Good morning. We're going to
be in Psalm 139 for our Bible study hour this morning. Psalm
139. And I've titled this message,
How Big Is Your God? How big is your God? Tricia and I enjoyed our time
away this week. We appreciate the time and I'm
so thankful for the message that Michael, I mean that Robert, thank you. I forget and
I can't hear. Robert Horton brought Wednesday
Night. If you didn't get a chance to
listen to it, I would encourage you to to do that. Lord willing,
they had to go back Thursday to Las Vegas, but Lord willing,
they'll be back soon. Psalm 139, you have your Bibles open there. It's good to have Jennifer Uranik's
sister Rachel with us. Rachel, glad you're here from
way out in Oregon. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
You would enlarge our view of Thee, increase our
faith, and cause us to know, Lord, that Thou art infinite, beyond our ability to understand
or to comprehend, that You would cause us to just rest in the
revelation that you've made of yourself to us, and that you
would open the eyes of our understanding. Lord, give us a glimpse of your
glory. We thank you that you are, as we just sang, our sovereign
Savior, and that all that you require from us was accomplished
and is found in the finished work of your dear son. We pray
that your Holy Spirit would take your word now and cause Christ
to be exalted. That we would find ourselves
just looking to him, relying upon him, resting in him. That
you would speak peace to the hearts of your children, knowing
that we have an advocate Jesus Christ the righteous one who's
seated at thy right hand and who ever lives to make intercession
for us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. David said in Psalm 50 verse
21, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself. That's how we come into the world.
We come into the world fashioning a God in our imagination that
is like we are. My question this morning from
our text in Psalm 139 is, how big is your God? In verse 6, David says, such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Truth is that God is nothing
like us at all. Nothing like us. He's holy. He's
infinite. He's eternal. He's other than
we are in every way and that's what Psalm 139 is all about.
David is just glorying in the glory of Christ. And I pray that
our Lord this morning would cause us to do just that. To glory
in His glory and to know that He is beyond our ability to comprehend. Robert brought up a word Wednesday
night that most of you are familiar with and as you know we try to
avoid big impressive theological terms around here because we
never want to give anyone the impression that the simplicity
of the gospel in Christ can't be understood by the common man. And yet, it's a good word, and
it's a word that you do understand. It's the word anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism. Now, anthropo
is the word for human. It's the Greek word for human.
It's the word that we get our word anthropology from, the study
of humans. And when something morphs, it
changes its shape. That's what it does. And so anthropomorphism
just simply means that God, who is incomprehensible, relates
to us by condescending to the place to where He explains Himself
in the shapes of men. But don't think that because
He's come so far down that that is the limits of His nature. Last week we looked at the description
of the Lord Jesus Christ as being the arm of God. And yet, God
doesn't have an arm. He doesn't have an arm, except
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard someone
say, well, you know, we're the only hands that God has, and
we're the only feet that God has, and we're the only eyes
that God has. How foolish that is. To think
that God is dependent upon my feet in order for Him to get
where He needs to be? That God's dependent upon my
hands in order to accomplish the work that He needs to accomplish?
Or God's dependent upon my eyes to see the things that He needs
to see? Oh, no. Now what is true is that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only feet that God has and he is the
only hands that God has and he is the only eyes that God has
and he is the only ears that God has in the sense that we
relate to God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this
concept of anthropomorphism is very important for us to understand
the scriptures and to realize that God is infinitely more glorious
than the terms that he uses in his word to describe himself
to us. He's infinitely beyond those
things. For instance, God has never repented,
and yet the scripture speaks of him as repenting. The scripture
speaks of God as having thoughts, and yet God's thoughts have never
changed. He's never had a new thought. He's so much glorious than we
can possibly comprehend that God has purposed the movement
of every molecule of every atom that the neutrons and the electrons
that are at the speed of light revolving around the nucleus
of every atom in the universe is sovereignly controlled by
the purpose of God all at the same time without any thought
of having to change something? You see, that's our God. And yet, in order for us to have
some understanding of Him, He takes the... And this is important
because this psalm speaks of things about God that if we limit
Him to these things, we must... What I'm saying is that we must
come to the conclusion that David came to in verse 6. Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. I cannot attain unto it." How
big is your God? Is He big enough to have ordained
according to His purpose all things to an accomplishment of
His will? Is He big enough to have saved
a people according to His purpose before the foundation of the
world? Through the slain blood of the Lamb that was slain before
the foundation of the world? Is He big enough? Is He big enough
to save you? Is He big enough to control all
the circumstances of your life? and to bring all things to, as
we saw in Proverbs chapter 3, He makes, He hath made, that's
actually what that verse says, Proverbs chapter 3, He hath made
everything beautiful in His time. In other words, He's not just
trying to get it to work out, He's already done it. He's already
done it. Now look at what David says in
verse 1, O LORD, thou hast searched me,
and known me. Now, this is the Psalm of David,
or a Psalm of David. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of David. He is the sweet psalmist of Israel. He is the king that rules over
Israel. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. And so the things that are said
about David are prophetically said about the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet they're said about us
as well. Look what he says, O Lord, thou hast searched me. Now the
imagery here is of searching something out with diligence
in order to discover all its details. And here again we have
language that's so far short of what of what, in fact, the
glory of what can't be understood. In other words, don't think of
God having to search something out. He's got to discover something
through diligent searching. He already knows it all. Lord,
you've searched me, you've known me, you've known everything there
is about me, every thought that I ever thought, every word I
ever spoke, before I spoke it, everything I ever did. You're
fully, fully in control of it. And it's certainly true about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God's omniscience. He can't
forget. He can't learn anything new. He can't be taught anything.
He knows everything. Everything. This is particularly true when
it comes to our sin. Genesis chapter 6, God says that
He saw the wickedness of man and here again he didn't just
discover it he saw the wickedness of man and he saw that every
imagination of his thought was only evil continually that's
what God sees when he searches out our hearts but when he searched
out the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ Oh, tried in all ways that we
are, and yet without sin. Never even thought. We can't be tempted without sinning,
can we? There's sin in our temptations,
there's sin in every thought, but not so with Him. Not so with
Him. Look at verse 2, Thou knowest
my down sittings, and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought
afar off." Every thought, every secret imagination
of your heart and of my heart, God knew it afar off. He knew it before it happened.
He didn't just know it, He purposed it. He purposed it. You say, well, God purposed my
sinful thoughts? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, He did. He purposed it
in His children in order to cause them to see their need for the
One whose thoughts are pure and perfect. And he purposed it in
the lives of the reprobate in order to stand righteous in judgment
of them. He purposed. He purposed the
fall. He purposed all the consequences of the fall. God doesn't have a plan B. How big is your God? That's what
David's saying. He said, I can't comprehend this. It's too wonderful for me. And
if God could be comprehended, He would not be much of a God. You remember last Sunday when
we looked at those Philistines sending the Ark back, and the
first town that the Ark came to was the town of the Besshemites,
and they opened it up and inspected the Ark, and God killed 50,070
of them. Right there on the spot. For
doing what? For having looked into the ark
with curiosity. And you know, here's the truth. There's so many people that try
to explain. We talk about theological terms. People try to explain theologically
the fullness of the glory of God. He can't be explained. He can't be, he has to be believed. He has to be believed. Mine uprising and my down sitting, in my despair
and in my depressions, thou knowest my thoughts. And in the exultation
of my pride, thou knowest my thoughts. Lord, you, there's
nothing, nothing outside of your control. For there is not a word
in my tongue, but, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Altogether. How often times we
have conflicts in relationships because of miscommunication.
And we end up having, well that's not really what I meant. God knows exactly what you meant.
He knows every word before you speak it and He knows what you
meant by it. He knows for what purpose it
was spoken, whether it was spoken for personal gain or whether
it was spoken out of love or whatever. He knows. He knows
it. He knows everything. Thou hast beset me behind and
before and laid Thine hand upon me." Or do you, I've made my
plans but you've ordered my steps. You know, you hear people say,
well I want to know what God's will is for my life. You're smack
dab in the middle of it right now. You just are. You're right in the very, if
what we're reading is true and if this is a description of our
God, then you must conclude that every single thing in your life,
every thought you've ever thought, every word you've ever spoken,
every relationship you've ever had, every circumstance you've
ever been in the middle of was purposed and ordained exactly
as it happened by God to bring you to right exactly where you
are right now. Now that's how big our God is. Somebody said to me recently,
they said, well, we got ahead of God. You can't get ahead of
God. You cannot get ahead of God. You can't do it. You can't get behind Him. You
can't get in front of Him. He can pass as you about, behind
and in front. He's God. And this is true of the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? He ordained every step of His
life for the purpose of saving His people. Is it possible that
Christ could have failed in what He came to do? Is it possible that one for whom
He came to die would not be saved? that one of his lost sheep would
not hear the gospel? Is that possible? If it is, God's
not in control. If God is not sovereign over
everything, He's not sovereign. That word isn't absolute. It
can't be understood in degrees. You can't just have sovereignty
over one thing. We talk about sovereign nations.
There's no such thing as a sovereign nation. Not in its strictest
sense. There's only one that's sovereign.
And He's sovereign over everything. And if He's not sovereign, He's
not God. How big is your God? How big is He? Is He big enough to take care
of the temporal circumstances of your life? Is He big enough
to provide for you and your family the things that you need? Is
He big enough to save you? Is He big enough to put away
your sin? Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. I cannot attain unto it. We're
not going to try to open the ark. We're not going
to try to dissect God. You know, there's nothing that
we understand fully. How can we understand the attributes
of God? How can we understand the eternality
of God? The fact that He never has ever. And here again, we find ourselves
using these words. The word ever is a word that
has to do with time, doesn't it? And yet, how do we describe
the eternality of God? It's never changed. He said,
I'm the same. I change not. How can we understand His holiness?
The holiness of God. The seraphim hovered over His
throne and cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth is filled with His glory. Filled with His glory. God's glorifying Himself right
now. in your life. God's working everything
together for His glory. Everything. This is how big He
is. We still carry, just like we're
still recovering Pharisees even after the Lord teaches us the
difference between law and grace. Well, we're still recovering
idolaters, aren't we? Because we still limit the size
of God, don't we? We still think that He's all
together as we are ourselves. He's not like us. He's immutable. He doesn't mutate. He doesn't change. He's omniscient. Like I said, He's never had a
new thought. He's never had a new thought.
He thinks everything the same all the time. And He's consciously purposing
and controlling everything all at once. Omnipotent. Omnipotent, all-powerful. Omniscient, omnipresent. There's
not a place where He isn't. You can't get, that's what David's
saying here. It's too wonderful for me. See, the things that God's revealed
to us about Himself are things that are to be believed by faith. They cannot be understood. If you could understand God,
He wouldn't be much of a God. The Trinity? One God? The Lord thy God is one? And
yet, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
are three distinct persons in the triune Godhead? Who's going
to understand that? How can we understand the mercy
of God? The love of God? The grace of
God? that a God like this that we're
describing here would show any interest in you and I. That's
why David said, What is man that thou art mindful of him? Lord,
why would you take notice of me at all? Why? The incarnation. Are you talking
about something that can't be understood? That this God of
glory, this creator and sustainer of all of life, this self-existent
eternal God would be made a baby who depended upon his mother,
a baby that created its mother, his mother, and would depend
upon his mother to provide for him? A man, a body thou hast prepared
for me, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that God would
walk the face of the earth? and that men would look at him
with disdain? God became flesh and dwelt among
us, and only by His grace do we behold His glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.
This is God. This is the one we've gathered
here this morning to worship. You know what it is to fear God?
It's just to worship Him. It's to bow before Him. It's
to agree with Him. It's to say, yes. Yes, Lord. The fool has said in his heart,
no, God. The believer has said in his
heart, yes, God. Yes, God. You're right, I'm wrong. You're holy, I'm sinful. You're
omnipotent, my power is nothing. Nothing. That God would be made a child, that the fullness of the
Godhead would reside bodily in the Lord Jesus, who's going to
understand this? That he himself was the express image of God,
the brightness of his glory, such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's too wonderful for me. Who
can understand the redemption that has been accomplished through
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Who can understand that
it pleased God to bruise Him? Who can understand that God the
Father so loved His people that He chose them in the covenant
of grace before the world began and that He willingly and purposely
slew His own Son in order to redeem them to Himself, to put
away their sins? Who can understand it? These
things are too wonderful for me. That God would make him who knew
no sin, sin for us? And that God would impute, charge
to the account of His people the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ so that they could say, The Lord is my righteousness. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not
I. Not I. Christ liveth in me. So the life that I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and died for me. These things are too wonderful
for us. We're not here to inspect them. We're not here to open
the ark. God would maintain His justice
and at the same time justify sinners like you and like me. How is it? Oh, my uprisings,
my down cities, my thoughts, my words, they're too wonderful.
Too wonderful. Who can explain faith? Who can
explain how it is that some believe and some don't? Who can explain
how it is that God maketh some to differ from others? You know, we try to preach on
these things and I think that we err sometimes in trying to
dissect them and trying to explain them rather than just proclaiming
them and believing that our God is able to give His people the
faith to believe it. To believe it. The substance
of things. Oh, we have a hope that will
not disappoint. an assurance that we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Who
can understand these things? We're not here to understand
them. We're here to believe it. To
believe it. To rest in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. who can understand that this
book is the infallible, inerrant, inspired word of God. And that
holy men of old, now don't misunderstand that phrase. When the scripture says that
holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit
and that this book is not by private interpretation, it doesn't
mean that the men that God used to pen this book were any different
than you or me. When it says that they were holy
men, it doesn't mean that they were holier than us in terms
of their sin. It means that they were set apart
by God for the purpose of writing His Word. That's the miracle
of inspiration. That's the miracle of the Word
of God. That God would take a man like you, a man like me, a woman
like you, to write His Word? Who can understand that? That God would take a child of
Adam and enable him. I can't prove that this book is
the Word of God. I'm not here to prove it. I wouldn't want to prove it to
you if I could. Because what I can convince you
of, somebody else can convince you out of. God gives you the
faith to believe it. You just bow to it. Oh, it is sharper than any two-edged
sword and able to divide asunder the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. It cuts right to the marrow of the bone, doesn't
it? When God gives faith to believe, who can understand these things?
They're too wonderful. Too wonderful. How big is your
God? Is He big enough for you just
to bow to Him without questioning Him and believe that whatever
He does is right? Is He that big? Oh, He's bigger than that. He's
bigger than that. Oh, we can't do Him justice,
can we? We can't exalt Him high enough.
And the higher He's exalted, the lower we're brought. The
lower we're brought. So that He can't be lifted high
enough, and man can't be lifted low enough, and grace can't be
preached free enough. It's not of Him that willeth.
It is not of Him that runneth. It's not by our works of righteousness. It's by His mercy that He saved
us. Who can understand the resurrection? That when Christ rose from the
dead by the power of God, that all those for whom He lived and
died rose in Him. When Paul said, oh, that I might
know Him and the power of His resurrection, he wasn't saying
that I might understand it better. He was saying that I might be
more thoroughly convinced that it's true. That I might just
believe it. More convincingly, that when
He raised from the dead, that's the power of the resurrection.
And the fellowship of His suffering. That when Christ suffered on
Calvary's cross, that I was in Him? Who can understand this
mystery? Oh, it is a mystery. The Gospel is a mystery. and that we have a hope of knowing
that one day very soon, one day very soon, you're going to take
your last breath. Your heart's going to beat its
last beat and you're going to die. You're going to die. Now that's
just the truth of it. You're going to die and I'm going
to die sooner than we think. And we're gonna be put in the
grave. And Job said, though the worms
eat this flesh, yet I know that I will see my Redeemer and that
this corruption will be made incorruptible and this mortality
will be made immortal and I will see Him as He is and be made
like Him. Oh, what glorious hope! Who can understand that? Who
can understand it? Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. How big is your God? Let's take a break.