April 19, 2009 am
A STUDY OF GOD (7)
The Character of God (2)
Today we continue our study of God by examining His attributes.
This series of lesson is intended to help us better understand
who God is so that we will take Him more seriously.
We have begun a study of His characteristics.
We have established that He is a person, He is Spirit, eternal
and the One true God. Last
week we began noticing attributes exclusive to His being God.
We noted that He is holy and to be treated as such.
We also noted that God is Omnipresent meaning that He is
everywhere. In our lesson
today we are going to notice 2 more characteristics – His omniscience
and omnipotence.
a.
The word
omniscient means that He is all knowing.
Again, because of the limitations of the human mind, we have
difficulty understanding this. But God’s greatness is seen in the fact
that He knows EVERYTHING!
b.
Throughout the book of Isaiah,
the prophet challenges Israel and Judah because of their idolatry.
He demonstrates how ridiculous idols really are.
In the midst of these condemnations we find the character of God.
Concerning His omniscience we see in
Isaiah 41:21-24 this, “’Present
your case’ says the Lord. ‘Bring forth your strong reasons and
show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they
were, that we may consider them,
and know the latter end of them; or
declare to us things to come.
Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that
you are gods;…”
Note also
Isa. 44:6-8, “Thus says
the Lord , the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord
of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God
dbesides Me. 'Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in
order, From the time that I established the ancient nation.
And let them declare to
them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take
place. 'Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since
announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there
any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'"
The significance of these verses is that the Lord declares that His
omniscience establishes that He IS God!
c.
His
omniscience is seen in:
i.
His
wisdom and knowledge -
Colossians 2:3 says, “in whom are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Isaiah 55:8-9, a familiar verse says, “’For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor 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.”
Psalm 147:5 says, “His
understanding is infinite.”
Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”
ii.
His
word.
Think about how great the word of
God is. Written over some
1600 years by about 40 men from all different background, yet with a
single purpose – to reveal the will of God to us.
It shows the wisdom of its Creator, just as the world shows His
greatness. Hebrews 4:12-13,
Psalm 19:7-10, “The law of the
Lord is perfect, converting the soul…”
John 17:17 – His word sanctifies us, because it is truth!
iii.
What He
knows about us.
He knows everything: how many hairs on our head, how many cells
in our body and how many beats our heart has made.
(Matthew 10:30) He knows our thoughts and motives our words, etc.
He knows how I “tick”
iv.
He
knows everyone of us.
Psalm 33:13, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.”
Think about that – over 3 BILLION people on this earth – and He
knows EVERY name and everything about each of us.
He knows everyone who has ever lived and remembers everything about
them.
v.
He
knows everything about the rest of creation.
How hungry are the birds, etc.
(Matthew 6:26-29)
vi.
Prophecies.
Think about it. God
knows the future. He knows
what we will do and become.
vii.
And He
doesn’t forget either!
Unless He CHOOSES to forget – such as our previous sins.
d.
As we
serve Him we need to consider His omniscience.
How many today live as if God doesn’t see what they are doing or that He
doesn’t really know our motives deep down?
Heb. 4:13, ALL things are naked and open before His eyes.
He doesn’t forget either. We
sometimes think that time will remove sins – they don’t.
He knows what He said (His word) and will hold us to it.
And He knows what we are capable of!
When we fail to reach our potential – we cannot blame God in the
end if we are not prepared to stand before Him.
a.
Omnipotent means that God is all powerful.
That means just what it says - God has ALL POWER.
When we say ALL POWERFUL what we mean is that where there is
power to be had, God has it to its fullest extent.
There is much to say about the
power of God.
b.
Many passages allude to His infinite power.
There are multitudes of verses addressing His power.
i.
Gen. 17:1,
Rev. 21:22, “the Lord God Almighty”
ii.
Deuteronomy 3:24, “O Lord God, You
have begun to show Your servant your greatness and Your mighty hand, for
what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your
works and Your mighty deeds?”
iii.
Isaiah
26:4, “Trust in the Lord forever,
for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
iv.
Jeremiah
32:27, “Behold, I am the Lord, the
God of all flesh. Is there
anything too hard for Me?”
Note also vs. 17-19, also Genesis 18:14,
v.
Psalm
115:3, “But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.”
vi.
Colossians
1:17, “He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist.”
vii.
Matthew
19:26, “With God all things are
possible.”
viii.
Revelation
19:6, “and I heard, as it were,
the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the
sound of mighty thundering, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God
Omnipotent reigns!”
c.
His power is seen in many things:
i.
His
power is seen in creation -
Romans 1:20 speaks of
His eternal power
and Godhead.
Hebrews 1:3 says that He upholds “all
things by the word of His power…”
2 Peter 3:5-7 also describes How He by His word preserves the heavens
and earth that now exist.
Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare
the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
Logically consider this for a moment!
Consider the power of a single star such as our sun.
Yet there are billions of stars in the vastness of this physical
universe. God created all of
that. Think of the power of
a single atom – yet God created that and CONTROLS it.
ii.
His
omnipotence is seen in His other attributes we have examined. To be all
powerful God must be eternal, omnipresent and omniscient.
If God were not eternal, then there would be a time when He did
not have power, if He did not know all things and is not everywhere –
then His power is limited.
But He is all these things!
iii.
His
power is seen in His influence in nations
– as you study the Bible you see God’s influence in the outcome of
nations. He was able to
foretell years in advance what would happen to various nations and how
they would fall.
iv.
His
power in seen in prophecies -
Just as they demonstrate His eternal knowledge they show He is in
control and can move forces at His will to accomplish His will.
v.
His
power is seen in miracles He
has performed and gifted men to perform when needed.
Miracles, are the setting aside of natural laws – something only
the Creator can do. They
demonstrated that He is God almighty – Mark 2:1-12 in the healing of the
paralytic as Jesus forgave His sins imply this.
Also note John 3:2 where Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus to be whom
He claimed because of His miracles.
vi.
His
power is seen in the conversion of sinners, through His word,
etc. Romans 1:16,17.
Consider How His word changes lives.
vii.
His
power is seen in the fulfillment of His purpose
– God has to be in control to achieve this.
Romans 8:28 – He is STILL in control!
Eph. 3:11 speaks of “His eternal
purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
viii.
His
power is seen in His inheritance He has prepared for us
– 1 Peter 1:4-5
d.
Is
the power of God unlimited?
What do we mean by
unlimited? Are there things
God cannot do?
First, let it be understood that no where in the Bible does it claim
that God can do everything that man can conceive.
But God can do all things logically possible to do and His power is so
great that in the physical realm He created, and in His spiritual realm,
it is limitless. Where we
are concerned He can do ALL things.
While He is all powerful He
controls that power.
His power is controlled by His “power”.
As we examine various attributes such as His mercy, justice,
holiness, & love we see that He controls His power.
For example 2 Peter 3:9 speaks
of the longsuffering of God – we deserve immediate wrath, but He
withholds.
His very nature demonstrates
things He cannot do – but that has nothing to do with His being
omnipotent. For example – He
cannot die – because He is eternal.
Without beginning or end.
What about the intellectual
paradox? Some atheists
and agnostics mock at His power by presenting illogical dilemmas, AKA
moral contradictions or a philosophical paradox, (i.e. can God create a
rock so big that He cannot lift it? Or Can God create a four sided
triangle or a married bachelor?). But
this does NOT mean that in any way His power is limited.
To say such is limiting God’s power is reasoning with human logic
and quite frankly, it is selfish and arrogant.
God can do all things possible to do.
These types of arguments are NONSENSE!
C. S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity said of such things, “His
omnipotence includes power to do all things intrinsically possible, not
to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him,
but not nonsense.”
For example: What would
you say if I claimed that I could make a four sided triangle?
I can! How? By
changing the numerical counting order to 1,2,4,3,5,6,7 OR I could
redefine a triangle as a shape that has four sides.
Why not? After all
there are no moral absolutes (according to the humanist) and everything
is relative. Why not
say there are NO absolutes?
Am I being absurd? YES!
But no more absurd than denying the existence of God or His
omnipotence because He cannot make a rock so big He cannot lift it or
any other philosophical paradox.
The paradox argument is NONSENSE and has nothing to do with God being
omnipotent or all powerful.
It is nothing more than a “conceptual absurdity” and playing with words
and ignoring what is real.
The challenge is self-contradictory and incoherent.
e. In scripture we read that there are also certain things He CANNOT to do.
He WILL not subvert His purpose or will – Job 42:2
He cannot lie – Heb. 6:18, Titus 1:2, He
cannot tempt anyone to sin or be tempted – Jas 1:13
Etc. We will address
these in our lesson tonight.
f.
Because God is omnipotent – we can have faith.
i.
We can
take confidence in passages
like 1 Cor. 10:13 & 1 Peter 5:7 (“casting all your cares upon Him) and
so many others.
ii.
We know
He is in control of this world
– no matter what man does he cannot defeat God or His will. Hebrews
13:6, “So we may boldly say, ‘The
Lord is my helper; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?’”
Also Romans 8:31-39.
iii.
We can
put our trust in Him that He can answer our prayers – 1 John 5:14-15
iv.
We can
know that He can and will raise us up
– 1 Cor. 6:14. We have hope
in this life.
v.
We need
to respect Him and His power!
Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to Him who
is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that
works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all
generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
As we consider
who He is, may we be humbled in our demeanor and may we learn to give
Him the reverence He deserves.
Don’t treat Him or His word lightly.
Do not trivialize His name! What does God mean to you?