 The title of our sermon this morning is You Thought I Was Altogether Like You. You Thought I Was Altogether Like You. So, Lord's Rebuke of the Wicked in Psalm 50, when he was rebuking their lack of understanding of Almighty God. And we come this morning to, in our subject of the essentials, in our course of the essentials to pardon our confession that reads that we serve God who is without body parts or passions. In his commentary on Jeremiah chapter 10, the text read in your hearing, John Calvin refers to the false gods of this world as a contagion. They are a contagion. It's a fitting description considering that Israel was almost constantly plagued by this contagion by the toxic idolatry of the pagan Gentile nations surrounding them and the Israelites because they ultimately despised God's judgments. They were constantly, consistently allured by the man-made idols of this world, the man-made idols of those pagan nations that surrounded them. So, consider the words of Jeremiah chapter 10, verses 1 through 16, beginning in verse 1, where the Lord says, hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. And note in verse 1, that it's the word that the Lord reveals. Take heed, in other words, to what God says in his word. Cling to what God reveals is true. Our hearts, our minds are prone to wander. We're influenced by the world, the flesh and the devil. We're influenced by that traitor that we have within our own breast, our heart. We're not to be like Disney followers who are following their own heart. Don't follow your own heart. It's not good wisdom. We're influenced by, against the Lord, influenced astray from the Lord by our own heart. Now Calvin again said, and whenever this wantonness, whenever this wandering possesses men's minds, they necessarily blend darkness with light. We are prone to wander, and when we wander, we blend darkness with light. So then, verse 2, thus says the Lord in warning to us, don't learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. Who cares if you're an Aquarius, or a Taurus, or a Capricorn, or a Corolla? It doesn't matter. God has spoken his word. He has revealed himself to us. Heed him. Heed his word, right? For the customs of the peoples, verse 3, are feudal. Those religious, false religious customs are vain. They are worthless. Their false religion profits them absolutely nothing. Why is that? Verse 3, because one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with an axe. They decorate it with silver and gold in verse 4. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple over. They're upright like a palm tree, and they cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they can do no evil, nor can they do any good. In other words, God says, this is madness. It is madness. A foolish, ignorant, and stupid man takes a tree, and through his own false imagination, he fashions the tree into something else with his hatchet. He makes the tree into something else. The thing that he has fashioned now, according to his own imagination, he now substitutes for the living God and worships it rather than the true and living God of the Bible. This is madness. It's madness. Verse 6, inasmuch as there is none like you, O Lord, you are great. Your name is great and might. Who would not fear you, O king of the nations? For this is your rightful duty. You see how the Prophet views this as utterly irrational. It's irrational that we would do such things. For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. The people who do this are often applauded by this world as wise, aren't they? We see that even in our day, professing to be wise, they become fools. Jeremiah rebukes their stupidity. Who in their right mind would not worship you, O Lord? There is none like you. But, verse 8, they're altogether dull-hearted. The word means brutish. They're like an animal. That's what they're described as. That's what that word is used to mean. They don't have a reason. It's as if they don't have a soul. They're brutish and foolish, verse 8. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. You see how utterly ridiculous and absurd this is, right? Utterly absurd. Verse 9, silver is beaten into plates. It's brought from Tarshish, gold from Euphaz, the work of the craftsmen, and of the hands of the metalsmith. Blue and purple are their clothing. See how they're arrayed, right? How they're arrayed. They're all the work of skillful men. No matter how beautifully or ornately they are arrayed, man from his own imagination simply cannot form God. You will not arrive at God from your own imagination, from the fabrication of your own foolish thoughts. You will not arrive at the true and living God. Verse 10, but the Lord, the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting king. Do you see how that's in contrast with these false and worldly idols? These false and worldly idols are not true. They're false. They're not living. They're dead, deaf, and dumb. They're not everlasting. You can just as quickly burn them up in the fire as you've created them, right? At his wrath, verse 10, the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure his indignation. So thus you shall say to them, verse 11, the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. He stretched out the heavens at his discretion. When he utters his voice, there's a multitude of waters in the heavens and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries. Everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge. Every metalsmith, you see how pervasive the error is, right? Every metalsmith is given over to the production of these false idols. Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image for his molded image is a lie and there is no breath in them. That which they fashion according to their own imagination to represent God, that which they fashion according to their own mind is a lie. What we fashion within our own mind according to our own imagination when it comes to the true and living God, when we try to fashion anything with our mind, what we end up with is a lie. It's a deception. It's a delusion. It's a falsehood. They are the feudal work of errors. Verse 15, and in their time of their punishment, they shall perish. There's coming a day when they will perish. The pronoun they in verse 15 can refer back to either the idol or the one who fashions it. And it's equally true of both. They, the idol and the one who fashions it will perish. Verse 16, the portion of Jacob, that's the true and living God, the portion of Jacob is not like them. He's not like the idol and he's not like the one who fashions the idol. He is the maker of all things. And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name. So the idolater, the idolater imagines what God must be like. He thinks to himself, right, within his own heart, within his own mind. And he conceives within his own heart, within his own mind, what God must be like. What's his frame of reference? His context himself, right, his own heart, his own thoughts, his own logic, his own reasoning, his own imagination. The idolater imagines what God must be like or he foolishly believes what the world has asserted about him and the foolish and ignorant idolater then worships what is false. So consider with me the testimony of Scripture. The imagination of the Canaanites produced Baal or Asherah. Baal, Asherah, that's what you get when you conceive of God from your own imagination. That's what comes out of the heart and mind of fallen man, Baal, Asherah. The imagination of the Moabites produced Kimash. The imagination of the Philistines produced Dagon. The imagination, you remember the story of Dagon, he falls over in the temple before the Ark of God and his head falls off and his hands and feet fall off. Right, you have to come back in every morning and prop Dagon back up. The imagination of the Babylonians produced Marduk. The imagination of the Ammonites produced Malik. The imagination of the Greeks produced Zeus and Hermes and Diana. Right, false idolatrous gods. And it seems as though if you read your Old Testament, Israel, the people of God, the covenant people of God are continuously ensnared in the idolatry of these nations. But let me ask you the question. Think with me now. Is it any less idolatrous? Is it any less foolish? Is it any less worthless? Or is it any less offensive to God if your imaginary conception of Him is called by the same name that we call Him? Does that make it any less idolatrous, any less futile, any less worthless, any less offensive? What about the God of Islam? They claim that we worship the same God that they do. We do not. What about the God of Mormonism? What about the God of Judaism? I remember I was talking one time to a Jehovah's Witness. She wanted to hand me some material that they have. I said, no, thank you. I've seen it before. Besides, I'm a Christian. I like to say that to Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm a Christian because they get offended at that. I'm a Christian too. No, no, no. We serve different gods. We worship different gods. What about the modern liberal Christian conception of God who condemns no one? What about that imaginary God? The imagination of many professing Christians today has produced a God who is tolerant of sin. What about that God, tolerant of false worship? And let me ask you, let's consider together how has your conception of God been influenced by your own imagination? How has your conception of God differed from that revealed in the text of Scripture? It matters. It matters how we conceive of God in our worship. It matters how we know him and what we know of him. It matters. We are to worship God in spirit and in truth. John the Lord Jesus Christ told the woman of the well in John chapter four. God is seeking worshipers. God is spirit and he's seeking worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. It has been asserted that what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Think on that for a few moments. Ponder that, meditate on that. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. How do you think about God? When God comes into your mind, what do you think of? We are to know and we're to worship the true and living God as he is. We're to know and to worship the true and living God as he has been revealed in the Bible, as he has revealed himself to be, preeminently, supremely, in the person and work of his own son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Then when we consider how he has revealed himself to be and we consider the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great and mighty works of our true and living God, then we're to say in humility with a Puritan, Stephen Charnock, this is not God. God is more than this. If I could conceive him, Charnock says, he were not God. For God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him. In other words, the finite cannot contain the infinite. If you think that you begin to comprehend God, it's not God that you're comprehending. This is the moral of that story. Isn't that true of us, right? In humility, we come to the scriptures desiring to know God, desiring to understand, desiring to worship him a right. And at the end of our study, we have to in humility say, I have not even scratched the surface. I've not even seen the majesty of your edges, oh God. He alone can say, I am God and there is none like me. So if we're to know anything about God, if we're to worship God rightly, if we're to pray to him rightly, if we're to think about him rightly, if we're to worship God rightly, we desperately need God's help. We desperately need it, especially in our day and age where there's so many competing theologies and competing errors, heresies. If we truly know anything about God, it's because God himself has chosen to reveal himself to us. And that revelation is a gift. It's a gift that should be treasured. It's not a matter of speculation. It's not a matter of imagination. It is a matter of revelation. It's not speculation, not imagination. It is a matter of revelation. Not long ago, Lauren and I were able to spend some time in a wax museum. Have you ever been to a wax museum before? It's the first time I'd been to a wax museum. I got my picture made with the Queen of England. I got my picture made with Trump. It was fantastic. You go to wax museums, all these wax figures, and it's eerie, right? If you've ever been, it's a little crazy. Some of the wax figures were so life-like. I hear they use actual human hair and things like that when they're making these wax figures, but they're a little spooky. You can sit there and get close and look in their eyes. It's just a weird sensation because they're dead. There's no life in the eyes, but it looks like it's there. Some of them were really realistic, dead, cold, lifeless eyes. Now think with me. They're made of wax. I don't know what they're stuffed with. They're stuffed with something. There's no life in them. There's no breath. There's no reason. There's no heart. There's no blood running through their veins. There's no veins. There's nothing about them that's real. They may resemble a human being, and as much as they resemble a human being, they are something else altogether. But there's an amazing likeness, an amazing likeness. But there is, listen, an immeasurable difference, an immeasurable gap, an immeasurable chasm between that wax figure and a real human being, right? A real human being is soul and body, mind and reason and emotions and feeling and breath and life. That wax figure is not. Now I'm not calling us in this analogy, this illustration I'm about to make. I'm not calling us fake. I'm not calling us dead wax figures, but consider that gap. The gap between that wax figure and a real human being, but that difference between them, that gap between the made thing and the maker, is a small picture of the immeasurable, immeasurable gap between finite man and infinite God. It is a small shadow of the greater, more infinite, more immeasurable gap between finite man and infinite creator God, between the creator and the creature. There is a gap. That gap is the reason that you and I must be so careful to think about how we worship God. So careful to think about God as he has revealed himself to be. We must think rightly about him. The way that we think rightly about him is by taking heed according to his word. He's revealed himself in his word. We must know him from his word. The Lord says, As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts, as high as the heaven is from the earth. He is unique and entirely other. We are bound by time. He is the eternal God. We are confined to space, and no space can contain him. We are constantly changing while he is always and everlastingly the same. We are always becoming, and he is the eternal being. Great is the Lord. Greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. But that immeasurable gap is the reason we must give great care to the way in which God has revealed himself. We cannot rely on speculation. We cannot entreat or mess around with imagination. We must rely on revelation. The horrible truth about this, the horrible truth, is that we, as fallen human beings, are exceedingly prone to make God into a mere wax figure after our own likeness. We treat him like a wax nose. We form it and fashion it the way that we see fit. We are exceedingly prone to that error. We are prone to ascribe our creaturely attributes to him, prone to think about him as if we would think about one another, as we would think about ourselves. We are prone to apply our own thoughts, our own conceptions of what God must be like in ways that satisfy our own reason, or in ways that sound right to our own logic. And what we may end up with isn't real. It's not the God of the Bible. We make him eerily like us. This error, and it is the error of our day in our circles, is called theistic personalism, or theistic mutualism, theistic personalism, or theistic mutualism. There are many heresies in our day. You can turn on your TV and they're a dime a dozen, aren't they? Go into a quote-unquote Christian bookstore and the heresies are falling off the shelves, right? But you get into reformed Baptist circles into our camp. We see less of that kind of heresy, but it doesn't mean that we are absent error when it comes to this issue. One of the errors that plagues people today, even in our camp, it is difficult in the church, even now, is this error of theistic personalism, or theistic mutualism. Theistic personalism wants to make God more relatable to his creation. Theistic personalism says that God interacts in relationship with his creation. He's in a give and take. He's in a reciprocal relationship with his people. He can be moved by his creatures. He can be changed in relationship to them. He can respond. He responds to their input or actions involuntarily. God involuntarily responds. In the extreme, theistic personalism includes open or processed theism, which basically says that those who believe in God, that God is essentially exactly like us, only greater. It's sort of the superhero complex, right? God doesn't know the future any more than we do. He's learning just as we're learning. He's changing just as we're changing, and God responds to circumstances just like you and I respond to circumstances. That's the God of open or processed theology, processed theists. But closer to home, on the other end of the spectrum, theistic personalism, or theistic mutualists would say that God is influenced by his creation, affected in some way by the world that he has created. A true relationship besides is necessary. It's necessary to have give and take. It's necessary to have mutual, give and take, mutual reciprocity if we're going to have a real relationship, right? Some even say that God is one part immutable, unchangeable, while another part of God changes in relationship to what happens around him. Changes in relationship to you and I, changes in relationship to his creation. Let me ask you the question from the Bible. Does God change? No. No. Is God influenced or affected by creation? Is he given to passions? Is he given to emotions? Is he subject to emotions the way that we are? What does the Bible teach? It teaches that God is not. God warned the wicked in Psalm 50. You thought that I was altogether like you, but God says I will rebuke you and set things in order before your eyes. We cannot make God into a wax figure, a wax nose after our own imaginations. We cannot fashion him how we want him to be. We must learn of him from his word, learn how God has revealed himself to us from the Bible. Listen to this summary from just one paragraph in our confession of faith, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. This is taken from the teaching of Scripture and it's one paragraph, chapter two, paragraph one, if you want to follow along regarding God. Listen, the Lord our God is but one only living and true God whose subsistence is in and of himself. A very important statement, right? That means his subsistence is in and of himself means that what it means to be God is fully given to God by God. He is fully God in himself with nothing given to him to make him God or more God, right? He fully subsists within himself, found within God alone. God is self-sufficient. He is assay. Self-sufficient, independent, needs nothing. Your subsistence, my subsistence, what it means to be you, what it means to be me, is given to us by another, namely God. In other words, you are not self-sufficient, you are dependent. I am dependent. No other being gave God his subsistence. He is subsistent within himself, okay? He is, the paragraph continues, infinite in being, infinite in perfection, meaning if he's infinite that nothing can be added to him. Nothing can be added to him or taken away. He's infinite whose essence cannot be comprehended by anybody himself. He is incomprehensible. A most pure spirit, invisible, and here it is with respect to our topic today. He is without body, without parts, without passions, who only have immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory. Most loving, gracious, merciful, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and with all most just and terrible in his judgments hating all sin and who will by no means clear the guilty. The volumes are written on those subjects I suppose that this building could not contain them all. We're going to briefly focus on one statement from that paragraph in order to make our point this morning, particularly with respect to theistic personalism, and that is from our confession, our Lord, our God is without body, parts, or passions. Turn with me to First Kings chapter 7. First Kings chapter 7. In First Kings chapter 7, Solomon is completing the building of the temple. Solomon has finished building a palace for himself and then in accord with God's promise, Solomon undertakes the building of the temple. And now at the end of chapter 7, Solomon is bringing the articles of worship into the temple. The temple is complete and it says in chapter 7 beginning in verse 51. So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated, the silver and the gold and the furnishings, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord. In chapter 8, Solomon then brings the ark into the temple and looked down at verse 10, chapter 8 verse 10. And then it came to pass when the priests came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. It's an indication of God's presence in the temple, right? Verse 11, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke, verse 12, the Lord said he would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built you an exalted house and a place for you to dwell in forever. God in Scripture will often choose to make his presence known, right? He does that in various ways. He does that for various reasons, but it's never right to assume that when God makes his presence known, that he is being confined to that place in which his presence is made known. Look at verse 22, chapter 8, verse 22. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward heaven and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their arts. You have kept what you promised your servant David my father. You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what you promised your servant David my father saying, you shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way that they may walk before me as you have walked before me. And now I pray, oh God of Israel, let your word come true, which you have spoken to your servant David my father. But verse 27, will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple which I have built, Solomon gives a theologically adept answer to this question, right? Solomon looks at the temple and realizes the cloud of God is filling the temple, the priest can't even go inside. Solomon looks at the temple is now complete this glorious magnificent building and he struck by the fact that we serve an infinite God and he says, indeed, will you dwell on the earth? Heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple which I have built yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication of Lord my God and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you today. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. Why? Why is that? It's because God is without body. God is without boundary. God is without limit. He is incorporeal, incorporeal. He has no matter. He doesn't subsist of matter, no relationship in that way to matter. Turn with me to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. Well, think about why this is important in just a moment. Isaiah 66. And look there beginning in verse one. Far from being confined to the temple. The Lord says this in Isaiah 66 verse one. The Lord says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. In other words, the majesty of God fills all things. The majesty of God fills all things. The most high does not dwell in temples made with hands, right? Stephen says that when he's preaching in Acts chapter seven, quoting this particular text. Where is verse one? Where is the house that you will build me? Where is the place of my arrest? For all those things my hand has made and all those things exist says the Lord. In other words, God had the temple built. Now, God had the temple built not as a place in which God would be contained. God has not contained in temples made with hands. But God had the temple built as a place where the people might be reminded of his covenant presence with them as the people of God. It was a way that God would remind them of his gracious dwelling among them as their God. Now, what do the people do? What do the people do when God demonstrated his presence, manifested that covenant presence with them through his presence, you could say, in the temple? What do the people do? The people confined God to the temple. They confined him. They bound him to the temple. They bound him to their ceremonial worship. They bound the true and living God to the rituals it took place in the temple. Their temple worship became heartless. Their temple worship became ritualistic. And God is rebuking that false worship when he describes the worship that is acceptable to him at the end of verse two. Look there at the end of verse two. God says, but on this one, I will look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. Back to that thought of the Lord Jesus Christ with a woman at the well in John chapter four. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is not bound. God is not bound to ritual. God is not bound to ceremony. God is not bound to places or things. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit. He warned the Israelites. Listen to this from Deuteronomy chapter four. This has implications for our worship. In Deuteronomy chapter four beginning in verse 15, listen to this. He says, take careful heed to yourselves because, listen, you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horrib out of the midst of the fire. Lest you act corruptly, lest you make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. Down in verse 23, he says, take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. It has implications for our worship. God is not contained in form. God is not bound by a body. God is boundless, limitless, infinite. Why the warning? Why the warning in Deuteronomy four? It's because God is infinite. He's not confined by a body, a place, or an image. And listen, brothers and sisters, in our worship, we are not to confine him to a body, to a place, or to an image. God is omnipresent, present everywhere. Listen, present with his whole being, all that God is, he is present everywhere, being undivided everywhere at once, with his whole being. It's not that you just sort of spread God out and make God bigger and bigger and bigger until he's just bigger than everything. No, God is omnipresent. He's not related to space in that way. With his entire being, all that he is, undivided, God is everywhere at once. If you think about that, God never moves, never moves from one place to another place. But don't we see places in Scripture where the Bible says that God moved from one place to another place? Well, to think about that, right? What does it mean when Scripture says God moves, that God descends, that the Spirit of God ascended and departed the temple? What does it mean when he's coming, when he's going? What does it mean when Scripture refers to God as being near, when it refers to God as being far? It doesn't mean, it doesn't mean that God is confined or bound. God is omnipresent. God is limitless, infinite. It doesn't mean that God is changing. I, the Lord, do not change. If God is Spirit, then what is meant by passages that describe God's right hand, bound by a body? What is meant by the Word of God when it says that God has a face? He set his face against them. What does it mean when it talks about God's backside, when it talks about God's nostrils? It doesn't mean that God is like us. It doesn't mean that God has parts. Here's what it means. Think with me. Because the essence of God is something that we can't see. Because the essence of God is something that we can't understand, we need words that paint a picture. We need words, we're limited by our finite language. Are we not? By our finite ability to understand through language. We need words that paint a picture. For that reason, the biblical authors then use word pictures to describe that which is indescribable, to convey meaning. It's called analogical language. Analogical language. The Bible uses analogies, so to speak. You might say, I'm as hungry as a horse. Okay, well, horse has got a pretty big appetite. We're using an analogy to say that I'm as hungry as a horse. And if you eat like a horse, you'll be as big as a house. That doesn't mean you're going to be literally as big as a house. It's an analogy, right? We're using an analogy. Analogical language, language that resembles something. Now, one example of analogical language in the Bible is anthropomorphic language. Anthro meaning man, morphe meaning form, anthropomorphic language. One example of analogical language in the scripture is anthropomorphism. That's where God is described with human characteristics, with man characteristic. Listen to Psalm 34 beginning in verse 15. Listen to this. The psalmist says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Now, what do we know about God from the Bible? That he is spirit. He is not bound by a body, but yet here we see the psalmist mentioning his eyes, his ears, and his face. Well, God doesn't have eyes. God doesn't have ears and God doesn't have a face. Ascribing eyes to God is a way of conveying that God knows all things. To say that God sees all things is a way to say that God knows all things. You look at that on a case-by-case basis as you interpret sections of scripture. That's one way that the scripture uses the fact of ascribing eyes to God, that he knows all things. Ascribing ears to God, the fact that God hears them means that he's attentive to them. It's a way to convey that God is attentive. Using this language, analogical language, anthropomorphic language is what theologians call accommodation. It's like a parent speaking to a toddler. We all know what that looks like. We all know what that sounds like. It's a way that we know that we can communicate more effectively with a toddler when we use baby talk. You've seen big burly he-men who walk around talking like this, and then as soon as a little baby is up, they start baby talking. It doesn't matter how big they are, we all do it. Baby talk. It's like a loving and compassionate father. God uses accommodated or non-literal language to communicate with us about himself. That is some, that issue of non-literal language makes them uneasy. But listen, if you look at the Bible entirely, literally, you're going to come into language problems, and you're going to end up doing harm to the text. God uses accommodated baby talk, accommodated, non-literal, analogous, analogical, anthropomorphic language in order to communicate with us about himself. Now, the very same thing is equally true when the Bible refers to God as undergoing change. The very same thing was equally true when the Bible talks about God as undergoing change. Here's what we know about God. Malachi chapter 3, verse 6, for I am the Lord, I do not change. James chapter 1, verse 17, good gifts are from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Now, think about it with me. If God were to change, if God were to change, does he change for the better or for the worse? Can God change for the better? It means he wasn't perfect to begin with then. That makes absolutely no sense. Can God change for the worse? Now, perish the thought. If he changes at all, if he changes at all, God begins to be something that he wasn't before, and he begins to be something else. That is not true of God. God is pure being. The theologians will say pure actuality. We change all the time. We're always becoming. Standing under these lights, I'm becoming hotter and hotter and hotter. You sitting in the AC in the church are becoming colder and colder and colder. It's the way it goes every Sunday here. We're always becoming something else. God is never becoming. He is always and eternally being. I am. The name of God from Exodus chapter 3, verse 14. I am, God says. It's interesting the burning bush that the bush is not consumed. It wasn't unusual to see a piece of shrubbery get caught by lightning or something and catch on fire, but that piece of shrubbery would burn up. The bush that Moses saw is not consumed. In other words, God who is a consuming fire does not need that brush for fuel. He does not change. The bush is not consumed. Interesting thought. He experiences no change in his divine essence. He experiences no change in his divine character, his divine nature. He experiences no change of mind. God does not change. He experiences no change in his emotional state. God does not change. This means that God is both immutable, does not change, and impassable, impassable. We'll talk about that in a moment. So what does it mean to them? What does it mean in the same way? What does it mean when God has eyes and ears and a face? And the Bible uses analogical language to give us anthropomorphic examples of God having eyes, ears, and a face to convey meaning to us. What does it mean when Scripture describes God as changing his mind? Isn't there language in Scripture that says that very thing? What does it mean when it appears as though God is changing in response to his creatures? Sometimes involuntarily when his anger is aroused. What does it mean when the Bible uses Scripture like that? The Lord being provoked as if man can provoke change in almighty, omnipotent God. Like an anthropomorphism form of a man, this analogical language is called anthropopathism. Anthro meaning man, pathism, or pathway, meaning emotions, passions. It's human emotions ascribed to God who does not change, who has no passions. He is without body, parts, or passions. God is impassable. But listen, God being impassable is communicating with us, and we are passable, but we're very passable. We're not impassable. It doesn't mean impassable as in I can't get around it in passable. It's impassable. We don't have, God doesn't have pathos. He doesn't have passions, right? Let me give you a couple of examples. Turn with me to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 15, 1 Samuel 15. Let me give you an example of how Scripture operates with this tension. Said this before in biblical interpretation, it bears repeating, that often it's not enough to ask, what does God mean? Or what does God say? It's not enough to ask, what does God say? When you look at the text, what does God say? We have to also ask, what does God mean by what God says? Okay? We have to ask, what does God mean by what he says? 1 Samuel, chapter 15, look at verse 10. Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments. This is God speaking. Word of the Lord came to Samuel, and God says I regret. I've changed my mind about Saul. I don't think it was a good idea any longer. I regret that I ever put him in that spot. I'm changing my mind. I'm mourning my decision, you could say. I'm regretting it. And it grieved Samuel when he cried out all night to the Lord. Is that what the Bible is saying? It looks that way, right? Verse 11. I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king. Look down at verse 24. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed to their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe and it tore. So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the strength of Israel, notice that's a capital S. Who is the strength of Israel? That's Almighty God, right? Also the strength of Israel, Almighty God, will not lie nor relent. That word for relent there is the very same word for regret in chapter 15 verse 11. Same word, okay? The strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not a man that he should relent. And he's not a man that he should relent. Same exact word. So why is it spoken of as though God were relenting? Because the Bible uses analogical language, anthropopathisms to describe what God is doing, to convey meaning to we who are limited by our understanding of language. Look down at verse 34. Look down at verse 34. Then Samuel went to Rama, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul, verse 35. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the days of his death. Nevertheless, Saul mourned, or Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted the exact same word. The Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. The Lord regretted it in verse 11. Then it says in verse 29, the Lord doesn't relent. He's not a man that he should relent. And then in verse 35 here he is relenting, regretting again, using the same word. What's going on here, right? What's going on here? This is speaking more in the way that this word is being used. What it's not saying is that God changes. What it's not conveying is that God is subject to passions. What it's not saying is that Saul provokes an involuntary emotional reaction in God. What it's not saying is that God is passable. God is impassable. God does not change. But what it is saying, what's being communicated here, really is more, if you think about this biblically, more a change in Saul and Saul's relationship to God than it is a change in God. God isn't changing, Saul is changing. Ferdinand described this way, I thought this was a helpful analogy, because if you were in a lake, let's say, you're in an ocean, you're in an ocean in a rowboat, and there's an island, and that little round island in the middle of this great vast ocean is solid, immovable, steadfast. And there's a rope that goes between your rowboat and that rock that's immovable, that little rope. As someone tugs on that rope and pulls you closer to shore, it appears to you and I as though the shore were moving. The shore is getting closer. I can see the horizon, it's growing closer. Those mountains in the distance, they're getting closer. What's the truth? It's not the mountains that are getting closer, it's your boat getting closer to them. In analogical language, anthropomorphic language, anthropopathic language, often the Scripture is describing, not God is changing, but as we change in relationship to him, our boat is moving, not the rock. Let me show you one other place. Look at Acts chapter 14, Acts chapter 14, really, really critical to think and to meditate on these things and to think properly about the ways in which Scripture reveals God to us, that we might worship him rightly, think of him rightly, conceive of him rightly, worship him in spirit and in truth, and to ensure that we're not fabricating in our own imaginations an understanding of God that isn't true to his nature. Acts 14, look at verse 8. In Elystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. Now this man in Acts 14, 9, heard Paul speaking, Paul observing him intently, seeing that he had faith to be healed, he said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet, and that man leapt up and he walked. That's an amazing miracle, right? Paul heals this man. Now, verse 11, when the people of Elystra here saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices saying in the Lyconian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. What gods have come down? These pagan gods in particular here, Zeus and Hermes. Verse 12, in Barnabas they called Zeus, Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. Look at verse 14. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes, ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? Why would you intend to sacrifice to us? We are also men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them. Paul sets up a contrast between the living God and the them who share the same nature. Now, that word for nature is the word in Greek, homo apathis. Homo apathis means passions. We are men of like passions. Paul and Barnabas were saying, we're men subject to passions, subject to change, in other words, just like you. We're mere men, just like you are. Why would you sacrifice to us? Sacrifice to the true and living God, who is impassable, right? Apathis. We're not God who is without passions. We are men like you. We are passable. That's interesting that they mentioned here in Acts 14, Zeus and Hermes. Think about the Greek pantheons, Greek pantheon of gods. Those gods were certainly passable, weren't they? Highly passable. The Greek gods were of course figments of men's imaginations. So, they were wax figurines, you could say, created in the image of man. And wax figurines created by the imagination of man, they're going to be passable given to passions. Their mood changed with the wind. They're in love with one person and they hate that person. They want to, you know, rescue that person and they want to kill that person. They're given to fits of anger, changes in mood. They're fickle. They're capricious. They fall in and out of love. They're prone to suffer. They're impulsive. No control over their emotions by no control. That's the Greek pantheon of passable, so-called gods. Their emotions keep them in a state of change. Their emotions keep them in a state of flux. Those gods, the passable gods of the pagan nations, look just like we do. They look just like we do. They're given to emotional change. They're subject to passions and change just like we are. And Paul and Barnabas are saying, listen, we're passable men just like you are. Don't sacrifice to us. Give honor and worship to God. Our God, the true and living God of the Bible, is not given to change. He is impassable. God is in complete sovereign control of who he is and what he does. His character, his nature, are unchanging. God never realizes that I made a mistake. You know what? I made a mistake. Never happens to God, right? Never happens to God, despite what First Samuel, what some might think in reading that passage. Being impassable, impassable, means that God cannot be caused to change. What happens in his created order does not cause changes in God. He is not a man that he should change his mind. Does that mean that God is stoic? Does that mean that God is without feeling, without affection? Does that mean that God is apathetic, apathetic? No. God is perfectly satisfied, perfectly joyful, perfect in unalterable love. These are called perfections. They're called perfections because they have no potential. I think with me for a moment. If it's perfect, you can't add anything to it. It's perfect. It has no potential to get better. And in God, there's no potential for it to be any worse. It's not potential. It's pure actuality. God is love, right? It's a perfection of God. It's a pure act. God can't be any more loving. God can't be any less loving because God is love in infinite measure. In other words, we can't confuse passions with affections or passions with perfections, right? Impassibility is only meant to describe what God is not. Impassibility describes what God is not. God is not subject to passions. He's not subject to emotional change. He's not subject to emotional loss. God is not subject to suffering. Let me ask the question then. What about the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is 100% fully God, but Jesus Christ is also 100% fully man. And in his humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in our place. So doesn't the Bible use emotional language to refer to God? Yes, we see that language all over the Bible, don't we? God, in the same way, God has accommodated himself to us so that our infinite and unchanging God may be revealed to us in ways that we can understand. He reveals himself in a way that we can understand. Just as passages that describe God as having hands or feet do not mean that God has a body, passages that describe God as reacting or changing in his emotional state do not mean that God is subject to changes from within or subject to changes from without. The Bible uses anthropomorphic and anthropopathic language to convey meaning. Lord reveals himself by way of analogy, analogical language. Often that kind of language says more about you and I than it does about God. And when we interpret the text of Scripture, we need to think about that. Our experience of his affections change. Our experience of his dispositions change. Our experience changes. There is no changing God. It's we who are changing. Our boat is being pulled, so to speak. Our experience towards some reality may change. However, his disposition does not change. There is no variation or shadow of turning. Now, think with me. Because God is impassable, his love is steadfast, immovable, and unconditional. Pure and unchangeable, inalterable, perfect. Why? Because his love isn't dependent on some initial cause in the creature. It's not dependent on you and I. His love is perfect, unchangeable, steadfast. His faithfulness, steadfast, perfect, unchangeable. Because God is impassable, we are not consumed in God's wrath. I, the Lord, change not. Therefore, you are not consumed. Because God is impassable, He is our rock. He is our refuge. He needs no help. He doesn't need anyone to come to His aid when He's suffering because God is never given to suffering. Because God is impassable, His grace is free, and His mercy abounds. Because God is impassable, He does not suffer, and so He is able to send His Son then to suffer for us as a man. God is not a victim. His sacrifice is predetermined. His sacrifice is voluntary. He lays down His life. The Son doesn't suffer in His divinity, but He does suffer for us in the fullness of His humanity. Because God is Spirit, He sends forth His Son as our faithful High Priest. He is incorporeal, incorporeal, without body. And so He sends the Son then in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbles Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross that we serve an awesome and impassable, immutable, eternal God. There's so much more that could be said, much more that could be said. I pray that that sparks your interest in further study. I commend further study to you. We'll begin here soon at the first of the year, a study on the doctrine of God, and we'll get into some of these things in more detail. All of this is because when we think about God without body, without passions, all of this is because God is without parts. God is simple, you could say, the doctrine of divine simplicity. God is not composed of parts. God is without body parts or passions. In other words, God is self-sufficient. God is immutable. And so God is not composed. God, for example, is love. It's not saying that God is loving as though love were something that existed outside of God. God is love. How do we know love? Because God. We know love because God. Now, we can't say I am love. I can say that I am loving in as much as I reflect God. But I can't say that I am love. And you can ask anyone in my family, they will say that that's true. We'll ask anybody in your family, they'll quickly attest to that fact that you are not love. You may be loving. We're mutable. We're given a change. God is love. A composite whole, something that is made up of parts. A composite whole is built up of parts that are more basic than the whole. You and I are made up of parts. I have a brain. Some of you would attest otherwise. I do have a brain. I have a heart. Some of you might attest otherwise. I do have one. I have arms. I have legs. I have 10 fingers, 10 toes. I have parts. You have parts. We're made up of parts. The parts form a composite whole. Not so with God. God is without body, parts, or passions. God is, we're very complex. God is simple. If you take my watch, for example, which stopped 15 minutes ago, I've got plenty of time left, made up of parts. There's a glass. Somebody had to make that and sand that and craft that and cut it in a circle. Had to be set on top of the face, which somebody had to craft. Inside, if you took this watch apart, there are all kinds of parts individually fabricated and put together just in such a way that this wonder of technology actually functions. It's an amazing thing. There are knobs on it. There's a band on it, all made of parts. If you were to take away some of those parts, you could still might call it a watch. If I took the glass off, might still call that a watch. If I took the hands off, well, I can see that it's a watch, but it's a face. It's a little less functional, but you could still see that it's a watch. If I took the band off, it would still function as a watch. So all of the parts aren't even necessarily necessary for it to be a hole for you to tell what it is. It's being as a watch is given to it by the parts that compose it. And if enough parts are taken away, you cease having a watch, don't you? Not so with God. Nothing composes God. Nothing can be taken away from God. Nothing can be added to God. God is not made up of parts that are more basic than himself. God simply is. God is then the first being. God is simple, whereas everything else, everything created, is complex. Do you see? This watch is complex. You and I are even more complex. God is simple. It is because God is love that we know and experience love. We don't know and experience love apart from God. How do we know love? God. It is because God is wisdom that we know and experience what wisdom is. It's because God is entirely, perfectly satisfied within himself that we can know contentment and satisfaction in him. Apart from God, we don't know those things, right? In all of this, we want to avoid then fashioning a God after our own image, after our own imagination. We have to avoid fashioning a God as a wax figure that looks like we do, forming a wax nose. Knowing God as he has revealed himself will fuel our worship. Knowing God as he has revealed himself will inform our prayer. Knowing God as he has revealed himself will fuel our adoration, our love for him, our devotion to him, our praise of him, and our worship of him will be more pleasing and acceptable in his sight. We worship God in spirit and in truth. All praise to our God who is without body, body, parts, or passions. Amen. Let's pray. As you're praying, let's worship our awesome God and consider what we know of God from his word, and then we'll pray together in dismiss. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we worship and praise you, that you are boundless, limitless, infinite, eternal, that you are unchangeable. You're not like we are subject to emotion or given to change, but you're steadfast, immovable, immutable. In that sense, Lord, perfectly faithful and trustworthy and true. Praise you, God, that we know love because you are love. We know wisdom because you are wise. Not that those things exist outside of you or in some way define you, but because you are that. It's a part of your essential being. And we worship and praise you, our infinitely wise, holy, just, true, pure, eternal, immutable God. And thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself to us. Thank you, Lord, for the glorious revelation of yourself that you've given us in your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came, the express image of your person, the radiance of your glory. We praise you and thank you that we, through him, know you. We've seen him, we've seen the Father. We praise you, Lord, that in him there's life. And I pray that we would, Lord, turn from our feudal idols to serve the true and living God, that we would turn from that sin which so easily ensnares us to worship and to praise you. And it will be our delight to do so in eternity and always and forever learning of our incomprehensible God. Thank you for this revelation of yourself. Help us to understand. Edify the saints, Lord. Save, convert sinners here for your glory, Lord. I pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.