Thank you. All right, well, this morning when we get to our question, we're gonna have really an entire semester of the doctrine of God rolled up into one answer. We are not going to finish, I feel certain to say that. But you remember last week we reviewed, there's a transitional question between what, remember it was called the foundation thing, those few questions, four, five, six questions that set up specifically, there's other things in there, but specifically telling us that our real foundation for doctrine is the Scriptures, okay? And that then transitions into the section on God. And you remember, it was a very simple question, this transition one. It says, what do the Scriptures make known of God? The answer being that the Scriptures make known what God is. the persons in the godhood, his decrees, and the execution of his decrees. And those are the four items that are the essential topics under the subject of theology proper, theology being the doctrine of God. And this morning we will be talking about that first section, which is makes known what God is, okay. What isn't in What it defines there in that answer is not, there's not an apologetic. There's not a defense of the existence of God. Like the scriptures themselves, the catechism considers God to be the truest of all facts. Apologetics is a worthy study. It has a purpose and a role. That purpose is to shut the mouths of fools. But Paul says that the essential defense of the existence of God is the testimony of the cosmos and of God making himself known in each and every human soul. If God doesn't exist, we talked about this last time, then everything becomes an impossible mystery. So every fact of the universe becomes really an argument for God. That is why the atheist is really a blind fool. Scripture calls him that. That's why every man is stupid and without knowledge. That's who we are. Now, as we said, this is a prelude question, and this morning we are gonna begin working through the details. Having said that, remember this isn't a systematics course, it's a catechism. We are gonna draw, I have drawn from some of our stuff we talked about in systematics, but the catechism is supposed to be concise. And I say that because the answer to this next question could easily, like I said, be a semester in and of itself on the doctrine of God. And so the next question, what is God? What is God? I like these simple questions. The answer, God is a spirit in and of himself, infinite. in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection, all sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. So if you're gonna answer what is God in as concise as you can get it, that's a pretty good answer. And each attribute here has at least one reference the catechism gives, and we're gonna look at that, because we want scripture to be our basis. Of course, we know in all of these, it may give one reference, but there's literally dozens you could bring into play. But we'll typically bring that in before we look at maybe some of the questions of Pastor Voss that we've been using. So first of all, is the declaration concerning his being that God is a spirit. Now that is the direct revelation of Christ himself in John chapter four. We know this verse. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in both spirit and in truth. And Vos then first asks, what does that mean? He says, I'm sorry, I missed that one. What is meant by saying that God is a spirit? And he says that God is a being who has no material body. Now, you'll notice in that answer, there's an indefinite article there. God is a spirit. That's the wording of the King James. That's what the catechism was using when it was written. Most modern translations simply say God is spirit. Now Voss, 70 years ago, actually defends using the article, and this was his concern. He says that without the indefinite article there, it could deny the individuality and personality of God. In other words, could make God an impersonal force, or the God idea, or specifically he had in mind, he actually mentioned them, is Christian science, which is a cult, Christian science considers God to be the principle of the divine mind. Okay. But on the other hand, and this is why I prefer modern, more modern translations just say God is spirit. The article could suggest that God is just one member of a larger class. Now if all that is meant is he's immaterial, well, okay. But it's important to insist that yes, God has no material body, but it's also true that he has no spiritual body either. Whatever is meant by God being spirit, he is not in the same class as other spirits. Those spirits are part of creation. Angels, demons, and whatever else may be there. while they are immaterial, they have some defined location. The spiritual essence of both men and angels have a created boundary. Whereas God is an absolute spirit whose essence is beyond the comprehension of the finite mind. and to relate with his creatures, it's only then that he at times assumes forms in order to accommodate man's spatial existence. And so although the word spirit is used, God is not in the same category as created spirits, either angels or souls. These created spirits are only facsimiles of his uncreated spirit. And the reality is that only God possesses true spirituality. And we can infer what some of that means, not all of it, in that God's essence transcends time and space. It is formless, it is uncontained. That also helps us to understand the sin of physical idolatry, which is his next question. He says, why is idolatry always wrong and sinful in itself? Of course, there's really many reasons. Of course, the commandment itself forbids it. That should be enough. But the reason behind it is that because God is pure spirit, any depiction of him using material must be false. You are depicting God using something he simply spoke into existence, you're depicting God saying this is God by something he holds together moment by moment. Now we've said this before, Christianity does not denigrate the material world, but it does affirm that there's no part of creation that is more than just a dim image of God's incomprehensible, infinite spiritual reality. And the reason for that is simple. God could not, even God could not duplicate his own essence. He can't create another God. All right. Second, as we go through this list, it says that God is in and of himself infinite in being, And you can direct this into two ways. One is his infinitude and the other is what is called aseity. The latter meaning that God is uncaused. His being rests within himself. No one but God can say that. And it's such an important distinction that God used the doctrine of aseity as his name that he reveals of himself. Remember in Exodus chapter three, God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Okay? Everything in creation must say, I am only as God has made me. And I am only as God sustains me moment by moment. If he doesn't do that, I simply cease to exist. And that attribute of being outside of creation is what defines his being infinite. Job chapter 11 says, Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than hell, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Now, we get what Job is saying here. But of course the scriptures are condescending to human language because in reality, the words such as longer or broader don't even apply. Because God is beyond any measure. That's the definition of being infinite. And that is Voss's next question. He says, what is the meaning of the word infinite? Well, it's pretty simple. It means without limits. It's boundless. It cannot be measured. And it's fascinating because the attributes of God are logically interwoven. God's immutability, that is his unchanging being, which we'll talk about, insists that he is infinite. Because as Voss points out, Being finite is a limit that defines a change between two states. Because there's no variation in God, there are no limits that define a change, because there's no change. For this reason, God's infinity is not about dimensions because they don't apply. Really, we won't talk about God's infinity. It's probably closer to talk about his perfection. Okay? And so, when we talk about infinity, when it's placed against time, God's infinity is what we call eternality. When it's placed against space, we call that his immensity. And neither concept is within our experience. Because eternity is not endless time. And immensity is not endless space. Immensity means not measurable. And both terms maintain that dimensions simply do not apply to God in any sense. For God, eternity has no beginning, it has no end, and there's not even a succession of moments. And that's an important concept in confronting modern theology which seeks to open God to the process of becoming. in which the creation is constantly changing God, because apparently he's learning things along with this. That's actually open theism, but you can apply it to Arminianism as well. Yeah, David? Exactly right. That's exactly right. I've heard him say that too, it's a very good lecture, yep. Absolutely. So a few other questions about this from Voss, he says, I like this, why does the idea of God being infinite baffle our minds? So, what's interesting to me about Voss, it's a good book. That's why I'm using it. But we talked about how the larger catechism was supposed to be the meat. And as we get into it, like this question, you'll see it has some meat to it. And yet, even 70 years ago, he's having to dumb it down for his audience, which is us. But in any case, why does the idea of God being infinite baffle our minds? Well, because we're finite. Every reference we know, everything that we know is finite. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite. We cannot know all the truth about God. In fact, we can't fully know any single part of the truth about God. Even those things that we do know, thanks to revelation, we don't know completely. Yeah. True, absolutely. Yep, we struggle with all of that. Augustine has a really good section on time and trying to find what present is. We do struggle with that because we are finite and we are linear. All we know is a succession of events. Somebody used an illustration, and of course all of these things, they are what they are. They're trying to get through our thick heads, but if you picture time, we picture time as say points on a line, but picture it as a circle with God in the center, We're on the line, and so every point has a distance away from itself, but for God, every point is the same distance. You see what he's trying to illustrate there? And that's kind of trying to see what an eternal present is, might be. But again, we can't comprehend it. And he then asks, if our minds could comprehend God and understand how he can be infinite, what would this mean? And he's simply saying it would mean that we ourselves are infinite as well, therefore we would be equal with God. Okay. Yeah. We are eternal going forward, but it's a different kind of eternality. whereas God has neither. Right, exactly right. And that's not formally eternality as it applies to God. Again. But it's an expression though. Right, so what God has done is accommodate his creatures. And so for us, eternity is that God preserves the timeline forever. Preserves the timeline, that's great. And he interacts, even though, like we said, everything is an eternal present, he sees past, present, future all together. We actually talk about that in a little while. But at the same time, he has ordered creation to be successive, and he knows that, and he interacts with it that way. And that's also when we talk about, we will talk about how God changes his mind. God's plan and decree was the same from the beginning. However, he has determined that he interacts with that timeline in the appropriate way at that appropriate moment. So when the children of Israel are rebellious, God says, well, my proper response to that is to be angry. But I have determined as illustration that Moses will intercede to picture Christ as mediator. What's my appropriate reaction to that? Mercy. And we just see him interacting with that timeline. Exactly. And it's not play acting. Because like I said, at that moment, that's the appropriate response of his holiness and righteousness, or his grace and mercy, depending on what that circumstance is in that moment. Exactly. Whatever it may be. Now, he accommodates that in language by saying, oh God, repent it. Yeah. You know, the Bible actually defines eternal life in a different way than just existing on in the future. Eternal life is quality of life with God, the eternal God. And it's gifted, it's granted, it's not something that we have on our own. And so I think one way I heard it put was human beings were created to participate in eternity. Yeah. Yes, exactly. And really, when you get down to it, God's presence for his people is eternal life. God's presence for those who are not his people are eternal death. Right. All right. And like I said, this next question, like I said, I think he's He's accommodating our generation so it almost is childlike. He says, why do our minds instinctively raise the question, well, who made God? You hear children say that all the time. Well, where did God come from? And of course, that's because that's our perspective. Since we're created, and creation as we know it is cause and effect, you follow this regression of causes back to their origin. That's the problem with the naturalistic view of the universe. They just keep going back. They can never get to an origin that comes just from nature. You can't get there. But we, since that's our perspective, we infer that upon God falsely. If God had been made, then he would not be God. Whoever made him would be God, and you just keep going back that way, right? And so, God existing, he is uncreated. So there is no cause and effect. Cause and effect is a part of this created universe. Doesn't apply outside of it. All right. So then, catechism says, God is infinite in glory. God is even called the God of glory in Acts chapter seven. Preaching here, he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. Now, glory is an attribute in scripture, and Stans talked about this before, there's really a connotation of weight, weightiness, gravitas. God is the most significant and least superficial being there is. In fact, from his perspective in reality, he is the only significant being there is. Everything else is as superficial as a vapor. He called it into existence and holds it together. There is the exception, however. that they exist to display His glory. That purpose then lends weight or significance to creation. That's why we're important. Because God has determined that we're important in order to display His glory. And of course, we know that glory is used to ascribe splendor and majesty to God. It's even said that God's righteousness can be defined this way. This was John Piper. He says, God's righteousness is his unwavering faithfulness to uphold the glory of his name and to uphold the worth of his glory. You want to define righteousness, it is that. that he will be faithful to uphold his own glory. Now it also says he is infinite in blessedness. We're gonna read 1 Timothy chapter six. Doesn't quite say, there could have been other passages but I pulled this out on purpose and it's one of the references in the catechism. We'll talk about how it doesn't quite initially seem to say what I think we would want to say, but it says, keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. which he will display at the proper time. He who is blessed and only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen. Now at first blush, the way this passage is using blessed, It's more a worship of God, right? He is blessed and sovereign. But when you look at the attributes that's listed there, sovereignty, that is omnipotence, he's king of kings, he's lord of lords, he has immortality, he dwells in unapproachable light, that is he is far above his creation. then God being blessed or blessed, having blessedness, also means something else. That God has infinite, immeasurable blessedness means that by necessity, as an attribute of his being, God is perfectly happy. His creating the universe for his glory means he created it for his own perfect blessedness. Now, as we said before, it doesn't mean that when he is angry, he's playacting. We've already talked about that. His anger is the perfect appropriate response of his holiness in the presence of sin. But it does mean that he is content, happy, to make his righteous anger a part of the unfolding display of his glory. It actually makes him happy to defend his holiness. Right? So he's perfectly happy. He didn't need to create to make himself happy. He doesn't need us to respond to make him happy. It's a part of his being that he is happy. What does he lack? Nothing, right? It says he's infinite in perfection and he is all-sufficient. All-sufficient could be also under aseity. I think we can leave this as self-evident. Just let the scriptures confirm we know this from Matthew chapter five. Jesus said, be therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. Of course he is perfect. And then the catechism says, that he is eternal. We've already defined that under his being infinite, but certainly the scriptures, starting with both testaments, they begin with the presence of God before anything is. We'll quote the reference given, which is from Genesis chapter 17. which says, before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, which is the way we can define, try to define eternity, thou art God. Okay. And then Voss says, what do we mean by saying that God is eternal? We've kind of been going down that path, but he doesn't have a beginning, obviously, and he never will have an end. He's above all distinctions of time, past, present, future. As we said, they're equally present in God. When we talk about time, kind of touched on this before, but I actually had it in here. Time is the measure of change. No matter how you look at it, no matter what measuring device you're talking about, it's a measure of change. If everything was static, there would be no such thing as time, you'd be frozen. Even objects at rest are measured by those things that are in motion. If they're at rest, you're still doing it by planets or pendulums or even decaying particles. Therefore, time is dependent upon creation. That tells us that it was created alongside space. Time is a created dimension, does not exist for God. And if time is a measure of change, or even if you measure it as a succession of thought, I mean, if everything else was frozen, but I'm there thinking, I might think, okay, that's this moment, now it's this moment, now it's this moment, okay? That cannot apply to God either. In Systematics, we had this quote from Shedd. He said, if time is the measurement of change, God's immutability defies the existence of time. There is no change with God. If time is the succession of thoughts in the mind, God's omniscience defies the existence of time, for he knows all things at once. So he's outside of time. So eternity is essentially different from time. And we know that scriptures do tell us, hint that Trinity inhabits an eternal present. So in an omniscient being, perfect knowledge would erase any difference of perception. If everything you knew, so-called past, present, future, which really doesn't apply to God, but even if you could, if you knew it all perfectly, exactly, there would be no difference of perception. If you saw what we call the present, and you saw the past just as clear as the present, there would be no distinction between the two. So time is a construct of creation, and even when we talk about God knowing an eternal present, it's really only an analogy because God knows the universe by knowing what he has decreed, not as an observer watching through the timeline. That's how he knows creation. He wrote the story, and he causes it to happen. So there's nothing that happens outside of what he has decreed. Therefore he knows it perfectly because he's going to do it. And he's going to sustain it. All right. The answer says God is unchangeable. We kind of talked about that. That's what we call immutability. There's a lot of verses we could quote, but we'll be content with a couple. First one is Malachi chapter three. God declares himself. For I am the Lord, I change not. And he says, because he doesn't change, therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed. And then there's also the beautiful way that James puts it. Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Okay. And immutability is a necessary consequence to God's self-existence and his perfection because any change would just diminish his being. He could only change from perfection to imperfection. That applies equally to both his being and to his will. His will is unchangeable because he has perfect knowledge. What would he learn that would then change his mind? There's nothing, right? All right. And then we've actually touched on this, but Voss asks a question as well. He says, if God is unchangeable, why does the Bible speak of God repenting or changing his mind? Well, we've already said, and God himself said it, and I believe God, God himself never changes. However, God's creatures change all the time. The result of this is that the relationship between his creatures and God changes, therefore, because one of the parties is changing. For example, in the case of Nineveh, God didn't change. The people of Nineveh changed. God granted them repentance according to his decree. So both their turning from wickedness and God then repenting or changing were all part of God's original decree. Again, it goes back to him interacting appropriately along the timeline as his creatures change. He himself never changes. is that what God reveals about himself tells us enough about him that we know he doesn't change, and that's what Jonah did. And Jonah knew that if the people of Nineveh repented, that God's appropriate, yeah, his appropriate response to that would be mercy for them, and he didn't want that. And Jonah knew that. He says, I knew you were gonna do this. I knew it. Yeah, that's why I take a good hurt when people then Jonah is smarter than God. Jonah, I mean God actually had to change his mind. Jonah knew he was going to go to God. So Steve, so in those situations like with Moses and the nation of Israel, right? They angered God and Moses pleaded for them. He didn't change God's mind. He just Exactly, because there would be no prophecy, true prophecy then, right? I mean, who is Moses being a type for? For Christ. Well, if God destroys the Israelites, there's no Christ to come. So we know that wasn't part of the decree to destroy the Israelites. But it was part of the decree to show that picture of the coming Christ and what he would do for his people. And so, God, in his decree, removed the restraint from the people of Israel, and of course they took that restraint as far as they could take it, fell into idolatry immediately. God's response to that, appropriate response, in his unchanging being, was to be angry at that, and they very well should have, without mercy, should have been destroyed. God says that to Moses. God then places upon the heart of Moses to intercede for his people. Exactly. And with that and then having placed it upon Moses and Moses pleads and Moses being the type of Christ he paints that picture and of course God looking upon that is looking upon Christ and has mercy on them. and never changes once. It doesn't change. That's right. We are faithless but God is faithful. And he doesn't change in that. He is decreed in purpose. He has set his affection upon a people. They're an inheritance for his son. That doesn't change and will never change. And that's the reason why we're not destroyed. That's right. Exactly right, Jason. Yeah, exactly. The promise was made to Abraham and Jacob, and then it follows through. And of course, again, we can point to where is that leading? It's leading to the coming of Christ. Again, if there's no Israel, if there's no Jews, there's no Messiah to come. And so all of that, it's not just, like I said, the reason why we're not destroyed is because God is faithful. However, the reason why we're not destroyed is because we are part of, he's decreed, we would be a part of displaying the glory that he has in mercy. That's why I love the story of Hezekiah and his repentance and that really in this instance where he tells his economy is going to die. And so he sends Isaiah there. And before Isaiah can leave, he's already repented of what he's going to do. But God intended using because from Hezekiah comes Christ. Exactly, and the important part of that, I think, Sproul, that's another one of his lectures where I first heard it, but if God carried through, you know, because it's not about changing his mind, because if God had killed him in that moment, his descendant, which leads to Christ, would not have come, because he was not there yet. It's only after God then spares him that that descendant comes. Clearly, it's not changing his mind, right? Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Being the son of Jacob is something that God determines. Yeah, exactly right, yeah. And God uses, you know, again, God has to accommodate the fact that we are in this creation, but we aren't usually smart enough to understand that he is using means to get to an end, okay? So, I've used this illustration before. It was necessary for Paul to tell those people on the ship, that's shipwrecked, You gotta stay on the boat. You got to stay on the boat. Even though God had already told them nobody's gonna die. However, in order not to die, they had to stay on the boat. Now Paul could have said, well, well, God's already told me, so I'm just gonna put, whatever, however it happens. You know but no the reason why they stay on the boat is because Paul goes there and has to urge them to stay on the boat. Well all of that was decreed because he'd already told him but that was all part of the means to that prophecy being fulfilled. But we're typically too. Too hard headed to understand. Right. Yeah, exactly, look what I did. Yeah, exactly. And that's the same way with election and bringing forth the people of God, right? We, God has decreed that we are an indispensable part of that. Now, he could dispense of that. He could have said just, okay, you, you're suddenly changed. But that's not what he said. He said, you're gonna participate in this, and it's gonna be through the preaching of the word. Therefore, you are an indispensable part of that, because you're the means by which you get there. Right? But the end is defined. Of course, so are the means. It's all defined by God.