Sermon Tone Analysis

The Attributes of God Part 4

Bible Text: John 17:1-3

John 17:1–3

1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Introduction:

Jesus said, That they may know thee… And that’s what we are talking about this morning.

That is what this whole series on the Attributes of God is about, to know Him!

As Paul said of the Son, the second person of the Godhead, That I may Know Him…, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; And I like how the Amplified expounds on that verse.

That verse is Philippians 3:10 And this is how the Amplified expounds on it:

10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death,

And that is what we are talking about, getting to know God.

Theology!

Theology comes from two words, Theo meaning God and ology meaning the study of, or a branch of knowledge.

And that is what we are doing here, we are studying God, getting to know Him, what He is like.

This is the fourth message in this series we have been doing.

And just to recap we have already covered nine attributes of God.

Well eight and a half because the ninth one we did not finish.

But here is what we have covered so far:

I.

The Aseity of God - He is Infinite - From Everlasting to Everlasting

II.

The Self-Sufficiency of God - He has no needs

III.

The Immutability of God - (Meaning) He Never changes

IV.

The Omnipresence of God - He is Always Everywhere

V.

The Omniscience of God - He is All-knowing

VI.

The Omnipotence of God - He is All-powerful

VII.

The Wisdom of God - He Is Full of Perfect, Unchanging Wisdom

VIII.

The Faithfulness of God

and

IX.

The Goodness of God - God is Good

IX.

God is Good (b)

And that’s where we are going to continue today in the goodness of God.

We talked about last time that God is good, not simply because He does good things, but that is who He is in and of Himself.

We know that God is sovereign, and we know that bad things do happen in this world and in this life, there is evil present in this world.

And therefore we can not say that God is good simply because He does good things, because the question would be raised, “Well if God is all-powerful, He can do anything, and if God is all-knowing, He knows everything that can and will happen, past present, and future, and if God is all-loving, then why does He allow evil and bad things to happen?”

And the short answer to that would be, for His glory.

And again as last time, I am getting some strange looks, “How can evil or bad things happening be for His glory, and how can that be good?”

And I’ll make the statement I made last time for some more raised eyebrows: 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.

God is not a helpless God sitting up there in heaven thinking, man I wish I could do something about this evil that is going on down there.

But He allows these things, that His attributes might be seen in and through them.

How could we know God is merciful unless there were something for Him to be merciful toward?

How could we understand the faithfulness of God, unless there was the opposite of that to compare it to?

How could we know the light of God, unless we had known darkness?

We sing many songs about this.

One that comes to mind that we don’t sing, but is a great song nonetheless is by Billy Fields, Until He Was All That I Had, the course of the song goes like this:

You’ll never be filled till you’re emptied

Until you’re broken you’ll never be whole

Until the potter has tried your vessel with fire

You’ll never come forth as pure Gold.

I didn’t know how much He loved me

Until I’d passed through the storm and looked back

I didn’t know Jesus was all that I needed

Until He was all that I had.

I didn’t know Jesus was all that I needed

Until He was all that I had.

Friend, God’s goodness is not contingent upon circumstance.

And these things may be hard to grasp, because of our limited view and scope of knowledge, but you can’t even really believe your Bible unless you believe this to be true.

Romans 8:28 , we love to quote it, but let’s understand it.

28 And we know that all things work together for good (Not that they are good)

But All things, Not just some things, not just good things, but that means every bad thing, every evil thing, every circumstance, every situation that takes place or ever took place on this earth is working For good…

to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Now can I fully comprehend that?

No! Of course not, I’m not God.

But I believe it because I trust the One who did say it.

And it is not on some blind faith that I trust Him, it is because He is trustworthy.

Nothing that He has ever said has failed.

God is infinitely good.

I like what Miss Wilma always says, “God is good, All the time!

And all the time, God is good.”

X. God is Just

He is infinitely, unchangeably right and perfect in all He does.

Deuteronomy 32:4

4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: For all his ways are judgment (or Justice): A God of truth and without iniquity, Just and right is he.

God’s being just means so much more than God simply being fair.

It means He always, always, always does what is right and good toward mankind, in fact toward anything and everything.

The very fact that unrepentant sinners are sentenced to an eternal hell is also right and good, as hard as that may be for us to grasp and understand.

All mankind are sinners, therefore all mankind deserve eternal damnation in hell.

And God in His mercy has provided a way that even though my deeds warrant an eternal punishment, He has paid the penalty of that sin in the atonement that Christ has finished on the cross.

The Just for the unjust.

But I must understand my sin, and call it for what it is, I must realize I have sinned against a holy God and must repent of that sin and receive that atoning work that Christ has done and be born again by the gospel of His Word.

And if I do that God is just in proclaiming me righteous before Him.

I am robed in the righteousness of Christ.

And God’s mercy is justified in that His justice is still satisfied.

I like how A.W. Tozer put it, “Through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner.”

See His mercy does not forbid him to exercise his justice, nor does his justice forbid him to exercise his mercy.

He is both fully merciful and fully just.

And for the sinner that does not repent, does not receive the atoning work of Christ as his payment for sin, God can not be just in proclaiming him righteous before Him.

He is still in his sin.

Therefore, His justice is satisfied not in His mercy toward that unrepentant sinner, but in His wrath toward that unrepentant sinner God’s justice is satisfied.

The repentant sinner receives mercy, and the unrepentant sinner receives justice, neither of them receive injustice.