Core Training | Theology 101 - The Doctrine of God Pt. 2

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. All right, so I want to welcome

everybody for being here physically with me.

For those who are listening online, always appreciate folks

who are tuning into the podcast. I do hope that you'll listen to

some of the other episodes that we've recorded in our various

podcasts. We're trying to organize those

in a way that'd be a little easier to reference sometimes

when you go online. We're working on some of that as

well, but I encourage you to to check out The Walking and Prayer

podcast as well as what we're doing here in core training on

Wednesday nights. Last time we discussed the

existence of God and even I realized I was talking over my

head at times. And so I appreciate, I

appreciate anybody who came back to hear this again.

But so you work through that this session.

I'm going to assume that we believe he exists.

Is that OK? All right, so we believe God

exists, but I want to talk about something that's really

important for us. Some of this will be more

familiar than some of the things I said last time, but also

there'll be some things that you're maybe not have heard as

well tonight as we talk about some of the attributes of God.

But one of the things we recognize is that God has

already done some incredible things and we and we should

thank him for that. He's going to continue to do

incredible things and we want to thank him for that.

But we also at times, and this is something I don't know why

it's a little more difficult sometimes for some people, We

also want to praise him for who he is.

And tonight I want to talk about who God is really and some of

the some of the really interesting characteristics and

attributes of God, because God has to reveal himself to us

about him so that we'll know him and he reveals to us about

himself and who he is. He also, and what he's when he

reveals to us, also reveals what we can expect from him.

And so these attributes also help us to understand this is

what God's going to do. This is how God's going to act.

This is what God's nature is. And so these are really

important to understand, but also they challenge us because

they'll also help us to understand what he expects from

us. So not only what can we expect

from God, but what does God expect from us?

And, and so this is a whole lot more than just descriptions.

And so these attributes or characteristics or qualities

that express the nature of something or someone, if an

entity doesn't have attributes, it would be very difficult to

conceptualize who and what they are.

So these are descriptors about God.

Some of them will be more familiar to you than others, and

some of you may have never thought of it that way before.

That's pretty typical when I, I, I talk through some of these

things. So let's talk about some of the

attributes of God, these characteristics who constitute

who God really is. So these are not acts.

These are not things that God does.

These are not acts that he commits.

These are characteristics about his nature.

And this is going to be very important as we continue to work

through this because next week I thought I would do something

light and fluffy, warm and fuzzy.

Next week, I'm going to explain the Trinity to you in about an

hour and a half. So next week we're going to dive

back into some pretty interesting things, but we need

to understand some of these characteristics and attributes

of God to help us understand the Trinity as well.

So, so each, each session, each episode here builds and helps

the other. So recognize that.

So come back next week. So I can just explain to you

very simply what the Trinity is. So, but, but the, what we're

talking about tonight are, are in, in, in errant permanent

dimensions of his very nature. And these become really

important. They're inseparable from his

being you. You can't have God without what

we're talking about. This is what God is and who God

is. And so he's not God without

these. And these are qualities for the

entire Godhead. So you can talk about God the

Son, God the Father or God the Spirit and they're going to

share these issues for the most part.

There are a couple of exceptions and you'll see what I mean in a

minute when it comes to God the Son in the Incarnate state.

But what we see here is that we're going to be, we're going

to begin this as we talk about, because if we, we might try to

shape God, we've got to be careful because this builds on

last time, this world, our culture, many of us even perhaps

want to try to shape God into what we think God is supposed to

be. That happens in our world all

the time. Well, that's not my God, you

know, and, and it's like, I get to decide who my God is.

I get to decide somehow that's, that's who God is.

And that's who God's not without some kind of objective standard

for that. And So what we're going to be

looking at are objective standards.

So I, I don't get to shape God into the being I want him to be.

We have to go to the word of God and allow it to shape who God

really is for us and our understanding.

And so to be honest with you, that alone is a reason to defend

the inerrancy and infallibility of God's word.

We, we need this word in order to even understand who God is.

And so one of the reasons we've backtracked a little bit to go

all the way back to the doctrine of God is because I, I really

did recognize. Hey, some great questions from

some of you before and after some of these sessions and on

Sundays. But then I also was thinking

ahead to some personal evangelism conversations I want

to have. And in our world today, if we

don't understand this, we're going to have a hard time to

have a good beginning point. We need to be able to help

people understand not only that there is a God, but this is the

God we mean. This is what what the Bible

means by God. Because you can say God so loved

the world and they might say which God.

And so we need to be able to categorize God in a biblical

way. So it's difficult to categorize

God absolutely. Categorizing God is not a really

an easy task for us. And it will always be impossible

to fully categorize God. You can't box him up neatly and

say here's God and this is all there is to God and this is

completely God and God completely.

It's going to be impossible to do that because God transcends

much of what we know about Him. We don't know everything about

God, believe it or not. And so there are certain ways to

try to classify many of these characteristics of God.

So we're going to hit 2 primary categories tonight, and you may

or may not know these two words. One is the communicable

attributes, and those should be written on your handouts.

But these are qualities of God that He shares or communicates

with us, and you're going to find some kind of counterpart to

that in creation. In other words, man can share in

some of these same qualities, right?

So there are certain qualities of God that we as believers

should have as part of our life and our desire to be like Jesus.

And we'll talk about some of those.

But then they're also the incommunicable attributes of

God. And these are unique qualities

that only God possesses, and he does not communicate or share

these with us. There is no counterpart for this

found in the creation itself. Only God possesses these things.

This is part of what makes God, God.

And so we're going to look at these two categories primarily

and then a few other details along the way as well.

So let's begin with the incommunicable.

How is God different than us? Very important lesson.

I've said this to you before that I'm teaching a doctoral

seminar next week at Southeastern.

And one of the things I always try to teach students at

seminary is I want you to understand who God is.

I want you to understand who you are, and I want you to

understand the difference between the two.

And so how is God different from us?

Let's look at just a few. These are not exhaustive lists.

I'm sure we could come up with any with even more.

But first of all, let's look at some of these incommunicable

attributes. So Isaiah 55 helps us.

He says, Isaiah says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways

higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So I can't completely do everything God does.

I can't think exactly the same way God thinks.

There are attributes of God that transcend me and you.

They're greater than us. And now, just to be honest with

you, that's one of the struggles of our culture because our

culture doesn't necessarily want to God bigger than themselves.

They want a God that they can manage.

They want a God that they can cancel.

They want a God that they can box.

They want a God that they can conform.

They want a God that that meets their their needs and, and and

fits their bill. They don't necessarily want a

God that transcends them and is greater and is uncontrollable.

That's too scary sometimes. Because that might actually mean

that he's sovereign, that it might actually mean I'm

accountable. That might actually mean I sin.

That might actually mean I'm wrong.

And heaven forbid that anybody's wrong today in our world, right?

So there's no perfect way to separate these.

They tend to flow together. But I want us really tonight, if

nothing else, to celebrate God. That's part of what I wanted

tonight to be to celebrate our Lord and to praise Him for these

things. And some of these you could list

and, and some may be those which you've never considered.

So the first one I want us to look at is this idea of, of a

sayity or independence. This word actually comes from

Latin and it simply means from oneself.

Don't make that too hard. Basically a sayity means that he

has two aspects that they can be negative and positive.

In other words, there's absolute independence and there's self

existence. I think I put the quote from WN

Clark on here for you, maybe on your handout, but just listen to

this. In it's negative meaning, which

emerged first in the history of thought, it affirms that God is

uncaused. There is no cause for God.

He's uncaused, depending on no other being for the source of

his existence. In its positive meaning, it

affirms that God is completely self-sufficient, having within

himself the sufficient reason for his own existence.

God depends on nothing other than himself for his existence.

So in other words, God is self existent.

No one brought God into existence.

No one sustains God in his existence.

He is self-sufficient and self existent all by himself.

He doesn't. He didn't need it.

God didn't need a creator. God doesn't need a sustainer

God. God never had a a beginning.

God never had a 'cause he was always there and so no one

brought him here. So God's being in existence come

holy from himself. It's self generated and it

depends upon no external source at all.

He needs nothing and frankly, he needs no one.

And because of that quality of God, it makes salvation even

more amazing to me because God doesn't need us.

God doesn't need us for anything, but God desires us.

And so it's really is a fascinating aspect of Grace that

we've talked about before. And so because he is self

reliant, he doesn't need any other influence.

He's free from any constraint. He's entirely independent as

scripture shows. And as one writer in history

said, he is the uncaused cause of all that exists, right?

And so this independence sets him completely apart from every

other created thing, whether it's human, angelic, any other

creature. He, he is immune.

He is sovereign. Frankly, he simply is.

And when we get to the names of God toward the end, that'll be

reflected in one of those holy names.

He exists and he is. Exodus 314.

God said to Moses, I am who I why I should do that better.

I am who I am. Is that better?

Some of you who are older see Charlton Heston on his face.

Others see cartoons. So I am who I am and he said say

this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you.

And so this very foundational statement reveals God.

He's self defining, he's self-sustaining.

We don't get to be that. And so his identity is not

contingent upon anything else. He simply exists.

The psalmist would write about this in more than one place.

Let me read one. In Psalm 90, verse two, he says

before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had

formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting,

you are God, right? So here the eternal nature of

God is celebrated. He has always existed, even

before any idea of creation took place.

Or at the very end of the book in Revelation 4.

Worthy are you our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and

power. For you created all things, and

by your will they existed and were created.

Or you can go to the middle of the book and Daniel, all the

inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he

does according to his will, and he can do whatever he wants

among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the

earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have

you done? So there's no questioning God,

there's no challenging God, there's there's no stopping God.

Paul wrote in Romans 9 for he says to Moses, I will have mercy

on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have

compassion. So then it depends not on human

will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

Or again, the psalmist said very simply in Psalm 115, our God is

in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

It's a great verse, Psalm 115, verse three, He does all that he

would pleases. He can do anything he wants

because he's God. So he has this idea of

independence. He is independent, but we are

not. No matter what we think, no

matter what we wish, no matter what this world tries to carve

out for us culturally to think we're independent or we can be

independent, we are not. We are absolutely dependent upon

God. You couldn't have a breath, you

couldn't have a heartbeat, you couldn't have life without God.

And so we are dependent upon the One, we are dependent upon the

one who is not dependent, He's independent.

And so we see that idea. Secondly, you see the idea of

affinity. And we got to break this out a

little bit. There'll be some familiar terms

of subcategories here for you. But the idea of Infinity God is

infinite. He is not only absolutely

independent, He's infinite. He's not only self-sustaining,

He has no 'cause he has no creator, but He also exists this

forever. He is free from limitation, He

is unbound, He is unlimited. And some say would even argue

that this really isn't just just an attribute or characteristic

of God, but this is the way God possesses all the attributes.

It's because he's infinite that he can be everything else that

he is, but he is holy, He is true, He is just, He is good,

He's powerful and He's knowledgeable, but he's all

those things to an unlimited degree.

There is no limit to what God can do or not.

And so one of the things that we read is Job.

We'll see Job more than once in this session.

Job 11 Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you found out find out the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven. What can you do deeper than

Sheol? What can you know it measure it

measures is longer than the earth and broader than the sea

or job chapter 5 he says who does great things and

Job 5 · chapter mention

unsearchable marvelous things without number.

There's no limit to this. He's infinite.

He goes on forever. Psalm 147 Great is our Lord and

abundant in power. His understanding is beyond

measure or Psalm 145, verse 3 and we've written songs about

Psalms 145:3

this and we'll sing this. Great is the Lord and greatly to

be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

He's unmeasurable. He's unsearchable, He's

unlimited. God does not possess his

attributes in some limited way. He is infinite and it's hard for

our brain to even understand. So a couple of sub points to

help us to break this down a little bit about God.

And these are some words that you might think of and you might

know. So one of them is omnipresence.

Another word for that is immensity.

The different theologians use different words.

He's omnipresent and, and this is you got to what you see this,

this is God's Infinity in relationship to space.

So we're going to see his Infinity in relationship to

several different things. And one of the things this is

his relationship to space. God is everywhere

simultaneously. I mean, that's hard to think

through too, isn't it? It's hard to understand and it's

hard to to measure. We can't do that, obviously.

So, so God's God is present in the totality of his being at

every single point in space. There is no space where God is

not. In fact, let me tell you a pet

peeve. This is a little pet little

soapbox. You ready?

Let me here, here, let me. OK, so a little little soapbox

of mine. Sometimes in contemporary music

that we sing or even in old hymns.

So don't get mad at the style. Stop it.

It's not a style thing because that's some, some old hymns are

guilty of this. Some new songs are guilty of

this tour. We invite God to come into our

presence. We invite God to join us in this

place. My friends, let me tell you a

secret. He was there before you ever

showed up. You don't need to invite God

into your room. You don't need to invite God

into your worship service. You don't need to invite God

into your church. He's here.

He's been here. He's here before we came.

He'll be here after we're gone. You need to invite yourself into

His presence because He's already there.

And so don't do that. Stop praying that way.

Stop singing that way. Stop it so there isn't one part

of him in one place and another part of him in a different place

either. He's not divided up and spread

out real thinly. That's not how this works.

He's all in everywhere simultaneously.

It's hard to. It's beyond us.

He transcends space. Why?

Because you got to think about this.

Space is part of the creation. See, space is all part of the

creation. And, and he's above creation.

He, he's above us and he's above all the created order.

So he just transcends all this. He, you know, and some of our

language today, we would say he's from a different dimension

or something like that. But there's, and there's some

truth to that. Jeremiah says this, I am IA God

at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away can a man

hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares

the Lord. Do I not feel heaven and earth,

declares the Lord or the psalmist in Psalm 139 says this,

And you might know this passage. Where shall I go from your

spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed and show, you're there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell on the

innermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light

about me be night, Even in the darkness, is not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with

you. There's nowhere you can hide,

nowhere you can run, know where you can escape.

So you might as well just give up.

Surrender to Him, give him your life, ask Him to save you.

Start serving him now. Get in the next.

Discover England. I'm kid.

That'd be good. We'd love to have you.

So we see that part of Him, His omnipresence, a second one, is

eternal. We've got to talk more about his

eternity because this is God's Infinity in relationship to

time. So we also got to talk about, we

don't want to talk about space, we want to talk about time.

So his eternal, his eternalness is the is his relationship, his

Infinity in relationship to time.

It's eternal. He exists endlessly outside of

time. The time is also a part of the

creation. You've heard me talk about this

a little bit before, which also explains predestination,

election, and foreknowledge. Because time is a part of the

creation, he transcends all of that.

He's not trapped in the timeline like we are.

So all of the time is immediately before him.

All of time is immediately before him, yet he lives in no

time at all. How's that one?

He doesn't exist in time. He exists beyond time, and yet

all of time lays before him. He's everlasting.

So in Revelation chapter 1 where he says I am the Alpha and the

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

what? The what?

Yeah, he's the alpha and the Omega says the Lord who is and

who was and who is to come the Almighty.

See, that represents it all. That represents the whole

alphabet. It represents everything.

He's an eternal being, and He occupies both the beginning and

he occupies the end all at the same time.

Isaiah once again wrote this. For thus says the one who is

high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I

dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is

of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the

lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite or the psalmist in

Psalm 45 verse 6, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

Psalms 45:6

The scepter of your Kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.

Where again Paul writes, we've looked at Romans one a lot in

these episodes. For his invisible attributes,

namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly

perceived ever since the creation of the world and the

things that have been made so they are without excuse.

Or First Timothy, chapter 1 To the king of the ages, immortal,

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

invisible, the only God be, honor and glory, forever and

ever, Amen. So He always is, He always will

be, He always was. And so this eternal factor is a

part of this. So we see his omnipresence, his

relationship, the relationship of, of affinity to space,

eternality, his, his relation, His Infinity in relationship to

time. But we also see in other words,

you might know His omnipotence, He's omnipotence, omnipotence.

And this is God's Infinity in relation to power.

See He's infinite in all of these categories and, and

categories that we can't even think of.

He would be infinite in them as well.

God Almighty, you notice we call Him that.

And I don't know if you ever think about that word.

Almighty, God Almighty, not some mighty, not partly at mighty,

not a little bit mighty, not sometimes mighty, but all, all

mighty every time. Mighty never, not mighty, always

mighty. Let's see, he's always that he

can't not be that see part of what you got to understand about

these attributes. He can't not be these things.

See he can't he can't rid himself of these things because

he would then not be God. Job again and Job 42 two says I

know that you can do all things that no purpose of yours can be

thwarted or the psalmist in Psalm 62 verse 11.

Psalms 62:11

Once God has spoken twice. Have I heard this that power

belongs to God or Ephesians chapter one for above all rule

and authority and power and dominion and above every name

that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

No one can out power Him, no one is stronger than Him.

So omnipotence tells us how much and which powers God has and His

sovereignty. The idea of His sovereignty

would clarify for us how He uses that power.

So He's omnipotent and He's sovereign.

So not only does He have all the power, but He knows how to use

it. So part of the issue, and I want

to be, I want to be careful. I say this 'cause I don't want

this to sound boorish or rude or brash, but if I'm sharing with

somebody and they don't believe in God or they deny God's level

of who he really is, I, I, I, I, I try to share with them the

truth, obviously, but then I also have to recognize that even

if they don't believe it, it's still true.

And so even though the world might deny God this power, it

doesn't mean God doesn't have this power.

And, and it makes me worry about them.

It, it makes me fear for them because I I've read the book and

I know that that power will also bring judgment and wrath someday

against those who deny it. We also see his immutability.

You may not know that word as well.

Maybe. Oh, wait, no, let me do

omniscience. I'm so sorry.

I was skipping ahead. I was so excited about

immutability. Let's do omniscience because

this is God's Infinity in relation to knowledge.

Not only is he everywhere all at once, not only not only does he

transcend time, not only does he have all power, but he also

knows everything. It's a little scary sometimes

when I think about what God knows.

Again Job says in Job 21, will any teach God knowledge, seeing

that he judges those who are on high or the writer of Hebrews

Who is that? It's an ongoing conversation

with some of us who wrote Hebrews, Hebrews 413 and no

creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and

exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

There's your verse Jeremiah wrote before I formed you.

You know this first before I formed you in the womb.

What I knew you. If we don't believe in sanctity

of life, we don't understand God will.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

And before you were born, I consecrated you.

I appointed you a prophet to the nation's.

He knows our lives, good, bad and ugly.

He knows our lives. He knows our thoughts.

He knows everything about us. He knows us better than we know

ourselves. He knows all things.

He knows what's going to happen now and now and next and

tomorrow and next week. And in that we ought to not only

think about how we should live, but we also ought to have hope

in that, that God already knows, and he's got a completely under

control. He's in full authority.

He knows and he already know. He knows what next year's going

to hold. Nothing surprises him.

That's just nothing catches him off guard.

And if we trust in him, we trust the one with all knowledge, all

power and present everywhere. What a comfort.

So we see as Infinity important. He's he's, he's everywhere, He's

all things. And then we get to immutability.

Just because I like saying the word, he's immutable and and

that's a word you may know or you may not.

It just means he's unchanging, He's unchangeable.

This is really significant. God is always the same.

This is eternal constancy. He's consistent.

There is no reason for God to change.

This is one of the reasons why he doesn't change.

There's no reason for God to change.

He's already perfect. There's no reason for God to

change. And he, he knows all things in

his omniscience, therefore nothing would cause change.

So he there's no reason to change.

Nothing's going to force him to change.

He has all power in his omnipotence.

Nothing could make him change. So he's perfect as is, and he

should be trusted, he should be believed in, he should be clung

to. Can you say that North Carolina

clung to? Is that right from Oklahoma?

Listen to Malachi 36 For I the Lord, do not change.

Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

Or James One says every good gift and every perfect gift is

from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom

there is no variation. And I like this next little

part. Or even a shadow due to change,

not even a hint of change, not even not even a smidgen of

transition. He's perfectly the same.

Again, the author of Hebrews, Paul.

Paul wrote Hebrews, Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ, you know this one

is the same when and and all the time.

See, we see this constancy. He is dependable.

I can count on him. He's reliable, always there,

always ready, always listening, always watching, but there

because he is. He just is.

Now let's move for a moment and talk about some communicable

attributes of God. In other words, these are things

that are, are, or should be imitated in our lives.

There are certain things that that God, characteristics of God

that are shareable, that are things that we ourselves can

imitate, that we ourselves can incorporate into our Christian

life as a disciple, right? So these are qualities of God

that he shares or communicates, that's communicable, He

communicates with us and for which at least a partial

counterpart can be found in US and in the creation.

So the worst thing, you might not think of this one, you might

think of some others, but this one is spirituality.

This might get a little different for you.

What's God made of? What is God made out of?

Is he pure energy? Is he pure thought?

Is he flesh and blood? So of course we know what John

424 says. God is spirit, and those who

worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, right?

So we need to be careful that we don't think of God as having

size, don't think of God as having dimension.

He, he's not limited by physicalities that way.

It's very creative thought process.

We're as created beings. We have, we have very little

perspective to think of these kinds of things.

We, we have nothing to compare that to.

So it's hard for us to not think about whether God's a big

grandpa sitting on a throne someplace.

You know, he's Santa Claus without the, without the red

suit. You know what I'm saying?

Who is God the Father, right? What is God the Father?

So he's not like anything else. God's being his essential mode

of existence. Who he is is different than

everything else that he created. So our spirit is not exactly

like his spirit. So we're different.

So, so creation can reflect his character, but he's not

creation. And so we said we would

recognize that our spirits created.

His was never created. So it's not the same spirit.

So when I say we can share this quality, it doesn't mean we

share it exactly, but we also recognize that we have a spirit.

So we might say that God is pure being.

Now, again, that may sound weird to us.

We don't think like that. But again, you got to go to the

names we're going to talk about later.

Think of the name Yahweh. Think of I am who I am.

He's just pure being. That's who he is.

All right, Wayne Grudem, who wrote a a significant systematic

theology that's used in many seminaries, wrote this.

God's spirituality means that God exists as a being that is

not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable

to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent

than any other kind of existence.

And why? Because that's the perfect way

to be, and he's perfect. So spirituality is a

communicable attribute because God has given us spirits by

which we can worship Him and we can be united.

Our spirit can be united with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit,

right? First Corinthians says this, but

he who is joined to the Lord becomes 1 spirit with him.

So we are spiritually joined. We use that word like that and

it sounds easier for us to grasp for some perhaps, but the Holy

Spirit joins with us at the moment of salvation and and

bears witness to us that we have been adopted as children of God

as part of God's family. Romans 8 says this.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are

children of God and so we we pass in spirit also immediately.

This is significant for some of you and someone who might be

listening for even prayer requests today.

When we die, we we pass in spirit immediately into the

Lord's presence, right? There's no soul sleep.

I don't have to go somewhere else for a while.

Who I am, the essence of my existence in reality, the true

me. It's immediately with God,

consciously aware of where I am and who I'm with.

Ecclesiastes 12/7, which is often quoted at funerals or

graveside services in a different way and a paraphrased

way, says this. And the dust returns to the

earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

So our bodies wait for a while. Eventually we'll receive a new

body for eternity. Chancey was actually asking me

on Sunday. We were talking about the dry

bones in Ezekiel and I was kind of leading him on the chase a

little bit. But you know the dry bones story

in Ezekiel, You all know that story where the dry bones come

to life. You're about four

interpretations of that passage. 1 is that is actually fulfilled

in history, that that's actually just a, a prophetic utter

foretelling of, of the Jewish restoration after the Babylonian

exile. That's what some scholars would

say. Others would say that it's that

it's the resurrection that takes place at the end of time of

Jewish people in the Book of Revelation.

Others would say that it's, it's all Christians at the second

coming. The, the, the, the, the dead in

Christ shall rise first image. And then some say it's a

combination of those things. So you have 4 different versions

there. But all I know is at the end of

time. Here's what here's what we can

also say for certain at the end of time, those of us who have

trusted in Jesus are going to get a new body and and it's

going to last US forever. And I'm not going to have

crooked pinkies anymore. May not have them at all.

You know, do I have pinkies in heaven?

Another one that we receive is wisdom.

Some of us, some of you, I'm working on that one.

I should learn to say smarter things.

But wisdom again, Grudem says God's wisdom means that God

always chooses the best goals and the best means to those

goals. So, so this is beyond we don't

and we got to be careful. And I hope you know this wisdom

and knowledge are not the same thing, right?

You with me, Wisdom and knowledge are not the same

thing. I know a lot of unwise smart

people, right? So wisdom is beyond knowing

everything that's not not the other.

Now, certainly wise people are smart, I hope, but wisdom is the

is the ability to use that knowledge in the right ways.

And so remember, God is omniscient.

So God always knows, period. But God always knows what to

perfectly do with what he perfectly knows.

Did that make sense? He perfectly knows what to do

with what he perfectly knows, and that's everything.

So he has perfect wisdom. Ji Packer wrote this in his book

Knowing God. He says our intelligence and

cleverness must be harnessed to a right end.

Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the

best and the highest goal, together with the surest means

of attaining it. And then another theologian

named Berkoff defines wisdom this way.

He says that perfection of God whereby he applies his knowledge

to the attainment of his ends in a way that glorifies him the

most. So how can I bring God the

greatest glory? How can I use what I know to

fulfill his mission, to bring him great glory to redeem the

nation's, to make disciples? That's wisdom.

He always knows how to produce the best result.

It's interesting on Sunday morning when I preach about

prayer, I'm going to talk about that.

I'm going to talk about our dependency upon God, about

believing in anticipation that God hears and answers our

prayers. And, and it's, and it's this

idea that I've got to believe this.

I've got to believe these attributes of God.

You know all things, you see all things.

You already know all things. You can do all things.

Therefore I pray to you because you're higher than me.

I believe you can do something with this.

You can do something I can't do. And so I'm asking you to do

that, Job wrote Job 12. With with God our wisdom and

might. He has counsel and

understanding. Romans 11 says this.

O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how

unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

And one of the great blessings about is this.

We can ask for this wisdom. This is like a, I'd say, a daily

prayer of mine. It might be an hourly prayer of

mine because I need it so much. And that's James 15.

James 1/5 is a very familiar verse in my life because I so

desperately need it. And so sometimes I don't so

desperately don't believe I possess it.

But it says, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who

gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given

him again. Paul wrote in in Ephesians 5.

He says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as

wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. Man there about four sermons

right there. We should walk in a way that

helps us understand what He wants, especially out there,

especially in this time, especially in the chaos of

culture we often find ourselves in.

And then the psalmist wrote in Psalm 111, verse 10, The fear of

Psalms 111:10

the Lord is the beginning of what right All those who

practice it have good understanding.

His praise endures forever. Why is the fear of the Lord the

beginning of wisdom? Well, one of the reasons is you

always got to remember, and I've said this to you 3462 times, I

count. And so you have to look that up.

That's true. And so I tell you over and over

again that fear is an act of worship.

Fear is an issue of relational authority.

I I pay homage to the things I fear.

I submit to the things I fear, which is why the Bible says I

should only fear God. And so if I fear anything else

more than that, it's idolatry. So my fear of the Lord means

that I am in a relational, authoritative position of

worship to him who I'm recognizing Him, I adore him, I

am, I am awed by him. I, I wonder at him, WOND.

And because of that, I have access to understanding His

wisdom and have that wisdom myself in a greater way.

If we fear dishonouring Him, if we fear displeasing God and His

discipline upon us, then we'll have the motivation to follow

His ways. We'll have the motivation to

live for Him. We'll have a motivation to live

according to His wisdom, thus making me wise.

So the person who's wise according to God's standards is

going to continually walk in that dependence.

They're going to continually walk in obedience.

They're going to have to continually walk in this desire

to exalt him and to worship him. So I we can, we can, we can

access and gain wisdom by engaging in discipleship like

we're talking about on Sundays, but we're never going to fully

share his wisdom. We don't get to be as smart as

God. There's a limit to what we can

gain and our wisdom at times will be frustrated because we

are often distracted by the circumstantial factors around

us. We we get caught up in the

creation and we lose sight sometimes and we get lost around

us, but God won't ever do that. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28 says,

Isaiah 40:28

have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the

earth. He does not faint.

He, he will never grow weary. His understanding is

unsearchable. He doesn't get caught up in the

stuff around us like we do. We chase after this and that and

get distracted by that or frustrated by this.

A second thing we want to see here, or actually this should be

#3 I don't know how it's numbered on your paper.

It's just wrong on my notes, I hope.

But we need to see veracity. And So what this is, is God's

truthfulness means that he's the true God.

This word just means truthful. God is truthful, and that all

His knowledge and words are both true, and they're also the final

statement of truth. So what God says is not only the

truth, it's the final definition and statement of truth.

Don't, don't. You're not going to hear that

out there. Out there.

You're going to hear you get to create your own out there.

You get to decide what's yours and what's yours and what's

yours and what's yours. And yours isn't mine, and mine

isn't yours. And we can all pick and choose.

It's a cafeteria plan out there. When we were younger and our

oldest son was young, we used to go to what was the name of those

cafeterias? Luby's, is that right?

Anybody remember Luby's Cafe? I mean, this is old now.

Only you Gray haired people can answer this question.

Luby's Luby's, right? And you get the Luby plate or

Libby plate or something. But anyway, you go and you know,

it's the old fashioned cafeteria.

You put your plate down and you go down the line and you can,

you can get all you want, but you got to pay for everything

you get. And of course, you know, I'm

going after something with gravy on it.

And our oldest son used to go and he'd get that baked fish,

that big brick of baked fish. And I thought to myself, you

know, there's like an 8 year old kid getting a brick of baked

fish. And I thought to myself, what a

dumb choice. We got fried chicken, you got

chicken fried steaks, you got all kinds of stuff up and you

get that brick of baked haddock or something.

He just loved it, man. I'm looking for the pumpkin pie,

you know what I'm saying? No wonder I have diabetes.

It's all Luby's fault. So God's truthfulness means that

he's true. And his absolute truthfulness,

which is what this is, his absolute reliability, his

absolute faithfulness, that's what this veracity means.

It it assures us that His promises are always true.

His promises will always be fulfilled, and his nature is

devoid of any deception. And our world today, that's

helpful. The God that's revealed in

Scripture is the true God. Everything else is a false God.

He's the only true God, Jeremiah 1010 says, But the Lord is the

true God. He is the living God and the

everlasting king. So, so God's never mistaken, God

never fibs. God never tells a little white

lie, Don't even know what those are.

It's a lie. It's still a lie.

Might be a little white lie, but it's a lie.

And because He does not change, He is immutable.

So these tie together, we can rely on Him.

He's reliable and faithful in His words.

He is the truth. He knows the truth and only

speaks the truth. And so there's a certainty,

there's a dependability. I don't know why anybody would

seek to build their life on anything else.

God will always do what He said. He always fulfill what He

promises. In fact, Numbers 23 says God is

not man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change

his mind. Has he said and will he not do

it? Or has he spoken and will he not

fulfill it? Our second Samuel Chapter 7 says

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

this. And now, O Lord God, you are

God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good

thing to your servant. Or Proverbs 30 verse 5.

Proverbs 30:5

Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take

refuge in Him. So His word is truth itself.

His word is the basis of reality.

It is absolute truth. There is absolute truth in this

world, and His truth sets the standard by which all else ought

to be judged. So the psalmist writes in Psalm

18, This God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true.

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our

God? So we should share in this

quality. We we should share in this one.

We should be truthful people and the knowledge of truth in our

lives ought to lead us to be the people of truth in our lives.

Again, the Proverbs chapter 12 say this lying lips are an

Proverbs 12 · chapter mention

abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his

delight. Remember what Satan is called.

He's the father of what? See, That's his very nature and

we must not act like him. Well, they 4th 1 forth on your

sheet. Thank you.

I don't know what happened to that last one.

That's probably just my notes. The 4th 1 you know, And it's

love. God's love means that God

eternally gives of himself to others.

It's quite remarkable because this really separates him from a

lot of other false religions. Other religions have God figures

or deities, but they often do not love.

Well, a law would never lower himself to die on a cross for

us. He would never do that.

We are beneath Him. Our sin is not worthy of His

presence in that faith system. So love is self giving.

Love is self giving for the benefit of others.

His Holiness and justice are counterbalanced by the fact that

He is also love. Sometimes we overemphasize love

to the point of we forget His Holiness and justice.

But one of the most unique things about God is that he will

not act contrary to his own nature.

So other gods are not loving and they need to be bought off.

That's what happens in most faith systems.

Both faith systems are a works righteousness space to where I

have to somehow work my way up, earn my way, buy off the God so

that I can earn the God's pleasure and hopefully somehow

make it in and some holy scale version of good bad karma,

something that's not true Christianity, that's not the

gospel, it's not grace. So in agape God's love is is a

willful decision. I used this in a counselling

session today. God's agape love is a willful

decision to even love the unlovable and the unlovely.

He chooses to love us, period. And in his sovereignty He does.

And So what we recognize He has chosen to love us.

It's self sacrificing, it's extremely expensive, it's

extremely extravagant. First John 316, not John 316,

but first John 316 says by this we know love that He laid down

his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the

brothers. And of course, you know John

316. So we imitate this attribute by

first loving God and then in return we're able to love others

like Him. I shared a message from Matthew

22 a few weeks ago where we love God and love others this way,

but the only way we can do this is if we focus on him and we

focus on his love for us. So again, John writes in first

John four, he says, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought

to love one another. And then verse 19, we love

because he first loved who us. What a formula.

It's like the Lord's Prayer. We forgive, please forgive us.

How? As we forgive others, we were to

imitate Him. We are to be like Him.

And then fifthly, you see holiness because there it is the

counterbalance, isn't it? There is this other side to

where we recognize that He is separated from sin.

He's devoted to seeking His own honor and glory.

He is absolutely free. He's absolutely immune from

anything wicked, anything evil. In this He is absolutely unique.

He is different from us and His ways are not our ways because we

are what we are, sinners. The Hebrew word for holy one of

them means to be marked off. It means withdrawn from

commonary, common. I'm trying to combine 2 words.

Wow, that was Ozarkian. So it it means to be separated

from common. Ordinary use.

You're not going to use this thing for ordinary stuff.

This is special. This is that thing that you have

up in the China cabinet that you're not sure why you have in

the China cabinet, but it's been there for generations.

And you keep it in the China cabinet and heaven forbid

anybody take it out of the China cabinet and drift break in the

thing because it's belongs in the China cabinet.

And the first time you let the kids bring it out.

In this holiness, we also find absolute purity.

We find absolute goodness. He's untouched, He's unstained,

he's unblemished. Psalm 99 says this.

Let them praise your great and awesome name.

Holy is he? Are we here?

The great chorus of Revelation 4.

One day. One day, my friends, one day, if

you've trusted in him, you're going to hear it.

You can sing along, and it and it, the four living creatures,

each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and

within, and day and night. They never cease to say day and

night. They never stop.

They never shut up. They won't quit because they

know holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is

and is to come or to imitate that His perfection is our

standard for moral character doesn't mean we'll be perfect,

but it also ought to be our motivation for practice.

This is who I want to be. Jerry Bridger in his old book

The Pursuit of Holiness, actually writes this this point.

It says when a soldier goes off into the war, he goes off into

battle. His goal isn't that I got, I

hope I only get shot once today. The goal is that I don't get

shot at all. That's how we ought to treat

sin. I want to go into this.

I'm not going to sin today. I'm not going to send it today.

They said it's going to be a sinless day.

My goal is to not get shot at all.

So when holiness is present like this, we imitate him.

He, he's our standard. Leviticus 11 says, For I am the

Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your

God. You shall therefore be holy, for

I am holy. So when it's present in us,

there's there'll be no hindrance to hearing His will.

There'll be no hindrance to obeying His will.

There'll be no hindrance for God accomplishing His will through

us the closer we are to Him. So holiness in the lives of

God's people is a sign of His presence.

It also reflects God's nature. So actively obeying God is how

we pursue that discipleship. It's how you pursue holiness.

It's a reason why we're trying to teach you what we're trying

to teach you. First, John 2/1 my little

children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may

not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have

an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

So living this righteous life sets apart for, sets us apart

for God's holy purpose, makes us holy and in his perfection and

in His Holiness, we also recognize in that perfection

that He has to punish sin. I was in a conversation with a

young man not long ago when we were talking about this, and we

were talking about the fact of how come God has to punish sin

as a righteous judge. He has no choice.

If he can't not do that and be a righteous judge, He can't simply

ignore someone who breaks the law over and over and over

again. He wouldn't be a good judge

anymore. If that was on earth, you'd want

to impeach the judge. And yet sometimes we condemn the

greatest judge of all because of who he is and who he must be and

who he cannot not be. That's OK.

We recognize as the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12/29 For our

God is a consuming. What if I remember fire?

We often don't think of Him that way, or we don't want to.

Our world doesn't like that. But He'll refine in the balance

of love, this balance of love and holiness, grace and

judgement. He has to balance this out.

He's our shepherd, and He has to protect us and guide us.

He's also a rock upon whom we can always depend.

So we call upon His name. And I want to end with this

little section for a minute to help you.

Because a name meant more in the Bible than it does to many of

us, still does around the world. I've been honored in some

cultures at the birth of a child to be given the honor of naming

the child, which is an incredible honor in some

cultures. And you have to, you have to

think about that and pray about that.

And there has to be great symbolism in the name that you

give to that child. Why did you name them this?

In Western culture, personal names often are a little more

than labels. Often it's a competition to see

who can have the callous new baby name, right.

So they go through these cycles. You know, there for a while,

everybody was Celtic. Now we're now we're doing

grandma names again. I've been noticing that we got

grandma. You know, I have a granddaughter

named Elsie. We have grandma names now, Elsie

and Millie. Often they're little more than

labels to distinguish one person from another.

But in these days, they had much deeper meaning.

So in the Bible, a person's name was a description.

It was a. It was.

It was to describe the character of the person.

It was almost prophetic. The name represented the whole

person. So the change in a person's

character or status would also sometimes mean that they would

change their name. So you saw that Jacob became who

Israel, Abram becomes Abraham. So we see these name changes.

So if the names of humans were important, how much more are the

names of God? So the names of God are various,

and it gets quite complicated to be honest with you.

And I'm going to give you the quick version of this, and then

there could be an entire series of lessons just about the names

of God. So the Bible gives many names to

God, all of which reflects some true aspect of these attributes

they tied together because the names represent the person of

God. So calling upon the name of the

Lord was a means of entering into a personal walk with Him.

It was more than just a title. It was a relationship.

In fact, the phrase the name of God and the name of the Lord and

their variants were used in nearly 100 passages in the Old

Testament, more than 200 in the New Testament.

This is a frequent thing. Exodus 20 verse 7, the great 10

Exodus 20:7

commandments. You shall not take the name of

the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him

guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Or Psalm 8 verse one. O Lord our Lord, how majestic is

your name in all the earth. Remember this, we sing this, You

have set your glory above the heavens.

Or in Matthew 6, in the Lord's Prayer, pray then like this, our

Father in heaven, holy is your name, hallowed is your name.

So we're praying people would speak about God in a way that is

honoring to him and that accurately reflects his

character when we pray that prayer.

All right, So to honor God's name is to honor him.

And the Old Testament used many different names and titles to

refer to God to emphasize certain aspects about him.

So in your Bibles, in most English translation and the

important word there was most, not all.

But in most English translations when you see the generic word

God with a capital G in the Old Testament, normally this is a

rendering of the general Hebrew name for God, Elohim.

Genesis 1 says in the beginning Elohim Barad he created and and

the LEL idea in English represented a strong and

powerful God. But that was not that was not

unique to the Hebrews. El appears in other cultures to

refer to gods, especially in the Semitic world.

But it, it, the root of that word means power.

It could also mean to make an oath or to swear upon something,

right? The Babylonians would use El,

the Phoenicians would use El Aramaic and Hebrew.

So, but we see El or Elohim, the God of Israel.

And then what you would see is you would see compounds put

together. Some of you know some of these

compounds, some of you have sung some of these compounds

throughout the Bible where you would have El Shaddai or which

means the the God Almighty or El Elroy, the God who sees me or El

Bethel where Jacob built his altar or or El Hai, the living

God and on and on. And there are many what we would

call the El variance. Are you following me with you?

The word, these compounds together that you might hear.

Now when the word Lord appears, all capitals normally most of

the time in the Old Testament, if it's not God but it's capital

Lord, it usually is a replacement for Yahweh.

Now this is complicated because Yahweh is also known.

Here's your here's your big word for the night.

It's also known as the Tetragrammaton, which just means

4 letters. Now I don't know why they don't

just say 4 letters. It takes up less space.

It's easier to say than Tetragrammaton, but you got to

understand in the original old Hebrew there were no vowel

signs. So what you have are just those

4 consonants. I'll get it.

In English it would be YHWH right?

And so the Yahweh is a form of the the Hebrew word haya or

hawa, which means to be I am that I am.

But I'll be honest with you, no one knew exactly how it was

originally pronounced because the vowel symbols are not there.

And so age-old Hebrew didn't do that.

And so because the name became too holy to even write with

vowels within Hebrew tradition, there was no way to 100% know

which vowels were correct. And so as the vowel sounds were

spoken orally, they were never recorded manually.

And but around the 3rd century, the Jewish people stopped saying

the name altogether because it was too holy to say Yahweh out

loud. It was so holy they wouldn't

even say it out. They not only wouldn't write it

in it's completion, they wouldn't say it out loud.

And so it became even more complicated and they were afraid

they would violate Exodus 20. So the earliest version probably

is from Clement of Alexandria, who does a Greek transliteration

now. Just follow me.

So he's taking Hebrew working, working with Greek right, in

Alexandria, Egypt. And what he does is he, he's the

probably the first one who puts the the closest equivalent to

the original together based upon what he had heard, what he had

seen in older documents, right. And so it's interesting how this

gets passed on through the years.

And So what we see finally is it the ideas he is, he exists, he

is present. He will be and continue to be

Yahweh. Then after the Babylonian exile,

there was a group who again, they ceased to pronounce it.

They weren't pronouncing it orally, but out of the great

reverence. But a group actually got

together later in in time and begin to work with this word and

the word Adonai. Stick with me for a minute.

So in your Bibles, if you see the word Lord, but it's not all

caps, just the L is capitalized. It's probably a version of

Adonai, which is a verb or a word that emphasizes the

lordship of God. And Adonai often became a

substitute for Yahweh because it wasn't the same holy name.

You could say Adonai out loud and you could write out Adonai,

but you couldn't say or write Yahweh.

And so finally, and then you'll see combinations like the Lord

God in your Bible in the Old Testament with different

capitalization formulas. And often that's a combination

of Adonai, Yahweh. But then around 50, the 1500s,

led by the Vatican, a group of medieval Jewish scribes were

brought in to put vowel symbols where they were all missing to

the best of their knowledge, to the best of their research.

And so that's where we get our modern day English Latinized

version or English version of Yahweh.

And so, and then what they did, this is also where they put

together the consonants from Yahweh, the vows from Odd and I

and guess what word they came up with Jehovah.

So Jehovah is actually a Latinized version of a

combination of parts of Yahweh and parts of Adonai.

And So what we see is, is then you have all these Jehovah

variants, right? Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who

provides, Jehovah Rothe, the God who heals, Jehovah, Jehovah

Nisi, God my banner, and Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, and on

and on and on. But recognize that that word is

actually a word that was put together out of other words from

the Bible. Now this might result in some

kind of confusion and translation, but I promise you

it was done entirely in an effort to glorify and magnify

God's name. Not to take away anything, but

actually give us a better way to address God, a better way to

understand Him, and a better way to bring him great glory.

So my prayer is, is that as we look at who God is, we look at

His nature, we look at His attributes, some of which we get

to share, some of which we get to mimic.

We get to imitate us as followers of His and then others

that are beyond us, others that transcend us.

But give us hope. Give us something to rely upon.

Give us something to cling to. Give us something to recognize

that we're not alone. And we serve one who's greater.

We serve one who's the greatest and beyond.

So we need to thank Him for that and praise Him for letting us

know Him this well. Father, thank you for revealing

yourself to us. You didn't have to do that.

You don't need us. But in that nature of your

capacity to love so much, so perfectly, You desire us.

And Father, if there's someone here tonight who doesn't know

you, they don't acknowledge you. Or maybe right now, in their

heart of hearts, they recognize something's happening, that

you're speaking to them. They feel drawn to you, Lord.

Tonight. I pray, Father, that they'll

come and talk to me or Pastor Jordan afterwards.

Because maybe tonight's the night they need to meet you.

Maybe tonight's the night you need to save them.

For those of us who already know you, thank you for letting us.

We don't deserve it, but thank you.

Thank you for letting us be in your presence.

Thank you for letting us live. Thank you for letting us serve,

Father. You're so beyond.

And Father, sometimes when we think we're supposed to handle

all of this ourselves and we're supposed to be able to do all by

ourselves and we're supposed to be able to deal with our issues

all by ourselves, Father, for please forgive us.

We're created things and we get caught up in the creation.

So help us, Father, to look to you, our Creator, to recognize

that you stand above perfectly and that we can depend upon you.

Father, I pray this Sunday morning we will cry out to you

in prayer and worship and that you'll hear us.

I pray, Father, you'll bless us tonight as we go our separate

ways. Thank you for those listening

online and pray that you'll bless them and that anyone who

needs to will reach out to us so we might talk more about what it

means to know You. Because, Father, we know that

you know us in Christ's name, Amen.

God bless you all. Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.