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Well, today we continue our evidence
for the Christian faith series. And this is part three on the
reality of God. We have seen so far evidence
of his existence. That was the first message in
this series. And last week we looked at the
defense for his tri-unity. I'd just like to review these
statements. The father is God. The Son is
God. The Holy Spirit is God. The baptismal
formula in Matthew 28 indicates one name, yet three persons. The attributes of one person
are also shared by the other persons of the Trinity, showing
equality. The triune God exists as three
persons, yet one essence. plural pronouns in the plural
form of El, Elohim, leaves room for the New Testament revelation
of the Trinity. And the us, the plural pronouns
show a plurality in the Godhead. Well, today we would like to
look then at part three for the reality of God, descriptions
of his attributes. Now, this is first Sunday. And
over the last few years, we have on first Sunday studied attributes
of God. So this is part of the series,
The Reality of God, and we're going to give a list of several
attributes. Some of these we have studied
in detail, some we've not studied yet, but here is a catalog. It's not exhaustive, but here
are some that we want to look at and have a text to show this
particular attribute so that we can appreciate who our God
is. The scriptures, nature and reason
point us to an all-powerful, glorious, divine, triune being
who created the world and who provided redemption for it. And
as we've said, while the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is necessary
to convince a darkened heart of the reality of God, There
is so much reasonable evidence that points us to this divine
all-powerful being. So let's consider these descriptions
of his attributes. What is God like? Let's pray. Father, open our eyes to see,
our ears to hear, our hearts to understand, and to apply who
you are to our lives, to our situation. We thank you that
you are all glorious. You are magnificent. We thank
you, Lord, that you're gracious, full of grace. Speak to us, teach
us today that we would know you better, that we can make you
known in a more simple and a clearer way to a world that desperately
needs you. In Jesus' wonderful name we pray,
amen. So let's start off with this
attribute. all-knowing, omniscient. And you can be on your toes to
see which blank needs to be filled in in your notes. God is omniscient. He is all-knowing, all-knowing. And let's look at a few verses.
I want to start with Psalm 33. This is not in your notes. How
much does God know? Does God learn? Or does he know
it all at the beginning? Psalm 33, notice these comforting
words. Verse 13, the Lord looks from
heaven. He sees all the sons of men. All of us? Seven billion people on the earth? Does he see them all? Just that
thought flips a breaker. He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants
of the earth. He fashions their hearts. Individually,
He considers all their works. He knows all about all of us. Psalm 139, David sinned, he tried
to hide from God, and then he came crashing down from that
delusion with the realization that God is everywhere. Psalm 139, verse one. Oh Lord,
you have searched me and known me. Verse two, you know my sitting
down and my rising up. You understand my thought of
far off. You know my thought before I
think it. You comprehend my path and my
lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. I've not counted these, probably
you haven't either. How many times in a day we sit
down and rise up? You know my sitting down, my
rising up. You comprehend my path. You comprehend
my lying down. You're acquainted with all my
ways. There's not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord,
you know it all together. You've hedged me behind and before
and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. What a beautiful picture of God's
omniscience. He knows everything, omniscience. Now go to Matthew chapter 10
in verse 29. Are not two sparrows sold for
a copper coin? And not one of them falls to
the ground apart from your father's will. But the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are
of more value than many sparrows. God knows the smallest detail
about us. And these little sparrows that
flit about, not one falls to the ground without the father
knowing, because he knows everything. And then Hebrews 4 verse 13,
are we accountable to God? Absolutely. Look at verse 13,
Hebrews 4. There is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and
open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. And it's
so interesting that this verse follows verse 12 about God's
word. For the word of God is living
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. It can uncover the thoughts and
intents of the human heart. God sees and knows everything. The Word of God is convicting.
It goes right to the heart of the matter. And it's very convicting
when we try to hide from God. Once in the Air Force, we were
having a mobility exercise, an exercise as if we were going
to war. And we were in the hangar for
airplanes. It was the staging area. So I
was in line as the chaplain, and a couple of people around
me just were going off in just awful, vile language. And we got on the airplane, we
flew to where we were gonna have this exercise, and we got into
the tent area. And I was in the tent with that
guy. And he said to me, oh, sir, I'm
sorry. I didn't know you were a chaplain.
I'm sorry for all my language that I was using back there.
I said, hey, man, it's OK. There's someone else who's always
listening. What was my point? You don't
have to be sorry to me. You've got to be accountable
to God. God is always knowing and seeing
And we can't hide anything from him. And this is the essence
of character for all of us. But young people, listen to this. You may think, my mom can't see
me. My dad can't see me. Grandma
can't see me. It doesn't matter. God sees you. God sees you. For us adults as
well. Thou God seest me, Hagar said. God sees us, he knows everything. And so it should comfort us on
the one hand, but it also should convict us to do the right thing
because he's watching, God is seeing. So Paul tells us in the
New Testament epistles that our work ethic should not be with
eye service. What does that mean? The boss
has his eye on me, I work, he's gone, The cat's away, the mice
play. I don't have to work, because
the boss isn't watching. That's not a Christian work ethic.
God is always watching. So I'm going to do what I need
to do, whether anybody sees it or not. And it's also a comfort. We may think, well, I deserve
some recognition for this or that that I did for the Lord.
Nobody noticed. God did. And he's the one that
counts. He's all-knowing. All right,
Jeremiah 32, God is all powerful, omnipotent, all powerful. Jeremiah 32 verse 17 expresses
this. Ah, Lord God, Jeremiah says,
behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power. An outstretched arm. There is
nothing too hard for you. Those of you who were on the
trip to the Creation Museum, the Ark, how many of you went
to the planetarium? So here we are in this chair,
reclining, looking up, and this ceiling is turned into the skies. And you see these planets and
the stars. It took us into outer space and
brings us back to our galaxy. And you begin to feel rather
small. We're not even a speck on planet
Earth. And God made all of this. And
our galaxy, the Milky Way, is not all there is. There are so
many more out there beyond us. And Jeremiah says, Lord, you
made the heavens and the earth by your great power. How many
of you went in the museum, the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
exhibit? How many saw that? Amazing. Amazing. Human life begins And
what the mother provides in the early stage is about the size
of a grain of salt. And it becomes a human being.
Isn't that amazing? The power of God. You've made
the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched
arm. No wonder the devil attacks this
so much. Because look at this. There's
nothing too hard for you. He is all powerful. He has made the heavens, the
earth, the solar system, all the stars, and he's made human
life. He is all powerful. Praise the
Lord for our wonderful, wonderful God. And look at this in the
gospel of Luke. Mary understood this. Luke chapter
one, she was visited by Gabriel. He announced to her, that she
without a husband, that is without a father figure was going to
conceive and bring forth a son. She did have in a betrothal period,
a husband, but without Joseph, she would have the Messiah, the
Holy One. And notice these words from the
angel. Verse 36, Luke 1, 36. Now indeed,
Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old
age. And this is now the sixth month
for her who was called barren. That was a miracle. For with
God, nothing will be impossible. Then Mary said, behold, the maid
servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her. So we're going a long life and
all of a sudden we're faced with some great challenge. If you're
a student, it could be an assignment, it could be a test, it could
be an exam. If you're working, it could be
something in your job and it's absolutely impossible as far
as you're concerned. You have no answers, could be
a relational issue, no answers, it's impossible. And you begin
to panic. All we need to do is to run to
God. and say, Lord, nothing is impossible
with you. Nothing's too hard for you. And
I'm bringing my care, my concern to you. That should be our response. And as we grow in the Lord, I
think maybe we learn a little bit about doing this first instead
of last. We got to bring this to the Lord.
We get all panicked. Oh, wait a minute. Did I really
take this to the Lord? Let me take it to the Lord. Nothing
is too hard for Him. He is all-powerful. You made
heaven and earth. You created human life. You're
bigger than this problem that I have. I believe the Lord wants
us to do that continually, from the smallest thing to the largest
thing, because nothing is too hard for Him. Now, we gather
here in Brooklyn, New York today to worship the Lord, but there
are believers gathering around the world or maybe they've already
gathered on the Lord's day. Is God present in all of these
meetings of the believers? Yes, he is at the same time. He is everywhere present, omnipresent. Psalm 139 again, let's go back
there. David's wonderful psalm. Notice
verses seven through 10 as he teaches us this attribute of
God. everywhere present. We can only
be at one place at one time. I believe that to be the case
also with the devil. He is not omnipresent. He's not
on a par with God, but God is everywhere present. And so David
says in Psalm 139 verse 7, he says, where can I go from your spirit, or where can
I flee from your presence? And he gives these possibilities.
If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in
hell, I go into the grave, behold, you are there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, Even there your hand shall lead me. I take the wings of
the morning, I go east. I dwell in the sea, through the
west, the Mediterranean. Even there your hand shall lead
me. Your right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness
shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. In that display at the ark, On
snakes. Some of you went to that. I went
to that. We were sitting on the front rows. Fascinating. I'm
intrigued by these creatures. And we learned that snakes have
good night eyesight. That's not so comforting, maybe,
to us. Absolutely amazing creatures
there. Can God see in the night? Can
he see in the dark? Does he know where we are? If
I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall
be light about me. As far as you're concerned, God,
it's like turning the lights on. Indeed, the darkness shall
not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness
and the light are both alike to you. God is everywhere at
once. So we can trust him. We can depend
on him. When we're going through what
seems like darkness, he's there. And he's not leaving us. He's
protecting us. He's keeping us. And now here's
a cluster and they each deserve their own study, but we put them
together. God is loving, gracious, and
merciful. God is loving, gracious, and
merciful. Let's start with Lamentations
chapter 3. And here's what Jeremiah in the
Lamentations tells us about God. Lamentations chapter 3 in verse
22. Through the Lord's mercies, we
are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is your faithfulness. Look at this, mercy, compassion,
faithfulness. It's great. It's renewed day
by day. Through the Lord's mercies, we
are not consumed. Thursday, we drove up to Delaware,
Ohio, and then back down to Columbus. And Friday we drove from Columbus
to here. Probably there's been a study
on this, but I like to know what driving in an automobile at 70
miles an hour, what that does to the human body. You know,
you stop and you feel like you're still going. And you think, this
is crazy. You know, 10 feet away is somebody
else going 70 miles an hour. And you just thank God for protection. And all those who came back in
the bus. And yesterday morning, I'm walking the dog, and I hear
a lady screaming, yelling. And I look, and right there on
Farragut is an accident. And this car smashed another
car, smashed a parked car. And a neighbor comes over, and
I said, you know, I just got back from Ohio. And here I'm
two blocks from my house, and I see this accident. And I was
a little later going. Otherwise, I would have walked
on the side of the street where the parked car was smashed. And
I wasn't there at that time. I don't know that I would have
been hit necessarily, but you see how fragile life is? It's
the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. His compassions
fail not. They're new every morning. Praise
the Lord for his unlimited mercy and compassion. and faithfulness. Verse 24 says, the Lord is my
portion, says my soul. Therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who
wait for him. Another attribute there, to the
soul who seeks him. Praise God for his mercy. Ephesians chapter two. In our
inquires class, we're studying right now the doctrine of salvation. We were in this passage this
morning. What an amazing passage, so amazing. Ephesians chapter
two, notice verse one. And you he made alive who were
dead in trespasses and sins. in which you once walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit who now works, and the sons of
disobedience. Among them also we all once conducted
ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy
because of his great love with which he loved us, in the same
verse, mercy and love. He's rich in this, even when
we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
Mercy, love, grace, right here. And He raised us up together,
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace
you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Praise
God for his grace. For we are his workmanship, creating
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them. They're religious movements that
have no place, no understanding of grace, of forgiveness, that
it's God's unmerited favor, not what we've worked, not what we've
deserved, unmerited favor. all of His grace, and that's
our salvation. And I believe that one reason
the Lord gave us the Lord's table was so we would never forget
grace. If I forget grace, then I'm going
to be proud? I'm going to look down my nose
at people? What's wrong with you? What's
wrong with you? And I'm going to be condemnatory
toward people that have not come to know Christ as Savior, forgetting
that either I was where they are now, or I could have been
exactly where they are. God saved me by His grace and
spared me from it. God does not want us to forget
this attribute of His, that He is gracious, is full of grace. The other thing that I could
be, and probably there are others, not only proud, or I could be
very weak in my Christian life, thinking it's all about me. I
could be, I'm very fearful. Oh, if I mess up, God's going
to send me to hell. No, that's forgetting grace.
And Jesus took all our sins on himself and we trust him. We rely on him. We praise him
for his grace and we don't forget it. One page over in my Bible,
probably yours is Galatians chapter six and verse 14. But God forbid
that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. We
must never get far removed from the cross, from the grace of
God. 1 Timothy 1, I don't think Paul
ever got far removed from this. Look at these words, 1 Timothy
1 and verse 14. and the grace of our Lord was
exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ
Jesus exceedingly abundant. Isn't that great? with faith
and love, which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying. And worthy of all acceptance
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And the
apostle Paul says, of whom I am chief, I'm at the top of the
list. And Jesus can save me and he can save you. Verse 13, he
says, I obtained mercy. So the mercy, the grace, the
love of God to be appreciated, to be experienced, to be held
on to. And just for a second, go back
to Ephesians chapter three. Notice this prayer of Paul in
verse 14, Ephesians 3, 14. For this reason, I bow my knees
to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through
his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in
love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now to him who's able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think. He's omnipotent
according to the power that works in us. To him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
I want Christ to dwell in your hearts through faith. I want
you to be rooted and grounded in love. I want you to know the
breadth, the length, the depth, the height, the love of Christ that passes
knowledge. Isn't that amazing? I want you
to know something that passes knowledge. In other words, we're
never gonna get to the end of the love of Christ. There's more
to know all the time. Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so. Paul never got over it. He never
got over what God had done for him in saving this Christian
killer This one who arrested and imprisoned Christians, he
said there's the grace of God. The amazing grace of God, and
it was abundant. May we never get over God's grace. 1 John chapter 4, and notice
verse 8. How important is the love of
God in the life of the believer? 1 John 4, 8. He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love and this the love of
God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him and this is
love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation the substitutionary satisfactory
sacrifice for our sins and if God so loved us we also ought
to love one another. Our God, loving, gracious, merciful,
put that all together and it certainly spells out his goodness. And that should be motivated
to us to love brothers and sisters in Christ and to look on a lost
dying world with compassion. Proverbs 21, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. Proverbs 21
in verse 1. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, he
turns it wherever he wishes. So the reality of God, the God
that we're describing has all of these characteristics, these
attributes. And this is such a key attribute. He is sovereign. He holds in his hands the king's
heart. And he's able to turn it this
way and that way. He is sovereign overall. He does
according to his will and the army of heaven, the book of Daniel
tells us. God is sovereign. He's in control. He hasn't lost control. He didn't
have a lapse. Oh, that happened today? God
never says that. He never thinks that. He's in
control. What are those people doing down
there? No, he knows exactly. Well, what about our lives? Some people get very angry at
God. They say, this shouldn't have happened. This happened
in my life, whatever it is. And they want to get mad at God.
The Bible says that to God's people, all things work together
for good. to them who love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. We have a little
rug. It's very special to me, to us. It is a woven rug, I guess you
would say. And on the top side, you see
all these colors. And I think it was made out of
rags, probably leftovers. I understand it was made by my
grandmother. You turn it over on the back
side, and you can see the knots where those pieces of fabric
were tied. On the top side, it's very beautiful. Oftentimes, we
only see the knots in life. We don't understand certain things. One day, I believe we'll see
the top side. If we don't see it now, in the
meantime, we have to trust, Lord, you know what you're doing. You're
sovereign and I'm trusting you. And these naughty things in my
life, knots, these naughty things form a beautiful tapestry in
your plan. And so I'm trusting you. I'm
relying on you. All things work together for
good. God is sovereign. And I believe we'll stop with
number six, John 1.18. God is invisible. You say, wait,
I knew that. But how is it that God appears?
Well, let's just take the first verse, John 1.18. In God's essence,
in God's glory, no one has seen him. He reveals himself, certainly
he revealed himself in Christ, Christ is God. He took on human
flesh. We have seen him. Moses saw the
backside of God. God allowed Moses to see something
of him, but of his glory, his essence, no one has seen him. In the Old Testament, there were
appearances of God called Theophanies or Christophanies. But look at
John 1, 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who is
in the bosom of the father, he's declared him. He explained him
to us. And so Jesus says to Philip,
if you've seen me, you've seen the father. I'm what God is like. I am God. You see me, you've
seen the father. But God is invisible. He's everywhere
at the same time. Do I fully understand this? No. Are we praying to someone who's
invisible? Yes. And praise the Lord that
he's so far above us and beyond us. And yet, as we read in Luke,
the kingdom of God is within you. It's in your midst. He is
near to us. His presence is near. He is not
limited by spatial restrictions. He's invisible. Look at 1st Timothy
chapter 6 and verses 15 and 16. And Paul says here, back up to verse
14, that you keep this commandment, 1st Timothy 6, 14, without spot,
blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. which He, the
Father, will manifest in His own time. He will manifest the
Lord Jesus in His own time. He who is the blessed and only
potentate the Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
who alone has immortality, another attribute, dwelling in unapproachable
light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and
everlasting power. Amen. There is an element of
depravity. that wants to create an idol
that can be seen and worshiped. And God strictly forbade that. You shall not make unto you a
graven image, no idols. Don't try to limit me to something
of wood or stone or the creation of man. I'm beyond that, I'm
above that, don't do that. And yet through the centuries
of human civilization, we see idolatry after idolatry after
idolatry saying, this is your God, worship it. No, our God
is beyond and above all that. He's invisible and he's all glorious. And he has revealed himself in
the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he deserves
honor and he wants our faith. He wants us to trust him. So
go to Hebrews and let's finish with this. Hebrews chapter 11,
a great chapter right after being to the Ark and the Creation Museum. Hebrews 11.1, now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I don't see the true God. Verse 3, by faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are visible because
God said the word and it was. So evolutionists and others tell
us the world is and they give exact figures, 59 million years
old, 2.2 billion years old. You say, how do you know? Were
you there? By faith, you say that. Well,
we say this by faith. No, God was there and he created
the world and it wasn't all that long ago. By faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, verse six. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he who comes to God must
believe that he is. We don't see him. He's not an
idol. He's invisible, but he's everywhere
and he's all powerful and he's full of love and grace and mercy.
We come to God, we must believe that he is. Let's stop right
there. Someone is without Christ. They're
not saved. What do they need to do to come
to God? To come to the cross and believe,
Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross. You were buried,
rose again the third day. I believe that. A believer sits
down for a daily quiet time. Lord, I thank you that you are
here, right here. You are your presence. He must believe that he is and
that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If you've not trusted the Lord
Jesus to save you, come to the cross. Believe that he is, that
he will save. Call on him and he will save
you. Our God is a great and awesome
God. Let's bow our heads together
and prepare our hearts for the Lord's table. Let's rejoice in
His grace and His goodness, His mercy and His love. In these
quiet moments, let's prepare our hearts. Let's confess sin. Let's worship, let's rejoice
in Him.
The Reality of God, part 3
Series Evidence for Christian Faith
The Scriptures, Nature and Reason point us to an All-Powerful, Divine Being Who Created the World and Redeemed it.
While the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is necessary to convince a darkened heart of the reality of God, there is much reasonable evidence that points us to a Divine, All-Powerful Being!
| Sermon ID | 8523221611820 |
| Duration | 41:08 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Genesis 18:25 |
| Language | English |
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