In the Beginning God

Q: What does the Bible say about the existence of God?

The Bible states, 'In the beginning, God,' affirming His existence and sovereignty over all creation. The Bible opens with a profound declaration in Genesis 1:1, 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' This phrase underscores not only the existence of God but His sovereign power over creation. God needs no defense or proof of His existence; He simply declares it. The acknowledgment that God is 'self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal' is foundational to our understanding of His nature. This truth is pivotal in our faith, as it positions God as the creator who exists outside the constraints of time and creation itself.

Q: How do we know that God is sovereign?

We know God is sovereign because He declares His will and purpose throughout Scripture and is unchangeable in His divine plans. God's sovereignty is a central theme in the Bible, manifesting in His control over all aspects of creation and history. He upholds everything by the word of His power, as stated in Hebrews 1:3. God's sovereignty also means He is immutable; He does not change like humans do. In Isaiah 40:15-17, we see that even nations are insignificant before Him, described as 'a drop in the bucket.' This total dominion affirms that no events occur without His knowledge or consent, highlighting our dependence on Him for all things.

Q: Why is the concept of God's mercy important for Christians?

God's mercy is essential because it reflects His desire to save and restore humanity despite our unworthiness. The necessity of understanding God's mercy is woven throughout Scripture and is essential for Christians. In Micah 7:18-19, we see that God is uniquely capable of pardoning iniquities and delighting in mercy. This is crucial because, apart from His mercy, we are left in our sin and darkness. Our acknowledgment of our unworthiness leads us to appreciate the grace offered through Christ. God’s mercy does not merely overlook sin; it is a profound expression of His sovereign purpose to redeem us, illustrating His unchanging character and longing to save those who come to Him in faith.

Q: How can we understand the Trinity in relation to God's nature?

The Trinity reveals that God is one in essence yet exists in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Understanding the Trinity is vital to grasping God's nature. In Genesis 1:26, God says, 'Let us make man in our image,' indicating a plurality within the divine essence. The term 'Elohim,' a plural form of God used in Scripture, supports this concept. God, existing as three persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — demonstrates His relational nature. Each person is fully God, co-equal and co-eternal, and yet they function in distinct roles within the Godhead. This doctrine lays the foundation for our understanding of redemption and God's plan for humanity, emphasizing that all actions within creation and salvation originate from a unified, sovereign will.

Q: Why do we refer to God as self-sufficient?

God is self-sufficient because He requires nothing outside of Himself to exist or to be fulfilled. The concept of God's self-sufficiency highlights that He exists independently of creation. As articulated in Acts 17:24-25, God 'is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything.' This characteristic assures us that God's actions stem from His grace and mercy, not from any lack or need. Before creation, God was entirely complete within Himself, exhibiting a fullness that is crucial for understanding salvation. He created not out of necessity but to manifest His glory and grace towards His people, which reveals not only His self-sufficiency but also the depths of His love and purpose in creation and redemption.

I don't think when I greeted you all Friday or Saturday, I mentioned to you the greetings from your brethren in Orlando, but so many of them said to be sure to tell you how thankful they were for you and to send their love to you, so I want to be sure to do that. I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to write in the book of Philippians, finally brethren to write the same thing to you.

To me is not grievous. But to you. It is safe. It is certain. It is sure. The Lord. grows us in his grace, he teaches us the gospel by repeating the same message to us over and over and over again. Knowing that we are foolish and slow of heart to believe, our Lord is full of mercy. And that's how he reveals himself to his people. I say that because Todd and I spoke for a few minutes this morning before we came here and I knew that he was going to be saying a lot of things that I wanted to try to say this morning and I'm thankful that he said them and I hope that perhaps by the By the repeating of these things, the Lord will be pleased to drive them home to our hearts and enable us to leave here believing what God has revealed. We know that there are so many things about our God that are past finding out.

We're not capable of of comprehending him. The scripture says that he is unsearchable. And the scripture also says that the secret things belong to the Lord our God. We ought not to try to delve into and imagine those things that have not been revealed. The rest of that verse said, but that which has been revealed is for you and for your children forever. How much the Lord has revealed of himself to us.

Now our God is so glorious that eternity will not be sufficient. Eternity, I know we can't comprehend that. We're creatures of time. But God made time and he made us and he put us in time. And the scripture says that there will come, if you will, a time when time will be no more. Before time was, there was eternity. And after time ceases, there will be an eternity.

And eternity will not be sufficient for us to comprehend the fullness of his glory. That's who our God is. And our hope and prayer is that he will be pleased to reveal to us just glimpses of his glory, that we might be brought to that spirit of worship and that dependence on his mercy. and on his Christ and on his salvation.

Now, to write the same things unto you, Paul said, to me is not grievous, to you it is safe. I wanna, Todd began in the first verse of the Gospels and Acts. I wanna go all the way back to Genesis chapter one. Verse one, which you quoted, Todd. And repeat again some of the things that we know to be true.

We know they're true by divine revelation. We know they're true because God has said so. Truth is, we don't really understand anything that we believe. And God doesn't require us to understand in the full scope of his glory what he's revealed, he requires us to believe it. Believe. And true saving faith, the ability to believe, will acknowledge its inability to understand what it's believing. Lord, I believe it because you said so. and I bow. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, and I believe this is the same theme that the New Testament writers followed, that we've just heard about. In the beginning, God. The beginning of what? The beginning of time.

God does not have a need to prove himself to us, to defend his existence or his power. He just declares it. You've seen it, I've seen it. Men go about looking for historical evidences in order to prove the Word of God. Men go about trying to use logic and reason to try to prove the existence of God.

God doesn't do that. He just says, in the beginning, God. And if the Lord's pleased to give us the grace to believe that, and what it what it leads to, what it means in light of the gospel, in light of the things that we just heard, then we can rest in that hope that the Lord has given us. The beginning of time, before time ever was, there was God. This is before heaven was made to contain his glory. This is before the angels were created.

Now I know, again, David, we're gonna look at Psalm 139, we're gonna look at several passages of scripture this morning, because I don't want to I don't want to go beyond what the Lord has said and imagine things that he has chosen to remain secret to us.

I love what Charles Spurgeon said one time. He said, if God revealed more to us than he did, and he was speaking of the perfection of God's word, if he revealed more to us concerning Himself that He did not reveal in the Scriptures we would use it for our destruction. That's how perfect God's Word is. God has written His Word so perfectly that we are to limit ourselves to what the Lord has said. And if we try to imagine things beyond that we're going to find ourselves We're going to find ourselves creating a God that is altogether such one as ourselves.

That's our nature. We come into this world as idolaters. We come into this world with a darkened heart, with no understanding and no light as to who God is. And left to ourselves, we will fashion in that darkened imagination an idol. And that idol will look like us.

And in the end, that idol will be one that we can control. One that we can lord over. Second Thessalonians chapter two. That man has set himself up on the throne of God. And that's what we'll do. So let us contain ourselves to what the Lord has revealed. And just glory in that. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So this is before there was heaven, there was God.

And as I was about to say, I know in my mind I can't even begin to comprehend time without end. I know that's true and that's my hope that the Lord has given to me eternal life and that we're going to be with him time without end, forever, eternity. I don't know what that means. I can't comprehend it. I'm a creature of time. And as difficult as that is, it's even more impossible for me to imagine an eternity past where there was no beginning. No beginning.

But that's who our God is. He is self-existent. He is self-contained. He is self-sufficient. He's eternal. Before the heavens, before the earth could show forth his handiwork or his glory, before the angels could sing any praises to him, before man or anything that has been created could depend upon him to hold them up by the word of his power, there was God. There was God. Not for a thousand millenniums, for eternity. Eternity. You know, That's how glorious and how great our God is.

And if he existed within himself, and by the way, the word God, there's two words in the original Hebrew language for God. One is El and one is Elohim. And El is the singular word for God and Elohim is the plural. So what we're going to say now about God, this is the plural. In the beginning, God, this is Elohim. This is God the Father, this is God the Son, and this is God the Holy Spirit.

Do I understand that? No, but I know this, that our God is one in nature and he has revealed himself in three distinct individual persons. And if we try to explain the person of God beyond that, choose your heresy because you're gonna be in one. That's what man has done for for ever, ever since the beginning, he's tried to comprehend in his imagination how this could be. I don't know.

But I know that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the three persons of the glorious triune Godhead, are all God, and they're all of one nature, and they're all glorious, and they're all eternal, and they're all immutable, and they're all sovereign, And that's the God that we worship. And if he's pleased to reveal a glimpse of his glory to us, we will find ourselves before him in worship and in need of a savior. We will find ourselves bowing before him as sinners needing a redeemer. In the beginning, God. Nothing can be added to him.

He was, we just think about how long ago was eternity? I mean, how long ago was creation? Well, according to the Bible, it was 6,000 years ago. according to the genealogy that we have in the Bible. But let's say that you don't believe what the Bible says about time. And you've imagined that the Big Bang Theory took place a billion years ago. Well, what about before that? What about before that? You see, everything that's created had to have a beginning. We're talking about a God who has no beginning. We're talking about a God who stands within himself completely sufficient, completely contained, completely satisfied, in need of nothing.

He didn't create what he created because he had a need. He created what he created in order to show forth his glory out of mercy and grace toward his people. And that he didn't need. He doesn't need our worship. He doesn't need our praise. If he did, what did he do for eternity before creation was? What did he do? Was he in need all of that time? And all of a sudden he got lonely and he said, well, you know, I've got this need, I need to satisfy my need. No, no, that's not who he is. He was completely sufficient and satisfied in himself forever before he chose to create anything in the beginning God.

And he created the heavens and the earth. And the earth, and here's a picture of us, because we're from the earth. The earth was without form. That's who we are when we come into this world. Yes, we're made in the image of God, but that image was marred by the fall. And when the Lord Jesus went to the cross, the scripture says that his visage was as no man. You couldn't tell he was a man. He was so beaten. So tortured, you couldn't tell him was a man.

And he went to that cross as our representative showing us what we look like as a result of the fall. We don't look like we did when God created Adam. We came in the image of Adam. Yes, we have that image of God as Todd reminded us of, but oh, how marred that image is.

So we are without form and void and darkness is upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. Nicodemus, except you be born by the Holy Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God. If the spirit of God doesn't take the word of God and give us faith to believe what God has revealed, we will die in our sins. And this Holy Spirit is just as much God as God the Father. Just as much God as God the Son.

This is Elohim. This is Jehovah. Elijah's name translated means Jehovah is my God. This is the one who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush when he said, I am. I am Moses. What's your name? You know our names represent so many things about us and somebody speaks your name and it comes to mind about different characteristics concerning you. But there's no name sufficient. to capture all the attributes and all the glory and all the nature of God Almighty. So he said, I am.

I am what I am. I save in the way I save. I am self-existent. I am self-sufficient. I'm God. I'm God. And you're not. And I don't need anything from you, and you need everything from me. That's the God that we worship. And we're like that creation. We're without form, we're without purpose, we're without direction, we're empty, we're void. Darkness is upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God comes and hovers over. And God says, let there be light. I am the light of the world. And the light of the truth of God Almighty is only found in Christ.

Todd, you quoted this last night or yesterday sometime, Friday night maybe. And the Lord Jesus said to Philip, have I been with you so long? You don't know when you've seen me, you've seen the Father. For I and the Father are one. And so the Lord Jesus here in Genesis 1, verse 3, and God said, let there be light and there was light. God speaks, it happens. God says, live, you live. God says, die, you die. God says, go, you go. God says, come, you come. God is God. God is God. He's just God. I don't know what all that means except I know what he's revealed here. And I know I need him and I know he does not need me. Anything from me. Is it right that I worship him? Yes. Is it right that I praise him? Yes.

But the worship and praise that the Lord enables us and allows us to do is for our benefit. We're not adding anything to God. Our praise and worship doesn't add anything to God. Turn with me to Job chapter 35. Job chapter 35, look with me at verse, At verse 7, if thou be righteous, if you do what's right, if you obey God, if you worship God, just do what's right. What have you given to God? What have you given to God? And if this means, if thou be righteous, if this means not only just doing right, but if you're in Christ and you are righteous before God Almighty, what does that provide for God?

You see, We're the benefactor of that. He's not benefited anything from that. God hasn't gotten anything from putting us in Christ. We get all the benefit. If you be righteous, what givest thou him? Or what receiveth he of thy hand? If you worship God and praise God and pray to God and do what's right and are in Christ, have you added anything at all to God?

No. These are rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is not a question at all. It's a statement put in the form of a question for the purpose of emphasis. And so the Lord is emphasizing the obvious answer. Have you done anything for God? You know, the Lord said that when a servant's done everything that he can do, that he's to respond by saying, I'm an unprofitable servant. I'm an unprofitable servant. I've just done my duty. The Lord said, that's how you ought to consider yourself. And for forever, I just thought that was an expression of humility. You know, I'm just unprofitable.

If God didn't use me, he would use somebody else. But I understand now in context of what God has revealed to us about himself, that whatever I do to serve God does not profit him a bit. It has not profited God one bit. God cannot be profited. He cannot be added to. He cannot be taken from. He's God.

He doesn't need us to serve him. Our service to Him is for our blessing. God's glory is our greatest need. God's glory is our greatest blessing. It doesn't add anything to Him. Our service is unprofitable to God in the sense that He needed it in order to be able to do something. Isn't He anything?

And if you're righteous, have you add anything to Him? Now look at the next verse. Thy wickedness may hurt a man, as thou art." If you're evil, you do wrong, you're gonna hurt somebody. And everything we do affects somebody else, doesn't it? But it doesn't affect God. I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. I'm the Lord, I change not. And the only reason you sons of Jacob aren't consumed by my wrath and the only reason you don't consume one another by my mercy and my providence is because I change not. My decrees shall stand, my purpose will be fulfilled, my glory will always be upheld. I'm God.

You hurt one another. Now we sin, we sin against God, no question about that. But have we taken from Him anything? Have we hurt Him? Have we diminished Him? That's what the Lord's telling us here. Thy wickedness may hurt a man, verse eight, and thy righteousness may profit the Son of Man. We ought to do good. We ought to do good to all men, especially those who are of the household of faith. We ought to seek to honor God above men, but it's not to God's benefit that we're honoring him. It's to our benefit. It's to our benefit. It's all for our benefit.

Remember, for eternity, God never had anything but himself and never needed anything but himself. Our God sustains everything. He created everything and he sustains everything and he's in need of nothing. Our God gives to all and is enriched by none. You can't enrich God. You can't, you can't add to him. He's I am. And for us to think that we could add something to God puts us, puts God dependent upon us. Well, God needs my service. God needs my will. God needs my decision. God needs this. God doesn't need anything. Nothing. me show you that.

Turn with me to Psalm 40. I said we were going to read some Scripture. Here's a passage I want you to follow with me if you will please. Isaiah 40, I think I said Psalm 40, sorry. Isaiah chapter 40. Somebody asked me one time is the United States of America mentioned in the Bible? You know everybody is trying to take verses in the Bible and fill out you know interpret some sort of prophecy out of it. I said, yeah, and I pointed him to this verse. Verse 15, Isaiah 40.

Behold, The nations, all the nations, are as a drop of a bucket, and they are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for burnt offerings. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing vanity.

How can it be any different? If God is God, and if God has been from before time, and he's the creator and sustainer of all things, and he's self-contained and self-sufficient, how can it be any different? The Lord said these things are drop in a bucket, a speck of dust on the scale, nothing, vanity.

Oh, what a blessing of grace it is if the Lord teaches us this and makes us to believe it. We will worship him. We will worship him. We will say, Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy upon me. I'm a sinner. Lord, I've got nothing. I need everything from you. I can't give you my free will. I can't give you my works. I can't give you my wisdom, my understanding, my, Lord, I'm nothing. I don't have anything. I can't do anything. I need you for it all. This is how God's revealed himself to us. This is who God is. This is the God that we worship. It's the only God that men would worship.

Everything else that's done in religion all the pretended worship and all the singing and hand-waving and the crying and the Jumping up and down listen to who they say God is and if they're not preaching the God that I'm preaching to you right now Everything they're doing is just pretended feigned Religious activity they're not worshiping God That's why when we worship God, we worship him in spirit. We worship him in truth. We worship him quietly in the heart, humbly. We worship him with the heads bowed.

I mentioned to you the other night about a man who was looking up and raised his hands and said, he said, I'm looking for Jesus. I don't see him. I wish I thought about it then in light of what Todd said about the The parable, the story about the publican in the center, in the temple that we're praying, you remember where the publican? The publican, the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee had his, you know, he's looking up.

I wish I had said to my friend, you're looking the wrong way. You're looking the wrong way. You got your head up and he put your head down. And you look down, and you close your eyes, and you bow. And that's what every sinner will do if God is pleased to show you that he's God. That he's God. With just bow. Lord, teach me. Lord, save me. Lord, correct me. Lord, I know you're gonna do with me whatever you will. You know, the natural man, I'm not gonna have that man reign over me. Oh, to the child of God, he is king because they know they need a king. They know that he is king. You know, you hear about people saying, well, make Jesus Lord of your life.

Too late. Too late, God's already done it. He reigns, as we were reminded already this morning, over the living and the dead. And men may raise their fist to heaven, men may speak blasphemy against God. Who art thou, old man, to speak against God? He sits in the heavens. He laughs, he holds them in derision, Psalm 2.

Who are these creatures that think that they're bothering me or that they're taking from me or that they're adding to me anything? Who are these creatures? Kiss the sun. Kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish when he touch you with his little finger.

Oh, what a God we have. Verse 18, Isaiah 40, to whom then will you liken God? And what likeness will you compare unto him? See men go around trying to compare, trying to make a likeness of God and they make idols and they wear crosses and they carve statues and they have imaginary thoughts about God. The more we think about the God who is, the more we have to say with David in Psalm 139, Lord, as I contemplate these things, they're just too wonderful for me.

I can't attain unto them. I can't. I know you're God. This is what we do by nature, verse 19 and 20, we make idols. The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished, he that can't afford gold and silver, He'll cut down a tree. He doesn't have an oblation. He doesn't have a statue. So he chooses a tree that will not rot. And he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. I'm going to create for me a God. How foolish.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? This is Genesis 1.1. Don't you believe that in the beginning, God? Why would you be so foolish as to try to create a God when there is God, one God, who is forever an eternal God?

Verse 22, it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing. He brings down the kings and the rulers of this world. The proud men that boast of having so much power. Like Pilate, don't you know that I have the power, I have the authority to crucify you? You have no power at all except that which is given to you from above. The Lord wasn't moved by Pilate's threats. Verse 24, yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stalks should not take root in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

Now this is what Brother Job came to understand when God for four chapters just spoke to Job. And what was God revealing? Job, where were you when I put the stars in the sky? Job, where were you when I separated the land from the sea? Come on, tell me, tell me. And Job's mouth was shut. This will shut a man's mouth, won't it? This will shut a man's mouth. This will make a man have nothing to say except God have mercy upon me.

Whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? And what we heard from Todd earlier, that's my favorite definition of holy. I don't know what holy means, except that it means other than we are. He's not like us in any way. In any way, God's not like us. Our God is so small, isn't he? The God that we imagine is never as big as he ought to be. Lift up your eyes on high, and he's not telling us in this verse to look to heaven to see God. He's telling us to look out into the universe and see what God has created.

You know, I chuckle when I hear these advertisements of sending in $20 and they'll name a star after you. You know, there's trillions of them out there. Star naming. Maybe you got your name on a star. I hope not. Because if you did, if you do, God's already named that star. Look.

Trillions and trillions of stars, verse 26, lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number? Every night they come out. He calleth them by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power. Not one of them faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speaketh, O Israel?

My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over my God. God can't see what I'm doing. He can't see what I'm thinking. No, he knows our thoughts before we think them. That's right. That's who God is. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? Verse 28. That the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, he fainteth not, he's never weary. There's no searching of his understanding. He's not weak and dependent like we are. He needs nothing. He needed nothing for eternity, he needs nothing now. And our praise and worship of him is to our benefit.

Um... Let's pause, keep your finger there in Psalm 40 and let me turn back to, I'm in Isaiah 40, turn back with me to Psalm 16 real quick. Psalm 16 real quick. This is the psalm that Peter quoted from on the day of Pentecost when the first gospel message was preached there in Jerusalem.

And he quoted that God would not allow his holy one to see corruption. This whole psalm is Christ speaking. It's Christ speaking. And we're talking about how self-contained and self-sufficient and self-glorious and self-existent our God is and how He is in need of nothing. The Lord Jesus glorified His Father. Did what the Lord Jesus do add to His Father? Psalm 16. Verse 1, preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellence in whom is all my delight.

That word's excellence is, that's his church. Noble ones, that's his church. Here's what I'm saying to you, and this is too glorious to, what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he came into this world and showed forth the glory of God and laid down his life for his sheep, that didn't add anything to God. Not a thing. He did it for us. God's glory is not adding anything to him, it's for us. It's for us. My goodness, that's the Lord Jesus speaking.

My goodness, what I did doesn't extend God, it doesn't extend to God, it doesn't add to God. It shows forth his glory, but it didn't add to him. He can't be added to, that's the point. And if what the Lord Jesus did didn't add to God, then that's the infinite.

What are you and I gonna do to add to God? Go back with me to Isaiah 40. Verse 29, so who is God gonna give this power to be saved too. If I'm dependent upon him, if he's going to do something for me, who's... Verse 29, he giveth power to the faint. Lord, when I consider who you are, my mouth is shut and I'm out of breath. I don't know what to say. I know there's nothing I can do. I'm faint. I am faint before thee. This is the one he gives power to. And to them that have no might, they're the ones that he gives his strength to. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. The young men don't have the strength. The young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord Be still, be still and know that I am God. That's what it is to wait upon the Lord, to be quiet before God, to be still before God. And they that wait upon the Lord, they shall, you see that word renew in verse 31?

Perhaps you have it in the margin of your Bible. It's in the margin of my Bible. I looked up the word and sure enough, we usually think of renew as, you know, we're going to bolster ourselves up. This word renew means to exchange. They that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength for his strength. That's what Paul said when he said, his strength is made perfect in my weakness. I will glory in my weakness for it. The Lord doesn't show forth his strength or his glory until we're without strength. When we are without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. We've got to have no power. Lord, I've got no claim on you. I've got nothing to provide for you. I've got nothing to help you. I've got nothing to add to you. I'm without strength. I'm without ability.

I'm just waiting on you to give me your strength, and that's his promise that he'll do it. To those that are that are brought by his grace, they will renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. That's who God shows his forth to. He shows himself to. Shows forth his glory to those who have no power, no strength, no ability. Now we'll close with one last verse. If you'll turn with me to Micah. Micah. If your name is Michael or Mike, it's the same as Micah.

And the translation of that name is Who, who is a God like thee? That's the translation of Mike, Michael. Who is a God like thee? And out of all the things that the prophet Michael tells us about God and about ourselves and about our need for Savior, he concludes his book with a glorious crescendo. He says this, who is a God? He takes his own name. The Spirit of God is directing him, of course. But he's expressing the glory of God with his own name. Who is a God like unto thee?

There's no God like thee. that can pardon my iniquity, that can take away my sin. Only the God that we've been talking about can do that. There's no other God. No other God capable of saving me. Only the God who stands complete within himself is able to save. Who is a God like unto thee?

Who's gonna pardon my iniquity? Who's gonna pass over my transgressions? When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. When the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world as the God man, as the fullness of the Godhead bodily, he did a work of redemption, not to add to God, but out of his love for his people. and to show forth the glory of God to us for our benefit, for our profit. He paid the debt. He put away our sins. He shed his precious blood. God Almighty saw the travail of his soul. And God said, I'm satisfied. I'm not satisfied with you. I'm not satisfied. You're dropping a bucket. Oh, but I'm satisfied with Christ. Satisfied with him. And faith is being satisfied for salvation in the same one whom the father satisfied.

I've got no place else to go. I've got no place else to turn. I've got nowhere else to find any hope of being able to stand in the presence of an almighty, holy, sovereign, immutable God like you. How can I stand in the presence of a holy God? I'm gonna have to have clean hands. I'm gonna have to have a pure heart. I'm gonna have to never have lifted up my lips unto vanity. Who can say that? The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. He's the one who has pure hands. He never did, he never sinned. He's the one, his pure heart. He's the one who never spoke anything from his lips but that which was the word of God. I've got to be found in him. And if I am, I can go boldly, confidently before the throne of grace and find help in my time of need. I'm always in need. I'm always in need.

And once you pay special attention, just a moment of the last part of this verse. He retaineth not his anger forever. Because this God, this God that we've just been, oh, I don't want to be irreverent, but I mean, we are so scratching the surface. We're just, we're just seeing little tiny glimpses of the glory of his, of his radiance.

This God delights in showing mercy. Delights in showing mercy. We think that a God like that would just have to tolerate me, as Todd reminded us, or that he would be reluctant to save. No, any reluctance for you and I to be saved is on our part, not God's. It's on our part. And that is for his glory, and his glory is for our good. meet our need.

In the Beginning God

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the existence of God?

How do we know that God is sovereign?

Why is the concept of God's mercy important for Christians?

How can we understand the Trinity in relation to God's nature?

Why do we refer to God as self-sufficient?

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In the Beginning God

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the existence of God?

How do we know that God is sovereign?

Why is the concept of God's mercy important for Christians?

How can we understand the Trinity in relation to God's nature?

Why do we refer to God as self-sufficient?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

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