Returning to John's Gospel, chapter 1 today. John's Gospel, chapter 1. We'll begin our reading at the opening verse of John, chapter 1. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him. There was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of man. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. same came for a witness to bear witness off the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness off that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came on to his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him. To them give ye power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We'll end our reading at the 14th verse. Let's unite in prayer. Child of God, you pray that God will help even in this service today. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank Thee for the testimony of Scripture here before us. We thank Thee for the written word that points us to Christ, the incarnate word. Rejoice, O God, for one who became flesh, who dwelt among us, who was the expressed image of the Father, the one who is full of grace and truth. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, thankful, O God, we are of that. The law condemned us. The law caused us to be kept at a distance from God. But ye who were once afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Lord, we thank thee for the one who came, the one who reconciled God to men and who reconciled men to God. Lord, as we come to consider thee again, give us an understanding to God Grasp the truths contained within thy word, and help us to understand just a little more of our great God today. So shut us in with God, banish the wicked one, energize, O God, all of our friends. Realize that each of us have come from busy weeks, busy weeks of employment. Others, O God, that have known weakness within their bodily frame. And so come and energize us all, we pray, and give us minds that are able to grasp and understand the truths that are contained within Thy Word. And so answer prayer and glorify Thy Son, for we pray this for Christ's eternal praise and glory. Amen and amen. When we come to consider our God, the words of the Apostle Paul, over there to the saints in Rome, aptly and adequately, Summarize how we feel as we attempt to understand with our limited finite minds something of the nature of our God. Paul would say over there in Romans 11 verse 33, oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. When we come to the subject of theology, the study of God, we must always begin with God. You might think that to be a very sensible and a very logical statement, but I need to remind you that that has not always been the case. That has not always been the way in theology. In the 20th century, with the emergence of modernism, the focus in theology shifted from God to man. And as a consequence, theology in the 20th century moved from being objective to being something that was subjective, having man instead of God as its starting point. Needless to say, this subjectivity has continued right into the 21st century where man continues to be the starting point and not God when churches and Bible colleges come to study out the doctrines contained within God's Word. However, if we want to come to study God, the God of the Bible, in a biblical way, then we must always start with God. The best theology book that has ever been written The Bible begins in such a way. God's special revelation of himself begins with this declarative statement, not about man, but about God. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. See, brethren and sisters, a correct understanding of every other doctrine that you care to mention in systematic theology, whether it be the doctrine of man, the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of redemption, the doctrine of the church, the doctrine of last things, it all flows out of a correct understanding of the doctrine of God. Get God wrong and everything else is wrong in our theological thinking. Let me give you an example, a modern example about wrong thinking with respect to theology. This wrong thinking has to do with the wrath of God. The wrath of God is one of his attributes, one of his characteristics or perfections, I think is a better word to use. Wrong thinking that comes with respect to the nature of God and the wrath of God. A question was asked from the floor, of a reformed national conference in 2014 to a panel of world leading reformed proponents. The question was this, since God is slow to anger and patient, why when man first sinned was his wrath and punishment so severe and so long lasting? This was the reply that was given by one of the panelists. that God's punishment for Adam was so severe. This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting Holy God after that God had said that in the day that thou eatest her off thou shalt surely die and instead of dying that day he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace. And that the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman, and the punishment was too severe. What is wrong with you people, he said. And they laughed. He says, I'm serious. This is what's wrong, he said, with the Christian church today. We don't know who God is and we do not know who we are. The question is, why wasn't it infinitely more severe? That's the question. And then he went on to say, if we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is, that is the question, isn't it? Why wasn't it more severe? See, what the panelist was trying to get over to us here is that we need to understand who our God is and what our God is like if ever we are to understand who we are and what we are like. God is always to be the starting point and never man when it comes to the subject matter of theology. God is my witness. It is never my intention in my preaching ever to be clever. God is my witness. There are men with greater gifts and intellects than me that are far superior and better equipped to expound the truths concerning our God. But although I never want to be clever, it is always my intention when I come to preach to be clear. When I come to prepare a message, it is never my desire to baffle the congregation, but rather it is ever my desire to inform you as a congregation. Today we're going to come to subject matters that are, again, hard for us to fathom, just as they were last week. And thus we desperately need the help of God the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding when we come to such things. To encourage you, I trust all the subsequent messages, apart probably from the message or messages that we'll preach on the Trinity, I trust they'll be easier for us to understand, at least on an intellectual basis. But as I say today, we want to continue to think about the subject matter of God, and we want to behold once again our God. Last Lord's Day, we thought together about the spirituality of God, that God is spirit. And I don't want to rehearse all that I said back then, but that message can be obtained from the men in the media ministry or in sermon audio. But let me repeat something that I did say within that message last week that I want to broaden out and to expand today in this house. I said this last Lord's Day, though God is an invisible spiritual being, yet the Bible reveals him as one who possesses reality, substance, and personality. And with that statement in mind, we once again want to behold our God, and I want you to think with me today about God's substance, his substance, or his substantiality, and his personality. And so the first of these will be the briefest of our thoughts today, God's substantiality, his substance, You see, just because God is a spirit, and we're reminded of that in John 4 verse 24, God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. Just because God is spirit does not mean that He is without substance. If God had no substance of any kind, then He would become a non-entity, having no existence whatsoever. But as we read the Scriptures and as we view creation around us, that points us to a Creator. We can only but come to the conclusion that God is not a non-entity, but rather we come to the conclusion that God is real. You see, God is not an idea. He's not a construction of the mind, he's not a thought, he's not a figment of the church's imagination, but God is real, he is a real and he is an actual being, he has substance to him. Now there are certain things, two things that a substance must have if they are to be classified as a substance. A substance is an entity or a being that has properties and power. Properties and power, remember those words. On both counts, God has properties and powers and thus there is a substance to God, there is an entity, there is an essence to the God of heaven. God is properties. Now we call those properties His attributes or His perfections and He manifests those properties, those perfections, those attributes in His various works. We see and we can discern His wisdom, His power, His holiness, His justice, His goodness and truth in all of His works, including those works of creation. Just think for a moment the work of creation. What do we see? We see a Creator who is one, full of power and full of wisdom. and full of justice and mercy and grace. We see that within creation. We think of his work of providence. We think of his work of preservation. We think especially of his work of redemption. And in those works, we can behold our God. We see his properties, his attributes, his perfections being played out upon the stage of those particular works. And so God has properties, but God is also power. Psalm 62 verse 11, God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. That power is exerted in the universe, the universe of mind and then also the universe of matter. respect even to ourselves, we have experienced those who have been savingly united to Jesus Christ. We have experienced God's power working in our lives. What was it that raised us from the grave of our sin? Nothing less but the power of God, raising us from the deadness of our sin into new life in Jesus Christ. And times we see God influencing and God's power being exerted upon the human soul. In Psalm 73 or 77 in the verse 3 we read that the psalmist stated that he was troubled as he thought about God, as he remembered God. The psalmist said he was troubled. Now such trouble of mind and heart would be nonsensical if God did not exist. For who is troubled at a known entity? No one is troubled at a non-entity, but here the psalmist said that he is troubled. This one who troubled the psalmist had a reality and a substance to him. And so as we think about God, we must never think that he is a non-entity. We must never think that he is an it, but that he possesses substance to him. He is real, a true living entity. But having thought about the substance of God, I want you to think about then God's personality. God's personality. I've already said this, but I repeat it again. God is not a thing. God is not an it. God is a personal being. Now, although the actual word personality is not used in the Bible, its concept is implied throughout the Bible. What does personality mean? Well, personality exists whenever there is a mind, whenever there's an intellect, whenever there is a will, whenever there is a reason, whenever there is an individuality that is present. It is really marked by two overarching characteristics, self-consciousness and self-determination. And when you have all of those four mentioned things present, then you have a personality that's present. If you've got mind and intellect and will and reason, if you have self-determination and self-consciousness, then these are things that make up the personality of a being, and thus seen through the scriptures, and we'll see through the scriptures, that God possesses such things. Whenever we think of a personality, we often think of someone having a physical body. That is not the case. Because someone can be as real as one who possesses a physical body if they possess these attributes, these perfections, these characteristics. Now the Bible reveals that God has such things and therefore proves that he is a person. You think about me with respect to the self-consciousness of God. God is a purely self-conscious being. He is constantly self-contemplating. He's self-knowing. He's self-communicating. Within the Godhead, there is communion that goes on between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is forever contemplating each person within the Godhead, contemplates the other being within the Godhead, the other persons within the Godhead. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ affirmed that to be true. John 1, that's why we read it today. John 1, verse number 1. We read these words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Notice the statement, the Word was with God. In the original language of the New Testament, it reads like this, the Word was face to face with God. That's what it means. The Word, speaking of Jesus Christ, because we read on down in verse number 14, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, speaking to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us that the Word was made flesh, and this reminds us, as we come into verse 1, that the Word was face-to-face with God. Face-to-face with God. It is within that thought that we have the thought of self-contemplation. We find the presence at least of two persons contemplating one another. God contemplating God as he was face-to-face with himself. What a wonderful thing. wonderful thing. In the book of Proverbs this thought of God consciously and self-contemplating himself, the self-consciousness within himself, again in the book of Proverbs that thought is brought out in Proverbs 8 and the verse 30. Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. This is speaking of Christ, yes it is speaking of wisdom, but wisdom is personified in the person of Jesus Christ. And we find here that the Son is the delight of the Father. In Him He is contemplating, He's self-knowing, He's communicating with the Son. In eternity within the Godhead we see the Father contemplating the Son, which brought great delight to the Father. That's why it says that He was His delight. As He looked on the Son, As he contemplated the Son, that brought the Father delight, and the Spirit of God was also present on that occasion. As Dr. John Gill put it, the Father loved the Son from all eternity with a love of complacency and delight. His delight was found in relation to Him in sonship and in likeness, He being the expressed image of His person, the sameness of nature, He being of the same nature and perfections with His Father. And so we have this thought of God being a self-conscious being. But we also have the thought within the Word of God that God is a self-determining being. The self-determination of God. Now what do we mean by the self-determination of God? Well, we mean that God In and of himself is not moved or influenced by anything outside of himself. He's not influenced by any outside power. He's not influenced by any outside influences with respect to his acts or to his decisions. He is the sole architect of his plans and of his purposes. They arise from within himself. He determines in and of Himself what comes to pass. Therefore, God cannot be coerced into any actions by anyone or by any of their circumstances. And this is where we come into the matter of prayer. We ask ourselves the question, well, do I not pray? And does God, is He not influenced by my prayers? No, when we pray according to God's will, we are influenced by His will. Our lives are brought into conformity to His perfect will that He has foreordained to come to pass. So prayer, we often look times to prayer as seeing changing God. We cannot change an unchangeable God and His purposes and His plans, but He brings us into His will. That's what happens in prayer. Therefore God cannot be coerced into any actions by anyone or by any circumstances. Speaking of this self-determining God, the Apostle Paul, he said this to the saints in Ephesus. He says that they have been predestinated according to the purpose of Him, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. After the counsel of God's own will, all things are being ordered by Him. All things are being directed by Him. What God does in this world, He has determined to do and will not be influenced by anyone or anything outside of Himself. It's not the self-determination of God, the very thing that Nebuchadnezzar came to acknowledge after God humbled him. Listen to what he says over in Daniel chapter 4, the verses 34 and 35. And at the end of the days, after he was made like a beast, it says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes onto heaven, and mine understanding returned onto me, and I blessed the Most High. And I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from every generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? God is ordered and has ordered all things. He is a self-determining being. And because of that, He then has a personality, or He is a person. Having laid the foundational, the doctrinal, foundational doctrine to you, I trust the personality of God, that He is self-conscious and He is self-determining. I want to set before you, and I trust that having reached the pinnacle, we're now on the downward track. We'll free wheel, as it were, in our minds. We can relax our brains a little. Don't fall asleep. But as we think of these things, I want to set before you a number of ways in which the Bible reveals to us that God is a person. Now, the Bible does that indirectly and directly. Let's consider first of all the indirect evidence that God is a person. Indirectly we are taught that God is a person as the Bible teaches us. God has left his marks, the marks of himself, his mind, his will, his intellect upon this creation. Within creation itself we do behold God's wisdom. We behold his mind, we see his will, we see his intellect, we view his power, we see his ordering all things. Just think about the laws of nature. Consider the design, the order that exists within this created universe, and we quickly come to the conclusion that only such could have come to pass by the ordering of a divine mind, a will. a purpose, power has been executed and has been outworked within the created universe. These are all an indication of the mind, the intelligence, the will of a person, the person of God in operation and that was Paul's line of argumentation as he came to prove the existence of God over there in Romans chapter 1, the verse number 24, the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. There we have men that are living, women that are living in the far-flung corners of the earth. How do they know that God exists? They know that God exists because they look upon God's creation. And what do they see in that creation? They see the outworking of God's power and of His Godhead. God has stamped his very image, as it were, upon the created world. There is order within our world and the universe at large, and it argues for a being who orders all things after the counsel of his will. Brethren and sisters, you sweep the universe with your eye and you'll find order everywhere. Our own planet is so related to the sun and moon that see time and harvest the ebb and flow of tides they never feel. Countless millions of suns and stars are so arranged and distributed in relation to one another or in accordance with the profoundest mathematics as to secure the safety of one and all and to produce everywhere harmony and beauty. It argues again for the existence of God. You cannot think then of a universe of order and beauty without thinking there is a mind behind it. There's a mind behind all of these things. And whenever there's a mind and whenever there's intellect and intelligence, then there is a person. The laws of nature within creation and the wisdom that have designed those laws argue for a personal God who has ordered all things. And so indirectly, by creation, God, we find evidence within creation that proves that there is a God, there is a person. who is God. Secondly, think about the direct evidence that God is a person. The Bible directly presents to its reader that God is a person in a number of ways. Firstly, the names and the titles and the personal pronouns by which God refers to himself proves that he is a person. Just think of that title, I am. I am. Not it is. But I am, a title that God described himself to Moses and then one that Christ took to himself when he said, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the bread of life, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The Son of God would use the personal pronoun I, and only a person can use the personal pronoun. It is a personal statement that only a person can say, I am a force, An influence, a power cannot use the personal pronoun to describe itself. Only a person can refer themselves to I. Think of how he's described in the Bible. He, him, his. These again are personal pronouns given only to people who exist to entities, to beings. He, he ruleth over the affairs of men. go down through the Word of God and you'll find this oft times repeated, the names and titles and these pronouns refer to a person. But in the second place, God's dealings with mankind proves that God is a person. Folks, in the Bible we read that God spoke to man. Now forces and influences and powers do not do that. But I read that God spoke to Adam. He was the voice that walked in the garden in the cool of the day. God spoke to Noah. and instructed him to build an ark to the saving of himself and his house. God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and commissioned him to deliver his people from Egypt's tyranny. God spoke at the baptism of his son when he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God spoke out of heaven to Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? A person spoke. A person spoke. We also read of God seeing people. And again, forces and influence and powers, those that are known personalities do not and cannot do that. Prior to the flood, we're told in Genesis 6, verse 5, that God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Hagar was convinced that God was a person. Think of what she said there at that particular well, when she was fleeing from Sarah, her handmaiden. She said, and she called her, the record of scripture tells us, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thy God seest me. She was convinced in that occasion that God had not only spoke to her, but that God had saw her, something that only a person can do. The Ninevites, whenever they repented of their wickedness, were told over there in Jonah 3 verse 10 that God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not. God saw. God hears. God sees. But we also read of God blessing individuals. And again, forces and influences and powers cannot do that. Genesis 9 verse 1, And God blessed Noah and his sons. Judges 13 verse 24, And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. 2 Samuel 6 11 and the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household God blessing them these as it were God's working with men and God's interaction with men proves that He is a person, because only a person can hear, only a person can see, only a person can bless. So whether it's blessing, or speaking, or seeing, or hearing, or guiding, or comforting, or counseling, all such things can only be done by one who possesses personality. But the last direct way in which the Bible presents to its reader that God is a person is by the Incarnation. The Incarnation proves that God is a person. In the Incarnation, when God became flesh, and we read about that today in verse 14 of John chapter 1, when God became flesh, God manifested to himself to the world that he is personal. Jesus Christ said to his disciples in John 14 verse 9, hath he that has seen me, has seen the Father. You'll not deny that Jesus Christ was a person, but then you cannot deny that the Father and the Holy Spirit are not persons within the Godhead. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. All that Christ is, so the Father and so the Holy Spirit are. And since Christ possesses personality, so the Father and the Holy Spirit possess personalities as well. He shall give you another Comforter. Who? Christ. The Father shall give the Comforter, and He will teach you all things. The personal pronoun again. And God the Son came to pray. He didn't pray to some non-entity. Didn't pray to some force, some impersonal being, but rather he prayed, Holy Father. That's how he addressed him, Holy Father. At the grave of Lazarus, we read that Jesus lifted up his eyes and he said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. Thou hast heard me. He was again affirming that he was praying to a person. personality of God. We need to make some personal application as we bring this message to a close because much of this has been theory today. Not theory, it is factual but you understand it isn't practical of what we've been saying as in how we can live our lives. But let me say as we think about God being God being a true entity, possessing a being, though he is spirit and though he is invisible. And as we have thought about God having personality, though God be a spirit, he is very much real. He is a living entity. He is one who possesses properties and power and personality. And child of God, to you today, that should be very comforting. It would be comforting for you to know that Whenever you take your problems, whenever you take your concerns, and whenever you take your cares to your God, you're taking it to a person. One, as we are told, because he possesses a personality, one who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Not only is he touched by them, brethren and sisters, but he responds to them. And he responds to them by pouring into our lives all the grace and all of the strength and all of the help that we need to face every new day and every new trial. Maybe today you've come to this house and you feel that God is some kind of abstract, distant, disinterested being that has no concern or thought or care for you today. could be nothing further from the truth. Because today, if you are his child, his love for you is as strong as death. And his compassions, they feel not. His mercy is abundant, his grace is sufficient, his power is limitless, his goodness is never failing. God is a God of personality. And he took on our humanity so that he might be able to succor us, that he might be able to identify with us whenever our tears flow, whenever our heart is broken, whenever we have been disappointed by others. And as a result, he can therefore pour in all the grace and all the help that we need Thank God he's not a God that is afar off, but he's nearer than hands. He's a God ever present. And whatever you face this week and whatever I face this week, thank God this God will be as much present with you as he was present with me and will be present with me because he is spirit. He can be in all places and at all times, and we'll consider that in future days. But can I say that if you're not His child today, this would be the day, this would be the day that He would have you to repent and believe the gospel. For He's coming again in the person of His Son, this same Jesus, this same Jesus, With all the physical parts of His body, this same Jesus, the God-Man, is coming again in like manner. And we're told what He's coming to do. He's not coming to be trampled upon. He's not coming to be despised and rejected like He came the first time. But we're told that He's coming in flaming fire. And He's coming to take vengeance on them that know not God. and those that have not obeyed His gospel. And then He's going to punish those individuals. We read over there in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. He's going to punish those individuals with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. May you come to savingly know God through the Son. May you come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior. And knowing Him, you'll know the Father, and you'll know the Spirit. God is. God is. He's a real being, a real entity. Well, may God help us to have right views of this God. And though we may not understand all things about Him, Yet, thank God, we can still worship Him and we can still submit to Him and say in the words that we find in the book of Job that God is greater than man, ever greater than man. May God bless these considerations to your heart. Let's bow in prayer. As I said today, And last week have been probably the most difficult of our subject matters as we have been thinking about the doctrine of God and the attributes of God. But God willing, in the will of God, we're going to come into those attributes and start to think about these perfections of God. Think about how he's infinite, how he's eternal, unchangeable. In his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. and other different matters that will come into that, the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over all things. Let's rest on that sovereignty today. And may God help us to behold our God more and more. Our Father and our God, we thank Thee for Thy Word. Oh God, we must confess, I must confess, these things are hard for me to fully understand. this self-conscious, self-determining being that is our God. And yet, Lord, this is how He is revealed within the Scripture. We find that the Father finds all His delight within the Son, and it is because we are united to the Son that we become His delight, because we are seen through the Son. We rejoice in that. We thank Thee, O God, that we do not stand before Thee without an advocate, but we stand in Christ, united to Him, those that are blood-washed. We pray for those who know not God in this house. This God is coming again in the person of His Son. We pray that Thou will cause them to fear this God and help them to understand that when God in His justice will damn their souls to hell, that they will be consciously aware that God is perfectly just in doing so. And they will wonder why their punishment is not more severe. O God, turn men and women from wrath that is to come, and may they flee to the arms of infinite mercy, and may they be led there by the hand of Thy grace. For we pray this in Jesus' most precious and wondrous name. Amen.