Sermon Tone Analysis

The Attributes of God part 2

Bible Text: Exodus 15:11

11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?

Who is like thee, glorious in holiness,

Fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Introduction:

Last month we started a series on the attributes of God.

Those characteristics that make up who God is and what He is like.

And last month we covered the first two.

I) The Aseity of God, He is infinite, He has His being in and of Himself.

and

II) The Self-Sufficiency of God - He has all He needs within Himself.

Today, we would like to look at a few more.

The third one we are going to look at is the immutability of God.

III.

God is Immutable - (Meaning) He Never changes

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

God never changes.

Who He is never changes.

His attributes never change.

His character never changes.

His mind is never changed.

His plans do not change and His promises do not change.

Friend, what a comforting thing for us to know about God.

A. God is not a God that gets older, slower, worn down.

Psalm 102:25-27

“Of old You founded the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

“Even they will perish, but You endure;

And all of them will wear out like a garment;

Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

“But You are the same,

And Your years will not come to an end.”

Aren’t you glad for the immutability of God in His being?

God holds all of creation together.

He created it and He sustains it.

If God were to be ever changing, ever getting older, no matter how slow the process, then one day, you and I, His creation would no longer be able to exist.

But God does not change in that regard.

B. And thank God, He also does not change His mind.

If God could change or if God could change His mind on a matter, we would be in utter misery all our lives.

Wondering if God is going to hold true to His promises, wondering if God is going to suddenly get angry with us and cast us out and take away our eternal life.

It was not because Israel was so righteous that God has not cast them out, but it is solely because He has said, because He has proclaimed them as His possession forever.

And He is not done with Israel, and He is not done with you.

God hasn’t changed His mind about you.

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Friend, God is never going to get any new information about you that He did not already know from eternity past.

If God is going to save you today, knowing not only your past, but He knows your future as well.

If God is going to save you today, He is not suddenly going to get some new information on you and unsave you tomorrow.

Which is exactly why Paul could write in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We have joy unspeakable as believers in Christ because our God is an unchanging God.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it?

Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

God is going to perform that which He has proclaimed.

Listen to,

2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

(Could comment on the verses that seem to say God changed His mind.)

IV.

God is Omnipresent - He is Always Everywhere

Jeremiah 23:24 “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?

saith the Lord.

Do not I fill heaven and earth?

saith the Lord.”

If there is no where that we can hide from God, then it must be by necessity that God is everywhere.

He fills every place in creation.

Psalm 139:7-10 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me.”

He is in all places and at all times.

Now He is not in a place in the same way that we are in a place.

We are physical beings and so we have a physical presence in any place that we are.

We take up space.

because we are made of matter.

God is not physical, He is not made up of matter, but He is Spirit.

Now the Hebrew and Greek words for this are Ruach and Pneuma, and they translate as spirit, but they also translate as wind or breath as well.

And though you can’t see wind or breath molecules with the naked eye, they are however physical substances.

They are gases and therefore they are made up of matter as gases are a state of matter.

But God as Spirit is not at all like that, though we have nothing in our human language that can equate to that.

So it is one of those things that is explained to us in the best our languages can do.

Much like when the Bible talks about the arm of God or the hand of God.

Proverbs 15:3 “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Beholding the evil and the good.”

There are not millions and billions of eyes everywhere watching, but the concept is explained to us in a way we can understand.

Another verse that uses the same type of language would be Isaiah 66:1 or Acts 7:49 “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?”

It is not that the head of God is in heaven and that He is so big that His legs and feet span to the earth, but this is a way of explaining to us that the fulness of His being is everywhere.

All His attributes, His love, His wrath, His mercy, His justice, His grace, His knowledge and so on are fully present everywhere in creation and beyond.

Now this does not mean that we always feel His presence everywhere or all the time, He chooses when and where to manifest Himself to us and how.

But nonetheless He is there.

And all of the trinity share in all these attributes we are talking about.

Now we could go further and talk about how that Christ in His incarnation set aside for a time some of these attributes to be able to come in the flesh, but even now Christ is all and in all and He too is everywhere and at all times.

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

That’s the fulness of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that takes up their abode in us.

He is everywhere, and at all times.

Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

He’s in that prayer closet, He is in this sanctuary, He’s in that hospital room, He’s in your bedroom, your living room, your workplace, anywhere and everywhere.

Job 34:21 “For his eyes are upon the ways of man, And he seeth all his goings.”

V. God is Omniscient - He is All-knowing

God knows Himself perfectly, and being the author of all things, He knows all of creation perfectly.

He not only knows what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present, but He knows all of the future as well.