 So it's a blessing from the Lord now to be back in our study of the essentials on the Lord's day. We're taking a brief break, a relatively brief break from working verse by verse through a book of the Bible. In order to study the essentials of Baptistic theology, the essentials of faith and practice, one doctrinal subject, one sermon, one lesson, often multiple texts in the Bible. We're taking time to cover each topic, each subject in one sermon as an overview. We hope that that overview is helpful to you and I hope that it encourages further study. It's worth our time and effort to learn these things. If you're visiting with us or currently studying, considering the doctrine of God, it's called theology proper, the being, the attributes and the works of God. Now turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 145. It is right, as you're turning there, it is right that we should worship the Lord our God for all of his mighty works. The Bible instructs us to do that. We have several many great examples of that in Scripture. One of those particularly this morning is Psalm 145. Verse one, David the Psalmist says, I will extol you. To extol is to praise enthusiastically. I want to encourage us as we worship and as we praise the Lord to praise him enthusiastically. Or to praise him fervently. What does enthusiastic singing sound like? What does it look like? What is worship that is enthusiastic? What does that look like? Here, David is calling for enthusiastic extolation, if you will. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Verse three gives us the opening reason for our praise. What is it in verse three? Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And His greatness is unsearchable. And His greatness is beyond our capacity to comprehend. It's beyond our capacity to grasp or to lay hold of. Verse four, one generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Look at the emphasis now on mighty acts, right? Spurgeon says in verse four that there shall be a tradition of praise among the people of God. A tradition of praise. We add the praise of our generations to the hymns, songs, and spiritual songs that we sing. We look back on the experience of our forebears. We look back on our own experience and we add our proclamations of praise to the saints that went before us, to all the generations that have come before. And our praise will be added to by the generations that come after. We look at the mighty works which the Lord has done, His works of goodness. His acts of power. The outpouring of His mercy, the outpouring of His grace. And we contribute our chapter in that generation's tradition of praise. We contribute our chapter to those that have gone before us. And we proclaim His wondrous works to the generation that is coming up after us. We need to do that, right? With our kids, that generation that comes up after us, we need to be extolling the wondrous works, the wonderful name, the wonderful person of our true and living God. He says in verse 5, I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts and I will declare your greatness. We declare His greatness, right? I'll add my voice to the chorus of praise that is His. I'll delight as those who went before me. I'll delight to proclaim the wonder of His mighty deeds. Verse 7, They shall utter the memory of your great goodness. Shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all. His tender mercies are over all His works. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. If the heavens declare the glory of God, if the firmament shows forth His handy work, how much more redeemed saints men God is worthy to be worshiped for all of His mighty works. But not only is God to be worshiped for all of His mighty works, God is worthy to be worshiped for the excellence of His person. Not just His works, but who He is? Who He is? Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty firmament. Praise Him for His mighty acts and praise Him according to His excellent greatness. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised. So this morning, we intend to praise Him for the excellence of His greatness. We intend to praise Him not just for His mighty works, but we want to praise Him for who He is. We want to praise Him for His person, the excellence of His person. Now to consider the excellence of the person, the true and living God, we now come to a study of the divine attributes. This week and next week will be a study of the divine attributes. And when we speak of attributes, we're referring to those characteristics or those qualities that express the nature of a person or a thing. The attributes of something or someone express the nature of that person or that thing. Our attributes are those qualities, those characteristics that make us who we are. Those are our attributes. Now some of those attributes are essential to who we are. They're essential. If you take them away, we're no longer human. One of the attributes of my human, this is that I have a body. You take away a body, I'm no longer human. One of my attributes is that I have a spirit. You take away my spirit, I'm no longer human in that sense. It's essential, it's essential to who we are. We take them away, we're no longer human. Now some of those attributes are called accidental. They're not essential to who we are, they are accidental. Some of you ladies might say, it's not an accident how I look this morning. You know how long it took me to get ready? Somebody may look at my face and say that guy looks like an accident. That's not what's meant by accidental. Accidental are those attributes which are not essential to our nature. If you take them away, it doesn't change the fact that we are human. We are a human being even without those. So we think of hair color for example. My hair color is different than what my hair color once was. It's not an essential attribute, it's an accidental attribute. For the first time here not long ago, someone actually called me elderly. The first time that's ever happened. Youth is not an essential attribute to me, obviously. It can be taken away and now it's replaced by wisdom. That's what I like to, that's what I like to. That's what we try to say, you know. Essential attributes and accidental attributes. Now think with me. Think with me about the character and nature and essence of our God. All of God's attributes are essential. All of God's attributes are essential attributes. They're essential to his nature. God has no accidental predicates. Nothing about him is in that sense accidental. As we discussed last week, God has not made up of composite parts. God is simple. There are those parts, there are not parts. There are not parts of his divine nature that you could remove, add or change. If you could remove, add or change any of his attributes, he's not God. God has no accidental attributes. They are all essential attributes to the character of God. It's not that God even has these attributes, but that God is his attributes. It's in an undivided and indissoluble, unseparable way. It's simple. We're very complex, made up of composite parts. God is simple, pure being, pure actuality, undivided, unalterable. Now in that sense, God is entirely different than we are. He is entirely unique, entirely other. Much, much can change about the essential character of a person, of a human being. Much can change, right? Age, as we just discussed. Stress, fatigue, education, experience, circumstances, work, relationships, responsibilities, hopelessness, despair, want, need, dependence, sorrow, joy. All of these can alter the character of a person. But nothing, nothing can alter the essential character of God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Listen to the words of Psalm 102, beginning in verse 25. And listen to what the psalmist asserts of God, the Almighty. Of old, he says, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, they will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will change them and they will be changed. But you, in contrast, are the same and your years will have no end. God is great, not because he is simply a greater version of ourselves, but God is great because he is nothing like ourselves. God is entirely other. The prophet Jeremiah said, inasmuch as there is none like you, oh Lord, you are great and your name is great in might. Now, some of God's essential and unchanging attributes are reflected in the creature, reflected in creation, reflected in you and I. We are made in the image of God, you and I, that we might glorify him as God, and so some aspects of his divine nature he has imaged or pictured, if you will, in us. We are made in the image of God. Those attributes that we reflect or resemble are called communicable attributes, communicable attributes. We have a will as God has a will. We have some strength, some power, though certainly nothing like the power that God possesses. We have some ability to reason. We have some wisdom. We have the ability to know. We have emotions. We have affections. To a limited degree, to a limited degree, we're able to love. We're able to show mercy. We're able to uphold justice or to act justly. Justly, so many more, right? So many more. Those are communicable attributes. To say that we reflect these attributes of God in a limited or imperfect way is a dramatic understatement when compared with God. We reflect them in a limited or imperfect way. The Lord does not possess these attributes in the same way that you and I do. But the reason that we can reflect them at all is because we're made in that way in God's image. That image is greatly marred, greatly defaced in our sin. But when you are made a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you are indwelt by His Spirit, when you're transformed by the renewing of your mind through the Word of God, God is renewing that image day by day as we are conformed to the image of Christ our Savior through the process of sanctification. We are to be conformed to His image. Those united to Christ through faith have the capacity by His Spirit, have the capacity to love more like God loves. We have the capacity, brothers and sisters, to forgive more like God forgives. We have the capacity to be holy more as He is holy. We have the capacity to be and do righteousness more as He is righteous. Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature. That's what happens when God makes you a new creation in Christ and that is an awesome privilege, right? An awesome blessing. A good way to think of this might be the way in which a mirror reflects or might reflect the sun. You think about that analogy, right? That illustration. A mirror is not the sun. A mirror is not the sun. The sun is of an entirely different nature than the mirror. But the mirror can, it can reflect some of the attributes of the sun. The mirror reflects some of those attributes, its brightness. The mirror can reflect its color. The mirrors can reflect its shape. The mirror can even reflect its warmth. But even those attributes of the sun that it reflects or shares are not themselves in the mirror. In the same way that they are a part of the very essence of the sun. In this respect, you think about that analogy or that illustration. It's glorious. It's fascinating to meditate on the deity and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fully man, yet fully God. Not like the mirror in His divine essence, in His essential divinity. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 describes the Lord Jesus Christ as the brightness of His glory. Not like the mirror, Jesus Christ is the brightness of His glory. Not a mirror reflection of His glory as in the mirror of a different essence, but the actual radiance of the sun itself. The actual divine effulgence or shining out of God's divine glory. That's who Jesus Christ is. Hebrews describes Him as the express image of God's person. Not a reflected image, not an implied image or an analogous image in His divinity. But the express image of His person. He is the very image of the invisible God in whom all the fullness of deity dwells. All the attributes of God in all their fullness in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our mediator, our savior, fully God, fully man. That's why Scripture says, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 10, that's why God Himself says of the sun, son of old, you lay the foundation of the earth. Sound familiar? And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will change them and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end. That's amazing, isn't it? God speaking that of the sun. Fully man, fully God. Though fully man, ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ, are attributes essential to His divine nature that find no resemblance, no analogy in mere men. Why? Why is that about the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, because although Jesus Christ is fully man, Jesus Christ is also fully God. Now in addition to those attributes, imaged or reflected in man, those communicable attributes, there are those divine attributes which bear no image, no resemblance in the mere creature, no resemblance in man. We can't find anything within us that is analogous to those divine attributes and no created being could possess them. No created being could possess one of those attributes that are reserved essential to God alone, nor can God transfer or give these essential attributes or characteristics to anyone else. These are called the incomunicable attributes of God and these are the subject of our time together this morning. The incomunicable, incomunicable attributes of God, His aseity, we'll talk about that in a moment, His infinitude, His eternity, His immutability, His simplicity, attributes that are incomunicable, reserved for God alone, essential to the divine essence, aseity, infinitude, eternity, immutability, simplicity, there are others. There are many ways that theologians over the centuries have categorized the attributes of God in an effort to think on and to meditate on the person and the nature of the person of God, the excellence of His greatness. They've categorized these attributes in several different ways. Theologians have thought of them as absolute or relative. Absolute attributes or relative attributes. Imminent or eminent, I'll let you look those up. Imminent or eminent, moral or non-moral attributes for our purposes, we're thinking of them in one categorical kind of structure being communicable or incommunicable. Those that are found resembled in us and those which cannot be found to resemble anything about Him in us. Let's consider the first of these this morning, the incommunicable attributes of God. Turn with me back to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. Let's consider from Paul's sermon here on Mars Hill, the incommunicable attributes of God. Acts chapter 17. And look down beginning at verse 16. Now in Acts 17, for context, Paul arrives in Athens and he encounters two enemies that stand opposed to the knowledge of God. And we can find those two enemies everywhere we go today. Those two enemies are idolatry on the one hand and worldly philosophy on the other. Paul encounters two enemies, idolatry and worldly philosophy. First, in verse 16, Luke says that Paul's spirit was provoked. The word there for provoked means angry or indignant. Now it is right to be angry or indignant against anything which supposes or presumes to usurp the proper authority and reign of God alone. Idolatry, it's right to be indignant against idolatry. God is angry or indignant against idolatry. Luke 16, verse 16, Luke says that his spirit was provoked. Paul's spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to or submerged in, that's what the word means, submerged in idols. That's interesting. That word for provoked, becoming angry or indignant is often used in the Old Testament. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that same word is used for God's reaction to idolatry. So Paul here is sharing the very reaction of God to idolatry. Second now, he was reasoning with the Jews, reasoning with the Gentiles in the marketplace. He was preaching the Gospel. When he was there, he ran into a group of Epicureans and Stoics. These were the two leading schools of worldly philosophy. Paul's provoked by idolatry and then preaching in the marketplace, he runs into the Epicureans into the Stoics, which represent the two most popular, most common schools of philosophy in Paul's day. The Epicureans sought happiness. They would have been those who would have said, if it feels good, do it. Not unlike many today. If you drink and be merry, if it feels good, do it. They believed in many gods and none of those gods were mad. None of those gods were angry. They were happy. And the Stoics, the Stoics sought peace through logic. They were disciplined, rigorous. They were the grin and barret crowd. They realized there was going to be pain, but they could take it, stiff up her lip. Can't control what's coming, but I can grin and bear it. Those were the Stoics. Some of this crowd that came into the marketplace there called Paul a babbler for his preaching in verse 18. Called him a babbler. Took him to the Areopagus to hear him out in verse 19. The Areopagus was an outdoor court on a hill. It was called Mars Hill. That's where the city council would have met, where others would have met to use that as a location to solve or to hear cases, to hear some new things, the Bible says. It was a meeting place. So then we pick up the account in verse 22. So then Paul, he stood in the midst of the Areopagus and he said, Men of Athens, I perceive in all things you are very religious. This is not a compliment. This is, right out of the gate, a little sarcastic jab from Paul at all of their idolatry. Paul is provoked in his spirit with all of their idolatry, gives them a little jab, sarcastic jab, right out of the gate. For verse 23. As I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him, I proclaim to you. Now Paul is going to set out to proclaim the true and living God and in preaching the true and living God to these worldly philosophers on Mars Hill, Paul is going to make three assertions about him. First is this from verse 24. God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands. Now verse 24 points us in part to God's infinitude. God's infinitude. Paul begins with a fact. Paul begins with a fact that God himself created everything. God, verse 24, who made the world and everything in it. Now we understand this. We are created beings. Everything that we see around us is created. Our very being as human beings is derived from God. God is the one who made us, right? Because we are created beings, we are derived beings. Our being is derived from him. Do you see? We are derived beings. We are conditional beings. Our existence is conditioned upon him. We are dependent beings. He gives us everything that we need. He's the one who's given it. We're dependent beings. We're mutable beings. We change all the time. We can change on the dime. We can change on a whim. We're mutable beings. We're finite and we're limited. Because we are created, we're derived, conditional, dependent, mutable, finite and limited. But God, God is the uncreated creator. God who made the world and everything in it. He's the creator. God, the uncreated creator, derives his being from no one and no thing. God is not created and therefore not derived. God is not created and therefore not conditional, not dependent, not mutable, not finite, not limited. God's infinitude. Do you see? He then, because he's not derived, not conditional, not dependent, not mutable, not finite, not limited, he is then infinite. God is unlimited, immeasurable, unsearchable. That's what the Bible clearly teaches. Verse 28. Verse 28, it is in God then that we who are created by him live and move and have our being. Have our being. God does not live and move and have his being in any other thing. He has his being within himself. He is, in fact, then, verse 24, Lord of heaven and earth. Paul goes on to say that our God does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words, God is not bound by anything. God is infinite. God is spirit. He has no body. God is infinite. He's not bound by religious practice. He's not restricted to religious ritual. He's not limited to religious ceremony. God is not confined to religious exercises. He's not confined to any sacred space. God is not limited to place at all. When we speak of God's infinitude, we're speaking of something different than unlimited size. It's not that God doesn't fit inside the temple. We're not thinking of or speaking of something related to unlimited size. The creation may be great in size, but God is infinite in his essential being, the very being of God is infinite, infinite in his essence, infinite in all his perfections. Anselm referred to God as something than which nothing greater can be thought. Think about that for a moment. Something than which nothing greater can be thought. In all of God's perfections, in all of God's essential nature, in all of God's attributes, God is something than which nothing greater can be thought. For God to be something than which nothing greater can be thought is another way of saying that God is infinite. God is infinite, His infinitude. And that is infinite or unlimited in all His perfections. God is His perfections in infinite measure. If we can think of anything that would limit God, then it cannot be true of God. If you can think of anything that would limit God, it is not true of God. In this book entitled None Greater, Matthew Barrett says this of our infinite God. God, if God is dependent on the created order as opposed to being independent, then He cannot be infinite. Why? Because He's a needy God. He's incomplete. He's reliant on others for either His existence or fulfillment or both. A needy God is not a perfect God, for a needy God is not infinite. If God is made up of parts as opposed to being simple, then God cannot be infinite. Why? Because a God made up of parts may also be divided by His parts. A God made up of parts is dependent on His parts to make Him who He is. A God made up of parts needs someone or something else to compose His parts to make up His very being. Both compromise the unity and independence of God. A divided God is not a perfect God, for a divided God is not infinite. God's infinitude. And we could go on. God's infinitude applied to His power means that God is omnipotent, all powerful. God's infinitude applied to His knowledge means that God is omniscient. God's infinitude applied to His wisdom means that God is omnisapient, all wise. God's infinitude applied to His presence means that God is omnipresent everywhere in the fullness of His essential nature at all times. Present at once. God's infinitude applied to time means that God is eternal. Incommunicable attributes. Omnipresence, eternal. Those attributes that are not shared with His creation. He alone is eternal. We're immortal. We are made to live forever. But God has no beginning and no end. We, you and I, have a birthday. Right? God is eternal. God is omnipresent. We're confined to body. We're confined to space. God's infinitude. God alone is infinite. It's an incommunicable attribute. Now second, that's verse 24. Second, Paul asserts this about God in verse 25. Nor is God worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. He would later say in verse 28 that in Him we live and move and have our being. Since He gives us what we need for our existence, life, breath, all things, it would be foolish and absurd to imagine that God needs life, breath, or anything from us. He doesn't need anything from us. God derives His being from no one and no thing. He depends on nothing but Himself for His existence. Verse 25 points us to God's aseity. God's aseity. Aseity means that God is self-existent. Self-existent. It's from a word, assay. Assay from itself. Assay. God has life in Himself. Our confession says that His subsistence is in and of Himself. God exists because of Himself. John 5, verse 26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. That's interesting. That's another incommunicable attribute. Impossible for a created being to have. Impossible for man to have. And it's an attribute that God, the Holy Spirit, asserts of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 5, verse 26. As God the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. Doesn't mean that the second person of the Trinity was created. It means that the second person of the Trinity is eternally begotten of the Father. It's called the filiation of the Son. The filiation of the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's eternal generation. The eternal generation of the Son. We would say the same of the Spirit of God. The Spirit eternally proceeds from both the Father and the Son. It's called the Spiration of the Spirit. The Spiration of the Spirit. The filiation of the Son. The Spiration of the Spirit. Those will be sermons for later. But suffice it to say with me, right? Suffice it to say, God has no cause. God, one being, existing, subsisting in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God has no cause. He is not an effect of anything. He's not an effect. He said to Moses, tell them, I am, has sent you. I am. Now it would be wrong, theologically, even to say that God is the cause of God. God is not the cause of God because God has no cause. It's as if to say that God caused himself to come into existence. God has no beginning. God has no cause. God is no effect. The fact that anything exists at all tells us that there never was a time when nothing existed. That is clear as the obtrusive nose on my face. The fact that anything exists, the fact that anything exists means there was never a time when nothing existed. If there were a time when nothing existed, then nothing would exist even now. Do you see? Creation demands this assay and infinite Creator. If God were not assayity, we're not assay independent, and if God were not infinite, there would be no creation. There would be no UNI. There would be nothing. If there were a time when nothing existed, nothing would exist now. The fact that things exist now means that there is a first cause, a supreme cause to all things. Contra, evolution, and the absurdity that material is eternal or energy is eternal and that all this sprung out by chance. What a bunch of baloney. Professing to be wise, they are abject fools. The one who says there's no God is a fool, the Bible says. Psalm 102 verse 11, my days are like a shadow that lengthens and I wither away like grass. In other words, I am fragile. I am weak. I am needy. Our lives are but a moment one day gone the next. We all die. We are weak. But you, oh Lord, shall endure forever and the remembrance of your name to all generations. God alone has existence within himself. The power of being I say entirely independent. I say it means that God is self-existent, has life within himself. He also means that God is then independent of influence, independent from anyone or anything other than himself. In other words, God is sovereign, freely, utterly, completely sovereign, working as the Bible says all things according to the counsel of his own will. He is sovereignly free to act as he wills, not influenced or dependent upon anyone or anything other than himself. Isaiah chapter 46 verse 9 the Bible says, for I am God. There is no other. I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand I will do all my pleasure. Notice with me from Isaiah 46 verse 9 it doesn't say this foreseeing the end from the beginning foreseeing from ancient times the things that are are and are not yet done saying my foreknowledge shall stand and I will do all someone else's pleasure. No. God is the one who gives counsel. God is the one who decrees all his counsel shall stand he does all his good pleasure. Notice what God does in Acts chapter 17 verse 25 back in verse 25 God in Acts 17 verse 25 he gives to all of us life breath and all things that word gives that verb active participle God is on an ongoing continuous basis giving life breath and all things you don't just need breath once right your very existence is sustained by omnipotent God who continues to give you everything you need to sustain your existence he gives you life gives you breath gives you all things and then sustains you in those things in other words God doesn't simply create us and let us leave us to fend for ourselves he continuously presently gives to us all things all things sovereignly decreed there may come a time when you don't have the breath that you need and that will also be by God's decree he continuously presently gives us all things all my days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them God fashioned all of them every good every perfect gift comes down from the father of life including life yes including breath yes including all things yes not only is my being derived from him my being is sustained by him I am dependent on him for my very existence the beginning and moment by moment in the present and forever I am dependent upon him sustained by him what about trials and adversity yes yes Amos 3 6 if there is calamity in a city will not the Lord have done it Isaiah 45 verse 7 I form the light I create darkness I make peace and create calamity I the Lord do all these things and in him you and I live and move and have our being our creator and our sustainer God has no such dependence God has no such dependence as though God needed anything Paul says right as though he needed anything he doesn't need anything God alone is I say God doesn't need you and God doesn't need me his I say it even is an incommunicable attribute you and I need him in every conceivable way you and I need him in every way our very being is derived from him how is it how is it think about the absurdity of our rebellion against him absolutely unconscionable absurd rebellion and sinful and one day to be judged if you do not turn from your sin and trust Christ alone for God's provision of your salvation in him it is of course then considering God's infinitude and God's assayity it is of course entirely understandable God who is infinite in all his attributes and alone I say or independent of any cause or any effect is of necessity then immutable another incommunicable attribute God does not change I think with me these things are so intimately tied together you can't have God without one of these essential attributes you see God does not change because God is infinitely and eternally what he is and who he is because he's perfect God is incapable of mutation he is immutable he doesn't change change would undermine God's perfections Malachi 3 verse 6 for I am the Lord I do not change therefore you are not consumed O sons of Jacob that's an interesting thought God's saying because I don't change I am true to what I say and what I do forever I will not change therefore you are not consumed you sons of Jacob why is that? because God had made an unbreakable inviolable covenant with them and God is faithful to his word he will never change he will never break his promises God will never break his covenant because God does not change who he is he does not change in what he says and does not change in what he does it is the ground of his faithfulness of his promises to us turning to Hebrews chapter 6 Hebrews chapter 6 I was having fellowship with a dear brother and sister the other night and we were talking about the Lord and this text came to mind with respect to God's immutability I love this text for what it says about God it is so clear Hebrews chapter 6 and this is with reference to God's promise to Abraham with respect to his immutability the fact that God does not change chapter 6, look at verse 13 when God made a promise to Abraham that is the Abrahamic covenant we have looked at that before Genesis chapter 12 Genesis chapter 15 when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater God swore by himself saying truly blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you that was his promise to Abraham and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise Abraham did verse 16 for men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute I am going to swear by something people swear all the time there's like people are flipping and cavalier about the oaths that they take but they swear against something greater that's the point that's being made here by the author of Hebrews men swear by something greater and for them that confirmation I swear to you they'll say that ends all dispute I am taking an oath according to that thing by which I swore the oath thus God verse 17 determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability the unchangeable character of his counsel the fact that his promise will never fail the fact that his word will never be proven untrue the fact that he will always keep every promise that he makes God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise you and I who are inheritors of these blessed and precious promises God wanting to show us that we can trust him wanting to show us that we can put all of our hope in him God with his the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us God swore by himself his immutability the unchangeable nature of his character of his promises his faithfulness God swore by himself so that you and I might have sweet blessed consolation in all our difficulties in all our trials all our adversities in our life that God is faithful to his word this is God's word and you can take it to the bank you can believe it you can cast yourself upon him cast yourself to God Almighty and he is faithful to care for you and love you in Christ he will keep his word this hope verse 19 we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast in which enters the presence behind the veil who is that as the Lord Jesus Christ the anchor of our soul where the forerunner has entered for us even Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek all the promises of God that are yes and amen to the Lord Jesus Christ are founded on, grounded on the immutability of God his unchanging essence his unchanging character his unchanging word and we can trust him that's in this glorious eternally existent being he who directs and ordains the affairs of his creation back in Acts 17 God then sovereignly directs freely directs, ordains all the affairs of his creation look at chapter 17 verse 26 God then has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the earth and he has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings the greatest effect the greatest effect is creation God is the cause creation is the effect the greatest effect is creation that creation should send men back to the first and greatest cause who is God without excuse Romans chapter 1 creation, the greatest effect should send every person every man, every woman, every child back to searching for, looking for, longing for the first and greatest cause who is God look at what he did in verse 26 he made from one blood of every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth he has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings look at verse 27 they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us why verse 28 because in him we live and we move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said for we are also his offspring even pagan poets even pagan philosophers know this truth it's what Paul is saying here it was the Cretan poet epimenides that said in him we live and move and have our being and it was a ratus a philosopher from Paul's home region of Cilicia who said we also are his offspring even pagan poets and philosophers know this to be true Romans 1 therefore men are without excuse without excuse third then Paul further asserts this about God in verse 29 therefore since we are then the offspring of God we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone something shaped by art by man's devising we talked about this a little bit last week because of who God is because of who he is it is absurd to in any way assume that God is a product of man's devising God rebukes the wicked you thought that I was all together like you but he says I will rebuke you and set things in order before your eyes God is not a product of man's reason God is not a product of man's imagination this is theistic personalism it is the bane of quote-unquote Christianity today so called Christianity erects a God of their own imagination they devise a God of their own thinking their own reason this is what love looks like to me so that must be what God looks like when he loves no you thought that I was all together like you but my ways are not your ways God says God my thoughts are higher than your thoughts my ways higher than your ways God is not a product of man's reason God is not a product of man's imagination God is not a product of man's devising it doesn't matter how much you want to try to reason around the truth that homosexuality is acceptable before God it simply is not why? because God has said as many other sins right now in our world there is an effort on the part of the wicked and frankly on the part of the professing church to justify the character and nature of God that tolerates sin God simply does not his character cannot and will not and does not change the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament is the God of our time so much more that could be said it's idolatry to represent him or to conceive of him in any way contrived by human act and that goes from everything to making a form of him to thinking of him in idolatrous ways in your mind from crafting like if you notice what Paul says verse 29 like gold, silver or stone something shaped by art and man's devising everything from a physical object to gold or silver or stone something fashioned out of those things or you sat down and actually made an idol for yourself or if you merely sat down in your easy chair and thought idolatrous thoughts devised a God according to your own imagination this is what God's like that's idolatry let us avoid this error theistic personalism God is not like you and I he's revealed himself in his word we must know him through his word and we owe him glory and honor and praise amen so how does Paul then conclude his sermon at the areopic is that day how does Paul conclude look at verse 30 truly these times of ignorance God overlooked but now commands men everywhere to repent why because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained he has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead you and I have sinned grievously against this God the infinite independent immutable omnipotent omnipresent omniscient omnisapient we've sinned against this God the one who made us fashioned us after his own image we've sinned against him you've rebelled against him fought against him fought against God who is infinite in his being perfect injustice everywhere present who has no need of you no need of me who's all powerful immovable in holiness steadfast in righteousness steadfast in justice and worse yet you are blinded by the magnitude of your sin you don't see it as bad as it is you're blinded to the magnitude of your sin you're blinded by the magnitude of your sin you're blinded to its offense you have offended an eternally perfect and unchangeable and righteous and holy God we are our sins stack up to heaven they are a stench in the nostrils of God the only hope that we have is that we are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb you will die a stench in the nostrils of God unless you turn from your sin and commit your life all that who you are and trust yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ trusting him alone for salvation often though it's not until you're in the throne room with Isaiah that you see him for who he is and can turn from sin to trust him alone we're blinded by our sin we're blinded by the magnitude of our sin we're blinded by our sin to the offense that our sin is to God we don't see us, I remember talking to a guy one time he said you know what, I'm just not a bad person I'm a good person, God's not mad at me blinded blinded and that's why a study of who God is and an understanding of a meditation on a pondering of who God is is so important to you and I as fallible, finite creatures made in God's image it is critical that we think on these things it's not until you behold God's majesty God's holiness like Isaiah that you can see Isaiah in chapter 6 said this in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up the train of his robe filled the temple Isaiah is struck by this vision of God the majesty of God the wonder of God how awesome, how great God is I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up the train of his robe filled the temple with two beings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew and one cried to another and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke so Isaiah said woe is me that's the response of a person in the presence of God with a sight of who God is with a sight of his majesty with a sight of his greatness you and I are flat on our face worshiping prostrate before him when Peter was in the boat you remember from Luke chapter 5 I believe it is and the Lord is talking to Peter the second person of the trinity God in the flesh the word became flesh and dwelt among us and he's talking to Peter in the boat and he says to Peter, Peter cast your net on the other side and Peter says listen I've been fishing all night I've had no luck out here but okay at your word I'm going to cast my net on the other side so Peter does that and there's a catch so great that he can't get it in the boat the boat starts sinking there's so many fish in a moment realizes who he's standing before what was Peter's reaction? depart from me Lord I'm a wicked man depart from me God Isaiah sees a vision of God high and lifted up and he's undone woe is me woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips because my eyes have seen the king Lord of hosts I love reading the bible and I love studying his word I love seeing the God of the bible before my face on the pages of scripture having him revealed to you and I on the pages of his word in the way that he's intended to be revealed to us is glorious and wondrous and amazing and desperately needed and when you come before him you see yourself as you are and with Isaiah you say woe is me I am undone I am an unclean man I dwell among unclean men who Paul says in Acts chapter 17 verse 30 truly your times my times of ignorance God has up until now overlooked all the days of your ignorance until now God is graciously God is mercifully overlooked but now commands you commands me commands us to repent commands all men everywhere commands all men everywhere to repent why? because he has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness his inviolable perfect righteousness he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained he has given assurance of this to all by raising that man the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead turn at his reproof turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved why will you die the Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked would turn from his evil way and trust in Christ and be saved turn and then praise him with all the saints for his excellent greatness amen let's pray take a few moments then go before the Lord consider who he is consider the excellence of his person turn from sin do business with God and you will be dismissed let's pray Father in heaven you are worthy of all glory honor praise and worship inform now Lord and fuel our faith our understanding of who you are by your word help us Lord to see you as you have revealed yourself to us most preeminently and supremely in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and cause us Lord to cling to you fleeing our sin and running hard after you fervently faithfully seeking to be conformed into your image and work in us Lord to will and to do according to your good pleasure have your way in us make us Lord trophies of your grace for your glory and everlasting worship we pray these things in his name Amen