God Is
Introduction:
The Psalmist wrote in the 19th Psalm, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.” Paul adds in Rom. 1:20, “For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” When we look at the world around us, Paul and the Psalmist, both tell us that we see God. We can gain an understanding of God through nature, but to truly obtain a picture of who God is and what he is like, we must look to the Scriptures.
The attributes of God can be grouped into two types. The first group can be referred to as God’s natural attributes. These are the qualities of God that set him apart and make him superior to all other beings and things in the universe. The second group is God’s moral attributes. These are the qualities of character that determine how God behaves, that determine what kind of personality God possesses. This morning we want to look at the natural attributes of God, that determine his relationship to time, space, power, knowledge and the creation. God possesses all these attributes in absolute perfection. These are the attributes that make him God.
I. God is immutable. His creation changes, he does not.
God is the creator of the universe but unlike the universe he created, God never changes. Everything we see around us changes and deteriorates. ILLUSTRATION: New car . . . Abandoned farm house . . . Grand Canyon . . . our body (remember those old wedding pictures). God does not change. Change is impossible for God because all change is for better or worse and God is absolute perfection. He cannot get better and he will not get worse.
In the 102nd Psalm, David is suffering affliction and he compares the changeableness of his situation with the unchangeableness of God. He says in vss. 25-27, “Of old, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing, You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.
God cannot change because he is God. In Malachi chapter 3, God, through Malachi, declares that judgment is coming and that it will be a time of punishment for the wicked. In Mal. 3:5-6 God says, “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts. “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
God does not change, and the sons of Israel do not perish. Because God is unchangeable in His purposes, and Israel as the people of God is not to perish, therefore will God exterminate the wicked out of Israel by means of judgment, in order to refine it and shape it according to its true calling.
The bible also teaches that Christ who is God, possess this same attribute of unchangeableness. In the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, the writer is encouraging Hebrew Christians who were facing persecution and in danger of falling away. They are exhorted to following the footsteps of the faithful men through whom they became Christians in verse 7, “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” The writer then adds that these Hebrew Christians serve the same Christ of those who led them in the past. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.”
This attribute of God impacts all his other attributes. For God is unchangeable, so are all his attributes. God is as he was and always will be.
II. God is eternal. In relationship to time, God has no beginning and no end.
The idea of God being eternal is contained in the first verse of the bible. In Gen. 1:1, we read, “In the beginning God created . . .” There was a beginning of creation but before the beginning there was God. Even the name of God says that he is eternal. When Moses is before God at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three, God commands Moses to deliver God’s people out of bondage. Moses then begins to offer a number of excuses as to why he cannot go. In Exod. 3:13, Moses says to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God then responds in vs. 14, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God said, “I am!” Not “I was” or “I will be.” God always has been, is and always will be.
This is why the Pharisees were so upset when Jesus said in John 8:58, “ . . . Before Abraham was born, I AM.” By applying that name to himself, Jesus was declaring himself to be God.
Furthermore, not only is God eternal, throughout eternity, he has always been God. The Psalmist in the ninetieth psalm compares the eternal God with the temporary world. In Ps. 90:1-2, we read, “Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.”
III. God is omnipresent. He’s everywhere
God’s omnipresence enables him to be everywhere in the universe and in all its parts at the same time. Not a part, but the whole of God is present in every place. This is possible because God is not flesh and blood, and is not restricted by physical limitations because “God is Spirit.” As Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:24.
The omnipresence of God can be an overwhelming thought. In I Kings. 8, Solomon is dedicating the Temple of God which he built and in his prayer, he said in 8:27, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built.”
The idea that God is present everywhere at all time is both a reassuring and threatening thought to some. The Psalmist in the 139th Psalm saw God’s omnipresence as a comfort in time of trouble. He wrote in Ps. 139:7-10, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.” The Psalmist expresses a similar thought in the 23 Psalm in vs. 4 when he says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The Psalmist saw God’s presence as an immense comfort in time of trouble.
On the other hand, we see in Amos 9:1-6 that the omnipresence of God can be as a real threat . . . In this passage, God is declaring that Israel cannot escape the judgment of God no matter where they go because he is and will be there. As Paul Harvey would say, “You can run but you cannot hide.
Because God is eternal and unchanging, his omnipresence is also eternal and unchanging.
IV. God is omnipotent. His power is unlimited.
There are many things in our world that possess power, motors, jets, rockets, etc. But their power is limited. That is, they can only do so much. In fact we have measurements of power, auto engines are measured in horse power and foot pounds of torque. The power of electricity is measured in watts, kilowatts, megawatts, and gigawatts. The power of rockets is measured in pounds of thrust. In all the universe, only God’s power cannot be measured because God has unlimited power, power that is beyond measure. Only God has the power to create something out of nothing. Only God can create the earth, sun, moon and stars. Only God can resurrect the dead.
When God calls Abram in Gen. 17:1, God introduces him self as “God almighty.” Later in Gen. 18:14, after the angel of the Lord told Abraham and Sarah that they were going to be parents in their old age and Sarah laughed, the angel said, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you at this time nest year, and Sarah will have a son.” Likewise, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and told her that she would become the mother of the Savior of the world, she asked in Luke 1:34, “How can this thing be since I am a virgin?” The angel responded in vs. 37, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Job after he is confronted by God, confesses in Job 42:2, “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
The New Testament closes with an announcement of the victory of God over Satan with this declaration in Rev. 19:6, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
There are some things that God cannot do. He cannot lie (Heb. 6:18). He cannot go against himself. And there are some things he will not do. He will not overrule the free will of his greatest creation, man. But in terms of ability, there is nothing impossible with God. God is unchangeably and eternally omnipotent. He has always possessed all power and he always will.
V. God is omniscient. He really knows everything.
In this technological age of computers and the internet, mankind knows more now than at any time in his history, but still there is no one who knows everything, not even teenagers. Only God possesses all knowledge. He knows the number of hairs on each person’s head (That’s easier on some of us than others.). He knows the heart and thoughts of every man.
God is the source of all wisdom. In Job 28:12 and following, Job discusses the value and source of wisdom. In verse 12 he says, “but where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Then in verse 20, Where then does wisdom come from and where is the place of understanding?” He answers his own question in vs. 28, “God understands its way and he knows its place for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.”
David said to his son Solomon in I Chron. 28:9, “ . . . the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.” You and I cannot know the true intentions of anyone, we can only see what people do and hear what they say, but God sees beyond the veneer and knows their innermost parts.
Jesus in Matt. 6:5-6 tells us that we need to pray in secret knowing that “your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Conclusion:
So what do these attributes of God mean to you and me?
1. If God is unchangeable, then we can know that the God whom we read about in the Bible is the same today as he was then. Because he is unchangeable, he is dependable. Furthermore, if God is unchangeable, so are all his attributes. They have always been, are and always will be the same. If God is unchangeable, so to are all his plans, purposes and promises. God made a promise to Eve that the devil would ultimately be defeated. That promise will see its ultimate fulfillment when Jesus comes again. That promise has never changed and never will. God has promised us that if we believe in him and his Son Jesus Christ, we will receive eternal life. We can trust that promise because the unchanging God always keeps his promise.
2. Because God is eternal, then to are all his attributes of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. God has always had those attributes and always will. God is not a “here today and gone tomorrow” kind of God. He is an eternal, forever God that will always be here when he need him. We can know that no matter how long we live, we cannot outlive God. And because God is eternal, we as his children will live with him eternally.
3. Because God is omnipresent, he will always be with me no matter where we are, He is there too. Though all men forsake me, we will never be alone for God is with us. He will be there to comfort us when we are sad, to lift us up when we are down, to guide us when we are lost, to protect us when we are in trouble and to save us in that day when Jesus comes to take us home.
4. Because God is omnipotent, he has the power to protect us from all our enemies, even from the devil. He has the power to overcome any adversary and to give us the power to overcome as well. He has the power to fulfill all his wonderful promises he has made.
5. Because God is omniscient, he sees and knows us as no one else can and knows everything we need. He knows how to bring good to me no matter what happens.
We serve the eternal, unchanging, ever present God who possesses all power and wisdom. Without him at our side, we are of all men most to be pitied. But if God is with us, we know that we can trust him to always be with us no matter where we are to guide us and protect us and bring us home on the appointed day to live with him forever.
