What is God?

Q: What is God?

A: God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!”

INTRODUCTION

Big man upstairs & Talladega nights prayer.

Will we worship the God who reveals himself or a god we patch together?

GOD IS GOD OUTSIDE US

We are not alone and we are not entirely unique.

Sometimes the best way to talk about what God is like is to articulate what he is not like.

Meditate on the truth that God is independent, unique, and self-sustaining. (He is altogether outside of what we experience.)

Psalm 86:8 ESV

8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.

God is “eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection…”

“He is solitary in his majesty, unique in his excellency, peerless in his perfections. He sustains all, but is himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none.” Arthur W. Pink

“God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything.”

The image of God in the burning bush:

“The fire that burns and does not burn out, which has no tendency to destruction in its very energy, and is not consumed by its own activity, is surely a symbol of the One Being…who can only say—"I am that I am… You and I have to say, "I am that which I have become," or "I am that which I was born," or "I am that which circumstances have made me." He said, "I am that I am." All other creatures are links; this is the staple from which they all hang. …A flame that does not burn out; therefore his resources are inexhaustible, his power unwearied. He needs no rest for recuperation of wasted energy. His gifts diminish not the store which he has to bestow. He gives and is none the poorer. He works and is never weary. He operates unspent; he loves and he loves forever….” Alexander Maclaren

The challenge here: Is my understanding of God big enough? Am I thinking of God as he reveals himself to be or confining him to how I imagine he is?

“To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him.” A.W. Tozer

GOD IS GOD ABOVE US

“ Nothing happens except through him and by his will.”

Romans 11:34–36 “34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Psalm 115:3 ESV

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

The reality of the need for humility:

“Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust.” Charles Spurgeon

The challenge: worshiping a god made in our image is idolatry, it is “God upon his throne whom we [must] trust.”

The beauty: God’s control is our comfort and security. He is God above our sin and guilt. He is God above death. He is God above sickness, and financial burdens, and broken marriages, and wandering children, and loss of loved ones, and great struggles and pain. Only the God who is truly above us can say, “What the enemy means for evil, I will use for good.”

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow; for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.” How Firm a Foundation

GOD IS GOD AMONG US

Let’s call truths 1 and 2 the truths of God’s bigness. The struggle I have with these truths is that they can make God feel so big that he begins to feel distant. They can create a “big man upstairs” theology.

The Bible doesn’t just teach the truths of God’s bigness, though, we also see the truth of God’s nearness and goodness.

“He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth.”

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

Psalm 145:3 ESV

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:9 ESV

9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

How can we be sure that God is “good to all?” The gospel of Jesus is our connection point both to God’s bigness and God’s nearness.

Colossians 1:19–20 ESV

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Jesus displays his power over all things: (nature, disease, demons, sin, and ultimately death itself).

Jesus displays his nearness to those who cry out to him: (making peace by the blood of the cross.)

Psalm 145:19 ESV

19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

SO WHAT?

“…because we are the handiwork of God, it follows that all our problems and their solutions are theological.” A.W Tozer

Grow in your knowledge of God that you might prize God’s position in your purpose and problems.

Your greatest good and God’s glory are never at odds.

Grow in your knowledge of God that you might proclaim God’s position in your world.

Your story points others to God’s story.