The God of Absolute Perfection

Pastor Martin explains perfection with a blackboard circle — alter just one-tenth of an inch on any part of the arc and you've destroyed its perfection — and a musician's perfect pitch, where two vibrations sharp or one flat ruins it.

And if it is perfect, what do you need to do to make it imperfect? Well, if I had the ability to take a blackboard and on it to draw a perfect circle, That means that from its center point to any other place in a direct radius, the distance was mathematically the same. In every direction, I would know that I had a perfect circle. Now, if you come and alter just one-tenth of an inch of any part of the arc in that circle, you've destroyed its perfection.

23:30 - 23:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If God had been lonely for one millisecond in eternity, he would not be perfect.

Martin references Fred Waring's recording of James Weldon Johnson's 'God's Trombones' — a black poet who wrote that God looked down and was lonely, so he made a man. Martin says this is bad theology: if God had been lonely for one millisecond, He would not be perfect.

There was nothing of necessity that moved God to create. There is a wonderful set of poems by a black poet, and it has been made into a record by Fred Waring called God's Trombones. And there is some tremendous old southern black eloquence in those poems, but there is some bad theology along the way. And some of the bad theology is when the poet says that God looked down upon his earth and God was lonely.

27:08 - 27:39 Read in full sermon

We must not think of God's attributes as blocks of love, tile of mercy, drapes of sovereignty added together to make Him — that's the Jefferson School multi-purpose room, not God. Every attribute penetrates the entirety of what He is.

It's partly acoustical pile. It's partly pipes and basketball rims, and it's partly glass over the clock, and it's partly wood on the floor, and put it all together, and you have the multi-purpose room of the Jefferson School. We must not think of the attributes of God in that way. As though you have a few blocks of love and a few tile of mercy and a few drapes of sovereignty and put it all together.

29:49 - 30:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: As God moves in judgment or in mercy, there is never a collision between His righteousness and His love, between His holiness and His mercy.

Take the most God-like person you know — their love, though greatly developed, is still often exercised at the expense of justice, or justice at the expense of love. But in God every attribute stands in perfect balance with every other.

When we say that God is perfect in all His attributes, we are saying that every attribute of God is found in perfection in God. But we are saying something more, and this to me is the most amazing thing. Every attribute stands in perfect balance with every other attribute. It is not only perfect holiness in God, but perfect holiness in perfect relationship to perfect love.

33:07 - 33:38 Read in full sermon

Moses, who saw 'the darker sides of God's dealings' — an army drowned until bloated bodies floated on the Red Sea, the firstborn of Egypt slain, the earth opening to swallow priests, Miriam struck with leprosy — still composed a hymn declaring 'his work is perfect.'

The rock, His work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and righteous is he. Now, who was this who said this? This is the man who saw Almighty God drown a whole army until their bloated bodies floated on the Red Sea.

37:03 - 37:31 Read in full sermon

Martin's extended illustration: a handsome, beneficent monarch with a sensitive heart visits a village. Crowds line the streets crying 'Long live the king!' but one man is off a block away bent over his grinding wheel sharpening his axe for tomorrow's toil, saying, 'Kings come, kings go — I've got to cut wood tomorrow.' This is positive wickedness — a picture of every impenitent sinner under the gracious reign of God.

Back in the days when there were kings, and you know we suffer much because we live in a democracy. Thank God there are many things. We don't have a pure democracy, but we have a representative form of government and we thank God for all the good things that come to us I not a leftist in my political feelings but we miss much because we never lived under a monarchy I mean a real monarchy. But a king had a throne that cut mustard, so that what he said went, or else.

45:17 - 45:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Because God is a God of absolute perfection, everything about our worship — including hymn selection — should be a monument to what we understand Him to be.

Contrasts the glory-filled hymn 'My God, How Wonderful Thou Art' with 'Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee' — enough, Martin says, 'to make you want to vomit' for anyone who has seen this great God.

That's why we're careful in the selection of hymns and psalms, because worship is to be according to truth. How can anyone who's seen this great God ever sing, put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee? It's enough to make you want to vomit. Oh, how different is the hymn we sang this morning.

52:09 - 52:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Men preparing for the ministry: pray above all, 'God give me such a vision of Your majesty and glory and perfection that it will ooze through all of my ministry.'

A 'cheap tawdry God' allows a preacher to swagger onto the platform, tell jokes to warm the crowd up, and give the impression Jesus is a nice guy — doing more positive harm to the cause of Christ than outright liberals.

You men preparing for the work of the ministry if you pray for anything make one of your primary prayers God give me such a vision of your majesty and glory and perfection that it will ooze through all of my ministry. The cheap tawdry God who allows the preacher to swagger onto the platform and tell his jokes to warm the crowd up and tell a few more jokes to give the impression that he's all right and Jesus is a nice guy. Would to God that their mouths would be silenced. They do more positive harm to the cause of Christ than outright liberals.

54:56 - 55:36 Read in full sermon