God is great! That is an understatement. We get that, but do we comprehend why God is great? Can we begin to grasp how great God truly is? This is why we have been exploring the attributes, or the characteristics of God. God is without limits, He is not bound by time and space as we understand it. How can we, with limited minds, conceive the infinite, which God is?
God is so immense, so far beyond the bound of our minds that we cannot take it all in. I’m so glad God is beyond my imagination, because I’m not sure I would want a God I could put my arms around, a God I could fully comprehend, a God I could fully define and put into a neat little box.
Isaiah tried to explain how big God is. Isaiah 40:12-17
Our other focal passage is how God revealed Himself to Abram. Genesis 17:1
Opening ILL: A young boy was waiting after church for his family. The pastor saw him standing around and struck up a conversation. Since the boy had just come from Sunday school, the pastor decided to ask him some questions to determine just how much the children were learning there. He said, “Young man, if you can tell me something that God can do, I’ll give you a big shiny apple.” Thoughtfully the boy replied, “Sir, if you can tell me something God can’t do, I’ll give you a whole box of apples.” [1]
So we are looking at different aspects of Almighty God. The bits and pieces that our mind can grasp onto and understand.
Let’s just briefly look at just a few attributes, some of which we have already explored.
God has no beginning and God has no end – He is eternal. Time itself exist within God, for time is a creation of God.
Psalm 41:13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
God is all powerful (omnipotent), all power in the universe is God’s power. All power is from God, for apart from God there is no power. God may give or grant power to persons places or things, but His use of power makes him no less powerful. Nothing is impossible for God.
Luke 1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
God is sovereign. God rules over all, the entire universe. Nothing is beyond the absolute control of God. God is sovereign because He processes all power. There is nothing that God has not foreseen or planned. God possesses all authority and power (Matt 28:18).
Philippians 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
God is immense. He is bigger than the universe.
Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
God possess all knowledge – He is all knowing (omniscience). His understanding is limitless.
Hebrews 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
God is all wise, He has all wisdom. Wisdom is the use of knowledge.
Proverbs 3:19 The LORD by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.
God is everywhere (omnipresent). There is no place, no thing or no person that is hidden from God.
Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
And God is unchanging (immutable). God is the same God today as he was at the creation. The God of the OT is also the God of the NT.
Malachi 3:6a “For I, the LORD, do not change;
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And we have not touched on His holiness, goodness, justice, His faithfulness, His grace and mercy, or His love. And the list goes on. Many of these things I have mentioned we will cover in later messages. Let’s go back and see how God describes Himself:
Genesis 17:1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
The word “Almighty” appears 57-58 times in most English Bibles. Every time the word appears, it is only in reference to God. Only God is “Almighty.” Almighty in the Hebrew can be translated all powerful, and in the Greek it’s the same – in Latin – omnipotent.
If God is infinite, then all He possesses is infinite. Then His power is infinite. Since all power exist in God, then He can do anything as easily as anything else. God speaks and it happen.
Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Can we begin to grasp the significance of that one simple statement? God was no less powerful right after he created the universe, the world, and all that is in it. This is illustrated though out the Bible. The comment and question is asked:
Genesis 18:14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
After Job is questioned by God, he makes the statement:
Job 42:2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Jeremiah proclaims:
Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah Lord GOD! Behold, “You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,
Mary asked the Angel Gabriel how she could have a baby without ever being with a man, and Gabriel replied:
Luke 1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
In heaven, in a scene John describes is:
Revelation 19:6 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
The greatness of God lies in so much more than in His power. God is also immense.
Immensity means the state of being immense. The word "immense" comes from the Latin and means to be without measure, to be immeasurable. When we speak about the immense universe, we are saying boundless, beyond measure. God is infinite – He is limitless. It is impossible for our limited minds to grasp the unlimited. Isaiah writes about the Immensity of God. In Isaiah 40:12-14, he asks a number rhetorical questions concerning God. Of course, there is no answering these questions:
Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?
The waters means the seas – God hold all the oceans in his hand. God measures all of heaven with the distance from his thumb to His little finger. Earth to God, is just a measure, – in Hebrew - a peck, small basket. God weights the mountains and hills on a simple scale.
Isaiah 40:13–14 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him? 14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?
God has unlimited knowledge – we call it omniscience (sermon next week). God is the source of all power, and of all knowledge and wisdom. Creation shows God’s wisdom, power, and immensity. Compared to God, the mighty nations of the world, for all their military might, or for all their political prowess, they are nothing in comparison to the Almighty:
Isaiah 40:15–17 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
The great nations of the earth are nothing before God. All the timber in Lebanon (and Lebanon was known for the great timber forests) and all the animals they can round up in those forests would be inadequate for a burn offering for such an Immense God. Think about it - To God who created the entire universe, what could I possibly give him that he could want or need?
Especially nations (verse 17) that do not know God, God considers them less than nothing. We would do well as a nation to remember these verses. Our perspective must be that we are just a drop in the bucket – and to those nations that disavowal all knowledge of God, He considers them less them nothing. God has placed people and nations in positions of prominence and history has shown that God can just as easily take them out. One day there will be a great accounting before God and judgment is coming.
What is most amazing, is that God desires a relationship with each one of us. People are his crowning creation. As I have preached before concerning the creation, God created all of the universe for man, but man was created for God.
We tend look at the salvation God offers all wrong. We tend to think that salvation, which only comes through Jesus, that Jesus is merely our “Get Out of Hell Free Card.” If that is all we consider that salvation to be, we have missed what God wants for us.
Salvation is our gateway to knowing God. For knowing our Creator ought to be our ultimate desire, to be with Him. This means that to be with Jesus would be heaven. Jesus tells us that knowing Him is the very definition of eternal life.
John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Yes, God is great. And in His greatness, He cares for you and me and His desire is that we know Him. Look at what God desires for His people. Consider the verse that immediately precede our focal verses in Isaiah.
Isaiah 40:11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
God desire to be our Shepherd, to care and to nurture us. You remember the 23rd Psalm, The Lord is my Shepherd? If the Lord is truly your Shepherd, what is there to fear, considering the greatness of God?
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
But is God for you? Do you know Him? Do you know the Shepherd? Is the Lord your Shepherd?
Can we say that the Lord is my Shepherd in confidence? Do we Know the Jesus, the Almighty, the All Powerful, Who is God, who left His power and His home on high to take the penalty of my sin? Do you know this Jesus? It is all about knowing the Almighty, knowing Jesus.
[1] Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 170.
