Attributes of Greatness (6)

We've been looking at what the Bible teaches about God on Wednesday evening and we've been looking at some of the attributes, the characteristics of God or qualities of character that would describe him, would explain to us what the Bible teaches about him. And thus far we've looked at the fact that God is self-existent, God is eternal, God is unchangeable, and God is omnipresent. Last time we were looking at the fact that God is omniscient. Remember what that means? What does it mean that God is omniscient? Come on, it's not that bad. You're not that asleep, are you? I know we didn't meet last week, but what does it mean? God is omniscient. He knows all things. And we saw that what we mean by that is that God's knowledge is all-inclusive, it is eternal, it is perfect, it is complete, God knows everything. And we looked at eight scriptures last time that describe the fact that God knows everything that happens to people when they die. God knows everything about the material world, he knows everything about the animal world, he knows everything about what happens in our thoughts and our daily lives. He knows even every potential circumstance under every conceivable situation. Remember in Matthew chapter 11 the Bible says that Jesus said if Sodom and Gomorrah had heard what you were hearing, these cities along the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee, they would have repented. And so Jesus knows what would have happened to them if they had heard the same message that the people in his ministry were hearing. So God has absolute knowledge, perfect knowledge, complete knowledge. Now we looked at a couple of, just to remind you, we looked at a couple difficulties in understanding that truth. Remember there are a couple of passages we looked at, for instance in Genesis 18 where the Bible says that God came down to see if what he had heard about Sodom and Gomorrah was written. Sodom and Gomorrah was really as bad as what he had heard and it sounds like God is learning new information which we obviously know is not the case. And then we looked at Deuteronomy chapter 8 where it says that God tested the people of Israel in the wilderness so that he might know what was in their hearts. Did God not know what was in their hearts? And if you recall, how did we say we should understand those kinds of passages? Someone helped me out a little bit, you're going to have to do a little bit of talking tonight. Okay, one of the ways to see those, it is for our benefit. For instance with Abraham, it was to show Abraham in using terminology that we would typically use. It was to show Abraham that God has all the information before he acts. He never judges or acts unjustly. Okay. What about the Deuteronomy 8? Why did God test them to know what was in their hearts? What does that mean? Okay, God already knew what was in their hearts. He knows all things. But we saw that sometimes the Bible uses that expression to describe God is testing them to prove what's in their hearts, to demonstrate. And it's not that he needs to know, but they need to know and others need to know. And so God tests in order to know what's in their heart and others to demonstrate or to prove to them and to others what's in their heart. Now that's pretty much what we covered last time. Let's talk a little bit about the application of that truth. What does it mean to you in your life? What encouragement do you draw or warning? Do you draw from the fact that God knows all things? So we have to understand that a trial puts a force, whether we like it or not. God knows that that's the truth. And we must pretend that that's the result of it getting through it. Strengthens us. Exactly. You know, that's certainly one of the purposes for trials in the Bible is that God is testing us to make us stronger, to bring us through something. Sometimes it's to strengthen our faith. Sometimes it's to strengthen our understanding of who he is. Sometimes it's to help us understand how weak we are in ourselves and that we can't make it without him. Lots of things that God proves or tests us in regard to that. He already knows it's to prove to us or to show to us or to help us understand him better is what the issue is. Walt. Yes. God knows the path that he wants us to go and he has a way of orchestrating the circumstances and events of our lives and his providence to accomplish exactly what he wants. That's a great comfort. God knows all things. You take the trial of things which God wants you to have faith in him. He'll send things through way to see if you're going to surrender and submit to the spirit which that guidance that makes us make a great decision. And God wants us to know he makes the best decision and wants us to follow. The trial of our faith. We have to have trials and tributes in our lives for him to draw on us and he will be inspired by it. That's good. That is certainly one of the major reasons why God tests us. Sure is. So how much we need him for sure. Yes. You know, one of the one of the great comforts I believe in encouragement and knowing that God knows all things is that he is not too great to notice even the trivial events of our lives or the things that nobody else may know. There's a verse I have my Bible open to in Psalm 56. Verse 8 that says record my misery list my tears on your scroll. Are they not in your record? Just think about that every tear that you shed for whatever reason is in God's record book. He knows all about it. He knows why he knows the pain. He knows the joy. He knows whatever it may be that has brought that from you. He knows that and it's all recorded in his book. He makes note of that. So it's a great, great thing to know that God's knowledge is so amazing that he notices everything. Even every tear that we shed in the reason for it. I think some of you mentioned this or kind of skirted around the edges of it that knowing that God knows all things should give us great confidence in prayer because we know that he knows how best answer. We're not putting God to the test when we pray. Are we? Because he knows exactly what we need. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter six when he said don't use vain repetition like the pagans do. Remember why he said that he said because your father knows what you need before you ask him. Amazing. And God knows what you need before you ask him. And so he knows best how to answer prayer. Yes, Sammy? Yes. Yes. Yeah, that is so true. And that's kind of warning, isn't it? It's a comfort, but it also a warning that he knows everything in our hearts and lies that is displeasing to him anytime we disobey him or do anything that is displeasing to him. He knows that knows that. I want to piggyback on that one for just a moment and turn it to an encouragement because even though God knows everything about us, think about the relationship of that to eternal security. Okay, we believe the Bible teaches that when God saves someone, he saves him eternally and you know, there's no losing of salvation. We we are kept for heaven, which is reserved for us as Peter's way of saying it first Peter one. So we believe that God keeps us eternally secure. The way that ties into God's knowledge is that there is nothing that will ever surface that will make God say, oh, well, I didn't know about that. You know, if I've known that or here's something I that surely will disqualify you now from heaven, but God, there's nothing that will ever come to light that God doesn't already know about us. I like the way a W tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy refers to that. He says it this way. And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No tale bearer can inform on us. No enemy can make an accusation stick. No forgotten skeleton can come come come tumbling out of some hidden closet to a bash us and expose our past. No unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us. Since he knew us utterly before we knew him and called us to himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us. For the mountain he quotes here, for the mountain shall depart the hills to be removed. My kindness shall not depart depart from the neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. I love that. Nothing will ever come to light. Nothing will ever surface that will make God say, OK, that will disqualify you because God saved us knowing everything about us. And he saved us anyway. And so nothing. Amen. Yes. Exactly. Any warnings maybe that we should take to heart from the fact that God knows everything. Sammy kind of mentioned one. Anything else but we have warning that we should remember. He does know the thoughts and tense of our hearts, doesn't he? Even better than we do. And so that's a sobering warning. Yes. Sammy? Certainly. Yeah, he knows the consequences. God knows exactly what the consequences are. He knows what he knows what the judgment is going to be like. Nobody here knows that yet. Nobody knows the severity of it. The awesomeness of standing before God. But he knows exactly what that's what that's about. God also knows everything about his warnings in the Bible. So when he warns us about something, we better take it seriously because God knows what he's talking about. He does. He chases those that he loves. And he warns us. He warns us in his word about behavior, thoughts, sin and what the consequences of that will be. And so that's a warning to us to know that God knows exactly what he's talking about. OK, God's knowledge. Anything else you want to talk about there or ask about there? God is omniscient. He knows all things. God is omniscient. He's not also a danger here. He's making the world so much easier. Understand what's all there. And I make choices about what to do or what not. He already knows what the outcome is going to be. I don't know if I like to have freedom of saying in the walk of God. Getting mad at everybody. I don't know if you're hearing John in the back. You're hearing him OK, OK, good. It's easy to take truths like this and move to kind of a fatalism or determinism that since God already knows everything and knows what I'm going to do that doesn't matter. Kind of like the guy who was kind of a fatalist or determinist and he fell down the steps and he said, well, I'm glad that's over. Let's get on with the next part of the plan. You have to be careful not to move to that extreme of fatalism or determinism. That doesn't matter what I do because God knew I was going to do it anyway. He's obviously forgiven me and everything's OK. I just live anyway. I want to pull warns about that in Galatians 5. Paul warns about if you pull away from legalism that you don't go all the way to license and just saying, well, it doesn't matter how I live then. If I don't have to keep the law will be under the law. It doesn't matter how I live. And it's a similar type thing and you're warning us appropriately about not moving to that extreme job. Thank you. For sure. Have to be careful not to take him for granted. Yes. Just remember, every thing that we do is open before God and it's not what Hebrews 4 says. Everything is laid bare naked before the eye of him who sees all things. OK, let's move on to the next. The next attribute of God and that is that God is omnipotent. What does that mean? God is omnipotent means he has all all power, all power. OK, let me talk a little bit about the meaning of what omnipotence means and then we'll look at several passages of scripture that describe it for us. Omnipotence basically means that God is able to do all things consistent with his nature and character. OK, are there some things that God can't do? There are some things he can't do. He can't lie. Right? Can't sin. Right? OK. So there are some things that he can't do because those would be contrary to his nature. Those would violate his very person. His very nature. So there. So we're not saying that God can do anything regardless of what we might think of. Obviously he has the power to do everything. But all of his attributes are in perfect combination with each other and perfect complement of each other. And so his power is going to fit with his holiness and his justice and his righteousness. And so God is able to do all things consistent with his nature and with his character. God will never fail to do what he's promised. So he cannot do that. He cannot fail to do what he's promised. He cannot sin, as you said. And other things like that, we know that he cannot do. Some folks who just like to debate these kinds of things and ask the question, is God able to make a square circle? Well, it's a violation of God's very nature to do something that is logically absurd. OK. So it would be a violation of his knowledge and wisdom to do those kinds of things. So no, no, you cannot construct those kind of logical absurdities and say, well, can God do that? Well, God must be limited then. No, no, that doesn't limit God at all. God has all power. He can do all things that are consistent with his own nature and character, all of his attributes complement each other. Here's something else that God's omnipotence means. And this is amazing. God's will is never frustrated. God's will is never frustrated. You know, you and I may determine that we're going to do something and we're not able to do it for whatever reason. Circumstances, our own inability or whatever, but God's will is never frustrated. He accomplishes whatever he sets his mind to do because he has power to do it. And nothing can, nothing can frustrate him or stop him. Here's something else that we'll see in these passages when we look at them in just a moment that has to do with God's power. God is never exhausted by the exercise of his power. If God has all power, then his power, his strength cannot decrease at any point or he does not have all power. Right. So God is never exhausted by the exercise of his power. He does things and there's never any drop in energy. Okay. We'll see that in the scriptures in a moment. That's an awesome thought about God. He has all power, which means he's not too tired to help you, no matter where you are or what's going on in your life. And there are millions of other people praying to him at the same time, meeting his help. God is not exhausted by trying to cover all those needs. There's no limit limit to his power. Okay. Let's look at some of the biblical teaching on this. First of all, Genesis chapter 17 and verse 1. Genesis 17 is one of those reaffirmations of the covenant that God had made with Abraham. Covenant about a land, about a seed, about blessing him and his seed. And chapter 17 is actually where God makes a special covenant with him and expands that covenant. There's more added to it. And so it's probably the most extensive expression of that covenant that he did made with Abraham. And the reason why I mentioned that is that's significant to understand the context of what he's going to say to Abraham. In chapter 17, Abraham is 99 years old. And God's going to reaffirm to him that he's going to have a son. Okay. Now that can't happen physically, humanly speaking, Abraham is beyond the capacity to have a child. Romans 4 tells us that that his body being as yet dead, he still trusted God. But anyway, that's the setting here. That's the scene. And that's why God begins the conversation the way he does with Abraham and Genesis 17 and verse 1. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. I am and this is one of the names of God in the Old Testament. L. Shadai. I am the Lord of hosts. God Almighty, the God of all power. The word Shadai comes from the Hebrew word Shad, which means mountain. And you think something powerful and strong and imposing. It is a mountain. We know that in this area. And if you go to Colorado or you go to Pakistan or somewhere like that, you get to see even bigger, more imposing mountains than what we see in this area. But God is a God of overpowering might. He is God all might. He has all power. All right. Look at Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28. In this very familiar passage, well known passage of God telling us how wonderful, how great he is, how awesome he is. He says in chapter 40, verse 28, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom. A couple of his attributes are mentioned there. The fact that he has all knowledge is understanding no one can fathom. And the fact that he will not grow weary. He does not grow tired. He does not grow weary. And so that reinforces the idea that there is no energy lost when God expends power. Unlike us, we are created beings and so we have a limited amount of energy. When we expend energy, we lose some. We have to replenish. It is not true with God. There is no energy lost. He does not grow tired. He does not grow weary. I am so thankful that that is true. No matter what time of day or season of your life you need him, he is not too tired to help you. He is not weary from what has happened. Okay, comments or questions about that in verse before we look at Jeremiah 32. I like that he is a favorite last year. He is a salvation. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, it is. Certainly is. He never he never ends. He is everlasting. All right, Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32, verse 17. Ah, sovereign lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. Now again, the context is very important in what is being said here. Jeremiah has been prophesying consistently faithfully by God's call on his life. He has been prophesying that the nation of Judah where he lives will go into captivity to Babylon. He has been telling King Zedekiah you need to surrender to the Babylonians. Don't fight them because it is God's purpose to send Judah into captivity. Zedekiah did not like that. Zedekiah thought Jeremiah was a traitor. And so Jeremiah in order to show his faith in God's word that God was going to judge his people, but also in the prospect of a future return to the land, which was also part of Jeremiah's message. People will be sending to captivity, but they'll also be brought back to the land in order to show his confidence in God's word and God's message. Jeremiah does something. He buys a field in his hometown of Anathoth. Several miles away from Jerusalem. He buys a field which is already under Babylonian domain. They're encircling Jerusalem already. They already have that land, so it doesn't belong to Israel anymore. And Jeremiah, they write up a deed and he buys this property. And the reason he does is to show his faith in God's word that God would bring his people back. And he goes on to talk about the fact that land will be sold again in Israel in the future. And that's the reason he buys this piece of property. In that context, Jeremiah's praying in verse 16 and 17, and a part of his prayer is sovereign lord. You have made the heavens in the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. It looks pretty desperate right now with the city of Jerusalem under siege and the field that I've just bought already under the control of the Babylonians. But nothing is too hard for you. When things look impossible in your life, just remember this verse. Remember what Jeremiah said. Nothing is too hard for God. Nothing is too hard for him. He has all power. All right, look at Matthew chapter 19. Matthew 19. Look at a couple of New Testament passages that describe the power of God. Matthew 19 verse 25. Again, set the context a little bit. It's important. Jesus has just had a personal one-on-one conversation with the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler came to him and said, I do not want to inherit eternal life. Jesus said, keep the commandments. He said, which ones? Jesus quoted several of them and said, I have kept all those. Jesus put his finger on this young man's God, which was his possessions. He said, sell everything you have, give to the poor, and then come follow me. Jesus knew that was his God. That was what was keeping him from faith in Christ. He said, I can't do that. He turned and walked away. Jesus commented about that. In verse 23, it is truly hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Now, Jesus is saying there basically is this man has a lot to give up in order to recognize he needs to depend totally upon the Lord for his eternal salvation. He's a self-sufficient guy. He's got everything he needs. And don't we find that true a lot of times today? People that have everything they need don't recognize their need of Christ. And so that's what Jesus is saying here. Verse 25, when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked who then can be saved. Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Things that look impossible or are impossible for us are not impossible with God. All things are possible with God. And in the context, we understand Jesus is talking about salvation. God can save anybody. The disciples are saying, well, if who can be saved, if a person with possessions is easier for a camel to walk through, I have a needle than this for that person to be saved. And that person to be saved, who can be saved? And Jesus said, it's possible for him to save anybody. He saved anybody, including that rich man. And so nothing is impossible with him and salvation proves that. One other thing that demonstrates the amazing power of God. And that's in Ephesians chapter 1. And that is the resurrection of Christ. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 18 to 22. When prophets in the Old Testament wanted to remind Israel of an example of God's power, what did they use to show God's power in the Old Testament? Do you remember? Deliverance from Egypt crossing the reds through the red sea. That was often what the prophets or the writers of Scripture, a lot of times in the Psalms, would use as exhibit a of God's power. And that is bringing his people out of Egypt and through the red sea. In the New Testament, exhibit a of God's power is the resurrection, resurrection of Christ. So look at verse 18. And he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. And the exhibit a of God's power is the resurrection of Christ. And Jesus is saying, or Paul is saying, I want you to understand the power of God that is able to be at work in your lives. It is the same power that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. So that power is available to you and me for for living our daily lives and for meeting whatever we need to meet in our lives. God is all powerful. He has all power able to do all things consistent with his nature and character. Any comments or questions about that before we talk about the application of that? I just like to thank my God. I say myself when I look at the creatures. It's a little bit for nothing creature and make something out of it to be like Christ. Amen. Amen. And I tend to cry in this body for the powerful work that God should be in you and in me and in me and in real. Yes. I think that's true. It's a salvation family. Amazing demonstration of the power of God. And that's testimony of all of us, rather than all of us God has taken from nothing and given us eternal life in Christ. That's an amazing demonstration of his power. What does God's power mean to you? What application would you draw for your life? What comfort, encouragement, strength that you draw from knowing that God has all power? As you believe, but I can receive. Amen. Yes, the power to answer for here doesn't it? Yes. He is the same as you used to do that. Exactly. Nothing can touch us except what he allows. He has power to stop it, doesn't it? If he wants to. Anybody that's been in the village of Israel has a desire to do that. Yes. So true. We saw with the story of the rich young ruler, God can save even what we consider to be hopeless cases. Have you ever looked at someone and said, that's hopeless. That person has rejected Christ for so long. That person has whatever. And we think they'll never get saved. Well, God is able to save anyone. Even hopeless. What we might consider hopeless cases. Here's something else that encourages me about the awesome power of God. And that is he is more powerful than Satan. Satan will not be able to defeat him. No matter how strong Satan is and he's much stronger than we are, he will not be able to defeat God in the end. God has all power. Satan is limited in his power. So thank God that he is more powerful than our enemy. All right. Any other comments about the power of God? Any questions? Great deal of joy. Yes. Amen. Amen. Should bring us great joy. All of these attributes of God, all these characteristics of him, when we really understand who he is and what he's like, that should bring us great joy. And our joy is fixed on him, isn't it? Not in ourselves. Walt? Back to the things that are in the devil. And the devil is not in the devil. Not in the devil. And the devil is in the devil. Great question. Did you hear that? How do we understand the fact that God rested on the seventh day if he is not in need of rest? If he's never exhausted or weary by any exertion or expenditure power? Why did God rest on the seventh day? Was he tired? Is finished. Okay. Is finished. There are a couple of things involved with that. And Walt knows these. He's raising it for purpose of discussion. Thank you, brother. Yeah. That's one of the things, one of the important things that is involved in the rest of our Lord. The Bible says he rests on the seventh day. And he looked at all that he had made and he said it was very good. God pauses to rejoice in his creation. And there's something else that kind of goes along with that that is intended by the Sabbath rest of God. And what is it? What's the other reason why God rested? As an example for us, Exodus chapter 20, in the Ten Commandments talks about remembering the Sabbath day. And it gives the example of God resting. He worked six days and he rested one. That's to set a pattern for us to understand that God did not intend us to work without some kind of change of pace or some kind of stepping back from our work in order to look and see what he has accomplished. To pause, yeah, and let God show us what he has done good in our lives, even through our work. But he did that not because he was tired, not because he needed the rest. He did it to serve as an example for us. And that's why Moses says in the Ten Commandments, he did it purposely. Okay. All right, great, great question. Well, observation. Anything else? We've got about four minutes before the kids get out of a wana. I like to take all of them by what says it. The children's foolishness of preaching to save. How powerful it is for the gospel to be preached to convey the soul to understand that it needs that Almighty God because all the power of a person in his church couldn't save yourself from hell or mine or the realm. But just through the preaching of the gospel, so it can be convicted. And that's the power of God. And that's power. Let's do. I believe that's one of the greatest powers that moves in my life is that God can preach the message through the land. And I can come under the conviction and be drawn to great salvation. Yeah, Paul, the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 412 that the word of God is quick and powerful. It is alive and active. It is powerful. And the demonstration of the word of God, it's power in our lives to save a soul, to regenerate, to bring us new life. I mean, anybody who has witnessed the people or has taught or preached the Bible and then step back and watch what God did with it. It's just totally beyond anything we could ever do. God takes his word and somehow uses it in people's lives. It's powerful. You remember Jeremiah said his word was like a hammer. His words like a fire. It can penetrate the hardest heart. Amazing. Amazing power of God demonstrated in his word. Okay, we're going to stop there before we get to the next attribute of God, which is the fact that God is perfect. We wouldn't have time to really do justice even to a definition there before our time is up. So we're going to stop there. Let's have word of prayer. Father, we're grateful to you tonight for your goodness to us and Lord, we thank you most of all for your great power. Thank you that you have saved us by your power. You keep us by your power. You minister to our hearts through your powerful, active word. We're thankful, Father, that you are able to do all things. You never grow weary or tired. We take great joy and comfort and receive blessing from thinking about your power tonight. Thank you, Lord, that in the end we know you will defeat the great enemy, the enemy of our enemy Satan, the enemy of death. You will defeat him. We give you praise. We worship you as the great God that you are in Jesus' name. Amen.