Sermon Central
-
The Body Of God
Contributed by Toby Powers on Dec 16, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: This is a sermon about the nature and essence of God and his characteristics.
The Body of God
Intro: John 4:24 said that God is a Spirit. He is not flesh and bone. He is a Spirit, and as such is not made with matter or substance as we are. As spirit he can be invisible, in every place, at all times, pure and holy. He is not confines to buildings made with hands (Acts 7:48-49 “Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?”). He is not worshipped with men’s lips, nor does he need the works and creations of men’s hands to be worshipped seeing that he needs nothing, gives life to all things, and breath to all who breathe (Acts 17:24-25 “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;”).
Yet God as an infinite, invisible, inconceivable spirit has some physical characteristics. We must all concede that we do not understand all these things about him, but they are true nonetheless. We know he has physical characteristics for:
1. We are made in his image, Genesis 1:26-27, I understand that this could certainly refer to our trilateral nature, our everlasting soul, or our capacity to understand and learn, but we don’t know that our image is not similar to that of the Spiritual God!
2. He walked with Adam, Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” He is a Spirit, but as God he has some physical characteristics.
3. He allowed Moses to see his back, Exodus 33:23 “And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” Therefore, we know that this spiritual God has at least a back, a face, and a hand. They are all mentioned by him in this verse!
The truth is that God is a spiritual being, but that does not mean that he has no form. It means that he is not flesh as we know it. The angels were declared to be spirits (Hebrews 1:7), yet they had an appearance likened so much unto man from time to time that some have entertained angels unaware. The angels are spirit beings, yet one wrestled with Jacob, one brought food to Elijah touching him on the side to wake him, one sat at the table with Manoah without Manoah ever knowing he was an angel, two were thought to be men by the Sodomites at the house of Lot, and one woke Peter from his sleep in prison and took him outside the city gates walking with him all the way. Spirit beings have bodies, but they are not bodies of flesh as our bodies. God himself has a body, a spiritual body, a supernatural body, and he revealed characteristics of it throughout the scriptures.
I want us to look at some of the parts of the spiritual body of God that we see in the Bible. In the Bible we are told about God’s:
I. Eyes:
A. There is Grace in His Eyes: Genesis 6:8
B. There is Truth in His Eyes: Deut 13:18 “that which is right…” I Kings 16:25 “Omri did that which is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
C. There is Nothing out of the Sight of His Eyes: II Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Prov 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Zech 4:10 the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. So God has eyes, but he also has:
II. Ears: Isaiah 59:1 “The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it can not save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:”
So he has eyes, ears, and hands.
III. Hands: His hands are the hands of:
A. The Convincer: Ex 15:6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. Deut 5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
