All right, Jerry. Very good. Let's open in a word of prayer. Lord, we are blessed to be among your people in your house. Lord, we're here to worship you, to glorify your name, to learn of you, Lord, to care for each other. We're so thankful for this time that we can have. Lord, I pray your blessing on this teaching as we get into chapter two of our confession and we learn about the doctrine of God. that your blessing would be with it, that your Holy Spirit would touch our hearts, Lord, that it might not just be head knowledge, but that we might truly know you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So as all of you probably know, we're continuing our study of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. And we concluded last week the 10 paragraphs of chapter one on the doctrine of Holy Scripture. This week, we're embarking on chapter two, which concerns God and the Holy Trinity which consists of three paragraphs. And the first paragraph concerns the attributes of God, or the nature of God, or what is God. The second paragraph speaks of God's relations with his creatures. And the third paragraph is about the tri-unity of God. Now I was attempting to cover the first paragraph, the full paragraph this morning, but I'm not going to be able to do it. So forgive me for that. Perhaps after the Doctrine of Trinity, I can finish this paragraph. Before we dig into that, I want us to notice the order, though, of our confession. It starts with the first principles of our faith and the first principle in how we can infallibly know what is true. The Doctrine of Scripture comes before the Doctrine of God and before the Doctrine of Creation and before the Doctrine of Providence. This is because our starting point in doing theology must discover the principle by which we have this knowledge, and that is the doctrine of scripture. Though God has clearly communicated to all men by means of creation and providence, we can only attain a general knowledge of God by these means. God's special revelation, scripture, is the way we can know God savingly and build a true theology based upon God's own personal self-disclosure. Any other means of knowledge is inadequate and only takes us so far. We can't have saving knowledge of God without the Holy Scriptures. And so building from the starting point of Holy Scripture, we enter into the highest and most profound subject of our faith, and that is the doctrine of God. So let's start by reading paragraph one of this second chapter. It says, The Lord our God is but one only living and true God. whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and with all most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. Now that is one long and packed sentence, is it not? If we were to ask the question, though, what is a human? How would we answer this question? We might start by identifying the origin of humans, what order of being humans are, and the constitutional nature of humans and so forth. We could talk about a lot of things. There would go something like this. Humans are the creation of God, made in his image and dependent upon him for life and all things. Lower than the angels but higher than the animals. Humans are made up of body and soul and possess intellect, will and affections. Humans are male or female. We could go on describing what a human is. And what we're doing is essentially describing the attributes of a human. Paragraph one of chapter two in our confession is doing the same sort of thing with God. To answer the question, what is God, we must describe the attributes of God. The confession lists eight attributes in its description, which can be further subdivided. Sam Waldron, in his exposition of the confession, outlines these attributes like this. Singularity, independence, which is his self-existence or his aseity, Three, incomprehensibility. Four, spirituality. Five, infinity. Six, sovereignty. Seven, love. And eight, justice. He describes justice positively and negatively. Obviously, there are fuller lists of the attributes of God, but the confession offers a good summary from which we can get an accurate conception of what is God. So now let's see if we can delve into these attributes a bit further. We'll start with singularity. This paragraph starts out with the most basic truth of the biblical faith, which is that there is only one God. There is only one God. It says the Lord our God is but one only living and true God. This is simple enough. Christianity is mono-theistic. The very first verse of the entire Bible implies this very thing. It says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God is introduced straight away as one God who is the creator of all other things. John tells us that nothing is accepted that wasn't made by God. It says all things were made by him, this is speaking of the son, and without him was not anything made that was made. The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, while making a point about meat offered to idols, said, We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. Moses uttered this simple truth to Israel before they entered Canaan, when he was rehearsing the law to them, as recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. He said this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. But God is not introduced to us in scripture as an impersonal, immobile, unmoved mover, as some of the philosophers have said. He is not wholly other. He is not unknowable. He's not simply a necessary force or a necessary reality. He is not the same as his creation, and he is not uninvolved with his creation. He is introduced to us as the living God. He created the world by his wisdom and great power. His spirit moved upon the face of the waters. He spoke the world into existence. He conferred with himself as the tri-personal God when he created man. He has personality, intellect, communication, volition, power, activity, affections. He is, in fact, the living God. He doesn't possess life in some of derivative way, some sort of derivative way. He is life. All other life finds its origin and dependence upon him. Colossians 1, 16 and 17 says, for by him were all things created, whether in heaven or that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist. Now God is also distinguished from false gods. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God. The true God presupposes that men have worshipped other things that are not God as God. Idolatry. Psalm 96, four and five says, for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. You see, there's only one true God. The Lord made the heavens, Jeremiah 10, 10. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. So there is one God, the living and true God, God's singularity. The second attribute that we're gonna deal with today is God's independence. Our confession says, whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection. The word subsistence here is in reference to the being of God. It is saying that God is self-existent. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, the father hath life in himself. That's in John 5.26. Now sometimes children ask great questions. When we tell them about God creating the world, it is not uncommon for them to ask sometimes, who made God? This is a natural question, naturally comes to mind. God exists and everything that we can see has an origin. So doesn't God have a beginning? But this is to miss the point of being God. If God was created, then whoever created God would be God. God is necessarily uncreated and eternal. This is what it means for God to be independent. He depends on no one and Nothing other than himself. Technically, as R.C. Sproul has pointed out, God does not exist in the formal sense of the word. The word exist is from the Latin existo, which literally is to stand out, to come forth or to arise. God did not arise from anything. His being is not derivative. He's not derived. He is being. All other being is dependent upon him. As Paul reiterated the truth on Mars Hill that in him we live and move and have our being. Our being is tied up in God. This is part of what is being communicated when God told Moses when asked about his name. It says in the God and God said unto Moses I am that I am. And he said thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I am. hath sent me unto you. So God is uncreated, self-existent, and infinite. Paul, in the same sermon on Mars Hill, said of God, neither is worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things. God doesn't need anything, not from anyone. He doesn't need creation. He's self-existent. And God has never needed anything. You know, I read a book once where God was portrayed as the lonely God. But that's not true about God. God doesn't need us for communication, for relationship. God is self-sufficient. He's self-contained. A.W. Pink said this of God, that he is self-contained, self-sufficient. and self-satisfied in need of nothing. And this truth of God's independence is another of the attributes by which we may understand what is God. So there is one God, and this one God is independent. He's self-sufficient. He depends on no one or nothing. The third attribute we're going to deal with today is God's incomprehensibility. First, we need to qualify what is meant by incomprehensibility. What is not meant is that God is unknowable. We need to be careful about this one. God is knowable, but he's incomprehensible. So that's not it at all. God has clearly revealed himself in conscience, nature, and most importantly, in scripture. Just the fact that I am describing the attributes of God from scripture is proof enough that God is not unknowable. What is meant by God's incomprehensibility is that we cannot know the depth of God. We cannot fully comprehend or contemplate or understand him. It's like a sea that is infinitely deep. We may know that it is deep, but we are not equipped to know its depth in its entirety. Our minds short-circuit when we think about infinite space, for instance, or infinite time. And so it is with God. He is infinite, and we are not. We are like a pail of seawater on the beach next to the ocean. It contains some of the water of the sea, but the entire ocean cannot be poured into the container. When we are filled with the knowledge of God, we must acknowledge that we cannot know the whole. Greg Nichols points out that God's incomprehensibility is presented to us in scripture experientially and not philosophically. I think this is an important point. He says it comes couched in devotion, not speculation. Let's look at a few scriptures where this is the manner in which God is revered. David said, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. Zophar rightly understood this concept in the book of Job when he said, Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Moses trembles before the anger of God when he says in the 91st Psalm or the 90th Psalm, Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. Who knows the power of his anger? Solomon understood or understands that God's works cannot be fully discovered. He said, Then I beheld all the works of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, further, Though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. There are limitations to human knowledge. Paul as well marvels at God's unsearchable ways. He says, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. That's humbling, isn't it? God is infinite, so much greater that we cannot contain the whole of the knowledge of God. We can know God, but we can't fully comprehend him. And so the incomprehensibility of God is to be admired because it understands the infinitude of God and that his greatness is too great to fit into our finite, small minds. It is to be marveled at, adored, and it should lead us to fall down before him in worship. God is truly great. And the fourth attribute that we're gonna deal with today is God's spirituality. God is a spiritual being, scripture says. But what does this mean? The confession goes on to explain what it is for God to be spiritual. It says of God that he is, A most pure spirit, invisible without body, parts, or passions, and who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto. There are certain attributes that embodied or physical persons possess which must be differentiated from God's attributes. These spiritual qualities are listed here in the confession as negative statements. and provide a definition of the proposition that God is a most pure spirit. Jesus himself affirms the spirituality of God in John 4 24. He says God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. One of the qualities of a spirit is that they are in visible. This is certainly true of God. Paul said concerning God in first Timothy 6 16. who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. He says in Colossians 115 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. And again in 1 Timothy 117, now under the Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Moses as well specifies the invisible nature of God. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, he says, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. That's in Deuteronomy 4.15. So as a spirit, God is differentiated from physical persons. in that he is invisible, but also that he does not possess a body. He is not composed of parts, he does not have passions, and his immortal dwelling is in an unapproachable light. We could literally spend hours discussing what all this means, but I just want to point out a few things about these next few statements. First, God does not have a body. It might occur to someone that Jesus is God and he has a body, right? Well, yes, Jesus is God, and Jesus does have a body. What must be remembered is that Jesus has two distinct natures. We'll get into this more in chapter eight, paragraph two. But for now, let it be said that Jesus has a divine and a human nature in one person, and that these two natures, though joined together in the person of Christ, remain distinct and are not confused or mixed together. So we may rightly say that God does not have a body, though Jesus does have a body. because Jesus is both God and man in one person, that these two natures are not mixed. Next, the confession states that God is not composed of parts. Not only does this mean that he does not have physical parts, it also means that he is simple. This means that God is all that he is. He is indivisible. His nature is not divided. God cannot be parceled out. Third, we see that God is said to be without passions or impassable. Greg Nichols points out the nuances of the word passions. In the singular, it can denote suffering which involves vulnerability. In the plural, it can depict capricious emotions such as blind rage, emotions as distinguished from reason. It also signifies intense driving or over mastering feelings like bodily appetites. Nichols goes on to say that God is without passions in three ways. The first is that he is invulnerable to bodily suffering. External forces cannot act upon him or hurt him. Second, God does not have bodily appetites. And third, God does not have human emotions or carnal affections. Human emotion is tied to physiological impulses, as well as it has spiritual aspects. While God does have affections, which are the spiritual aspect of emotions, such as the emotional aspect of love, God is not subject to passions in that he is not physiologically moved and acts based upon carnal influences. That's an important distinction. Nichols quotes Charles Hodge concerning divine affections. I think you'll find this interesting. The schoolmen and often the philosophical theologians tell us that there is no feeling in God. This, they say, would imply passivity. In other words, that he's passable. Or susceptibility of impression from without, which it is assumed is incompatible with the nature of God. Here again, we have to choose between a mere philosophical speculation and the clear teaching of the Bible and of our own moral and religious nature. Love of necessity involves feeling. And if there is no feeling in God, there can be no love. This is Charles Hodge. There's quite a few other theologians that have similar thoughts that I didn't have time to talk about. But God does have divine affections, absolutely. But he is also impassable in the sense that we described. So I fully intended, as I said earlier, to deal with the entire first paragraph, but we have about six minutes left, and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do it. But I would be remiss if we didn't pause and reflect on and make application of what we've covered thus far. God willing, we'll deal with these remaining attributes at another time, maybe after Jeff deals with the Doctrine of the Trinity, I'll circle back and finish this up, may be the way to do it. I want to use as A practical application, this last phrase concerning God's spirituality, quote, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, which obviously is a quote from First Timothy 6, 16. The psalmist says this, bless the Lord, oh, my soul. Oh, Lord, my God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty who covers thyself with light as with a garment. who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. Light is said to be the dwelling place and covering of God. It is the clothing which covers his divine perfections. Mortal men cannot come near this light or else he would die. It is called unapproachable light, light that no man can approach unto. Even the sun we cannot gaze upon when it shines in its strength without permanent damage to our eyes. Go out at high noon sometime in July and gaze at the sun with no clouds. See how long you can look at it. I know Dr. Baker would say, don't do that. You'll ruin your eyes. Its intense heat in the middle of the summer causes us to seek refuge from its power. Psalm 19, speaking of the sun, says, there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. When Moses wanted to see the glory of God in Exodus 33, God said, thou canst not see my face. For there shall no man see me and live. He was allowed to see the hinder parts of God's glory and it left Moses with a face that emanated light when he came off of the mountain. He had to cover his own face because of the residual glory of God that came upon him when he saw the glory of God. The light of God's dwelling is fatal to sinful men. It hides the beauty and full glory of God. Paul tells us that Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even also as I am known. Sometimes we forget what awaits for us in heaven. Some Christian, some Christian traditions, in some Christian traditions, this meeting with God, this seeing of God is called the beatific vision. I'm sure you've heard that. This is the ultimate reality. To look our maker in the face. Yes, God is invisible. We just talked about that. But the invisible God will be made visible to our physical eyes. How? I don't know. But it's true. Listen to Job. Oh, that my words were now written. Oh, that they were printed in a book. that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. though my reigns be consumed within me. Isn't that a glorious thought? Our knowledge of God now is as though we are looking through a tinted glass, as Paul describes it, but not then. In heaven we will see the full glory and majesty of God. As much as a finite being is capable, obviously we'll not be able to comprehend even then the fullness or the depth of God, he's infinite. And we're finite. The son of God incarnate declared to us the glory of God, as John said, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. And how does he declare him? He discloses the nature and glory of God, because as Paul said, he is the image. of the invisible God. You want to know God? Take a look at Christ. Again, in Hebrews 1 3, who being the brightness of his glory, this is speaking of Christ. And the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Christ is the brightness of God's glory. He is the express image of his person. Brothers and sisters, we will get to see God face to face because we are united to Christ by faith and Christ is himself in the bosom of the Father. He covers us as we get to behold God in all of his glory. Remember Moses? He was Put in a cleft of the rock and God covered him so that he could catch a glimpse of the glory of God. Christ is our covering. It's his righteousness. It's in him that we will be able to see God. He covers us and we get to behold God in all of his glory. The glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God. I'll close with this passage with a prayer from Christ. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Amen.