God

A creatively named sermon by Keith D. Wallace

There’s a lot of talk in the world today about God.  A bunch of people who don’t know one thing about God proclaim to have the real inside scoop on just who God is and what He is all about.  The world has always had its share of fools like this but the problem is, there are too many Christians today sitting around listening to so-called experts tell them about a God they don’t even know.  A bunch of Bible illiterates trying to put their minds together and figure out a God that their carnal minds can’t understand anyway.  And these fools have clouded the minds of Americans so badly that many Christians don’t have a good understanding of God and won’t turn the TV off long enough to pick up their Bibles and find the truth out for themselves.  It is my goal to show you not how much I know about God, because nobody ever made me an expert on the subject, but to show you what God said about Himself in His Book.

1. God is Holy

That word Holy these days has really lost its meaning in our society.  People take the word Holy and turn it into a swear word or an adjective to describe something they are trying to make look like something it’s not (Holy Eucharist, Holy Sepulchre, Holy War, etc…).  The word Holy according to Webster’s 1828 means “entire or perfect, in a moral sense…free from sin and sinful affections…perfectly just and good”.  That definition can only apply to a few things that we sinful men know about such as God and His Words (the King James Bible).  And since the topic of the Bible has come up I would like to point out that if the Bible, any version, has even ONE error in it, it cannot be Holy since the definition indicates that something Holy must be perfect.  So if the version you use says Holy on the front or side, and it has even one error in it then it is not Holy.

 God tells us in the end of 1 Peter 1:16 I am holy.  Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD…who is like thee, glorious in holiness.  1 Sam 2:2 There is none holy as the LORD.  So God Himself is telling us that He is indeed Holy.  He is free from sin and sinful affections and He is perfect.  Clearly that sets God apart from fallen man.  God has also told us that we are not Holy.  Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  No man is Holy.  No creation of man is Holy.  No man can become Holy on his own.  1 Peter 1:16 says Be ye holy; for I am holy.  Obviously God is not saying that we can become Holy if we try hard and be good people.  The only way for us to truly become Holy is to accept the blood sacrifice of God Himself that Jesus Christ shed at Calvary.  But even then we are still sinners and are not Holy.  1 Peter 1:16 is God telling us to strive to be like Him after we are saved.  He knows that we cannot attain a sinless state while we’re in this flesh, but He has given us a goal to strive for.  One day we will be Holy as God is, but it will not be while we are on this Earth in this flesh.  God is Holy.  God is sinless perfection and nothing on this Earth save God’s Words is Holy no matter what those Pagans in Rome try to tell you. 

That’s not all.  Not only is God Himself Holy, but His name is Holy too.  Matt 6:9 Hallowed be thy name.  That word hallowed means sacred or Holy.  God’s name is Holy.  To take the name of God in vain is to take His Holy name and run it through the mud.  God does not take it lightly when a man uses His name in vain.  Ex 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

 So we see that God is Holy, His name is Holy and neither man nor the things of man are Holy in this life.

2. God is Just

Deut 32:4 God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.  God is just.  God is just and righteous and must carry out His judgment on mankind.  People these days have their attention focused elsewhere and don’t seem to think about the fact that their every action, word and thought will be judged by a holy, righteous and just God who shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.  He will act on everything in a perfect way that is based on the person of Jesus Christ as the standard.  Sinful man will be judged by a just God according to a perfect standard who knew no sin. 

Ps 119:160 every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.  The reward for man’s works will be perfectly just because they come from a perfectly just God.  If a man lives his life covered by the blood of Jesus and spends his time serving God, he will be rewarded by a perfect God exactly what his works deserved.  The bad news is that God will also perfectly reward a man who lives his life rejecting God or a man who lives his life relying on his own righteousness to save him.  God’s judgment for these types of people is an eternity in a Lake of Fire.  And it doesn’t matter what anyone of us believes about this, whether we think it’s fair or not, the bottom line is that God is just and His judgment are just and there will be no arguing with God over the rewards for a man’s work whether those works be good or evil. 

Also of note from Ps 119:160 is that the judgments of God endure forever.  So for those people that believe the Lake of Fire is not eternal, God says you’re wrong.  There’s no temporary judgment of God.  Those who are rewarded for the good they accomplished will continue to receive those rewards for all eternity.  Likewise those who are rewarded for the evil they accomplished will never cease to be judged in the Lake of Fire.  God is just.

3. God is Merciful

God understands His creation very well.  He knows that we sinners down here can sometimes be pretty thick-headed and He has to be very very clear when He wants us to understand something.  When God has something important to say to us He puts in His word.  When He really wants to drive the point in, He repeats it.  But when He really really wants us to no-kidding see something that is extremely important He will repeat it so many times that you would have to be blind, deaf and dumb to miss it.  This is the case with His mercy. 

In the book of the Psalms God makes it very clear that his mercy endureth for ever.  In Psalm 136 alone God tells us that His mercy endureth for ever 26 times.  That’s exactly one time per verse.  Obviously God wants us to see that He is merciful, has always been merciful and will always be merciful.  The first time we see God’s mercy in the Bible is right there in Genesis chapter 3 when He gives mercy to Adam and Eve after they had brought sin onto all mankind.  He could have very easily executed judgment upon them immediately for breaking His commandment to them.  But instead He chastened them and provided them a means of salvation.  He was merciful to them. 

God was merciful to the nation of Israel countless numbers of times in the Old Testament.  How many times did Israel forsake God and each time God had mercy.  He did execute judgment upon Israel but each time they repented and turned back to Him He forgave their sins and restored their fellowship with Him.  He did not have to do this and would have been perfectly justified to destroy Israel, but his mercy endureth for ever. 

How many times in our own lives have we done things that we knew were blatant violations of God’s law?  Looking back on our lives as Christians, how many times would we have executed judgment on ourselves for the sins we committed?  I would have been done for long ago.  But my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isa 55:8-9  Thank God for that.  God is not like us as we are starting to see now.  He is holy and just and merciful towards us.  But we must not use God’s mercy as a blank check for sin; for there is a catch.  Ex 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  We certainly don’t deserve God’s mercy at anytime in our lives and God decides when and to whom He will impart His mercy.  It is not guaranteed for every person in every situation.  Don’t test God.  Luke 4:12 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.  Praise Him and thank Him when He shows you mercy, but don’t go looking for trouble just so you can be a partaker of the mercy of God.

4. God is Loving

1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.  This is the one most people tend to get hung up on.  The majority of Christians and even lost people know that God is love.  People concentrate too much on this point and they miss all the other aspects of God and His personality.  Yes God is love, but God is also holy, just, merciful, truth, a man of war etc.  It is important to understand as much of God as He has revealed to us.  And that’s what we’re trying to do here.  And since God is love, we’re going to talk about that for a moment. 

The greatest evidence of God’s love is undoubtedly the love He has for us.  John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  Did you get it?  God so loved the world…  God loved us so much that He gave.  Stop for just a moment and reflect on this.  The God of the universe.  The God of all creation.  The one and only God that controls all things loved us so much that He gave something to us!  Unbelievable.  Why would the One that created us, whom we all rejected, lower Himself to such a level that He would give us something?  And there was truly no greater gift He could have given than the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

God humbled Himself and became flesh, allowed himself to be beaten and cursed and spit on and hung on a tree to die because He loved us.  John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Truly God loved us and truly God is love. 

But don’t get confused.  If you are not saved, if you have never placed your full faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ to save your soul from eternal damnation in a Lake of Fire, you are NOT in the love of God.  Yes God loved you enough to send His Son to die for you, but He cannot love you personally until you are a born again child of God (John 3:7, 1:12).  If you are not saved, you are right now under the wrath of God.  John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.  See that word abideth?  That is present tense.  That means if you are not saved, the wrath of God is on you right now!  You say, well I’m doing all right, I’ve got a house and a car and a boat, what do you mean the wrath of God is on me right now?  God may not be raining fire and brimstone on your head this very moment, but you can take Him at His word, your time is coming.  You’d better get it settled and you’d better get it settled soon!  The wrath of God is not something to be playing around with.  Remember, God shows mercy to whom He will and when He chooses.  Just because things are going well now doesn’t mean that it will always be like that.  You better get saved while you have the chance!

 Now if you are a child of God according to John 1:12, then God does love you.  Now don’t start to think that just because you’re a child of God that He will give you fame and fortune and all the worldly things your flesh desires.  Don’t buy into that prosperity junk.  God is working on you, Phil 1:6 he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.  God is going to attempt to turn you into a sanctified Christian.  He’s going to try to work on your character and turn you into His ideal Christian, if you’ll allow Him to.  If you don’t, Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  Chances are there are going to be times in your Christian life where the Lord is going to kick you in the rear and get your attention.  The Bible term for that is chasten.  Just like an earthly parent is supposed to chasten (spank) their child for wrong-doing, God does the same thing for His children.  He’s trying to bring us up to be what He wants us to be.  But He does that because He loves us, and by doing so we will have a greater desire to serve Him and be like Him and we will receive greater rewards someday for it.  God is love.  God loves His children. 

5. God is Faithful

1 Cor 1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  De 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God.  1 Cor 10:13 but God is faithful.  There are many differences between the true God and the gods of man’s religion.  The true God has done things for you whereas the gods of man’s religion have never lifted a finger for you.  What has Buddha ever done for you?  How about Mohammed?  How about any of the thousands of gods of Hinduism?  And of them ever die to pay for your sins?  The true God gave Himself a sacrifice for you and then on top of that offered you so much more.  One of the key characteristics of the true God is that He is faithful.

 God has promised that He will be faithful to keep you once you are His.  When you get saved, you are saved for good.  John 10:28 I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.  God is faithful to keep you saved.  How do you know this is true?  God said so right there in His word.  What more proof could you need?

God has promised that He will come for His children.  1 Thess 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Whether we be dead in Christ, or whether we are still alive on the earth when the Lord returns, He will return and He will take us with Him.  He is faithful to take His children home.

 God is faithful to reward us for our service to Him.  1 Cor 3:8 every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.  2 Tim 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.  God is faithful to fulfill His word.

There are many more traits of God’s personality that the Bible explains to us.  But even if we covered in great detail each and every aspect given to us in God’s Word, we would only begin to scratch the surface of the true nature of our God.  Only when we are in our Glorified bodies in the air with Christ will we truly be able to understand God and His infinite personality.  I just pray that this study has helped shed some light on our great and mighty God.