Atributes of Greatness

Okay, we are studying, as was mentioned in prayer tonight, what the Bible teaches about God, what the Bible says about God. We've introduced the study. We've looked at his personality, several characteristics of personality that that describe God as a person in contrast to a force or an idea or something like that. We're going to shift a little bit now in our study and we'll spend a great bit of time, in fact, a good bit of the rest of our study will be on the topic of God's attributes. Now what do we mean when we say attributes? What do you think of when you think of an attribute? What is that? Okay, I have to say a little louder. Good quality, okay? I heard something else. What was it? Characteristic, okay? Anything else? Okay, this is the very two words I had down in my notes, qualities or characteristics that describe what God is like. That's what an attribute is. It's a quality or a characteristic that describes God, that describes what He is like. And even in saying that we are stretching the limits of our understanding. In fact, many of the things that we will talk about that describe God will stretch our understanding in our minds and and really will go beyond what we can understand sometimes. It is impossible to understand everything about God. He is infinite. He is far above us, far beyond us, and even though He is chosen to relate to us and we can know Him personally, it is impossible for a finite human mind to fully wrap itself around God and understand everything about God. So we are left to do the best we can to understand what the scriptures say about Him and how the Bible describes Him. So that is what we are going to try to do. Now one question that often comes up when you begin the attributes of God is how many are there and depends on who you read. Norman Geisler, well known theologian and apologist, has listed 37 attributes of God. But he includes among those all of the characteristics of personality that we have already dealt with and even some of the works of God like sovereignty and providence and things like that that we will talk about later. So it just depends on how you define things and group them. We are going to look at 15, 15 of the major attributes of God in the scriptures and there really are two kinds of attributes. They can be divided into two categories and again those who write on these things and teach on these things try to group all of this together, call it different things, some call it non-communicable attributes and communicable attributes. And that basically what that is is things that God shares with us or characteristics that he does not share with us. The non-communicable will be things he does not share with us. God is infinite, God is perfect, okay. We don't share that. But God is also loving and merciful and faithful and we do at least to some degree have the opportunity to develop those characteristics, those attributes. So there are some attributes of God that he does not share with us, some he does. So non-communicable or one way to say it, some people describe them as characteristics or attributes of his being or his nature, those are the ones that we do not share with him and attributes of his character which we might share with him. And then others divide the two categories by these terms and these are the terms that I like, attributes of his greatness and his goodness. Attributes of his greatness describe his greatness in a sense which is far beyond us and we cannot attain unto these attributes or even really fathom them. But attributes of his goodness have to do with his relationship with us and things that we can to some degree develop and cultivate in our own lives. We will see a number of those as well. Okay, so we are going to start tonight on the attributes of greatness. We are going to try to look at two. Don't know if we will get that far or not. We are going to try to look at two of the attributes of the fifteen that we are going to talk about that have to do with his greatness. The first is that God is self-existent. Now what do you think is meant by that? He always has been, okay? Alright? He doesn't need anything else to exist, okay? Very good. Anything else? Alright, good. You touched on a lot of what we're going to talk about tonight. Let me just define it this way and then describe it a little bit further. The self-existence of God is this. The source of God's existence is holy within Himself. It does not depend on anything external to Him. The source of His existence is totally within Himself. It does not depend on anything external to Him. Now let me explain that in a couple of ways that I think will help us to understand it. Part of what that means is this that God does not derive His life from any external source. In other words, God was never brought into being like we are. You are here because of your parents. You were brought into being at some definite point in time. That is not true of God. God does not derive His life from any external source. He was never brought into being. He has, as John indicated, He has always existed and the source of His existence is totally within Himself. It does not depend on anything contributing to that or beginning that. The second thing that this self-existence of God means is that the continuation of His existence, not only does He not derive His life from any external source, but the continuation of His existence is not dependent on anything outside Himself. He did not derive His existence or His life from anything outside Himself, totally within Himself. The continuation of His existence in life is not dependent on anything outside Himself. That is not true of us. We are dependent on a number of external factors. What are some external things that we must have in order to continue our existence? Air, water, food in varying amounts. Food, shelter, protection, all of those things, and I am sure we can think of some other things, we need in order to maintain our existence, to continue our existence, to take those things away from us and we will cease to exist. How many of you felt like getting out today, you were near death, with the cold air out there. We need shelter from this kind of weather, don't we, in order to be able to exist, don't we Marty? We need shelter from this kind of weather, winter weather. In order to maintain our existence, that is not true of God. God does not need anything to continue His existence. Again, I want to impress upon you as you think about all of these qualities, they are mind-blowing. When you really begin to think about them, that God never originated from anything or anyone and God does not need anything to maintain His existence, it's just hard for us to fathom that. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around that because we are finite beings, we can't imagine the existence, anything other than what we experience. So it's difficult for us to imagine that. We are going to look at some scriptures that teach this, the biblical meaning or the biblical teaching on self-existence and I think as you hear some of these verses, they will be familiar to you but they will also help us to grasp this truth, at least to some degree. Exodus chapter 3, this is the very familiar story of Moses being called by God to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt and he begins to question why he would be chosen and how is he going to do this? For 40 years he's been on the backside of the desert tending a flock and he no longer feels qualified as he did when he left Egypt. And in verse 11, Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? God said, I will be with you and this will be the sign to you that is I who have sent you when you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me what is his name? Then what shall I tell them? Now here it is, verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am, this is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you a very fitting and appropriate name that God takes. Moses asked him, what's your name? If they ask me what your name is, what will I tell them? And God says, here's my name, I am. I am. It really is not only a name, but it's also a description of God. I am just simply means he is eternally existent. It's not like I began and I will end, it's I am. He has always been and always will be eternally existent. He is dependent on no other being for support. Continuous existence in himself, I am who I am. What's your name? I am. It's a description of the very self-existence of God. All right, look at Daniel, Daniel chapter 5 and verse 23. Part of the extension of this truth is that God is the only self-sufficient being. God is the only being that exists in and of himself and is not dependent on anyone else. There have been people in human history who felt like they were self-existent or that they were so important that they were above everybody else. And one of those men was Belchazar. Remember Belchazar took the items that had been taken out of the temple and used them in a wild party to celebrate his gods and his own sinful license. And Daniel is called in to to interpret the handwriting on the wall that comes as a sign of God's judgment on Belchazar. And notice if you will, verse 23, where is it there? Let's look at verse 22. But you, Belchazar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Daniel has just reminded him of what happened to his father, Nebuchadnezzar. When God humbled him, sitting about into the field like an ox eating grass for seven years until he recognized and admitted that God was who he really was. God was the most high. But you, Belchazar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. In verse 23, instead you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. I hear somebody who thinks he is an almighty power. He set himself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold of bronze, iron, wooden stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. Now look at the last part of the verse. But you did not honor the god who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. There's only one eternal, self-existent being and your very life, your very breath is dependent on him. It's not the other way around. You're not exalted like you think you are, Belchazar. Your very next breath is dependent on the one who gives life to everyone. Your very life is in his hands. So God is the originator of life. He is self-existent in that he has life in himself, but he gives life to everyone else. You're very breath, you're very next step is dependent on him. And what Daniel said of Belchazar could also be said of every one of us. When we think we're kind of high and mighty, we need to remember our very breath, our very life is in the hand of God. He is the only one who does not need someone to sustain him. We are all dependent on him. Okay, any comments or questions before we look at a couple of new testament passages? Okay, one of the clearest statements of this truth in all the Bible is what Jesus said in John 5, verse 26, Jesus is sparring with the Pharisees. He says in verse 25, very truly, I tell you a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live talking about the resurrection. God will give resurrection life to people who come up out of the grave. And here's the reason he can do that. Verse 26, for as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. God's life is totally self-contained. It totally is from within him. He is self-existent. He did not draw his life from any other source. He is not dependent on anything or anyone to continue his life. He has life in himself. Okay, one of the passage, Acts 17, 25, where Paul is in Athens, the center of Greek philosophy and he recognizes in this very pagan city that people are worshiping all kinds of gods. They have alters to all kinds of gods. In verse 22, then Paul stood up at the meeting of the Ariopagus and said, people of Athens, I see that in every way you're very religious, whereas I walked about and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god. So you're ignorant of the very thing you worship, and this is what I'm going to proclaim to you. Paul used a very ingenious and powerful method of finding some kind of common ground with these philosophers that he could build on, that he could get their attention. He looked at all their idols and he found that they had one, just in case they missed a god, they erected an altar to the unknown god, you know, just to cover all their bases. And so Paul ceases on that and says, you're worshiping something you don't even know, an unknown god. Let me tell you about it. Let me explain who he is. And notice how he explains god, describes god, verse 24, the god who made the world and everything in it is the lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. Now see where Paul's, what Paul is doing is with a pagan audience like this, he does not start with the Old Testament and Moses' law, because they don't have any background in that, they don't have any understanding of the Bible. And so he goes all the way back to creation and showing them through nature who god is. He is the god who's made all of this, made the world, everything in it. And because he is so big and able to make everything, you can't put him in a temple made by human hands, you can't contain him, he's bigger than that. And then notice what he says next. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Now that's a real good statement of this truth. God does not need anything. He does not need anything to maintain his existence. He in fact is the originator of life for everything else, but he does not need anything to maintain his existence and his life. He does not need anything. He does not need, and in that day, as in many places in the world today, people would bring offerings to their god by way of food to sustain their god. That happens in many religions across the world today as well. And Paul says he doesn't need anything to maintain his existence. He is the originator of life for everything else, but he doesn't need anything from us to maintain his existence. Okay, so the scriptures teach that God is self-existent. The source of his existence is totally within himself. He did not derive his life from any other source. The continuation of his life is not dependent on anything outside himself either. He is self-existent. Now how would you apply that truth to your own life? What does that mean to you? What does that bring to you that is helpful to you in your Christian life? He is always going to be there for sure. Yes. I love that thought. Looking at the way God really is, that is useful. But in the state of existence, yes. And then he doesn't need anything from us in the state of existence. So, in fact, maybe he is what we use to do. Okay, Billy's touched on something. I want to speak to you here a little bit in just a moment. And that is that we must be grateful that God has chosen to interact with us. He doesn't need us. It is totally of his grace that he has chosen to make us, to bless us, to use us. He doesn't need us. But he graciously chooses to shower his love and his mercy and his grace and his blessing on us. Okay, good point. Somebody else had something, John? God never fails. Yes. God never fails. Let me piggyback on that one for a little bit. Here's the way that I've written this down. There is no threat to the continuation of our spiritual life. In other words, once we come to no Christ, we have eternal life. Taking anything stop that? No, because who gave us that life? The one who is self-existent. In other words, the life that he's given us comes from a stream that cannot be shut off. There's nothing that God needs or nothing that can ever threaten his existence, his life, the continuation of who he is. And so when he gives us life, there's nothing that can cut that off, because it comes from a source that can never be turned off. No threat to the continuation of our spiritual life. Okay. God is not, I want to piggyback a little bit more on what Billy said. God is not dependent on us, but we are dependent on him, aren't we? He is not dependent on us for anything. Sometimes we think he is that God could not accomplish what he's going to do, work not for us. Almost as though we have to help God out. That's not true. God has chosen to use us, and so he voluntarily, in a sense, limits himself to work through human vessels, but God doesn't need us. It's not like he couldn't do something so he needed a little bit of human help. So he said, come on, come over here and help me. I can't do this. I can't quite accomplish this. No, no, God doesn't need us, but he does choose to use us and to bless us. And we are totally dependent on him. It's not the other way around. Okay. Yes. Yes. It really is. It is hard to fathom that God, and it's just solely of his love and his grace that he would do that. God had perfect fellowship in the Trinity throughout eternity. He did not need us to fill any lack or void in himself. But of his love, he made us, of his grace, he has brought us into his family and chosen to use us for his glory, but he doesn't need us as though there's something lacking in him without us. So he's self-existent, totally within himself. I love what one theologian has said, Millard Erickson in his book Christian Theology talks about the fact that the self-existence of God gives us certainty in a world of contingency or in a world of uncertainty. And I want to quote the way he says it. He says, we live in a world of contingency. So much of what we know and believe is conditioned by the word if. We will live another 10 years, if our health does not fail us. We will be safe if the defenses of our government do not fail. We will enjoy the fellowship of our friends if something does not happen to them. We will get to our next appointment if our automobile does not break down. Everything we do in life is contingent, right? If, if, if. But he goes on to say, but with God it is different, there is no if attached here. There is no need to say God will be if. No, God is and will be period. There is one sure thing in the universe and that is that there is a God and there always will be. Because there is nothing that can threaten the continuation of his existence. He is self-existent. He's not dependent on anything to keep himself going. Okay? All right. Any question or comment on that before we get into one that will really blow our minds? Yes, Walt? Yes. Exactly. That's a great way to put it. That God takes pleasure and delight in our fellowship. It's not that he needs it. There is no lack in him that he needs that, but he takes pleasure and delight in it. And that's one of the themes that John Piper in his writings keys in a lot. That we are to live for the pleasure of God. And man's highest goal is to delight God, to please him, deliver his pleasure. Desiring God is his theme that he focuses a lot on and that's the that's the very concept. Yes. Good point. Okay? Anything else? Yes, John? I'm using the Trinity God in the human form of Jesus. He made him the same needs as every other human. I mean, this is water. Yes. He's kind of interesting at the power of the other thing. That he wanted because he made Jesus the human as rest of us. Yes. Yeah. It's a staggering thought that Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit all together in this plan of redemption would choose to take on a human body that would, to some extent, limit him voluntarily. He limited the outward and independent expression of his divine attributes because he took on humanity as well. And so that's a staggering thought and a thought that ought to humble us because he did that so that he could die for us because he loved us. We're dipping a little bit into what the Bible teaches about Christ. And I would love to go further into that. Books have been written on that, that very thought, but we'll try not to go too far down that rabbit trail tonight. That's a great thought, okay? Anything else? All right, let's talk about the fact that secondly, God is eternal. Now, what do we mean by that when we say God is eternal? Never ending? That's part of it. From everlasting to everlasting, okay? What else do I hear back here? No beginning. Okay, that's the book end to what Lance said, no ending, but also no beginning. And that's an important book end too. We need both sides of that because we have eternal life, which means that once we are saved, we will live forever with him in heaven. But every person who comes into existence has an eternal destiny in front of them, either in heaven or in the lake of fire. Because once a person is brought into existence and to being, then the soul never ceases to exist. But we are not eternal because that's not true of our past. It's true of our future, but it's not true of our past. We have not existed forever in the past. And God is, it's not that God has eternal life like us. God is eternal. So that's on both ends. God has existed forever in the past and God will exist forever in the future. Now, this is where it really starts to burn some circuits up here. I'll never forget the first time I ever tried to think that through. I was in high school when I was actually at camp and somebody had taught or preached on something that jogged my thinking about the fact that God has always existed. And I tried to figure that out. I tried to think that through. What does that mean? And it was just mind-boggling and it has been ever since. To think that God never started, he has always been. We can't conceive of that. We can think of going back, back, back, back, back, back, but something, something somewhere that had to be a beginning point, right? Not with God. He has always existed. Always. Never any beginning point. I can't think of that out. I don't think any human can really grasp that and understand it, but that's what it means. So here's the way we might say it. God's existence is not measured by time. He has always existed and he always will exist. God's existence cannot be measured by time. That's eternal. Okay, a second thing that is certainly meant by eternal is this. God is not bound by time. Now think of it this way. God is not bound by time. His actions are not reactions to developments. In other words, he's never taken by surprise. He does not have to form contingency plans. Well, I'm not real sure what will happen. So I'm going to have several plans here in case something doesn't go right. God is not bound by time. He is not restricted to responding and reacting to events. He's and here's where it gets real tricky. He is above time in the sense that he is not bound by time. And I brought a bunch of theology books in here this evening just to try to give you some idea of how the people who write on this really struggle with this concept. I mean, it's not just my people mind, but it's great theologians that have struggled to understand what this means. Is God really above time? He acts in time. And so how do you put those two together? How can there be a succession or a successive order to the acts of God, but he's above time? How can those two things exist? And the best theologians in the world struggle with how to explain that. Let me just read a couple of them. I think we'll have time. Charles Hodge, who taught theology at Princeton University, went back when it was the leading seminary before it went liberal in the 1920s. Hodge taught in the late 1800s and he was the foremost theologian in this country at that time. And let me read for you what he says. He first of all defines the eternality of God this way. The infinitude of God relative to space is his amensity or omnipresence relative to duration. The infinitude, the fact that God is infinite in relation to duration is his eternality. As he is free from all limitations of space, so he is exalted above all limitations of time. As he is not more in one place than in another, but everywhere equally present, and we'll talk about that later, God is omnipresent, he's not more in one place than he is another, he is everywhere present at the same time, always equally present in every place in the universe. So just as that's true of his presence, Hodge says, so he does not exist during one period of duration more than another. With him there is no distinction between the present past and future, but all things are equally and always present to him. With him duration is an eternal now. Can you see how the struggling for the right words to try to get this? And then he goes on for three or four more pages saying that the only thing that really, or the thing that we struggle with most in understanding this is the relation of succession to the thoughts and acts of God. In other words, he uses example of God answering prayer. God answers prayer in real time. So God acts in time, does that mean he's bound by time? No, he's above time, but he still acts in time, and that's the struggle that these great minds have difficulty with. He says we are confounded when we are told that our prayers are not heard and answered in time, that God is timeless, that what he does in hearing and answering prayer and in his daily providence, he does from eternity, because the only way we can understand and answer prayer is that it happened in a moment of time. So God is acting in time, but he's timeless. I see some smoke rolling out of some ears here. This is one man's attempt to describe it. Let me give you another. Augustus Strong, one of the greatest early Baptist theologians, the early 1900s, says eternity is infinity in relation to time when speaking of God. It implies that God's nature is not subject to the law of time. God is not in time. It is more correct to say that time is in God. Now here's his statement to try to get these two together. Although there is a logical succession in God's thoughts, there is no chronological succession. So we can witness a logical progression in time of God's actions, but there really is no chronological succession of actions in God, because God's above time. Charles Rirey, who for many years taught theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, says it this way. The attribute of eternity means that God exists endlessly, his existence extends endlessly backward and forward from our perspective of time, without any interruption or limitation caused by succession of events. Then he goes on to say, as an eternal being, he sees the past and the future as clearly as the present. Further, he must see them as including succession of events, and yet he is in no way bound by that succession of events. That's his attempt to try to put those two together. The one I like probably the best in his attempt to explain this is Lewis Sparry Schaeffer. Schaeffer was the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary and taught theology there before Rirey became the theology prof in the 1950s. And he says this. He says, by the word eternity, the relation which God sustains to duration is denoted. God being the author of time is in no way conditioned by it. Now, I like what he says next. He is free to act in relation to time. In other words, he does act within time and answers prayer within real time. So he is free to act in relation to time and is equally free to act outside its limitations. Acting in time, for instance, he said to Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return under the according to the time of life in Sarash, he will have a son. Basically, he told Abraham, I'm going to come back in a year and she will have a son. So God was acting in time. And thus, again, he says in Galatians 4-4, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son. God sent Christ at the perfect time in human history. So God was acting within the confines of time, but God is not limited by time. So how do you put that together? Well, if you can do a better job than Chaefer, Rirey, Strong, and all the other theologians, and I've got about 30 of those volumes, I've just picked a few. It's a very difficult thing to grasp. Yes, Ben? Yeah. The logical formation, the fixed ways in the time indeed, when we tried to develop these Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. The way I've written it down is this. God does not react to developments. He is not taken by surprise. Does not have to form contingency plans. Although there is a successive order to his acts. He has from all eternity ordained what he is doing now. There is no time constraints on God. Now, if you do some reading on this, it is a fascinating stuff really to try to get into the nature and person of God in his attributes. My theology professor Dr. Whitcom at Grace said this. He said time is really a human concept. Time is the measurement of the interaction of objects in the universe. That is the only way you can define time is by things in the universe interacting with each other. What about before the universe was created? There was no time. God existed then. So in that sense, God is above time and outside time. But He chooses to act within the constraints of time for our benefit. And so we can say yes, He is above time. But only in the sense that He existed before time and will exist after time. But that is for our benefit. I agree with what you are saying. I agree with what you are saying. I agree with what you are saying. Yes, very true. You have a little feel for the complexity of this thing. It is not just God is eternal. I understand that. What does that mean? The wonderful thing is that God is not bound by time. He is never surprised by anything. Whatever happens in time, He has known and planned and actually done in eternity past. And it is that certain. Now our time is up. So we did not get to the scriptures. I think when we look at these seven or eight scriptures, we will find how the word of God describes this in a way that I think will grasp a little better. And then when we apply it, I think it is going to be a truth that is just immeasurably precious to you. And to me, that God is never surprised by anything. That He is totally in control of everything from eternity. Well, do you get the impression that we have a big God? He is far beyond us. What Isaiah said about him and Isaiah 55, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are far above your ways. That is just scratching the surface of understanding God. Father, thank you that you have given us just enough in your word to begin to explore with our feeble minds, the greatness of who you are, the greatness of our God. We thank you that you are totally existent within yourself. You do not need anything which gives us tremendous assurance that there is no threat to you. And thank you that you are eternal, that you are not bound by time, you are not surprised by the succession of events in time from all eternity. It is as though those things have already happened to you because everything is present to you. Lord, help us not just to wrap our mind, try to wrap our minds around you better, but help us in getting to know more about you to know you better and to be refreshed and renewed in that knowledge. In Jesus' name, amen.