Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 4)

Transcript

JRS 14
07/24/2022
Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 4)
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Well, good evening. I hope you had a restful afternoon, a good time with family, loved ones, friends, neighbors, Romans, countrymen, and just had a good time to rest in preparation for evening worship. It really is a privilege and really a joy that we get to do this twice a day. I hope you’re feeling that way. I enjoy this. Being able to worship with the people of God twice a day, opening God’s word, studying our great God, and really just having a rich, full meal before we move on with the rest of the week.

Well, we are moving on to lesson #4 tonight in our “Summer in the Systematics” series. As we work through this basic and foundational, and I would say, rich and rewarding study of the doctrine of God also known as Theology Proper. I’m going to start our time tonight actually with a quote. There’ll be lots of quotes tonight. I went through my slide count and I’m just hoping that we’ll be out of here by 10:30 because there’s a lot of material here. I’ll chop it if I need to, don’t worry.

I’m going to start with a quote from Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry is a late 17th century English theologian. I’m sure many of you have heard the name. He had a very famous commentary series on the entire Bible that has influenced generations of preachers and pastors and theologians. He writes in his work, “The Pleasantness of a Religious Life,” this, “To think that here is a God; that he is such a One as the Scripture has revealed Him to be, and being infinitely wise and powerful, holy, just and good; that this God governs the world. . .that He is our owner and ruler; that in His hand our breath is; in His hand our times, our hearts, and all our ways are . . . (H)appy are they that can please themselves with these thoughts.” “Happy are we,” indeed! I mean, there are so many things and people and traps in our day that would say, oh, this is where we could find happiness. This is where we can find contentment. But Henry’s right. Happy are we when we seek that joy and seek that contentment and seek even that happiness in probing the nature of the divine. Seeking to understand through that process that we’ve talked about a few time already, of “blessed despair” of who our great God is. Hopefully what this “Summer in the Systematics” series is doing is not only deepening your reservoirs of knowledge about the nature and character of God… Now if that’s all that’s happening then I’m not doing my job in making sure that you are continually growing in your affections for and your joy in knowing that you know this God. The God that we’ll be studying this evening.

So by way of review, so far in this series we’ve looked at a few aspects of this doctrine of Theology Proper, the doctrine of God. We’ve looked at the revelation of God. That was our first lesson where we looked at the major ways God has revealed Himself to creation, His creation, as well as to His creatures. He’s done so, you’ll recall, through general revelation, meaning creation or nature, history or providence, circumstances, and through conscience. He's also revealed Himself through special revelation, meaning direct communication, dreams and visions, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and of course in our day, Scripture.

We’ve also looked at the existence of God. That was our second module in this series where we saw that the various philosophical arguments or natural proofs that theologians and philosophers alike have offered as a way to prove the existence of God. We looked in that lesson at the various different philosophical arguments such as the Cosmological Argument, the Teleological Argument, the Moral Argument, and the Ontological Argument. And we saw that while each of these arguments does have something to contribute to the discussion of God’s existence, none is adequate in and of itself, to prove that God exists. Instead, we arrived at the conclusion that only the fifth argument that we went through, the Presuppositional Argument which is rooted in what Scripture itself says about God’s existence, is sufficient to show, to establish, that God exists.

Then, in our third module, that was last week, we went through the names of God. At least some of them. Elohim and Adonai and Yahweh and various different derivations of those names which reveal to us various aspects of God’s nature, and His person, and His character.

That all catches us up to tonight’s lesson. Lesson # 4 on the attributes of God. Actually, it will be both tonight’s lesson and next week’s lesson which will both be studies through this weighty and enormous topic of the attributes of God.

Now, before we get too much deeper into this specific study, we need to define what we’re referring to when we say the attributes of God. What are the attributes of God? I like how the Old Baptist theologian Augustus Strong defined the term, in admittedly flowery language, attributes of God. He says the attributes of God are “those distinguishing characteristics of the divine nature which are inseparable from the idea of God, and which constitute the basis and ground for His various manifestations to His creatures.” Everybody got that? Like I said, a little flowery. It’s good, it’s accurate, but it’s also a mouthful.

I think we can simplify a definition of the attributes of God like this. The attributes of God are those qualities or characteristics which are inherent in and ascribed to God. I’ll say it again. The attributes of God are those qualities or characteristics which are inherent in and ascribed to God. That will be the definition of the attributes of God that we’ll use as we go through this study tonight and into next week.

And why is it important that we study the attributes of God? Well, to start with, to make sure that we ourselves are worshiping the right God. God as He has revealed Himself on the pages of Scripture as who He truly is. Not the god we want him to be. Not the god who we assume He is. But God as He actually is, as He has revealed Himself in the Bible.

It’s also important to study the attributes of God to make sure we are pointing unbelievers, as we evangelize, as we share the gospel with them, to the actual God that they stand in opposition to. To the true God. Not to a god who is untethered from how He has revealed Himself in the Word. Not to a god who is a figment of their imagination – or ours. Not to a god who is, in reality, an idol we’ve formed in our minds. It sounds so simple but “getting God right” is of utmost importance. Especially in our day and in our time.

Consider these words from David Wells, in his work “God in the Wasteland.” As he writes this some of these references are a little bit dated. That’s because he wrote this in 1994. But look what he says, “It is one of the defining marks of our time that God is now weightless.” Now in a sense Wells is being prophetic here because he is writing here in 1994. “I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequently as to not be noticeable . . . Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness.” Of course, in our day, we could substitute some of these references to the evening news. I know some of you still watch the evening news. But a lot of us are watching YouTube and social media, and those are very much distracting people from the nature, the character, the awe-inducing presence of almighty God. That is not only weightlessness -- sort of the cultural ethos, the cultural ignorance of God-- it’s not only weightless, it’s incredibly sad. We study God’s attributes to make sure that this weighty matter of who God is, is handled thoroughly, handled accurately, and handled faithfully.

So as we engage and embark on this study of the attributes of God, what we need to do now is lay down a few ground rules and presuppositions which is going to govern our study of the attributes of God. First is this. The study of God’s attributes cannot be approached clinically or coldly. The study of God’s attributes is not intended to be some boring taxonomy of the traits and characteristics of God. Now as dispensationalists, I know we love our charts, but the study of God’s attributes cannot be reduced to a chart or a graph. The study of God’s attributes should never be like studying the periodical table of elements or doing multiplication tables or memorizing state capitals. No, the study of the divine attributes should always inflame greater adoration, worship, and praise of our our great God as we consider and contemplate truly how great He is! So that’s 1 (one), the study of God’s attributes cannot be approached clinically or coldly.

Second, the study of God’s attributes is ultimately not about studying His attributes. Instead, it’s about studying God Himself when we study God’s attributes. I hope you hear what I’m saying there. Again, we’re not categorizing or trying to identify God based on the way we divide Him up or attempt to divide Him up in our mind. Though He is one and simple as we will get to in a minute. It’s not such a rote, academic exercise. Rather, when we are studying God’s attributes we have to understand we’re studying God Himself. God’s attributes are who God is. His attributes and His essence are synonymous. You can’t divorce the two. You can’t say, I’m studying God and I’m studying God’s attributes. You’re being redundant when you say it that way.

W.G.T. Shedd, in his “Dogmatic Theology” got it right when he said this. “The attributes are not parts of the essence, of which the latter is composed. The whole essence is in each attribute, and the attribute is in the essence.” He goes on and says, “We must not conceive of the essence,” the essence of God, of course, “as existing by itself, and prior to the attributes, and of the attributes as an addition to God. God is not essence and attributes, but in attributes. The attributes are essential qualities of God.” So, we list, and categorize, and systematize God’s attributes. That’s what we do because it benefits us as it helps us to think about things divine. But it’s important to note, as Shedd points out here, that God’s attributes and His essence are one and the same. That’s our second presupposition. Our second ground rule.

Here’s the third one. The fact that we study God’s attributes (and this is related to what I said previously), the fact that we study God’s attributes and we put them in categories for our own edification and our own benefit. And in light of our own limitations that does not mean that He is a composite being. Just because we need to think of Him in a certain way in our fallen, finite minds does not mean that He is composed of parts. No, the God revealed in Scripture is not a God made up of parts. God is not part love and part grace and part holy and part just. No, as we’ll cover in a future lesson on the topic of divine simplicity, God is simple. Now that’s going to trip people up when they think about God to say that God is simple. That does not mean that His essence and His Being and His God-ness are simple to understand. It just means that He is simple in essence. It means He is not composite. He’s not compound. He’s not made up of parts. That’s going to be a real critical thing to keep in mind as we study God’s attributes, both tonight and next Sunday night.

The fourth one, the fourth presupposition or fourth ground rule is that each of God’s attributes could rightly be called perfections. See, because God is the very essence and totality of each of these attributes that we’re going to study tonight. He not only possesses them, He manifests them. He embodies them perfectly. Because He Himself is perfect essence and perfect being.
Now, though we could call them perfections for the sake of familiarity and accessibility of some good resources that are out there which are on this subject (which I’ll get into next week by the way) I’m going to stick with the more customary language in this talk tonight, the attributes of God.

Here’s fifth, our fifth ground rule or fifth presupposition. In the history of the study of systematic theology, a line of demarcation has been drawn between the various attributes of God. And I’m sure many of you who have done any sort of deep study into theology know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’ve read Tozer or Pink or different books on the attributes of God you’ve seen there’s this division. Sometimes they’ll call certain attributes the natural versus the moral attributes of God. The negative attributes versus the positive attributes of God. The absolute attributes of God versus the relative attributes. The non-shared attributes of God versus the shared attributes of God. There’s always some way that we use our own accommodating language to understand that there are some attributes He has that are exclusively His. That He does not in any way share or reflect toward us. And there are others that in some limited sense He shares with us. The more common terminology and the one we’ll use for this study is this. The communicable and incommunicable attributes of God.

So, for the sake of our study, for the sake of continuity, for the sake of accessibility of how most authors write on this topic we’ll call them communicable and incommunicable attributes of God.
Now, the incommunicable attributes of God are those (I’ve already alluded to this) which are distinct to God alone. As Terry Johnson writes in his “Identity and Attributes of God,” “The incommunicable [attributes] are those which are characteristic of God alone. Humanity does not and cannot share any of them. These characteristics, for example, eternity, infinity, and immutability, cannot be transmitted to creatures. They highlight how different God is from us.”
Even better, I think than Johnson, is James Henley Thornwell, who wrote this. He said that God’s incommunicable attributes are those “which separate God by an impassable chasm from every work of His hands. These are,” I love this language, “the badges of Divinity, that glory which He will not and cannot give to another.” Those would be incommunicable attributes of God.

By contrast, the communicable attributes of God are those which can be found in mankind as God chooses to impart them to us as His creatures. You know, God is good, holy, and loving. And because we bear His image we are able to demonstrate some measure of goodness, and some measure of holiness, and some measure of love in our lives as well, albeit imperfectly and albeit in a very shadowy resemblance.

In tonight’s lesson we’re going to be working through various (as I mentioned) incommunicable attributes of God. Those which are not shared by God with image-bearers like you and me in any sense. In next week’s lesson we’ll look at some of God’s communicable attributes. But tonight, incommunicable.

Lots of syllables, can you tell, in tonight’s study. With that, let’s dive into our study of the incommunicable attributes of God. We’re going to work our way tonight through seven incommunicable attributes of God. And as you’re going to see, they line up very neatly under this acronym. A-E-I-O-U. I didn’t try to make that work believe it or not. I didn’t try to get cute with that. It just shook out this way. A-E-I-O-U. Hopefully, that’s a handy way to think through some of these incommunicable attributes of God. In fact, you’ll see these blanks on your worksheet. There are seven of them. Those line up with this A-E-I-O-U acronym so we’re going to go through the aseity of God. The eternity or eternality of God. The immutability of God, that would be number three. Then the three “omni(s),” omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotence. And then finally number seven, the unity of God. Hopefully that’s going to be a handy tool and a handy way to remember each of these.

And we’re going to slow down and go through each of these attribute by attribute as you fill out this worksheet. So with all that, let’s get into our first incommunicable attribute. Aseity. That’s the first blank on your note sheet here, the aseity of God. The aseity of God. To say that God is “ase” simply refers to the fact that He is self-existent. Some more modern theological works will refer to this attribute as not God’s aseity but God’s independence. The basic idea is that God is the eternal, foundational Being. And, as the eternal, foundational Being, He is not dependent on anything or anyone outside of Himself. He is self-sufficient and independent in every respect.

Going back to our lesson a couple of weeks ago we would agree with Thomas Aquinas on this point. We wouldn’t agree with any of his “Romanism” or his Roman Catholic beliefs or doctrine but we would agree with him on this limited point. That God is the “uncaused One.” That God is the “unmoved Mover.” Remember that language? The “unmoved Mover” that Aquinas brought up. And we would agree with Aquinas on that, not because of Aquinas but because it’s what Scripture clearly teaches!

A few Scriptures to jot down in support of God’s aseity or His independence would be these. Exodus 3:14, “I Am Who I Am.” As we saw last week, God’s aseity, God’s independence, is expressed in His very name. God has always existed and revealed Himself as the self-existent One. Here’s another one, Psalm 90:2. This is the psalm penned by Moses. “Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” That’s a statement of His aseity, of His independence. A.W. Pink, in his “Attributes of God,” summarizes the aseity, God’s self-existence, in this way. He says, “During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied, in need of nothing.” Or as Herman Bavinck once put it in “Doctrine of God,” God “has the ground of existence in Himself. He preexisted all things, and all things exist through Him . . . In the most absolute sense of the word, He is ‘Lord’ . . . He depends on nothing; everything depends on Him.” There’s more Bavinck, “Thus, all-sufficient in Himself, and independent of all things He is the only source of life and existence, all light and love, the fountain of all blessings.” And then there’s Berkhof, “God has the ground of His existence in Himself, and unlike man, does not depend on anything outside of Himself. He is independent in His Being, in His virtues and actions, and causes all His creatures to depend on Him.”

Now for some, this can be one of the more difficult truths about God to get their or our heads wrapped around. Not only because it (the idea of self-existence), naturally causes us, the mere, finite creatures, to engage in some serious mental gymnastics to sort of figure out what’s being said here. It’s always going to be a challenge for the finite man or finite woman to contemplate the infinite, self-existent God. But a lot of the time we also wrestle at this heart level how this might be so. A.W. Tozer said this on this concept of the human hearts wrestling with this concept of God being “ase,” God being independent, God being self-existent. He says “We tend to be disquieted by the thought of one who does not account to us for His being, who is responsible to no one, who is self-existent, self-dependent, and self-sufficient . . . To admit that there is one who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face,” look at this language, “by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage him. Yet how He eludes us!” Indeed. Indeed He does. And that’s that process (and I’m going to say it over and over in this series) of “blessed despair” that we’ve been talking about and will talk about in weeks ahead. God is independent. God is self-existent. If we could understand everything about how that all works… Well, who would we be? God. So that’s a bit about the aseity or independence of God, the self-existence of God. That’s the “a,” the first blank, on your work sheet there, the aseity of God.

Next up, is the eternity of God. So, if aseity hasn’t totally blown your mind and caused you to really get some headaches here tonight, let’s move into the eternity of God and see how that goes. The eternity of God is the attribute of God according to which He transcends all limitations of time. I’ll say that again. The eternity of God is the attribute of God according to which He transcends all limitations of time. God’s eternity is a natural consequence of His aseity because if God is self-existent, He necessarily must exist eternally and endlessly. Does that make sense? Sort of? It’s a natural consequence. If He is self-existent, think of the unmoved Mover, there’s no beginning with Him. If He is self-existent and has always existed, well, that existence must go on forever. There’s no starting point with God. There’s no beginning with God. According to Berkhof, again, the eternity of God is “that perfection of God whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, and possesses the whole of His existence,” this language will come back to you, “in one indivisible present.” I want you to mark that, note that down. He “possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present.”

Now as far as scriptural proofs, we’re not just going to quote theologians all night, tonight. Don’t worry, we’re going to get into God’s word and quote scripture. That’s what is most important here. But as far as biblical, scriptural proofs for God’s eternity, there are many.
For instance, we know Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “In the beginning God,” there’s no statement, there’s no proving God here. There’s no indication of anything before God. It’s “in the beginning God.” Or John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Of course, that’s the God-Man, the Lord Jesus, pre-existing His creation.

Here’s another one. We know that God is God “from everlasting to everlasting,” again Psalm 90:2. “Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” That’s a statement of timelessness and eternality. “You are God.” We know that our God is eternal and that “the number of His years is unsearchable,” Job 36:26, “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable,” speak to His eternality. We know that He will endure forever. Psalm 102:27, “But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.”. We know that God has eternity in His name. We talked about that last week. He is El Olam. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God (El Olam), the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired,” Isaiah 40:28. And we know, finally, from Romans 16:26, and there are more scriptures, these are just a few, that God is “the eternal God.”

Putting all these pieces together from Scripture we can conclude that God is eternal in His essence. He has no beginning. He is without ending. Not only that, but God is free from all succession of time in the way that you and I experience time. See, everything that happens inside and outside the Godhead is immediately and consciously experienced by God as though it was all happening one moment. We saw that earlier with the Berkhof quote where he said, that God “possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present.” Think about that. Our whole existence is made up of constant successions of moments in time. Morning turns into evening. 3:30 turns into 3:31 and then into 3:32, then eventually the 4:00 and 7:00 and 10:00. Sunday turns into Monday. Summer turns into Fall and so on, and so on, and so on. Not so with God. God exists “in one indivisible present.”

Now, when we think of God being eternal and not being time-bound the way that we are time-bound, we do run the risk of losing sight of His involvement with time. To say that God is eternal is to say that He is distinct from time. He is not bound by time. But on the other hand, it is also important to note that though God sits outside of time, He is at the same time very much immanent in every moment of time. And indeed, controls every moment of time. In fact, time is one of God’s creations, it’s one aspect of His creation. He has created time and upholds each and every moment of time that you or I or anybody in the world’s population has ever experienced or will experience. Fully present in every moment of time but He is never subject to time. What we know as passage of time or our passages of moments of time, God experiences, as Berkhof puts it, “as one indivisible present.”

Alright, we’ve made it through the “a.” We’ve made it through the “e” of God’s incommunicable attributes. Next up is our “i.” Number three here, the immutability of God. God’s immutability. When we speak of the immutability of God we are referring to the fact that God is unchanging. He’s unchanging in His being. He’s unchanging in His attributes, His perfections. He’s unchanging in His purposes and He’s unchanging in His promises. God does not and is not capable of changing in any of these ways. He doesn’t become greater or lesser. He doesn’t become stronger or weaker. He doesn’t become better or worse. He does not develop. He does not grow. He does not improve. He does not mature. He does not decline. He does not weaken. He does not decay.

As Thomas Watson once put it in his “Body of Divinity,” “In God there is nothing that looks like change, for better or worse . . . not better, because then he were not,” meaning would not be, “perfect; for worse, for then he would cease to be perfect.” See, God’s immutability is a natural extension of His aseity, of His self-existence. Which takes us back to our first passage, our first verse that we looked at, Exodus 3:14. “I Am Who I Am.” This verse not only reveals God is independent, that He is self-existence, it also reveals His immutability because what it teaches us that God is who He is. He is never not who He is. He hasn’t become who He is. He isn’t about to become something He’s not already. He is who He is. He doesn’t change. He’s immutable. “I Am Who I Am.”

Now there are of course, other passages of Scripture, which confirm this truth that God is immutable. We’ll run through a couple of them here. Psalm 102:25-27, “Of old You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same,” that’s immutability right there, “and Your years will not come to an end.” Or Malachi 3:6, “For I, the LORD, do not change.” Or James 1:17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Now, what Scripture teaches about God’s immutability should be of great comfort to the abiding follower of Christ. Because what this reminds us, what this characteristic of God reminds us of, is that God is not fickle. God is not subject to sways in emotion the way that we are. It reminds us that God will not change His mind concerning His promises. It’s not as though He loves His children today but then removes His love for His children tomorrow. It reminds us that God’s word and God’s counsel will not change. He truly is a good Father in every sense of the word. And His immutability, His unchanging nature, is an important part of that truth and a central aspect of His being and His character.

Stephen Charnock noted that, how central the immutability of God is to His character in his work “The Existence and Attributes of God.” He said “Immutability is a glory belonging to all the attributes of God . . . the center wherein they all unite.” He’s right. How comforting is it to know that God is not just good, but unchangeably good. Not just merciful, but unchangeably merciful. And unchangeably loving and unchangeably holy and unchangeably just and unchangeably faithful.

I remember when the Obergefell decision came down in 2015 being so distraught about just the direction of the government and the world and all that is going on. (And just sharing time right here.) I remember thinking Malachi 3:6 “I, the Lord, do not change.” That’s the scripture that the Lord brought to mind that day as I thought about who God is, His unchanging character, His unchanging promises, His unchanging plans for the future. “I, the Lord, do not change.” It’s a real comforting truth.

Now whenever you bring up immutability there are those passages in scripture which seem to speak to God acting in time. Changing His mind, changing His action, changing His course you could say. For instance, Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Exodus 4:14 “Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses” almost as though the anger wasn’t there before, but now it was there, suggesting change. Exodus 32:14, this is after the golden calf episode. It says “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Or Jonah 3:10 “When God saw their deeds” speaking of the Ninevites, “that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented,” (“change” could be “repented,” “change” could be another way of saying that) “concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

What are we to make of these instances? Was the unchanging God actually changing as He appeared to change His mind and His posture and His outlook in these situations? The answer to that question would be “no.” In none of these cases where there seem to be changes are we to think that God is actually changing or that there are any changes in God. Rather, the most that we can consider these as being are “apparent” changes in God. As He is accommodating us in the way that He reveals Himself to us. And the way that we think and we process human language. Whenever we see God changing, like in these passages, in any way, whether it be about Him becoming angry or showing compassion or expressing sorrow, the language is (big theological term here) “anthropomorphic.” Meaning ascribing human traits to something that is not human, anthropomorphic. Or another word would be “anthropopathic.” Ascribing human emotions or feelings to something that is not human. Anthropomorphic would be ascribing human traits to something not human. Anthropopathic would be ascribing human emotions to something that is not human. Meaning, when we see some sort of emotive language linked with God, what we’re seeing is a form of figurative language. Which is communicating to man on man’s level of understanding the way that God is disposed toward his or her circumstances, or actions, or attitudes.

A very simple way to think about this is, this is “accommodating” language. It’s accommodating to the limits of our own lack of human comprehension. In other words, when Scripture refers to any apparent “change” in God you can be assured that God is not, in fact, changing because His nature and His perfection, His perfect nature, prohibit Him from changing in any way.

I love what Richard Baxter once said about the immutability of God. He wrote, in volume 3 of his works this. He says “Our houses may be burned;” (this sounds like Smyrna this morning) “our goods may be consumed or stolen; our clothes will be worn out; our treasure here may be corrupted; but our God is unchangeable, the same for ever. Our laws and customs may be changed; our governors and privileges changed; our company, and employments, and habitation changed; but our God is never changed. Our estates may change from riches to poverty; and our names that were honoured, may incur disgrace. Our health may quickly turn to sickness, and our ease to pain; but still our God is unchangeable for ever. Our friends are unconstant and may turn our enemies; our peace may be changed into war, and our liberty into slavery; but our God doth never change. Time will change customs, families, and all things here; but it changeth not our God.” Baxter is spot on. What an encouragement.

Alright, we have made it through the “a,” and the “e,” and the “i” of God’s incommunicable attributes. We’ve looked at the aseity, the eternality, and the immutability of God. Next up are the three “(o)s,” the three “omni(s).” Starting with the omniscience of God. The omniscience of God. That’s the fourth blank on your note sheet, on the top of page two, the omniscience of God. The omniscience. The word “omniscience” comes from two Latin words. “Omni” meaning all and “scientia” meaning knowledge. When you put those two words together, omni and scientia, you have “all-knowing.” That’s the idea behind the word “omniscient.” God is all-knowing as a perfect Being, as perfect Deity, God is perfect in His knowledge. Psalm 147:5, “His understanding is infinite.” Thomas Watson again, quoting from his “Body of Divinity,” “God knows whatever is knowable.” And what are the objects of His perfect knowledge? That is, what does He have perfect knowledge of?

Well, Scripture gives us several clues about the areas and the extent of God’s knowledge, His omniscience. To name just a few, God knows Himself. John 10:15 “even as the Father,” this is Jesus speaking here, “knows Me and I know the Father.” God knows the needs of His people. Matthew 6:8 “for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” God knows the needs of all of creation. Matthew 6:32 “for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” God knows the smallest, intricate details of each of our lives. Matthew 10:30 “but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” God knows the heart of man. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” God knows the plans and directions and thoughts of man. Psalm 139:2 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.” God knew us before we were conceived in our mother’s womb. Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” God knows the exact numbers of our days. Psalm 39:5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight.” And last, God knows all that will transpire in the future. I should have included 1 Thessalonians 4 there. Forgive me. The Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Millennium, all of it, He knows all that will transpire in the future.

A couple of important points worth making here about God’s knowledge that I’ll put up here on the slide. First, God’s knowledge is eternal and “a priori,” meaning “from the previous”. Meaning, God’s knowledge is not dependent on anything or anyone. God’s knowledge precedes all things outside of God. God’s knowledge precedes your birth and mine. It precedes the founding of the American republic. It precedes the Reformation. It precedes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It precedes the life of David and the times of Moses and the life of Abraham. It precedes the creation of the heavens and earth! God’s knowledge is never derived from something or someone outside of Himself. All of God’s knowledge derives within God’s perfect self-existence. As such, His knowledge is comprehensive, and certain, and sure, and perfect. So His knowledge is eternal.

God’s knowledge does not extend to the possible, but only to the actual. See, in God’s eternal mind and plan there are only actual things. Not possible things. And why is that? Because all things actually happen according to “the counsel of His will,” Ephesians 1:11. Now while theoretically God could know what would have occurred if circumstances had been different, the reality is those circumstances would have never occurred because they are not a part of “the counsel of His will” and thus they are not and never were possibilities. Only what is in God’s plan or counsel, Ephesians 1:11, is possible. And it is those things, those things that are in “the counsel of His will” are those things that will eventually come to pass and those are the things that God has knowledge of.

Here’s another way of putting it. His omniscience and His eternal decree, Ephesians 1:11, are co-extensive. There’s so much more that can be said about the knowledge of God. In fact, we’ll talk about these very topics in a future lesson when we cover topics like divine foreknowledge, God’s eternal decree, predestination. But for now, in the context of this more general study of the attributes of God, suffice it to say that God is all-knowing.

Next up, is God’s omnipresence. To say that God is omnipresent is to say that He is everywhere present. He is present everywhere at all times. To borrow again from Watson’s “Body of Divinity,” “God’s center is everywhere, and His circumference is nowhere.” God is, on the one hand, transcendent over His creation. “But our God is in the heavens;” Psalm 115:3, “He does whatever He pleases.” Or Isaiah 66:1 “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.” So God is transcendent. But He is also at the same time very much present with His creation in His creation, and with His people. We see God’s presence with His people in both Old Testament and New Testament while at the same time being transcendent. He dwelt with the Israelites at Sinai and later at Canaan and later at Jerusalem. He dwelt with the original people there in the tabernacle and then at the temple, specifically above the Ark of the Covenant between the cherubim. And such is the case today. God is fully present at every place, in every place, on the planet.

Now, that doesn’t mean God is physically in every atom and every molecule that which makes up our whole environment. We don’t want to confuse the Creator with the creation. We’re not teaching pantheism or panentheism here. We’re not saying that God is in everything. But what we are saying is that God is everywhere, and everything is in His presence. He is entirely present within every point of space in the universe. Again, Augustus Strong says “God, in the totality of his essence, without diffusion or expansion, multiplication or division, penetrates and fills the universe in all its parts.” Or Berkhof, “God is present with every point of space with His whole Being.” He is present in the life of the righteous and He is present in the life of the wicked. As Psalm 11 makes clear His relationship with those two groups of people is quite distinct. In a similar way God is not only present here on earth, He’s present in both heaven and in hell. Revelation 14:10 speaks to His presence in hell, specifically the presence of God the Son where it says there will be those who “will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

George Swinnock in his book “The Incomparableness of God,” leans into this topic of God is present above and here and below where he says “He is neither shut up in any place nor shut out of any place. He is above place, without place, yet in all places . . . God is in heaven, earth, sea, hell, and infinitely where there is neither heaven, nor earth, nor sea, nor hell.” Again, though, God’s presence in hell where He is meting out deservedly His wrath and justice looks much different than His presence in heaven where He is receiving worship and praise and adoration from His saints.

Now, in the end, God’s omnipresence will bring us to a place either of comfort or conviction. It will bring us to a place of comfort if we are His true followers. Those who have put our faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ who have submitted to His Lordship. We can now bask in knowing that we are always in the presence of this God’s protective eye. Psalm 139:18, “When I awake, I am still with You.” But this very trait, God’s omnipresence, can bring people to a place of conviction if they are in sin because they know they are sinning under this very same, watchful eye. The watchful eye of a holy and righteous Judge who is able not only to see our external actions but is able to look into our heart and into our innermost thoughts. He is omnipresent.

Next, we get to the omnipotence of God. This is our sixth heading tonight. What does it mean that God is omnipotent? Well, it simply means that He is all-powerful. He is able to accomplish anything He designs or desires, so long as it is not contrary to His nature. In his “Lectures in Systematic Theology,” Henry Clarence Thiessen said, “God is all-powerful and able to do whatever He wills. Since His will is limited by His nature, God can do everything that is in harmony with His perfections.” The all-powerful nature of God is reflected in His name. We saw that name last week, El Shaddai, Almighty God.

It’s also reflected in His Word. The all-powerful nature of God is reflected in His Word. Psalm 115:3, we already saw it, “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” Job 42:2 “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” Luke 1:37, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” And of course, Ephesians 3:20, God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.” These all speak to the all-powerful nature of almighty God.

And of course, the all-powerful nature of God is not only reflected in His name, not only in His Word, but in His works. His power is reflected in His creation of the world, Genesis 1:1; Psalm 8:3-4, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” His power is reflected in creation. His power is also reflected in how He upholds creation. Hebrews 1:3, He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” It’s shown in how He creates mankind. Psalm 139:14, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” And His power is revealed in His revealing of His plans of redemption and salvation through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Or 1 Corinthians 1:18, “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I appreciate this quote from Terry Johnson on this matter of the omnipotence or power of God. He says, “He is able to make the sun stand still, nullify the power of fire, close the mouths of lions, make waters stand like a wall, heal diseases and raise the dead, multiply loaves, and walk on water. When He works above the laws of nature, we call it a miracle. Miracles are not a problem for Almighty God.”

Now discussing this matter of the power of God, or the omnipotence, will inevitably lead to the question surely with our seven-year-old, maybe even with our ten- or twelve-year olds, is there anything God cannot do? Now we naturally want to say, “no.” In fact, I think our kids here sing a song, “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God can’t do.” Right? Well, is there anything that God cannot do? The answer is “yes.” Don’t tell your kids, just yet. They can see the lecture later. There are things God cannot do. And the things He cannot do are not a reflection on Him lacking power. They don’t make Him any less omnipotent or almighty. Instead, the things God cannot do He cannot do because if He were to do them it would violate, it would contradict, His very character, nature, and revealed will. So what are some of the things God cannot do? He cannot lie, Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2. God cannot lie. He cannot deny Himself, 2 Timothy 2:13. God cannot be tempted, James 1:13. God cannot change, James 1:17; Malachi 3:6. That then leads to the common coffee house question can God create a rock that’s so heavy that He cannot lift it? Well, He cannot. The answer is “no.” He could not create a rock that He could not lift because if He were to do so, at some level that would mean that He’s violating His own attributes and nature. And if He was violating His own nature or His own attributes He would cease to be God. So take that, coffee shop theologian. Alright, that’s the omnipotence of God.

We’ve made it through the “a,” the “e,” the “i,” and the three “o(s).” Number seven (and this is brief so we will be out of here on time) is unity. The unity of God. That’s our final blank this evening. The unity of God. What do we mean when we say the unity of God? Well, we mean this. God is one. God, He has one divine essence. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” Note, He “is” one. That’s speaking to oneness, singularity, unity. That’s all part of the Divine essence. We are not speaking of many gods. There are not three gods. Rather, there is one God, existing in three Persons. We are monotheists, albeit trinitarian monotheists. More about that in a future lesson!

When we speak on the unity of God, we mean not only that He is one in divine essence but that He is uniquely so. He is uniquely that one God. Not only is God one, there is only one God. Deuteronomy 4:35, “The Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him.” Psalm 18:31 “For who is God, but the Lord?” Isaiah 45:5, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God.” 1 Kings 8:60, “The Lord is God; there is no one else.” 1 Corinthians 8:6, “There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him.” 1 Timothy 2:5, “there is one God, and there is one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The God of the Bible, all this is saying, is uniquely God, the only God. Only He partakes of the divine essence. Only He is one. God’s unity is an attribute that’s reserved to Him and Him alone. He does not share this attribute with His creation and certainly with no other so-called gods. He, and He alone, is God.

Well, there you have it. Now this has been our fly-over, very much so, of these various incommunicable attributes of God. There’s so much more that could be said. There are other attributes, other perfections of God that we haven’t mentioned this evening. There are nuances of each of these attributes that we have covered that we don’t have time to get into this evening. But hopefully, what this is doing is giving you a taste for the study of the attributes of God. And I hope… I said it at the beginning, and I should say it here again at the end if I missed the opportunity to do so. This should not be clinical. This studying… my prayer consistently is that this should not be just an academic exercise where we fill our minds. And fill our reservoirs of knowledge. And we know a few more things about God. And we feel really good about ourselves. And we can say we know more about God than the church down the street. That’s not what this is for. This really is designed to make sure that we know God as He has revealed Himself. And the more that we know God as He has revealed Himself, the more we will love Him. The more we will desire to grow in our knowledge of Him. The more we will desire to serve Him in every capacity, to love fellow image bearers as we share the gospel with them, to love fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who have been redeemed by Him. And to give Him praise and glory in the truest sense. So I pray, I hope, that that’s what this study is doing. That it’s not just head knowledge but true heart transformation.

I’ll leave you with this quote. It seems like every Masters Seminary grad has to leave with a Charles Spurgeon quote. He says, “the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his father.” What a great God we serve. Amen?

Let’s pray. God, we thank You for this evening and thank You for this time in Your Word. And I do know that this has been like drinking through a fire hose for all of us here, myself included. I know that there’s a lot of material here but I do pray that the forest would not be lost for the trees as we contemplate the divine. As we contemplate who You are, how You have revealed Yourself, Your nature, Your character, Your works. I pray that this would truly, in the best sense, inflame true worship of You our great God. That we would as people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, come to understand how holy and righteous and good and loving that God is. That we have been reconciled to You through the death of Christ. And that would just engender in us great praise, great adoration of You our great God. We love You and we give You all the praise for this evening. In Jesus’ name, amen.