Alright, let us turn to 1 Timothy 3. Paul reminds us that this is a true saying, if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. Once again, if you guys are still desirous of doing ministry, being an elder within the church, remind yourself repeatedly of what Paul says. You desire a good thing, a good work. And we would also admit that the church is lacking in these areas where we have strong men who are not ashamed to preach the whole counsel of God. If you have the disposition or you're prone to start thinking, I wonder how people are gonna hear or receive this, and that's guiding what you're gonna bring individuals, you're starting from the wrong place. Your first position must be, what does God's word say? And if you're dealing with a large group, your family, an individual, as you're beginning to ascertain or discern what's going on, if there's error that needs to be corrected, you must bring God's Word to that error, no matter how offensive you think it might be to the person on the other side. But you can also use the Word of God to give great encouragement, great exhortations. It's not all negative. In fact, most of what we should be doing should be positive. It should be the positive application of God's Word and coming along and encouraging others to apply that Word. This morning we're gonna move, last week we looked at the name of God. This week we're gonna move into the attributes of God, the perfections of God. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter nine. Jeremiah 9, Luke verse 23, thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glory glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. The greatest need for every human being is to have a saving knowledge of God. And I would further push that we need to have an understanding of the character of God who not only created us, but gave His Son to die for His people. You see, we live in a day and age that acts like you can separate the two. It's as though you can know something of Christ and at the same time be ignorant of the Father. We need to understand the moral perfections of God as He has revealed them to us in His Word. And I want you to listen to the words by Pink. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped. I think a lot of times individuals, and you'll see this in the church, they put their faith and confidence in a man because they do not know God. Think about how many times we see people who follow a man or a movement, and when that man or that movement falls, what happens? Their faith is destroyed and crushed. Why? They never knew God. As heartbreaking as it is, as disturbing as it is to see men fall, and they do fall, right? As heartbreaking as that may be, understand this. Your faith should not be destroyed or crushed because a man falls. If that's the case, you don't know God. You don't know His ways. You don't know how He brings men up, how He brings them down. You don't know how He humbles men. And so when we see men fall, once again, although I'm not excited to see that God is dishonored, although I'm not excited to see that they are fallen, I do recognize our God as sovereign, and it may be the very thing that God is using to save the soul of that man. But nevertheless, an unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshiped. Do you believe that? Can you worship a God you know nothing about? And what would your justification, if you do, what would your justification be for that statement? And so my fear is that there are those, even maybe within our assembly, who have not spent time trying to get to know their Creator, and as a result, they are ignorant of the one they say they come to worship, the one they say they love, the one they say they serve. And so I think this is a dangerous place to be. And additionally, this explains so much about what's going on and what we see going on in the church today. Do you believe that? Do you believe that an unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped? And it's not just that I'm asking you in an intellectual way. I'm sure you nod your head in a yes way, in a positive fashion. But my real question is, do you really believe that in action? Are you content to muddle on in life Just being ignorant of certain portions of God's Word, which is a revelation of who He is and what He expects of us. Do you begin to see the big challenge of an elder? Do you understand why I want Paul to say, this is a good work. It's a good thing for someone to come along beside someone who's just meandering around. They put their trust in man. They put their trust in themselves. They put their trust in something else other than God. And so they do this, why? Because they don't know Him. It's interesting when you read through the Psalms. Aren't the Psalms just placarded with example after example? Say, for example, of David who would say, he puts his trust, God is my refuge, He's my shield, He's my strength. All these great comments. This is a man whose faith was tested over and over and over again, and his life wasn't this rosy kind of walk in the fields, was it? very challenging life that this man had, but nevertheless, he knew his God. His faith was not shaken. His faith was not crushed when adversity came into his life. When you see people whose lives are characterized by one emotional response to life after another, and they're being driven by their emotions, it probably means they don't know God. And I'm not talking about Christians are to be emotionless. That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is your emotions cannot dictate how you respond in any given situation. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshiped. People who come and worship, they're hot and cold with their worship. They're on fire one week, cold the next. It probably means they don't know God, in some sense, right? Because the God of the Scriptures is not looking for an on and off relationship, is He? No more than you would look for an on and off relationship with someone you cherished. What if your spouse one day had affections towards you and the next day was cold, gone, missing in action, didn't want to communicate with you? What would you think of that? That's why we talked about last week, God is jealous for this relationship. He's not looking for folks who are hot and cold. Hot one week, cold the next. Okay, so the Christian walk is not based upon that. Do you understand where I'm headed with this? You must be able, if you're going to be an elder, someone that God has placed over a flock, you must be able to recognize this and see these tendencies and deal with this in the life of the folks that are under your care. Does that make sense? You have to be comfortable doing this. You have to be able to discern what's going on there because this is telling you, I mean, there again, you always hear these comments, well, you don't know their heart. Well, that's true. But all we have are the warning signs in their life. They are like a barometer. Attitudes, looks, consistency or inconsistency, a low view of just honoring simple principles that God's Word has is a barometer of what's going on within the soul of an individual. Okay? All right. So let me be clear. We don't want just a theoretical knowledge of God. Our desire is to know Him as He is presenting Himself to us, and we want to know Him intimately. And I want you to approach Him on the basis of how He reveals Himself. And as He reveals Himself to us through this study of His attributes, our responsibility is to yield ourselves to Him, submit to His authority, and regulate all the details of our lives by His commands. And so I hope you're beginning to see something of the importance of understanding the nature and the character of God. Dagg states it this way. To understand our duties toward God, we must know His character. I'll say that one again. To understand our duty towards God, we must know His character. It's not enough to believe that God exists or that He exists, but we should labor to acquire a knowledge of Him. Let us then reverently inquire, Who is the Lord? So when we talk about the attributes of God, I know that's just a fancy way of saying, well, who is He? What do we know about Him? And does that excite you to know that God has told you something, communicated something about Himself such that we may know Him? So what do we mean by attributes? Well, James P. Boyce gives us this definition. The attributes of God are those peculiarities which mark or define the mode of His existence or which constitute His character. And so when we talk about the attributes of God, we're not talking about separate concepts of God. But when we talk about the attributes of God, they give us a sense of who God is in His totality. He's not a part love. He's not part hate. He's not part omniscience. He's not part omnipresent, right? We're talking about the totality. God is love, right? God is a spirit. God is holy. And so this characterizes His whole being and His whole essence. And so, as I think we've covered this before, but I have to remind you, and I think this is something that is a big challenge within the church today, there is a temptation to pit one attribute against another. But we must resist this temptation, because all the attributes work together in the revealing of His moral perfection. And the wrath of God is just as much a perfection of God as His love, His mercy, His grace, all these other attributes that you might prefer over His wrath. But understand, if He's going to be a loving God, He must be a wrathful God. So let's first talk about the spirituality of God, or the invisibility of God. Since God is invisible, we can only know Him as He reveals Himself. And our response to Him is to bow down and worship Him. Now, this is going to become important when we deal with the doctrines that might offend the flesh. So when we deal with the decrees of God, for example, we must learn to humble ourselves before this knowledge and worship God for who He is. And so when it comes to the doctrines that we might find offensive to the flesh, or man finds offensive to himself, we as fallen men need to understand that we must submit ourselves to everything that God says about Himself. Our problem is, I think, as fallen men, is we come to Christ with some kind of preconception. And a lot of times the preconceptions are based upon either how we were raised in terms of what we saw in our own father, whether he was there or not, whether he was a good father, whether he was a poor father. And so when you hear the word God as father, a lot of times our conceptions about God as father are kind of preconditioned wrongly, but nevertheless they're preconditioned. And we need to understand there's some baggage that sinners bring when they come into the kingdom of God. And that baggage must be systematically removed. And so this is why we need to give them a true picture of what God as a father might look like. A lot of times fallen mankind, particularly in our arrogant age of education, where they think they're going to put their knowledge, their rationale above the Word of God, we need to understand that a lot of times as fallen men come into the Kingdom of God, as they come into the Kingdom of God, they bring their false knowledge of who they are, an over-exaggerated sense of their wisdom to the Word of God, and what happens is they start trying to rationalize God's Word. You must learn to systematically take a new believer and do away with that kind of thinking. If they've been brought up in the public school system, if they've been trained wrongly within a house, even if you have parents who homeschool, for example, but yet they were brought up in an arrogant kind of man's wisdom rules approach, they may be bringing this to their children as well. You must recognize, you must understand this so that you can start systematically dismantling these false views and make people who humble themselves under the wisdom of God. Your options are to either worship Him for who He is, or you're going to rebel. And understand, neutrality is a sin, and it does not exist. And you say, well, I don't know that I believe that. Well, let me tell you this. Christ says very clearly in His Gospels that you're either with me or you're against me. To not acknowledge God is not a blessing. It's not in accordance with God's law. We're to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What do you mean, don't acknowledge God? That's a sin. What if you came into my house and I didn't acknowledge you? No, Mike's in my house, but I don't acknowledge him. I'm just going to play neutral today. What would you say about that? Think of the absurdity of the world who ask you to just lay down your belief and just be neutral. When you go outside the church, you can be non-neutral in the church, We'll even let you be non-neutral in your home, but that's coming to an end. Understand, if God doesn't do something in this land, we'll allow you to do maybe a little bit of that in your home. We'll allow you to be non-neutral in your church, but make it clear, the moment you come outside in public, you better be neutral. That's a sin. That is a sin to have this idea that we are neutral. Do you understand the positions that we hold concerning why we want people to bring their children under the training and the fear and the admonition of the Lord? Paul doesn't say in Ephesians that that's a recommended or preferable way of doing it. It's a command. It's an imperative. And so we have a responsibility before God with respect to our children. But the point here is that when we come to God, we must acknowledge who He is and worship Him for who He is. I want us to think about the invisibility of God. One of the things that Dagg points out is the way we feel about God is always based upon our understanding of who His character and who He is. And once again, if we don't know His character, if we don't know who He is from His Word, then you would understand that the way we would feel about God is going to be wrong. You need to start with that premise so that you can, as elders, start working with individuals and point them in the right direction and make sure they understand the sinfulness. Let me just pause for a moment. Do you understand what I'm describing to you today is like Christianity 101 basics? But to most in the church, this is radical. This is just almost to the point where some would say, you're a kook. But who's the kook? The one that says, I can deny God in most every area of my life, or the one who says, no, God must reign supreme in every area of my life. We need to understand who He is. And this is why we're going to spend a lot of time looking at the attributes of God. We understand now about...we've talked about this in the past. We've talked about the unity of God. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is what? He is one. There's a unity within God. And so we've discussed the simplicity of God. Not that God is simplistic, but the simplicity of God says that He is not comprised of many different parts or many different components. He's one. He's not...and the idea here is that he's not half wrath or half love. He is all wrath, he's all love. Dabney, the old Presbyterian theologian, made the point that God doesn't simply have attributes, but rather He is His attributes. And I think this is important for us to understand because many times we're guilty of developing a character of God that is not necessarily representative of who He is. And so when we look at His attributes, we see not a caricature of God, but what we want to do when we hear about the attributes of God, we want to see a full revelation of who He is. And so keep in mind that when we look at His attributes, we need to understand they complement and they qualify each other. For example, when God says He's infinite, we also mean that He's infinitely, and when I say infinite, without bounds, He's infinitely loving. He's infinitely holy. You know, all expressions of His character are without bounds. He's not constrained. You know, we may love, but we're constrained. We may think we have some power, or we may have some wisdom, but our wisdom is not infinite. Why? Well, we're limited. We're limited. We're not infinite in that sense. When we use the word infinite, that's what I'm talking about. It's without bounds. Now the first topic I want to deal with, once again, is this spirituality of God. You have to say, well, why does this even matter? Well, it matters because we are spirit, and since we are created in His image, we are capable of having communion with Him. And so this is important because we also worship God in spirit and truth. Barnes says this when he's commenting on John 4, 24. This is the second reason why men should worship Him in spirit and truth. By this is meant that God is without body, that He is not material or composed of parts, that He is invisible in every place, pure and holy. This is one of the first truths of religion and one of the sublimest ever presented to the mind of man. Almost all nations have had some idea of God as gross or material, but the Bible declares that he is a pure spirit. As he is such a spirit, he dwells not in temples made with hands, neither owned by man or by man's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things. A pure, holy, spiritual worship, therefore, is such as he seeks the offering of a soul rather than the formal offering of a body. the homage of a heart rather than that of the lips. And so sometimes you'll see people going through the physical motions of religion. They bow down. They may raise their hands. They may do all kinds of things, and there's nothing wrong with it because the Bible talks about these things. But I may bow down prostrate before the Lord, but my heart may not be bowed down before him. And that's what he's talking about, the difference between worshiping with these external things. going through the motions of external religion. Remember, what was one of the big problems of the children of Israel? They were always going through the external... well, not always, but at times they would go through the external motions of sacrificial systems, right? But what did God say? I desire obedience. And so part of true spiritual worship is not some kind of existential relationship with God, some kind of out-of-the-body experience with God, but rather true spiritual worship comes to recognizing and acknowledging who He is, understanding what He desires, and then obeying and following Him and seeking to bring His pleasure. Seeking always to bring Him pleasure. That's what it means to worship Him in spirit and truth. And worshiping Him in spirit and truth doesn't just happen on Sunday. And so this is just a reminder that the physical things we do are not the essence of our worship. Now a lot of people, you've got to understand this, as an elder, a lot of people may not enjoy this. But nevertheless, there would be people in a lot of churches that their attendance is very regular, they're there, they're always there. But would you say that that's where you need to stop with respect to watching and caring for their souls? There are a lot of times people can come and go for years. Particularly, it's not so much the case in my generation and below, but the generation before mine. Think about some of the older generation that goes through the motions of going through church, they're regular, they're faithful going to church, but when you talk to them you begin to realize there's zero interest in who God is. Now I'm painting with a broad paintbrush, but I'm trying to bring this out to you. Just because someone is coming week after week after week and they're faithful, that's good. But that might be hiding something else that's going on as well. And so this intimate knowledge, knowing those who are under your care, making sure you're aware of this, and you're looking for the spiritual signs, the warning signs that there's a problem. Apathy, body language tells you so much. Because you can be here, but let me ask you this. If you're sitting there teaching, and many of you men have taught, and you see someone doing this, right? And I can see you following along. That says one thing, doesn't it? When you're doing that, what is that telling you? Their Bibles are closed, they're not following along, there's zero interest in what's being discussed. And I would say some of y'all need to pay attention to what's going on during the sermon, because I can see it and you're not. Number two, you ought to be paying attention to what goes on in the afternoon teaching. Watch your children in the afternoon teaching. Are their interest in the things of God when God's Word's being spoken? These things have to be dealt with because they're warning signs that that could be very well what's going on within your own home under your nose and you're not picking up on it if you can allow it to be done out in public. So God is the Spirit, and those who worship Him must do it in spirit and in truth. Our catechism, our inner catechism, our children are taught that God is the Spirit and does not have a body like men. And so they're talking about the essence of who God's being, the essence of God's being. So what about Christ? Well, remember, Christ is referred to as a mystery in the Scriptures, isn't He? Turn over to 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3. Look at verse 16, "...and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Indeed, Christ is the great mystery. Christ is the great mystery because He's what? God in flesh, the immaterial being. The one we just were talking about. And here's the thing you need to understand. In order for God to atone for our sins, He had to take upon Himself flesh and die. Christ is the great mystery. Not only was it a great mystery, but it's likewise a great condescension. God condescended to become man in order that we, as fallen man, might know Him in a salvific way. Turn over to Exodus 33. Exodus 33, look at verse 18, and he said, I beseech thee, show me your glory. So remember, this is the story where Moses wants to see the glory of God, and this is important. God is gonna say, when he says, you cannot see me, what he's saying is, you cannot see my true essence. I'm gonna have you flipping, so keep up, John 1. Because when we say that God is invisible and we can't see His true essence, I mean, the Bible certainly talks about God has manifested Himself in different ways to men, but when they see this, are they saying they're seeing the true totality of the essence of God? Well, according to the story there in Exodus 33, no one can ever do that and stand and live. But in John 118, no man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. and He has declared Him. And John's trying to get us to understand that no one's ever seen the true essence of God. We're just not capable of doing that. Turn over to John 6. John 6, look at verse 45. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore has heard and has learned of the Father comes to me. Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God. He has seen the Father. So no one's ever seen the Father, the head of the economic trinity, is what Christ is saying. But Christ is saying, I've seen Him. And because I've seen Him, I'm going to reveal Him to you. So this tells us something about the nature of Christ. Christ is not just a man, is He? If He was just a man, He could not say, I've seen the Father, could He? And I'm talking about when He says He's seen the Father, I've seen Him in His true essence, His true glory. No mere man could ever say that, but Christ could. In fact, the Greek of John 1-1 has this idea that the Word, when it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the idea of that word pros, that little preposition in the Greek, has this idea of face-to-face. So He is deity since no mere man has ever seen God, but Christ has seen God. And this is one of the reasons why we should revere the Lord Jesus Christ. He has seen the Father and He reveals the Father to us, and we need to learn to make ourselves available to receive Him and hear from Him that we might know something of the Father. There have been manifestations of God in the Old Testament. For example, in Genesis 32, verse 29 through 30, we know that Jacob had been wrestling with the angel of God. And what has Jacob seen? Well, he's seen a manifestation of God. He's not seen the true essence of God. And this is one of those things where people say, well, there's a contradiction in the Bible. One place it says no one's ever seen God, but then there's these places where they've seen God. Well, what have they seen? They've seen a manifestation. God's revealed himself as a pillar of fire. So should we go worship a pillar of fire? No. So make the distinction when the Bible says no one has seen God in one sense. the trueness, the fullness of His essence. So I don't want you to get stumped up with these little brain teasers that people are these supposed contradictions that are found within the Bible. When the author says no one has ever seen God, they're saying they've never seen Him in one sense. But there have been people that have seen manifestations of God. There's a manifestation of God in the burning bush before Moses, right? There's something that God revealed Himself in that way for Moses. God protected Moses and said, well, I'll just only let you see a portion of my goodness. But you can't see everything. You couldn't stand it, right? All right. I don't think you get the point. Think back. But when you look in Genesis 32, Jacob understood he was not just wrestling with a man. He knew it was a manifestation of God. Think back to Nebuchadnezzar who looked into the fire, and there was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And what did he say? He says, I saw something there. Now, he didn't see the true essence of God, but he did see a manifestation of one who is like the what? The Son of Man. Okay? The other thing I want you to see is that even when men who did not see the full true essence of God, when they came into contact with God, what did they do? Well, fear, reverence, awe, always. And again, this points us to the true beauty of Christ as a mediator. We don't want to see God outside of our mediator. Think about Moses, who is a pre-type of Christ in the sense that Moses was a mediator between the nation of Israel and God, right? And when God comes down upon the mountain, What do the people of Israel say? We don't want to go see Him. We don't want to go hear from Him. You go! And so this pre-figures what Christ does for us. We don't want to see God outside our mediator. To see the Father without Christ is certain death since we have violated the Father's law. And so when these men come into contact with God and they don't die, what is their response? It's almost like shock and surprise, isn't it? Why? They know they should die. Turn over to Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5, look at verse 23. And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for the mountain did burn with fire, and you came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said to me, Behold, the Lord our God has showed us his glory and his greatness. And we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God does talk with man and He lives. I mean, it's not like that's what they expect. It's like, well, sure, you just went up there and talked with God. Everybody does that. No, they're surprised that God talks with man and they still live. They get a sense of awe and respect for God. Verse 25, Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as we have lived? Go thou near and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou unto us, that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and that we will hear it and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and when you spoken to me, and the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of the people which they have spoken unto you, and they have well said all that they have spoken." That's an interesting statement, isn't it? God says, yeah, you're right to think that way. You should be shocked and amazed that I didn't consume you. I mean, this was a, I mean, you think about, what is Deuteronomy 5? Deuteronomy 5 here is just a recapturing of what that first generation, right? And we see, I mean, certainly not a model generation, is it? And so God says, yeah, you need to be shocked and surprised that I didn't consume you. There's a low view of God in this land today. We don't want to perpetuate this curse upon this land, but I continue to have a low view of God. Therefore, we need men that will be raised up that will bring, once again, a high view of God, a high standard of God, once again, back to the table. We're not talking about going beyond the standards of God, but we want to bring His standards to the table. We want to bring our thoughts. Think about it. You know, there would be those who would take what I'm saying and say, well, listen, that sounds like legalism. It's not legalism. Is Paul a legalist when he says, you take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? Is that a legalistic statement? Of course not. It's what's expected of those who are indwelled by the true and living God. Anyone that has the true Spirit of God living within them is not going to be offended by any of the statements that I'm making. What they're going to do is probably be ashamed, or they should be ashamed. We don't live up to the standard, right? So what should that do? Should it perpetuate more rebellion? Or should it put us on our face before God in humility, saying, I need help. If this is the expectation, I'm bankrupt in and of myself. I don't have the ability to do what you're asking me. But you're not without power. You're not without access to power, right? Because Christ says, I'm giving you someone. I'm giving you my spirit. You see how this works together? We've lost this somewhere. And this didn't used to dictate and characterize Christians. I mean, go back and read the writings of the men in the last century. Well, the century before. I keep thinking that, I keep, I'm living in denial. I keep thinking the 80s weren't that long ago, right? But the point here is that, go back and read those men, how they characterized themselves. Go back in the 1700s. Look how those men disciplined themselves. 1600s, 1500s, okay? So there used to be a high view of who God is. Notice the voice of God was more in Deuteronomy 5, more than they could bear. And when you read this section, you see that they were allowed to hear God and not be consumed, which points to the greatness of God and the graciousness of God. And remember, it's a great privilege to hear from God. And we need to make sure and understand this, that when we choose to zone out when the Word of God is being spoken and when the Word of God is being read, that's a great offense to God. When His Word is being spoken and you choose and think... I mean, think about this attitude. All right, well, this week I'm going to pay attention. But, you know, if I'm a little tired, a little sleepy, I'm just going to zone out. After all, it's only the Word of God. Does that sound disturbing to your ears when I say it like that? It should. Ask yourself, what are you doing when you hear the Word of God being read in our Old Testament and New Testament reading? I can remember back in the early days when we started, and we started bringing Scripture reading into the service. So none of y'all were here, so it doesn't apply to y'all. But you'd actually have people say, I can't believe you picked that chapter. It had 50 verses. That's sad, isn't it? has 50 verses of God's Word that you're saying you're too bothered to sit and listen to and follow along and read. It's the Word of God that's being read. And it should offend us when we hear statements like that because it pictures a low view of God's Word, which pictures a low view of God. So if you ever hear statements like that, and I bring these things up to your attention because when I hear them, okay, well, if one person is saying something that absurd and ridiculous, How much, I mean, is it going on other places? Put those things in check with your home. Make sure your children understand. Make sure you understand that when God's Word is being read, all things stop. Stop the busyness. Put things down. This is God's Word. Alright. Turn to Isaiah 6. We're familiar with this passage, but it's just a great reminder. Isaiah 6. And I'm trying to give you these passages so that you can become familiar with them, so that when you're dealing with someone who has a low view of God's Word, right? And they're going to say, well, you don't know my heart. They're going to throw out all the excuses at you. You need to be equipped with the Word of God so that you can counter that. If you really perceive that there's a problem, And there's a low view of God and who He is, and a low view of His Word. You need to remind yourself of passages like Deuteronomy 5. Remind yourself of passages like John 118 and the significance that no one's seen the Father except the Son. You read that in John 6, understand the significance of that statement that Christ is no mere man. And what an honor it is for God to reveal Himself to us. I want you to put all this into perspective because these are the kind of things you're going to have to deal with in your ministry. Notice what he sees. Isaiah sees this in verse 3. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King of the Lord of hosts. And then one of the seraphims flew unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and your iniquities have been taken away, and your sins purged." I mean, this is a believer who sees something of the glory of God. And notice his response, that this is a man who understands something of the holiness of God. And he also recognizes his own unholiness. So the question is, have you seen the Lord of the Scriptures? Have you seen the Lord of the Scriptures? And you have to ask yourself, what is the effect on those in the Scriptures that see the Lord? There's fear, there's awe, there's respect. So have you seen the Lord of the Scriptures? Do you have this reverence of God? And if you don't, then you have not seen Him, nor do you know Him. You would have to justify the low position that people have of God, when all you see in the Word of God is that those who actually get a glimpse, a manifestation of something, a vision of Him. What is their response? and you must contrast that with your response when you say you've seen him and you now know him. Those who are believers that get a view of the glory and holiness of God, they must at some point in their walk become aware of their own uncleanness. Have you ever talked to somebody? I've met a few folks around here, and you ask them, and you're handing out tracts, and you're talking to them, and you're saying, okay, tell me, because they tell you they're a believer. I don't need one. I'm a believer. Oh, how'd you know the Lord? I don't know. As far back as I can remember, I've always known the Lord. So you start probing these questions. Is there just a sense of reverence and awe that you're unclean before him? They look at you with the weirdest looks. So how do they know it? As far as I can remember, I've just always known him. I'm going to bebop around to do my own thing, though. I'm going to go from place to place. I'm going to live how I want to live. So there's a real problem here in our area, isn't it? And keep in mind, the problem that you're seeing has always been at the preparation of the men of God who have allowed droves of people to have such a low view of God. We don't need any more men like that. We need men who will bring back, once again, a high view of God. God is a Spirit. And those that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. And so we're created in His image, and because we're created in His image, we do have spirits. The spirit, the soul, that is the immaterial part of who you are. It's what makes you, you. You've seen people that have had twins and you can barely distinguish them, but they are different, right? And I'm not talking about different in body, but they're different in personalities a lot of times. There may be some similarities, but what makes one individual and another individual is that immaterial part, their soul, their spirit. I've heard people talk about if you ever had a brain transplant, then you would be a different person. I really question that. Because the brain is an organ that God gives to communicate from the immaterial part to the material part. The brain, with all of its neurons and it's able to take thoughts and translate them in such a way that we might function, but when the body dies, for example, and when your brain dies, do you cease to exist? No. What makes you you is not your brain. What makes you you is the immaterial part of man. And this is what we're saying. God is saying, I want the inner man to worship me in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Turn over to Isaiah 31. Isaiah 31, look at verse 3. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horse's flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is hoping shall fall down, and they shall fall or fail together. But the point I want to bring you to this passage is to see that there's a contrast between God and man, and the flesh and the spirit. God has no need of material eyes or no organ of sight. Well, the Bible tells us that the night shines as the day to him since he is a spirit. God has no need for legs, for example, for motion since he is a spirit. And when we look at his immensity, we'll deal with his immensity. When we talk about his immensity, we're talking about the fact that he's everywhere. The reason he is everywhere is because he's spirit. Okay? He's not limited. Hebrews 12, 9, you can write this one down, indicates to us that God is the creator of spirits. He's also the sustainer of our being, not just your physical body, but He's the sustainer of our being. And the fact that God is a spirit is the very foundation of the second command as we looked at last week. And this is why God says, You shall not make an image of Me. In Deuteronomy 4, 12 through 18, in that section there, they only heard a voice. They did not see an image of God. God does not want them to make an image of Him. Why? Because He's the Spirit. We don't need a picture in order to facilitate worship. In fact, what God is telling us with the Second Commandment is that that's the very opposite of worship, is to look at these images and fall down and worship them. Understand that God wants us to take His worship seriously. And keep in mind that God gave them all kinds of symbols in the Old Testament, didn't He? He gave Himself as a pillar of fire, a cloud, but He's telling them, that's not who I am, so don't make a representation of me to worship. Don't be the pillar of fire worshipers. A material image cannot convey the spiritual nature of God, and the issue is that God as a Spirit and that's just something an image can never convey to us. It only confuses the worshiper as to who God is when he brings in these foreign images. I want you to think to the Roman church and just understand that's not a problem within our church, but understand in the Reformed churches there's a higher church reform ecclesiastical view where they'll have their images and they'll have all kinds of things. These are Protestants, right? But I want you to understand this, that the Roman Catholic Church argue that they brought images in to help teach the poor people. But keep in mind, God did not give us pictures to worship Him or to teach anyone with. He gave us His Word. It would have been far better for the Roman Catholic Church to be in alignment with God's will by teaching the will of God from His Word than to bring in all these relics, all these images for people to fall down and worship. In other words, the Roman Church, just like the Protestant Church, should just teach the Gospel. We do not need pictures or aids to assist with us in the teaching and the proclamation of the Gospel. What we need is the Word of God. So I will encourage you again, your children do not need pictures, coloring books. What they need is the very Word of God. And it is your job to be able to explain it to them. I mean, if you want to argue with me about this, well then what in the world did they do in the first century? How did they teach their children and raise their children? How did they honor Ephesians chapter 6 without coloring books? Without veggie tales? Right? Where did they learn how to teach their children from the Word of God? And if you study out history, it seems like I think they had an impact on the world. Are we having an impact on the world with respect to our children? I mean, it's not as though there's not money, tons of money being thrown at the problem. We think we need to dumb down God so that we might teach Him. God said, never told you to do that. In fact, the second commandment is a prohibition to dumbing me down. You understand that? Alright, so the spirituality of God also goes against the pantheistic view. The word pan is all, theism is God, all is God, that's kind of the pantheistic view. God is not in the material, and when we look outside, or we look at ourselves, we're no longer looking at God, but rather we're looking at His creation, and He's saying, that's not me, so don't worship me. Now my creation may tell you a lot of things about who I am, but we're not to worship the God who is in creation. Does that make sense? That's a pantheistic worldview. All right. So God is a spirit and does not have a body like man, and that's important for us to understand. Let's move on from the spirituality, the invisibility of God. Let's talk about the eternality of God. Turn to Psalm 90 with me. Psalm 90. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. Now this is the prayer of Moses, and when God talks about His own eternity, He uses phrases like everlasting to everlasting. Sometimes we talk about eternity to eternity, and you can see that our language struggles to deal with the eternality of God. And the reason why is because as creatures we have a beginning, we have a succession of life, and then an end. But this is not so with God. Many times the theologians try to describe God's eternality with negative statements such as, well, He's without beginning. He's without end. And when they use that kind of language, you just have to respect and acknowledge our language struggles to describe in a positive sort of way the eternality of God. Does that make sense? Now when we talk about the attributes of God, many times we have to use negatives because there's no sufficient way and a positive way to state them. Everything but God has a beginning. And so He is the first cause of everything. And so for those who refuse to acknowledge God, Really, at the end of the day, they must ultimately reduce all matter as eternal. And that's a real struggle in the materialistic, atheistic worldview today. They're still struggling with, is the universe eternal? Or is there a true beginning? Now, those that hold to a Big Bang cosmology will argue that there was a beginning. But the question is, what caused it? They have a causeless beginning. And so they really struggle with that. So they realize that philosophically they... Or, back up. It's not just philosophical. experiential. Empirically, they've never seen something created out of nothing. They can't ever, you know, if you're going to be a true purist in terms of science, if you're going to make, you know, a statement, you ought to be able to back it up with evidence. And so there's still groups within today, within the scientific realm, if you read that kind of stuff and see what's going on in research in those areas, particularly with cosmology and particularly with the origins of the universe, there's camps within there that are struggling saying, okay, we can't start with this idea that something came out of nothing. So what is it that some hold to? Well, there must be a more intelligent something, creator. Now, they won't acknowledge the triune God of the scriptures as being the originator of the universe, but they're trying to... Some would say there's aliens. There's a superior group of aliens that if somehow or another put spores on this planet... I mean, you know, we could go through these pathways all day long, but the idea there is... But you're still posting the question back, right? Where did those aliens come from? Where did the superior race come from? So the idea here is that they don't have an answer for this, and when you talk to the materialist, those who will not acknowledge the existence of God, they have to come back to a position that all matter is eternal. And so that's the philosophical problem with the materialist is that he can't ultimately explain the beginning of the universe without a first cause. And so many of the atheists are being reduced back to an eternal explanation of all matter. Now we talk about matter. Let's talk about this. There's matter that's inanimate, right? Rocks, water, things like that. And then there's animate life, matter. Animate matter that has spirit. And so all this points to a creator. And so there's no evidence of matter being created from nothing. So ultimately, the one who refuses to acknowledge God does not have a coherent explanation for the beginning of the universe. And I need you to get this and understand this because when you go out into the world, the moment you walk out there, you're going to be treated as though you're just some knuckle-dragger, you're just out of touch, and we've moved on from this idea of a creation from the Scriptures kind of model. But understand this, that when they start trying to argue the existence of a universe without a creator, the triune God, their position is ultimately reduced to absurdity. Claiming to be wise, they become what? Fools. Understand, and there again, I'm not telling you to call them a fool straight to their face and provoke them or whatever, but understand when you're dealing with someone who holds those positions, you're dealing with a fool. And remember, biblically speaking, a fool is not one who's mentally ignorant, but a fool is one who tries to live his life independent of God. That's foolish. And so there ought to be a sense when you're sitting there and you're trying to discuss these issues with them, there ought to be a sense of compassion and pity because you're dealing with a fool. What is the end of a fool? It's destruction. And so when you're sitting there, the temptation is to get really irritated with them, and then it starts changing to, I want to win the debate for winning the debate's reason, because I don't want them to think that I'm stupid. I would encourage you to start thinking about it different. Approach them with, this is a fool. He's going to be destroyed. And I'm going to convey truth to him. And I'm going to pray that the Spirit of God would enlighten and illumine his mind, as He has enlightened and illumined my mind, that I might receive these truths. That's a different approach. That's a different tact, isn't it? I mean, I think this is the way Paul approached things when he walked into these pagan philosophers. I think he went in there with the first... the underlying foundation of what drove Paul was his honor to God and to make sure the truth of God was proclaimed. But he's also selling himself as someone who would warn a generation. This is why when they rejected the Word of God, what would Paul do? He'd say, He'd shake the dust off his feet and he'd say, your blood's not on my head anymore. Why? Well that goes back to Ezekiel as the watchman model, right? Paul saw himself as a watchman who would warn people to flee the wrath of God to come. And so when we deal with these atheists out there, understand this, their worldview is always reduced to absurdity because in their worldview there is no purpose, there is no cause, and there is no basis for morality. Anything goes. And wherever you see an atheistic society in history, anything has gone. Now when we come to the biblical position, we need to understand God has no beginning, He has no end, and there is no succession with God. Look at verse 3 here in Psalm 90. So as the eternal being, time is of no consequence to God and He is not bound by it. He is eternal. And so when you see this kind of language, a thousand years is nothing, a watch and a night to God, right? Just understand that language is trying to get a handle on who God is with respect to time. We're constrained by time, right? God is not. And so a lot of times the language is trying to deal with this. Turn over to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, look at verse 7. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Mankind needs time to accomplish his purposes, don't we? Right? We cannot accomplish in a day something that will take a thousand years. We can all agree upon that. We're bound by time. That's not the case for God. Time is the great enemy to many of our plans, right? Many times there's not enough time to accomplish all the things we need to accomplish within a given day, but that's not the case with respect to God. Time is not a constraint to the self-existent God. I mean, just think about what God can accomplish in a day. God works in time, but He's not constrained by time. And so when God works in times, there's not a division of His eternity. God always exists without division with respect to His eternity. Think about what God does in a day. He sustains His universe, doesn't He? And if God desires to save 3,000 souls through the preaching of one sermon, God will save 3,000 souls. Think about what God does in a day. Turn over to Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57, Luke verse 15, for thus say the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. But notice here, God dwells where? In eternity. Dabney says, God is infinite and therefore incomprehensible for our minds in his essence. And so it's impossible because God dwells in eternity. It's impossible for us to completely comprehend all of his attributes. I'm going to say all of his attributes. I'm talking about the totality of each attribute. And remember, the folly of man is to try to fully rationalize God and reduce him to something that our finite minds can comprehend. You need to resist that temptation. As part of our humility, we need to recognize that we will spend the whole of our eternity learning more and more about this great God. And it should be our desire to search Him out. Now, when Dagg talks about the eternality of God, he argues that we should approach God with reverence and awe. I mean, think about how the Scriptures teach us to have reverence and respect for the gray hairs of our society, right? You're supposed to have honor and respect, and we could have a whole sermon about how we disrespect them. But if we're to have respect for the gray hairs in our society because of the wisdom they've acquired, how much more the case the Ancient of Days? His reverence, reverence for his wisdom, his knowledge. we should revere the wisdom of the ancient of days." Burkhoff states it this way, the infinity of God is that attribute of God whereby He is free from all limitations. And the infinity of God means that He's not bound by anything. So when we talk about infinite power, this means that God's power is not bound in any way and there's no limit to it. And when we talk about infinite holiness, we're also talking about not just the quantity of His holiness, but the quality of His holiness. And what I mean by that is that His holiness is without blemish. And you can apply this to all of His attributes. The eternity of God is the infinity of God in relationship to time. Our days are marked off by minutes, hours, seconds, but not so with God. His eternity is that perfection of God whereby He is elevated over all temporal limitations. Also, God is not a God who... I mean, think about it. We have a beginning, we go through succession of time, and we have an end. That's not true with God. There's not a succession of moments with respect to God. God does not grow, for example, in His wisdom, in His thoughts. There's not as though he's going along and all of a sudden something's come to his attention and now, oh, I'm a little bit more aware than I used to be. Now I'm going to make a different decision. He is from all eternity wise. Practically speaking, the knowledge that all things are present before this eternal God should give us comfort, particularly when it comes to the providence of God. Robert E. Lee used to talk about the nature of providence The nature of providence He would talk about would come about slowly, so slowly that at times it may cause us to lose hope were it not for history, the history that teaches us that we have every reason to hope. And we must keep in mind the eternality of God when we look at what's going on around us. And we must never lose hope and interpret that what is going on around us in light of God's Word, we should have every reason to hope because God is eternal and He will bring to pass all the things that He has promised us. Sometimes we look at our own insignificance and we think, what can we accomplish? Nothing. But through the eternal God, you can accomplish all that He has purposed to come to pass. I want to encourage you, let me stop here, because the next attribute is going to be a little bit more lengthy as we deal with the immutability of God. But I want you to resolve your hope. Resolve to have hope in this Eternal One. Resolve to do what is right and follow God's will. We should have a sense of peace to follow the infinite wisdom of the Eternal God who has determined all things that will come to pass. He has established that His kingdom will rule without end. And the beautiful thing is you get to partake in that. You get to partake in this eternal kingdom. And so just as those of old, we'll look at this next week when we deal with the immutability of God. But think about Joseph. Think about Joseph who had a vision from God. What do you think sustained Joseph? Psalm 105 talks about he was bound with these fetters of iron, right? He was thrown in a pit. He was in prison. You think about all the things that were going on in the life of Joseph. What sustained this man? The eternal God's Word. The reason why we don't put hope in the, you know, when they talk about, you know, how do you know your religion's right versus someone else's? We don't put our hope in a finite God. Look at the gods that have been created by men in these other religions. We don't put our hope in their God at all. Why? He's not the Eternal One. We put our hope in the Eternal One who says, I have declared the beginning from the end. I create calamity. I bring all things to pass. And so we put our hope and trust in this eternal one who has all wisdom. Let us pray. Father, we thank you that with all the confusion about who you are out there, we do have one source of truth, and that is your word. May we desire to study and learn who you are. May we not be so easily distracted anymore. particularly these young ones that profess the name of Christ. May we not be up and down when the Word is being read whether it's at home or whether it's here at the church. May we give ourselves complete attention because it is Your Word. Father, may You give us a hunger and thirst and love for Your Word as we seek You as the Eternal One. And Father, may we once again seize upon the opportunities that we have to hear about who You are. And may these men who desire to rule and be an elder within Your church and serve within Your church May they take and seize upon all the opportunities they have to teach about who you are. And may we not bring anything less than the God of the Scriptures. May we not bring any distractions into our home that would pull our kids or have our children to have a lower view of who you are. And so Father, may we give this attention, the right attention. I pray for these men as they desire a good thing according to your word. I lift them up and I pray that you give them wisdom and discernment that they may take the banner of Christ into areas that we've never even thought of. So Father, we pray that you'd help us illuminate our minds of how we might be used by you. So Father, we just thank you. You're a good God, and you're so good and kind and gracious to your children that you always give us good things. And Father, may we always have that attitude and that awareness about the kind of God that you are. Father, may we be offended when people say hurtful or harmful or blasphemous things about You. May we not be content. You are our Father and we are Your children. So Father, we thank You. We thank You for the merits and the work and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who has purged us from our sins and given us the right to come before Your presence and not just call You God, but to call You Father. And we ask all this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.