Apologetics Session 18 - Theology - Part 3

Come together tonight and talk about you and we are so grateful Lord you've revealed yourself through your holy word and through your son Jesus Christ. And father through the revelation of who you are Lord we can we can know you we can enjoy you father we can walk with you.

And father we just pray that tonight Lord we would learn some more things about you and have a better relationship with you. And we thank you father for all the guys who are here tonight we pray Lord if anyone is on the way or they don't feel well tonight or whatever it may be please be with you guys.

We don't see tonight and we know Phil's and we're gone so we pray for him pray for safe travel and while he's a on visit with his parents there and father for just for the other guys who who might be on their way father we thank you Lord for tonight in Jesus name amen.

Okay guys this is a third session on theology proper. And what I'm going to do since we do need to move a little bit to get through this. I'm not going to read as many verses tonight which you know you can read them later.

That's fine. But we're happen to be on a topic and I'm going to see if you can guess the topic tonight because we already talked about God's omnipotence is on the presence his justice the fact that he has life within himself that he has he's loving he's a loving God.

And that's where we left off with love last time. So we still have a lot to cover. Let's see if you guys can figure this out. You don't have to turn to any of these. I'll just read them. So first Samuel 16 7 says.

But the Lord said to Samuel do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.

So that was in context with Jesse who had his sons before Samuel. And Samuel was saying oh which one's going to be king. Right. And the Lord said that he sees men differently than the eye he measured by the heart.

So Jeremiah 17 cents 1710 says. I the Lord search the heart and test the mind even to give each man according to his ways. Matthew 6 8 says. Therefore do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him.

I'll read Isaiah 46 10 and then we'll talk about this declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done. Saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

And I will read one more acts 223 the man delivered up by the predetermined predetermined plan. And for knowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. And there's many of the verses here I have.

I hope it was kind of clear where I was going with that. But the attribute we're talking about is what would you guess God's omniscience. God's omniscience is right and which means what all knowing he knows all things.

So that's why he can read the hearts of men. That's why you can know the end from the beginning. That's why there's nothing that you know men are going to do. That is going to be hidden from his eyes.

Everything is going to be open and laid bare for him. Who we whom we have to do. So God's omniscience all-knowing. If we think about that we talked about his omnipresence which is somewhat related because that means God is is everywhere and sees everything.

But omniscience goes a little further than that. Right in a sense that well if you see something you can observe what's going on. But omniscience goes further than that. Right in a sense that you can't know their thoughts.

If you're on the present the thoughts the intent of the heart are all open to him and he can see all of these things. And then when it says that the Lord knows the end from the beginning it's not just that he knows like what's going on now or what has gone on in the past time.

He knows everything from all time now. So he knows what's going to happen in ten minutes. He knows what's going to happen in a hundred years on throughout eternity. So when we think of that as a believer what does God's omniscience mean for our lives.

How can we look at a God who is omniscient and say Lord this. But because you're omniscient this means lives completely from the beginning to the end. He knows before the foundation of the world. So he knows us perfectly.

He's on the temporal which means for all time for all time. Yeah you're. You're not going to feel something. You're not going to think something. You're not going to be fearful or anxious about anything without God knowing what you're going through.

He knows exactly what you were going through. He knows when you feel like you're abandoned by your friends. He knows that very well because he knows what it's like to be abandoned by friends. Right. And because he's all knowing and he's all wise we are not right.

We worry about all kinds of crazy stuff even just simple stuff. Sometimes you know like what's gonna happen with my car. Should I buy a new car right now. Should I not buy a new car. Do I need to change you.

Yeah. Well you should change the oil. Right. But should I change job. Should I not change job. Should I marry this girl. Should I not marry this girl. You know all these all these decisions we need to make if God is omniscience.

What should that say to us. We should pray all the time. We should ask the one that has all knowledge how to direct our lives. Right. Because if it's what does it say in James about he who asked for wisdom.

If you like Chicago give it to him. God's gonna give liberally to those who come to him as long as they don't doubt. Yeah without doubting in your minds or your hearts. But do we do that. You know I hope we do.

I think we do for the big things. You know we said oh yeah big things. Yeah. We're gonna go to the Lord. But sometimes for the mundane we would say the little things in the day we think oh we got this Lord.

You know no worries here. And that's when people fall off the roof of their house and break their neck or something like no you should pray prior before you get up there. We're gonna hit with a golf. That's right.

But it's right after. But we need wisdom all the time. We really do. I know I need it right. I mean I've been doing the same job for 30 some years. But I need wisdom every day things come up and I just you know even if you've done the things before main time it's like just please guide my hand sitting please guide my thoughts.

And just lay it before him. Because he's all-knowing and he's all wise too. And we could all use some wisdom and some knowledge anything else about the Lord's omniscience that that's encouraging or in a sense maybe convicting or a little.

Bit you know I just remember the story from Nehemiah when he met met the king he prayed before he spoke to the king he knew he lacked the wisdom he needed to ask the king to let him go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall.

Mm-hmm.

And that was a man who quickly knew that you know his his dependency was on the Lord. So that's a good thing to know. Now what about the unbeliever. God's omniscience. Good news. Bad news. For the unbeliever it's terrifying.

Yeah yeah for the most part. Right. Because he knows every thought that's ever been thought. He knows every word that's ever been spoken. And they're all going to give an account. I think in one way it's it's it's comforting because we he knows what it takes to to prompt a heart to get a response to.

So you know all those times when you're an unbeliever. And I'm not sure when folks in this room have made a commitment to Jesus where I was later in life. Right. So all those things I saw when I was in my teenage years in my 20s and all these things all these things God paired the steps so that at 26 my heart was ready to receive him and I can see him working through all these things that happen in my life.

And I don't doubt he's doing that for every unbeliever. Because that's the kind of God he is preparing their hearts to receive his grace. So that's good news. In one sense they need to respond though because the Lord will reveal himself in many ways and allow folks to hear the gospel.

But at some point and they need to respond. Okay. So let's tackle faithfulness. So let's for this one. Could I have Dave could you look look up Psalm 105. And Jack. Could you look up Joshua 21 45. Well you guys are doing that.

I'm gonna read a couple other ones. So we're talking about faithfulness now God's faithfulness. 1st Corinthians 1 9 says this. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord.

So it just declares his faithfulness there. But I like that verse in particular because it talks about our relationship that we have through his son Jesus. And then in Revelation 1911 it says this. And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.

And he who sat upon it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and rages more. Okay. So Dave do you have 100 verse 5. I thought you said 105 I'm sorry. Psalm 100 verse 5 of Psalm 100 verse 5.

Okay. Jack let's have Jack read Joshua 21 45. Not one word of all the good.

Promises that the Lord had made the house of Israel had failed all came to.

Pass everyone know that first it's a couple verses like that in the Old Testament it says everything that the Lord has promised has happened just the way he foretold it you know back in Deuteron. You know he's talking about the back in Deuteronomy and before that in Exodus and whatnot all of the law but also all the promises.

And he at the end of Joshua Joshua saying everything the Lord said happened exactly the way he drew it out. He's faithful to his word.

So Dave do you have that. Yes for the Lord is good his best best love endures forever and his face faithfulness to all generations. His faithfulness is not.

Gonna end. It's never gonna end. He's always gonna be faithful. I think it's in the first Timothy he says even if we're faithless he's gonna remain faithful because he can't deny himself so even in our lives.

If we have him in our lives and we are unfaithful he's still going to keep us on track as his children and straighten us out because he's faithful. He's a good father. Faithfulness is a beautiful characteristic and we'd like to all think that we would be faithful to right as God's children.

We should reflect his character and in all these ways to obviously we're not omniscient so we're not going to reflect that characteristic but faithfulness we can reflect. So what sort of people ought we to be as far as keeping our word being dependable at work being a good friend you know that kind of thing not being a Twitter not bowing out on a task because it's too hard but being faithful to the end.

And those are the kind of folks that are that are God's children because we reflect who our father is. And that's a very good thing. You know it's funny because I if you think about faithfulness God's faithfulness and you think of a particular Bible verse that might stick out like a sore thumb.

I actually don't have it in here. The one I'm thinking of did any verses stick out in your mind like something about faithfulness that you would think of when you think of the scriptures. And like you see you could in.

One Timothy even though we remain we are faithless he remains faithful. There's a.

Lot of great ones right. Like I said I have 20 of them here but the one that I didn't put down is in Lamentations 3 which is God's mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. That's where we get the song from.

And it's and I think it's in 3 like 11 12 in there but I actually don't have that in there. So there's you know when you we look at these this document after we're all done and I populated out there one.

It's just a subset really of all the wonderful things that it says about. I just gave a sampling that you know I picked and chose choose from. But there's so many verses we could point to. And for the unbeliever you know his faithfulness.

Again the unbeliever even you know I think so many so many people when they hear God's Word and they hear about well you can have eternal life. You know he's never gonna leave you nor forsake you. And make a lot of people think it's just a hoax.

It's just that's not true. But to the unbeliever they hopefully one day are gonna realize that no everything God said is true and he's faithful to it. So thankful that God is like that. So let's turn to the next attribute of the Lord.

And to say this is one of my favorite. Well sure it is. But all of them all right. I'm gonna have Brad could you turn to 1st Samuel 1529. And Bob could you turn to Psalm 102 26 and 27 first Samuel 1529.

Yeah I'm gonna read a couple before you guys settle in there. So I'm gonna read Malachi 3 6. First off Malachi 3 6 says I the Lord do not change therefore you both sons of Jacob are not consumed. And that was a very encouraging statement because Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament.

He's talking about impending judgment but he's also talking about the forerunner who would end up coming. He is going to preserve his people Israel. He's not. He hasn't given up on him. And why. Because he is a faithful God.

We just said that and he does not change. Therefore his purposes are not going to be thwarted or changed. He is always going to be the same. And I'm gonna read Hebrews 13 8 and I think I think somebody quoted this last week Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and yes forever.

Brad could you read for Samuel 1529. And also the glory of.

Israel will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have.

Regret. Change his mind as it was in a lot of Bob. Could you read Psalm 102 that.

Was 26 27 26 and 27. They will perish but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment like clothing. You will change them and they will be discarded but you remain the same and your years will never end.

So what is the attribute we're.

Pushing out here immutability immutability. God never changes. And that ties back yes again into faithfulness and it ties back again to all his promises. It ties back again that we can trust him that he's not going to pull the wool out from under us and trick us in some sort of way.

His promises are true and right and they're always going to be upheld. But it also means the world doesn't like it because when there is a sovereign righteous God who has decreed that these things are right and these things are wrong and these things are never going to change.

People in the world do not like to come under that kind of strict that while say strict rule observation because they want to be in control. They don't want to be you know subservient to the Lord and they.

Shake their fist out some some to one of the nation's rage right. A lot to do with.

Truth has a lot to do with their truth versus the truth. You sound like somebody I heard a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't take kindly to that. No. Yeah. Truth is not relative. Truth is bound up in the Lord.

And and he he doesn't change. So all the things that he has declared all of his character all of everything that he does and it's all going to be. It's all going to come to pass. And he's not going to change his mind.

He is good. It's true and he's all we go. He's always going to be good and true. We're not at the mercy of a mercurial God who. I think some of the philosophers felt that way about trying to define God.

And I think that was the way Descartes would try to define guy who was like well how do we know. There's not some cosmic trickster out there. You're just putting these images before us and we don't even know if it's all reality or not.

How can I know anything. Then he said don't your go soon. I think they for therefore I am. That's what he said. That's the only thing I can know. Well we can know a lot more than that because a loving and wonderful guy has revealed himself through his word.

And we can trust it. And he is not going to change. He's going to stay the same. And as I said with for the unbeliever that greats that greats on them because they don't call the shots. They don't ever have a hope that there's anything going to be different coming down the pike societies change all the time.

What's right and wrong in a society changes every decade or so. We see that in our country for sure. But the Lord has everlasting everlasting commandments and everlasting judgments. And that's great because we can rest in all that.

It's not going to change. So let's turn to the next one. And Dan could you read Psalm 11 verse 7. Bill. Could you read Psalm 119 137. Rich. Could you read Psalm 145 145 17. So you guys could all set up with that.

And then I'm going to read yes I've said this before but one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Thank you very much. See if I'm quoted starting to not believe you. Yeah. Well you have a lot of favorite.

I should have all these memorized by the way. That's just that should be encouragement to me. It's not like one of my grandkids.

Everything comes up. Oh that's my favorite favorite candy that's my.

Favorite candy. That's my favorite cereal. Well this one. Deuteronomy 32 for the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a God of faithfulness and without injustice righteous and upright is he.

Now there's a lot of words in there we're trying to pick a category here but let's see if the rest of the verses will make it a little more clear. So. Psalm 11 verse 7 for the righteous.

Lord love of righteousness his countenance does behold the upright and.

Bill righteous are you O Lord and right are your rules and Richie the one I gave you they shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and.

Great in mercy you actually mentioned the word I was looking for. The word is righteousness but 145 17 are you close to that. You said 7 and 8 or 17 18 145 17.

Oh I read 7 and 8 I'm sorry I thought you said 7 and 8. That's okay. You got it. You found another verse that matched anyway. The Lord is righteous in all his ways is 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways gracious in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him to all who call upon him in truth. So as I.

Said we're just doing a sampling of what is in the scriptures that this that described the Lord's goodness and his righteousness. There's so so many like many more verses we could look at and we could just really look at what he has done and then say okay the Lord did these things.

And then we could say look at look at the righteousness you know of who he is just based upon what he did. It might not say righteousness in that particular passage but based upon his actions and his faithfulness to somebody you know we can still obviously pull you know the details of his characteristics from that.

So what can we say about the words righteousness. It's what's it. Like what. It's perfect. Yeah I'm reading John.

MacArthur. John MacArthur wrote a book called none other and what he said is.

Whatever God does is righteous because God does it. And and we think about our lives because we want to walk righteously before the Lord. We talked about that before I was like we you know some of these attributes God wants to see reflected in our lives as we're creating in his image.

And he desires you know us to be conformed to the image of his son Jesus. He wants us to walk in righteousness. But when we think of the righteousness of Jesus Christ in a sense that he fulfilled all the law when he walked on this earth and he was tempted in all ways yet without sin what you know what does that look like.

You know we can go through a day and we think you know we did pretty good today. I didn't yell at anybody I didn't think evil of anyone. It was the hope. I didn't I don't remember it you know I was faithful at work.

I tried to work hard. I didn't get frustrated. But yet even in all these things like we're still you know not measuring up in so so many ways because there's positives to like you know did we acknowledge the Lord.

Did we glorify the Lord in all of our thoughts and hearts. Did we did we love people as Jesus would have loved them and he came and brushed up against them each and every day. And there's so many things when we when we start stockpiling up like what we did right and what we did wrong we can think like oh my gosh like I'm not even close.

And that is true. But God walked as a man and did everything exactly right. And from all eternity back God Almighty everything he has ever done has been right and will be right because he is the Lord and he is righteous.

And there is nothing that he has done that is that is of unrighteousness at all. And it's it's hard to imagine imagine it really is. And the beautiful thing is is when we're conformed to the image of Jesus we're gonna be walking like that too maybe walking in purity when the scriptures talk about you know us being presented before him as holy and blameless.

It is as if we had walked as Jesus walked because his righteousness is imputed to the believer mean giving given credit to the believer. And then when we are perfected and this mortal flesh puts on immortality we're gonna walk in a way that is totally righteous before the Lord.

And that's it. That's a tremendous tremendous comfort. And we're not going to be weighed down by this flesh anymore you know. And we're gonna be pure before him just as he is pure so credible to think about these things it really is.

And we can't wait right. And in the meantime as we do struggle in the flesh we need to submit our lives to him. We need to ask him for the strength to walk every day and to do the things that are pleasing in his sight.

And and he's faithful about that too. So and of course for the unbeliever the righteous standard of God isn't going to change. So in order to you know obtain you know presence before him a person has to be totally righteous.

And an unbeliever is never going to reach that on his own merit at all it has to be through Jesus. And that's the only way. Okay. That's righteousness. Let's go to the next one. Can I say it's my favorite no I can't say that.

Okay who am I up to Matt how. About reading. I want you look at first Chronicles 29 11. That matter that man.

I'm sorry I did skip over you. It's fine. No I'll give you one. That's fine. Okay.

Psalm 115 3 for you and John. Isaiah 46 10. And I'll get back to all you guys in a second. And this is the one I'm going to read. Daniel 435 and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can ward off his hand or say to him what hast thou done.

It was first Chronicles 14 11. First Chronicles I thought was 29 29. I'm sorry. I'll wait we'll wait for you. Yours Oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth.

Yours is a dominion over and you exalt yourself as head over all. Okay.

I think Matt so I'm 15 3. Our God is in the heavens he does all that he pleases.

And Isaiah 46 10 46 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. So what am I driving out here.

God's will will be accomplished in time and eternity so if he has all authority.

And no one can thwart any of his plans. He's sovereign. Sovereignty. He is up. He is sovereign over all. It's complete authority. And you know you can kind of like bleed in omnipotence a little bit but you know complete power.

There's no one who's going to thwart any plan of the Lord. The Lord's plans are going to be established. He is going to do whatever he desires. And thankfully because of all those other things we said about the Lord that he's loving he's faithful he's righteous.

The fact that he's sovereign is a very very great comfort to all of us. Because any being with that kind of power would be extremely scary if like I said before they were mercurial and we couldn't trust them.

And they were just doing anything that the you know treating us like little puppets that kind of thing. And and you know we would just be at the whim of whatever this you know unstable God would do. But that's not our God.

Our God is all-powerful. But he is all-loving. And he is sovereign over all. His authority reigns over all. And we've talked about his sovereignty over a lot of things before when Matt was talking about you know salvation.

And is he sovereign. What I see in the scriptures. Yes. Is he sovereign over the affairs of everyday life. Does he you know work things out to the council of his will. Yes he does. And the thing is is we can trust him in that.

And we can rest in that. Because when we see things going on in this world like we have especially in these. I mean I mean growing up everything was so stable as it. When I was a young boy. Right. It was no big deal.

And we heard about Russia you know they might drop a bomb on us or something everybody hides under their desks for little drills. But there was nothing really scary back then gas lines in the 70s that kind of thing you know it's not a big of a deal.

And then the 80s you know things seem to be going real good in the 80s and kind of 90s although we were selfish and we're just getting bigger and fatter and enjoying you know our wealth in this country.

But but it hasn't been like that in the last.

Several years you skip the 60s. It was a little a little. I was a little bit.

Before my time but yeah it seems to ratchet it up it seems different. But even in that if if things if things really go off the rails and maybe there are other sicknesses that we can't get a handle on or the financial stuff just falls through the bottom or yeah one of the big powers in the in the world do drop a nuke or something like that.

God's still sovereign always gonna be sovereign over all of these things. And I like what R .C. Sproul said one time he was he was in a bad train accident actually and several people died on the train and he was he was saved out of that.

And the the the interviewer that the newspapers wanted to interview him afterwards. It happened a while ago. So there were newspapers back then and the guy said well you know are you are you comforted in the fact that your Lord saved you out of this train wreck.

And he said my friend the Lord was sovereign before that train wreck and the Lord is sovereign during that train wreck and the Lord is sovereign now. And I rest in him no matter what happens in our lives.

And that's a good attitude to have. Sometimes it's hard when things are going off the rails per se using the train wreck analogy. But we can trust him when things look like they're going off the rails because he is still in control.

So is that a comfort for believers. Yes.

And we have assurance of eternal life even if we do die. We're going off to.

Heaven. Right. Better absent from the body and present with the Lord right. Okay we have a couple more to go here. I think we're gonna make it Jack so we can get to your. You get to your lesson. So if someone could read Psalm 86 11.

Oh not. Not somebody. I need to pick up. Jacob could you read Psalm 86 11. Jeff could you read Revelation 15 3. Psalm 43 3. I'm going to read 1st John 5 20. This 1st John not John's 1st John 5 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding in order that we may know him who is true and that we are in him who is true in his Son Jesus Christ.

This is the true God an eternal life. Okay. Jacob Psalm 86 11. Teach me your way Lord that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Jeff. And they.

Sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying great and amazing are your deeds O Lord God the Almighty just and true are your ways Oh King of the nations.

Psalm 43 3 send out your light and your truth but let them lead me but then bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. So what was the word the.

Attribute of the word. I was focusing on on this one true true. And by the way if you if you remember the oogella first thing we're down the T now you know was true. If you remember that that was oh now the thing about God being truth not just truthful or containing truth or making statements that are true.

We talked about God being the truth because he defines himself that way he is the truth. And when we were back in the philosophy epistemology class we talked about truth in a sense that you know we held an apple in our hands and we said this is an apple the apple is red.

We said something so okay. That was a true statement. But then we talked about well red is really the red. The redness of the apple really isn't in the apple. It's a reflection of the light that hits the apple.

So it's like is the apple really red. And we talked about all the philosophical discussions of that. But we also talked about the fact that that apple in our hand would not always be there. Why. Because we are deteriorating over time.

The apple is deteriorating over time. That statement was true for that moment in time. But God saying he is the truth means this. The old English dictionary states that truth is this it is in accordance with fact or reality accurate or exact loyal or faithful.