What is God? Part 2

[00:00:01] Our heavenly Father, as we come now to consider the truth of your word, we ask that you would help us to put away our idols, the work of human hands, the work of our imaginations, that we might know you and that we might believe you, trust you, love you, worship you, serve you. [00:00:24] Lord, the idols of man, they have hands, but do not feel. [00:00:30] They have feet, but they don't walk. [00:00:33] They don't make a sound in their throat. [00:00:36] And your word tells us rightly that those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. [00:00:44] And so we pray, Lord, now, that you would help us to hear your voice. We are your sheep. Help us to hear the voice of our shepherd, that we might trust in you, and that you might be our help and our shield, that you might be our protector and the one who blesses us and gives us increase in blessings in this life and in the life to come. [00:01:06] We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:12] Well, this evening I want to consider with you the second part, our shorter catechism question four, which is printed in your bulletins. [00:01:25] It's a big question. [00:01:28] It's a question about God, his nature, who he is, his attributes. [00:01:38] Previously, we considered how God is infinite, eternal, unchangeable. These big, big ideas. [00:01:47] Tonight we consider how they apply not just to his being, but also to his wisdom, his power, his holiness, his justice, goodness and truth. [00:02:03] Now, if you're like most people, you've probably thought about some of these attributes more than others. [00:02:09] Most of us, when we think about God, our minds tend to go to this or that aspect of him. [00:02:16] This is a good opportunity for us to remember that there is so much. There is, there is so much to consider about God. There is so much that he tells us and so much he doesn't tell us. One of the things that the scriptures speak to so frequently is how much we do not know, how much we cannot know. And so tonight is an opportunity to fill our minds with the knowledge of God so that we may be humbled, so that we may believe, and so that we may be more zealous in our service to him. [00:02:50] So let's consider these six attributes. First, wisdom. [00:02:56] Wisdom. [00:02:58] Now, wisdom is a word in English that's used for a lot of different things in Greek and Hebrew, have different words for wisdom, different kinds of wisdom. As we do in English. [00:03:09] We can generalize this when we speak about the Lord in a few different ways. Here's some examples. [00:03:16] What is wisdom? We can say that wisdom is the ability to know things, just know things, the parts of things, all the individual parts. Maybe if someone is very wise and knowledgeable about anatomy, they know the parts of the body, not just arm and leg and nose, but all the little parts, the things that maybe we don't always think about. [00:03:40] You could think about the names of roses, the different kinds and rules of government. Anything. Right? To be knowledgeable and wise about something often means to know it in detail. [00:03:53] The second thing wisdom often includes is the ability to see the connections between these parts of not just arm and leg, but how do they work together? What's their relationship to one another? [00:04:07] The connection between things might reference history, family history, family trees, big ideas. Or how things happen, how certain things lead to other things. When I turn the key in my ignition, how is it that the car starts? How is it that I can get to a place I want to go to see? The connections between these things and their meaning and relationship to one another is a part of wisdom. [00:04:39] And a third thing I'll mention is that wisdom is the ability not just to know these things, not to just know things and their connection and their meaning, but to act within them. This is one of the best definitions of wisdom. It's this knowledge applied to. It's taking what we know in terms of the specifics and the context it's in, and then living in it in a wise way. [00:05:06] Now, when we think about wisdom, whether it's the ability to act well, the connection between things or their parts, and we think about the wisdom of God, I think a good place to start, and this is true of all the attributes of goddess, is how Martin Luther puts it when he says, our thoughts of God are too human. [00:05:28] Our thoughts of God are too human. [00:05:31] I made this point last time, and it's always worth dwelling on. A lot of times we think that God is. Let's think about wisdom, smarter than us, better than us, wiser than us. And of course, that's absolutely true. But those aren't exactly the words that scripture emphasizes and uses. Let me read to you two verses that speak about the wisdom of God. And I'll ask you to notice, what are the words that the scriptures use to describe the wisdom of God in relation to us? [00:06:05] So, for example, romans 1133. [00:06:08] Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of goddess. How unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways? [00:06:20] Or psalm 147 five, great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. [00:06:29] The way that the scripture talks about the knowledge of God is not just more or better, but inscrutable, unsearchable abundant, even beyond measure. We can say then, that God's knowledge is infinite. [00:06:44] It doesn't have a very, very, very high upper bound. It has no upper limit. [00:06:52] You can't just keep going up and up and then very, very, very high. There is God, the end of God's knowledge. There is no end to God's knowledge, no end to his wisdom. [00:07:04] He knows all things, and he knows their connections between one another. [00:07:10] God is not just a big AI prediction machine. [00:07:15] He's not just anticipating things or guessing things or putting them all together in a way that seems very reasonable. [00:07:24] No, he knows all things perfectly, even outside of time. [00:07:28] In this way, his knowledge is unchangeable. Nothing's added to it, nothing's taken away from it. God does not learn or grow because there is nothing to improve in God. There is no lack in God that needs fixing, no holes in his wisdom, no things that he needs to improve or work on. For us, learning and growing and being curious and changing are really, really important. We could even say moral imperatives. But that's because we lack. [00:08:02] God doesn't learn and grow because he has nothing. He lacks nothing. There is no imperfection that needs to be made perfect. [00:08:11] Unlike us, God doesn't know by observing or reasoning. As Matthew Barrett puts it, he observes what he already knows and has decreed eternally. [00:08:25] So this is one reason that the Son of God is rightly called. In one corinthians 124, the wisdom of God, Paul writes, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. [00:08:43] In the Son of God we recognize that Jesus has all that the father has. Jesus is the wisdom of God made manifest. Through him we come to know God, and God brings his wisdom into a consummation with reference to his plans here in time and in space. [00:09:04] We'll think more about Christ as we go along. Let's consider the next one we've thought about, the power or the wisdom of God. Let's consider the power of God. [00:09:14] Well, first, corinthians 124 is again a good place for us to remember. Christ is the power and the wisdom of God, which means that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. With regard to his power, just like with regard to his wisdom, consider these verses. Jeremiah 30 217 ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you, nothing or job 42 two I know you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. [00:10:02] God is never sitting frustrated. God is never looking at his plans and hoping they come to pass. God is never wringing his hands or tearing at his clothes or talking to advisors and saying, how can we make this thing work? Never. [00:10:20] Because as the scriptures say, nothing is too hard for him. [00:10:25] No purpose of his can be thwarted. What God says, he does, we could say, what God knows he does. [00:10:35] And we have so many examples of this great power. [00:10:39] When God says, let there be light, what does the scripture say? [00:10:44] There was light and it was good. [00:10:48] When God says to divide the sea and the dry land, it just happens. When Jesus says to Lazarus, rise up, come out. Or he says to people, get up, take up your bed and walk. They just get up and take up their bed and walk. [00:11:03] God is powerful. His power has no bounds. It is infinite. It is eternal. It is unchangeable. [00:11:12] One more verse regarding his power. This is a very interesting one to think about. Matthew 1926. [00:11:19] Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. [00:11:26] A great verse that echoes right a lot of the verses, the two verses I read before that. This one's particularly interesting, though, because the context of this verse. With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. He has a particular thing in mind. He's talking about the wealthy entering the kingdom of God. [00:11:47] This is impossible, he says, with man, but with God, all things are possible. [00:11:55] I think this is an interesting case for us to test our own hearts, because here we have an example of something that we both upgrade our ability and downgrade God's ability. [00:12:07] When we say, when we think about the wealthy entering to the kingdom of God, my guess is that a lot of us don't think of that as an impossible thing. [00:12:16] We don't say, well, with man, that would be impossible. We say, well, of course, that's fine. It's an easy thing to do, which is exactly the opposite of what Jesus says. He doesn't say it's easy. He says, it's really, really hard, even impossible. This is a really, really hard thing. And this is, I think, a good test case, because this is something we often do. We think of ourselves as so much more capable than we are. We think of our limits as not so close to us, but really far out. Our potential is being really, really great. [00:12:48] This is a scripture that humbles us in a way. It makes us think, maybe my attachment to money, our attachment to money is stronger than I think. [00:12:58] Maybe the limits of my heart and my desire for the things of God is not quite as strong as I would think. [00:13:06] Of course, wealthy is a relative term, but we can just ask ourselves, when it comes to money or anything else, where does my heart go? What does my heart desire? What are the things that I fear? What are the things that I worry about? [00:13:21] Well, Jesus says, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. [00:13:30] With God, things are even easy. Nothing can be thwarted. And we have examples in scripture of Zacchaeus and Lydia. We have examples of Joseph and others, wealthy people who certainly inherited the kingdom of heaven, who certainly loved the Lord and came to him. Why? Because God is very gracious and he knows how to detach us from the love of money. Like he knows how to detach us from all kinds of other idols that we have. [00:13:59] My point in thinking about power is this human power is a lot less than we think. And God's power is a lot more than we think. We could even say it's infinite. [00:14:09] It's eternal and unchangeable. [00:14:14] God demonstrates this power in ways that we often don't even think about. The normal, everyday things of breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Blink, blink, blink, blink. [00:14:29] We are held up and sustained by the power of God. It's so surprising because these things are so. We are so reliant on God that many people take them for granted and only attribute the very, very miraculous or out of the ordinary things to God, when really it's all of him. [00:14:50] We don't have strength within ourselves. We don't have power within ourselves to sustain our own lives self sufficiently. This only comes from God, who is self sufficient and whose power has no end. [00:15:06] God's power is evident in everything from trees growing to bees pollinating, to us breathing. [00:15:15] And of course, it's also evident in these other ways when God says, let there be light. Or Moses puts his staff in the water and the waters separate. Or God makes the sun to stand still, or peter to walk on the water or make the dead to rise. [00:15:36] God is very, very powerful. [00:15:42] Next is holiness. [00:15:45] The holiness of God refers to being set apart. [00:15:49] Being the only God we can say with the scriptures, there is none like him, period. [00:15:56] None like him. This means, then, that all who are set apart to him, to his excellency, to his beauty, to his greatness, to his righteousness, to his wisdom, to his justice, and all the rest. [00:16:10] When we are set apart to him who is set apart from all things, this is how we become holy. We are set apart not from him, but from the world, from evil, from all that which is not of him. And he indeed is holy. [00:16:30] Isaiah six three. [00:16:32] We have this picture of heaven and the angels, one calling to another, saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. [00:16:47] Another picture given in the New Testament, revelation four eight. Again, this angelic scene. Four living creatures, each of them with six wings, full of eyes, all around and within and day and night. These creatures never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come. [00:17:15] These pictures of the angelic creatures in heaven worshiping God are pictures that point us forward to the things that we ourselves are looking forward to. Worshipping God forever in all of his holiness, to be set apart from him and all of the curse and misery and sins of this world, all that which is against him, and to be with all that is for him, recognizing how set apart he is, how glorious he is. [00:17:45] This reminds us that the only way for us to be holy is to be in him. It is the only way. [00:17:54] And we can be only in him by giving ourselves to him through the way he has given himself to us. In other words, through the promise of the Son by God coming to us by God, making himself known. He has given us a way to be near him because he has come near to us and in Christ. And in the salvation that he gives to us through his sacrifice on the cross, he changes us. He consecrates us, he makes us holy ones. [00:18:28] A lot of people like to think of themselves outside of Christ with relationship to God as generally neutral kind of doing their own thing. God, take him or leave him. This is not the case. [00:18:43] To be apart from God, to be against God is to be anti holy. It is to be profane. It is to be separated and not near him, but far from him. And to be far from God is a dangerous thing, because it means to come under his judgment. [00:19:03] But through healing and through forgiveness, through the cross, God consecrates us in himself and makes us holy. He makes us holy ones, saints, sanctified ones. [00:19:16] And because of our holiness in him, we sang earlier one with himself, I cannot die. Right, because we are in him. That holiness, like our life, is something that can't be removed, can't be changed, can't be dialed up or down. [00:19:34] Our holiness in this kind of objective way is something that can't be removed or challenged in any way, because it is a holiness that is given to us from God, who is himself unchangeable. [00:19:49] Well, I want to move through just because of time, move more quickly through these last three, but let's continue to consider God's infinite, eternal, and unchangeable nature with regard to his justice, his goodness and truth. [00:20:05] Let's hear some verses from the Bible about God's justice. [00:20:10] Deuteronomy 32 four the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. [00:20:24] Psalm 80 914 righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. [00:20:35] Isaiah 3018 therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are those who wait for him. [00:20:48] Our society longs for justice. It wants justice. There are brands of clothing that you can buy that say justice across the front. [00:21:00] It's very valuable, it's very valued, and it should be. But in so many ways, brothers and sisters, we're looking in all the wrong places. We're looking to find justice apart from the one who is called the rock. [00:21:16] We can depend, and we must depend on him, because his ways are perfect, and all of his ways, all of them are justice. [00:21:29] What about the goodness of the Lord? [00:21:32] Hear these verses and praise God. Psalm 145 nine the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. [00:21:41] Do you hear the comprehensiveness of his goodness in that verse? Or nahum one seven the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him. [00:21:56] James 117 every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [00:22:09] Do you hear how James ties together the unchanging nature of God and the goodness of God? [00:22:20] And finally, truth. [00:22:23] Numbers 20 319 God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? [00:22:39] Or John 14 six Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. He is the truth. In him we come to truly know God. [00:22:55] Finally. Titus one two, one and one, two. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God who never lies, promised before the ages began. [00:23:18] You see what Paul is saying there? He says he is a servant of God. He's been sent out to do the work of God. Why? For the sake of the faith of God's elect and what? Their knowledge of the truth. He wants us to know something. He wants us to know the truth. [00:23:35] And then he says a few things in this verse about the truth. One, it accords with godliness. Two, it connects us to the hope of eternal life, which God promised before the ages began. And God never lies. [00:23:50] It's a truth we can trust in. We're constantly trying to figure out the truth, which information sources to read, which things to depend on, which arguments make sense, what's the truth? What are the facts? How do we understand them? And here is God truth himself, revealing himself through his word. [00:24:11] And he wants us to know it. He's sending out the apostle Paul. He sends out Titus, he sends out Timothy, he sends out people throughout history to help us to know the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life. [00:24:28] So these are these attributes that we think about. We could think about more, and we should think about them often, because they really matter. [00:24:38] They make a big difference. [00:24:41] I'll mention just two ways as we begin to close. [00:24:46] Because all of these things are in God, and because everything in the world is reflected or is in a relationship to goddess, who has these attributes. It means that all things and everything only and will always only make sense in him. [00:25:11] We want meaning. That's really important. [00:25:14] We want to understand why and how things connect. Right? This is a part of wisdom. It helps us to know how to act. What the scriptures are telling us then, is that justice, truth, holiness, all of it have their source somewhere. [00:25:28] And they have their source not in the whims of mankind or the politics of the age. [00:25:34] They have their source in the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God. [00:25:40] The more we understand him, the more we understand everything. [00:25:46] And the more we deny him, the more we turn away from him, the more we're going to struggle, the more darkness we will be. In. The scriptures tell us, in his light, we see light. [00:26:01] So many people are looking inward to find themselves when what they really need to be doing is looking upward. [00:26:11] A second reason that these things really matter and that we ought to reflect and think about them is that these doctrines about God, they increase our devotion toward him. [00:26:22] The more we know him, the more we love him, the more we understand how vast and unsearchable, how perfect he is, the more our vision of him will replace the foolish idols that are in our heads and in our hearts. [00:26:38] Knowing God is a great cure for idolatry. [00:26:43] When we compare the eternal God and all of these attributes with our foolish idols, which can't do anything and just lead us astray. [00:26:56] Lord willing, we come to see whom we should really put our trust in. [00:27:02] The cure for idolatry, the cure for false religion, the cure for false hopes and false fears, is not removal of idols and bad ideas and all the rest. It's replacement. [00:27:17] We don't just clear the pedestal of the idol and walk away. We don't just clear our minds of a bad idea and say, well, we're good to go. [00:27:27] No, it must be replaced by the truth. It must be replaced by God. [00:27:37] This is why these things matter. [00:27:40] So now what? [00:27:41] Well, first there is a call to humility here, I believe, a call to humble ourselves before the Lord and before his glory. When we think about the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable nature of him and all of his perfections and his attributes, how could we stand and not care? [00:28:02] And when we see our cold hearts, when we see our lack of love, we should be ashamed. [00:28:11] We ought to learn to see the Lord and in the glorious way he presents himself to us and be humbled. [00:28:20] To call to him and say, holy, holy, holy. [00:28:24] To seek his consecration, to seek his forgiveness, his healing, so that we may draw close to him, so that we may know him. [00:28:33] How will we ever hope to fight sin or gain heaven or stand in godliness if we are standing apart from him? If we are standing apart from the truth, we must come to recognize that in our own strength we die. [00:28:51] But in him we grow stronger and stronger every day, even through our suffering. The scriptures tell us that in him we are more than conquerors. What an amazing thing to say. And it's a truth that must be believed. [00:29:09] This humility points us not only to humbling ourselves before him, but to trusting him as he's given himself in Christ. [00:29:17] If we come to see that the only way to live is to abide in him, enjoy him as the ever wise, ever powerful, ever holy God. [00:29:28] And we know that we cannot have any part in that. Apart from the forgiveness of our sins, the cleansing of us, and the drawing us near, we must come to believe and trust in Christ. Why? [00:29:40] Because of what he said. There is no one that comes to the Father except through him. [00:29:48] Let me ask you to think of it this way. [00:29:51] Would you be so arrogant as to think that you can find God and find his will and please him? Apart from Jesus, apart from the one who was prophesied a long time before he came, was a miracle working, wisdom, teaching demon, defeating death destroying son of man, who was divine by nature, eternally divine. This is who Jesus is. [00:30:25] Are you going to see him, recognize him, hear of the things that he has done in history? God coming into this world, walk away from that, from the one who did all these things, the one who worked all these miracles, the one who sacrificed his own body so that the sins of the world might be forgiven, rose from death to life. You're going to walk away from that and say, I'm going to find God in my own way, my own time, on my own schedule. [00:30:56] You're not going to find someone better. You're not going to find God in some other place when he has revealed himself here. The world has never known and never will know God apart from Jesus, not in any saving way, not in any future. A way that brings us hope and glory and satisfaction and beauty and splendor and truth and wisdom. [00:31:24] The scriptures tell us. And God speaks truthfully. He never lies when he says in these last days he has revealed himself through his son, the way, the truth, the life. And so if we believe on him, we will be saved. [00:31:45] The last thing I'll say is that knowing and trusting God through his son and by the power of his spirit leads us then into service and praise. [00:31:57] It's a praise that can see his divine greatness in creation, but goes beyond that. It goes beyond that as we marvel at his glory, as it is made known to us, Christ, as we come to see not only that God made the world, but that he saved the world, that he takes away the burden of our sins so that one day upon his return, our lives will be fully devoted, completely and entirely devoted to knowing, loving and praising our great God. [00:32:29] When we think about these things, our hearts should jump for joy within us. [00:32:35] We should jump up from our seats and say, Lord, what would you have me do next? How can I serve you next? How can I fight the good fight in your strength? How can I seek to put away the idols of my heart? How can I love you more? How can I praise you, for you are so, so great? [00:32:56] My encouragement to you, beloved, is to reflect often, daily, hourly, on the perfections of God. [00:33:05] Not in some way as though you could master them, but standing under him. [00:33:10] We begin to understand him, trusting him, we begin to know him and praise him and love him and follow him. [00:33:22] Let's pray. [00:33:24] Our heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless us with these things, that you would help us to know you and praise you and follow you, that you would help us to trust you and be humble with ourselves, with our own ideas and to look to you as you have given to your, given yourself to us in the word we ask that you would encourage us and strengthen us, that you would help us to look up to you and find all truth, godliness, wisdom, beauty, and every other glorious thing. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.