Attributes of Greatness (2)

Truly our God is great. I was thinking today about a couple of verses in Isaiah, Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9 where God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. And then Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 19, where Paul is praying and he says, now to him, excuse me, verse 20, now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. So God's ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He can do more than we can even imagine. So if his ways and thoughts and actions are higher and deeper and greater than we can imagine, certainly he himself is greater than we can imagine. It truly is great in the most expansive use of that word, great. We're trying to discover what the Bible teaches about God and who he is. And as we found last week, even the concepts that we try to use to describe God as we look at what the Bible teaches about him, just are not enough to really describe it is more than we can imagine. It is higher than what we can think. It is deeper than we can think. And so we do our best to understand what the scriptures say, but it is difficult to wrap our minds around the greatness of our God. We're looking at in this section of this study, 15 attributes of God, characteristics of God, qualities that describe him. And we are looking first at the attributes of greatness or the attributes of his being attributes that we do not share that are solely his. And we do not participate in and we looked at the first one last week, which was the self existence of God. And the second one we began looking at last week didn't quite make it through, but we started looking at the fact that God is eternal. We talked about what eternal means and we talked about three things, just remind you quickly before we get into the verses. That's where we left off. We talked about the fact that eternal means God being eternal means that God's existence cannot be measured by time. He has existed forever and eternity passed. He will exist forever in eternity future. So time cannot define his existence or measure his existence. We talked about the fact that God is not bound by time that his actions are not reactions to developments. He's never taken by surprise. He does not have to form contingency plans. And then we talked about that which we found to be the greatest struggle of all and trying to understand how God is eternal. And I quoted from four different theologians that try to grapple with these concepts and have difficulty coming up with the right words. So it's no surprise that we would too. And that is whether or not God is above time. And we saw that basically the best way to say that is that or the best way to see it probably is what we ended up seeing from Louis Sparrow Chaffer. And that is that that God does operate in time. There is a successive order to his actions and his thoughts, but he is not bound by time. He is free to act within time and he does do that. He answers prayer in real time. He responds to situations in real time. But he is not bound by time. All of his actions have been decreed from eternity past. And so what he has what he is now doing in our time frame, he has decided from eternity past he would do. So both are true. God is in time, but he is also not bound by time. And so that is what we described as being eternal. Now today we are going to look at the verses. That is where we are going to pick up this evening. The verses that describe that. And there are a number of them. We will begin with Genesis 21, 33. This is a passage where Abraham has been in some contention with Philistine King, actually the King of Garar, that area would later become the Philistines area. But this King has had some debate. He is highly respectful of Abraham, but some of Abraham's wells that he had dug earlier have been taken. And the upshot of this is that they make a treaty at the end of chapter 21. And verse 32 says, after the treaty had been made at Bercheva, Abimalak and Faikel, the commander of his forces, returned to the land of the Philistines, Abraham planted a tamerous tree in Bercheva, and there he called on the name of the Lord the eternal God. Actually it is one of those Hebrew compound names that you sometimes read about when you are reading about the names of God. L-Shadai, L-Rafat, and this one is L-Olam. The Hebrew word Olam means ages or forever. The God who is forever basically is the idea of the eternal God. And so the name, God, one of his names, is the eternal God or the God of eternity. Let's look at, and by the way, that's amazing that Abraham would think of God in those terms, probably because he has just had a treaty and some of his wells that were his in a sense taken away from him. And so there's a sense in which Abraham is comparing the transitory nature of earthly things with the God who is eternal and can always be counted on because he never fails. He is always there, he is eternal. And so that was a very real truth to Abraham. It was not just some mystical concept, it was a real truth that formed in his mind a contrast with transitory temporary earthly things that can be taken away from us. Okay, so hang on to that when we get to the application because that's a great application of that truth. Second passage, Deuteronomy 33. And I encourage you to look at these. Deuteronomy 33 verse 27. I don't hear pages turning, so I'm assuming because you have them on your notes, you're there before me. You're already there, 33 27. This is where Moses is blessing the 12 tribes of Israel just prior to his death. And as he finishes the blessing on Asher, which he begins verse 24, he says in verse 26, there is no one like the God of Jesheran. Jesheran is another name for the nation of Israel, who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. And then notice verse 27, the eternal God is your refuge. And underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you saying destroy them. This is a tremendous comfort, isn't it? What kind of refuge do we have? What kind of protection? What kind of source of comfort and encouragement and protection from the storms of life do we have? We have the eternal God as our refuge. And underneath, underneath us, think of that, underneath us are arms, the arms of God. But they're everlasting arms. And so those arms of comfort that hold us and fold us close to him are everlasting arms. They never fail. They're always there. They always have been. They always will be. I think I've told you about the statement that Doug McLaughlin, who was president of Central Seminary in Minneapolis for many years, we had him teach a module at ABC in the Masters program when I was operating that program. And we had just found out prior to that that Ruth had cancer. This was in early 2009. She just had the surgery in late 2008. And so we had him in our home one evening and he was talking with us and he said this about this verse. He said, you know, John, he said, we may fall into the arms of God, but we will never fall through them. And I just have held on to that thought ever since. And it's just been a source of comfort to me many times. His arms are everlasting and that means we may fall into them. We may feel like we're falling sometimes, but he catches us. And those arms will always be there. They're always there. They're everlasting. And so we will fall sometimes and we will feel like we're in a free fall sometimes. But we will always fall into his arms. But we'll never fall through them. They'll always be there to hold us up. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Okay, any question about those two passages before we move on to Psalm 90? Question or comment? Okay, Psalm 90 verses one and two. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting you are God. I think about that. Think about that terminology from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. It's almost like the Psalmist is saying, here are the bookends. Here are the two starting point and ending point for God. But with those terms, there isn't a starting point. There is no ending point. From everlasting to everlasting from everlasting in the past, eternity past to eternity future, you are God. It's not you have been God or will be God or started as God, you are God. Eternal and so it's a great statement of the eternality of God. Eternal in both directions from everlasting to everlasting. All right, Isaiah 57, 15. I love the way Isaiah the prophet states this truth in this verse. Isaiah 57, 15 says, for this is what the high and exalted one says, he who lives forever whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. You see in the first part of the verse, first half where it says he who lives forever, some translations actually say he who inhabits eternity. That's where where does God dwell? He dwells in eternity. That's his dwelling place. That's his he inhabits eternity. He exists and lives in and fills up eternity. This is an amazing thought. Okay, you're ready for a couple of three New Testament passages. 1 Timothy 1 verse 17. So verse we've looked at before when we were looking at the personality of God, but it also has this quality of him in this verse. Now to the king, eternal. There it is. Immortal and visible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. He is described as the king, eternal. And then Hebrews chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. This is actually spoken of Christ as the writer of Hebrews begins in the very beginning of his book to establish the superiority of Christ that he is above everyone and everything else. And he is superior to angels. First of all, the writer of Hebrews is saying so in verse 10, he also says he's quoting the Old Testament. In the beginning, Lord, you lay the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment. They will be changed, but you remain the same and your years will never end. Okay, focusing upon the fact that God is eternal in the future, his years will never end, but also that he was there at the foundation of the earth. He established the earth. And so also a hint at his eternality in the past as well. In the beginning, you laid the foundation of the earth. So he was already there, a hint that he is also eternal in the past. Then one other passage, Revelation 1.8. And this again is spoken of Christ. I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come. The Almighty. What is Alpha and Omega? Yep, means beginning and end, but what is Alpha? What is Omega? What are they? First and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Basically, what he's saying is God, you are everything from A to Z. You are everything. And in this sense is dealing with how he is as a person, but also his eternality because he goes on to say who is in the present, who was and who is to come. He is eternal. He inhabits past, present, and future. I think that's enough scriptural teaching to get the truth across to us that God is eternal in the senses which we talked about last week. He inhabits eternity. He is eternal in the past and in the future. What about the application of this truth? What does that mean to you? What does that help you with in your Christian life? Very comforting. Very comforting, yes. To know he's always there underneath are the everlasting arms. Very comforting. What else? In reference to the Iranian thing, most of them, apart of that, he is the last part of that person. That he would write like this. He didn't mean before he was there. He was always there. And he's comforting to know that we don't have a Catholic God that he made this protective. He doesn't just protect it. He fights for us always. Yeah. He's always active on our behalf, isn't he? Yes. Any other practical application to your life that you find comforting? In the fact that God is eternal. There, that's what we have here. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He's always there, always there to listen to here, to comfort, to catch us, always there. Even when no one else is. Isn't it good to know that nothing surprises him, that he knows the end from the beginning? He inhabits all of eternity? Isn't it good to know that? That nothing surprises God. Nothing is going to happen in your experience or my experience that catches God off guard. He is eternal. He knows the end from the beginning. You can trust his plan. Okay? Any other thing about the eternity of God? Any comment or question? I don't know if it's right or not, but if you've come to the end of the recording, it's nothing to be able to trust. It's not a great statement. In case you didn't hear that in the back, did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurs to God? Lavin Strauss made that statement. A great Bible teacher and a great man. That's a great way to put it. Things occur to us, don't they? Even concepts like that occur to us. We suddenly think of them. Nothing ever occurs to God. That involves a lot of other of God's attributes too that we'll be getting to later like His omniscience and omnipresence and things like that, but certainly involved in His eternality. Okay? Let's move on to the next one then. God is unchangeable. The third quality or attribute or characteristic of God that we're going to look at is He is unchangeable. Theologians call this the immutability of God. He is immutable, but it means He's unchangeable. What does the meaning of this? Let me define unchangeable in this way, in three ways. This is the way we're going to see unchangeable and I think you'll find that it is supported by the scriptures when we look at the passages in a few moments. First of all, when we say God is unchangeable, we mean there is no quantitative change in God. In other words, He cannot increase in anything and He cannot decrease in anything. Now, there are lots of other attributes of God that fit into that. If He is omniscient, that means His knowledge never increases and He never decreases and never forgets anything. We're spilling a little bit into omniscience, but this also frames that discussion. He is unchangeable. God is perfect, God is infinite. All of those characteristics fit together, but there is no quantitative change in God. He doesn't increase in anything, doesn't decrease in anything. Secondly, there is no qualitative change in God. In other words, His nature does not change. His mind, His plans, His actions, His nature does not change. He always remains the same. And then a third thing that is meant by unchangeable is that God's plans are always consistent because His will does not change. He is always faithful to what He has promised. God will never promise something and then have to take it back because His will never changes and thus His plans never change. God made some promises to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant about a land and about His descendants and so forth and God does not take that back. He keeps those promises, not all of which have been fulfilled yet. But they will be. Have an idea of what we are talking about in unchangeable. No quantitative change does not increase or decrease in anything. No qualitative change. His nature does not change. He is always faithful to who He is and His will and intentions do not change. His plans do not change. He is always faithful to His promises. Now some of you are already thinking of some questions there. Now wait a second. We will get to those in just a moment. There are some difficulties here. But any question about what we are talking about before we look at the biblical teaching? Okay. Alright, let us look at three passages. First of all, numbers 23. This is the passage where Baillum, the prophet, has been hired by King Baillum. Baillac of Moab, the Israelites are moving through Moabite territory. And Baillac is concerned about this huge horde of people and fringing on his territory, thinking they will attack him. And so the King Baillac hires this prophet to curse Israel. And it is a tremendous story. If you have never read numbers 22 to 26, you ought to read it just for the interest of it. This is the story where God warns Baillum against going and Baillum goes anyway. And Baillum is donkey. God uses to speak to him about what he is doing. Finally God allows him to go but says, say only what I tell you to say about Israel. And so in numbers 23, let us begin with verse 13. Up to this point, Baillac has taken Baillum to a certain mountain where he can look over and see the nation of Israel, the great number of people, and asks him to curse them. And Baillum blesses them. And Baillac gets real upset. And Baillum says, I told you I could only say what God told me to say. And so he takes him to a different vantage point. And this again is part of the superstition of pagan religions. Maybe if he sees a different perspective or a different side of the people or a different part of the people, or maybe if it's on a different high spot, high hill, maybe God will allow him to curse the people. So he tries another hill. And the same thing happens, verse 13, then Baillac said to him, come with me to another place where you can see them. You will not see them all, but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me. So he took him to the field of Zofim on the top of Pizgid. And there he built seven authors and offered a bowl and a ram on each altar. Baillum said to Baillac, stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there. The Lord met with Baillum and put a word in his mouth and said, go back to Baillac and give him this word. So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering with the mobile officials. Baillac asked him, what did the Lord say? Then he spoke his message. Arise, Baillac and listen. Hear me, son of Zipur. God is not human that he should lie. Not a human being that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless. He is blessed and I cannot change it. When you understand what Baillac is trying to do, this is a very forceful message. Baillac thought, well, I can get God to change his mind if I go to a different high place. A different place of worship and appeal to him from that place of worship. And basically God's message is, you are dealing with the wrong kind of God, Baillac. I don't change. I don't change my mind. When I say something, when I promise something, when I bless someone, I keep it. I don't change my mind. Okay, so a powerful, powerful passage to contrast the pagan gods of pagan religions with the true God. Any questions about that passage or story? Let's go to the other end of the Old Testament, Malachi. Malachi, chapter 3 and verse 6. God has just been talking through the prophet Malachi in the first part of chapter 3 about the second coming and the judgment that will take place. At the second coming and the day of the Lord, when the day of the Lord comes, judgment comes. But now notice what he says in verse 6, I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you. Says the Lord Almighty and then he goes on to speak to them about some other issues. He says very clearly, either Lord do not change. The day of the Lord comes, judgment will come, but because God is faithful to his covenant, his promises he made to Israel starting with Abraham, he will not utterly destroy them. To do so would be to go back on his promises. And God doesn't change. I do not change. I made a promise. I will keep it. So you will not be utterly destroyed even in the day of the Lord, even at the second coming. Israel will be delivered and the New Testament gives abundant evidence of that. Okay. Yes, John? You said in tongues of Satan, right? Obfinity of many other things. — governors of Israel— Yes. They will always be Israel. Israel, a remnant, yes, and that remnant will turn to Christ in repentance at the second coming, and that's when they will be grafted back into the olive tree. No, it's not going to change his mind on Israel because he promised to Abraham and Romans 11 at the end of the chapter goes on to talk about that and so all Israel shall be saved. He says in Romans 11, 25, when Christ comes at the second coming, all Israel will be saved and that means the remnant that do turn to him at the second coming will be saved. That's when they are grafted back in to the olive tree which the olive tree the trunk is just the symbolic of God's place of blessing. Israel was taken out of God's place of blessing temporarily. Gentiles were grafted in, that's church, but don't get so high in mighty, we think we're the only people of God throughout eternity because God's going to bring the Jews back, Israel back. So yeah, you're right John, great, great point. Faithfulness to Israel and his promises. One other passage, James 117, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the Heavenly Lights who does not change like shifting shadows and the shifting shadows are probably the shadows of the sundial of biblical times as the sun would progress across the sky, the shadows would change. The, say, told time and so he does not change like the shadows change with the passing of the day. So we've established the fact from scripture that God does not change, but admittedly there is a problem in understanding this truth, isn't there? Are there times in the Bible where it does say God changed? Can you think of any? Sodom and Gomorrah, okay? All right. Even in that story in Genesis 18 before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, where Abraham is praying and asking God if there are 50 righteous people in the city, will you spare it? Yes. What about 40 Lord? 30, 20, 10? It's almost as though he's bartering with God. Okay. Did I hear someone else? When they made the golden calf, yeah. A great example in Exodus 32 where God says, to Moses, I've decided to destroy this nation because of their sin and Moses prays and God says, okay, I won't destroy them. God changes mind. Okay. Other examples. Yes, Billy? Okay. Okay. That could be seen in a sense as a change in plan where God created Adam and then saw that it was not good for him to be alone, created Eve. We'll address these kinds of apparent changes in just a moment. I think there's another way to look at them, but they do appear to be changes. Genie? Okay. When he made Saul King, it's one of the passages I actually want to look at because it's stated so clearly there. When he made Saul King and then removed the enablement of his spirit from him and rejected him as King. In fact, let's look at that. One of the passages that I wanted to look at, and by the way, I did not tell her what I was teaching tonight. So she didn't have advance information. She usually gives me what I preach and teach, but no, first Samuel 15, look at this, first Samuel 15. Saul has already failed the Lord twice in the disobedience to his commands and he is discrediting himself as the King. And so God sends Samuel to him to deliver that ultimatum that the kingdom is going to be taken away from Saul. First Samuel 15, verse 10, then the word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul King because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions. I regret that I made Saul King. Is he saying, oops, made a mistake. I think we've, but obviously say no, no, that's not the point. Now skip down a few verses. He says, I regret is the word that the inaviyah uses. I regret that I've made Saul King, but if you look down to verse 28, verse 27, as Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hymn of his robe and at tour. Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors to one better than you. He who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind. For he is not a human being that he should change his mind. Now wait a second. What's going on here? God says, I regret that I made him King and Samuel interprets that to mean God doesn't change his mind. Got me scratching my head a little bit. Is that a contradiction? Is there a contradiction here in what we see and in what we've seen in other scriptures about the fact that God does not change his mind? We'll get back to it in just a moment. There's one other clear example in the Old Testament that I'm thinking of. Somebody else has to be thinking of this one. One prior to the flood, he was grieved because he made man. Yes, in Genesis, chapter 6, he talks about the fact that he was grieved because he'd made man and all of man's sin and carnage on the earth and so he decided to judge him and remove his spirit from him. That's a great one. It's not the one I was thinking about, but that's a great example. What do you do with chapter 4, 7, 14? Pray, I'll return to the order ways I've been. Yeah, right. I'm just having something like you're making a deal. Can we apply that to that person that makes him a recklessly friend or an only good class? Yeah. You're talking about the second chronicles, 7, 14, where God says, if my people who are called by my name, shall hum them, pray, seek my face and turn from the wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land. Is that kind of making a deal with God? If I do something, then God will change his mind and bless me instead of curse me. And John raised the important point, which is a part of the answer, that was made to Israel. It is not made to the church and it is made to Israel under the covenant he made with Abraham and then confirmed under Moses, the Palestinian part of that covenant, the land part of that covenant in Deuteronomy 28 and 29 is this. God told them plainly before they ever went to the land, if you obey me, I will give you rain, at the right times, I will prosper you, your crops will be abundant, I will bless your land. If you do not obey me, I will withhold rain, you'll have famine and drought, and you'll even go into captivity. The covenant God made with Israel had to do with their land and physical blessings on their crops. That's the promise he made to them. Second Chronicle 714, basically, is just a re-confirmation of that promise. I told you back in Deuteronomy, if you listened to me, if you humbled, if you cry out to me, if you get right with me, I would give you crops, I would heal your land. And if you do it now, I'll fulfill my promise, but don't forget the other part of the promise. If you don't, then you'll have famine and drought and captivity. So he wasn't making a deal, even with Israel, he was just reaffirming the promise he had made to them before they ever went into the land and reminding them of what it means to live under the covenant he made with them. And that passage is often used of the church. It's not really made to us. There are some principles there we can learn from, but it's not a political promise for us. John? Yeah, that's in Romans 3 where he talks about what God's justification means. And it was accomplished at the cross. God taking care of sin was accomplished at the cross. And what he's saying there is that in times past, God overlooked their sin in the sense that he forgave them in anticipation of the cross and was applying the work of the cross backwards to the sins of Old Testament saints when they trusted him. And in that sense overlooked it, because the provision had not been made yet, but he was applying what he knew was going to happen at the cross back to the Old Testament saint. In that sense he's talking about that. It's almost 8 o'clock and I do want to get us off the hook a little bit here tonight. Maybe we'll tackle this a little bit more fully next time. But how do we resolve this apparent contradiction? Let me give you three ways to resolve this apparent contradiction. When the Bible seems to indicate that God changes his mind, there are three ways to look at that. Number one, some are simply descriptions of God's actions and feelings in human terms so that we can understand. For instance, when God says to use the King James terminology, it repents me that I made Saul King. The word is literally, it grieves me. It grieves me. And the example that nobody came up with that I was thinking of was Jonah and Nineveh, where God says in Jonah 3, 10, God repented of the evil that he had thought to do to them. He did not judge them like he said he would when they turned to him. But that word repent is really the word for grieve. It grieved God. It moved God. And so it's not that he changed his mind. It's that he was emotionally feeling what was happening. And it's described in human emotions so that we can understand it looks like from a human standpoint God changed his mind, but he didn't. Second way to explain it is this. What is spoken of as a change may just be a new stage in the outworking of God's plan. There is a break with what has happened in the past and it looks like to us a huge change. And John mentioned one perfectly and that is the transition from Israel to the church. It looks like God changed in midstream said I'm not going to deal with Israel anymore. I'm going to do something new and that's the church. That's what it looks like to us. But God from eternity passed that was a part of his plan. And so God is just carrying out his plan. He hasn't changed anything. It looks like to us it's a big change, but it's not a change in him. He had decided that from eternity passed that he would be doing that anyway. And then the third way to look at this. And I think this is a key thought. Some of these passages that seem to indicate God changed his mind or changed directions or whatever. Some of them I'm going to explain it this way. Our changes in orientation because man has moved. Let me see if we can picture it this way. Look at me now. So you can get this. Here's God in the middle. It doesn't work this way, but let's just picture it this way. God's mercy and grace, no, no, God's judgment and wrath are flowing this way toward unbelievers. God's mercy and grace is flowing this way toward believers. When an unbeliever becomes a believer, there is a change in orientation toward God, but who moved? Who changed? Not God. God's wrath and mercy have always been flowing both directions, but man changed, man trusted Christ. And so man is now over here looking at God from a different perspective and he's receiving grace and mercy and it looks like God changed. Wow. I was getting wrath now. I'm getting grace. God changed. No, God didn't change. God was always displaying mercy and wrath and always displaying both. But because we have changed in our orientation toward God, it appears to us that he has changed. No, he's constant. He has always been. He always will be. He always is. He's remained the same. He hasn't changed. So those are some of the ways that maybe we can look at these passages that appear to teach that God changes his mind when there are other passages say, clearly he doesn't. He doesn't. So there's got to be another explanation for these. We're five minutes past. I'd love to get into more questions. We'll pick up with this next week and go back over it and see if you have any questions or comments. You want it a little bit this week, okay? Let's pray. Father, thank you for the fact that you do not change, that you are consistent with your nature. Thank you that we can always trust you and know that you will never change your mind. You'll never cool and your enthusiasm toward us. You never have office hours when we come to you and you say you'll be back in an hour. Thank you that you are always there. You never change. In Jesus name, amen.