The Attributes of God Part 3

Bible Text: Isaiah 55:9

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Introduction:

We have been talking about the Attributes of God. How that God does not simply possess His attributes, but that He is His attributes. And God is not one part of this attribute and another part another attribute. He is not one part omniscient and another part Holy, But He is the sum of all His attributes altogether, all the time. His omniscience is an all-holy, all-loving- all-powerful omniscience. His Holiness is an omniscient, all-loving, all-powerful, holiness. They can not be separated like so many times we try to do.

Many times to talk about God’s justice or His wrath, someone might say, “Well, my God is a God of love.” As somehow that God’s love supersedes all His other attributes. God’s love will never be anything less than an all-holy, just, righteous, and merciful, gracious love.

Just because God is wrathful to those that have rejected His Son and because He gives them perfect justice instead of mercy, in no way makes Him less than an all-loving merciful God.

In a real sense, His mercy and grace do extend to even the evil, in His common mercy and in His common grace in that He many times withholds His judgments from the evil for a time and in that He makes it to rain on the just and the unjust, He blesses with many things even to those that are not His. Even to the point that would make those that are His cry out to Him, like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 12:1 “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?”

God, where is thy justice? Where is thy wrath, Upon these wicked, wicked men?

We many times forgetting that apart from the righteousness of Christ which is gifted upon us, we are that evil man.

God could say, well if you want justice, should I have started with you? Before My mercy and grace saved you. Should I have rained down My great wrath upon you?

See the real question isn’t why God shall allow so many to end up in a devil’s hell.

The real question is why aren’t you going to be there?

Why aren’t I going to be there?

That would be just! That would be right!

But God, willing to display all of His attributes, made way for His mercy and for His grace.

Exodus 33:19 “… (I) will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”

And I will not stand up here and argue with you over a Calvinist viewpoint versus an Arminian viewpoint, the Bible says what it says and means what it says.

I get so tired of the arguments pitting the one against the other. Either the Bible is the truth or it is a lie.

When Jesus says, You can not come to Me except the Father that sent Me draw you. Well, that is exactly what He means.

And when the Bible says, Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of live freely.

What part of that don’t you get?

Just because the two don’t line up perfectly in your eyes, does that limit God to your understanding?

God forbid!

God will never fit in the little neat boxes we try to put Him in. His ways are so much higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts.

But these things line up perfectly in eternity.

But, let’s get back on track, we are on number 7 of His attributes. We have already looked at:

I. The Aseity of God

II. The Self-Sufficiency of God

III. God is Immutable

IV. God is Omnipresent

V. God is Omniscient

VI. God is Omnipotent

VII. God is Wise - He Is Full of Perfect, Unchanging Wisdom

Proverbs 3:19 “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; By understanding hath he established the heavens.”

Wisdom is more than just head knowledge and intelligence. Wisdom is someone that sees and understands all the facts about a situation, the ins, the outs, the would be’s, the could be’s, the has been’s, the will be’s, and then makes the best decisions based on all that knowledge.

But even that definition fails to communicate the wisdom of God because His wisdom is infinite. It is perfect all the time. There is no guesswork in it. He sees the end from the beginning and He brings about His will in perfect knowledge and at the perfect time.

The coming of Christ in the flesh, do you believe there could have been a better time for Him to come? No, but He came, rather was sent at the exact perfect time in history to accomplish God’s will.

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

But when the fulness of the time… That word fullness means that the conditions were complete. God’s creation, the fall of man, the wickedness of man, God’s judgment on the earth, God’s creating a nation for Himself, God’s law, the prophets, their going into captivity, God bringing them back into their own land, and that’s just a blip in history of all that transpired, all these things transpired to bring about the perfect timing for God’s plan of salvation to be revealed to the world. For the One that was talked about in Genesis 3 to come, to fulfill His sovereign plan.

Friend, I can not emphasize enough, how great His wisdom is.

Romans 11:33 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

Though we can’t understand it. We can’t comprehend it, it gives us great comfort to know that God is infinitely wise, that He could never be any less wise or any more wise.

That He brought you about in this life at the exact perfect time for His plan. There could not have been a better time for you to be born than when you were born or you would have not had been born when you were.

Do you get that?

You were fashioned in the womb, made in the image of God, brought to this earth in this exact timing, just as Mordecai had told Esther, in the providence that befell her, for such a time as this.

God doesn’t make mistakes.

Job 12:13 “With him is wisdom and strength, He hath counsel and understanding.”

Psalm 147:5 “Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.”

Isaiah 40:28 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, That the everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.”

Turn to Job 28:12

Job 28:12-24. A little long but makes the point.

12 But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

13 Man knoweth not the price thereof;

Neither is it found in the land of the living.

14 The depth saith, It is not in me:

And the sea saith, It is not with me.

15 It cannot be gotten for gold,

Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,

With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:

And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls:

For the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,

Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

20 Whence then cometh wisdom?

And where is the place of understanding?

21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,

And kept close from the fowls of the air.

22 Destruction and death say,

We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

23 God understandeth the way thereof,

And he knoweth the place thereof.

24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth,

And seeth under the whole heaven;

Friend, God is wise! He is all-wise!

VIII. God is Faithful

What God says, we can count on it. We don’t have to worry if He will be able to perform it, we don’t need to worry if He will continue to perform it, we don’t need to worry if He wants to perform it. He does not go back on His Word. The Bible says, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” God can not go back on who He is.

He is always faithful.

Just as the sun is faithful to shine twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all year-long, all decade long, all century long. It never stops giving her light. So is our God faithful all the time.

Psalm 33:4 “For the word of the Lord is right; And all his works are done in truth.” Truth- emunah, It means in all honesty, in all faithfulness.

And the Bible is wrought through with God’s promises.

We all have a favorite verse we like to remember and/or recite.

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Romans 8:39 “Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Or insert your favorite verse there.

The promises of God throughout this book are too numerous to count. Promises to forgive our sin, promises to guide us and fill us with His Spirit, promises of eternal life, promises to always be with us, promises that He is coming again.

And the problem with us is, we like to say, you need to grab on to those promises and believe them and then they will be true for you. Just believe with all your heart and they will come to pass. As though those promises are somehow hinged on us and what we do and what we believe.

God’s promises are not true because we believe them. God’s promises are true because He said them.

2 Timothy 2:13 “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: For he cannot deny himself.”

Thank God His promises do not depend upon me. Thank God His promises do not depend upon you. He is faithful, not you, He is faithful, not me. My God is faithful because that is who He is, not just something that He does.

I. GOD IS FAITHFUL IN SAVING

A. God is Faithful in His Promise to Save—John 6:37 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

None will be turned away, who call upon Him.

B. God is Faithful in His Pardon to Save—Psalm 103:3 “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;…

Notice He forgives all our iniquities!

C. God is Faithful in His Person to Save—Hebrews 7:25 “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, (By the person of Christ), seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

D. God is Faithful in His Purging to Save—Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

E. God is Faithful in His Perfection in Saving—1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

GOD IS STILL, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, IN THE SAVING BUSINESS!

Then,

II. GOD IS FAITHFUL IN SECURING

A. His Promise to Secure—1 Peter 1:5 “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

B. His Perfection in Securing—Jude 24 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,”

C. God is Faithful in Persuading Us of His Securing—2 Timothy 1:12 “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

D. His Power in Securing—Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Then,

III. GOD IS FAITHFUL IN SATISFYING

He will satisfy, and meet our every need.

A. Physical Needs—He is The Great Physician, Healing and meeting all sorts of physical needs.

B. Spiritual Needs—Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

C. Material Needs— Psalm 37:25 “I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread.”

D. Financial Needs—Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Then,

IV. GOD IS FAITHFUL IN STRENGTHENING

A. Strength to Face Sin—Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

B. Strength to Face Sorrow—Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.”

C. Strength to Face the Wicked of This Day—Psalm 56:11 “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid What man can do unto me.”

D. Strength to Stablish—2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.”

HE WILL GIVE US STRENGTH TO FACE EVERY SITUATION IN LIFE!

Oh, and we could go on and on and on of God’s faithfulness.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Again, this attribute must be understood in light of all His other attributes. They are all interconnected. He is faithful because He is immutable, unchanging. He is faithful because He is loving, and merciful and just, and so on.

The next attribute we want to look at is the Goodness of God.

IX. God is Good

He is infinitely, unchangeably good.

Exodus 34:6 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”

The Psalmist David challenges all of us,

Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

And we come to yet another conundrum in the attributes of God.

Is God good because He does good things?

Well, He most certainly does do good things.

But if that were the case, then we would have to admit and proclaim that when evil happens, when sickness comes, when a young child dies, when a young woman is raped, when hurricanes strike, when tidal waves devastate, and so on, that God is not good.

Because if God is all-powerful and these things happen, then wouldn’t it reason that a good God would stop these things from happening before they happened?

But friend, God’s goodness does not stem, it does not come from the things that He does. But it comes from He Himself. He is totally good within Himself.

And as much as we can’t understand it now, although evil is not good, And God is not the author of evil, yet it is good that there is evil, or it would not be.

And I see some of you already rolling your eyes thinking what in the world is this idiot talking about.

But friend, without evil, without all the bad things that do happen in this life, God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s goodness would never be on display.

But God’s goodness is on display, and we can see and experience God’s goodness because that evil is here.

Did you know that because of evil, we get to experience what angels can never experience, they look at this thing with awe and wonder? The angels in heaven! We can experience redemption.

Listen to these words of Peter. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1

1 Peter 1:1-12 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Throughout that passage, we see not only the heaviness and the suffering of the saints, but also of Christ. The evil that befalls us, the evil that befell Jesus, but for what reason?

For redemption! For the glory of that redemption.

Jesus! How sweet that name is, not because He does good things for me and to me, because sometimes the things that happen sure don’t feel too good, But because that He is good, and though everything is not good, He sure is and I know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose.

Conclusion:

We did not have enough time to finish with this attribute of God, so we will pick up on the goodness of God in our next message.

But friend, as you read your Bible each day, ponder these things we talked about today.

The wisdom of God

The faithfulness of God

And the goodness of God.

Think of those things that happen in your day-to-day where God’s wisdom was greater than yours, the things He had planned turned out much better than the way you thought they ought to go.

How that God is so very faithful to you. Even when your faithfulness is waning.

How that God is so very good to you, even though bad things seemingly happen to you and around you. Yet God is good.

O taste and see that the LORD is good:

Don’t just read about it, don’t take David’s word for it, but you yourself, come and taste and see for your own self that my God, that your God is so very very good.

That’s the message!