Knowing God Series #5
“Our Infinitely Great Incomprehensible God”
Introduction
Today we finish our exploration of the attributes that flow out of the infinite greatness of God.
As I have mentioned before, all I believe that all God’s standard attributes could be deduced from just three of them.
God is infinitely Great
God is infinitely Pure or Righteous
God is infinitely Good
I. The nature of God
II. The Attributes of God
A. God is infinitely great in His ability / capacity
1. God is SELF-EXISTENT
2. God is ETERNAL
3. God is SELF-SUFFICIENT
4. God is IMMUTABLE (unchanging)
5. God is OMNIPRESENT (Available)
6. God is OMNISCIENT (Aware)
7. God is OMNIPOTENT (Able)
It is clear that ultimately a finite mind will never fully comprehend an infinite God.
8. God is INCOMPREHENSIBLE
The Bible clearly declares the fact the God transcends all other beings.
How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. Psalm 92:5
God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend. Job 37:5
I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:1-7
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him;
And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
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. Isaiah 55:6-9
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. Isaiah 40:28
In a culture that seeks to understand and figure out their world, we need to restore the once clear fact that God is beyond any of us. We can never, with our finite understanding and capabilities, hope to understand an infinite God. This applies to every aspect of His nature and attributes.
Someone wrote a book years ago entitled “Your God is Too Small”. Never let your mind shrink God into some manageable being. God explicitly forbid the Israelites to fashion any sort of image to represent God like the pagans. They continually tried to reflect the nature of the demonic entities they worshipped by fashioning some sort of understandable image. We should exercise caution when we try to imagine God or visualize God through physical or mental images. Our God exists far beyond our comprehension. Fortunately He left us with a glimpse of His nature and demonstration of His attributes in His word, His works and ultimately in His Son.
GOD IS GREAT
Many of us grew up with the little prayer.
God is great God is good let us thank Him for our food Amen.
“Great” is a word we used to compare one object to another. It is a measuring word like big, small, wide, long, vast, awesome. We must use words in spite of the fact that God is measureless, infinite and beyond words. It is the only way to describe him to any degree.
These attributes measure how old – eternal, self existent
These attributes measure how big – omnipresent
These attributes measure how smart – omniscient
These attributes measure how strong – omnipotent, self-sufficient
The word used over and over in the Bible for this aspect of God’s character is GREAT! Majestic, Great, High and lifted up. Majesty and majestic also communicate the idea of greatness. Too often we are more impressed with famous people than our infamous infinite God. We think little of God who is great and much of men who are little.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain. Psalm 48:1
There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God. Psalm 86:8-10
The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! The LORD is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He. The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool; Holy is He. Psalm 99:1-5
I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, Nehemiah 1:5
"You shall not dread them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. Deuteronomy 7:21
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth. Psalm 57:9-11
I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. Psalm 77:11-15
Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, Psalm 104:1
Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart, in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the LORD; they are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonders to be remembered Psalm 111:1-6
GOD IS MAJESTIC
"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? Exodus 15:11
O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! Psalm 8:1
And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. Mic 5:4
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 2 Peter 1:16-18
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25
He is the Great Creator
Stars, Galaxies
Twinkle, twinkle little star how I wonder what you are. Well what we see in the sky is not so little. Three things stand out when gazing out into space at the stars. First their colossal size, second their vast distance and third their massive number. If we are impressed by the size, distance and number of stars, we should be even more impressed with the One who created them.
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. Genesis 1:14-16
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?
He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Psalm 147:4
Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. Isaiah 40:26
I can’t help but think that the God of light sprinkled physical illustrations of His glorious light all through the universe.
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 1 Corinthians 15:39-41
Such amazing truth calls for enthusiastic praise.
We see God’s greatness and glory in the earthly body as well. God called Job to contemplate the wonders of God’s power in creation. Not only in the creation but especially in the only creature imbedded with God’s image.
Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1-9
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
This is the same flesh Jesus agreed to embrace in order to identify with us and save us. This same infinitely great Jesus who created all we have seen today took on frail humanity.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17
It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Colossians 1:19-20
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4
In order to reconcile the rebellious creature so wonderfully created in God’s image, Jesus the Lamb of God entered our broken world to better reveal the invisible God to us and redeem and reconcile immoral mankind to Himself. Through Communion we declare His majesty and offer ourselves to His service.
We serve an infinitely great God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
He is great in His self-existence.
He is great in His self-sufficiency
He is infinitely great in His presence
He is infinitely great in His knowledge and wisdom.
He is infinitely great in His power and ability.
He is so great there is no reason for Him to change.
He has always been great to this point and will always be great.
He is so great that we are not able to comprehend it all.
The time-tested Hymn “How Great Thou Art” wonderfully expresses the greatness of our God.
The awe of the stars, the wonder of creation, the beauty of the cross and the glory of the second return all inspire us to proclaim, “My God How Great Thou Art”.
The twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." Revelation 4:10-11
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Revelation 5:12-13
