Welcome to the Power For Life. This broadcast brings to you a message of life-changing revival in the Holy Spirit. We pray that today's program will help to spur you on to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life. Now here with today's message is Tom Hill. If I asked you to describe God, how would you describe Him? For some people, they would take that task very simply. they would say, I am an atheist, I don't believe there is any God. And so they could just dismiss the whole question very quickly. But for those of us who do believe in God, and that counts for most men and women, we believe in God. How would you describe Him? Well, there are many people who have very humanistic viewpoints of God. For example, they would view God perhaps as a giant bully. or others would view him as a nasty policeman. I remember recalling an example of a young child who was asked this same question, only he drew it in a picture, and the way he drew it was the picture of a kid's toy with a great big hammer ready to pound a person down through the block. Is that your viewpoint of God? One that you view him like a bully or a policeman or someone who is very harsh and cruel. There are others who have thoughts about God that he is just a vague mental philosophical concept. It really isn't a person at all. But it's just a figment of our imagination that we hold on to in times of distress and difficulty. Well, those are very common reactions to people when you ask them their picture or their viewpoint of God. But what disturbs me is when I find in the Church of Jesus Christ, those who call themselves Christians, those who say they believe in God, that they too have a false view of God. In fact, there are many of them that hold those very same kinds of pictures about God, that he's like a bully, or a policeman, or someone who just is a driving force like a hammer, ready to force them into things that they don't really want to do nor enjoy. False views of God. They permeate the church of Jesus Christ today. It isn't just among those who are what we would call the laity in the church. those who are just the members, those who are involved in the church just as members, but it also affects those who are called leaders, those who assume positions of pastors and positions of leadership within the church. All too often we find they as well have a false view of God. And it has dire consequences upon our lives as Christians, and upon the Church of Jesus Christ and its effectiveness in the world when we hold a false view of God. For you see, when we do, we grieve the Spirit of God and we quench His work and His ministry in our lives. It's like we are resisting Him and resisting the truth that He wants to reveal to us and for us to know and understand. And as a consequence, we see in the church today a lack of God's supernatural power. There are many churches today, in fact, that if they didn't even mention God, the churches would continue on just like they are for who knows how long. For you see, we don't have God's real supernatural power in our midst any longer. Oh, we see it in a few churches here and there, but as we look at the broad sweep of the church of Jesus Christ in the world today, it is lacking God's dynamic power. And part of the reason is because we have a wrong view of God. We have a misunderstanding of who He is and how He has revealed Himself to us in His Word and in His creation. That has some consequences in our lives, as we can see. And it's caused because we don't properly understand God's Word. We haven't grasped the truth that He has revealed there for us to see. And because we have a misunderstanding, a misconception of God's Word, we thus have a wrong view of God. In order for us to once again experience that outpouring of the Spirit of God in our lives as individuals, and in the church as a whole, We must once again grasp and understand and apply the truth of God's Word in our lives. We must once again have a revelation from God to open our eyes to see the truth. For some of us that might involve what we call a new birth. Spiritual regeneration where the Spirit of God comes into our lives and plants a new life within us. God's life. For others of us who know the Lord Jesus and trust Him, it takes what we call a revival, a reformation in our spirit and in our lives and our attitude, whereby we come to view and understand God's Word correctly. And we apply it in our lives and it changes us. And we mold and shape our lives according to the truth, not according to our own whims and desires. Well, today I want us to examine God, just one little aspect of Him. It's almost laughable to say one little aspect, because God is so infinite, it's impossible to know all there is about God. But today I want us to examine one aspect of God that we find in the Scriptures. It's called His supremacy, or the transcendency of God. And we find that that is revealed to us in Isaiah chapter 55. And I want to read a couple of verses from this chapter that will serve as the basis for our study today. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. Here's what we read. God is speaking to the prophet Isaiah. And he's revealing something about himself, about his character, his nature. And here's what we read him describing to the prophet Isaiah. He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. This gives to us the basis and foundation for what we call the attribute of God, called the supremacy of God or His transcendency. And I want us to examine this attribute of God today in our study. And I pray that the Spirit of God will open your eyes to see and understand the truth that is revealed to us here in this passage of Scripture. I pray that He will take that truth and change you Convict you, conform your thoughts and opinions to the truth, that it might mold and shape your life and thus bring a spiritual reformation and revival in your life today. Well, as I indicated at the outset of our broadcast, there are many false views about God. There are many people who view Him as a policeman or a bully, as I indicated earlier. These are false features about God. It's true that God is a God of justice and a God of judgment, but there are those who have pushed it to such an extent that that's all they can picture about God, is that He is harsh and cruel. And that is not what the Scriptures teach. The Scriptures give to us a balanced view of God, that we can understand and see Him in all of His glory, and honor and worship Him as He properly deserves. Well, those are false views about God. Well, what does the scripture show for us here about the truth? It calls him as supreme, as transcendent. Now, what does that mean? Those are rather big terms, aren't they? Well, let's try and break it down, at least from the dictionary standpoint, first of all. A dictionary definition of someone who is transcendent or supreme means they are above someone else or something else. And if we take it from the standpoint of it applying to a God or to a spirit being, to a religious being, we would say that that person is independent from something that is material and tangible. That's what we would find if we went to the dictionary. But what do we do now when we want to apply that to a divine circumstance, to where we're talking about deity? Does that definition change or can we modify it a little bit to show how it applies to God? Well, let's take a look for a moment at what we might call a divine definition, where we take that basic underlying truth as shown to us in the dictionary and now apply it to deity. For we find when we apply it to God, that he isn't just someone who is supreme, nor is he someone that is just independent from material matter. For if we viewed it only from those standpoints, we could say that the one we call God is simply number one of many. That there could be conceivably several gods, and that this God is number one, so to speak. That would be supreme, certainly. That would certainly be above. But when we come to understanding God as the Scriptures reveal Him to us, we find that those terms and definitions are really inadequate and incomplete. For we find that when God reveals Himself to us, He reveals Himself not as someone who is number one of many gods, but as the only God. There is no number 2, 3, 4, 5, or any other number. There is one God, the God who has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures. So that makes Him transcendent above all other of His creation. That includes you and me. So He is not only independent from us, but He is transcendent to us. He is supreme. He is above us and He is beyond us. Well, those are some definition terms that we can use to help us get a grasp, at least on the bare terms, as to what they mean in their definitions, so to speak. But now I want us to apply those truths yet further and apply them to the passage of Scripture that I read. For the Scriptures give to us here some distinguishing differences about God that help us understand what He means when He reveals Himself to us as supreme and as transcendent above His creation. The first one that He reveals to us in verse number 8 is thoughts. He says, Your thoughts are not like my thoughts. My thoughts are far different from yours, he said. My thoughts are above your thoughts. And he's not talking here about a distance. He's talking here about a quality. There is a difference in the quality of the thoughts that we as mankind have and the thoughts that God displays. I'd like to outline just a few of those little differences for you to show the distinction between our thoughts and his thoughts. For example, our thoughts, our natural kinds of thoughts as human beings, are selfish. They're evil. They're wicked. They're sinful. That's the nature of the thoughts of mankind. They are self-serving. They are thoughts that are for me and mine, and for the satisfaction of my own desires and my own drives. That's the definition, you might say, or the distinguishing feature about mankind's kinds of thoughts. And as a consequence of those kinds of thoughts, they have a disastrous effect in our lives. For you see, if we have sinful thoughts in our minds and our hearts, then the actions that they produce are going to be sinful acts. They are going to be wrong acts. They are going to be acts against God and His Word. We find that as we then try to evaluate ourselves, because we have wrong thoughts to begin with, we then arrive at a wrong conclusion about ourselves. For we are tempted to describe ourselves as being perfectly good. Well, maybe not perfectly. That might be a little strong. But we would evaluate ourselves certainly as good. And we arrive at the wrong conclusion about our own selves and our own nature. And if we arrive at the wrong conclusion about ourselves and our own nature, then certainly we arrive at the wrong conclusion about God Himself as well. And we conclude about Him differently than what He really is. And we have a false opinion and idea about God. And we have a wrong conclusion about the Lord Jesus, His Son. And we have a wrong viewpoint about Scripture and what it stands for and what it is. Those are mankind's thoughts. The thoughts of mankind. And the Scriptures give to us a reference of God making a statement about how we think about God in this fashion. And we find that reference in Psalm number 50. Psalm number 50, verse number 21, it says, You think that I am altogether just like you. Because we have wrong viewpoints about ourselves, we thus conclude wrongly about God. Those are mankind's kinds of thoughts, finite, evil, selfish. When we come to God and we contrast His thoughts with our thoughts, because that's what the Scriptures do here for us, they make a distinction between them, we find that God's thoughts are totally different from mankind's thoughts. God's thoughts are infinite instead of finite. His thoughts are good and pure and holy instead of evil and sinful. We find that God's thoughts are thoughts of grace and mercy and love as compared to selfishness and greed and satisfaction of my own self. We find that in fact there is a very clear difference between the quality of God's thoughts and the quality of mankind's thoughts. God spoke it very clearly here when he was describing himself to Isaiah. He said, your thoughts are not like my thoughts. My thoughts are far above yours in quality. There is a distinction between them. They are different. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. And then we find he moves on to a second distinguishing difference here. He talks about his ways. the manner in which he lives and acts and performs what he does. And again, he makes a distinction between mankind's ways and God's ways. He said, there's a difference. Mine are different from yours. Well, let's take just a moment and recollect how we live in our kinds of ways, how we behave in our lifestyle. We find that we are very self-confident, are we not? We find that we are self-serving in the way we act and live. And always behind everything we do, there's always the subtle, sometimes unconscious thought, what's in it for me? What am I going to get out of this? How can I stand to benefit from this relationship? How can I turn it towards me? Very selfish and greedy in our outlook. And as a consequence, when we come to matters that really count, which are the spiritual matters of life, we thus act and behave again in totally the wrong fashion. For we feel that if in life we get along doing it all ourselves, then certainly in the spiritual realm that must work as well. And so we try to satisfy that spiritual interest in our lives by performing and living the way we think we should live as believers. God says, My ways are far different from yours. My ways are above your ways. Well, how are God's ways different? God's ways are shown by His attributes. Most clearly, we can see that God is a God of love. God is a God of mercy. God is a God of grace. He is a just God. He is a God of judgment. He is a God of all power. infinite in power, whereas mankind is extremely limited in the extent of his power and abilities. So we find that God's ways are far different from man's ways. So when God reveals to us in this passage the fact that he is supreme and transcendent above us, he uses two very simple explanations to show it. Thoughts and ways. He says, your thoughts are not like mine, your ways are not like mine. They are far different. And we find that not only does this particular passage be the only one that reveals this truth about God, but we find that the Scriptures confirm this truth in other places. For example, if we were to turn back in the Old Testament, to 1 Chronicles, chapter 29, we would find a very clear-cut statement there about God and His transcendency, the fact that He is supreme above all things. 1 Chronicles 29, verses 11 and 12, here's what is attributed to Him. It says, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all." Scriptures give us very clear confirmation again in 2 Chronicles. If we were to take the time today to read that reference, we would find in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse number 6, a reaffirmation of the same truth, that God is transcendent above His creation. His thoughts are above our thoughts in quality. His ways are beyond mankind's ways in quality. A vast distinction and difference between the two. As we come toward a close of our broadcast today, I want to ask you a question. Well, what does the Spirit of God want these truths to accomplish in our lives today? The first thing He wants them to do is He wants to clarify for you the truth. He wants you to know the truth about God that He is supreme. that he is transcendent above his creation, not in distance, but in quality and in kind and in nature. The second thing that God wants these truths to accomplish in our lives is to convict us of sin. Where in your life today has the Spirit of God identified your failure to believe correctly about God? Have you viewed him in a false fashion as some of the ways I enumerated at the start of our broadcast today? Do you view him as a bully or a very severe person that is like a very strict policeman? One who is constantly holding a grudge or other kinds of false images about God? The Spirit of God today wants to open your eyes to see the truth of your position before Him. that you are holding a false view of God. And because you hold a false view of God, you then have a false view about yourself and about your relationship to God and about His demands and your duties to God as supreme and transcendent. The third thing the Spirit of God wants to do with these truths is He wants to correct you. He doesn't point out the truth of your false position just to heap guilt upon you, not just to make you feel sorrow and sadness. But rather, He brings that into your heart and your mind that He might turn you, that He might correct you, that you might conform your thoughts correctly to Scripture. That in following after the truth of God, you might know the truth. that he might correct you from that which is false, and conform you to that which is true, that you then might walk in the truth, that your life might be molded and shaped by the truth about God, and that it might change and conform your life to the truth. What changes will that require? Well, I pray that the Spirit of God will take these truths and open your eyes to see the changes that you must make in your life today, to conform your life to that which is true, to believe the truth that the Scriptures have revealed for us today, that God is transcendent, He is supreme, that we might worship Him in reality and in truth.