, would be the possessor and supreme in all authority.

So God's title in this text, being Lord, carries with it an attribute that He is supreme. He is the supreme being. Let us continue on. God the Almighty. God the Almighty. What does this Almighty mean?

I would ask you, are any of us Almighty?

No.

No, God alone is the only Almighty. So what is this attribute of God here in Revelation 4a mean to be called the Almighty? It is to mean to be all-powerful and ruling. And there's an omni-word that's called for this.

It's called omnipotent. That He is all-powerful. None of us are all-powerful. That's an attribute only God Himself has. God the Almighty who was and who is and is to come. This is another attribute of God that we see in here in this text.

Who was and who is and is to come. This would mean that God is not created. And He's eternal and He's from eternity to eternity. He's that Alpha and Omega. Because He is eternal and has created us, we have been created.

And by nature are different than God. Because God is uncreated, we are created. Are you starting to see in this text now how the attributes of God are just falling out of the mouths of these angels? As well as the elders as we're about to see later on in this text.

It's just, they're worshiping God as He has shown Himself to be throughout the text. Throughout the entire Bible. So let's keep on reading to this. Who was and who is and is to come. And when the living creatures give glory.

When they give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne.

To Him who lives forever and ever.

Once again, speaking of the eternity to eternity. The self-existing God that we worship today. It's so important that we understand that God is not created in this text. That it's showing Him as the eternal God that He has described Himself to be throughout the entire Old Testament.

Thank you very, very much. So let us continue on in this. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne. To Him who lives forever and ever. The 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship Him.

They're worshiping God in this text. They will worship Him who lives forever and ever. And will cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy art thou our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power.

For thou didst create all things and because of thy will they existed and were created. I want to focus on some of the attributes that we see here in verse 11 too. We see, worthy art thou our Lord and our God to receive glory and power.

For thou didst create all things. So that's another attribute of God that we can worship Him in is being the creator of all things.

He's created it all.

In fact, in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 17 says this. It says, and He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth.

Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. So let's go back to Revelation chapter 4 verse 11.

For thou didst create all things and because of thy will, God's will, they existed and were created. So God holds all things together. He's created all things and we get to worship Him as that, the creator of all things.

The sustainer of all things in this text. Isn't that beautiful that we see an example of angels and elders falling down before the throne of God. Worshipping Him as He is. I hope that as we've seen this last hymn after the message today.

You pay close attention to the attributes that you are worshipping today. Because that's what these beings in this text are doing. They're worshipping God as He is.

So remember that.

And I hope you've been doing that continually. So let us let us look now again in verse 11. Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou didst create all things and because of thy will, they existed and were created.

And so now brothers and sisters, I have a question for you. Because we see this term used over and over here in chapter 4 and chapter 5. Worthy are you. We see that the only one that is able to open the book that is sealed is the Lamb because He is worthy.

We see God being worshipped here in this text because He is worthy. Why then is God worthy of worship? And this is a serious question. Why is God worthy of worship? And I want to read that text one more time in verse 11.

Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. Verse 9 in chapter 5 it says, Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its sins. Verses 12 says, same with the loud verse, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

To Him who sits on His throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. Why is God worthy of worship?

He is holy.

He is the Creator.

He is the Almighty. We exist because of Him.

I hope we realize something in this text. The answer to this question of why is God worthy is simply because the attributes of God is what makes God, God. And those attributes, those non-communicable things, even the communicable attributes of God are things that should deserve worship from us being the creation to worship the Creator.

And this is so, so important here in Revelation. Because if God was not Almighty, would it be right for them to worship Him as the Almighty? If God wasn't holy, would it be right for these people to worship Him as holy?

I would encourage you to think about songs that you sing in worship and songs that you like. I want you to think right now. Can you sing anything that these angels or elders were saying to God and singing to Him?

Can you sing or say any of those things to your brothers, sisters, mothers or fathers or wives or husbands, your sons or daughters? Can you sing any of them to anybody else besides God? You look to another person and say, you are holy.

That's a lie.

They are not holy.

They are sinful. You call them the Almighty.

They are not. They are not.

Attributes of God is what makes God who He is.

Now, I ask that question.

Think about your worship that you have, about songs that you listen to in your personal time, or maybe even songs that you are using at church. Can you sing those songs towards your loved one, towards your father, mother, son, daughter, so on and so forth?

Because if you can't sing those songs to your wife, your husband, that is completely contradictory with what we see as worship in the Bible. These angels don't sing to you and I. They sing to God on this throne.

Elders don't fall before your feet.

They fall before the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so now I have this. This next portion of this church is something that's been deeply, deeply on my mind in this last year, and I think it's very, very important.

Would it be OK for us to say, well, God is holy, holy, holy, but I don't like the fact that He is the creator of all things. I'm going to lessen that attribute. Would that be a fair thing to do? If I have my son up here right now, and he is, let's just say he's two feet tall, has blonde and blue eyes, and his name's Shepherd.

And I was to tell you about him, and he was standing here, and I said, yeah, my son is eight feet tall, he has brown eyes, he has red hair, and his name's Jake. That's my son. You're going to look at me and say, you don't know who your son is because you don't know the attributes of him.

That isn't your son. Your son's two feet tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, and his name is Shepherd. So I would ask of us, church, if anybody claims to be Christian that does not declare the attributes of God in Scripture, that should throw up a lot of red alarms to you.

That should make the airs on your neck stand up, and it should cause you to confront that person and to try to glorify God as He says He is because He deserves to be worshipped in such a way. He deserves to be worshipped in that way.

I want to turn to a portion of text here, like I said, that has been on my mind now for this last year. It's going to be Philippians chapter 2. My church, the people that have been here, have heard me talk on this in private conversations in much detail, I would say.

As you're turning there, though, I want to remind us of what an essential of Christianity is. An essential of Christianity is something that God says you have to believe in X or else you will receive Y.

Or, when He says you have to believe in X and the Y can be assumed. Let me give you an example of such. John 8, 23 -24. Jesus says to the Pharisees and the people around Him, He says, Unless you believe I am, ye shall die in your sins.

A positive and a negative. Somebody can't be believing in Jesus Christ or the Bible if they say He is not the I Am, the self-existing One, the One that has rebuilt His name in Exodus 3 .14 and has used that name over 6 ,000 times in the Old Testament.

If you deny that Jesus, you don't have Jesus. You don't. I use this analogy quite frequently. I say, if I said if I had faith in Jesus, you might say that's a really good thing. But if you ask me about that Jesus that I'm talking about, what happens if I said that it's Jesus down at Fred Meyer in Twin Falls and He's my cashier?

You'd say, No! Don't put your faith in that one. Does that Jesus deserve worship?

No.

The Jesus of the Bible, the self-existing, the Great I Am, deserves worship.

The Almighty.

The land that was slain. That's the Jesus that deserves worship. Turn with me though to chapter 2 of Philippians. Chapter 2 of Philippians. And I want to read in here verses... We'll go ahead and read verses 6 through 8 currently.

And this is very, very important, brothers and sisters. This is something that I think is... This is absolutely a heresy in many Christian fellowships today. And it worries me. And I hope that we can understand why this is so worrisome after this text.

And I want you to remember that those that were worshiping God in the book of Revelation were worshiping Him because He had the full attributes of God in that text. Remember that. To lessen an attribute of God is to make a different God.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 through 8.

It says in here,.

This is speaking about Jesus. And you might be thinking, well, what's the problem in there? What heresy were you just talking about? There's a heresy called the Kenosis Theory. The Kenosis Theory. I want you to go home and study that.

It came about in the 1800s. So it's only 200 years old. So that should throw some red alarms in your mind too. But the Kenosis Theory was... I'll just use these two names as short because I can't talk about their whole full name without mispronouncing it.

But it says, Frank and Guest were the ones that found this. They were Lutheran German pastors and teachers in the 1800s. And they were trying to understand and rationalize texts about Jesus Christ in the New Testament and His humanity.

And what they did is they said, well, Jesus can't know all things because in Matthew 24 verse 36, He says that no one knows the time of His second coming. So Jesus can't know all things. Jesus can't be omnipotent.

Omniscient.

He can't be.

And then they would say, well... And then it says that Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature. So He definitely did not have the attributes of God while in body form. And as I'm saying this, I hope hairs are standing up on the back of your neck.

I hope you're sitting there saying, what in the world is this person saying right here? It's a heresy that I'm saying. This is heresy. And so then they would go to this text and they would find it here and focus in on verse 7 here in Philippians chapter 2.

But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. That word emptied is that kenosis that is being described as the kenosis theory. And so the person that believes in this kenosis theory says, Well, you see, God, when He became flesh, dumped Himself, deprived Himself, got rid of all His divine attributes.

What are those divine attributes that are given by that? Omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. And let me try to show you how they try to rationalize this text. And without going through the minutia of Matthew chapter 24 and the questions that are being posed to Jesus.

So Matthew 24 verse 36, it says, Let me start in verse 35. And so they say, well, see, Jesus, of course, can't know all things because He doesn't know the time of the second coming. Only the Father does that because the Father is fully divinely and attributely God.

But the Son is not this. Frank and Guess would even go on to say that Jesus, when He ascended to the right hand of the Father, never picked back up those attributes that He dumped Himself on. Not good.

I see the pastors around the room shaking their head. No, that's not good, right? And we'll talk about it a little bit more. So then they would say, well, anytime that Jesus Christ demonstrates an attribute of God, it's always through the Holy Spirit that He does that.

And they would turn to Matthew chapter 12 for this. Matthew chapter 12. And they say in Matthew chapter 12 verse 28, you see, when Jesus Himself casts out demons, He says, but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God and the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And so they say, you see, Jesus was only able to do this through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through His own divine attributes. And so that's why He can't be. They'll try to say that they believe He's fully God and fully man, but they will say that He's not divinely attribute.

So what is the issue with that? Did Jesus get worshiped while He was walking on the earth by His disciples and those that loved Him?

Yes.

Why was He able to be worshiped as such? Because He was fully God in flesh. When I say fully, I only hope you to say fully God in the flesh. So how are we to understand Matthew 24 verse 36 in this text?

I want to talk about Philippians chapter 2. Who is it that says in verse 7 that emptied Himself? It was Jesus that did this. So we're talking about the second person of the Trinity here. It was Jesus that did this.

I want you to pay close attention to Matthew 24 verse 36 again. Matthew 24 verse 36. Matthew chapter 24 verse 36 says, Now what chapter came first, chapter 12 or chapter 24 in Matthew? Chapter 12. And He makes mention of the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus has already mentioned the Holy Spirit all throughout His ministry. And what does chapter 24 verse 36 say? No one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. So I would ask the person that believes in the kenosis theory, did the Holy Spirit become flesh and dump Himself for all divine attributes?

Does the Holy Spirit not know all things? And they don't know what to do with that. Because here it says the Father alone knows this. Well, if you were to read a little bit before in verse 35, That's claiming of divinity by Jesus already in that text.

The words that He speaks will not pass away. Will not pass away. To give a little bit more context and tradition to it, it was an honorable thing to give honor to your Father at your marriage ceremony to say, I don't know when the marriage is taking place, only my Father does.

He gets to dictate the place and time and where and the means that I get married in. It's the traditional context of Jesus Christ's day 2 ,000 years ago. And so now we can rationalize why Jesus would say such a thing.

It's because He honors the Father in everything He says and does. And that is why He would say a statement that of that time, no one knows but the Father. It's an honoring statement. Not one that is talking about Him not being fully omniscient.

Not fully omniscient.

Let's go back to Philippians chapter 2. And now, with that in our minds, let us see what Philippians chapter 2 really is getting at in this text. And I want to start in verse 3. It says, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

But with humility of mind, let each one of you regard one another as more important than himself. What is that speaking of in this text? Humility. Humility. Verse 3 is, You are to be humble if you were a Christian.

You are to hold each other higher than yourselves in every way possible. If your friend is cold, you take your jacket off your back and you give it to him, and you be cold so your friend doesn't. That is what this is speaking about, is humility.

Verse 4 then goes on to say, Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus. Speaking of an attitude now,.

What's the attitude?

Humility. I would ask, if verse 7 is what the attitude we are to have,.

Ourselves, brothers and sisters,.

Do you have any divine attributes that you can dump yourself of?