King Of kings And Lord of lords (2)

1 Timothy 4:8-11

Aw Tozer wrote in his book “Knowledge of the Holy”......... “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” Tozer also stated later on in his book that: “This book is an attempt to answer the question ‘What is God like?’. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered except to say that God is not like anything that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody.”

During the span of our lives we have looked up to and praised people that have achieved things that we have always wanted to achieve. We have looked up to people who have done great things. It even happens in the church......we call some of them heroes! Our view of them is that of praise and we begin to know a lot about them. What about God/Jesus?

During my study of all of this along with this quote from Tozer, I ran across a video of a sermon I have watched a bunch of times........The title of the sermon is “Saved Or Self-Deceived”. In that sermon John MacArthur states a few ways to tell if you or someone is self-deceived........One of the ways to spot this is if you or someone is looking for the by-products of Christ rather than Christ Himself.

I can’t tell you how many times people come to preachers and/or others in times of peril, wanting to be relieved of their peril. I would dare say that all the apostles brought on more physical peril by following Christ! However, their spiritual burden had been lifted and that is why their outward peril was not an issue with them, they just wanted the world to know the True Jesus that they knew! A by-product of the Grace of God was great but was not what they were after, it was Christ, in which all of the Godhead dwelt bodily! It was what they thought or believed about God!

Look with me at 1 Timothy 4:8-11......We have been here before but it is an important few verses as it declares the power of godliness.........

I have used that verse many times to speak against physical exercise.....jokingly of course, but the greater statement here is “godliness is profitable unto all things....”

Godliness carries the idea..... “the devout practice and appropriate beliefs of God;”

What we believe about God and how we carry that belief out.

What we believe about should be based on what we believe about Christ! In Christ words; “You have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

The physical things are profits little to nothing, but godliness is profitable unto all things!

All things! This is cleared up in the next part in time and eternity godliness is profitable......physical exercise or anything else physical only pertains to time, it has no profit in eternity!

Paul continued to say that all their efforts because of godliness and their teaching of that has caused them to labor and suffer reproach.

One writer wrote that is was a strenuous toil that straps energy....Striving with every ounce of energy they have in them.

Suffer reproach is said to mean striving, there is some discussion of this, it could mean that they had received insults, mockery, cursing, for their belief!

They were willing because their trust was in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially those that believe!

I do not want to get into the weeds here but just to say that people whether they believe or reject have experienced the beauty of God, most especially in Grace, because He has not sent us immediately to eternal torment! He has given all humanity a space to repent!

Those that have repented and come to know and believe in Christ, will experience God’s beauty for eternity!

The main point here is that “godliness” is profits both here and forever! Godliness being what we know about God/Christ and how we live that out!

If you listen to some and how they teach about God, it seems as though they bring Him down to us, rather than taking us to Him!

In a letter to someone, Martin Luther rebuked them by stating: “Your thoughts of God are too human.”

God spoke to Israel through one of the writers of Psalms......Psalm 50:21 “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.”......... ‘You thought I was just like you’!

This is why what we think about God must be right and not some imagined whim of our earthly minds! It must be truth!

For our faith to be effectual it must be on the true Christ, which again He is the perfect representation of God....which some of us think we are, but we must remember, we are fallen from that place!

What do you think about, when you think about God/Christ?

One thing which is very important is what Paul said to Timothy in our text....verse 10..... “The Living God”........to me this is very important!

Jesus said this in John 5:26 “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;”

Life-giving power......Eternal life is the point here, but I would argue that you are not going to stay alive or die 1 moment before or after the time that God has appointed.

But the earthly life does not matter in regards to life-giving power only in that what you have thought and believed about God and His Son Jesus!

The life that God gives is His power and He gets it from no other source! He is completely self existent!

Charles Spurgeon wrote: “the mightiest of men cannot add so much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One! He sits on no supported throne and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by courtiers, nor does it borrow its splendor from His creatures. He is Himself the great central source and Originator of all power.”

God does not change, with time! He is the same forever and ever!

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Think of all the great leaders and how they have changed over time......they have changed their opinions, their bodies have become weaker!

God never changes, he never loses His power or changes His truth!

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

The Holiness of God is important to know and believe!

A.W. Pink wrote: “In Scripture He is frequently called “The Holy One”: He is so because the sum of all moral excellence is found in Him. God is absolute Purity!

1 John 1:5 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Habbakuk declared of God: Habakkuk 1:13 “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, And canst not look on iniquity:.......”

This is a powerful truth, knowing that He is all-powerful yet He remains and will never deviate as the purest being!

With all this, you can add to your thoughts of God is that He is faithful!

Lamentations 3:22-23 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

God’s patience can go in tandem with His faithfulness....

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Then we have God’s goodness........One writer stated: “God is originally good, good of Himself......He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself......the creature is good is a superadded quality, in God it is His essence...........”

Spurgeon wrote: “......when we are ourselves are conscious that we are from being good, we should only the more reverently bless God that He is good!.....”

The goodness that is God, is greater than we think.....every thing God decrees is for our good!

That is the greatness of His goodness, it is in spite of our not goodness!

That brings us to Grace.......That is great news for humanity.......

Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

This is a character of God..........it is not something that He had to toil over, it is His nature!

Then you add Mercy........which is His character, He don’t have to think about or strive to give mercy, that is His true nature!

Israel sand praises of His mercy over and over: Psalm 136:1 “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.”

These are words that describe God’s mercy throughout Scripture:

Great

Plenteous

Tender

Abundant

From everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him.

This will make you sing with Psalmist: Psalm 59:16 “But I will sing of thy power; Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: For thou hast been my defence And refuge in the day of my trouble.”

All of this is because God is Love: 1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

What makes God’s essence good, gracious, merciful, is love!

“There are many today that talk about the love of God, who are total strangers to the God of love. The Divine love is commonly regarded as agreeable weakness, a good natured indulgence,......patterned after human emotion.” A.W. Pink

God’s love can in no way be patterned after human emotion.....His love is uninfluenced!

That is what makes His love so wonderful and powerful!

1 John 4:9 “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.”

His love is eternal

His love is sovereign........He is under obligations to no one!

He is love enacted purely by God’s own pleasure!

His love is without limit.....

His love never changes

His love never conflicts with His holiness

God’s love is gracious......Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

If you are ever tempted to doubt the love of God, go back to the cross of Jesus Christ!

A.W. Pink said this about our final thought of God: His wrath: “It is sad indeed to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or who at least wish there were no such thing.....some wouldn’t admit it but there are some that see God’s wrath as a blemish to His character.”

The wrath of God is His eternal hatred toward all unrighteousness....Psalm 7:11 “God judgeth the righteous, And God is angry with the wicked every day.”

The hatred of sin and the anger expressed toward the unrighteous is only an expression of His Love and deep desire to have fellowship with humanity!

Sin has broken fellowship and to continue in sin is to sever all ties with God!

The most important thing that we must know about God is that instead of appointing us to wrath, the guilty mind you, He gave us an offering of Grace through His Son Jesus!

1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Jesus took God’s wrath, so that He can pay the penalty for sin, and grant us right standing with God to be with Him and He with us!

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God sent His Son to appease His wrath and pay the penalty of eternal torment for the sins of humanity!

Now, John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

In closing turn with me to a familiar passage of Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11........

Everything about God leads us to Christ and everything about Christ leads us to a restored life with God!

Jesus Christ reveals everything about God the Father, God The Son, and God the Holy Spirit, not only that in His work, He has offered creation salvation to return to the presence of God!

Jesus then is given a name above every name......every knee will bow and ever tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!