Let's pray together. Our Father, thank You. Thank You for this evening. Thank You that You would allow
us to hear Your Word read. Oh, how many people in this world have never heard your gospel. Thank you that you've blessed
this place and raised up Lord this assembly and kept it here
all these years according to your mercy and grace. Speak to
us this evening. We pray for Christ's sake. Help
us. Oh, you who are God Almighty, help us to hear. Help us to preach. Help us to understand and comfort
our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen. A few weeks ago, I wanted to
bring a few messages on the God that we worship. And usually I bring these series
of messages on Sunday morning in the Bible study, but I wanted
to bring one of them tonight. I preached the first one on the
God that we serve, And I preach the next one on the being of
God. And this evening, I'd like to
preach on the subject of the nature of God. Brother Scott
just read a passage of Scripture that spoke of Almighty God, spoke of God.
He that is born of God. We know that we know God. You realize how many people speak
of God? and don't know Him. They speak of God. Now, this evening, as we consider
the nature of God and the passage of Scripture that I'd like to
take, I'll just read it for you. John 4, 24. The Lord is speaking,
and He says, is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth." John 4, 24. God, a spirit. Now, I want to be very, very careful while I speak
this evening. so that you'll understand what
I'm talking about. I want to walk very softly, very
tenderly. And I want to be very reverent.
And I want to avoid any speculation on the nature of Almighty God. I strive to shun all human inventions
I want to go only as far as the Scriptures revealed him to be. Now, when we say the nature of
God, if I were to say to you, well,
that's just human nature, you don't understand what I meant.
Well, that's just the nature of a cat. That's just the way
an animal, that's the way they act. That's just their nature.
It's the nature of a dog to chase a cat. You understand what I'm
talking about? The nature of God. The Lord said, God is a spirit. It is not limited by anything, by time or by geography or by
space. The Scripture says that He is
invisible. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, As he was speaking those words,
he said, The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the
Father. Now here's one thing that we're
going to understand right off the bat. We don't understand
this. You don't understand that. I
don't understand that. And we see through a glass darkly.
And we speak as the Scriptures speak. That's the safest thing
to do. Well, I think that God... It
doesn't matter what we think. God is Spirit. Impossible to be touched by any
human reasoning or senses. I've heard people say, you know,
and I'm not saying I've heard. I heard somebody tell me this.
They said, well, I was in my room and I saw the Lord. I saw God. No. No, you didn't. No man has seen God. at any time. God is Spirit. And as Brother Scott was reading,
he read concerning God Almighty. As Spirit, He is absolutely incapable of being defined in any other
way except the way that the Lord Jesus Christ sets Him forth to
be. For Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is God. He is God. He who never left, that is the
Lord Jesus. That place of inseparable union. has told Him out, has revealed
Him, has unveiled Him. No man has seen the Father. No
man has seen God at any time. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the image of the invisible God. In Him dwells all the fullness,
everything that God Almighty is. is Christ. Show us the Father. And I've
been so long with you, He said, you see me, you see the Father.
I think of that scripture in Isaiah. His name is Counselor, the mighty God, the
everlasting Father. Almighty God. is spirit. Psalm 97, 2 says, clouds and
darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgments are
the habitation of his throne. He dwells in the darkness that
no man approaches. Only in Christ is Almighty God revealed. And
we speak so lightly, we speak so irreverently. When we speak
of Him, we absolutely, He's due the honor. But He who is the invisible God
is spoken of in the Scriptures. Here He is. God is spirit. The Lord said that. God is spirit. They that worship Him, worship
Him in spirit and truth. God Almighty is. That's what
we looked at, the being of God, last time. He that cometh to
God, the writer to Hebrews says, must believe that He is. That
He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now, here's
the nature of God. God is spirit. Not bound. Not bound by anything. I'm in a body and I'm bound by
this body. I can't be in two places at one
time. I'm not omnipresent. Almighty God is. He's spirit. Not bound. But he who is spirit The scripture
speaks of him as one who sees and hears and speaks. Human parts
are attributed to him for our understanding. The scripture
says he who is spirit. Psalm 11 4 says the Lord, that's
capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah. Jehovah,
Father, Son and Spirit. The Lord is in His holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold His eyelids,
try the children of men. And when it says concerning the
Lord, who is spirit, invisible, not bound by any, that He sees, it speaks of His
omniscience. It's His attitude over all things.
The eyes of the Lord. Now, I speak of my eyes, and
that means I'm looking at one thing at one time. Mark, Neal,
Rene. I look at one thing at one time.
The eyes of the Lord. Omniscient. But it speaks of Him who sees
at one point. He who sees all at all times. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That speaks of his purpose, his
attitude. That he sees is right. But that which he declares as
his attitude, his eyes, In His eyes, the elect are all blessed
in Christ. But also in His eyes, men without
Christ are judged according to their self-righteous works. In
His eyes. Habakkuk 113, Thou art of pure
eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity. So
when we speak of the eyes of God, He's not as we are. He sees. He knows. in the Scriptures, read the Gospels
when he would be standing there and the Pharisees would talk
to him and it says, and they thought within themselves. See,
you don't know what I'm thinking right now. All you know is what
I'm saying, but you don't know what I'm thinking. And then to hear him say, why
think ye within yourselves His eyes? He knows, He sees. He who is Spirit, He also hears. The invisible God who is omnipresent,
He's spoken of as having a nature. He hears. Psalms 1017, Lord,
Thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare
their heart. Thou wilt cause thine ear to
hear. His ears, when He speaks of His
ears, He hears. And it speaks of His mercy to
hear the cry of the redeemed, but also to take note of the
voice of rebellion. He hears. And hears, as I spoke
of a moment ago, that which He saw in those Pharisees, He heard
too. He with whom we must deal. Who
is a God like unto Thee? This is His nature. Invisible,
unapproachable Spirit who sees, who hears, and who speaks. You say, well, how? The Spirit
spoken of as Him who is Spirit who is omnipresent. You know,
you think, well, I have a mouth. My mouth, you know, I force air
from my diaphragm and it goes across vocal cords in it. And
I'm able to move my mouth, my tongue, and you hear words and
I've got them. But He who is Spirit, He speaks. Matthew 3, 17, lo, a voice from
heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
His mouth sets forth that He makes His will and His purpose
and His counsel known. You see, God Almighty has a nature
just like I have a nature and an animal and an angel. God has
a nature. He's spoken of in Scripture.
And this is his nature. God is spirit. The spirit that hears and sees
and speaks. And this also is concerning his
nature. Brother Scott just read. I didn't
know what he was going to read. I just asked him to read whatever
he felt led to read. But what he read out of 1 John
said this. There's three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, the Spirit.
There's three. In nature, in God's nature, He
is set forth as being a triune being. One God. Triunity. That's what He read. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Not three gods. not three gods, one God. There's one God who is revealed
to be triune, tri-unity. This is the God that we worship. The Spirit of God has revealed
through the book that John wrote, 1 John, that He set forth, He
has set forth as being three persons. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
on this earth, He prayed unto His Father, of which Isaiah,
I just quoted a scripture that said concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, that He is the Father. One substance. One nature. And each person all
totally God. If I were to say, you know, we've
got a family here and there's a father and there's a mother
and there's a child in this family. Not any one of the father, the
mother, or the child, not any one of those, could be said to
be the complete family. It can't be the father because
he's not the mother and he's not the child. It can't be the
mother. Not one of them, but with God it is. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit. With the tri-unity God, every
person is God. Totally God. One God. He said and revealed to be one
in His essence, and three, as He reveals Himself. I'm going
to read you something that wasn't original with me. I read this
just trying to read what I could and find what I could on the
Trinity. Because I'm telling you, we're not able to pick this
up. The God that we worship, who
do you worship? David said, Our God's in the
heaven. He does as He wills. And He's
omnipresent. The Lord Jesus Christ, I know,
I know that He right now is at the right hand of the Father.
I know right now that He sits As a great high priest, as the
great high priest, our great high priest, I know that right
now he's at the right hand of the Father. And he's right here. Because he said, we're two or
three gathered together. I am in the midst of you. And he's everywhere that any
of his saints are meeting together. He's God. Now as the Lord has revealed
Himself to be in the matter of origin, in the matter of authority,
He reveals Himself to be the Father in salvation. You've read
this. Turn with me again to Ephesians
chapter 1. Now here is the way that God
Almighty has revealed Himself to be as the Father. One God. Not three gods, one God revealed
by Himself in three persons. Ephesians 1 verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence. That's the Father. Almighty God,
one God, has revealed Himself to be the God of authority, the
God of choice, the God of purpose. That's the Father. And His purpose
and His choice and His authority is not at the exclusion of the
Lord Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. But He's revealed Himself
to be the God of purpose, the Father. He's the God in the expression
of Himself as the one who accomplishes His will. He doesn't purpose
what He's going to do and then leave it to the possibility,
maybe, it being accomplished, but he sets forth himself not
only as the God of purpose and decree and counsel and will and
choice, but I accomplish what I'm going to do. He set forth
himself. Here he is as the Son. John 1.29, The next day John
seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of
God. which taketh away the sin of
the world." God Almighty, the Father who
chooses, who purposes. The Son. God Himself set forth
as He who accomplishes what God Almighty has purposed. And then
thirdly, set forth Himself in the Holy Spirit as the God
of apprehension, the God of the realization of what we know tonight. We know because the Spirit of
God has taught us. I send you the Comforter. And He'll teach you all the things
that I've commanded you. Here is God Almighty. You can
talk about our nature all day long. You can talk about, well,
this way we do it. This is the way God Almighty has set forth
that He is. God is spirit. He is invisible,
unapproachable. No man has seen Him. He is declared
and revealed, unveiled by God Almighty. taking upon Himself,
God Almighty, the fullness, the fullness of God, Father, Son,
and Spirit, as He set forth Himself to be in the embodiment of human
flesh. God. God Himself. All of God. Totally God. The Lord Jesus Christ. As Brother Scott just said, just
as much God as He was never man, and just as much man as He was
never God. There is God Almighty. The invisible God. Unapproachable
God. God Almighty who purposed to
redeem all that He had everlastingly loved. His nature. How is He? He's Spirit. He's invisible. He's unapproachable. He's triune. Here's the Spirit of God. Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians 1 verse 17. That the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him." Just think, when you set forth, God has been pleased
to set forth Himself as the Father of choice. He's been pleased,
that is, God Almighty has been pleased to set forth Himself
as the God of accomplishment and satisfaction in the Son. And God Almighty
has been pleased to set forth Himself as the revealing God,
the apprehending God, the quickening God that brings to pass that
which He has accomplished by His Spirit. And you cannot separate
these. You cannot get around that the
Scriptures reveal that there's one God and three persons. Invisible, save in the Blessed
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see Him. That's what you
read. He that hath the Son hath life. That's it. Say, Amen. That told me all things whatsoever
I did. When we speak of the Lord Jesus
Christ being in our midst, we're saying that Almighty God, the
eternal God, the fullness, everything. I'm lost in the thought of this,
that God Almighty would be in our presence. Not a portion of God, not a third
of God, a fourth of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That was Christ, the Lord Jesus.
He sits right now at the right hand of His Father and He who
is God the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. And I'm itched. I read this, Daniel Webster.
I may have mentioned this to you, that's all right. was asked
one time, he said, isn't the doctrine of the Trinity a mathematical
impossibility? There's one God. Now write this
down. There's not three gods. I'm not
saying three gods. I'm saying there's one God. One
God who has set forth himself in three persons. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit. One God. Totally God, totally
God, totally God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. I mean, even when I hold up my
fingers, I'm holding up four and it's one. Mr. Webster was asked, isn't
the doctrine of the Trinity a mathematical impossibility? Mr. Webster said,
according to the mathematics of Earth, it seems to be, but
I'm not acquainted with the mathematics of heaven. This is the way God
says that he is. And it matters not how we try
to reconcile it. That's why I said I don't want
to go on speculation. I want to go according to the
Scriptures and say this is what God has to say about Himself.
This is the nature of God. God is Spirit. He sees and hears. He speaks. He's one God. Three persons, Father, Son, and
Spirit. and the embodiment of the invisible
God is the Lord Jesus Christ. God Almighty, the totality of
God Himself, took upon Himself the form of sinful flesh. A body
hath thou prepared me. And He took the nature of those
that He came to save. Spirits. Spirits. Now we read
in the Scriptures where they appeared to be men. The Scripture
says they saw a man. It was a man. They took a form. Because they're spoken of as
able to quickly move, people drew wings on them. Scripture
doesn't say that. It doesn't say they have wings.
They're spirits. to manifest themselves according
to the purpose and will and power of Almighty God. But we speak
of Him. What we do is we're going to
stick with the Scriptures. Because if I get off this path
right here, I'm in real trouble. God is Spirit. I'm safe there. There's one God. I'm safe there. He's manifest
Himself in three persons. I'm safe there. He is the tri-unity
God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
Himself, who eternally covenanted together with the Father and
the Spirit, one God with Himself, took upon Himself the form of
human flesh. And He dwelt among us. John said,
We beheld His glory. The proof that we have this triunity,
God is found only in the Word of God Himself. Genesis 1.1,
it says, In the beginning, God. Now that word God right there,
you look it up, just get a strong concordance. The word is Elohim. I don't speak Hebrew. I just read English. I read definitions. Elohim is plural. In the beginning,
God. The word God there is plural.
It's a plural. One God. In triunity. One God created. The word created
is singular. The triune God. One God did one
act. He created the heaven and the
earth. One being. Three persons. One essence. Doing
something. Genesis 1.26, And God said, Let us make man in our image
after our likeness, and there is one God. That is baptism,
the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was baptized, this is
Matthew 3, 16 and 17. He went up straightway out of
the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.
And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. In Matthew 28, 19, the Lord told
his disciples, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing
them. Now listen to this. In the name. The name. One name. Not names. Not names. One name. Singular. In the name
of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. There is no way that you will
ever, with this little finite mind, figure out the nature of
Almighty God. This is what we do. We believe
Him. Lord, as You say You are, That's
the way you are. We are not here to try to delve
in and to find the depth of Him. We believe Him. These things
will be made clear by the grace of God. There's coming a time when this journey through this wilderness
for all those that God has everlastingly loved, those who read these blessed
scriptures and they just bow to what God says He is, who He
is. They just bow to Him. And they
realize, my little fickle mind is just too little. Who is sufficient
for these things? Who can plumb the depth or the
breadth or the height of Almighty God? But to realize that He who
is Spirit, invisible, that's everlastingly loved, that's what
He says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. He's not a nebulous, that can't
be even described. The Scriptures describe Him. Lord, as You say, that's how You are. And to realize that when old
John was writing that book, he said that which was from the
beginning. And knowing Mike, that he was
dealing with God Almighty. This is Him. This is totally
Him. This is all of Him. This is all
of God. And He has condescended and took
upon Himself our nature. And He walked on this earth and
He taught He spoke. He heard. His disciples touched
Him. Who do men say that I am? I gave
a lot of you. Who do you say I am? And Peter
said, You're the Christ. You're God. You're God Almighty in human flesh. You're the Christ.
And he said, Peter, flesh and blood didn't teach that to you.
This Christ, The fullness of the Godhead bodily, one day,
and one day soon, is going to come back a second
time. And we're going to see Him. Job says, I'm going to see
Him with these eyes. He who came out of the grave,
there's only been one who ever died, resurrected, in the same body
in which He was buried and ascended into heaven, one. And He is the
firstfruits. And just as He has, we shall. All that He has loved, this is
the God we worship. This is His nature. We've set
forth pretty much. I mean, we go a lot of other
Scriptures, but we set pretty much what the Scripture says
about Him. May God Almighty be pleased to
cause our hearts to bow. Lord, thank You. Thank You that
You would allow us just to come together for just a few moments
and just hear concerning You who has everlastingly loved your
people, you who came into this world to accomplish that which
you purposed to do, and you who has revealed yourself in your
blessed Holy Spirit. Lord, speak to us tonight for
Christ's sake. Amen. Gary.