Alright, I want to talk about
the solitariness of God. God being like no one else. Solitariness of God. You know, when we look at the
scriptures and deal with the scriptures, there's two things
that we pray that God will lead us to know. is to know God himself
and to know the Lord Jesus Christ whom God sent. We want the scriptures
to lead us to a right knowledge of him, of him. And if God doesn't reveal himself
to us, we wouldn't know how to worship. We wouldn't know how
to trust him, enjoy him, have fellowship with him. And I want
to know, have fellowship and union and communion with God
in Christ. Now let me say this, you know,
I said in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You know, God in His essential
being, that makes Him God, He has a personality. He has a personality. What do I mean by personality? Well, a personality exists wherever
there's a mind, wherever there's intelligence, wherever there's
a will, wherever there's reasoning, wherever there's individuality,
where there's self-consciousness, where there's self-determination.
And where these things are, you have a personality. And God's
Word teaches us that He has a personality. He does. We don't worship a force. We don't worship an energy. We
don't worship a mind. We don't worship a higher power
or a higher being. We worship a person. We worship
a person. You know, God describes himself
as a person. When they asked Moses, Moses
said, Lord, who am I going to say sent me? He said, you just
say, I am. Now, if I am, that means He's
got a personality. I am, I exist. I am, I have a
will. I am, I have a purpose. I am,
I create. I am, I do my will. I am. I am. I create. And the scripture says, I kill
And I'll make a lie. And he said, I have a purpose. I have a purpose. He said, if
you got a seeing eye, a seeing eye, God gave it to you. If you got a hearing ear, God
gave it to you. And that's why Paul told the
Thessalonians, he said, you've turned from your idols Turn from
your idols to serve a living God, the living God. A living
God has to have a personality if he's living. And the Lord
Jesus Christ himself shows us that God is a person. Now what
do I mean by that? God could never be seen or never
be known. He is a spirit. No one that dwells
in the light that no man can approach unto, and no man has
seen him at any time. They haven't done it. Nobody's
ever seen. God told Moses, he said, you can't see me. I've
got to put you in the cleft of this rock, and I'll show you
just my back part, just to accommodate our poor little old pitiful minds.
And here's the incarnation. God, who is essentially eternal,
And who is this personality? He came down in the person of
his son. God who could not be known, God
who cannot be seen, God who in heaven's eternity, God himself
comes down here in the person of his blessed son. And God declared
him a person. You know what God said about
him? He said, this is my son. He said, this is my son. This
is my beloved son. And when our Lord Jesus Christ,
you know, he was the image of the invisible God. Philip said
to him, Lord, show us the father. Show us the father. I would love
to see the father. You keep talking about your father.
You come to do your father's will. You come to glorify your
father. You speak that which your father
gave you to speak. You're not speaking from yourself.
You're speaking what you said your father gave you. And our
Lord Jesus says this, Have you been such a long time with me,
Philip? For he that hath seen me, he's
seen the Father. He's seen the Father. I'm my
Father of one. And our Lord Jesus, He said,
He prayed, Holy Father. So He prayed to His Father, called
Him the Holy Father. And He's the only one that's
ever come to this earth. ever come to this earth that
actually sees God and knows God and dwells with God and was God. I've never seen God. I've not
even seen the Lord Jesus Christ but by faith. And I tell you,
Christ spoke personally about His Father. And God spoke personally
about Him. And as a person, He has attributes. But I want you to look at this
with me. Genesis 1 more look what it says here talk about
God's solitariness in the beginning God There was a time if we could
say time if it could be called time when God in the unit of
his nature Now our nature's not, we don't have unity in our nature.
We don't, our nature's a mess. We have a constant fight between
flesh and blood. We have a fight with ourselves.
We have a fight with our, I mean, we don't have no unity in our
own persons. And our nature's not in union.
But God's nature, he dwelt all along. And he dwelt alone in
three persons. God the Holy Ghost, God the Father,
and God the Son. But yet, it was one God. And
they dwelt all alone. In the beginning, there was no
heaven. In the beginning, God created. Before there was ever a heaven,
God existed. Huh? Before there was ever an
earth, God existed. There weren't any angels to sing
in the universe. And even when there was no universe,
there was no heaven, no earth. Everything was still upheld by
His power. Nothing. No one but God. Not for a day, not for a year,
or not for an age. From everlasting to everlasting,
He's always been God. And He dwelt by Himself. He didn't
need an earth. He didn't need a heaven. He didn't
need me or you or anything else on this earth. He was by himself
in his glory. He was delighted in his own self. And I don't know, the scriptures
tells us that he inhabits eternity. I got to thinking about that
this afternoon. Inhabit eternity. You know what I inhabit? I inhabit
a body. And I can only inhabit this space
that I'm standing in right now. If I'm in my house, I can only
inhabit the space where I'm at. I can't inhabit no more space
than that. And here it says God inhabits
eternity. What is eternity? I have no idea. But I know that God, He inhabits
whatever eternity is, that's where He lives. That's what He
inhabits. You and I can only inhabit one
way right now, but He inhabits this earth as far as you can
see. Go to the ocean, look out to
the horizon. Go anywhere and look to the horizon.
Go to any mountain. And when you think about the
stars and that big, great, glorious heaven above us, That's just
the heaven. God inhabits eternity. Eternity. That's why I said, where's the
house you're going to build me? What house are you going to build
me that I can live in? What are you going to feed me
with? If I was hungry, you think you're
going to feed me? You think I need money? You think
I need silver? You think I need gold? I'm God,
He inhabits eternity. Oh my. And in the past eternity,
I don't know how to say it. I gotta use language that we
can understand. But in past eternity, God was
alone. Was alone. He was self-contained. He was
self-sufficient. He was self-satisfied. had a universe or angels, human
beings, been necessary to Him in any way, He would have called
them into existence from eternity. But wasn't that when God dwelt
all along before He said, let there be. God didn't need to
say, let there be. The only reason He did, the only
reason there's a creation is because He willed to have a creation. No one told him he had to. No
one begged him to. Nothing compelled him to. He
was very, very complete in himself. Oh my. And that's why he asked
Job. Why didn't he call all this into
existence from eternity? He asked Job. He said, Job, where
were you? Where was you, Job, when I laid
the foundation of the earth? Where was you, Job, when I hung
the earth on nothing? Where was you when I took the
world and just set it on nothing? Huh? When He created the heavens and
the earth and the universe and the angels, before He created
any of those things, And when He did create them, they added
absolutely nothing to Him. They didn't make Him any more
glorious, any more powerful, any more sovereign, did not add
one thing to Him and His glory. Not one thing. Not one thing. You know, He cannot be greater
or less at any time before the world ever was, when He dwell
all alone by Himself. It can go greater or less. Do you think you and I add anything
to God's essential glory? And when He created things in
creation, He was solitary in His choice to create or not to
create. He was under no obligation, but
He chose to create. It was a sovereign act of Him
caused by nothing outside Himself. Nothing outside Him can influence
Him in any way. Nothing. Oh, we can worship a
God like that. Oh, we can worship a God like
that. The Scriptures tells us now that he works all things
after the counsel of his own will. That he did create was
for his glory to be made manifest in this creation. He said, you
know, I let people know that I am. Well how are you going
to do it? I'm going to create a heaven
and I'm going to create an earth. I'm going to create light and
I'm going to create darkness. I'm going to take nothing and
I'm going to create something out of it. And I tell you, that's why the
heavens, He said, you know, I put the heavens up there for one
reason, to declare my glory. I want men to see my handiwork.
That's the only reason I've done it. And let me tell you this,
I don't, you know, this is, God doesn't even gain from our
worship. We're here tonight to worship
Him. We're here tonight to call on Him. We're here tonight to
acknowledge Him. We're here tonight to acknowledge
our need of Him, our desire of Him. But yet, we do not add anything
to Him whatsoever. You know, He doesn't gain from
our worship, but we gain. We gain greatly. Huh? He was in need of no glory. He's glorious enough in himself. But we benefit from him. We benefit
from his glory. We benefit from him knowing who
we are. Us knowing who he is. I mean
we're the ones that's blessed. And we come here to acknowledge
that He is who He says He is, not who we like for Him to be,
but who He really is. If He had never called me into
existence, it'd still been God. If He had never created the world,
it'd still be by Himself. If He'd never let a man breathe
on the face of this earth, it'd still been all by Himself. That's hard for us to grasp,
ain't it? You know why it's hard for us to grasp? Because we're
so self-centered, you know, we all bring to do is think about
ourselves. But boy, to consider God, to consider God. If he had not chose to do what
he did, he'd have still been in his glory, in his glory. But he chose, he was sovereign
act of his will. He said, let there be, and there
was. Let there be, and there was.
He said, let there be life, and there was life. Oh my. What moved him to predestinate
his elect to the praise of the glory of his grace? You want
to find out what done it? Look over in Ephesians chapter
one. Look in Ephesians chapter 1.
You know what moved him to predestinate his elect to the praise of the
glory of his grace? Not to know we benefit. Oh how
we benefit immensely. Immensely. But what moved him to do it?
Look what it says here in verse 5. Look down the last part of
the verse. according to the good pleasure
of His will. You know, He said, I didn't choose
you because you was more numerous, you was better educated, or you
was the least of everybody. He said, but it pleased me to
make you my people. Just pleased me to do it. You
know why He saved us? To praise the glory of His grace.
to the pleasure of His will. Oh my. Let me show you in Romans
11. Look, let me show you something
here. I don't wanna, this is just,
it's so far beyond me sometimes, you know, I tell you, I don't,
I think, what am I? But look over here in Romans
11. And look with me in verse 33
through 35. Paul here is talking about God's
electing grace. He's concluding an argument of
salvation by pure, free, sovereign grace. He's talking about a remnant
according to the election of grace. That grace and works don't
mix. He's talking about that. He talks
about some being cast away, some being gathered in. And oh my, but he says here,
when he got down to the end of it, he says this, oh, verse 32
he said, hath concluded them all in unbelief. That's what
God chooses, you know. But then he goes on to say, oh
the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God. He said, how deep is the wisdom and knowledge of God?
How deep is God's wisdom? Could you plumb the depths of
the wisdom of God? Can you plumb the depths of His
judgments and His knowledge? And oh, how unsearchable are
His judgments, but people may pass judgment on Him all the
time. They'll pass judgment on God all the time. That's not
fair. That's not right. He ought not
treat me that way. He ought not treat you that way.
He ought not treat your family that way. He ought not treat
people this way. He ought not choose some and
leave others alone. He ought not do that. They're
setting judgment upon him. God, why did you let this happen
to me? They're setting judgment on him. But Paul said, how unsearchable
are his judgments. I ain't gonna pass judgment on
God. No, no, no, no, no. Whatever he does is exactly right. And that's what he says. How
unsearchable are his judgment, and listen to this, and his ways. Whatever way he does things,
it's past finding out. And then he asks this question.
Who's known the mind of the Lord? Jews certainly didn't. Gentiles
certainly didn't. Angels didn't. Nobody knew who's
ever known the mind of the Lord. Whoever had to go up to him and
counsel him, or who hath first given to him, and God has to
turn around and pay him back. Oh my. I tell you, it's impossible
to bring the Almighty under any obligation to the creature. God
gains nothing from us. I want you to look with me in
Job 35. Look over here in Job 35. Look here, what a, you know,
our Lord said, when you've done all you know
to do, still say you're unprofitable servant. Look here in Job chapter 35,
look down in verse 7. Well, look what he said in verse
6. First of all, look what he says. If thou sinnest, what doest
thou against him? You're not going to change him.
Sinning or righting, there's nothing he goes on to say. Or
if your transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? You're
going to change him. Is he going to change who he is? Now listen to this. Then he goes
on to say, well, if your sin is not going to change him, And
he says, and if you be righteous, what are you giving him? Huh? And what does he receive at your
hand? And thy wickedness may hurt man
as thy heart, and thy righteousness may profit the Son of Man. But what profit is it to God?
Is your righteousness going to add anything to it? Is your sin
going to take anything away from it? That's what he's talking
about. Oh my. You know, well I've lost
my place here, where am I at? Well, here it is. Had God pleased, he might have
continued along for all eternity. He might have existed all along
for all eternity without making known his glory unto his creature.
And whether he should or not make himself known unto his creatures
was determined solely and entirely by his will. Before the creation
was called into being, God was perfectly blessed in himself.
You know what he said? And we've looked at this time
and again. He said, you know what God considers
all the nations? You know what he considers all
the nations? These two presidents got together today and they talked
for two hours. Didn't accomplish nothing. Didn't
accomplish nothing. Just blowing hot air. But I'll
tell you this. God looks at all the nations
on the earth and all the nations that exist. The Roman Empire,
the Grecian Empire, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire,
Great Britain. There was a time that the sun
never set. on England. And you know what God said? He said, all these nations are
just a drop in the bucket. Just a drop in the bucket. That's
all He said about them, just a drop in the bucket. Oh my. And in the New Testament, He's
exactly the same way. He dwells in a life that no man
can approach unto. He's eternal, He's immutable,
the only wise God. He's to be revered, He's to be
worshipped, He's to be adored. He is solitary, solitary in His
majesty, in His excellency, in His perfections. He sustains
everything in this world and everything in this universe.
but he himself is sustained by no one. He's independent of all things. He gives to all, but yet he's
not enriched by anything we do. Doesn't make him any better.
Can God be found out by searching? He can only be known as he makes
himself known. And I'm glad and I'm grateful.
I'm very, very thankful that he was pleased to make himself
known. There's a multitude in this world that don't know him
and he'll never, ever, never, ever let them know him. He'll
never cross their path. He'll never do anything for them.
But there is a people that God said Before, when he was all
by himself, he willed, he just willed, because
of the good pleasure of his will, to send his son into this world.
And to make himself known in a body that could be seen, could
be touched, could be felt, and could die. Oh, how unsearchable are the
wisdom of God. When did He get the mind and
the will and the purpose to save whom He willed? Where did He
come from? It certainly wasn't in us. He just did it. And He hadn't ever done it for
us. He'd still be in His glory. There's one of mine. And his
son said, I'll go. I'll go. They'll have to have
all their sins paid for. I'll do it. You'll have to change their wheels.
I'll do it. You'll have to give them a new heart. I'll do that. I got to hurry. But let me tell
you this. Let me tell you this before I close. We can change
our environment. We can make ourselves comfortable.
Here we are, we've got cars that you've got heated seats in. You've
got cars that you can cool the seat down in the summer. You've
got cars that the lights turn on by themselves and the windshield
wipers turn on by themselves. We've got couches and chairs
we sit in, we push a button, they go up this way and go down
the other way. And we've got comforts, oh we've
got comforts, we've got air, We got comforts! And all our environment can change,
and our comforts can change, but one thing we cannot change,
we cannot change our nature, and only God can do that. And
if He changes our nature, you know where we're comfortable
at? In God's presence. That's the most comforting place
in the world to be, ain't it? Huh? In God's presence. Whether it's your house, whether
you're in your car or wherever you're at, to be in God's presence. What a comforting thing. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, we bear our heart before you. Oh, Lord. You get a little lost trying
to describe what... Well, we can't. We just can't.
But, Lord, we love to think about it. We love to talk about it. Oh Lord, and that you'd be mindful
of us. That you'd come to us. Make yourself
known to us. Change us. Give us hearts and
wheels to love you and to know you. To worship you and desire
you. And especially the desire to
spend eternity in your presence. Oh Lord, blessed be your holy
name. No wonder our Savior called you
Holy Father. No wonder he called you holy,
because you are. And Lord, I thank you and bless
you that you broke in on time, that you created. And Lord, we
acknowledge that what you did, you did by an own act of your
own will. and your own purpose, never obligated
to do anything, but you chose to do so, and we bless you for
it, in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.