All right, good evening. Welcome to this Lord's Day evening. If you could please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter three. We'll be looking at verses 13 and 14. This text is one of the scripture proofs for shorter catechism number four. That being, what is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. In his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Please stand for the reading of God's word. Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 and 14. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. So reads the word of God, let us pray. Our God and father in heaven, when we are brought to prayer, we are called to be in humble consideration. of our proper stance in comparison to you, Lord. You who are holy, you who are light and goodness and truth. We who are finite, Lord. Lord, I ask that you would guard your name. Let your name be holy, Lord. That anything that is spoken tonight, that the minds of the people hear, that the words that go out reflect your true and proper image. that you would continue to guard your name and it would go out from here to the world, Lord. We ask that through your text you would illuminate who you are to us, we your people, and you our God. We ask for this revealing for all your praise and to the glory of your son, in whose name we pray, amen. You may be seated. The surrounding context here in Exodus 3 is that God is patiently answering each of Moses' excuses and refusals to go to Egypt and demand the freedom of the people by his command. At first glance, we may only see our all-knowing God answer each of Moses' objections and set him on the path of freeing Israel from Egypt, essentially viewing it as God closing the door on all of, or God closing the door on all of Moses' excuses. However, we may miss that God is actually revealing himself with each answer. And this is true for the whole of the book of Exodus. It is far too simple to say that Exodus is only about the liberty of the people of Israel. It is that, but it is more. It is also about the revelation of God himself. Consider the perspective of Abraham. Consider the perspective of the patriarchs of Genesis. While God does do revealing in that book to them, he is still a far off God, wrapped in mystery as compared to what is revealed to Moses. Exodus then is a book of the establishment of Israel and the revealing of who God is. Our text, verse 14, is actually the answer to Moses' second question, which we saw in verse 13. If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? Moses' first objection is found in verse 11, where he states, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Here he is stating that he has no respectable authority to go to the king of a nation. But God explains and reveals his character that Moses does not go on his own, that he sends Moses in God's authority. Verse 12, he, that is God, said, but I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you. This answer and revealing extends into chapter four, where God reveals to Moses that all reality bends to his will, as seen in the transforming of Moses' staff and the healing of the withered hand. Each answer and revealing shows Moses, in fact shows all of us, what and who God is. The chief of all these answers being in our text in verse 14, I am who I am. Here we get the great name of God, Yahweh. The name is actually almost a play on Hebrew words. In the ancient Hebrew, the word for I am is actually Ehyeh. For example, if I was going to tell you that I am a man, I would say Ehyeh, man. Or in the proper Hebrew, it would sound like Ehyeh, Adam. The Ehyeh sounds very similar to Yahweh, but the meaning is different. God is giving Moses a name, a title, and an attribute. Yahweh means he that is. Moses is told that this God is the one and only, the one before all and the one that will be after all, the one on whom all are dependent on. He that is, Yahweh. We come now to our fourth question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is God? A question I will tell you is not nearly asked enough. The question and its subject matter will be our meditation tonight. The question being, what is God? Answer, God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. We will take this in three sections. First, our doctrine and what we'll call what God must be. Second, the implication of this God and what we'll call the relationship with God. And finally, apply it to our lives in our last section labeled our present privilege. Our first section, what God must be. Someone may note that the style of this question may appear odd. In fact, it has drawn attention and criticism throughout history. People who say that the style is disrespectful and irreverent. What is, instead of who is? Did the Westminster divines forget who they were talking about? No, not at all. In fact, the structure of the question is purposeful and thought-provoking. Instead of being irreverent, the following thoughts after considering what is God will produce the most reverent thoughts man can have. It is necessary also that this be the next step to take in after considering that the previous questions teach us what to worship, and where to learn it. As a note, the Westminster divines knew that you cannot separate God's attributes from his person. And yet the study of this will sharpen us, for he is the beginning of all things, including the basis for all theology. Kiddos, imagine for a moment with me a sharpshooter, someone who shoots at targets from a far distance. Sharpshooters engaged in long-distance shooting competitions have to ensure that their measurements and angles are perfect. Even if the smallest degree is off, when they miss, they'll hit hundreds of feet away from their intended location. If the start is the gun, then it must be right before it leaves the chamber, or they will miss. That is the same in what we believe. If we get it wrong in the start with what God is, then we'll for sure be wrong somewhere else down the line. So, what God must be. Let's go through what the Catechism states. He is spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. This list could go on for a while, and all those would be important and necessary, but these items are important highlights for our understanding. These things, these attributes, God must have them to be God. He cannot be without them. This list of attributes are actually separated into two categories that we'll look at. One, in what is called the incommunicable attributes, incommunicable being something that we have no relation to with God, something that's unique to Him and not to us. And the communicable attributes, those that we, as image bearers of God, can relate to in some way. Let's look at each in their proper categories. And kids, when I say attributes, I mean the special characteristics of God. When you think of snow, you think of white, cold, frozen. Attributes are similar in that they are what God is. The incommunicable attributes. those that in no way we can experience or relate to God in. They are this, spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and that he has self-being. Spirit. God is a spirit. What that means is simple. It means that he's not made of any kind of material thing. Nothing that we can detect with the five senses. He made all material things. He has no body to touch or to see. There are no natural elements about him to taste or smell or hear. He is a spirit and must be worshiped as spirit. John 4 verse 24, God is spirit. and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. And yet, Scripture tells us that we yearn to see His face, that His breath gave us life, and that He speaks to His people and we hear Him. When God does this, He is stooping down. to show his glory to us in a way that our natural limitations can perceive, so we may know him. Infinite. God has no boundaries. He has no end. He must be alone in this. He is utterly unique from us in this and every way. We have no relation here. Obviously in body, which God has none, for you can see the ends of my being right here at my fingertips. The point in where I end is obvious, and he is certainly infinite in spirit. If there were two infinite beings, At some point, even in spirit, there would be a boundary. We could say, this is where something begins, this is where something else begins. Thus nullifying the very idea of infinite. There can only be one. This attribute, infinite, makes God so grand. Think with me carefully for a moment. You cannot imagine Infinity is impossible. You have a word for it, sure, but you cannot picture it. You can barely approach the concept of it. The best you can do right now is imagine a space that keeps growing and spreading, or an infinite space, yet you have to explore it infinitely. You cannot picture an infinite space all at once. It is unsearchable, incomprehensible. God puts his grand, infinite nature before Job. Job 11, seven through nine. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. eternal. God's eternality is related to his infinite and spiritual attributes, but still distinct in itself. You see, he must be eternal, just like he must be all his attributes. He must have been before, he must be now, and he must always be. Because nothing can be. There is no such thing as nothing. It's nonsense. As soon as you say the word, it's gone. Just like infinity, we can barely approach this concept. The logical expression is this, then. Since nothing can be real, I'm referring to the existence of nothingness, then something must be. and this something must be God. We can also apply this thought in reverse. We can observe a world where things are falling apart, decaying, where things are dependent on the existence of something else. For me to be here, my parents must have lived before me. For a chair to be here, a builder must be to build it. And so that logical expression is, if anything exists, then something must have always existed. That being is God Almighty. I remember the look of awe on some young students' faces when they came face to face with the immensity of an eternal God in the absence of nothing. His very nature squashing any possibility of nothing being a thing if it were ever such an absurd notion. It causes us to muse like the psalmist in Psalm 90 verse two. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Unchangeable. This is where we get the word immutable. God will never change. He cannot change. He is the same today as he was long before and will be far into forever. He will never grow old. He will never decay. He can never be forgetful. He can never grow less knowledgeable. And he can never grow more knowledgeable. He has all the power now and will never lose a square inch of his power ever. This is both wonderful and terrible at the same time. For if God's word goes out from him, it will reflect who he is. And he will always be the rewarder of those that do good and will always be intolerant of those who ignore his word. James 1, verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Self-being, or as the catechism answer, in his being says. This part of the answer, this part of the answer of the catechism needs to be handled with great care. We could easily say that we share being or beingness with God. So it must be a communicable trait. It's like saying, God exists and I do too. But that is far from the truth. We do not exist in the same way that God exists. Consider the limitations of our own language. Exist is used as a slang at this point in history. When we say something exists, we're simply saying something is real. And that is true about God and us. But exist in its Latin origins is existere, which means to step out into being. Out from what? From nothing. Yes, God used some dust and a rib bone, but does he need to? No. God can create out of nothing. Ex nihilo. Our existence is dependent on him. But God does not exist. He simply zists, so to say. Stere in the Latin. The Latin here means to stand. He has the power of being real all on his own. He stands, in the Latin, on his own. Pure being. A word in theology we call aseity. There are no finer words for this than within our own text of verse 14. I am who I am. Augustine says here of the text from his letter on the nature of good, magnificently and divinely, therefore our God said to his servant, I am that I am. And you shall say to the children of Israel, he who is sent me to you. For he truly is because he is unchangeable. For every change makes what was not to be. Therefore he truly is. who is unchangeable. But all other things that were made by him have received being from him, each in its own measure." Now for the communicable attributes, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. These are those attributes of God that we can relate to or engage in in some way. We can experience and move through them ourselves. It is not like in a crude way of saying that God shares portions of him with us, no, but that we are made in his likeness to be image bearers of these. Wisdom and power God has all wisdom, which necessarily means that he has all knowledge. For wisdom is how to use and understand knowledge. He knows at all times what must be done. There are no mysteries to God. Some of us may be wise, but no one is all wise. And in power, God can establish rulers over men, give men strength of body or the strength of heart. We know what it is to be strong or what is strength, but power here refers not only to strength and might, but of ability. God can do all things. Psalm 147 verse five, great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. Holiness. God is holy. He is totally different from his creation. There is nothing like him. And so it seems strange to say that holiness is a communicable attribute. And yet, he has put it into humanity to be set apart from all creation, to bear his image. There is a reason that we are not like the rest of creation. There's a reason that we are not like the creatures, the animals that crawl on the ground. For we are to be made holy like God. Leviticus chapter 19, verse two. Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy. For I, the Lord, your God, am holy. Justice. God is just. He will reward good and punish evil. This is his disposition against iniquity. The living out of his laws and of his character. And he has made all people long for justice. Every human desires it. Romans chapter two verse 15. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Justice is with all people. Goodness and truth. God is good. He made us. A better way of saying this, or perhaps comparison, is that an evil God, who is not good, would never create anything at all. It would, by the false idea that an evil God would create, would fail at the point that he would have to create something which is good. And a good God would only engage in the truth, for he is the author of all. This is his reality. His goodness is his desire for us, wanting to bring us to repentance. to engage in it and enjoy it, to forgive every life so that they may be with him, the truth forever. Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. There is surely a longer list of attributes, but the catechism does a historical job of making the most succinct answer to an imposing question, what is God? Let's answer a few dissenting voices. These opposing thoughts come from the church, the modern church itself. They say, God is too infinite. He is too transcendent. He is too holy to be understood. He can do anything he wants. You cannot understand God. Perhaps you've heard it said, you cannot put God in a box. They say it in a valiant attempt to protect the holiness of God, but miss the idea altogether that being in the image of God should draw us to know God. There are two proper responses to this. First, God has limits. Certain things he cannot do, certain things he cannot be. Because he is all good, he cannot be evil. God cannot lie, he cannot steal, he cannot murder. Because he is unchangeable, he cannot forget, he cannot get tired, he cannot die. Because he has all power, he cannot create things that have more power than him. He cannot create things that deny his power. He cannot create the rock that is too heavy for him to lift. He cannot make the box that fits him just right. Secondly, God wants to be known. He has not placed himself in an unreachable place. He made man in his image. Making man knowledgeable, why? So we may know him better and learn more about who he is. He calls all people to worship him. In glory, we will sit before him. We will never stop knowing more about the depths of God. If we say that God is too transcendent to know, too holy for us, than we are talking about a totally different God altogether. I agree God cannot be put in a box, but to define and know something is to know what it is not. So that is our first portion, what God must be. That title is actually based on an effective question in evangelism, where I would ask, What must God be to be God? Anyone taking the question seriously will come out with a more defined view of what the God of all things must be. And also note that while we know more about God from scripture, these attributes must be in God. They absolutely have to be present in God. The immediate pitfall then, for the Calvinist, is to only take one half. To imagine God as a set of formulaic, logical expressions. To reduce him to ones and zeros, so to say, but if you divorce God from his communicable attributes, that is the God you will have. But God is wisdom. He is power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. When we look at the whole of all the attributes, we see a person, someone, someone who is worthy, someone who is great and needs to be praised because he rightly deserves it. The sum of this all from our perspective is what we can best describe, unapproachable light. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse... 16, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light. And if God is a glorious person, not a man but a person, then he must and will have relationships, which means that this God is relational. He is and wants to be in a relationship with us. This leads us to our second point this evening, the relationship with God. How do we have a relationship with God? What does it look like? Consideration of what he is should outline what a relationship should properly look like. Knowing the stance of man compared to God will dictate how this relationship flows. And in a word, this relationship is worship. He, our God, we, his people, in worship. God is before all and always will be. I am who I am. This statement gives us a proper view of him in relation to us. Man could at most say, I am here because someone else was there, or I am here for now, but I was not always here, and I won't be here for long. By nature of his being and eternality, that is due praise to him enough. He is greater than us naturally. He is also goodness and truth. His desire is for blessing and spreading more of his goodness. He is the source of true joy and rest, unending light. What a good God. We truly have it all in this benevolent creator. He is right to be worshiped for God just being God. He is more and more desired to be worshiped, for he is also the defender of the weak and the God of justice. No wrong under his eye will go unpunished. He has the power and the knowledge to execute his justice with perfect measure. All creatures then would naturally be driven to give God praise. He is more than the radiance of the sun. He is more than the shaking of the earth, more than the beauty of the flower, more than the depths of space, more than the wisdom of all the saints through all time, and more than all of the just judgments of all of the good judges. He is God. Yahweh, Jehovah, Creator, Master, Lord, all glory and praise is due to Him. Though there is a problem that man faces in front of this God. Yes, we have fallen in sin. Our first parents have disobeyed. They disobeyed the Holy One, but my focus is on man now. What is it about God that makes us step back, that gives us pause? Jonathan Edwards states in his message, men naturally are God's enemies. That men hate God ultimately because he does not change. Men hate God's immutability. He will never change that he is in a relationship with us. He will always be our creator and we cannot escape that. He will never change that he desires our worship. He is the only one that can be jealous since he truly deserves it. Exodus 34 verse 14, for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. He will never change in his goodness and never change in his justice. He will always pursue the wicked, never giving them rest. Sin is so far and away from God, he hates it and hates those who partake in it. He hates it because it is so opposed and so unlike who he is, which he is unchanging goodness and truth and light. Psalm five, verse five, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. And because he will never deny himself, he will snuff them out. This is the major problem for mankind. For by our very riddled nature, we have been given over to change. We grow old. We die. We forget things. We bruise. We scar. If there was something remotely reflective in all of this is that man cannot change his sinful nature. We have been changed from our original design and are now given to the nature of change. This was the root of Luther's madness. He, a man, no matter how much he wanted to stop sinning, could not stop. And all the while, this unchanging, this pure and unrelenting God demands perfect obedience for the perfect life. For how long? Eternity. How can anyone keep that up? Even outside of the face of perfect obedience and sin, eternity itself is frightening to the creature of change. I am frightened of eternity. Will I be bored? Will I run out of things to do? Will I go mad? Will there be anything new at all? We are given to change. But this God is also patient. He is slow to anger. He will have His justice, but He does not execute it immediately. All people, after all, are still in a relationship with this God. He is their Creator, and He has given them His covenant, a covenant of works. He will be their Almighty God, and they will be his obedient people. For breaking this covenant, God has every right to be angry. What could we liken this to to understand it better? Marriage. The allegory fits so well and is so often used because not only are God's future promises wrapped in marriage, but because God gave us marriage so that we may know our relationship with him better. Husbands and wives here, the love that you have for each other is true and is founded on the keeping of the promises you have made to each other, to be faithful, to love one another, and to take joy in one another. So, do you remember? The pain of being at odds with your spouse? Have you ever fought? Have you ever yelled, raised your voice, or just became distant? The searing heat and agony of being angry with the person that you are bound to for the rest of your life? Men, have you ever gone to work while there is an unresolved dispute with your wife? that consuming pit in your gut drains away all the color of your day. Wives, how long can you manage your work while knowing there is a rift between you and the man that you love? You just want things to be back the way they were. You want to be happy. You want to be in each other's arms. You want your love back. Without it, you have no peace. No peace. Those who hate God, who are at odds with His unchanging goodness, they have no peace. At one time, you, saint, had no peace with God. You were obstinate and rueful, disdaining the touch of the wonderful God, and for it, you were cut off, no longer given allowance to approach Him, to pray to Him, or to look upon His face. He hated what you did. and you paid for it in having no access to the one who is truly spirit, infinite, eternal, who is unchangeable, who is most wise, who is powerful, who is holy, just, good, and all truth. But he is also love. As we heard this morning, he wants peace with you far more than you want peace with him. While being perfectly justified in his anger at this relationship, he moved to love you first. The father's own son took on flesh where before, as spirit, he had none, and bled before where he could never bleed, and died whereas before he could have never died. Why? so that God's covenant and wrath may be satisfied and complete, and that we may be in love and in peace with our God once again. 1 John 4, verse 19, we love because he first loved us. And that Son, Jesus the Christ, rose so we may rise with him and be with our beloved God and King for all time in unending peace. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where the cold logical formulas fall. It is illogical. It doesn't make sense for the just to just forgive. It doesn't make sense that this God who has all knowledge will never forget, and yet he will never bring up your sins ever again. God is the better person. He saved us from his rightful wrath, from himself, and delivered us to himself. And now we have peace. Outside of Christ, you have no peace. In Christ, you have all peace. Finally, our last point of how we apply these teachings. What do we do now that we know what God is? This section, again, is called our present privilege. Our first way to live then, we must preach the peace that we presently have. Have you ever considered that the peace you have with God should be used in evangelism? Is the peace that Jesus bought for you evident in your life? The lost do not have this. And on some level, conscience or not, they are active in a war against God that they will lose. And the effects of that is that daily they have no peace. But you, you, you have peace. You no longer have the anger of the all-powerful, the all-good, and all-wise God. You are now his child. and you have his blessing and you have the life of his son. Everything in reality now is now done for your good. What could worry you? Look at the peace that you have. I have peace with God. All the work is done and I will live forever. There is no dreadful anger left for me. If God is all of the great things, then there is nothing then that can pull me from this peace. Romans 8 verse 39, nor the height or depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And with peace Joy, the God of unapproachable light, the Holy One, the unending, infinite Spirit God, has brought me to worship Him and has brought you, all His saints, to worship Him. We should ask the words that Moses asked, who am I, Lord? Who am I to worship you? That leads us then to our second and final point. Consider now the privilege of what you know of what God is, the privilege of worshiping this God. What is man? Man is not spirit alone. Man is finite. Man is changeable. We are not wise, nor are we strong, and especially not good on our own. But God, what is God? God is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, and holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. He is this not in part, but on a grand whole. There may never be words to describe how great he is, and we get the privilege to be his people and worship him. Many years after this conversation with God in the bush, Moses would know more then of who it was that spoke to him and have a proper view of the unchanging God. He would know more of what he is and that would drive him to praise. He would be found saying, who is like you? Exodus chapter 15, verse 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Later in the time before Moses' death, he would repeat these words, who is like you? But he was not talking about God. He was talking about the privileged people that got to worship God. Deuteronomy 33 verse 29. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph. May we worship and enjoy the Holy One, the focus of our purpose, the One who we will enjoy and glorify forever. He is who, He is who is. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in God, we praise and thank you for your character, for all of who you are, for you are truly due all worship, praise, and glory, Lord. We pray that you open our eyes and our hearts, reveal more of yourself to us, Lord, that we may grow more into that people that would enjoy you, Lord, to grow more into that image of your son. And it is in his name we pray, amen.