Understanding God's Nature: Covenant, Holiness, and Sovereignty
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The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering and abundant in goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and the fourth generation. [00:14:00]
God has been revealing his goodness to him through the medium of these words telling the truth about himself well now then let us consider what this means what is this knowledge of God that we stand in need of I'm addressing Christian people have you you come to this service burdened and weary and tired have you come pen unhappy have you come in perplexity have you come full of doubts and of uncertainties do you find the Christian Life a hard one and a grievous one well my answer is that if you do it is because you don't know God. [00:14:39]
You know my friends if you and I only realize something of the meaning of that the whole situation would be transformed our personal lives would be transformed the whole condition of the church would be transformed you see it's because the church doesn't know him as Jehovah that she is fearful and anxious and apprehensive and so busily trying to save herself and the whole situation if we but realized who he is Jehovah what's it mean well God in this name is revealing his own essential character. [00:17:11]
He is the Everlasting God from eternity to Eternity self-existent in and of himself so it also suggests his unchangeableness it's very difficult for us to grasp these Notions isn't it we belong to time and are so subject to time it's very difficult for us to grasp this blessed truth that the god whom we worship in to whom we belong is unchangeable the father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning he's not under the sun he's above it everything is under him and he is he always was he always will be I am that I am. [00:18:58]
This is the term that God always uses with regard to himself self when he makes a covenant with men a covenant as you know is in an agreement and God this is the whole glory of the Gospel that God this self-existent God who could be independent of men has humbled himself as it were and has made an agreement with men he's made a covenant he made a covenant you remember with Abraham we are reminded of it there in that sixth chapter of This Book of Exodus in verse three he made an agreement with him he pledged himself he took an earth that's an agreement a covenant. [00:22:58]
The first thing he emphasizes is his own Holiness he says he will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and the fourth generation so as God was revealing his goodness to Moses the first thing Moses was aware of in addition to the power and the might and the glory was the Holiness of God so we read that he bowed himself to the Earth and worshiped the Holiness of God. [00:25:04]
God said to Moses I'm going to show you my goodness and yet this is what he says he will by no means clear the guilty he will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation he is righteous he hates sin and he will punish sin don't don't you have a feeling that this is the one thing that this modern world of ours needs to know this world that feels it can dismiss God and laugh at him and break all his laws with impunity. [00:27:17]
God will never clear the guilty God only shows his love love and his forgiveness his mercy and his compassion to those who are no longer guilty and this is the whole tragedy isn't it that we've been separating these things in the character of God I have often asserted and I repeat it this morning from this Pulpit that the condition of the church today is due to one major factor and that is that during the last century from about the 30s of the last century that new attitude toward the scripture came in in which men decided that they knew more about the character of God than what was revealed in this book. [00:29:45]
I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show Mercy to whom I I will show Mercy what is this oh this is the sovereignty of God the sovereignty of God here he is the self-existent and the Eternal one the righteous the holy God and yet the merciful and the compassionate and he is going to forgive sins who sins is he going to forgive and here's his own answer I will be gracious to to whom I will be gracious and will show Mercy who whom I will show mercy. [00:34:23]
Our Salvation is entirely and all together by Grace our of the grace of God it is not in any sense dependent upon anything in us it is indeed in spite of us it is entirely of God's Own will he's not under obligation to anybody he's never consulted anybody I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and have compassion upon whom I will have compassion will show Mercy to whom I will show Mercy it is the free and The Sovereign Grace of God he himself revealed it this is a great mystery and man in sin doesn't like it and pits his little puny mind against it. [00:35:04]
Revival and he shows it like this take the timing of Revival when does a Revival come and the answer is in God's own time and never at any other time that of course was the tragic blunder of Finny in his lectures on Revival who teaches that you can have a Revival whenever you like if you only do certain things and fulfill certain conditions it is a complete denial of the sovereignty of God not only that it is proved by history to be wrong I in my own lifetime have known numbers of ministers who have taken finny's lectures on Revival and have honestly put them into practice in their preaching and in their churches and have persuaded their people to do them but they haven't had a Revival. [00:39:23]
The Sovereign Lord God does something new every time and it's always a change something different less man may say now then I'm going to do it no no it's God and its sovereignty and perhaps Supremely you see it in the way in which a Revival stops a Revival may have been going for a number of months and the people are rejoicing it's wonderful and they really think now they can keep it going suddenly God stops IT and the foolish people try to keep it going but they can't keep it going they try to work themselves up they try to pray as they did before they try to sing but suddenly it's gone the spirit that was given was taken back that's the sovereignty of God you know you can't stop a Revival anymore than you can start it it's all together in the hands of God. [00:42:40]
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God has been revealing his goodness to him through the medium of these words telling the truth about himself well now then let us consider what this means what is this knowledge of God that we stand in need of I'm addressing Christian people have you you come to this service burdened and weary and tired have you come pen unhappy have you come in perplexity have you come full of doubts and of uncertainties do you find the Christian Life a hard one and a grievous one well my answer is that if you do it is because you don't know God. [00:14:39]
You know my friends if you and I only realize something of the meaning of that the whole situation would be transformed our personal lives would be transformed the whole condition of the church would be transformed you see it's because the church doesn't know him as Jehovah that she is fearful and anxious and apprehensive and so busily trying to save herself and the whole situation if we but realized who he is Jehovah what's it mean well God in this name is revealing his own essential character. [00:17:11]
He is the Everlasting God from eternity to Eternity self-existent in and of himself so it also suggests his unchangeableness it's very difficult for us to grasp these Notions isn't it we belong to time and are so subject to time it's very difficult for us to grasp this blessed truth that the god whom we worship in to whom we belong is unchangeable the father of Lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning he's not under the sun he's above it everything is under him and he is he always was he always will be I am that I am. [00:18:58]
This is the term that God always uses with regard to himself self when he makes a covenant with men a covenant as you know is in an agreement and God this is the whole glory of the Gospel that God this self-existent God who could be independent of men has humbled himself as it were and has made an agreement with men he's made a covenant he made a covenant you remember with Abraham we are reminded of it there in that sixth chapter of This Book of Exodus in verse three he made an agreement with him he pledged himself he took an earth that's an agreement a covenant. [00:22:58]
The first thing he emphasizes is his own Holiness he says he will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and the fourth generation so as God was revealing his goodness to Moses the first thing Moses was aware of in addition to the power and the might and the glory was the Holiness of God so we read that he bowed himself to the Earth and worshiped the Holiness of God. [00:25:04]
God said to Moses I'm going to show you my goodness and yet this is what he says he will by no means clear the guilty he will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation he is righteous he hates sin and he will punish sin don't don't you have a feeling that this is the one thing that this modern world of ours needs to know this world that feels it can dismiss God and laugh at him and break all his laws with impunity. [00:27:17]
God will never clear the guilty God only shows his love love and his forgiveness his mercy and his compassion to those who are no longer guilty and this is the whole tragedy isn't it that we've been separating these things in the character of God I have often asserted and I repeat it this morning from this Pulpit that the condition of the church today is due to one major factor and that is that during the last century from about the 30s of the last century that new attitude toward the scripture came in in which men decided that they knew more about the character of God than what was revealed in this book. [00:29:45]
I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show Mercy to whom I I will show Mercy what is this oh this is the sovereignty of God the sovereignty of God here he is the self-existent and the Eternal one the righteous the holy God and yet the merciful and the compassionate and he is going to forgive sins who sins is he going to forgive and here's his own answer I will be gracious to to whom I will be gracious and will show Mercy who whom I will show mercy. [00:34:23]
Our Salvation is entirely and all together by Grace our of the grace of God it is not in any sense dependent upon anything in us it is indeed in spite of us it is entirely of God's Own will he's not under obligation to anybody he's never consulted anybody I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and have compassion upon whom I will have compassion will show Mercy to whom I will show Mercy it is the free and The Sovereign Grace of God he himself revealed it this is a great mystery and man in sin doesn't like it and pits his little puny mind against it. [00:35:04]
Revival and he shows it like this take the timing of Revival when does a Revival come and the answer is in God's own time and never at any other time that of course was the tragic blunder of Finny in his lectures on Revival who teaches that you can have a Revival whenever you like if you only do certain things and fulfill certain conditions it is a complete denial of the sovereignty of God not only that it is proved by history to be wrong I in my own lifetime have known numbers of ministers who have taken finny's lectures on Revival and have honestly put them into practice in their preaching and in their churches and have persuaded their people to do them but they haven't had a Revival. [00:39:23]
The Sovereign Lord God does something new every time and it's always a change something different less man may say now then I'm going to do it no no it's God and its sovereignty and perhaps Supremely you see it in the way in which a Revival stops a Revival may have been going for a number of months and the people are rejoicing it's wonderful and they really think now they can keep it going suddenly God stops IT and the foolish people try to keep it going but they can't keep it going they try to work themselves up they try to pray as they did before they try to sing but suddenly it's gone the spirit that was given was taken back that's the sovereignty of God you know you can't stop a Revival anymore than you can start it it's all together in the hands of God. [00:42:40]
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