Second point I want to make observations: Well, God is incomprehensible in his fullness, he is knowable. So in Colossians 2:9, speaking of Christ, Paul writes, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."
Okay, now this deals with the theological concept of God being both Transcendent and imminent. I would call these with inflation, dollar fifty words, okay? So God being both transcended and imminent. And this is particularly relative in a discussion of his attributes like we're going through here right now.
So I'm going to do another quick screen share here so you can see that. God is both Transcendent and imminent. The Transcendence is the teaching of God by nature is beyond the world and Beyond the comprehensive comprehension of us as human beings. On the right is imminent, a trait of God which refers to as intimate Union with and total presence to his creation.
So another way of saying that, the Transcendence of God, if you're filling out your outline today, means that God is outside of Humanity's Full Experience, perception, or grasp, right? And that kind of the term here is God is separated from man and above man. If you say the lines here, God is above the line, right? We're below the line, Earth. That God is above it. And God is transcendent in that, for instance, he is Holy, we as man are sinful, right? He is transcendent because he is infinite, and man, us, is man, we're finite. So God is Holy, other than man. That's what we have to understand. Psalm 50:21 says, "You thought that I was one like yourself," and the implied answer is no, you're not. So we are not God, will never be like him. He is transcendent in one respect.
On the other side, the imminence of God means that he's knowable, perceivable, or graspable. And we can see his particularly his imminence through the Incarnation, where God became man, Emmanuel, God With Us. Okay, so a couple other points I want to make: It's kind of the omnipresence of God in his Universe, his imminence. God's all-pervading presence and power within his creation, right? It's not the watchmaker God where he wound it up and just kind of walked away, right?
Then the other point is Irenaeus, like almost all the church fathers were going back to early church history, was deeply concerned to protect the Transcendence of the father while equally insisting that God has entered his world in the Incarnation of the son, again, his imminence. So I would maintain it that this is exactly the God we want and need, one who's both Transcendent and imminent. Okay, that's important. So hopefully you got a little bit of that concept there.
Third point: What are the dangers of teaching on God's attributes? And I think this is a dangerous task that Scott gave me here. But strangers, it may seem people may call it heretical. I've had some think I was teaching rank heresy. People may get visibly upset about it and not like it. I've seen it, and I've actually experienced Satan at our present previous Church to work to stifle and disrupt teaching about who God is.
And here I'm reminded about the passage in Ephesians 6 that Paul wrote about Spiritual armor. Ephesians 6:11 and 12, where Paul writes that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood." Hopefully all of us know that our battle, our main battle, is one that we don't see. It's spiritual, right? We're there enough. We're method from right. His the schemes of the devil, better meaning, you know, if we dig into it, schemes, wiles, or the stratagems of the devil. One of them certainly being not wanting us to know who the real true Living God is. Satan doesn't want us again to enter into a relationship with Jesus; he certainly doesn't want who's a real true Living God is.
Okay, but I will assure you that the study of God's attributes that we're going to undertake this morning is rooted in historical Orthodoxy. It's not a new or novel teaching. And ignorance here is certainly not Bliss. In fact, scripture explicitly tells us in a number of places, but for instance, Proverbs 9:10, that what? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." And that is a knowledge of him in his person, offices, and Grace, and inward knowledge of him.
In fact, real quick here, I'm going to get us up with another another one here. Apologize for the delay here. The eminent 20th century Swiss Theologian Karl Barth wrote in his Church Dogmatics on the doctrine of God that he said, "There's no possibility of knowing the perfect God without knowing his Perfections." And I'm going to repeat that because I think that's a profound statement. Think on it for a minute. "There's no possibility of knowing the perfect God without knowing his Perfections." Well, that gets a big amen. That's how serious that is.
So now guys, let's turn. Let's read our passage here. Turn if you will to your Bibles to Psalm 144... 5? Toward the end of the book of Psalms, Psalm 145. And I'm going to read through the passage. Okay, a couple things to note on this. We're going to move back to exegesis now. We were kind of parked in Systematic Theology; now we're going to go back to exegesis. And as a note, Psalm 145 is the psalm of praise, and it's the only one in the entire book of Psalms that's so designated in its introduction. So it's a Psalm of Praise.
David, he writes: "I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever." Praise God.
Let's delve into some of the Perfections of this our incomprehensible God. Okay, so first off, you know, my theology kind of tends to be more reformed in its basis, just to let you know, so quoting for a lot from a lot of reformed people. But Calvin said of this Psalm, "Not to collect a great number of passages, it may suffice a present to refer to one, Psalm 145, which we're in, in which a summary of the Divine Perfections is so carefully given that not one seems to have been admitted." And you may want to know it just in verse four and five, you see where the word "Works" repeats occurs repeatedly in these verses.
So, Psalm 145, a song of praise. Verse one starts: "I will extol you, my God and King." Probably better understood if we say, "I will exalt you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever." The Net Bible translates it, "I will praise your name continually." Calvin nail at ear reset: "For since God is constant in extending mercies, it would be highly improper in us to faint in his Praises." Amen. Right out like story. "I'll exalt you and bless your name forever and ever."
Augustine wrote of the intro this verse: "You see that the praise of God is here begun, and this praise is carried on even to the end of the psalm. Now then begin to praise if you intend to praise forever." Guys, I can say one thing that's clear from this: when we're in front of God, we meet God face to face, we're in the Heavenly Realms with him, we're gonna be prison... there's a whole bunch of things that we won't be doing. I'll kind of cover that here in just a minute. But one thing we'll be certainly doing is praising God.
Verse two says: "Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever." John Gill was the predecessor to the pulpit of Charles Spurgeon by about 100 years, and he talked about this and said that speak of us, our principal service and that of all the saints in the other world, speaking of our Eternal existence, will be praised. And get what he said right this way says, "We'll be praising him, not praying, not preaching or hearing the word and attendance on other ordinances" (we could say communion, all that), "which will be no more, but adoring and magnifying The Riches of divine grace." Think about that for a minute.
Okay, now I'm going to bring up my last screen share here just to have that as the background here. You can look at some of the attributes of God as I continue to share. But on your outline, you see there's eight blanks there. There's at least eight attributes I'm going to show here, so I'll call them out so you can fill them in here and go to look at them later.
But verse three: "Great is the Lord." Right? His greatness is an attribute. So it says, "Great is the Lord." So that's your first attribute: great. "And greatly to be praised." Here we find worship. Such as the Lord is, such should his worship be. You know, if he were about a little God, he would deserve little praise. But the great God is greatly to be praised, "and his greatness is unsearchable." It's really it's under his incomprehensibility that we talked about. Here we find his Transcendence.
In fact, again, Spurgeon noted here, did a whole commentary on this, but since David knew what it was himself to be sad when he prayed, "Search me, O God," but he could not search the greatness of his God, right? If that's an attribute of God, he holds this infinitely. He he is in the embodiment of great. We shouldn't be able to search this out, search it out, right? And we find kind of similar echoes in the New Testament in Ephesians where it says his love that surpasses all understanding, right? In the Philippians, his peace that surpasses all understanding, right? God's attributes are Beyond us totally. Funny, I guess we're going to have all eternity to learn because we're going to be learning from eternity because we are going to be before the Eternal and holy one that's all knowledgeable. So greatness and unsearchability or incomprehensibility.
First four: "One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts." That really, Hebrew word their strength, really he equals power. So you can put Power in for the next attribute, because that's one of the attributes of God. And here I kind of think of the song of Moses in Exodus 15:1, that Moses and the people of Israel sang the song to the Lord, saying, "I will sing to the Lord for he is triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider he is thrown into the sea."
Verse 5: "On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate." Again, this is from Spurgeon, but he said, "The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the doings and the existence of the great God which he calls his father."
In verse 6, David says: "They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare..." the next attribute here, "your great..." again, greatness repeating audio one. But God's greatness. Arthur Pink says, "We cannot have a right conception of God unless we think of him as all-powerful as well as all wise. He cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure." Excuse me. "He who cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure cannot be God," right? God's not hindered, God's not stopped. He is Sovereign. As God has a will to resolve what he deems good, so he has power to execute his will. Amen.
Verse 7: "They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness." So goodness is an attribute of God. In fact, you'll see it up here somewhere. Good, there it is, right in the middle, right? Good. God is good, right? And shades of, we turn to the Gospel of Luke, you know, and Jesus in answering to being called good teacher, he said, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." And what he's intimating is, if you don't believe me to be God, don't call me good. If you call me good, you're calling me God. And we could think the same thing. You know, I hear people ask, "How are you doing?" and we say, "Good." I kind of go, "Don't... I don't want to say I'm good because I'm not God." But he is.
"And then he shall sing aloud of your righteousness." So again, the righteousness of God, big attribute. You can write fill that in your blank there. He is originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation in communication from God. Right? In us, to also a good thing. Paul says he is essentially good, not only good, but goodness itself. The creatures... that's our good is a super added quality; in God it is his Essence. Right? You cannot separate his goodness from who he is because that is part of his being, right?
In verse 8: "The Lord is gracious and merciful," and we have another attribute, Mercy, merciful, right? "Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." The Hebrew word, we could do a whole sermon on it, I'm not going to, but hesed really it carries the sense of a loyal love. So, "slow to anger and abounding in has said," a loyal love. Psalm 136:1, "I'll give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy and Earth forever."
For this Perfection of the Divine character, God is greatly to be praised, is love. Arthur Pink said his this loving kindness of the Lord is never removed from his children. To our reason it may appear to be so, yet it never is, since the believer being in Christ... we're in Christ. If you're a Believer, nothing can separate us from the love of God, Romans 8, right? Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Verse 9: "The Lord," again we're repeating the same attribute, good, "The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made." Verse 10 says: "All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you," kind of repeating what we said at the beginning, but you know, be in continual praise for eternity, right?
Then verse 11: "They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power." Stephen Charnock, and then we'll get in this if I get another opportunity up here, but his Existence and Attributes of God says, "Infinite and incomprehensible power pertains to the nature of God and is expressed in part in his work." So power again, as we already saw, you already noted that an attribute of God.
And verse 11 kind of continues: "So they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds," similar but different Hebrew word there, but the mighty deeds obviously are a result of God's power, "and the glorious splendor of your kingdom." Right? Because if incomprehensible and infinite power belongs to the nature of God, and it does, then Jesus Christ has a divine nature because the acts of power property God are ascribed to him.
So just one side note again, I think as Scott says that I won't charge you extra for this, it's a freebie, but all these attributes obviously are of God the father, but they are also Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the the Triune godhead, right? So Jesus is all these. Jesus is good, Jesus is righteous.
And our next one here, verse 13: "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Christ's kingdom is Everlasting, and this really speaks to God's eternality, right? So I just want to let you know to be clear, we're not... we're talking about God the Father, but all these attributes again are are all held by the Triune god, father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," again, God's eternality, "and your dominion endures throughout all generations." Not some or most or many, but all generations, right? God's eternality.
"Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works." Kind of a parenthetical statement there, takes us back into II Timothy, but if we're faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself, right? God is who he is. He cannot be unfaithful because that's an inherent attribute and his part of his essence.
Then a big one here, verse 14: "The Lord upholds all who are falling down and raises up all who are bowed down." Can Calvin's wisdom hear he notes nothing is important... uh, ministerial lesson here. Another lesson taught to us is that none will be disappointed who seeks comfort from God in his afflictions. Of people here at Olathe, you know, friends, family, you know, I know we have people here that are suffering from various afflictions, family or friends, co-workers, etc., that are... but just to know, as Calvin's saying, that none will be disappointed who seeks comfort for God in his Affliction, because the scripture promises, "The Lord upholds all who are falling down and raises up all who are bowed down." So there's a big time hope there, and I just want to share that with you from my heart to yours.
Verse 15 and 16: "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing."
In verse 17, again we see God's righteousness. His attributes stands out: "The Lord is righteous in all his ways." You could say, "and kind in all his work." Of course he can't... he's not God if he's only righteous part way. That's kind of what we are, right? Lord, you can't say this of us. You can't say, "Brad, I'm righteous in all my ways." No, just ask my wife. "And kind in all my works." Gosh, I wish I was, but I'm not. But the Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
The Hebrew word here, sadiq, means righteousness, what is right and just. The name Jehovah Sid Keanu, one of the many names of God given in Scripture, it speaks to God's character and weighs as always being perfect, just, and right. You want a scriptural reference? Jeremiah 23:6, "Jehovah Sid Keanu," the Lord our righteousness.
And verse 18: "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." Right? It's kind of qualifying it. You know, God's not going to hear the prayers of the wicked, but he's near to all who call on him. And this truth is principally applicable to us as Believers, whom God in the way of singular privilege invites us to draw near him, promising that he will be favorable to our prayers. And we find this again this echoed in the New Testament, James 4:8, where it says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
Verse 19: "He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him." Got a whole nother one on the fear of God, great great topic. "He also hears the cry and saves him." Proverbs 1:7 again, "The fear of the Lord is what? The beginning of knowledge." Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." So if we are delighting in the Lord, he will give us desires of heart. It's not a, you know, kind of a God's a vending machine and I can press A1, B2 and all that and get what I want. But if we delight ourselves in the Lord, and hopefully as we we're doing this, delight in his Perfections, he will give us the desires of our heart.
In verse 20: "The Lord preserves all
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