Last week we got a beginning in Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, concerning God and concerning the Holy Trinity. Last week we took two points of doctrine from Chapter 2. The first, that there is one only living and true God. He is the only God and He is distinguished by those adjectives from all false gods. He is living, distinguished from dead idols, and true as opposed to the gods that men invent in their imagination. And we also looked at the doctrine of God's spirituality, that He is a spirit and He does not have a body like men. Over the next couple of sermons we are going to be looking at the attributes of God, or sometimes called His perfections. but as we take this up sometimes this can sound a bit academic considering the attributes of God but it does have an application indeed each and everyone has an application that God is worthy of worship and adoration for these things turn in your Bibles to Psalm 100 You, of course, are well familiar with the 100th Psalm. Here we speak so much about worshipping God, entering into His gates with thanksgiving and praise. But all of this is grounded in what the psalmist knows of God's character, His nature, His attributes. Look at verse 4 there. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless his name." So here is the call to worship, and I like the way it's rendered in our Psalter. It says, for why? Why do we do this? For the Lord is good, pointing to the goodness of God. His mercy is everlasting. the grace of God, and His truth endureth to all generations, the great faithfulness of God." So here he points to God's attributes. So as we take up God's attributes, we always ought to have this in view, so that we might worship and praise Him for these things. Our first doctrine this morning God is infinite in being. This comes from Confession of Faith 2.1. You have it there printed in your bulletin. There is but one only living and true God who is infinite in being and perfection, immense, eternal. We're going to group those attributes together. As the divine say here, God is infinite in being and perfection. Now we are going to be just taking up the first half of that. We'll look at what they're calling here His perfections later, His holiness, His justice, His goodness, His faithfulness and truth. He is infinite in these things, but we'll look at all of those individually. What we want to talk about first is that He is infinite in being. First, let us look at the biblical material concerning this, and then we'll make some application of this important truth. First, God is infinite with respect to space. You're going to have to put your thinking cap on. I know I sometimes require a lot in the listening to sermons. and I'm going to require more now than what I normally do. These are familiar concepts, concepts that we use every day, but in taking them up in this way, I know sometimes there can be some difficulty. Here we're talking about the relationship between God and space. And as we take up this consideration, remember what we did last week. God is a spirit, and he does not have a body like man. now we ask the other question well what is space or how are we to define it? first of all space is not a thing space is a concept material bodies exist and when we contemplate the relative position of two or more material bodies one to another we derive the concept of space it's a relative term relating material bodies space is a concept that applies very well to God's creation because he created all of these material bodies and when we consider their relative positions one to another we conceive of the idea of space but God does not have a material body like man does and this is very important space is a meaningful concept applied to the creature but not to the Creator who does not have a body. Indeed if space is defined as the relative position of two or more material bodies then it doesn't apply to God properly. He is not a material being. Well there are great theological implications for the infinity of God with respect to space that is not defined with respect to space and the first It's the doctrine of God's omnipresence. God is present to all of the creation. There is no limitation as it were. He's not defined in spatial categories and is well able to be present to all of space, all of the creation. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 139, a beautiful psalm that we're going to be Looking at it at length during the application, one of the things I want to demonstrate to you, you know sometimes doing systematic theology can sound so dry and so dusty, but you know, David can make most pertinent spiritual applications from a doctrine that can sound as dry as God's omnipresence, and he does, in the 139th Psalm. So, Psalm 139, verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. So here David said, wherever I might go in this creation, you are there. You are there present with me. This is the doctrine of God's omnipresence. that David is applying very personally to himself wherever I might go in this big wide world even if I'm an astronaut and I go into outer space God is there and he's present with me now omnipresence can be distinguished from the doctrine of God's immensity now with the doctrine of omnipresence we say that God is present omni everywhere he's present to all of the creation The doctrine of God's immensity is a little different. It means that God's presence is not limited to the creation. In other words, His being is not bounded by the creation. If you think of the creation as being something of a closed system, it's not as if God's being is limited by the bounds of the things that He has made. But it transcends those bounds and goes far beyond those things. turn in your Bibles to 2nd Chronicles chapter 2 you will remember the context here Solomon is wanting to build a temple for this great God what a strange thing here we have a God who's being is not limited by anything and Solomon is going to build him a house and so he's petitioning Huram of Tyre for help in this great building project but Solomon recognizes that the building of a temple for God in one way is a very odd thing to do and he explains that to Huram verse 5 2nd Chronicles chapter 2 verse 5 and the house which I build is great for great is our God above all gods but who is able to build him in house seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him who am I then that I should build him in house save only to burn sacrifice before him so Solomon is saying I don't want you to think that we believe that this little house is going to contain our God because indeed the very heaven of heavens cannot contain him not this creation and not the heavenly places nothing can limit his being we only build this little house so that we might serve him here and that's all So this is God, applying God's infinity to space. We can also talk about God being infinite with respect to time. Now again, time is a concept that we all use very regularly, but when we start to try to define it, it can become a bit of a brain twister sometimes. Remember, and this is important again, I've ordered these sermons the way that they are intentionally building on one another. Remember God is a spirit and he doesn't have a body like man. Time, very much like space, is a concept. It's basically a construct that involves matter, material bodies, and motion. When you have two or more material bodies that are changing in their spatial relationship one to another, we chart time. And this is a most biblical idea. You remember at the creation in Genesis 1, God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. basically he's saying that as these heavenly bodies change in their relationship to your earth you are going to track time now you don't need heavenly bodies necessarily to do this I mean any two material objects present to you could be used to serve to chronicle time but the heavenly bodies are publicly available to everybody on the earth for charting a common course of time you see what he's doing here Now again, if time is a concept that requires material bodies, we see that it does not properly apply to God. God is infinite with respect to time, or is not defined in temporal categories. The creation is, but God is not. As a matter of fact, before he created material bodies, as it were, If we can say before, I don't know any other way to say it, but before he created material bodies, there wasn't any time. And so we say that God is eternal. You see, that word eternal doesn't just mean that he lasts a really, really long time or that he lasts an infinite amount of time. That's not what it means properly. It means not defined in terms of time. Non-temporal being. That is what God is. Now from this we can again drive two very important theological implications. First, as God is omnipresent with respect to space, He is also omnipresent with respect to time. In other words, there is no time. that you can visit in the creation where God will not be present there and so we have it in Hebrews chapter 13 talking about the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever being present yesterday to us and being present to us today and always being present to us Jesus would also apply this to himself in Revelation. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning and the end of this history and everything in between, present to all of it. But just like with space, we don't want to say that God is limited to time. Again, as I've already explained, He is eternal. This is the way His presence is described in the Bible. God was before time. before the creation now that's an improper way of speaking but as human beings I don't know any other way to say it than that and so Moses says in the 90th Psalm before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God even before there were any material bodies in any beginning to time you were God you are God then and you will be God until everlasting is what Moses says there well as I promised even though this can be a bit dry when you read it in a systematic theology textbook we have most pertinent applications here things so basic and so fundamental that we will find as Christian people we are using them all the time and we ought to think of them all the time Now, just a brief review of what we've done. God is present to all of the creation, every place, every time, present to all of it. And this means, as we pointed out in the 139th Psalm, God is present to me and present with me. I don't know, I don't think we all use the same children's catechism, but the one we use with our boy says, the question is, can you see God? And the answer is, I cannot see God but He always sees me. A very important idea to get in a child's mind right from the beginning. Even if mommy and daddy are not looking at me at a particular time, even though I can't see God, God sees me. He knows what I'm doing and He knows whether I'm doing right or whether I'm doing wrong. And we ought to remember that as well because we can delude ourselves. Well, you know, I'm a fine upstanding man in the church. Everybody thinks a whole lot of me. But then they don't see those things that you do in secret places, or the secret thoughts of your heart. But God does. He's present there with you. We'll make some more application of that in a few minutes time. But turn to the 139th Psalm. What I wanted to do with it is just walk through this text. And look at the application that Dathan makes of God's omnipresence. Psalm 139, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. There's a very curious thing about this psalm, right from the beginning. What we're going to notice is that David is going to move very easily from God's omniscience, the fact that God knows all things, to God's omnipresence, that he's present with me everywhere. In some ways, for David, these are parallel concepts. God is present everywhere, knowing. He has a knowing God that is present everywhere, might be a good way to sum them both up. Verse two, Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassed my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together. So God is present for my deeds, and God is present and knows all of my words. And perhaps most troubling of all, He knows all of my thoughts and the secret intentions of my heart. And children, you should be well aware of this, that God sees you. He sees you in secret places. He sees the things that you do right and the things that you do wrong, whether or not mommy and daddy ever know any of those things your whole life long. God is well aware and He sees. Verse 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Now here, I don't know about you, but I find David just a little strange. Because when I think about God looking into my soul, I find the idea of it a bit terrifying and troubling. But David here begins to draw comfort. He is comforted by the presence of God. And one of the questions we want to answer before we leave this psalm is, how is it that David can derive such comfort from the presence of the Holy One of Israel? A presence so intense and intimate that God is looking into his soul. And David knows that he's a sinful man. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain unto it. Now as I mentioned in the introduction, you see this moves David immediately to worship when he considers the omniscience of God, the fact that he knows all things. So right from the beginning, we have three applications that David has made in the space of six verses. God knows me. He's here with me in my intimate thoughts. This is the most sobering thing to consider. you remember the Lord Jesus Christ said every word every idle word will be called into the judgment a sobering thing indeed we see that David is driving comfort from it although we have an open question as to why this is so comforting for David and also the application of worship that word awesome is much abused and hardly means anything if you were to say it to people now but David finds the contemplation of God and His knowledge awe-inspiring. It's humbling to him and it leads him to praise God. And so we continue in verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. And if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Again, you get the note of comfort. Here, David's not talking about, I need to find some place where I can get away. He's just saying, wherever place I happen to go, you are there upholding me. So it's comforted. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me, Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect, and in my book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Isn't that a wonderful thing when you talk about how hidden a child is in the womb? God is present to them there, well aware and tenderly and knitting their parts together in that secret place isn't that a wonderful thing to consider children that when you were yet in the womb God was present with you there during a time that you can't even remember and you were scarcely composing a thought God was present there knitting your body parts together blessing you with a soul and bringing you up to this time of life, present to you all of the time. Verse 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men! For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies." Well here David alludes to the fact that God's omnipresence ought to be a terror to the wicked. Surely God will judge them. They have an escape from his presence. Now what David says here probably will make us a little uncomfortable. I'm not going to try to entangle this. Just leave it with you. he's appealing to the fact that God knows his heart and one of the virtues of David's heart that he wants God to know is that he hates the enemies of God with a perfect hatred and this is something that he wants God to look upon as he expects that God will approve of it. Now I will not try to unravel all of that, just leave you with that bit of uncomfortable theology. This is one of the reasons why I love the singing of the Psalms. You're uncomfortable with some of it? Good, that's because it's the Bible. You know, she can sing through a whole hymnal and never get uncomfortable, because that's the theology we're comfortable with. But the Bible's got its own agenda, and its own things, and sinful men recoil at it. David said it was a positive virtue, something that he wanted God to look at in his heart, that he hated God's enemies with a perfect hatred. And then he goes on to say, and to appeal to God's omnipresence and omniscience, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. At this last verse we finally get some insight into why David is so comforted by the presence of God, even the presence of God looking into his soul. Being united to Jesus Christ by faith, the Spirit looking into his soul is useful to David in every way in furthering his sanctification, something that he wants. He said, I don't know all of my sins. God, I want you to search into my heart and to know me and discover to me what sins yet remain there, so that I might go forward in sanctification, as he says here, so that I might be led in the way everlasting, the path to eternal life. This is the only context in which this doctrine of God's omnipresence can be comforting, as if we are safely united to Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it is nothing but a terror to think of the Holy One of Israel peering into your soul. The way that the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ are characterized in the apocalypse are eyes of fire, as if He'd look into your very heart and soul and dissect you in that way. It's only in union with Jesus Christ that this that this terror is relieved and that we come to think of God's presence as a comfort to us and even, and treat for it, come Holy Spirit and reveal to me what sins remain so that I might repent of them and continue in this business of growing in grace. A most precious and spiritual application of that doctrine of God's infinity. Our second doctrine this morning is one that is probably a little less familiar certainly in its language most Christians will be able to tell you that God is infinite but it's rare that you will hear anyone say that God is most absolute as he is called in Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1 now they just mention that in passing in 2.1 but they elaborate in 2.2 expound it so let us look at that God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness in and of himself, and is alone in and unto himself all sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever himself please it." Well, we can break this up into its component parts so that we can see how the Bible teaches all of these different things. When we talk about God being absolute, we mean a handful of things, as it's explained here. First, we have the doctrine of the aseity of God. Now that's a five dollar theological term that actually comes from Latin, ase, from himself. It's the from himself-ness of God, that he is self-existent and does not depend upon anything else for his existence. All other beings are dependent and derived. Not absolute, on the one hand, standing alone, but dependent, standing in need of something else for being. All effects are dependent upon a cause. God is not an effect. He is the first cause of all things, but is himself caused by nothing. He is not dependent. now we think about this and we say well of course haven't I known this since I was knee high and I hope that you have but this truth is so fundamental and so central that God took it for his very name in scripture we go back to the burning bush and what is it that Jehovah said to Moses And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am have sent me unto you. He takes it as his very name. The fact that he is not dependent upon any other for his being. Now you should know that that name Jehovah, Jehovah, in Hebrew, is derived from the Hebrew verb of being. That's why it's translated in this way here. I am. Not, I will be. Not, I'm going to be. Not, I was waiting on something so that I might be. A simple declaration of being. I am. And he takes that as his covenant being. Covenant name. This is why I say this is so fundamental to how we understand God. and as we go on towards the application you'll see that although we should all know this this is also one of the most common errors in theology and also something that sinful man kicks against quite a bit now we can derive a second bit here of the absoluteness of God very much related to his aseity it's that God is independent Now here we're going beyond just talking about his being to say that God does not depend upon the creature for anything. Now you ought not to imagine that God is in the heavens waiting for you to obey and serve so that he might be happy. He doesn't derive any happiness from the creature. And the creature is not present for his happiness. You should think of it this way. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all together and infinitely glorious and happy in their own fellowship apart from the creation. It wasn't as if the Father had some dissatisfaction with the Son that led Him to create things. He was fully satisfied with the Son, eternally and infinitely happy in the Son. He wasn't looking for something to fulfill him in creating things. That's not why we have been made. Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17, where Paul teaches this doctrine. He's on Mars Hill, you will remember, in the midst of idolaters. And this is the very point he wants to make with these idolaters. He doesn't want them to think that the real God of heaven depends upon them for anything. Like God needs your service in order to be happy, or in order to be well. He doesn't need these things to be eternally blessed, that is happy, and altogether well. Chapter 17, verse 24. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, saying he giveth to all life and breath and all things. You see, we're not worshipping in a Christian manner as long as we're thinking that we're worshipping because God needs something from us. You see, this is what Paul is saying here, as being distinctively pagan in its origin, a pagan idea. God does not need our service in order to be happy. And here, we've talked about this already. You remember, we're going to now further clarify what that first catechism question, what it means, and what it doesn't mean. You remember what the chief end of man is. It's to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. But we ought not to think in our glorifying of God that we are adding glory to Him. Which is impossible. He is infinitely glorious in and of Himself. Cornelius said, Cornelius Van Til said, it's the problem of the full cup. His cup is already full of glory, you can't add anything to it. As it were, it's already full. And here the divines are so acute and so careful. He is not deriving any glory from us, but only manifesting His own glory, which He already has, in us, by us, unto us, and upon us. You frequently hear me say that in my prayers, that we would become more fit instruments for reflecting the glory of God in the earth. Not adding any glory to Him, but simply becoming conduits for it to shine forth in this fallen world. So when we talk about our chief end is to glorify God, it's not to add glory to Him. but it's rather to reflect His glory in all of the things that we do. Now from this we come to understand what I've called here the flow of being and benefits. And it only goes in one direction. The flow of being and benefits is a one-way street. And it doesn't run both directions. We derive our being from God, and we derive all benefits from God. As Paul said in chapter 17, verse 25, He giveth life and breath and all things. He gives us all the things that we need. So the divines say He is the alone fountain of being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth." Now, coming up in chapter 4 of the Confession of Faith, we'll look at the doctrine of creation in more detail, but this is what they're alluding to. The flow of being. One direction. God gives it to everything that is. No one is giving back or adding anything to his being or who he is. It's only going in the one direction. God is self-existent and all other things were created by Him. As Paul says at the end of the 11th of Romans, for of Him, from Him, and through Him, providentially preserved, and to Him, the end of all things, are all things, to whom be glory forever. The flow of beings, only this one direction. And God alone is independent. And all other things depend upon Him for all things. We are completely dependent upon God. You will remember in that very same chapter Paul said, in Him we live and move and have our being. We depend upon Him for all things. But God cannot say of another, in that one I live and move and have my being. Now the application of this Again, if this is dusty theology, we need to blow the dust off of it, because the applications are very important. And as I said, these things seem really basic. I mean, the whole idea that God is the Creator and that He is not created by any other, that He is a benefit to all, but benefited by none, these are very basic kinds of things. But I tell you that sinful man kicks against these things, primarily because it is in every one of our hearts that we want to be the God. It was at least a facet of the sin of our first parents and has been part of the sinfulness of every man since that time. We don't like the fact that we are completely dependent and creaturely and that this other one rules over us and fittingly so because he gives us all things. I've given you life and breath and health and strength. These are all my gifts. You will employ them as I've told you to employ them. You see how very quickly this moves from the fact that he's creator to the fact that he is the sovereign. He's the king. And he will have his gifts used in the way that he's commanded. So I want to break this application up into two parts. First talking about God's sovereign rule over all things. And then second, the obedience that he demands from rational creatures, from thinking creatures, angels and men. So first, the divine said there in 2.2 that God has sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them or upon them whatsoever himself pleases. Basically, you consider the creation, God made all of this stuff, it's his, his property if you will, And he will deal with it whatever he wants. And sinful men don't like that very well. We'll talk about that a bit more in a minute. But here, this whole idea of God's aseity, his self-existence, and his independence have profound practical consequences. Again, just a brief review. God gets neither being nor benefit from any other. All are benefited by him, receiving being from him and everything that they need in order to be. He is the cause, we are the effect, and it is never the other way around. He is absolute, we do not effect him. And that's a humbling thing to get a handle on. We do not effect him. The causal sequence only moves in one direction. He effects us, we do not effect him. He is absolute. Now, having given being and benefits to all, God has an absolute right and title over all. This is His sovereign rule. He will do with what He's made whatever He wants. Now, in this, for the redeemed of the Lord, this leads us to worship, doesn't it? We look at what God has done and we say, look at His wisdom and how He has ruled over all things, and look at the goodness of God. Here is sinful man every day trying to tread upon his infinite majesty, to walk upon his majesty and to tread it down under our dirty sinful feet. Here we are every day and yet to saint and sinner alike he gives a great many benefits and we ought to praise the goodness of God. The wicked man still gets sunshine and rain and food to fill his belly receiving benefits from God. So this is matter for praising God and not for despising Him. But as soon as you bring this up that all things that come to pass have been sovereignly ruled over by God, what do people say? Does that mean I'm a puppet? And you see in that the fact that man, sinful man, is kicking against the fact that there's a God over him and that he can't be the God. Does that mean I'm just a puppet? Well, not a puppet quite exactly, but you are a creature. And you're never going to be the God. And your freedom is limited by your creatureliness. It's not that most free that the divines describe as only applying to God. God is most free. Let me try to sketch this out for you. The nature of creaturely freedom such as it is that leaves sinful man discontent. God is the Lord over this providence. There's no denying it. And everyone sitting in this room and everybody hearing the sound of my voice knows that frequently you are making decisions between options that you don't want to be deciding between. This is a great limit to your creaturely freedom. You might, if you were most free, Be wanting to sit making a decision between the Lamborghini or the Porsche. The Lamborghini or the Porsche, which one do I want to take out on the road today? But you might very well, in God's providence, end up with the decision, your money or your life. And you don't like that decision very well, but you're still going to do the thing that you want most. You're going to hand over your money so it doesn't shoot you, or you're going to take your chances. But you see how limited creaturely freedom is. It's limited by the things that you are capable of doing and the things that God sets before you in his providence. And people don't like that very much, but only God is most free. Your will is also further limited in that you only do the thing that you want most, which is your great problem, and you should understand it. The problem is not that man is not free. The problem is that man is free and sinful. You always do the thing that you want most and all you ever want is sin. You remember that's the way Paul described us in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. We were like the rest of them. Don't fool yourselves. What was the chief business of our lives, Paul? Serving the lusts of your flesh and the desires of your mind. You were like that by nature. By nature an object of wrath. You'd like to transcend yourself and pretend like you can do anything but you can only do the thing that you want most and your heart is already shaped and inclined to sin that bothers you but that's the way that you are I think that this is a very important thing to do to come to terms with the fact that God is absolute God alone is most free and we have a certain kind of creaturely freedom but it's a creaturely freedom God is, as it were, determining it day by day by the choices that are set before us in His providence and our own capacities and abilities. It's a limited thing. You cannot be the God. And we need to come to terms with that. And in coming to terms with God's absoluteness, this is glorifying to God and it's good for us. We learn to stand in our place and in our position and stop kicking against the pricks. There's no benefit in doing that. He is the God of heaven. He is going to be the God of heaven. He is going to sovereignly rule over every life and every particle of matter that bounces around in this whole universe and there's no getting away from it. But man doesn't like it. It's kind of self-idolatry, I suppose. But it's one that we like to keep hidden in the very darkest parts of our heart and only erupts from us in things like, does this mean that I'm a puppet? It means you're a creature and you don't like that very well. Let me give you another example of this. We just had it last night in family worship and I thought it was the most pertinent one. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus has been preaching in the synagogue. You remember that famous sermon he reads from Isaiah about the coming of the Messiah, and then he sits down and he says, this has been fulfilled in your hearing, and everybody's amazed at his preaching. But then they say, well, who is this guy? I mean, after all, we're his people, we're his hometown. We saw him come up among us, and we know his family. Who is he to talk in this kind of way? Well, Jesus See, Jesus discerns this in their hearts. They don't say this. They're wondering among themselves. Jesus says, you're going to say to me, physician, heal thyself. In other words, they had heard about his great miracles in Capernaum. Why don't you do a few things here for us so that we can see these things? you know you've healed others why don't you heal yourself your people here and let us see you do a few things here so that we can be satisfied that you're Messiah and then Jesus makes this very cryptic remark he says well you'll remember that Elijah wasn't sent to all of the widow women just to one and you'll remember that Elisha was not sent to every leper but just to one just a Gentile And they get so angry that they want to throw him off a cliff. What is it that he's saying? Sovereign benefits of miracles and salvation God will give to whomever He will, and that's not you. And they want to kill him. This is the way that sinful men, even a religious people, Israelites sitting in a synagogue, react to the doctrine of God's sovereignty. We want to be the God. Or we are certainly of such standing that He owes us something. Now us as Jesus, I'll head on back to Capernaum because God has not chosen to give these things to you. You see, it would have done very well for them to come to terms with the fact that God is absolute and that they are just creatures and they are to submit to God's will in these things, glorifying Him and good for us. And finally, Very closely related. God not only rules over all things, His will of decrees, but because He has ownership over us, He can demand from us, rational creatures, whatever behavior He desires. So it says, to Him is due from angels and men and every other creature whatsoever worship, service or obedience He is pleased to require over them. So God is always ruling over us by his decree. Everything that happens in our lives happens because God has decreed it to be as it is. But he commands us to behave in a certain sort of way. Here it's characterized as worship, service, and obedience. He can command these things according to his own good pleasure. And he has a right to do so as our creator. He's given us being. He's given us life. He's given us strength. He has the right to require of those gifts those things that please Him. And so He does. Another way of saying this is we owe the fruit of our being and the benefits that He's given to Him. Now again, we ought not to imagine that this profits Him anything when we do so. You remember what Jesus said, another saying that no doubt cheered the hearts of His hearers He said, if you should obey perfectly, you're just an unprofitable servant. You've simply done what's required. So don't think that you've been a great servant or a great prophet to God. You've simply done your duty and done nothing more than that. And so it is a very humbling thing indeed. But we do have a God that rules over us. He rules over us certainly by His decrees. It is our duty to submit ourselves to all of His commandments. Let us pray.