You know, we study in Bible doctrine,
we started out last week of the existence and being of God. And
it says there in verse 11, Who is like unto thee, O God, O Lord,
among the gods? You notice that God's in little
G. There's many gods in this world, many lords in this world,
but only one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in
studying any Bible doctrine, I don't care what it is, what
its purpose is, would lead us to know God, to know Christ,
lead us to a right knowledge of God Almighty. Without this, we'd not know how
to worship, we'd not know how to trust Him, we wouldn't know
how to enjoy Him. We certainly couldn't have any fellowship
with Him. And I pray that these studies would lead us and bring
us to a greater knowledge of our God, a greater love of Him,
a closer communion with Him as He makes Himself known in His
blessed Son. Now, you know, one thing that
I meant to say last week, and I'll let it go, is God and His
essential being. Now, there are some things that
are essential to any being. We have things essential to our
being. Blood, air, food, water, personality, a mind, built in
a reason, and life, and we derive our life, but without the Spirit,
we're dead. So there's some things essential
to our existence. But God's essential being, the
things that make Him who He is, there's some things that's essential
to God's very being. And he cannot change in that
essential being. And in his essential being, he
has a personality. And you know, what in the world
do we mean by personality? Well, a personality exists, and
we all got personalities. Everybody's got a different personality.
Some's got outgoing, some's gregarious, some are diffident, some are shy, some
are backwards, some are just... You know, summer, quiet. We all
have different... Well, God's got a personality.
And a personality, for there to be a personality, there has
to first be a mind. You've got to have a mind. You've got to have intelligence.
You've got to have a will. You've got to have a reason.
You have to have individuality. There has to be self-consciousness.
There has to be self-determination. And where these things are, you
have a personality, and God's Word teaches us that God is a
person. Now, we hear people talk about
God being a great force, or a supernatural being, or a great energy, but
now I'm telling you, beloved, we don't worship a force. We
don't worship an energy. We don't worship nature. We don't
worship some great mind. We worship a person. A person
with a personality. And so you see, beloved, when
we talk about God being a personality, He Himself describes Himself
in a personal way. What did He say? First thing
He said about Himself is that, I am. That's why Moses said,
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? He describes
Himself, says, I am. He describes Himself in the personal
pronoun. He says, I create. He says, I
kill and I make alive. I purpose. The seeing eye and
the hearing ear, it comes from me. So he's talking about a personality
and all that he has. And all he told the Thessalonians,
when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he says this, he says, you turn
from idols to serve who? The living God. The living God. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself
shows us that God is a person. shows us that God is a person.
In his incarnation, what God did is He declared that He is
a person. And the fullness of the Godhead
brought bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's personality was
revealed and made known in Christ bodily. You know, when Philip
said, Show us the Father, that will satisfy us. And our Lord
Jesus says, Philip, if you've been with me such a long time
and you've not seen me, He said, if you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. You know, if you see me, you see the Father. You
see my personality. You see my power. You see my
nature. You see everything about me. And, oh, beloved, that's
why I said, I am my Father, I am one. And when our Lord Jesus
Christ prayed in John 17, you know what He said? Holy Father. He called Him a Father. Now,
a Father has a personality. A Father is someone you look
to, you love, you trust, you obey. And so Christ spoke personally
of Himself, and God speaks personally. And as a person, He has attributes. I could go through several attributes
just like that, but I don't want to do that. I love to talk about
God. I love to think about God. I
love to study God. I love to study the Lord Jesus
Christ and all the things that make Him God. And the first attribute
that I want to deal with tonight, this is a personality, is the
solitariness of God. He said, that's what he said
there in Exodus 15, 11, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among
the gods? So there's lots of gods in this
world, but God is solitary among all the gods. Solitary. And over in Genesis 1, 1, we've
quoted this all forever. Look at it just a minute. And
what, beloved theology, is the science of God. And it's the
study of that science. And with all of our studying
that's done, if God doesn't reveal Himself, it'll just be in vain. I want to know God. I want to
see God. I want to enjoy God. And that's
what we want to do in these studies. And just look what it says here.
In the beginning, God. Created the heaven and the earth.
The earth was without form and void. Darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the waters. And God said, capital, God said,
Let there be light. God saw the light. It was good.
And God divided the light from the darkness. So you see here,
God dwelt alone there. He did this by Himself. And God
has been pleased to make Himself known in His Word, in His creation,
and in His works. That's why when Jeremiah, he
says this, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not
the rich man glory in his riches, let not the mighty man glory
in his might, but if any man glory, let him glory in this,
that he knows me, knows the true and living God, and understands
something of me. And so, beloved, And a spiritual,
a spiritual saving knowledge of God is the greatest need of
every human being on the topside of God's earth. That's the greatest,
the spiritual saving knowledge of God is the greatest need of
every human being. And I'll tell you, the foundation,
the foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a clear mental
apprehension of His perfections. I mean clear, mental apprehension
of what he says about himself in this blessed book. And beloved,
an unknown God, now I'm telling you this without, I know this
is so. We've got to have a knowledge of God, a clear apprehension
of Him, a mental apprehension of Him, as He reveals Himself
in His Word. An unknown God can neither be
trusted, served, nor worshipped. Can't do that. God is solitary. And all of these actually, who
is of God like unto thee among the gods? Look here with me in
Isaiah 45. I want to show you something here. Isaiah 45. And when we talk about solitary,
you know, if something's solitary, that means it's alone. It's alone. It's by itself. And God among
all the gods. God among all the world. God
among this universe. There's no one like He. It says,
in the beginning, God. He just declares it. He is. And
here in Isaiah 45, verse 21, look what it says. Tell ye, and
bring them near. Yeah, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me. No God else beside me. A just
God and a Savior. There's lots of Gods. But you
find one that's both just and a Savior. You find the free will
God. Is He a just God and a Savior?
Is the Catholic God, is He a just God and a Savior? Is the Pentecostal
God a just God and a Savior? Is Buddha a just God and a Savior?
Is Mohammed a just God and a Savior? Is Confucius a just God and a
Savior? Is Shiva a just God and a Savior? You go through all the gods in
this world, go all the gods that men worship, and I tell you,
is there any like Him that's just? And be just and save you
at the same time? Oh, there's none beside me. And
that's what you've got to look at. Is there a fellow telling
you about God? That's what we're talking about. This clear mental
apprehension. How can He be just and save me? How can He be just, who's a sinner,
and save me at the same time? Look, and that's what He said.
He said, Oh my, look unto Me then. And be ye saved all the
end of the earth, for I am God, and ain't nobody else can do
it. And over in 46, look on chapter
46 and verse 9 with me just a moment. Talking about God and His solitariness. It says here, it says, Remember
the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me. I have declared the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times of things that are not yet done, saying, My Chancellor
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Do you know he
called a king and named him Cyrus hundreds of years before he was
ever born, and said he will be the one to go down and deliver
Israel, and take Israel into Bondage, and then also send them
back to build the kingdom, to re-establish Jerusalem? God said
that hundreds of years before. He named him even. Named him. And, O Beloved, in the beginning,
I said there in Genesis 1, in the beginning, God. Now, there
was a time, if it could be called time, when God, in the unity
of His nature, and you say, we don't have a unity of nature.
Oh no, we just struggle and up and down and in and out and struggle
with ourselves, struggle with our emotions, struggle with our
wills, struggle with our personalities, struggle within ourselves. But
God has no struggle within Himself. He is in the unity of His person. And beloved, there in the beginning,
if we could call it time, God dwelt all alone. And He dwelt
there in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In the beginning,
God. When there was no heaven, there
was no earth. There were no angels to sing.
No universe to be upheld by His power. Nothing. No one but God. Not for a day, not for a year,
or not for an age, but from everlasting to everlasting. He is the high
and lofty One, and He Himself says, I inhabit eternity. You and I inhabit just about
the space that we're in, and He inhabits eternity. And in
the past eternity, and we have to use language that we can understand,
God was all alone, self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied. Had a universe, had angels, had
human beings been necessary to Him in any way, He would have
called them into existence from all eternity. But He didn't.
He dwelt all alone. And that's why he says to Job,
he says, Job, and he spoke to him out of the world, Job, where
were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Where were you,
Job, when I hung the world and the earth upon nothing? Where
were you, Job, before the sons of God ever shouted for joy?
And I'll tell you, when he did create the world, when he did
create the universe, when he did create angels, when he did
create human beings, none of these things added nothing to
him. He was still God. He is still
God, just like He was before He ever made the universe, just
like He was before He ever made the world, just like He was before
He ever made the heaven, just like He was before He ever made
the earth, just like He was before He made a man. None of these
things added anything to Him. He was just like He was when
it always had been. He couldn't be any greater, couldn't
be any less, could He? And, O Beloved, so in His creation
He was solitary. He was solitary in His choice
to create or not to create. He was under no obligation to
create or not create. And the fact that He chose to
create, and create a world, and inhabit it with people, and inhabit
it to heavens, and inhabit it to earth, it was a sovereign
act of God. not caused by nothing outside
of himself. He just willed to do it, chose
to do it. Now, we can worship a God like
that. I can. And I tell you, the Scriptures
tell us that he works all things after the counsel of his own
will. And the fact that he did create, he did create, he done
this that his glory might be manifested. He had all of his
glory, his essential glory. But he says, I'll manifest my
glory. So he created the world. And he said, the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork.
And let me tell you this, beloved. God doesn't even gain from our
worship of him. We add nothing to him. All of
us sat here tonight, all I'm trying to say about him. What
the Scriptures I've read, we absolutely ask nothing to Him
and His glory in doing that. Nothing. We gain something from
it. We benefit from it. We enjoy
it. We've come to do it. But He was
in no need of the glory of His grace which come from His redeeming.
He is glorious in Himself. And what moved him? Look over
here in Ephesians with me. Look at Ephesians 1. What was
it that moved him to predestinate his elect to the praise of the
glory of his grace? What moved him to do it? In Ephesians 1.5, what moved
him to predestinate us to the praise of the glory of his grace?
Now, Ephesians 1.5 says, having predestinated us under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ, why did He do it? According to
the good pleasure of His will. He dwelt all alone. He was all
alone in His glory. He said, it's going to be to
the pleasure of My will to adopt some children, predestinate them
to be My sons, just because it pleased me to do so. And when
Paul was talking about salvation, starting in Romans 9, but all
the way through Romans 11, talking about God's sovereign mercy and
sovereign grace in saving people, not of him that willed, not of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Who art thou? That replies against God, and
he comes down and shows that Israel, you know, they was concluded
in unbelief, and God called in the Gentiles. And when he come
to the end of it, the conclusion that salvation was all by grace,
that God did everything according to the pledge of His will, he
said this. He said, How unsearchable. How
unsearchable is both the wisdom, riches of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. His judgments are past finding
out. And it's impossible. It's impossible. And oh, I wish men and women
understood this, and I wish preachers got a hold of it. If they ever
find this out, you talking about men shutting their mouth and
being still before God. It is absolutely impossible to
bring the Almighty under any obligation to the creature. God
absolutely gains nothing from us. We gain everything from Him.
He gains nothing from us. Let me show you that. Look in
Job 35. I'll show you that from the Scriptures. You know, that's why I love the
Scriptures. Whatever argument, whatever point
you make, you can go to the Scriptures and find it in Job 35. That's
why you know our Lord says that When you've done all that you're
supposed to do, you're still an unprofitable servant. Everything we've got, God gave
to us. Everything we know, God taught us. And so we're absolutely dependent
upon it. Look here in Job 35, verse 7. That's what it says. If thou
be righteous, what givest thou him? Is your righteousness going to
make Him any more righteous? Make Him any more glorious? Make
Him any more omnipotent? Make Him any more powerful? Make
Him any more the Creator? Make Him any more glorious than
He is? Or what will He receive of your hand? What are you going
to take and give Him? Or you say, what are you going
to take and give Him? What are you going to give God to make
Him any more glorious than He is? And watch this. Thy wickedness
may hurt man as you are, and thy righteousness may profit
the Son of Man, but it don't do anything to God. It don't
add nothing to Him. It only hurts us, and it makes
us, it helps us. And, beloved, so I tell you,
God is solitary. And I'm going to say something
here, and I hope you understand. I'm going to try to slow down
here and make you understand this, if I can. Our Lord Jesus
Christ added absolutely nothing to the essential being and glory
of God. What he done was, when he came
into this world, he manifested the glory of God. He always had
the glory that he had with the Father before the world ever
was. So He didn't add anything to the glory of God when He came
into this world. He came to show out the glory
of God, to manifest the glory of God. The Word was made flesh
and said to dwell among us, and we beheld what? His glory, as
who? The only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and full of truth. But, O beloved, even when Christ
came into this world and assumed human nature, God remained as
He always was. And His goodness and His righteousness
reach down to us. But God is so high above us as
the heavens is above the earth. And it's true, now it's true,
that God is both honored and dishonored by man. It is. But not as He dwells in eternity,
not in His essential being that makes Him to be God in all of
His glory. But man honors and dishonors
God in His character as the judge of all the earth. Now, there's
God the Creator, there's God who dwells in His glory and inhabits
eternity, and we have no effect upon Him. But as He makes Himself
known as the judge of all the earth, as He makes Himself known
as the Savior of men, as He makes Himself known as the sustainer
of this world and all that's in it, As he makes himself known
as the author of salvation, we either honor him or dishonor
him by believing him, or not believing him. Is that right? Now, he's the
judge of all the earth. Will we not say he does right?
When his hand seems to be against us, will we do like Eli says?
It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good. Are we going to argue with God
over how He runs His world? And that's why we're preaching
that. You know, when I'm preaching, we confront men with a God who
must be answered to. Must be answered to. There's
no options. There's no options. When He says,
I'm a just God and Savior, look unto Me, that means that you
have no options. You're either going to look to
Him, or you're going to perish. And you're either going to honor
Him by looking to Him, you're going to honor Him by worshiping Him,
you're going to honor Him by believing Him, you're going to
honor Him by bowing to Him, or you're going to dishonor Him
by not doing it. And oh beloved, and had God been
pleased, had God been pleased, He might have continued for all
eternity without making Himself known. without showing any of
His glory unto His creature. He could have done that had He
pleased. But whether He does, should or
should not, was determined solely by His own will. Was there anything
about us that made Him draw Himself out to us? As we said here tonight,
is there anything about us outside of Christ that would cause God
to be drawn to us? So if he did, he was determined
solely by his own will. Before the first creature was
ever made, before the first creature was ever called in to be, God
was perfectly, perfectly blessed in himself. Now, I think James
read this Sunday night back in the study in Isaiah 40. I think
James read this. God dwelt alone in His glory. I heard an old preacher one time,
and he went through a whole litany of black preachers, a whole litany
of things. Where was God when this happened? Where was God
when that happened? Where was God when this thing happened?
Where was God when another thing happened? And he went through
a whole bunch of things. Where was God when you're suffering?
Where was God in His agony? Where was God when Christ was
on the cross? And he went through, oh, ten or twelve minutes of
things, and then he'd come to this conclusion. He says, God
was in His glory. When we're down on the bottom,
God's in His glory. When we're on the top, God's
in His glory. When we're sick, He's in His
glory. When we wail, He's in His glory. When Jacob and Esau come in the
womb, God is in His glory. Oh my! And look here in Isaiah
40 and verse 15. This is why God says, Behold
the nations, or as a drop of a bucket. Do you know how many
nations there are on the face of the earth? Look how great
America is. How great and glorious America
is. And that's just all the nations on the face of the earth. And
God says, you know what they are? That's just a drop in a
glass. He said they're all a drop in
the bucket. In our town there's a small dust
of the balance. You've got this great big balance
here. You reckon the dust is going
to affect the weight of whatever you weigh out on it? It's going
to make it weigh heavy, more or less? No. He said that's the way the nations
are. He tucks up the isles. He just lifts them up like it's
a little thing. Like it's a little thing. And leaven is not sufficient
to burn, nor the beasts there are sufficient for a burnt offering.
Take and offer all of leaven and all of its beasts. It won't
satisfy them. All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity.
O my, since he is like that, to whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare unto him? Look down at verse
22. It is he that setteth upon the circle
of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. You know, back when they thought
the earth was flat, evidently, they didn't read the Bible. He says, "...upon the circle
of the earth, and the habits thereof as grasshoppers, he stretched
out the heavens like stretching out a curtain, and stretched
them out as a tent to dwell in. That bringeth the princes to
nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." Oh,
my. That's God. That's a God we can
worship. I tell you about how solitary
He is. Who's like Him? Who's like Him? And you know
when you look at Him in the New Testament, He's the same way. He's the same. He never changes.
He said He dwells in the light that no man can approach unto.
And He's to be reverenced. He's to be worshipped. He's to
be adored. Who is like God in His majesty?
Every king that's on the face of this earth, there's a king
of all the kings who is solitary in his excellency. He's solitary
in all of his perfections. He sustains everything that is,
but he's independent of everything else that is. He gives to everything,
but yet nothing can be given to him to make him any better.
And I know this, beloved, God cannot be found by searching. No. Canst thou find out God by
searching? He's only known, He's only known
as He's revealed to the heart. I mean the heart by the Holy
Spirit, through the Word of God. That's the only way in the world
anybody's ever going to know Him. Now, you know, Some men
say that this is the way God is. They give this illustration,
how men come to know God. And there are several people
that believe that God, you know, if anybody's just got a sincere
desire to know Him or even thought about Him, no matter where they
sat, you know that God's going to save them. But no, God don't
save anybody apart from the gospel, anybody apart from Christ, anybody
apart from the knowledge of Him. I don't care if they're in Africa
or if they're in America. But anyway, they say, here's
this Savage, this heathen, he's walking down a beach or something
and he comes upon a watch. He finds a watch. Well, he picks
up that watch and he starts examining that watch. By looking at that
watch, he says, well, somebody made this watch. So evidently
there's a watchmaker somewhere. Well, so far, so good. You find
the watch, you understand somebody made it. We was looking, I'm
just, I thought maybe thinking that somebody sent me a list
of watches the other day, and they had watches there for a
million and a half dollars. They had watches that they only
made five of them, and they was like $350,000, $360,000 a piece. Oh my, I just, needless to say,
I won't be buying one of them. Timex special. Walmart special. But anyway, he gave, he said,
there's a watchmaker here. Then he sits down, and he sits
down with this watch, and he looks at that watch, turns it
every which way, looks at it every way, and he tries to form
for himself a conception of what this watchmaker's like. He says,
you know, it comes up in his mind, he forms in his mind this
person, he forms in his mind a person who made this watch.
And he thinks about what kind of affections he has, his manners,
his disposition. what acquirements he's had, what
attainments he's made, makes some kind of decision about his
moral character, forms up his moral character, and he goes
taking up all that's going to make this person to be a personality. And could he ever think or reason
out a real man by looking at that watch? Could he look at
that watch and come up with the person and a real person the
way he thinks he ought to be the one who made the watch. So
that he could come down and say, I know him. I know that man. I'm acquainted with him. Just
by looking at that watch and figuring it all out. Well, that's
the way a lot of people think you come to know God. They look
at the creation and say, well, but that's not the way God's
known. God's not a watch. And you can't examine Him from
upside down, and the only way you're ever going to know God
is to be acquainted with Him. Job said, Disacquaint now thyself
with Him, and be at peace. If you're ever acquainted with
Him, you'll be at peace. Is the eternal God within the
grasp of reason? No. No, the God of Scripture
can only be known by those to whom He makes Himself known. And in closing, God's not known
by the intellect. He's not. God is spirit. God is spirit, pure spirit, and
can only be known spiritually. And a fallen man is not a spiritual
being. He needs a miracle, a miracle. You know, if he's just got some
hearing problems, get him some hearing aids. If he's got eye
problems, get him some glasses. If he's got leg problems, get
him some braces or get him some crutches. But if he is dead,
if he is fallen, if he is lifeless, deaf, dumb, and blind, and got
a heart of stone, then he needs a miracle. He needs a miracle
of life, and only God can give him that life. He needs to be
brought from darkness into light because he can't see the things
of God, can't even know the things of God, and the only place that
he'll ever see the glory of God, that I've talked about tonight,
is in the person, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you this much, and I'm thankful for this, even our
spiritual knowledge, even our spiritual knowledge grows. It
grows. I'm grateful that I know more
about God than I did. And I'm grateful that there's
a heapsight more to know. Heapsight more to know. And we
grow in grace and knowledge. And God please, oh God, make
us to know. Make us to know you, to see you
in your glory, and worship you, because you're the only God worthy. Only God worthy of reverence
and worship in this whole universe. Only one. Only one. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for making Yourself
known. I pray that Your Word would be blessed to our understanding
tonight, that You would use it for your glory and our good. I know that efforts are so feeble
to describe you, so feeble, understanding so feeble, so affected
by the fall. But O God, please help us to
always honor you and speak highly of you, speak reverently of you,
speak gloriously of you, think gloriously of you, Never deny
in any way. Acknowledge that our very life
and existence, it comes from you and you sustain us day in
and day out. Not only in our natural life,
but our spiritual life, it comes from you. And we bless you that
you sustain and preserve us day in and day out. With all of our
flesh, with all of our sin, with all of our weakness and inability, Lord Jesus, You still keep us.
You still sustain us. And we thank You for that. Amen.