“God Is Great”
Text: Deuteronomy 10:17-21
I. Welcome
II. Introduction
Probably one of the first prayers we learned after “Now I lay me down to sleep” was “God is great! God is good! Let us thank Him for our food!” We may have even learned the longer version which included: “By His hand we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread.” From this brief prayer, from our scripture reading and from the hymns we sing, we verbally acknowledge that God is great. But, this morning, I want us to look at a few more passages to better understand and appreciate the greatness of God. This is not a sermon that ends with an application except that I hope you’ll meditate on the greatness of God this week. I trust you will open your Bibles or take notes as we study together because we’re going to read a lot of scripture. Then, please be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 and search the scriptures daily to make sure I’m preaching the truth.
III. Lesson
Our scripture reading this morning extols the greatness of God – something the children of Israel should have realized after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage and 40 years in the wilderness. I want us to begin by looking at two more passages about God’s greatness. The first is found in 2 Samuel 7:18-23 – Then King David went in and sat before the LORD; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord GOD, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You are great, O Lord GOD. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name – and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land – before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?” And, the second is found in Psalm 145:3-13 –
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
All Your works shall praise You, O LORD,
And Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Both of these passages speak of various aspects of God’s greatness but, before we look at a few of these, I want us to go back up to verse 3 of this psalm –
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
This last phrase could be translated: “And His greatness is beyond our understanding” or “past finding out.” This same Hebrew phrase is found in Job 9:10 but we need to read verses 4-12 to better appreciate the impossibility of fully understanding God’s greatness –
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?
He removes the mountains, and they do not know
When He overturns them in His anger;
He shakes the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble;
He commands the sun, and it does not rise;
He seals off the stars;
He alone spreads out the heavens,
And treads on the waves of the sea;
He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
Yes, wonders without number.
If He goes by me, I do not see Him;
If He moves past, I do not perceive Him;
If He takes away, who can hinder Him?
Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’ ”
With this further introduction to God’s greatness, we now have six points – I know I’m only supposed to have three but we’ll squeeze them in. First of all, God is great in power – He is omnipotent. We see this in Creation. In Jeremiah 27:5, the Lord says, “I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me.” Or, the words of the prophet in Jeremiah 32:17 – “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” Only our great God could speak, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Only our all-powerful God could speak matter into existence and create life. While we could cite other examples of His great power such as delivering the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s hand or from Babylonian captivity, I want us to turn to the NT – Ephesians 1:18-21. These verses give us a wonderful example of His great power as Paul expresses his prayer for the church at Ephesus: That you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Not only is God great in power, He is also great in goodness. You’ll recall David’s conclusion in the 23rd psalm – Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But notice the words of Isaiah 63:7 to better understand what this means: I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD
And the praises of the LORD,
According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies,
According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
Each day we enjoy the goodness of God through His blessings that sustain us and the beauty that surrounds us. And, in times of trouble, He continues to bless us as David expresses it in Psalm 31:19 –
Oh, how great is Your goodness,
Which You have laid up for those who fear You,
Which You have prepared for those who trust in You
In the presence of the sons of men!
And, for those of us who sin – and that pretty much includes everyone here today, listen carefully to the words of Romans 2:4 – Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? God is great in power and goodness but He is also great in mercy. We can look at the history of God’s people in the OT and see how merciful God was with His children. David wrote an entire psalm of praise for God’s mercies – Psalm 103. Listen to verses 8-11:
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
Mercy could be defined as compassion or kindness instead of judgment toward an offender, enemy or someone else in one’s power. None of us here today has received what we deserve for our sins. Once again, David sums it up in Psalm 145:8-9 –
The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
As Christians, we can come boldly to God’s throne of grace for mercy and grace in time of need – Hebrews 4:16. But, I want to cite one other passage about mercy for Christians – 1 Peter 1:3 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In addition to God’s great power, goodness and mercy, He is also great in kindness. Turn with me to Joel 2:13 –
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
Christians should be very aware and thankful for God’s kindness. Notice Titus 3:4-6 – But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. After His great kindness, we come to His great faithfulness. Simply, it means that God can be trusted – that He keeps His promises and does what He says He will do. One of the major facets of God’s faithfulness is found in Deuteronomy 7:9 – “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” The prophet understood what this meant when he wrote in Lamentations 3:22-23 – Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Finally we come to the sixth point and that is that God is great in love.
We know that He loves us from John 3:16. But, I want us all to turn to Ephesians 2:4-7 and read this great passage together: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
IV. Conclusion/Invitation
This morning we have quickly looked at the greatness of God as He is great in power, goodness, mercy, kindness, faithfulness and love. We have also focused on the benevolent or positive aspects of God’s greatness. We can be obedient to the good news of Christ and let His blood wash away our sins in the watery grave of baptism – faithfully serve our Lord and Savior – and inherit a home in heaven. Or, we can refuse His grace and mercy only to receive both His judgment and eternal punishment. Maybe you’re at the fork in the road this morning and need to make the decision to put on Christ in baptism. Or, maybe, as an unfaithful Christian, you need to confess your sins this morning. If you will, 1 John 1:9 says that God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Either way, the blood of Jesus takes away the sin. So won’t you come as we stand and sing?
