Attributes of God Session 2

God’s Immensity (God is Immanent)

3 foundational verses for today's study : Matt 16:25-26 Colossians 3:3 Phil 3:8

There are two kinds of Faith:

Nominal and Real

Nominal Faith is faith that accepts what it is told and can quote text after text to prove it.

Real Faith is faith that depends on the character of God!

Romans 4:3 This scripture does not say that Abraham believed the text , and it was counted unto him for righteousness! It says Abraham believed God!

it was not what Abraham believed, it was who Abraham believed that counted. The person of true faith believes God and his faith rests on the character of God.

A man or woman who has real faith rather than nominal faith has found a right answer to the question. “what is God like?” And that person has found that answer to that question by revelation and illumination!

The difficulty with the church now-even the Bible-believing Church- is that we stop with revelation. But revelation is not enough!

Revelation is God’s given Word. It’s an objective thing, not subjective; it’s external, not internal. It is God’s revelation of truth. A person may believe that and believe it soundly and hold it to be truth! And yet that person will have ONLY an objective revelation of truth.

Illumination:

There is another way to find an answer to the question, “what is God like?” and that is by illumination. The person of real faith believes the Word, but it has been illuminated so that the individual knows what the Word means.

*this does not mean that this person is a better Bible teacher or scholar!

It means that this individual has had what the Quakers call “an opening.” The person’s heart has been opened to the Word. The given Revelation is a means toward an end, and God is the end, not the text itself!

The Bible is a whole series of highways, all leading toward God. And when the text has been illuminated and the believer of the text knows that GOD IS THE END TOWARD WHICH HE IS MOVING, THEN THAT PERSON HAS REAL FAITH!

The Size of Things:

The great French philosopher and mathematician said this, “you will find worlds beyond worlds out in space. Our solar system moves around another solar system. And that solar system moves around another solar system, and so on into infinite vastness. Then, you turn the other way, you will find little worlds within little worlds going down-the molecule, the atom, the electron and the proton, down into infinitesimal smallness.”

If you study even elementary astronomy you will learn that there are suns so large that each one could absorb our sun, all its planets into itself. Scientist say that there are suns so large you could put millions of our suns into them!

Then there is God!! God has the attribute of immanence and immensity!

God is immanent, which means you don’t have to go distances to find God. He is in everything. He is right here!

God is above all things, beneath all things, outside of all things and inside of all things.

God is above all things, BUT He is not pushed up. He’s beneath all things, BUT He’s not pressed down. He’s outside all things, BUT He’s not excluded. He’s inside all things, BUT He’s not confined.

That is the immanence of God!

*God does not travel to get anywhere! There isn’t any place where God is not! Psalm 139:8-10

The New King James Version Psalm 139

8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,

And Your right hand shall hold me.

So it is impossible to think of a place where God is not!

The immensity of God

The scripture also speaks and teaches the immensity of God: Isaiah 40:12

The New King James Version Chapter 40

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

Measured heaven with a span

And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?

Weighed the mountains in scales

And the hills in a balance?

**Imagine going out millions of light years into space and finding a body so vast that you could through ALL OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM INTO IT! REMEMBER THAT GOD CONTAINS IT! REMEMBER THAT GOD IS OUTSIDE OF ALL THINGS AND INSIDE OF ALL THINGS AND AROUND ALL THINGS! REMEMBER THAT OUT GOD MADE IT! THAT IS THE IMMENSITY OF GOD!

The triune God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit is bigger than all the universe! Isaiah 40:15

The New King James Version Chapter 40

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,

And are counted as the small dust on the scales;

Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.

Here is a thought for you: it’s awfully hard to get a Christian scared. It’s hard to get him panicked if he really believes in God! If he is just a church member, you can get him panicked. But if he really believes in God it’s very difficult to do it.

Isaiah 40:22, 25-26

The New King James Version Chapter 40

22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

The New King James Version Chapter 40

25 “To whom then will you liken Me,

Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high,

And see who has created these things,

Who brings out their host by number;

He calls them all by name,

By the greatness of His might

And the strength of His power;

Not one is missing.

Why are we not happy? If this all is true, then why aren’t Christians the happiest, the most peaceful people in all the world?

Because we seek to have our rest in things that are so little and mean nothing!

Some questions for all of us:

What makes you happy? What cheers you up and gives your morale a lift?

Is it your Job? Your favorite brand of clothes? Your spouse? Your house? Your car?

Just what exactly brings you joy?

That’s our trouble! We know that God is so vast that in comparison everything is just the size of a small grain of seed! AND YET WE’RE NOT A HAPPY PEOPLE BECAUSE WE’VE GOT OUR MINDS FOCUSED AND SET ON SMALL THINGS!

The typical Christian today puts their confidence in Things and God! It goes like this:

We have our job and God, we have our spouse and God, we have our health and God, we have our home and God, we have our ambition for the future and God.

So we put God as a plus AFTER EVERYTHING ELSE!

SO OUR PROBLEM IS THAT WE ARE PUTTING OUR CONFIDENCE IN THINGS AND NOT GOD!

Our faith, focus and attention must be on Christ/God alone and nothing else!

Then whatever God gives us, we can hold at arm’s length and hold it dear for Jesus’ sake! And we can love it for His sake, but it is not necessary to our happiness.

If you find that there is anything else necessary to your eternal happiness but God, you are not yet the kind of Christian that you should be. For ONLY God is the true rest.

God Must Be First

It is rather ironic that we live in the richest nation on earth and we have:

The most divorces, The most suicides, the most juvenile delinquencies, the most murders and thefts.

It proves that no matter how much you give a man, if he misses God.....He misses everything and has nothing!

God wants to be First and wants to be all!

Money won’t do it! But if you take the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, God will provide everything you need and may bless you with other things that you desire and enjoy! BUT IT IS ALWAYS WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT HE CAN TAKE IT AWAY AGAIN AND YOU WON’T GRUMBLE! BECAUSE YOU HAVE GOD, AND GOD IS ALL! Isaiah 60:19-20

Matt 16:24-26

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?