We Believe: There is None like God
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None like Him
None like Him
Who is God? Who is God? This one little question can reveal a lot about a person’s beliefs, or even the maturity of their faith. And it’s a question there are many different answers for, depending on who you ask. If you travel to India and ask the question, who is God, you might get a variety of answers about which gods are favorited by the individuals. Or if you travel to a post-Christian country, like Germany or most of Europe, you might receive the response “There is no God” which is just another way of saying “We are our own god”. Wherever you go, whether it’s across the street to your neighbors, the clerk in your local supermarket, or even the vast populations across the world, all mankind has been created by God and for God, and all people worship something. But without guidance and instruction from the one true God, all of life, all of worship, is in vain.
It is the goal of our sermon series to help build you up and guide you to truth, as God himself has revealed it.
This sermon is a continuation in our series, The Church: Faith and Family. And the goal, the plan that Marcus and I have set out for and hope to achieve, is the same goal set forth in Ephesians 4. And I quote:
“… he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
The goal of this series is to help grow the saints of Christ into full maturity in their faith so that they can be free to live how God made them to live. And part of growing in your faith means tackling the question, “Who is God?”.
And so, Marcus and I sat down and crafted a summary statement of belief that we think accurately portray a solid view of the God of the Bible, that reflects the very views of this church. You were introduced to it last week, as we covered the first sentence. (read first sentence). This sentence speaks to the nature of who God is. Denying a part of the Trinity leads to false doctrine and thus a worship of a false idea, or false god. So it is imperative to know that object of our focus and worship is the Triune God, who are One essence yet three persons. But now we pick up on the next three sentences, which help us understand further who exactly God is in his attributes and character. (read rest of the statement)
We believe God is the Father, the Son and the Spirit who are One essence existing eternally in a loving relationship with one another.
He is perfect, infinite, eternal, and unchanging.
He is all-powerful, all-knowing, always present, self-sufficient, and sovereign.
He is righteous, holy, just, loving, gracious, merciful, and true.
Amen? Amen.
But if you were to walk away with one message, one sentence from the entire sermon, that message would be this:
There is no one, and no thing, like the LORD God.
(repeat)
There’s nothing out there that even compares to God, yet alone lives up to his titles and his reputation. There is no one that can match him in character, in how they exist, in what they perform or are capable of.
And because there is nothing that even compares to the Lord God, he alone must be God.
He alone must be God. Don’t settle for anything less.
With that said, let’s pray and then jump into the rest of the sermon.
Please pray with me.
(Prayer)
It’s a gargantuan task to preach on all the aspects of God, one for which any man is woefully unprepared. The enormity of our God is no easy feat to examine in just a mere 30 minutes. And as if time were not our only enemy here, words themselves fail to capture God in his entirety. Why? Because there’s no one like him. He is one of a kind. He’s the only God and there is no other. Truly he is holy, holy, holy, distinct from all creation and all other types of beings: angels, humans, animals, and whatever other classifications we can think of.
And we know that he is distinct because there are some qualities he possesses that are uniquely his. For example, there is no other being that is truly infinite. Infinite in time and in space. God is so big, even the universe couldn’t fit him. Think about that for a moment. Here you are, sitting on a pew in a church. Zoom out a bit, and you see that the church is one building in a town, and that town is on the coast of Washington, which is on the coast of North America. Zoom out even further and you are just a pinpoint on the surface of Earth, which is one planet in the solar system. The solar system is one speck in the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of countless galaxies in the known galaxy. We are so miniscule in comparison to the rest of the universe. Yet we are told that even all of creation, all of the universe itself, cannot contain the Lord God. (Pause). What other being or person can say that? Hmm?
Truly, none.
So there are some characteristics of God that are uniquely his as the supreme divine being. In theological terms we call those incommunicable attributes, because no one else holds those titles or can do those things.
Incommunicable is just a fancy word that means these attributes are not imparted to others. They aren’t given to humans or to angels or can be held by any other being.
Incommunicable- Not imparted to others
Some examples of these attributes include God’s
Perfection
Infinite
Eternal
Unchanging
But there are also some attributes which God possesses that his created beings are able to share in. These are the communicable attributes.
Communicable is just a fancy word to say that these are the things in which God shares. These characteristics are imparted to others.
Communicable- Imparted to others
Some examples of these attributes include, but are not limited to, God’s
Righteousness
Holiness
Justice
Love
Grace
Mercy
Truth
Have you ever wondered why we as human beings are able to love?
It’s because we were first loved. We have been given an example of how to love, and so we mimic that example and pass it down from generation to generation. Without that first example, none of us would know how to love each other, to bear with one another despite our disagreements. And God is that primary example. He taught us how to love.
We cannot love apart from who God is. God is love. All expressions of love stem from the Godhead himself in how the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and how the Spirit has been said to be the bond of love between the Father and the Son. Before mankind could even love there was a precedent for how to love.
As created beings who are made after the image of God, we were meant to carry forth God’s love and his other attributes to all of creation. That was mankind’s task, their mission.
Now we know that there are twisted and corrupted versions of love because mankind has moved away from love as God has defined it, from who God is in his very person. I say “versions of love” because they aren’t truly love. When you reject God, you also reject everything God is and what he stands for: any justice, righteousness, goodness, love. And if you move away from God, distancing yourself from him, you will not have an example to base your expressions off of, and the only versions of the things you hope to accomplish will be perversions of the original. They will be poor copies. These perversions of God’s attributes and qualities pale in comparison to what they are in God himself. He is the original copy, the pristine artwork of the collection, not a children’s scribble.
Rejecting God would be like taking a newspaper and cutting out every article and headline so that all that remains is the empty space. You’d have a newspaper filled with cut out rectangles and empty space. That’s all what evil will ever be- empty space, nothing worthwhile in and of itself, but the removal, the distancing, from all that has true meaning or value.
Without knowledge of who God is, you are removing any semblance of structure or participation in the things of God and the life he has given. Love then becomes an empty shell, a husk of what it once was. In fact, love is so empty and meaningless without God that it shouldn’t even be classified as love at all. Without God, nothing is there.
But the good news is that we can love because God has first loved us. He has revealed himself toward us … and not just his love, but also in his justice and his righteousness. He has proven himself to mankind throughout the entirety of human history. His divine works are recorded for us in the scriptures. He himself came in human flesh and showed us his divine character in all lovingkindness, humility, and righteousness. He has allowed humans to taste and see who he is through the things he has done. And because he has revealed himself in such a manner, we are able to know him, and are able to look to him as the original copy for all moral characteristics. With him humans have their meaning, their purpose, restored.
And so, there are attributes which God possesses which are able to be communicated with his created beings. They are the communicable attributes.
So let us now take a moment to break from that train of thought and look at what scripture has to say about each of the attributes we listed in our statement. Each of these could easily be a sermon in and of themselves. They are all supported by a wide host of passages that support each attribute. But today I’ve just selected a few for us to read, to reflect on. It is my hope that by reading these, you can see God’s true nature and that you will be able to say “There is truly none like him”. You will see that nothing else can even come close to the wonder and mystery that is our Lord.
Beginning with the attributes only God has for himself.
Perfect
Perfect
“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Infinite
Infinite
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
Eternal
Eternal
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Unchanging
Unchanging
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
There are some things which God has which he possesses fully, but imparts to mankind in sum. But we know that God is all-powerful.
All-Powerful
All-Powerful
‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
All-Knowing
All-Knowing
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Always Present
Always Present
‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Self-Sufficient
Self-Sufficient
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
Sovereign
Sovereign
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Righteous
Righteous
For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.
Just
Just
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
Holy
Holy
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Loving
Loving
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
Gracious
Gracious
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
Merciful
Merciful
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
True
True
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
None like Him
None like Him
Our statement is not an exhaustive list of all of God’s attributes. But it’s a good summary of what is stated in God’s Word, a solid foundation upon which we can stand.j
If you are sitting here today and you have not yet come to know the Lord God personally, I would invite you to do that today. He loves you and has made a way for you to know him through Jesus on the cross.