The Incomprehensibility of God

(Article for publication week of 4-28-2010 AD)

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).

As Paul comes to the conclusion of his glorious and inspired treatise concerning justification, he exclaims that God is greater than our little puny minds. The human mind cannot understand the greatness and majesty of such a wonderful Being. Our small minds cannot fully grasp such sublime truths as the Triunity of God, His Being without beginning or end, His immutability, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His omnipotence, nor many other things that we will be writing about in coming months.

It is not for us to try to figure out God, but it is ours to believe God. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."(Hebrews 11:6). God has told us what He is like in His inspired word, and we are to simply believe what He has said.

This is not to say that we are not to apply all of our intellect to knowing God, but simply to say that after we have applied all of our thinking powers there will still be many things where we will simply plead mystery. We are to read what God has said about Himself in His word and believe it and use all of our thinking power to comprehend His truth. The first great command is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Faith does not mean that we abandon reason or thinking, but it does mean that we believe God's self-revelation whether we understand it or not. Someone has said it does not take much mind to be a Christian, but it does take all the mind you have.

Nor am I suggesting by the incomprehensibility of God that God is unknowable. Far from it, for the very definition of eternal life is to know the only true God (John 17:3). God's ways are far above our ways, but by the miracle of regeneration a poor sinner is able to know the great God of heaven and earth. Salvation is to have reasonable and experimental knowledge of the only true God. Imagine that! A poor sinner with a finite mind can know the infinite God!

My point is this: if you are waiting until you understand God to come to Him, you will never come. If you are waiting till you figure out the Deity to believe in Him, you will never believe in Him. Just believe in God and learn all you can about Him, but when you don't understand fully, just keep believing.

And I have to add this: the incomprehensibility of God does not mean we just implicitly believe what some church or theologian said without thinking. No, every one of us needs to read God's word for ourselves and try to understand as much as we can and believe it whether we fully comprehend it or not.

The study of God is the greatest study you will ever undertake. The study of God will expand the intellect and broaden your horizons more than any study you will ever undertake. The knowledge of God is the most sublime knowledge a human being can ever have. To Him be glory forever.

The Being of God

(Article for publication week of 4-21-2010 AD)

"And God said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14).

Last week we showed from the scriptures how that all men know there is a God by His creation and the conscience He has given every person. We do not have to use any fancy philosophical arguments to try to prove the existence of God. We simply declare Him and His perfections as revealed in His word. All men know there is a God, but we want men to believe what His word says about Himself.

When God said that His name is I AM, He was telling us that He is perfect of Himself. He is eternal and Self-existent, and in no need of anything outside Himself. Before he created the material universe, He had everything in Himself. Before He created any people or angels, the great Triune God was perfectly happy with Himself. God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost could have continued forever in happy bliss in Himself. It was not for any need on His part that God created a universe and angels and men, but simply to manifest His great glory. And this is the reason God does all things- for His Own glory.

Dear Reader, are you aware that you were created not for your glory, but for God's glory? "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”, the old catechism says, and that is the truth. God made you for His Own glory. The only way you will ever enjoy Him forever is to recognise that fact and start giving Him the glory and praise He so rightly deserves.

The Great I AM is without beginning. There never was a time when He was not. He is uncreated. He will never have an end, for He is the great I AM. He is eternally the same. God can never change for the better, for He is perfect. He cannot change for the worse, for then He would cease to be God, and that cannot be.

The great I AM is perfect in His holiness, goodness, righteousness and all that He is. The great I AM will always do right and according to His Own Holy nature. Everything He has ever done and ever will do is right because He is the One Who does it. There is no darkness at all in Him.

The great I AM sits on the throne if glory. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. The great I AM is the sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth and He is doing according to His Own Purpose everything that will bring eternal glory to Himself. The great I AM does not consult with His creatures, but consults only with Himself. He speaks and it is brought to pass. He purposes and also does it.

Surely we can sing with the hymn writer, "How Great Thou art"! Dear reader do you see how great the I AM is? Do you see how small you are? OH! that men would worship and praise the great I AM, our First Great Cause, and our last great end! Amen.

The Knowlege of God

(Article for publication week of April 14, 2010 AD)

Everyone knows there is a God. Although some people claim to be atheists, they and we know they are lying. Others claim to be agnostics. By the way, the Latin translation of agnostic is ignoramus. Both words mean "no knowledge." But the Bible says "atheists' and "agnostics" are both lying, for everyone knows there is a God.

In Romans 1:19-20 we read, "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so they are without excuse". All men know there is a God because His creation clearly reveals Him. The handiwork of God leaves you without excuse. You know there is a God because only He could have created you and the rest of the universe.

In Romans 2:14-15 we read these words, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." All men also know there is a God because of the conscience within us. God created us in His Image, and put within us a sense of right and wrong. Every time you judge another sinner you are proving you know there is a God. The fact that you call others to account shows you know right from wrong. And the reason all people have a sense of right and wrong is because God put a conscience within us. The most benighted heathens know that murder and theft and adultery are wrong because of this conscience.

In the Day of Judgment all men will be without excuse because by God's creation and the conscience within we all know there is a God. No one will be able to say to God in that great day, "Lord I would have worshipped You if You had only given me more information." No sir! You have all the information you need to know that there is a God and you ought to fall down and worship Him. If you do not seek God and worship Him, you will be excuseless in the day of Judgment and God will have every right to cast you into hell and He will. You have no excuse for not obeying God's law because your conscience tells you what is right and wrong. When you stand before God on the day of Judgment and He asks you why you broke His law, you will not be able to say you did not know His law, because it is written in your conscience.

Although all people know about God by His creation and their own conscience, the only way you can know what He is like and know Him savingly is through His inspired word. The word of God tells us of the Being of Jehovah and His glorious attributes. And only by the power of the Holy Spirit is that word opened to our understanding. I pray the Holy Spirit will take the word of God to our hearts so that we may not only know there is a God, but that we may know God.

The God of the Bible

(Article for publication week of 4-7-2010 AD)

Text: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

Once a faithful and true man of God was preaching an evangelistic meeting at a certain church. After one of his messages, one of the deacons of the church came up to him and said, "preacher, my God is too good to send anyone to hell." The precious man of God replied, "I am sure you are right, but I wasn't preaching your god, I was preaching the God of the Bible."

Well, this is the problem we face in our day. People have a god of their imagination, but they do not know the God of the Bible. Like those mentioned in Romans 1:20-25, they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of their own device. The God of the Bible is too holy for most church members today, so they have taken their engraving tools and made them a god that they can get along with.

Every time I hear someone say something about "my god', I always think about what the good evangelist said to the deacon, and I wonder if they know the true God. I hear many people in our community talk that way- "my god", but they evidently do not know the God of the Bible. Back when I was in high school we used to have a football coach, and he was like many coaches, and he used to tell us before a game to ask "the man upstairs" to help us knock the devil out of the opposing team. I did not know the god of the Bible back then, even though I was a church member, so I always did like coach said and ask the "man upstairs" to help us win. My friend if you think God is the " man upstairs" you do not know the true God, the God of the Bible. The "man upstairs" is not thrice holy, but the God of the Bible is. The "man upstairs" isn't sovereign and unchangeable, but the true God is. "Your god" won't send any one to hell, but the God of the Bible will.

Now, I want you to read carefully the series of articles that I will (DV) be writing for the next several months, because I am going to declare unto you the God of the Bible. I am going to be telling you what God has told us about Himself in His word. And this is the only way you will know the true God and what He is like, by reading His word. You won't know the truth of God by your imaginations, or your feelings. The God of the Bible is not necessarily like your mama or your preacher said He was. I don't know- a few of you may have a mama and a preacher who is saved, but most do not. It is evident that most of the preachers and church members in this county are lost people by reading the silly things they put on their church signs. It is evident that most of you do not believe in a thrice holy, sin hating, sin avenging God. The true God is the God of the Bible, and eternal life, salvation, is to know Him. If you want to be saved and have eternal life and know the True God, I urge you to stay with me as we will (Lord willing) be writing on the doctrine of God for a good while. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God."