GOD’S GREATNESS!!!

ISAIAH 44:6

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.” One of the religious problems that Isaiah had to face was the extent to which Judah had fallen into idolatry. This immoral and degrading worship of Baal, the Canaanite god, was very attractive to many Israelites, and consequently incurred condemnation by the Hebrew prophets. Here Isaiah stresses the complete lordship of Jehovah. As King He has total authority over His people, who themselves exist only because He redeemed them from bondage in Egypt and established them as a nation at Sinai. Jehovah is the one and only living God, and any other near eastern deities are false gods. The expression “First . . . Last” occurs also in Isaiah (Isa. 48:12),”Listen to Me, O Jacob. And Israel My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last,” and is extremely ancient literary structure which employs pairs of opposites to denote totality.  Isaiah is thus stating that all existence is summed up in God, and that He is “all and in all” (Col. 3:11), “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, neither slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all,” thereby emphasizing the fundamental monotheistic faith of the covenant”. And John too affirms it in his revelation epistle (Rev. 19:6) Alleluia! “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”

DIVINE CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD

1.       God is Holy: (Lev. 11:44, 45) “For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am Holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am Holy.” God is the Holy one of Israel, the God set apart from all other gods, the one so powerful and so majestic that He alone deserves to be held in awe. In essence, “holy” means being “set apart” for God. In the Old Testament, persons such as priests were set apart to serve as mediators at the altar, where sinful humanity met a holy God. Places and things were also consecrated solely for God’s use. Since God’s people as a whole are consecrated to Him, they are called “holy” in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Together they form a holy temple to the Lord. As God’s people, we are holy because God has declared us holy in His sight because of Jesus- and yet the Bible calls us to keep growing in holiness, as we separate ourselves from sin and express the divine reality of holiness in the middle of our everyday existence. The idea of holiness is closely allied with that of sanctification (1Thes.5:23) “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole Spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Some feel we can attain perfect holiness in this life; others maintain that we cannot be perfectly holy until the world beyond. The best way to summarize the Christian life is that here and now by God’s grace we make progress in holiness not towards it.

2.       God is eternal: (Ps. 90:2) “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Only God is truly eternal, that is, He has no beginning and no end. He has always existed, He is with us now, and He will always exist. He is not bound by time as we are, but is the Creator of time. As the Eternal God, He does not change, nor does His word. We have been created with a definite beginning in time- and we live in the arena called “time”- each of us moving through the end of our earthly existence on to an eternal destiny (Ecc. 3:1) “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven; As persons we continue to live even after our bodies cease to function, and at the final resurrection we will be reunited with glorified bodies. Jesus has come in order that we might live forever with Him; those who believe in Jesus receive the gift of eternal life. Those who rejects the gospel message, however, are subject to eternal punishment and an eternal existence that is nothing but a constant death.

3.       God is immortal: (1 Tim. 1:17) “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.”

4.       God is Invisible: (John 1:18) “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him”

5.       God is All-knowing: ( Ps. 147:5) Great is our Lord and Mighty in power; His understanding is infinite”

6.       God is everywhere present: (Ps. 139:7-21) “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there, if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ Even the night shall be light about me; indeed the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest part of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me O God! How great is the sum of them! If I would count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Oh, that You would slay the wicked O God! Depart from me; therefore, you blood thirsty men. For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate them, O Lord who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?”

7.       God is unchanging: (Mal. 3:6) “For I am the Lord I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”

8.       God is Glorious and Awesome: (Exod. 15:11) “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

9.       God is gracious: (Exod. 34:6)” And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed.’ The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth”

10.   God is Spirit: (John 4:24) “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

11.   God is perfect: (Matt. 5:48)”Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

12.   God is righteous: (Ps. 145:17)”The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His work”

13.   The Lord is incomparable: (Isa. 40: 18-25) “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chain. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution? Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman. To prepare a curved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princess to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirl wind will take them away like stubble.” To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal? “Says the Holy One.

O Lord, as the dear pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen and Amen and Amen.”