Isaiah 40:9: Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
Have you paused in your busy life to reflect on our awesome God? What do you perceive God to be in your heart?
A.W. Tozer says in The Knowledge of the Holy:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…No religion has ever been greater than its idea of God…For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God…Without doubt the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God…That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us…A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well…It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God…is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity…low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them…The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him…The idolator simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true…The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.
What is your mental image of God? What do you conceive God to be like? Do you carry thoughts of God that are worthy of Him? You will go no further in your spiritual walk with God then the picture of God you carry in your heart. Our faith, our prayers, our trust, our worship, and our fellowship are all dramatically affected by the thoughts we carry about God.
Psalm 9:10: And they that know thy name (character and reputation) will put their trust in thee.
Faith is confidence in the character of God and if don’t know what kind of God He is, we can’t have faith. We must know the character of God. We need a restored knowledge of God. Today we have more Bibles, more books, more preachers, more missions, and more schools than at any time in history, but how little we know about the character, reputation, and name of God! We have lost the lofty truth about God, and the wonder, the awe, the majesty of Yahweh. This has led to a tremendous decline in our spiritual growth both individually and as a church. A.W. Tozer said, “One hour with the majesty of God would be worth more to you now and in eternity than all the preachers-including myself-that ever stood up to open their Bible.”
How much do we study and know about the attributes of God? An attribute of God is whatever God has revealed as being true of Himself. An attribute is what God is. The attributes of God refer to his fundamental, permanent, and unchanging characteristics. This is the most important knowledge we can possess. The knowledge of God begins with His attributes. Scripture tells us that God possess attributes about which we may know. What is God like? What kind of God is He? How may we expect Him to act toward us? How much do we know about God? God has revealed Himself in the creation, in the Bible and in His Son. Human character is not constant and varies with intensity throughout their lives. God’s attributes are perfect and do not change or vary. He does not possess them as qualities, but it is what God is. No contradiction exists in God. He is unified in all His attributes.
Jeremiah 9:23,24: Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
We cannot understand Yahweh without understanding His attributes. The great purpose of all life is to know God in an intimate relationship. Only in a true knowledge of God does one understand their identity and their purpose in life. Hosea 6:3 says, “Let us press on to know the Lord.” Yet we live in a culture that mimics Job 21:14: “They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.” This is a life of chaos. This is a life with no eternal purpose wandering aimlessly in the darkness of this world. This is a true waste of life.
,here are literally countless attributes of God, but let us look at four attributes of God today that will help build our knowledge of God and expand our vision of Him.
God is Eternal
This is one of the most amazing attributes of God and distinguishes Him from all creation. God is without beginning or end. There is never a time He did not exist, and there is never a time He will cease to exist in the future. God is timeless, always existing, and never changing. We are for a moment, but God is forever. He was God, is God and will be God forever. As God is, so He will be. This truth is so necessary to right thoughts about God that it cannot be overemphasized.
Isaiah 57:15 says that God “inhabits eternity.” In the Hebrew, the word “inhabits” comes from the primitive root meaning lodging, and is where one resides and permanently stays. It is where one settles down and abides. God’s lodging and permanent abode is eternity.
Psalm 90:2 (Amplified): Before the mountains were born or before You had given birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.
Isaiah 43:10: “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
Tozer: We cannot think rightly about God until we begin to think of Him as always being there and being there first.
God never began to be. God was. God didn’t start from somewhere as God just is. Time cannot apply to God. There never was a time when God was not. God dwells in the everlasting now. God has no past and God has no future. Time is a little mark across eternity. God has no yesterdays and no tomorrows. God has already lived all our tomorrows. God never panics because God never looks at clocks or watches. We have become slaves to time, but we find our immortality and eternity in God and nowhere else. We need God for God is our eternity. God is our guarantee of eternal life and will one day take us into the heart of the everlasting now. He is the only one that has the promise of everlasting life.
We begin to see this verse in a deeper light.
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God never fades, never disappears, never dies, and never ceases to exist. His care for us is everlasting.
Psalm 48:14: that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.
God promises He will care for us and guide us forever. Pluralism is just another name for idolatry. There is only one true God. There is no other that is even worthy to be called God.
Isaiah 46:9b, 10: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Even a pagan king changed his concept of Yahweh.
Daniel 4:34,35: At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 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?”
We bless, we honor, and we praise Him for God is eternal.
God is great
God alone is great. Everything in creation is dependent on Him. No comparison can ever be made between God and any other creature or thing. He is infinitely above anything in creation. God is incomparable. He defines greatness. God is greater than we can even imagine.
Nehemiah 8:6 Yahweh is the great God.
Jeremiah 10:6: There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might.
2 Chronicles 2:5b, 6a: For our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him?
Nehemiah 1:5a: I said, “I beseech You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God…
Deuteronomy 7:21b: For the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
2 Chronicles 29:11: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness..
The Hebrew word for “great” means great in magnitude and extent. This word does not mean great in number. It is great in largeness and majesty. It is to be immeasurable. God cannot be measured or weighed. God cannot be confined or analyzed in a laboratory. There is no limit to God. Job 11:7b: “Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?” There is no end to God’s greatness. It also means to be great in intensity, importance, and distinguishment. Great in wisdom, power, and strength. Nothing comes close to the greatness of God. The unparalleled, incomparable, unrivaled, and unequalled greatness of God. It is the truth that is utterly relevant for everything in life. We are to be gripped by His awesome reality.
Psalm 145:3: Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,and his greatness is unsearchable.
Deuteronomy 10:17: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
Job 5:9,10: As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:
God is so great He does things that we think are beyond doing. The uniqueness and magnitude of God is wrapped up in this word great. We must never forget that our God is great beyond anything we can ever imagine.
God is omnipotent
This refers to the attribute of having infinite or unlimited power. God can do all that He has determined to do and no person or force can hinder Him.
Psalm 62:11b: “Power belongs to God.” What an awesome truth and this power is without limit.
Genesis 17:1: I am the Almighty God. The word “Almighty” in Scripture is used 56 times and is never used about anyone else but God. He is the Almighty-having absolute and infinite power that is never exhausted, never burns out and never has to be replenished.
God cannot contradict Himself in the exercise of His power. God can do everything that is in harmony with His Holy character. God is all powerful and thus has unlimited authority & influence. He has the ability to do whatever His will dictates. He has both the resources and the ability to work his will in every circumstance in the universe.
If you prefer a simpler definition, just think of these three words—” God is able.” That’s what omnipotence means. He is able to do everything he needs to do or wants to do. No one can stop God’s plans. No power can thwart His purposes. What God starts, He finishes and no matter how great the need, His resources are never depleted. He has unlimited power to carry our burdens and solve our problems. God is unlimited in His strength, capacity, vigor, and force. God can hold you up when no one else can. God contains, perpetuates, and sustains all things.
Jeremiah 32:17: 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.
He has the same amount of power today than when He made the heavens and earth. God doesn’t expend energy, He is energy.
Luke 1:37: For nothing is impossible with God.
Psalm 147:5: Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
Nahum 1:3: The Lord is great in power
Job 42:2: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Deuteronomy 9:29: For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm
2 Chronicles 20:6, 12b: O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
Isaiah 40:26: Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
His power does not miss one thing. God is powerful, but personable. We can call Him “Abba Father.”
Psalm 115:3: Our God is in the heavens;He does all that he pleases.
His power is not constrained by the limits of human reasoning.
Psalm 29:4: The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
As Christians God has shared some of His power with us as a gift.
Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Where is the power in Christianity? It was never meant to be a dead battery.
Ephesians 3:20: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
Ephesians 1:19ff: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
We activate God’s explosive power by our believing.
People often ask why all the suffering in the world if God is omnipotent? God does bare His arm and exercise His power for those who trust and seek Him, but we live in a generation where no one seeks Him, but they still ask why. They also don’t understand that Adam committed high treason when he transferred the authority God had given him to the Devil. Lucifer has a limited jurisdiction upon this earth until Christ establishes His kingdom on the earth in the future. if God is not truly omnipotent, then evil is more powerful than God. This simply is not true as seen in page after page of scripture.
Psalm 23:4: I will fear no evil because you are with me. Romans 8:31-If God be for me who can be against me?
God’s unlimited power is a truth that we often do not believe and thus fail to utilize in our lives.
God is Faithful
I Corinthians 1:9: God is faithful.
The faithfulness of God guarantees that He will never be or act inconsistent with Himself. God will never cease to be what He is and who He is. He will always be true to Himself. God is His own standard. God imitates nobody and is influenced by nobody. He never acts out of character. Nothing can force God to act otherwise than faithfully to Himself and us-no person, no circumstance, nothing. God will remain faithful because He never changes. God is never partly anything as He is perfectly faithful in all He does.
Deuteronomy 7:9: Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations
He is the faithful God who never broke a promise, never violated a covenant, never told a lie, never said one thing and meant another, and never overlooked or forgot anything. He always fulfills every jot and title of His Word. If God said it, you can believe it. God cannot contradict Himself. God’s faithfulness should destroy our unbelief. Unbelief says somewhere else, but not here; some other time, but not now; some other people, but not us. We believe in miracles yesterday and miracles tomorrow but not miracles today. God is perfectly willing to do the impossible when His people dare to believe that He is the faithful God and meant what He says. Do you take God at His Word? When you read the Bible say “God wrote this and God is faithful and He cannot lie.” God’s words and works are also completely faithful.
Faithfulness communicates the idea of stability and certainty. God is worthy of absolute trust because He is faithful. We can depend on Him without any doubt or reservation. God’s faithfulness means He will do everything that He has promised in His Word.
2 Thessalonians 3:3: But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
2 Timothy 2:13: if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Hebrews 10:23: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
I Thessalonians 5:24: The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Lamentations 3:22,23: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Exodus 34:6: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness
Deuteronomy 32:3,4: For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
Psalm 100:5: For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
God’s faithfulness depends on His power and immutability (He does not change). God has unlimited power to fulfill His promises and does not change His will on His promises. God is able to do all that He has promised.
I Kings 8:56: Not one word has failed of all His good promise.
Isaiah 14:24: The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”
Psalm 36:5: Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Numbers 23:19: God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
God is utterly dependable and reliable 100% of the time. He does not falter, fail, forget, or disappoint. There is no taint of doubt. There is no tinge of uncertainty. Faithfulness is what God is. God is worthy of trust and confidence because He is faithful. We can have faith in God because He is faithful.
Psalm 37:3: “Feed on His faithfulness.” It should be the diet of our soul.
You are a monument to God’s faithfulness.
There are so many more attributes of God’s character that we do not have time to cover in this sermon but provide a rich study for us. God’s holiness, love, grace, mercy, wisdom, goodness, longsuffering, justice, righteousness, omnipresent, omniscient, immutable, and truth. He is the absolute perfection of each of these qualities and together they form a unity of His character.
We know that this awesome great God has made a promise for our future. He is absolutely faithful and has the unlimited power to bring to pass this promise of eternal life and an everlasting kingdom. We will for all eternity shout “Behold our God!”
Isaiah 25:6-9: On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
