No One Like Our God

Sermon 3 Outline:

Weve been talking about Trusting God and covenant - Covenant is God’s initiative to reveal Himself.

I am going to be picking up where i left off last week

Doxology from Paul:

Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

[Title] No One Like Our God

Overview from last week

Fruit of Revelation

Increased Knowledge of God

Increased Christ-likeness

Increased participation in the mission of God

Hebrews 8:10-12 “This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””

- God is the Giver and the Gift

Who is God?

Triune God

How Does God reveal Himself?

2 Pre-suppositions

1. God Exists

2. God Reveals Himself

Revelation

We are entirely dependent on God making Himself known.

Is not a disclosure of truths about God; it is the self-revelation of God.

3 Modes of Revelation -

Natural Revelation

Special Revelation

Christological Revelation

Special Revelation

God’s unique and supernatural communication of himself

Revelatory historical events (exodus and resurrection of Christ)

God acts in history, and that history communicates something of God.

Inspired Preaching (prophets and apostles)

1 Peter 1:12

Inscripturated revelation (God breathed Word through human authors to produce written texts)

To draw near to God in Scripture is to allow the wisdom and power of God’s Word to dwell in you richly.

We are not only hearing facts about God, but we are genuinely encountering God.

Divine illumination

(Holy Spirit brings understanding to believers about His Word)

Christological Revelation

The incarnation of Jesus Christ

It is a direct and unmediated (uncensored, uncut, unedited) communication of God.

He is the reality of God - it is the single greatest act of God’s self-revelation.

The identity of God is bound up with the identity of Jesus Christ -

John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

And it also shows what God intended humanity to be and what it finally will be. “God became what we are, so that we might become what He is.” - Athanasius.

The revelation of Christ - how Paul got through difficult times.

Colossians 1:15-20

Philippians 2:5–11 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ephesians 1:14–22 NIV

who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,

What Are The Attributes of God?

2 Categories

Incommunicable Attributes

Communicable Attributes

Incommunicable:

The reason why “there is none like God” is because God alone possesses particular attributes that cannot be shared with any other creature.

Eternal:

God exists without beginning or end

Psalm 90:2 - “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.

God’s experience of time is different from our own experience. That is why one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day to God.

Which is encouraging because God sees me in the future (Image of Christ) and sees me now in my present but has more hope and excitement for you because of what he Sees.

God experiences all of time simultaneously

There is no gap between God’s plan and his execution of it precisely because he stands outside of it.

In closing - we could say that God is “everlasting” in the sense that he exists within time at every single point so that he is spatially present within every space-time location.

Self-Sufficient:

God’s being and existence are not contingent on anything else in the universe.

Acts 17:24-25 ““The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

Job 41:11 “Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.”

No one has ever contributed to God anything that did not first come from God who created all things.

God exists in an infinitely superior capacity to our own as he is the Creator of all things and all things endure because of His will (Re. 4:11).

God’s self-sufficiency implies his self-satisfaction with his own glory

Among the persons of the Trinity there has been perfect love and fellowship and communication for all eternity.

God is the “I AM”

The implication is that God’s existence and character are determined by himself alone and are not dependent on anyone or anything else.

God’s act of creation, redemption, and new creation are, therefore, the means of expressing his glory in a loving relationship with others.

Without creation, God would still be infinitely loving, infinitely just, eternal, omniscient, trinitarian, and so forth.

If God does not need us for anything, then are we important at all?

We are very meaningful because God has created us and he has determined that we would be meaningful to Him.

We and the rest of creation can glorify God and bring him joy.

Immutable:

God is characteristically changeless in His character

Malachi 3:6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

The immutability of God’s being establishes the certainty of God’s Gospel plan.

Our faith rests on the unchanging plan centered on Jesus Christ as an eternal being, with an eternal priesthood, to bring eternal salvation, through the eternal Spirit.

Divine Immutability requires - Divine Impassibility.

External things will not change the purpose and plan of God for His children

Omnipotence:

The power of God knows no limit, no condition, and no contingency other than being expressed in accordance with his own character.

Jeremiah 32:27 “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me.”

Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

God’s power is infinite, and he is not limited to doing only what he actually has done before, God is able to do more than he actually does or has done.

Although His power is infinite it is qualified by his other attributes.

God is omnipotent in the sense that he can achieve all that he determines in his holy will.

Omnipresence:

God is not limited or confined with respect to spatial locations. As Creator he pervades His creation. God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being yet God acts differently in different places.

1 Kings 8:27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you How much less this temple I have built.”

God’s presence cannot be contained.

Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

We cannot say that some of God or just part of God is present, for that would be to think of his being in spatial terms, as if he were limited somehow to by space.

He is present everywhere in the fullness of all that He is and all the powers that He has, and prayer to him anywhere in the world receives the fullness of his undivided attention.

God is present in different places in creation in a different degree and a different manner.

Omniscience:

The absolute knowledge of God over all things, past and present, possible and actual.

1 John 3:20 “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

The extent of God’s knowledge is boundless, and God uses his knowledge perfectly.

God not only knows the past, present and future but also every possibility.

God is always fully aware of everything. His knowledge is always fully present in his consciousness

Nothing will ever surprise God. I can trust Him, He has wisdom and I can ask for it.

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”