Eliphaz said to Job, "Acquaint now thyself with God." He was saying, Job, you need to know God in his true character. And that is what I want for us. I want us to know God in his true character. Here are three attributes which are essential to God's character and Being. Anything that you worship and call God, which does not possess these three characteristics is no God at all.
THE GOD OF HEAVEN IS INFINITELY TOTALLY, AND ABSOLUTELY SOVEREIGN. It is written, "Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3). "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places" (Ps. 135:6). My friends, there is no possible alternative between a sovereign, omnipotent, supreme God, who does what he will, when he will, with whom he will, and in the way he will, and no God at all. You cannot have a frustrated, defeated God. If there is any power that can resist him, change him, or defeat him, he is not God. Either God is sovereign, supreme, and almighty, or there is no God. A god who has to give an account of what he thinks, what he purposes, or what he does is no God at all. Therefore, it must be concluded, the god of modern, religious fundamentalism is no God at all. He is the idolatrous figment of man's imagination. Those who preach this weak, defeated, frustrated god are false prophets. And those who worship him are lost. Their religion is idolatry. Someone said, "A god whose will can be successfully resisted, a god whose designs can be defeated or frustrated, a god whose purpose or counsel depends in anyway on the help or co-operation of any creature, has no claim to Diety. Instead of being an object of your worship, he merits nothing but your contempt." I worship God on the throne. I believe and trust God on the throne. I preach God on the throne. The Lord our God is totally sovereign. He is sovereign in creation, sovereign in providence, and sovereign in salvation. He says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9:15-16).
THIS ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD IS ALSO GLORIOUS IN HOLINESS. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The heavens are not clean in his sight. And he even charges his angels with folly. Before his throne the heavenly creatures cover their faces and cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts." When the Bible declares that God is holy, it is simply telling us that God is perfectly righteous. Everything that he does is perfectly righteous. And the only thing that he will accept is perfect righteousness. God will never discard his holiness and righteoushess, not even to save a sinner. So perfectly holy and righteous is God that when his own Son was made to be sin for us, God turned his back on his Son and killed him as our Substitute.
AND THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS INFINITELY GRACIOUS. He says, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." The grace of-God is not some helpless desire to save man and do him good. Grace is God's saving power and goodness toward his own elect. It is God sovereignly accomplishing the salvation of his people in Christ. The grace of God is always eternal, immutable, and effectual. And the grace of God is in Christ. Are you acquainted with this God? Do you know, trust, and worship the one true and living God? He is SOVEREIGN. He is HOLY. And he is GRACIOUS.
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