 Let's begin to think about how God has made himself knowable and yet incomprehensible. Okay, so God has humbled himself so that he would allow us to be able to know truths about him. With how great God is above us and beyond us and in every way, shape and form. Right, that in his knowledge, in his power, in his majesty, the fact that we could actually, as little insects that we are, be able to know anything about God is an amazing idea. God has humbled himself to reveal himself to us and that is a great, great blessing. There's a Sismic Theologian, Bhavink, who said that God can be apprehended, God cannot be comprehended. There is a knowledge, there is no comprehension of God. And so what he's saying there is we can know things about God, but we can't know everything about him. He's beyond our comprehension ultimately. But he has humbled himself so that we can know some very important things about him. And he reveals these things from the things he's made and most importantly from his word. Give me some ideas of some things about God that we cannot fully understand, that are incomprehensible. Okay, the fact that he's always been there. We talked about that last week with his eternality, that just makes your mind kind of tripped, right? I think Corey and I were talking about that last week, right? The idea of God always being there and he's the only thing that has always been there. So we have trouble because everything we've known, seen, tasted, touched, all of our experiences. That thing has had a beginning. You know, the iPhone, it had a beginning. Not too long ago. The Bible had a beginning. Noel had a beginning. But God does not. So what's something else that's difficult or impossible to understand about God? Jack? Okay, the trinity. Yeah, how does the trinity work together? There's no comparison. God doesn't bring a comparison from nature, from anything he's made. So we can say, you see the trinity? It's just like all analogies break down. Okay, what else? Ben? So it's not like God's power is not like energy that's used or unused. His power is the battery that never dies, right? His power is incomprehensible. Sergio? Yes, his omnipresence. There is something about that we can understand. Perhaps like Bob Ink, we can't understand all of it. How is that all at work? Right? Okay, so what are some things? Go ahead, Josh. Yes, I had that on my list. Very good. He's reading my notes again. Yes, the understanding of Christ as 100% God and 100% man, both at the same time. And he's not a divided person. He's not a quasi-superman. He's not a half of him human nature, half of him God nature. He's not some sort of morphing of the two. That it's not any of those things is makes the mind trip. It boggles the mind. You can't understand how he's fully God and fully man. If you think you understand that perfectly, then I would say study that issue some more and you'll come across more problems with that and like that it is beyond your understanding. Okay, so another one is how sovereignty and responsibility go together. That's something about God and the way he works, that both of those truths go hand in hand and we don't quite know how they work together. Okay, so God has revealed things about himself. Let's look at Psalm 145. We'll read some portions of that. Let's see how the Psalm communicates both of these ideas. Okay, Raquel, would you read verses one to three of Psalm 145? Okay, so from this section, what is there that we can know about God? What does he reveal about himself here? Those three verses. Yes, that he's great. That's great that he is great. Ben? Yes, he's a king. He's a ruler. He is the ultimate authority. What else? Yes, he's worthy of praise. Yes and amen. Okay, so then now would be what is something that we cannot know. That he's unsearchable. That he is beyond our understanding. That even though he's aspects that he's revealed about himself is greater than we can fully comprehend. Okay, so he goes on to reveal himself and this Psalm as one who has his kind and in verses three to ten about how he has wonderful works and verses 11 to 13 about his kingdom and verses 14 to 20 his kindness and then the conclusion is he is worthy of our praise. So I'm just pointing out a Psalm to you that has both of these ideas. How God's understanding about him is unsearchable and yet he has revealed himself and has made himself knowable. Have you ever had somebody who communicated the idea of well, if there's a heaven, I really wouldn't want to go there because I think it would be boring. Have you heard that before? Often from a teenager, right? Maybe you thought that way as a teenager. Well, the unsearchable nature of God makes it so that we being bored in heaven is the farthest thing that will ever come in your mind when you're in heaven because of the very nature of God that you will be there for eternity and you will not, he is unsearchable. It's inexhaustible. You won't get bored of knowing God. It will always be new every morning. It's like a sunrise. Whether you watch sunrises or sunsets, you know, different people watch the different, some people watch the sunsets, some people watch the sunrise, whether you're early rise or you're up late. How is it that each sunrise is never the same? How is it that each snowflake is never the same? God is one who you will never be able to get to the bottom of who he is and how wonderful and unsearchable he is. He's written a finite book, right? And that finite book in its riches is unsearchable. We could study this book for all your life and isn't it frustrating how you're like, I'll get to know like this much of a sliver really well and then I realize, okay, in this sliver that I thought I knew really well, I knew this part so much more than the other parts, even this part, I don't know like I could and I should. Truly, this taste of God that we have in His word shows how unsearchable and wonderful he is. Okay, so his unsearchable nature or that he's incomprehensible shows us the glories of heaven. What about how he is knowable? Have you ever had anyone to tell you? Usually after talking to them about sin, judgment, often at the end of evangelism conversations, I'll have someone say this to me, say, well, when you get to heaven, you'll see that a lot of what you knew about God to be wrong. When you get there, you may be surprised to see me, but I'll be there even though I don't follow Christ, you'll be surprised to see me. Or there'll be a lot more people there who thought there would be, just wait and see. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, the comprehensibility of what God has revealed about himself helps us to know that there are definitive things he has revealed about himself. And that you cannot contradict those because he has humbled himself, he has revealed himself in his extreme arrogance to say, it's going to be this way, just wait and see, it's going to be this way, even though it's not what his word says, I know it to be true. That's contradicting his comprehensibility or his knowability, what he has revealed. So it's a wonderful thing that God has made himself known and yet he is beyond our understanding. He deserves worship for that. Let's think about his communicable attributes. How is he like us? If you look on your outline, we can read some scriptures together about some of those. Let's go ahead and make some assignments. Say, Keith, would you read 1 John 4, 7 to 11? And Josh, would you read Zephaniah? We are going to stand by for that. We're not probably going to read the whole 18 verses, but I'll sign. You're going to get Zephaniah 1. And then the second Keith, would you take Luke 36 to 50? And then Jesse, would you take Isaiah 6? So what we're looking for is attributes of God that are communicable. In other words, we can share that attribute We can do the same. When God sets the example, we can participate and do the same, have the same attribute with us. That's what the communicable attribute means. Okay, so 1 John 4, 7 to 11, and we're looking for the attribute that's revealed there. Okay, so it should be pretty clear by repetition. This is not a class for geniuses, right? Okay, so tell me the obvious, go ahead. Okay, so then now tell me how is that love manifested? How is it revealed specifically in the text? What makes it loving? What has he done? Give me details. Okay, he sends his son to die. Did he have to do that? Did he have to take the initiative to do that? So since he didn't have to do that, that shows his love that he doesn't have to act in that way, but it's out of his very nature that he does. That he's the one who takes the initiative. Give me another detail. He's immersed in grace. How is that shown in the verses? Okay, so he's manifested, and that's in verse 9. This is how the love God was manifested toward us, or shown to us, that he sent his son. So he humbles himself. There's another aspect of his love that he doesn't bring us up to heaven and show us a vision of heaven from his throne and how he's a Savior. Instead, he becomes one of us. He humbles himself. Keith? Yes, how is that shown in the verses? That we didn't show any love towards him? Very good, very good. So he's the one who acts. It's made very clear. We're not the one who's loving God first. Clyde? Yes, so now Clyde's bringing us ahead to the application here, then we need to be like God, and that's what the text says. Love of God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We ought to think of others and take the initiative in that. We ought to humble ourselves to pursue the love for one another. It ought to be costly to us to love one another. It was costly to God. Do you see how these are, God's attributes worked out that should be in us? Okay, next text. Zephaniah, let's turn there. You can find the Zephaniah because it's connected closely with the other Z, Zechariah. It's like HZ, HZ. Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Haggai, Zechariah. Okay, oh yes, Tom's giving us the page numbers. Thanks. So obvious. Okay, let's look and we're going to read verses 14 to 18 of chapter one. So what is revealed about God here? Yes, God will judge sin. How is that judgment described? Give me some details. It's bitter. What else? Yes, see, even mighty men will cry out. Okay, it's imminent. It's near. That's the first line. What else? Sergio? Okay, so I'm going to be a great distress, great devastation, Oliver. Yes, a lot of blood shed. Blood poured out like dust. It's like blood will be as common as the dirt. Yes, all of man's plans fail. Okay, so then think about the importance of understanding multiple attributes of God and not highlighting one over the other. Okay, we talked about great love and now great here great wrath. It's impossible to understand either one of those things apart from the other. How was wrath in the last text? In 1 John 4. Anybody notice that? How was it there? Propitiation of wrath satisfying sacrifice. And then there is love. So you cannot understand love, love of God, it's revealed by him satisfying his wrath. That's what he sent his son for. Okay, then how is love revealed in Zephaniah? I'll give you a little cheat because I didn't really cover that in the reading. Let's read chapter 3 verses 14 to 17. Ralphie, would you read those verses? 14, 17. So here's one of the most beautiful pictures of the love of God. That he rejoices over his people with singing. How often do you read about God singing a song? You want to be wonderful to hear that? God sing a song? There's a special for you, right? And it's a song about his love. That understanding of that love would not be understood without his wrath. His wrath being satisfied from being saved from his wrath. You would not understand how he's taken away your judgments in verse 15. Both of these things must be together. Okay, let's think of another attribute of God in Luke 7, 36 to 50. I'm trying to give you a variety of texts. Psalms and epistles, prophets. Now here's the Gospel. Luke 7 verses 36 to 50. A little reminder if you're in the cry room or you're at home listening online, you'll need to be following along with your Bible and reading it since we have people reading here without a mic. Okay, go ahead, brother. So tell me of some attributes of God that are revealed there. His forgiveness. So he's acting in forgiveness. So what does that tell us about his character if he acts in forgiveness? Yeah, his mercy. So his mercy, his loving kindness, tender heartedness. He has compassion towards even the most miserable and pitiable of his creatures. What else is revealed there, Sergio? His forgiveness. And that forgiveness shows us his grace, his unmerited favor, his willingness to treat his creatures not according to their own merit and worth, but according to his abundant kindness and overflowing generosity. What else? Mercy, grace, Ben? Yeah, so he discerns Simon, right? And he brings a just message to Simon, right? Yes. Think about what Brian's point about patience. Who is he more patient with? Simon or the woman who is a prostitute? Or with you that you get to read into this story? Think about his patience not only with Simon, not only with the woman, but then with you that you are in with the dinner beholding it and seeing this story. He has patience with all of us, doesn't he? It shows his willingness to bear and suffer long with our weaknesses and wrongs of his creatures. His mercy, grace and patience is revealed in his names of God and in the nature of God. It's revealed in the biblical events. Manasseh, a king for 55 years and most of it all, horrible wickedness. Imagine if, you know, there's a lot of bad laws being put in by our president now. Disrespect him, just be truthful. And influences for abortion, killing babies or homosexuality. And imagine if he doesn't have an eight-year term, but imagine if he has a 50-year term. A 50-year term. How bad will it get after each decade, right? And then imagine the mercy and patience of God that after 50 years of giving worse, God saves the president. That's the story of Manasseh. What patience of God that you, that when you go to heaven, you'll see Manasseh there. That is an example of patience, decade after decade. A Christian killer, Saul, turned into Paul. What an example of patience. Rahab, a harlot, a whore, a prostitute, then becomes a great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother of Jesus. The prodigal son, a picture of God's patience. Blind Barnamaeus, the patience of God, kindness of God. It should teach us to be humble, to be willing to bear with one another, to employ this with our enemies like the way the Lord does. Okay, more about God. We want to hear more about God. Let's hear Isaiah 6. We'll read Isaiah 6. I believe verses 1 to 8 should suffice. So, Wilson, tell us an attribute of God that you see there in that text. He has to pardon forgiveness of God. Zaviel, what's something that you see there in that text? Amen. The holiness of God. You know, it's often been said it's the only attribute that he, that's proclaimed three times of him. Okay, so then tell me, what is the holiness of God? Tell me an aspect of it. We'll gather together. Jerome. So an important attribute of holiness that Jerome is bringing out is the otherness of God. He is completely separate and different. We're not on the same scale. We're not close to him. We're not, he is completely other. So an analogy that I've said before about that is, okay, so if you compare this chair, we'll take a wide one, and we compare it with Noel. Okay. Which has more value? The chair or Noel? Somebody loves Noel. Okay, so we got the chair, we got Noel, and we'll take the pen that he's, you know, he likes to tuck a pen in his button-down shirts, right? A creature of habit or Noel. So we got the pen, we got the chair, and so which is the pen, is the pen closer to the chair or closer to Noel in its essence of being? We can go closer to the chair. Okay, now let's add another aspect into it, God. We have God. What are we closer to? Are we closer to the chair or are we closer to God in the essence of our being? We're closer to the chair. We're closer to the chair. We're closer to the pen. And what I'm doing by this analogy is saying by categories, God is not even in the same area. He is not, he is completely other. We're closer to a pen, we're closer to a rock, we're closer to waste, we're closer to an insect, we're closer to whatever image would humble you. We're closer to that than we are to God. An angel is closer to those things than it is to God. It's why the angels say, Holy, Holy, Holy is God. So in the idea of holiness, the very important key is that he is not like us, he is other. That should make you tremble, it should make you be full of worship. And it's also key in the idea of holiness is the purity of God. That's, so since he has an otherness and a purity that is nothing like we can comprehend, then the Word of God calls us to be holy amazingly. Tell me a scripture, do you remember scripture? Certainly with a group this big we can remember some. Tell me, okay, 1 Peter, what does it say brother? It's because of his holiness that we need to conduct ourselves in holiness. Yes, Leviticus 11, that's where 1 Peter is getting it from. Old Testament, New Testament. It's, the idea remains the same. That we are to live holy lives because of his very character. His, how does it work in Isaiah's mind? He sees he must be holy right? Like in the sermon, the Sunday sermon, when we know God, then we know ourselves and then we will know how to live rightly. That connectedness, you see that happen to Isaiah here very clearly don't you? Where he knows God and then what does he know about himself? A man of unclean lips, in the midst of people of unclean lips. I mean who's got the cleanest mouth in Israel, right? It's going to be Isaiah. He's preaching the Word of God and what does he say about his own mouth? That he's unclean, he's undone. And he says judgment on himself. So then he knows how to live rightly out of that, right? When the Lord cleanses him, he'll say, this Lord says, who shall I send and who will go for us? And he says here I am, send me. He knows how to live rightly then from that, right? True wisdom. Okay, so we've seen so far that God has made himself knowable to us and yet he's incomprehensible. We've seen that God has attributes that we need to share in. Love, justice, mercy, kindness, holiness. How is God not like us? Let's look at Psalm 139. There's attributes about God that we cannot copy. We cannot participate in or follow his example. He is beyond us. Okay, so Guru, would you read verses 1 to 6 of Psalm 139? And we're looking for an attribute of God here. So what's the preeminent attribute? What's the attribute, Jack? Omniscience, that he knows all things. You see the verbs there? You've searched me, known me in verse 1, verse 2. You know my sitting down and rising up. Okay, there's not a time when God knows when you're, whether you're standing or whether you're sitting, you're lying down. He knows all your times. He understands what you've done. He understands your thought. He understands your path. He understands all your ways. Yes, he does. He doesn't know us much better than we know ourselves. Okay, let's read verses 7 to 12. Nikita, would you read those verses? So Breanna, what's a key attribute here? In verses 7 to 12. Yes, his omnipresence. Can you go to hell and get away from him? Can you go to heaven and get away from him? Can you get in the darkness? And can he not see you? Okay, now what about in verses 13 to 18? And Clyde, would you read those verses? So here we see the power of God. The power of God manifested in how he skillfully makes us. We see how he's the one who can do this work. He's the one who has ordained, not just our being, that we would exist but in our very days. This is in his power he has made you and in his power he has ordained your days. So our God has a power that is beyond all others. He has a presence that is everywhere. He has a knowledge that is incomprehensible beyond us. Think about how Christ knew that, what the disciples are thinking before he gets there. He reads their thoughts. How he reads Simon the Pharisees' thoughts. Think about how Christ is present with us when he tells us the Great Commission and lo, I'm with you always, even to the ends of the earth. Think about how Christ is the one who has manifested his power over demons, over nature, over death itself. Christ is the very image and perfect representation of God to us in all knowing, in every place, in his power. So God has revealed himself in his varying ways. Another key attribute of the way God has revealed himself is his decrees and providence. His decrees and providence. So let's turn to Isaiah 41. So in this day today we're understanding about who God is. It should give us a wisdom to understand ourselves and apply and then understanding of how to live rightly. So providence is when God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he keeps them existing and maintaining the properties which he created them. He cooperates with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do and he directs them to fulfill his purposes. There is not an atom gone astray. Nothing happens by accident. God rules and reigns over it all and he does good in everything that he does. His decrees are his eternal plans where he has before the creation of the world he's determined to bring about everything that happens and he does perfect and he's holy in it all. That's a mind boggler. That's the word for the day. When you have a class about God it should blow your mind. The fact that God can be holy and ordained the world is an insane thing. That's how he's able to give prophecy and no one else it does because it's not a forecast of where it will reign and what not. Seeing ahead what happens. No, it's in ordaining. It's something that he has planned that will come to pass. There's not a question about it when he gives a prophecy. It's as sure as if it already happened. We just get the benefit of seeing that it already has happened in the occurrence of events. In Isaiah 41 we see God himself reveal the test for who the real God is. We're going to read Brenda Davidson. You read Isaiah 41, 21 to 29. Go ahead and verse 29. Ricardo, what is the attribute? What's the test here that shows who's the real God? What's the test here that God brings forth to show who the real God is? He doesn't take pleasure in idols but what's the difference that he shows between the idols and him? Jesse? He raises up Cyrus. Look at verse 26. Who has declared from the beginning that we may know. Sometimes we may say he's righteous. Who's the one who does that? God. Do you understand what's happening in the text? Verse 21, he says present your case. Let's see. We're going to court. What's your case for who the real God is? Here's the case, verse 22. Let him bring forth and show us what will happen. Here's the test. Tell me the future. Tell me the future in detail. Hundreds of years in advance. What's going to happen? That we may know and we consider. See the verse 23. Show us the things that are to come hereafter. That we may know that what? That you are God's. Okay. And we do this with Islam, right? Tell us where's your prophecies, Islam? Buddha? A Chinese guy in the Chinese restaurant, right? What do you got to say? What do you got to say about the future? No fortune cookies, right? There's no real prophecies in those. Where's the case? Tell me the case. Where's the real God? Indeed, verse 24. Okay. He listened. And what does Isaiah hear? Crickets. Crickets. So verse 24, what's the summary? Indeed, your work is nothing. And he who chooses you is an abomination. Okay. So here's how you know the test for the real God. So anyone who can see this test fail, if you still choose Buddha, if you still choose a Muhammad, you become an abomination to God. So in contrast, verse 25, he tells a prophecy in detail, and it turns out with Cyrus, the coming king. He's like, just to show off, here's a prophecy. And then back to the case, he's like, see verse 26, I'm the winner. Who's declared it from the beginning that we may know? In the former times that we may see. He's righteous. There's nobody who shows. There's nobody who declares. There's nobody who hears but me. You see how God is the one who decrees. Now, when we read a prophecy, everybody likes that. You know, everybody who's in Christianity, they like that. Yes. God tells the future. The majority, everyone. Now the problem is, when you get to think about that in detail, that if God ordains all things, that calamity, like Amos tells us, calamity, the storm comes to a city. Does it come to a city apart from the work of God? Okay, so there are no Katrina's that happen apart from God, ordaining them. So the question is, think of all the evil that has happened in the world, the Holocaust, the immorality, children being killed, abused. Think about all the evil that happens. We have a problem here. If God decrees, how is there still evil? How is there still evil? There's insufficient answers to that. A lot of Christians bring up. Well, it's Adam and Eve's fault. Well, even the child can answer and say, well, then why did God allow it? Why did God allow it that they could get the fruit? Why did he even give them access to it? Why did he even make that tree? Insufficient answer. Well, somebody will say, evil must exist for good to exist. That's why God's allowed evil. Insufficient answer. In heaven, there's not going to be any evil there. Well, free will. God gives us free will. Well, God's the one who even gave free will. So if he's since he's gave it, he knows what everybody's going to do with it, even if there was free will. So that ruins that. Insufficient answer. Well, God will one day deal with evil. Yes, that's true. He will one day deal with evil. But why did he allow it in the first place? Insufficient answer. What's the real answer? Habakkuk tells us, and we'll hear it in the call to worship. Habakkuk tells us that it is, God knows better, and he ultimately brings it about to good. He ultimately has allowed evil for a time to bring about a greater good. He is the surgeon that uses the scalpel that you cannot use. He does what you cannot do. He has an ultimate good purpose in allowing history to unfold the way it has, because he is a greater good that we cannot comprehend. He does what you can't do. He allows evil for a time. And yet he is good in his purposes. He is an ultimate good. In that you can't see. You have to trust him for that. You have to have faith in that. To close real quick, there's a young lady who was attracted to a particular guy, and this guy started to spend time with her. He was a godly guy, and he fulfilled all her greatest dreams. They were getting time together, getting to know each other, enjoying each other, laughing, and then he invited her out to lunch. And she thought, this is it. This is the time where he will ask me to court him. And so she gets all ready, you know, and prepares for that like ladies do. All that stuff. It took a long time. Long, long, long time. And she shows up, and he says, I just want you to know. I just want to be friends. And then she goes home driving back in her car. You know, the tears come down with the makeup, during the makeup. And she thinks, not so much about him, but she thinks about God. God, why did you allow this to happen? You allowed this to happen just so it would hurt me. And what happens is, in the drive home, she basically has to decide, is God good in what he did? She's like, I know it's trivial. I know that it's, people are dying. But this hurt me. This hurt me. And God, you allowed it. How are you good in that? In the drive home, she knows it's sin. She knows what she's thinking about God as evil. And she decides, I'm not going to, I'm going to keep on driving until I'm repentant. What is the scripture I should be thinking about? And she thinks, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job could learn and trust God, that God is doing a greater good. Can't I, in this lesser situation? That's the faith. The faith that trusts God, that he has an ultimate good in mind. That does not come by experience, or by knowledge on your own. It comes when God reveals himself and gives you saving faith. Where you trust the goodness and the character of God. Yes, Debbie? Yes, amen. That's the perfect way to close. Yes, what we meant for evil, God meant for good. That's his faithfulness. Let's close in prayer. Dear Lord, we worship you. And we know you are good. We know you're good. And you have a great good in mind. I think of the testimony with the guy Richie was evangelizing in the accident that he was in. And what I pray that you would bring about a greater good of salvation. And from that car accident. And so Lord, we trust you. And we look forward to when you will return. Amen.