The God of Absolute Perfection

Introduction: Moving From the Book to the God of the Book

0:00 Our study in the Word of God this morning is the third in a series of studies that will probably cover some 13, maybe 14 or 15 weeks, we're not certain, but a relatively brief series of messages which I have chosen to entitle, Here We Stand, taking occasion from that tremendous watershed of church history, Luther's defense before prelates and earthly potentates, confessing that what he had written he would not recant because he understood

0:45 it to be the teaching of the word of God. His famous words, of course, here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Well, taking our clue from that incident in church history, the elders felt it was time for us as a congregation to stand and say, Here we stand, so help us God. And in so doing, to set forth in broad outlines that which we understand to be the teaching of the Word of God concerning the essential pivots of our faith.

1:20 Our purpose is that there might be a confirmation of those who have been among us for some time, that there might be an initiation to those who are new among us, and that we might inform those who are what I have called onlookers who wonder just what we're attempting to do and what we believe. The form of these studies, unlike the normal Sunday morning ministry, which is a careful, painstaking, verse by verse, phrase by phrase, opening up of large sections of the Word of God. We have spent some months in Ephesians 2. the form of these studies will be topical. That is, I have collated the materials under five major headings, and under each of those headings we shall be consulting a number of passages, both from the Old and the New Testaments.

2:10 Last week, we addressed ourselves to the first of these major categories, and I entitled our study, The Book We Believe and Obey. And under that general heading, I sought to demonstrate from the Scriptures the necessity for this book, the nature of it, the purpose of it, and our proper attitude with respect to the Word of God. Now, believing that this book is the Word of God in the language of men, that all Scripture is given by the out-breathing of God, We now come to the second major division of our study, namely the God whom we worship and confess. For no sooner do we open this book called the Bible and begin to read,

3:01 than we discover that the first thing that confronts us is a statement concerning God himself. The beginning words of the Bible are In the beginning God God In the beginning God And it's as though the Lord Himself announces to us What the key to this book is The key lies in its opening words When you pick up this book That is the word of God in the language of men we are to understand that it is essentially and primarily a book concerning God.

3:47 In the beginning, God. And from those opening words through to the closing words of the book of the Revelation, it is the person of God that is set before us, both in word and in works, by acts and deeds and by explanatory comments. we are confronted with the living God. In an excellent little pamphlet by Dr. Packer called The Plan of God, if you don't have it, it's on our book table, I would commend it to you.

4:19 Mr. Packer, speaking to this very issue, concerning the main theme of the Bible, says, What do we find when we try to read the Bible as a single unified whole, with our minds alert to observe what it's really about? Well, the first thing we find is that this book is not primarily about man at all. He, God, if the phrase may be allowed, is the chief actor in the drama, the hero of the story.

4:49 The Bible proves on inspection to be a factual survey of God's work in this world, past, present, and to come, with explanatory comments from prophets, psalmists, wise men, and apostles. Its main theme is not human salvation, but the work of God, vindicating His purposes and glorifying Himself in a sinful and disordered universe by establishing His kingdom and exalting His Son, by creating a people to worship and serve Him, and ultimately by dismantling and reassembling the present order of things,

5:35 so rooting sin out of his world entirely. It is into this larger perspective that the Bible fits God's work in saving man. And it depicts the God who does these things as more than a distant cosmic architect, more than an ever-present heavenly uncle, more than an impersonal life force more than any of the petty substitute deities which inhabit our twentieth century minds he is the living God present and active everywhere glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders why should we move from the broad concern

6:22 with the book we believe and obey to the subject, the God whom we worship and confess? Well, for the simple reason that he is the main theme of that book that comes to us as the word of God in the language of men. And it was because of this great commitment to the Bible itself that the framers of the Westminster Confession move from chapter 1 concerning the Scriptures to chapter 2 of God and of the Holy Trinity and seek to capsulize the teaching of the Word of God concerning this God. Now how can we ever begin to attempt to declare what we believe concerning the God of the Bible

7:10 in two messages. When this God will be the subject of loving contemplation and of perpetual investigation through all eternity. Think of it, we'll never exhaust the knowledge of God for He is infinite. He will be able to disclose to us through all eternity more and more of His glory.

7:34 If eternity cannot exhaust the knowledge of God, Isn't it presumptuous for a preacher to attempt in two messages to say, Here we stand, this is the God whom we confess and the God whom we worship. Well, of course, I make no pretensions at being exhaustive. But what I'm going to attempt to do is to direct your attention to those pivotal concepts of the God of the Bible and those which in a special way demand articulation in the age in which we live. And you say, how do you propose to do that?

Fundamental Proposition: There Is But One True and Living God

8:16 Well, very simply, by setting before you one fundamental proposition and then drawing out four lines of thought which amplify that proposition. Three of them this morning and in terms of what happens on Tuesday, possibly the next one next week, or if not, about five weeks from now, God willing. Now, the fundamental proposition is this. There is but one true and living God.

8:46 Now, you kids got that? If you don't, you're not listening to your pastor. Now, there's not a big word in all of that, a couple of two-syllable words. No, just one.

8:56 There, one syllable, is but one true and living. That's the only two-syllable word. All right? That's the fundamental proposition.

9:06 The God whom we worship and confess is the one true and living God. And, of course, that language comes directly not only from the Bible, but from that classic statement in the Shorter Catechism. The question, are there more gods than one? And the answer is, that's question number five, there is but one only, the living and the true God.

9:32 And in the very opening words of Scripture, as I've suggested, we are confronted with that one true and living God. His existence is not proved. His essential being is not described philosophically. We are simply confronted with this God in the beginning God.

9:53 In the beginning God created. It doesn't say the gods created, that would be polytheism. It does not say men created a god, that's just humanistic religion. It does not say creation became god, that's pantheism.

Old Testament Witness: Deuteronomy and Isaiah

10:11 In the beginning, God. The uncaused, eternal, true and living God, this God created. And so we are confronted with this basic premise in the very opening words of Scripture. there is but one true and living God in the beginning God. And the opening statement of Genesis is then expanded and expounded upon both in the Old and the New Testaments. And again and again the assertion comes through, there is but one true and living God. Let me give you several specimen passages from the Old and the New Testaments. Turn please to the book of Deuteronomy.

10:53 when God is formally entering into covenant with the nation of Israel, this note that there is but one true and living God is sounded again and again and again. Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and beginning with verse 32. For ask now of the days that are past which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing, or hath been heard like it.

11:39 Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and lived? Or hath God a say to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by an outstretched harm, and by terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You see the question God's asking? Is there any parallel in all of human history from the beginning of creation?

12:09 From the time that God made the heavens and the earth, has it ever been that God spoke directly with a nation entered into such intimate, manifest communion with the people? And of course, the answer is obvious. No, it has never been. Well, what's the purpose of all of this?

12:25 Now, verse 35. Unto thee it was showed that...

12:30 Now, that's a clause of purpose. Unto thee it was showed that thou mightest know that Jehovah, he is God, there is none else beside him. God says, I calculated this very manner of dealing with you to underscore again and again and again and again and again there is but one true and living God, Jehovah, the God of His people Israel. Verse 39, Know therefore this day and lay it to thy heart that Jehovah, He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath.

13:11 there is none else. You see how this note is dominant in the formal ratification of the covenant? It becomes dominant again when God gives those ten words that He etches into tables of stone with His own finger. And the first commandment is not just the first numerically, it is the first in terms of importance.

13:36 And when God would etch the expression of what He requires of men, he begins with these words, Thou shalt have no other God besides me. Why? Because it's a denial of everything that I am. The moment you begin to conceive of any other creature, tangible or intangible, as God, you're denying this truth. There is but one true and living God, and one only.

14:05 In the nation of Israel, the tendency to idolatry was a constant plague. And the prophets again and again seek to call the people back to the recognition there is but one true and living God. And Isaiah is most eloquent in setting forth this truth among all of the prophets. Will you notice, please, several passages in the book of Isaiah which underscore this fundamental premise that there is but one true and living God.

14:36 Isaiah 43, verses 9 to 11.

14:44 Isaiah 43, verses 9 to 11. Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things?

14:56 Let them bring their witnesses that they may be justified. or let them hear and say it is truth. Ye are my witnesses saith Jehovah and my servant whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me I, even I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Savior. And when the Jehovah's Witness comes spouting his well-learned verses and parts of verses, turn into this passage where Jehovah says, No, God formed before me or after me.

15:45 Jesus is not the lesser God who was formed after Jehovah sometime back in the ages prior to creation. Either Jesus is Jehovah or he's an idol. And Jehovah would never say bow down to an idol, but he said, this is my son, hear him.

16:04 There is but one true and living God. The prophet Isaiah eloquently sets forth the truth. Notice chapter 44. We have a similar reference.

16:16 Verse 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last. And besides me there is no God. And who is I shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people, and the things that are coming, and that shall come to pass.

16:39 Let them declare, Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have I not declared unto thee of old, and showed it? And ye are my witnesses. And what was the essential truth to which Israel was called to bear witness?

16:52 Is there a God besides me? Yea, there is no rock. I know not any. And then he goes on to show the folly of idolatry.

17:03 And he taunts them and mocks them. He says, now look at you foolish people. You go out and you get a hunk of wood. Part of it you burn in the fire to cook your meal.

17:12 Part of it becomes your little God. Don't you see the falling of projecting Godhead into anything that is created? There is no God but the true and the living God. Chapter 45, verses 20 and 21.

17:29 Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together ye that are escaped to the nations. They have no knowledge that carry the wood of their grave and image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Declare ye and bring it forth. Yea, let them take counsel together.

17:45 Who hath showed this from ancient time? Who hath declared it of old? Have not I, Jehovah, and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior? There is none besides me.

New Testament Witness: 1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Timothy 2

18:03 And if you think this is just a matter of being crotchety over things indifferent, Notice how again and again the declaration that God is the only God is followed by the kind of thing that we have in this very passage. Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. If there is but one true and living God, the corollary of that is there is but one true and living Savior, and it is that one true and living God. Well, what about the New Testament?

18:36 Well, I direct you to several key passages in that portion of God's revelation. In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, the apostle Paul is about to deal with a very practical problem that troubled the early church. It had to do with the precise relationship of believers to some of their former associations and practices in this context, whether or not they ought to eat meat that had been sacrificed in an idle temple. And Paul, as he always does, before he attacks the details of a practical problem, he brings into focus the theological issues at stake.

19:13 For the most intensely practical problems are essentially theological problems. And so how does he begin? Well, look at verse 4. Concerning, therefore, the eating of things sacrificed to idols.

19:27 1 Corinthians 8, 4. We know that no idol is anything in the world And that there is no God but one For though there be that are called gods Whether in heaven or on earth As there are gods many and lords many Yet unto us there is one God The Father of whom are all things And we unto him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things And we through him Then he goes on to say, How be it? There is not in all men that knowledge. And then he says, That's why you're having problems at the practical level, and you can't sort out the details of this thorny practical problem, because your thinking about God is not straight.

20:16 And so the assertion of this passage is clear. There is no God but one. You have it again in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 4. there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We have it in so many portions of both the new and the old. I don't want to weary you with jumping from passage to passage, but there is then unanimous consent in Old and New Testament that there is but one true and living God. Now if that's so, what does it say to us? It says to us as His creatures that our greatest responsibility in life is to know this God, to fear this God, to love this God, to trust this God,

21:08 and to serve and worship this God as He's revealed Himself in the Scriptures. Our Lord stated it this way in John 4, 23, the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. This is the whole emphasis. Whenever God articulates this fact in the Old Testament, He says, I've done all of this that you may know that I am He, there is none other. Therefore, be diligent to keep my statutes. Listen to me. Every one of you who draws breath by the gift of this God.

21:50 If there is but one true and living God, your greatest responsibility in life is to know this God, to fear this God, to serve, to honor, and to worship this great God. And the greatest wickedness under heaven is to be willfully ignorant of Him, indifferent to His praise, insensitive to his fear unbelieving in the face of his promises it is the height of wickedness to be indifferent to so glorious a being. Well that's the major premise the fundamental proposition. Here we stand confessing there is but one true

Four Assertions Previewed; God Is Perfect in Himself

22:36 and living God. Now the four major assertions about him and we'll just take as many as we have time to cover this morning. I knew we wouldn't get to the fourth, but I'm beginning to suspect we might not get to the third.

22:51 This one true and living God, and let me give you the four and then we'll go as far as we can. He is the God of absolute perfection. He is the God of unrivaled sovereignty. He is the God of amazing love and pity.

23:09 And He is the God of mysterious tribe personality. He is the God of mysterious tri-personality. First of all, then, this one true and living God is the God of absolute perfection. Now, what constitutes anything perfect?

23:30 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.

24:00 When we talk about a person who has perfect pitch, We mean if he's settled in on a certain note and says that's middle C, if you raise it just two vibrations, you've made it sharp. If you lower it just one vibration, you've made it flat. That's perfect pitch, perfect circle. That which is absolutely complete in itself, and any addition or subtraction from it renders it no longer perfect.

24:29 Well, the God of the Bible, this one true and living God, is revealed to us as the God of absolute perfection. And I want to demonstrate this perfection along three lines. He is perfect in Himself, perfect in His attributes, perfect in His ways and in His works. He is first of all perfect in Himself.

24:53 Will you turn please to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17 A very critical passage whenever we think of the God of the Bible because in it the Apostle Paul is declaring the nature and character and ways of God in the presence of pagan philosophers whose minds had been twisted and warped by human philosophy who were worshippers of idols and there is constant contrast between the idol who is no God and the true and living God who is the one and only God. I read now from Acts 17, 24. The God that made the world and all things therein,

25:45 he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Neither is he served by men's hands as though he needeth anything. There's the key phrase.

26:03 Neither is he served by men's hands as though he needeth anything. And in that little statement, the apostle is declaring to these Athenian philosophers defers that the God who is the true and living God, creator of heaven and earth, is the God of absolute perfection who is perfect in Himself. Go back to Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, what was God prior to His act of creation?

26:43 He was the God who was perfectly at rest in Himself. He needed nothing from the creature. He existed from eternity, totally self-sufficient, self-contained, self-complacent. And within the mystery of the tri-personality of the Godhead, there was the perfect interchange of love and communion.

27:08 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.

27:40 And so he said, I'll make me a man. My friends, loneliness is a felt and unmet need. If God had been lonely for one millisecond in eternity, he would not be perfect. There would have been something that he needed outside of himself.

27:59 Think of it. If for one millisecond in all eternity, If God had one plunge in his infinite being of loneliness, he would not be God. He needeth nothing.

28:17 He needeth nothing. The old writers had a term for this. They took a Latin barbarism and they called it the aseity of God. A-S-E-I-T-Y.

28:32 attempting to project in human language this amazing concept that the God of the Bible is the God of absolute perfection who depends upon none for himself but upon whom all that he has made is utterly dependent. The God of absolute perfection, perfect in himself. Secondly, perfect in his attributes. Now, when we speak of the attributes of God, what are we talking about?

29:03 Well, the attributes of anything are the qualities or the characteristics of that thing. If I say to you kids, what are the attributes of fire? I hope you would be able to say light and heat. Those are the essential attributes of fire.

29:19 Where you have fire, you'll always have light, you'll always have heat. If I say, what are the attributes of snow? I hope you would say brightness or whiteness and coldness or something like that. Those are the attributes of snow.

29:35 When we speak of the attributes of God, what are we talking about? We're talking about the characteristics of God. We're not talking about little parts of God. If we were to describe this building, we'd say the building is partly block.

29:49 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.

God Is Perfect in His Attributes

30:12 No, no, no, no, no. Don't think of God in that way. All of these glorious attributes Penetrate the entirety of what he is as God But since the human mind can no more contain God we see through a glass darkly God is condescended to convey to us the knowledge of Himself, which is best expressed in speaking of the attributes or the characteristics of God. and the scriptures reveal that this God is perfect in his attributes.

30:47 That is, every attribute of God is found in God to perfection in itself. His knowledge is what kind of knowledge? Perfect knowledge. There's not a thing to be known in the universe that God does not perfectly know.

31:05 You say, what good does it do to think about that? Well, you read the 139th Psalm and you'll get an idea. It became the occasion of a religious hymn. Oh God, thou hast searched me and known me.

31:17 Thou knowest my downsitting, my uprising. Thou understandest my thought from afar. Then the psalmist begins to think, if I could somehow go down into the bowels of the earth, if I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there. If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there.

31:32 If I take the wings of the morning, dwell in the uttermost part of the sea. Commentators don't agree on the imagery, but apparently it's this. if I could jump on the first rays of the sun as it breaks over the eastern horizon, shoots out into the trackless sea, even there shall thy hand lead me. He says, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me.

31:53 He said, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. And then he breaks out in praise and says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it.

32:04 Oh, dear people, this is not abstract theological dissertation. No, no, no, no. God seeks the people to worship Him in truth. That is according to reality.

32:15 Who is this one true and living God whom we worship? He's the God of absolute perfection, perfect in His knowledge. And we could go right down with all of His attributes, perfect in His holiness. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

32:32 1 John 1, 5 in the immensity of God. The God who says, I fill heaven and earth. There is not one speck of moral darkness. He is perfect in His holiness.

32:47 Perfect in His knowledge. All that knowledge should be in God, God is and God has. All that holiness is, God is and possesses. And you can go right through all of His attributes, His justice, His immutability, that is His changelessness, His mercy and His truth.

33:07 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.

33:40 So that 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. Oh, my friend, look at yourself. Look at me. Look at the holiest man or woman you've ever known on the face of the earth in whom many of what the old theologians called the communicable attributes of God are to be found.

34:07 That is, attributes that are imparted to men graciously, some of them by creation and others by recreation. Take the person in whom you see the most development of God-like love. And yet it's easy to discern very quickly that that love sometimes, though greatly heightened and developed, is exercised at the expense of justice. Or justice is exercised at the expense of love, but not so with our God.

34:38 He is perfect in His attributes, every attribute in God found in perfection, every attribute in relationship to the others. Notice how the psalmist celebrates this in the 85th Psalm. again that you may know that this is not just an abstract mental exercise. This is the God whom we worship this morning.

35:00 Psalm 85, verses 9 and 10. Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together. righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

35:24 That's a beautiful way of describing the perfect interplay of all of the attributes of our God. Who is the God whom we worship and confess? He is the one true and living God. He is the God of absolute perfection.

God Is Perfect in His Ways and Works: Moses, David, Revelation 15

35:42 Perfect in Himself. Perfect in His attributes. and then thirdly, perfect in his ways and in his works. Turn again to the book of Deuteronomy.

35:54 As Moses, the man of God who had such intimate spiritual intercourse with God through the course of his life, the man who by his intercession preserved a nation from destruction, the man who spoke face to face with God for forty days and forty nights, he is coming to the end of his days and he wants to compose a psalm a hymn of praise that will be learned by the people of God as a memorial to Moses' response to the revelation of the great God of heaven and earth and in that great hymn Deuteronomy 32 verses 1-4 listen to the note that is sounded by Moses

36:39 give ear ye heavens and I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain and my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender grass and as the showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of Jehovah. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

37:03 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.

37:32 And he didn't sit back and say, well, God, it's not there for you to kill people.

37:38 just are all thy ways. His work is perfect when he drowns a whole army. This is a man who by stretching out his rod saw God go through a nation with terrible plagues. He saw God take the firstborn of every single Egyptian from Pharaoh down to the least little lamb who had just dropped her first calf and God slew the firstborn.

38:16 And what does he say about that? His work is perfect!

38:22 He saw the earth open up and swallow up some immoral priests. He saw God smite a woman of God with leprosy.

38:34 My friend, listen. Moses saw some of the darker sides of God's dealings, the likes of which you and I have never seen, and he says his work is perfect. He saw God in mercy deliver that nation. He saw God in sovereign mercy unfold his mind and his will, and in sovereign love enter into covenant relationship in the full outgushing of covenant love upon Israel.

39:03 and he says his work is perfect. He is perfect in his ways and in his works. Now listen to the testimony of the other great man who stands head and shoulders above others in the Old Testament, David. And he comes to the end of his days.

39:20 And what does he say? 2 Samuel 22. You see, these are significant testimonies because they come not from neophytes in the dealings of God, but men who had seen much of the ways and workings of God. And this is their testimony, 2 Samuel 22.

39:40 When God delivers David from all his enemies, this is his testimony, 2 Samuel 22, 31. As for God, his way is perfect. Now you know something of the history of David Do you? You know something of what God dragged this man through?

40:07 The young man anointed him to be king over Israel And then for years allows him to be chased around the wilderness of Judea Like some kind of a common criminal Disappointed, stripped of his wife and his family Living out in the cave with a bunch of castoffs and the man who though a man after God's own heart by subtle indulgence of his flesh falls in a moment of weakness feels the stroke of God's chastening rod taking the son born of that illicit union between himself and Bathsheba hears the words of the prophet you did this secretly but your own sons that have come from your own vows shall shame you in the sight of Israel and David lived to see much of this

40:53 and yet he says as for God his way is perfect we turn to the book of the Revelation one testimony from the New Testament this is one of the times when the preacher is embarrassed with a surfeit of information from the scriptures and to be selective is so difficult Revelation chapter 15 verse 2 and I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that come off victorious from the beast and from his image, and from the number of his name standing by the sea of glass having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

41:39 You see, even in heaven there is going to be no disjuncture between Moses and the Lamb. The law and the gospel serve their proper ends, and the people of God appreciate it. Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God the Almighty. Righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages.

42:02 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy, for all the nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been made manifest. Oh, do you catch something of the thrust of this tremendous, it's an exhortation as well as an appeal and a declaration. Great and marvelous are thy works.

42:28 Who shall not fear thee and glorify thee? In other words, it was no grudging acquiescence. All right, since the Bible says God is perfect, I'm caught on the inescapable horns of the logic of it. If God's perfect, then all He does must be perfect.

42:43 I'll get my teeth and bear it. No, no, no. Here the heart runs out. Thy ways, O God, are just.

42:54 Righteous and true are thy ways. The moment you begin to set your mind up as the bar of judgment to which God must answer your duty of the grossest form of impiety, and it borders on blasphemy.

43:15 God need give account of none of His ways to you or to me.

43:23 It's proper for a Christian to pray, O Lord, how long, when we lie under a strange and frowning providence. The Psalms are full of the cry, How long? For when you begin to say, God, why did you do this to me? as though God had to give an account of Himself to you, my friend, you're on dangerous grounds.

43:47 Dangerous grounds.

43:50 My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways. That's the God of the Bible, who is perfect in His ways and in His work. Is it no wonder then that those mysterious creatures called seraphim fly about the throne of the Almighty?

44:17 And what do they celebrate? The perfection of God's glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The earth is the fullness of His glory.

44:27 And what is God's glory? It's the outshining of His perfections. And they celebrate it. They fly about the throne.

44:35 and they're wholly occupied with the glory of this perfect God. No wonder these redeemed ones in Revelation 15 say, Who shall not fear thee and glorify thee? They say it's irrational not to worship so glorious a being as this God who is perfect in all of His ways. And I say again what unspeakable wickedness it is that any created being should not recognize, admire, and praise in love so perfect to God.

Illustration of the King and Application to Worship

45:10 Let me illustrate. You've been thinking hard. Let me, if you mind, relax a minute with an illustration.

45:17 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.

45:51 Well, imagine a certain part of the earth where there is a true monarchy. and upon the throne of that particular kingdom sits a man who in his person is the epitome of what we would say highly cultured, well-developed, mature manhood. In his person, he's a handsome man. His body is strong and agile, his mind is quick, but coupled with a strong will and a strong body is a sensitive heart.

46:23 he lives each day for the good of his subjects when he goes to bed at night his mind is filled not with how he can acquire more wealth and more grandeur and more prestige but how he can better administer the kingdom for the benefit of its subjects he's that kind of a king the announcement is made that he's going to visit one of the precincts in his kingdom and the day for his visit comes the town crier has gone through the town and says, you're good, you're beneficent, you're kind, you're gracious, you're handsome, you're able, you're loving king is coming. The king coming with all of his entourage enters the town, and the townsfolk line the street just for a chance to look upon him.

47:12 They're amazed at the beauty, and yet coupled with the beauty of his countenance is a sensitive eye and obviously a feeling heart. They're amazed at the regal beauty of all that comes with him. And as he comes through the thronging crowds of that little hamlet,

47:30 off a block away is a man who's bent over a little grinding wheel sharpening his axe for tomorrow's toil. He's not deaf. He's not blind. And when everyone is looking for the opportunity to catch just a glance at the king, And even if they cannot see him, knowing what he is in terms of what he has done for them, in protecting them, in preserving them, in providing for them, even though they cannot see him, they blend their voices with those who are close enough to see him.

48:00 Long live the king! Long live the king! God bless our king! And someone happens to see this man bent over his little grinding wheel with his axe.

48:11 And they come over and say, hey, what's the matter with you? Don't you know the king has come? Oh, yeah, I know he's dead. Well, don't you have any concern?

48:19 Ah, the kings come, the kings go. I've got to go cut wood tomorrow. Leave me alone to grind my axe.

48:27 Now, how would you interpret such an action?

48:31 How do you think the king would interpret it?

48:35 How would any of the subjects who know the king interpret it? Would that be considered an innocent pastime to grind an axe? while the glorious king was passing through the village? Hmm?

48:50 Would that be an innocent little diversion? How about it, kids? Would it? No.

48:55 It would be positive wickedness.

49:00 Do I need to draw out the application? I think you see it, don't you?

49:06 You sit here this morning because God, as king of the earth, is a gracious God. He gives you life and breath and all things. Even though you're unconverted, He sustains your life.

49:24 In the prophet Isaiah, we read Isaiah 40, Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Listen to me. I'm saying to some of you this morning, Behold the living and the true God. He made you. He sustains you.

49:40 He'll judge you in the last day. and you sit there grinding your axe impatient till the final amen is mentioned. You can't wait to get out of here. Oh, my dear young man, young woman, wait to righteousness.

50:00 The hour is coming when the king will say, seize that man and consign him to death.

50:12 some of us whose eyes have been opened to behold His beauty, why do we plead? Why do we entreat? Why do we pray for you? Why do we at times with tears entreat you to be reconciled to God?

50:30 It's because we've seen the beauty of the King, and we know that He's worthy of the homage of all His creatures. he's the God of absolute perfection well I estimated wrongly and I trust in the good providence of God it will not be too many more weeks before we can enter again into loving contemplation of this God I say to you young Christians one of the most profitable exercises in which you can engage is to think upon God. Not with the irresponsible flights of a mystic,

51:14 but with those thoughts that are framed by the words of apostles and prophets in the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. They that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. But I must, as I close this morning, draw the last page of my notes in in terms of the application I was going to make because it may be five weeks before I'm back in this pulpit and I want to say this, so I'll take the liberty. If you're upset, you'll have five weeks to get over it.

51:46 And bury your grudge before I'm back again in the pulpit. But if the God we worship is the God of absolute perfection, then do you see the implications for our worship? Everything about our approach to God should be a monument to what we understand God to be.

52:09 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.

52:35 My God, how wonderful Thou art! Thy majesty, how bright! How glorious is Thy mercy seat in depths of burning light! Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord, almighty as Thou art!

52:52 for thou hast stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart. My friends, it's not because we're crotchety and stiff in our joints that we do not allow so-called mod forms of worship to take over this place. We have a view of God that will not relinquish as long as God gives us strength. this majestic sweetness that sits enthroned upon the Savior's brow.

53:28 And if sinless creatures such as seraphim cannot look upon him without veiling face and crying, Holy, holy, holy, who are we, rude creatures, to run into his presence on the wings of little gospel ditties?

Implications for Preaching and Worship

53:48 This view of God affects our understanding of preaching. What is the ultimate purpose of preaching? To say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. That's the ultimate end of preaching.

54:02 To declare who God is. And you know what the effect should be whenever He's rightly declared, even to the unconverted? You read it in 1 Corinthians 14.25.

54:12 Paul says, If the unbeliever comes among you, the thoughts of his heart are laid bare And I've been thinking of this little phrase, and it says, He falling down will cry out, God is of a truth among you. In other words, the God whom He confronts is the God before whom He falls down. He doesn't snuggle up and say, Oh, I didn't realize that God is really nice. He's not so bad.

54:37 I'll snuggle up to Him. He doesn't say, He's snuggling up will say God is among you. Nor does He say, He's sitting down will say God is among you and strike a bargain with God. it says he falling down will say God is of a truth among you.

54:56 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.

55:40 And if this is the God whom we worship, then dear people in spite of our western reserve I don't know how there cannot help but be times when you have all you can do to keep from just raising your hands and saying hallelujah what a savior when in your times of prayer you can do nothing other than literally stretch yourself out on the floor prostrate before you have you ever in prayer just felt I can do nothing else The only way I can begin to express something of what I feel in the presence of so majestic and glorious a being, glorious a being, is to fall upon my face in His presence.

Final Appeal to the Impenitent and Closing Prayer

56:26 now that's the God who's revealed in scripture the one true and living God the God of absolute perfection perfect in himself now that may humble some of you to think God didn't need you but you desperately need him God absolutely perfect in his attributes perfect in his ways and his works and my unconverted friend he's going to manifest the perfection of his wrath in your damnation unless you repent. God is going to get the admiration of every redeemed sinner

57:11 and every angel when he sends you into hell as a perfect manifestation of his perfect justice if you don't repent. to say, why don't you leave us alone, my friend? If I believe this, I cannot leave you alone.

57:32 The sense that some weeks may pass before I stand in this pulpit again has constrained me. That there may ring in your ears upon every thought of this last ministry for these weeks, the plea from the heart, repent before God makes you an eternal monument of His perfect justice. Oh, dear young man, woman, friend, mother, dad, repent and believe the gospel.

58:03 Let us pray.

58:13 Oh Lord, we think of the words of that holy man, Abraham, who feeling his own sinfulness and creatureliness had to say who am I but dust and ashes to call upon thee.

58:31 Oh our Father we feel with Abraham the pain of our creatureliness the shame of our sinfulness but oh we thank you for the wonder of your perfection. We long for the day when we shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, and we shall know even as we are known. O Lord, the little bit we see through a glass darkly has inflamed our desires and filled us with holy longings that we may behold you with unsinning eyes. Lord we thank you

59:18 you're a perfect God perfect in yourself perfect in your attributes perfect in your works and ways and oh we pray for impenitent sinners who will be forced to acknowledge that you are perfect in your justice if they do not repent oh that they may find you perfect in mercy perfect in forgiveness perfect in pardon and we pray for the church of Christ. O Lord, our hearts are pained that there are such low views of You among those who name Your name. Fill the earth with the knowledge of Yourself. That there may be again those attitudes of holy fear,

60:04 of awe, of breathless wonder in the presence of so glorious a being as Thou art. hear our prayer, O God.

60:16 And may the benediction of Your own presence rest with us and be our portion for the remainder of this day. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

60:41 Thank you.