Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. In our second session here this morning, we're going to continue to study the attributes of God.
Last time we looked at the incommunicable attributes, which we treated all too briefly. And now we're going to move into a study of the communicable attributes of God. And let me just say one thing here. As we study God's attributes, it's probably good for me to mention this as well. Theologians will talk about the simplicity of God, by which they mean that his essence is undivided. When we talk about the attributes of God, we're not talking about separate components that are added together like so many Legos into a box. But the divine essence is unified.
It is indivisible. God is not a being that consists of component parts. He is a simple being in that he is completely unified within his being. And so we mentioned that in passing, and mentioning that does give us a little help for the approach that we're using here today, and why theologians study the attributes. God is one undivided essence, but you and I can't begin to comprehend that all at once in our mind. We have to take things step by step. We have to start in one place and build and add another thing because we can't absorb all of that at once. And so we study his attributes individually and somewhat systematically, but it's not because God is divided up.
It's simply a way for us to be able in our humanity to gain understanding one theme at a time. Now, with that said, we're going to look at some attributes of God here that have some resemblance in man, some resemblance in man. In God, these attributes are infinite and they are perfect and they are undiminished.
In man, they are limited and imperfect, but you can still see a measure of reflection. What we're going to do, we're going to look at his communicable attributes in three separate messages, one today and then a couple over the next two Tuesday studies is how we're going to approach this. Today, we're just going to look at one aspect of them and we can classify God's communicable attributes in three different categories, three different classifications you might say. There are God's mental attributes, speaking about the mind of God. That's what we're looking at here in this session. You can talk about the volitional attributes of God, his power and his ability to do what he wills, his volitional attributes. That'll be our study for this coming Tuesday.
You'll want to be here for that. And then finally, we'll look at God's moral attributes, his goodness, his truth, his love. His mental attributes, you kind of peer into the mind of God in this session. His volitional attributes, which refer to his will, the volition being that element in character of will, of doing what you want to do, and then the moral attributes will be our third way in looking at this. Originally, I was going to do mind and power all in the same message, but then I realized I just wasn't going to work too much material at one time.
So we're going to simplify here today. What can we say about the mind of God? Well, what does Scripture say about the knowledge of God? Point number one, there's only two points in this message.
It might be a little bit briefer. God is omniscient. God is omniscient. That means that he is all-knowing. He knows everything in a comprehensive way. Now, for those of you that are here in the audience here today, just in March, just a few months ago, I did a message titled, The All-Knowing God, where we talked about and examined the doctrine of omniscience in greater length. Because that is so recent, I'm going to be briefer here.
There are copies of that CD out on the table if you want to bring one of those home, or you can download it from one of the two websites where you can find my teaching. What does omniscience mean? Well, in the book that we're using as our textbook loosely, Louis Berkhoff says this, omniscience is that perfection of God whereby he, in a manner all his own, knows himself and all things possible and actual.
I'll say that again. Omniscience is that perfection of God whereby he, in a manner all his own, knows himself and all things possible and actual. Now, if you step back for a moment, just the mere fact that God knows himself is a staggering thought. When you have an infinite, independent spirit that knows everything about himself, knows all of his attributes with perfection, knows the counsels of his will, he knows his own infinite being, that's amazing. I mean, you and I know ourselves a little bit, and yet even our knowledge of ourselves is limited and distorted.
Jeremiah 17 9 says when it comes to man that the heart is deceitful above all else, who can understand it? And so we know ourselves in part, but we don't even know the deepest part of our beings, of our motivations. Our self-knowledge is limited and incomplete and diminished, not so with God. An infinite, holy being knows himself with infinite perfection.
Wow. How great the mind of God must be for him to be like that, for him to understand himself. There is one being in the universe that understands God fully and that is God. No one else knows himself like he knows himself. When we say that God knows everything, he knows the past with utter perfection in every detail. He knows the present. He knows the future. He knows the hearts of seven billion people living. He knows the life span and all of the thoughts of everyone who's ever existed before us. You know, sometimes you might be, you know, I don't know if you ever think if you ever think this way.
I do. You go to a stadium, maybe you're going to a ballgame, you see 50,000 people, or if it's a Reds game, 15,000. No, that's totally unnecessary. Or you're in the midst of a great big crowd. Do you ever stop back and think that God knows all of these people intimately and that every one of them, most of them in utter oblivion to the fact that they are moving toward an appointment with this holy, omniscient God who's going to judge them? And it's staggering to think about. And you say, could God really know that many people that well and that intimately to be able to do that? Or are we just kind of, you know, what is this?
Well, think about it this way. Just in terms of a pale justification of the omniscience of God, isn't it true that the U.S. government takes a census of the 330 million people that live in our boundaries every 10 years and that the government identifies people and that there's a unique number assigned to everyone that lives within the walls of our country? And that's our limited government that can know an awfully lot about every individual, generally speaking, within the boundaries of its borders. Well, how much more so that God would know the entirety of everything that's within the bounds of his creation, of everyone that he's given life to? And so again, we realize that as we think about these things, we start our perspective with who God is and what scripture has revealed him to be, and we say, yes, God does know everyone like this. Everyone does have to deal with him, and his knowledge is infinite and perfect.
He knows all men in the same intimate way. Look at Psalm 139. Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 verses 1 through 4. David says, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. And this is a knowledge of God that this is God's knowledge of David.
What I'm trying to say was not unique to David. This is how he knows all men. All of our thoughts are open and laid bare before him. When we rise up, when we lie down, God has a perfect awareness of what's going on. God sees every hand gesture that I make while I'm here. He sees you as you sit here. He knows your thoughts. This is how great his omniscience is. And we discuss that more in that message that I alluded to a moment ago. Not only that, not only does God perfectly know the past, present, and future, not only does he know every man and every man's heart and every man's ways with intimate perfection, no detail missing, no fact has fallen out of his mind as so often happens to us.
Where did I put my car keys anyway? You know, this is foolish to speak this way, but God's never looking for his car keys because he never forgets anything. And his knowledge is something that he has always had. Remember we said that God's, his essence has never changed.
And so this perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, of things possible and things actual is a knowledge that God has somehow always had. He's never learned anything. He's not like you and I. We want to learn something. We go and we read a book.
We go to class. We go to college in order to learn things. To get a degree, that's so foreign to the nature of God. He has never learned anything. No one has ever given him knowledge that he didn't already have.
That's how great his mind is. And as you read scripture, you see that God knows things which are merely possible but will not happen or even come into existence. Look over at Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Beginning in verse 20. Matthew 11 verse 20.
Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Corazene. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if, watch the conditional statement, if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
Nevertheless, I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Jesus is stating something that is contrary to reality. He says, if this had happened, but it didn't, this would have happened, but it didn't. And so what he's saying is, he says, I know exactly what would have happened in these ancient cities if what had happened here today had happened back then, this is what the result would have been.
It didn't happen, but I know for certain what would have occurred if it had. And so he has knowledge, God has knowledge of things potential that didn't even occur. And so we can say without qualification, God comprehensively and exhaustively knows all things. Look at Hebrews chapter 4.
Hebrews chapter 4 will begin in verse 12. The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And so making this statement which seems to be referring to the written Word of God as opposed to the incarnate Word of God, but in either case, judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart, going that deeply, and then it expands and speaks about the omniscience of God. There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. How expansive is His knowledge of creation? How full and complete is His knowledge? Look over at Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6. And again, the knowledge of God feeds your peace and comfort and security in the Christian life. The attributes of God are essential for you to understand if you are going to grow into a mature, stable person that is not tossed about from wave to wave by every shift in doctrine, every shift in your personal circumstances, every change in a national leader. We must realize that God is over and above all of those things and that the God who reigned before time began, the God who reigned at the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was living and active and was reigning on the day of your birth, the God who was alive and reigning in 1776, is the exact, sane, powerful, wise, infinite, independent God that's going to be on the throne when we wake up on Wednesday, November 9th.
We have to think this way. We have to anchor our thoughts in these things. And whether you're thinking on it on a macro or a micro level, look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 6, which will expound further in a few months on Sundays. You, when you pray, Matthew 6 verse 6, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you're praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
So do not be like them. This command not to be like unbelieving pagan Gentiles is rooted in the omniscience of God. He says, don't be like them for, because, for this reason, your Father knows what you need before you ask him. And so when we go to prayer, we should remember that we're praying to a God who already knows everything, who knows what we're going to say before we say it. And so we pray not to give him information, for he already knows. We pray not to, if you're wise and you're praying, if you're maturing in your prayer, you're praying not to give him advice on what he should do, but rather to bring yourself dependently and consciously under the sovereign care of this one who knows all your needs before you ask. This changes the whole way that you live in prayer. It changes the way that you pray, so that when you're mindful of these things, you pray and you honor God and you submit to him. Look at verse 9.
Pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Let's step back for a moment. Just step back and think about what we're doing. Think about what we're saying about what's real and true about God.
This is the way things really are. He is invisible. He's infinite.
He's immutable. And we realize that we're coming into the presence of this God and Jesus had just said one of the applications of the being of God is that he knows everything before you ask. He sees in secret.
He knows what you need before you ask him. Do you realize that if we thought about that consciously and we really believed that, do you realize that it would force you to change the way that you pray? Many of you anyway.
Some of you may be hearing these things for the first time or having an opportunity for spiritual growth laid before you in the words of our Lord Jesus. God, I've got a problem here. Yeah, no kidding. I already know that. And so let's just move on to something else. Do you realize that when you start to contemplate the attributes of God, the only way that you can rightly respond to any of this is in worship? Such a greatly superior being, you're in his presence, all you can do is fall down as it were and worship and acknowledge him and praise him. Well, that's what Jesus says to do. Pray then as a result of God's omniscience, pray like this, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Let me hasten and hurry right into what matters here. God, let your name be praised. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done. Do you see, beloved, that the way Jesus teaches on prayer rooted in this character and the attributes of God in which we are speaking, it leads you to worship and it leads you to submission. It leads you to bow before him and to submit your will to his. God, your will be done, not mine. Just like my Lord prayed on the cross, Father in Gethsemane, I should say, not my will but thine be done.
You see, that's compelled. The attributes of God compel you in this direction when you realize he is so great, I must worship. And when you realize how great and how good he is, all I could do is just submit to him and say, Lord, whatever your will is, that's what I want. And this actually simplifies prayer greatly. And then in verse 11, he goes on and, you know, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts. You know, Lord, let me just lay out in light of who you are and I am here as a finite creature, God, I depend upon you.
I consciously acknowledge and express my dependence upon you. We worship him, we submit to him, we depend upon him in prayer, all flowing from the attributes of who he is. And so the omniscience of God has very specific implications for us. How important is the doctrine of omniscience? How important is the mind of God in biblical thought? J. Gresham Machen said it this way, if one thing lies at the basis of the whole biblical teaching about God, it is that God knows all things, end quote. God knows everything and everything else flows out of that. Contrary to what some theologians teach, process theologians that God is kind of changing along as he learned, God is learning and seeing things unfold and so he's gaining knowledge even as we do and he's kind of a joint spectator at the events of the world, that's utterly false.
That's not true. God knows the beginning from the end. I think it's Isaiah 46 verse 9, I'm taking a shot here, I didn't include this in my notes. Isaiah 46 verse 9. Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10, you do need to turn here. Another statement about the omniscience of God, the power of God. Isaiah 46 verse 9, remember the former things long past, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. God can declare the end from the beginning because he knows the end.
That's how he's able to declare it and so his omniscience is vast, it is marvelous, it is inexhaustible. My friend, thank you for joining us for yet another podcast from The Truth Pulpit and we wanted to let you know that in addition to these audio resources that you are enjoying, that there are also written resources from my ministry. The Lord has given us opportunity to put some of the things that I've taught over the years in print and I have one book in particular that I would want to call your attention to. It's the most popular book that I've published so far called Trusting God in Trying Times. It's a book born out of deep personal sorrow and is brought into context, you might say, through the Word of God. How to trust God when you are going through the deepest valleys and the most sorrowful things in life, how do you trust God through those times when you can't see your way forward?
I've been there, my friend, and the book Trusting God in Trying Times speaks to that spiritual experience in the life of the believer. You can find all of my books at thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com.
Just click on the link there, you'll find links to different books and you will find that they take you to an easy place to purchase them for your reading enjoyment. So thank you once again for joining us on The Truth Pulpit. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-24 04:05:52 / 2025-01-24 04:14:30 / 9