Discovering God - Session 2 - Ron Matsen

you well welcome back to our discussion on this big topic god this is guard part two we've looked at the quest of God in two parts the first session we looked at the discovering of God and in the second session we're going to be looking at describing God when we consider discovering God many people can offer their objections to the ontological arguments for the existence of God that of the intuitive nature that we know God exists because we believe he needs to exist the cosmological argument for the existence of God is the argument from this sense of origin the universe exists therefore it must have been created therefore there's a creator the teleological argument for the existence of God looks at design the sense of the the design in everything that we see from the macrocosm to the microcosm the moral argument that sense within each one of us that there is a moral law that governs us that we are accountable to and ultimately the religious experience argument and so we looked at those but we summarize by saying although someone might be able to dismiss each aspect of those the elements of those arguments they cannot dismiss all and still find a logical basis for living and finding purpose in their life and therefore from this point forward we're going to assume that you are talking to someone who now based on a summation of one or all of those approaches begins to acknowledge the existence of God is which by the way is where I believe most people are today they will acknowledge God in some kind of a broad context and so in this session we're going to be talking about how do you describe God it's a simple term but incredibly complex the concepts of God are without number really there is theism which the general belief in God per se polytheism is a belief in many different gods monotheism is the belief in one God only not just one supreme god but one God and one God only deism is a type of theism but it believes that God exists but is distant that there is a God that that by virtue of the cosmological argument for the existence of God and the teleological argument for the existence of God they can see that there is origin and that there is design but a deist is one who refuses to believe that that God interferes with the creation that he's brought into being there's also pantheism which in that sense everything is God and by the way that's very popular today the idea of pantheism we'll take a look at a few ways in which these are represented for example there are the gods of Hinduism the Prime God Brahma is the creator Vishnu is the God which is the Saviour and Shiva is the God who is the transformer interestingly enough this is the Hindu trilogy notice a very fascinating comparison with the biblical Trinity of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit especially when you consider that when you examine Shiva you will see that this deity is surrounded by serpents and the spiritual power in Hinduism that manifests itself is what they refer to as the serpent power and so it's associated with this particular God but there's also 33 gods of the Vedas and so there are 33 identifiable minor gods but that is also followed by from their own sand script writing a word which is Coty which is a class of gods which represents what some believe is 330 million gods you read Hindu literature and they will say well actually that word should be translated unlimited in other words there are so many gods they are not countable there's an unlimited number of gods for which like that which we might be familiar with in Greek and Roman mythology is basically a God for every aspect of life and emotion the Hindus have the same sort of approach and and there are many similarities between the Greek and Roman gods and that of Hinduism there many more aspects of this but we're focusing primarily on the representation of God so when you are dealing with an anything-goes kind of definition of god or gods you're speaking of hinduism there is the god or gods of Mormonism Mormonism will tell you that God was once a man like you and me he was human he was the offspring of a God in another planetary system and that through following the the teachings of Mormonism he ascended to godhood and he lives on a planet called Kolob there you go that's pretty specific how do they know this well Joseph Smith used the herb and the Thummim which was an early telescope to view this planet Kolob which they say is located in the constellation cancer sector 218 13 of the Milky Way system so that's where their God lives and astronomers have actually looked in that area and there is no star nor planet where the mormons say that their God lives so I wonder that's indicative of the fact that their God doesn't exist but nonetheless that's not the only area where Mormons have a problem with their religious beliefs squaring up two identifiable science but that's another representation that God's just a man that ascended to be a God and many popular by the way popular mythology is based on the idea of Man ascending to God and then presiding over you know planets as as being subjugated by him the truth no matter is if God exists what is he like there are endless types of ideas concerning God within Buddhism which by the way is a derivative of Hinduism it's equal in many respects except that it believes in the existence of gods plural but no creator in other words there's no central authority there and in fact it's more about the the righteous activity of an individual within the environment in which they live rather than venerating one deity over another and of course there's Baha'i Shinto Taoism Zoroaster ISM Jehovah's Witnesses Unitarians you can just name an almost infinite list of different representations of God and it's important when we describe God to individuals and lead them as it were to a place where they will acknowledge the existence of God that we don't leave them there because the representation of God misrepresentation really of God is everywhere and we need to make sure that they don't just become a theist or a deist but they become a monotheistic of God that's important for them to understand who they believe psalm 115 tells us that the discovery of God is not discovered through the ideas of mankind beginning in verse two why should the Gentiles say so where is their God but our God is in heaven he does whatever he pleases their idols are silver and gold the work of men's hands they have mouths but they do not speak eyes they have but they do not see they have ears but they do not here noses they have but they do not smell they have hands but they do not handle feet they have but they do not walk nor do they mutter through their throat those who make them are like them so is everyone who trusts in them you know the psalmist brings out an incredibly powerful observation here that first of all when we speak of the biblical God we are talking about that which is ultimately indescribable and that he lives out in order for him to be the initiator of the universe he needs to be greater than the universe the one who brings about design he needs to be more complex in the design that he brings into being and so on and so forth and it really shows just how inadequate the ideas of mankind to kind of construct God to begin from a man-made model and then take it out to whatever we can imagine to be the infinite extreme of man and that is the idea of starting with the model of man it is will always be inadequate and therefore will look at what the Bible reveals about God himself first of all we're gonna look at the fact that God is independent in the sense that he is self existent when we speak of God we speak of God as having no cause he does not depend on anything for his continued existence one of the childish objections people will often offer to the idea of an eternal God is who created God if God created the universe who created God well the first tenant of faith concerning God is that he has independent self existent he doesn't have to have a cause God is the first and the last the Alpha and the Omega the beginning in the end as the beginning God has no cause and scripture articulates that I don't have to feel comfortable with that I just need to recognize that is how the Bible refers to God as one who does not need a beginning he is the source of our beginning but he does not need a beginning nor does he need a cause one of the principles that we need to recognize is that when we deal with this issue of God logic and reasoning can only take us so far in fact logic exalts itself against the revelation of God pure logic exalts itself against the very revelation of God and therefore we need to recognize that all we are doing is giving a firmer foundation for us to stand on as we understand what the Bible describes as the characteristics of God so that when we present him we present him as he has revealed himself and it is through the work of the Holy Spirit through the vehicle of Revelation that that knowledge becomes truth in their hearts that's important for us to understand we can't argue their way into this understanding we just need to lead them to a place to where they understand what God says about himself and so the scriptures have ample proof of God not needing a cause being before the beginning and not needing someone or something that brought him into existence I say at chapter 45 beginning in verse 5 we read I am the Lord and there is no other there is no God besides me I will gird you though you have not known me they that may know from the rising of a Sun to its setting that there is none beside me I am the Lord there is no other i form the light and create darkness I make peace and create calamity I the LORD do all these things now what's important for us to see is that there's a declaration where God is saying I'm the one that does everything I don't need thing before me I do it all John chapter 5 beginning in verse 26 as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the son of men Jesus making reference to the fact God is self-existent I don't have a beginning because I don't need a beginning I have life and myself and the father has life in himself that's a principle that God lays down through Scripture as defining the nature of his independence God is transcendent that is he is beyond man God is entirely distinct from the universe as the carpenter is distinct from the bench excluding pantheism God in all and annan ISM everything is God in other words as we begin to go through the biblical definition of God you'll begin to see that he begins to eliminate the other concepts of God which are popular in the world this eliminates the idea that God is in all or everything is God he is separate from the world paul writing to timothy 1 timothy chapter 6 beginning in verse 13 writes i urge you in the sight of god who gives life to all things and before jesus christ who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing which he will manifest in his own time he who is blessed and only potentate king of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality dwelling an unapproachable light whom no man has seen nor can see to whom the honor and everlasting power amen as he is addressing this issue of the exist of God he speaks of the transcendence of God that he is a beyond our capacity to fully comprehend and that's an important attribute and characteristics of God that we appreciate so that when we find ourselves perhaps because of our own misunderstanding saying I just don't understand what God is doing here you can then remind yourself guess what get used to it the very nature of who he is is beyond our ability to fully comprehend if we could comprehend all that was and is God then we would be equal to God here we see this revelation of God as being transcendent as an important aspect of his almighty Ness he doesn't need a beginning he doesn't need a cause and his very characteristics in the extreme are beyond our ability to comprehend thirdly we see that God is imminent though transcendent God is president God is present with and in the world so we have this idea of the fact that he is transcendent he is just too vast to know but he's also personal so it's the infinite personal God that we are dealing with here and by doing that that excludes any religion that has deism as their base Buddhism for example is deistic it acknowledged the existence of God but makes his presence unknowable and therefore the biblical revelation of God is one that is not only infinite but is also personal and that he that he interfaces with his creation to achieve his purposes for his design for purpose designed the universe mankind and specifically you and myself he has designed us for purpose and our quest in life should be to achieve that purpose God is near so he can be known he is not distant he is near so that we might know him Psalm 59 verse 1 behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear I remember living in Southern California and of course Californians if you've been to the States are great for taking their philosophies and putting them on bumper stickers and so as I used to have a job for many years where I had to commute from Orange County up near the Los Angeles Airport and so I spent a lot of time in traffic reading bumper stickers and because what else you're going to do for an hour and a half is you're traveling back and forth up the 405 freeway but any rate I remember one time behind this one car and this bumper sticker just simply said if you feel far from God guess who moved and I thought that's that's really powerful you know and it allowed me to sort of djenne on that for the next 45 minutes of driving but my point is this is this this sense of the presence of God is there and that if we feel a sense where we do not sense God then guess why that is so there must be something that I am NOT hearing if for example someone came into this room and they said have you heard the latest news and they're on their mobile device they were plugged into some news channel and it was giving out some current news and they began to tell me about that news I could doubt not only they're telling of it but the news itself especially if I am NOT tuned into that frequency but if I were to say to them so where are you gaining that information you know if I have a mobile device what's the app or what's the website or radio what's the channel my response to that strange information should not be to immediately discount it it should be to say let me hear it for myself and part of the problem that we have with the apologetics of God and people is that as you begin to open them up to the concept of God the sense that God is not some abstract concept but he is personal and he wants to interface with you you need to be able to tell them and this is how that's achieved it's achieved by seeking him with your whole heart and you will find him you have to be willing to make an effort to be in contact with the infinite personal God and so we have this attribute another one we'll look at is the fact that God is eternal God is perfect in that he transcends all time and temporal limitations and is thus infinite with respect to time Psalm 90 begins by telling us Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God you see we have this sense that as God is one who does not need a cause and that he is transcendent and yet he is personal we need to also recognize that he is eternal eternity is one of those concepts which is illogical given the frame of reference that most people have they consider eternal being someone who has lots of time now if you're a student of chuck Missler you know he's got this cool diagram showing you how God because he exists outside of our the space-time continuum that he is not limited to time and therefore he can see the end from the beginning by virtue of his very nature well that's hard for us to understand as we are living within a clock that has been wound up the very basis of the way in which we understand is based on the the senses which one of them is toward the sense of time moving on so when we think of eternity we think of it as having lots of time but here and when the scripture speaks of God being eternal it's from everlasting to everlasting and so when we consider God we need to understand that he is transcendent he's personal and he's everlasting now that solves so many problems when we begin to try to understand how do we relate to who God is again when we allow scripture to be the basis by which we come to an understanding of God through the revelation of the Holy Spirit don't ever forget that all of this is spiritually discerned we cannot know this with a carnal mind we have to at least go to the source document turn into the channel as it were but then we allow the Holy Spirit to be the one who begins to then reveal to us these various characteristics we also see that God is immutable God is perfect in that he never changes nor can he change with respect to his being at it attributes purposes or promises and that of course excludes the whole idea of Mormon type doctrine where God is learning now that is not a doctrine that is just relegated to the Mormon Church there are some Christian sects that teach the idea of the evolution of God that God is learning throughout the history of man that the god of the Old Testament is different than the god of the New Testament the God of the Old Testament was a grumpy old man the god of the New Testament is a crying old man who saw his son suffer needlessly for these children called the called human human race that rebelled against him and he had to you know have a last ditch effort and think oh you can't leave these humans for anything you know it and I turned my back and off they go and now I need to reconcile them and and and when you read some of these position papers done by people who believe in the evolution of God that God is learning it really is quite comical in the sense that the context of Scripture wipes that out but it seems logical when you first look at it that everything seems to be to be changing over time we certainly learn over time hopefully therefore why wouldn't God learn well again if you understand this foundation upon foundation that he is eternal therefore being eternal he has already set in whatever characteristic is associated with him is that forever and therefore he is immutable Psalm 102 27 tells us but you are the same and your years will have no end you're the same you don't change god I'm glad God doesn't change because the more he gets to know me I'm afraid he'd change his mind concerning me that's why I'm glad that he knew me and knows me at my worst long before I knew him and chose me nonetheless and the more I discover about God I realized that his love toward me is certainly an in spite of kind of love not because of kind of love James chapter 1 verse 17 tells us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning you see that should be a comfort to us that we serve a God who is immutable that's a comfort to us he doesn't change I am changeable you know I have my my good days and then I have my bad days and then I have my worst days and then I have my horrible days and then I have my unspeakable days and I I'm right-hand biased on the hat I'm glad God is not like us I'm glad that I don't start with a concept of man and extrapolate that out to infinity and call that God if so I would have a god that would be as untrustworthy as I am and the very basis of his attribute of e-mobility immutability means that he is trustworthy I can trust that that which he reveals has been is and will always be the same incomprehensible God is incomprehensible not in the sense that the concept of God is unintelligible but in the sense that God cannot be fully and directly known by finite creatures because of his uniqueness and his in fatu how important it is for us understand that so often when you are struggling with understanding the day-to-day relational ship issues that you run into in a personal relationship with an infinite God you'll you'll come into this I don't understand why or what God is doing get used to it it comes with a territory he's infallible in that sense Jobe had that revelation recorded in job chapter 36 verse 26 behold God is great and we do not know him nor can the number of his years be discovered we just don't know him and that lack of understanding everything should not keep from the quest of understanding something and we certainly will never be able to exhaust it when I've spoken with people with regards to the mission of their own life you know what's your purpose it's a great way to both start and kill a conversation but as you as you're as you're talking about so so what are you doing with your life what's your purpose and what do you think about God well I don't think about him very much well do you believe there is a God most people will say yeah I believe there's a god don't know what to think seriously so you're you are willing to acknowledge the greatest source and force in the universe for which you have no interest that seems illogical limbing if you acknowledge in the first instance the existence of God why would that not be the supreme passion of your life to understand first who he is and then why he designed you the way you are to accomplish what the more we are engaged with that and the more it should compel us I mean you have this acknowledgement by Paul in Romans chapter 11 verse 23 oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out you see that is an expression of pure worship not frustration see when we think of that something being incomprehensible we might be tempted to take a look at it like a very complex IKEA instruction manual you know you buy these things and there's all these pieces and then there's this piece of paper that's supposed to tell you how to put it together and of course I like a typical man configure it out myself and so you get into it and you know you're using the wrong length of bolts in the wrong places and the wrong parts and everything else and eventually you get frustrated you go back to the manual now you're already predisposed to distrust what you see because the things not match and logical and so you begin to think oh this piece of paper is what a bunch of junk this thing is and and whatever and of course you're already biased against the document now and it doesn't make sense to you and you find yourself - it's incomprehensible I'd why don't they get somebody who understands English to write this thing perhaps you've been frustrated by that and so you can think that when you are confronted with the incomprehensible that somehow that should cause frustration Paul uses this in a perspective that the in comprehensibility of God should be something that shows that he is an endless treasure trove oh how oh the depth of the riches both of wisdom and the knowledge of God that there's a great blessing as we begin to search out that which is unsearchable we cannot exhaust the sense of what can be and should be discovered concerning God probably the saddest thing has to be when is a parent you give your child something that you're really excited about and they show no interest in it because it might take some effort and you think oh yeah you know here let's do this thing and I know when my boys were growing up I love to make things as a kid back when I was a kid we used to have these things called Lincoln Logs and they were just little pieces of wood with little notches in them and and that's all they were you had two different sizes and you were supposed to make things with them and then as I grew into my teens my younger brother have a brother that six years younger than me he they Legos came along and man there was infinite number of opportunities and things that you could make with these Lego blocks and and so of course as my kids came on the scene you know I was I was buying all these Legos and different types of things to make stuff because I just saw the infinite possibility of things we could just make forever well could you imagine if you you you knew that there was something wonderful to discover and yet the people to whom you gave the gift have no interest in discovering it and a majority of people fall into that category the riches of God are incomprehensible but that Sh is not a statement of frustration that should be a statement that should energize us to say what new discovery can I make today what are you going to reveal to me today Lord not resting on the discoveries of those who have gone before us other than seeing them as trailblazers that have helped us progress further than they have we should be constantly exploring that sense of the of the the great riches of God that can be exported and and and it should it should captivate our life how deep can we go how far can we go recognizing that ultimately it's God who responds to that desire in us to reveal even more and more about himself but we certainly won't get there if there's no appetite for adventure and what greater adventure could there possibly be than to explore and discover more and more about an infinite personal God how could it be any better than that seriously why would I want to spend time doing anything else everything else is a distraction and we do spend a lot of time on things that just distract this we have an infinite treasure trove here which God promises through our scripture to reward the diligent how diligent are you well your diligence is in proportion to your dedication and your dedication will be in proportion to that which really captivates your interest and so the more you study scripture and more you allow the spirit to unlock the the gems that are there the more exciting it is it's not a chore it's a challenge and a pleasure another attribute of God is his sovereignty now this is an aspect which does confuse people and it and it can be very threatening the idea of God being sovereign when we speak of this we're talking about the preeminence of God and the fact that God is in control of everything part of the reason why most people respond in a negative sort of a cautious way to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is because they see the actions of pseudo sovereignty within the realm of man in other words if I was in control I wouldn't let them get away with that I would make sure this happens if I was in control be glad I'm not God because I'm glad you're not God I'm glad God is God and that he is sovereign you see when you make God anything less than sovereign you put something or someone else in control you know it's fate well then fate is bigger than God especially when something happens and you think God how can how can you let this happen God doesn't let anything happen he orchestrates it can you imagine if you were playing an instrument with a Philharmonic and there you were with your instrument playing the music that is before you and from behind you you hear a crash and you think what on earth is that guy doing and you look to the to the one standing conducting the orchestra and you think what are you doing I'm here I know what I'm doing it's right here and I'm following you know the human metronome and I'm playing what I should play in the appropriate time it out comes this crash but you see each piece in the Philharmonic has something to say that makes for the whole expression I remember it was Edith Schaefer the wife of Francis Schaeffer that wrote a book called the tapestry a great big book and it really talked about their life but she drew an example of the fact that for those of you that understand tapestry know that it is a picture of some sort or another that is woven into a background and it normally has different color threads and she makes this comment that when you look at a tapestry it is the dark threads that define the picture and so to you and I when we recognize that in the sovereignty of God and his desire toward you to conform you into the image of Christ he will by design draw dark threads into your life that cause us to cry out to him not so that he can feel some sort of SATA mystic you know satisfaction look at I've made them cry out to me but as the hammer against the piece of metal being shaped it's necessary to produce the instrument that will become the tool in the hand of God Almighty and the more that we understand that his sovereignty is not like the sovereignty of man the more we can rest in that which should logically upset us and so in that sense we lay the whole of our life into the hand of one who is eternal whose transcendent yet personal and he's sovereign he ork straights everything and why not what better hands to have the baton than God Almighty revelation 19:11 begins now I saw heavens open and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like flames of fire and on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nation's and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron and he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his thigh the name written king of kings and Lord of lords you know when we consider that declaration that that John makes as he's pinning for us what we referred to as John chapter 19 we we see something that is a description of an individual who was awesome he is powerful he is almighty but notice what he is in the first instance he is righteous see again part of the problem that we have when we think of the all - of God is we judging by the unrighteousness of man because the people that we know that ultimately have authority over us rarely if ever our righteous toward us and so we struggle with that and sadly because of the poor example of man we give that impression upon God and we fear the sense of sovereignty and therefore we want to be the ones that take control of our own destiny and that's why even within Christianity one of the popular heresies and I'm sorry if that sounds a bit harsh but that's my opinion that is plaguing the church today is the sense that man can control and conduct the affairs of God based on his faith not God but an individual's faith I will dictate to God what I deemed to be best for me therefore they are putting themselves as being in more than control than God is I am sovereign over my own life and I'm going to speak into existence this reality that I desire and because you're the cosmic Santa Clause you need to do what I tell you to do and to me based on the awesome respect that we see which is portrayed through Scripture that's heresy to me I am I am so glad for the for the prayers God has answered in my life but I'm even more glad for the prayers he hasn't I'm thankful for the nose I'm thankful for the shut doors sometimes I think I had to write a book on on the close the the beauty of the closed doors in my life just how glad I am that that which I thought to be right the fact that that didn't come about I'm so glad for that I rest rely wholly and solely on the sovereignty of God because of that because the older I get the less I trust my own judgment the more I want to say not my will but thine be done that's what compelled that wasn't a reluctant submission of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane that was the ultimate sign of respect to the Father who sent the son to fulfill that which was pre-planned before the foundation of the world and we need to see sovereignty as a great foundation stone upon which we can stand when the seas of turmoil are roaring around us God is sovereign and we take that that confession of the three Hebrew children thrown in the fiery furnace you know if we're gonna if we're gonna serve we're going to perish we perish but if we survive we survive nonetheless we're not going to bow down to a foreign god and where did how do they find themselves they found that there was a fourth in there in the fire with them and we need to see that as a sovereignty as something which is to our benefit isaiah 46:9 begins by saying remember the former things of old for I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure you're not going to frustrate God the only person that you're going to frustrate is yourself so you might as well get used to that tick over to the fact that you're the benefit of your future rests in your submission to a sovereign God and the quicker you understand that the more you can enjoy the ride when we were living Marcy and I with the kids we're living in Southern California our parents lived at least an 11 to 14 hour drive up California to where our parents live and I remember we would to go visit them it was quite an effort and we'd get in a car and of course you'd get that question an hour - in are we there yet are we there yet and you could tell behind that question was do you really know where you're going so we got tired of that and eventually what we would do is Marcy and I would leave at night so that they'd sleep in the car and then we didn't have to listen to them constantly worrying and then we could drive through the night so they'd go to sleep as we were leaving the Los Angeles basin and they'd wake up in Northern California so for them as they rested it was a lovely journey and how so in our life we could find ourself just recognizing that God's going to do his good pleasure and our anxiety is not going to change that so since we can't change him why don't we let him change us that's the key just let him change us yeah all right so this is the ride you're taking me on okay Lord I'm gonna rest in your hands wherever this takes me I don't know what this means but isn't that the ultimate sign of faith faith is not you achieving what you think you should have done faith is you relaxing and relying on what God is ultimately going to do because he's sovereign your life and you trusting in it that's what real faith is about and so sovereignty is a is a quality of God that should bring real security into our life of course no description of God the biblical God of course could be made without at least pointing out the fact that the God of the Bible is the one and only God God is a in is in a perfectly unique and simple being existing as one infinite being called God called Yahweh in the Old Testament and who reveals himself and the persons of the father son of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and as a result that excludes all forms of polytheism try theism that is the belief in three God the God had being three gods and subordination ISM in which Christ is a lesser god subordinated to the Almighty God which is what they believe within Jehovah's Witnesses that he's of God but he's a lesser God and what you find is throughout scripture God addresses all of the ways in which he can be falsely represented by authenticating his real attributes in Scripture the Shema Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 here o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one study that understand that that we have even expressed here the idea the trying of the unity within the triune God Isaiah chapter 45 tell and bring forth your case yes let them take their counsel together who has declared this from ancient time and who has told it from the time have not I the Lord and there is no other God besides me a just God and a Savior there is none beside me you see what's important for us to recognize is that there is only one God and notice here and he is our Savior he is an infinite personal God who is sovereign and his intention is to save us when I speak with people concerning the gospel and share the gospel with non-believers I sometimes just stop and I say am I missing something here because I'm trying to present to you something that could save your very eternal soul and you see that as a threat I'm mixed up I'm confused why should that be a threat especially when you consider the one whose desire toward you is one who made your salvation possible by sacrificing themselves why tell me explain to me why that is a threat to you this is a God who wants to be your Savior he's not looking for slaves you see that's the problem of all other misrepresentations of God they put God in a position where the subject of mankind is there to be in servitude to God where our God is one who neither sleeps nor slumbers he's a God whose eye searches to and fro the whole world seeking those for whom he can show himself strong he's not out there looking into the mass of humanity to find those who can serve Him in the sense of pagon servitude but rather he is looking for those for whom he can serve as their God we have one and only God monotheism but there are a lot of religions that embrace the concept of monotheism but we're talking about the Yahweh of the Old Testament the Father Son and Holy Spirit of the New Testament in that sense the triune God our God is omnipresent that is God is perfect in that he transcends all space and spatial limitations and is thus infinite with respect to space with his whole being filled filling every part of the universe and being present everywhere he is not someone who's diffused throughout the universe but present at each point in his fullness the universe cannot contain God God is present everywhere Jeremiah chapter 23 reads I am a God near a hen says the Lord and not a god far off can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I shall not seek him says the Lord do I not fill heaven and earth says the Lord Psalm 139 one with which you'll most be familiar where David makes this description of God which is so important for us to see he says where can I go from your spirit or work and I flee from your presence if I ascend into heaven you are there if I make my bed in hell 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 and your right hand shall hold me you know there's a popular misuse of a passage in Scripture which says where two or three are gathered there I am in the midst and they they will often say that scripture in reference to when you're meeting with a group of people it's a small group and you want to say well God's here anyway because where two or three are gathered in the midst there I am and I remember as a kid hearing that all the time in church thinking I need to find another believer so God can be with me because that's what that teaches the truth the matter is when you unpack the the context of that statement you recognize that has to do with if you fight with another brother know that when you're together got Jesus is with you that's the context is that when two and three of you are gathered together just remember there's a third party to every conversation there is no privacy concerning God God's a participant of everything you do every click of your computer on the internet every conversation every thought he knows the thoughts and intents of your heart there is no my space and my place and my time just me God's in the midst of it you don't need to invite him anywhere that was another thing as a kid the concept of inviting God to church because we'd start every meeting with the guy standing up and say Lord we just invite you into our presence and I would think I wonder what would happen if if he didn't say that you see that's a very pagan concept the idea we've got to invite this person this deity into our presence you can't keep him away for in him we live and breathe and have our being before the Athenian philosophers Paul says he's not only omnipresent he's omnipotent which means God is perfect in that he can do all things consistent with the perfection of his being God cannot do the self-contradictory for example the age-old can God make a rock he cannot lift what a ridiculous debate to do but if the philosophers and the Dark Ages you know Kenny how many angels can dance on the head of a pin sort of a thing nor can he do that which is contrary to his perfect nature he cannot change he cannot lie and so on and so forth there's nothing too difficult for God and all things are possible with God he's on Nipton Revelation chapter 19 verse 6 and I heard and there it was a voice of a great multitude the sound of many waters and the sound of the Almighty thundering saying Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigns see that will be a phrase used in our worship before God he's all-powerful and I'm glad for that he's all-powerful he's omniscient he knows everything God is perfect in that he knows all things including events before they happen I'm glad God can't be surprised he's perfect in knowledge and he knows our heart not just our deeds he knows the thoughts and intents of our heart for the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of the soul in the spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart and 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 an account you know here again is an interesting passage that when people normally use Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 they're making reference to the Word of God as in the Bible but in its context the Word of God that is represented here is Jesus Christ he is the one that knows the thoughts and the intents of our heart because the next verse tells us and there is no creature hidden from his sight a personal pronoun not its sight as in the Word of God / the revelation in the Bible it's his sight and all things are naked and open to the eyes of him not it to whom we must give an account we don't give an account to a book in that sense we give an account to a person and so another proof text for the omniscience of he knows the thoughts and the intents so you might be able to convince the person you've just injured that your intent was not to injure them but God actually knows the intent of your heart you know so there'll be no Court of Appeal as you stand before as a Christian the judgment seat of Christ and you try to argue extenuating circumstances you need to appreciate that at the time my mindset was such and such and I can imagine him reaching over and saying okay let's play that one back only we're going to get the voice recorder inside your head you know once once it's being recorded I always find it interesting being in in a in a multimedia kind of environment here when you go out and you begin to to interview people one of the things that you never should do is pre-interview them what I mean by that is you will get all the good answers and it won't be on camera you really want that sense of spontaneity because what they'll do is they'll say something you'll say that's great now say it on camera and they go what did I say there is that sense of what what is their raw in our head God hears it in the raw without edits and you can think of that you can see the thoughts and intents of our heart regardless of how we might fool the whole world he understands that and by the way we'll be judged and that will be an a component that that will play into I believe the the the judgment seat of Christ so we have to be careful because our even our motives are being judged finally he's morally perfect we could just keep going on and on by the interest of time he's morally perfect and I'll give you a quick sense of what I mean by that in that we're going to be looking at a number of attributes and they're listed here together because God's moral nature is perfectly unified with no conflict between his justice and his mercy his wrath and his love and when you begin to get down into his moral perfection all of these reside as a subset of his moral perfect he is just God God's moral perfection requires him to show displeasure against anything which seeks to act contrary to its moral purpose to judge that which rebels against his authority as created in Lord I mean he has to he's just but he's good he's morally excellent and does good he's holy God is morally transcendent utterly separated from all evil and perfectly pure God is perfectly truthful and cannot lie God is loving boy how important that attribute is God's moral character is pure love sacrificial giving for the true benefit of another you see we could probably go on and on there are many more things this is not an exhaustive list by the way this is just a teaser to encourage you to perhaps to go make your own list but all this to simply say if all of this is true the God of the Bible is worth exploring he's worth knowing and he's worth trusting now one might say at this point so how can we discover the God of the Bible I mean you've articulated all of these truths and you're now making reference to even more than that what you've represented you know I've been asked that question well what about the you know the the pygmy and deepest darkest Africa what about that guy you know concerning the knowledge of God well of course the day probably just gets his iPhone and surfs the web but but so information so freely available but let me give you a piece of scripture that I always give back to people who worry and wonder about what about the person who doesn't have a Sunday School class to go to proverbs 8:17 tells us I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will find me see that's God's part our part is simple we just need to show diligence based on the evidence that's available to us to show some diligence some our proverbs chapter 2 tells us my son if you received my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and imply your heart to understanding yes if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding if you seek your ass over and search for her as for hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God that's it show a little effort when we deal with describing God how can we know him it starts with a desire what's your desire does this even is this he's been interesting to you and if it is apply some effort man I watch especially now you can tell a lot by the way people play and I watch kids play today and it concerns me because what I see them doing is spending a huge amount of time investigating stuff that has absolutely no benefit for hours sitting in a sedentary position with the only thing getting any exercise or their eyes and their thumbs and yet they will devote themselves for hours to do what to gain what we're missing something here there's an opportunity to investigate and to explore the most fantastic individual in the universe and to experience the most fantastic thing in the universe if we just apply yourself let's close with a word of Prayer father we thank you that you are an infinite yet personal God who has clearly manifested yourself and your attributes to us through the Bible and through the agency of the Holy Spirit you open up those truths which can only be spiritually discerned and Lord that you reward the diligent we're grateful God that it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we are even drawn to you may we respect you Lord in the manner in which you deserve to be worshiped may we never tire Lord in our quest to understand you more deeply more personally and that we might fulfill in our life that purpose for which you've created us uniquely for this time and in this place for it's in the name of your son Jesus Christ we pray amen you

Channel: Koinonia House

Views: 6,666

Rating: 4.9239545 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute

Id: cJH7PNlLILI

Length: 65min 53sec (3953 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020