The title of my sermon is derived from one of the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to “find god as you understand him.” My pastor often preached against this, and the title of this sermon is a direct quote from him. Many people have a false view of Almighty God, and their understanding of God is based on their own imaginations and not from what God has revealed about Himself through Scripture. Or they will only adopt some of the truths, only the ones that fit their beliefs. One of the attributes of God that is often claimed by new evangelicals is His attribute of love. You often hear them say, “If God is love, then in His love He would not send anyone to Hell.” Yes, one of the great attributes of God is love, yet the Bible also states,

“God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11; p. 602).

So, is He a God of love or an angry God? Since Dr. Cagan spoke about this in his teaching last week, I will not go into detail, but the real God is anger and love at the same time! You cannot take one and leave the other! This seeming contradiction is only in the mind of depraved man,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9; p. 762).

So why is this important? Why am I devoting an entire sermon to this? This is because “god as you understand him,” is really an idol, and you have effectively broken the first two commandments of God. Dr. A.W. Tozer said,

Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is – in itself a monstrous sin – and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness” (A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperOne, 2017, p. 3).

Several of you are new to our church. Others may have been here for some time, but both groups have a false view of God. The purpose of this sermon is to introduce a few of the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture and their application to you.

I. First, God is omniscient.

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:33-34; p. 1206).

This means that God is all-knowing and that He possesses perfect knowledge. God cannot learn. This may seem like a blasphemous statement, but if He were to learn, it would mean that He lacked knowledge in some area. Some may argue that the Scriptures show God asking questions such as in Genesis 3:9 where He asks Adam after the fall, “Where art thou?” However, God is not asking about Adam’s physical location, but rather the question is posed to Adam’s conscience, for him to consider his sin. Tozer said,

Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does He seek information or ask questions (A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperOne, 2017, p. 56).

This also means that God knows each person thoroughly. He knows you. He knows your heart, and He knows your sin, even though you may not know. Despite this, as we saw earlier with Adam, He pursues the sinner. It was not Adam who sought after God after his fall, but rather God seeking out the fallen Adam. God’s omniscience also shows that He knows what is best for you. Brethren, how many times have you prayed for something and did not receive it? A job, a house, a spouse, or a child? Only to have the wisdom of God revealed to you afterward. I have experienced this multiple times in my life, and I have been blessed immensely after I saw the wisdom of God in giving me not what I wanted, but what was best for me.

II. Second, God is omnipresent.

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3; 682).

The omnipresence of God means that He is present in all locations at the same time. Here, there, and everywhere. From the chair adjacent to you all the way to the most distant galaxy, there is nowhere in creation that God is not present. More than that, His presence is not diminished by distance. Just because He is present here, does not lessen his presence in China. Neither is God an idle observer, but as Spurgeon said, “in every spot… there is, not simply God, but also God’s activity. Wherever I go I shall find, not a slumbering God, but a God busy about the affairs of this world.” Tozer said,

The teaching of the New Testament is that God created the world by the Logos, the Word, and the Word is identified with the second Person of the Godhead who was present in the world even before He became incarnate in human nature. The Word made all things and remained in His creation to uphold and sustain it and be at the same time a moral light enabling every man to distinguish good from evil. The universe operates as an orderly system, not by impersonal laws but by the creative voice of the immanent and universal Presence, the Logos. (A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperOne, 2017, p. 75)

What does this mean to you? The Bible says,

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).

This means that there is nowhere you can go to hide your sin from the all-seeing eye of God. There is nowhere you can go to escape the presence of God. Jonah tried to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, but the Lord knew where Jonah was and sent a mighty tempest in the sea (Jonah 1:3-4). You can have NASA or Elon launch you to Mars, but you will not be able to flee God’s presence. You can hide behind a locked door, but God will still behold the evil. However, our text also says that God also beholds the good, and this should be a great comfort to the person that is in Christ. During the inevitable trials of life, He is there. When persecution comes for the Word’s sake, He is also there, for He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

III. Third, God is omnipotent.

“And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Revelation 19:6; p. 1348).

Omnipotent is another way of saying “all-powerful” or “almighty.” The word almighty is used 57 times in the King James Bible and each time it is used in reference to God, for only He is almighty. Creation itself dictates that God is omnipotent. Tozer said,

God has power. Since God is also infinite, whatever He has must be without limit; therefore God has limitless power, He is omnipotent. We see further that God the self-existent Creator is the source of all the power there is…God has delegated power to His creatures, but being self-sufficient, He cannot relinquish anything of His perfections and, power being one of them, He has never surrendered the least iota of His power. He gives but does not give away. All that He gives remains His own and returns to Him again. Forever He must remain what He has forever been, the Lord God omnipotent. (A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperOne, 2017, p. 65-66).

Some of you who studied physics may think that the quote from Tozer almost sounds like the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed: and can only change form. You would be correct; however, it is not God who follows the laws of science, but the laws of science following the operation of God. Tozer explains this by saying,

Science observes how the power of God operates, discovers a regular pattern somewhere and fixes it as a law. The uniformity of God’s activities in His creation enables the scientist to predict the course of natural phenomena. The trustworthiness of God’s behavior in His world is the foundation of all scientific truth. (A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy, HarperOne, 2017, p. 66).

Now how does all this apply to you? The Psalmist said, “power belongeth unto God (Psalm 62:11). Since God is the source of all power, He has at his command all the power in the universe. Anything that is done or needs to be done requires power and you have a very small portion of power delegated to you. Now ask yourself two questions, what is it that you need? And do you have sufficient power to obtain it? Let’s say for example that you need to get a microwave working, but all you have at your disposal are a couple of AA batteries. Arrange them in any circuit you’d like, you will not have enough to power a microwave! You will require more power than what you have at your disposal. Now, for a more practical example. You need to come to Jesus. I can assure you that you can do everything in your power to come to Him and not be any closer to salvation than the day you first walked into church. Conversion requires power outside of yourself. The disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25), to which Jesus replied,

“With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26; p. 1026).

You must pray to God that He would send the Holy Spirit to awaken you, convict you of sin, and cause you to distrust yourself and trust Jesus instead. You do not have the power to do this, but God does! He is omnipotent! Now, what if we need to build our church? A true church can only grow through conversions to Christ, and not just counting the number of people sitting in a chair on Sunday. We can pump countless amounts of money and sit in our chair week after week, month after month, and year after year, and not add a single person to the church through conversion. How then, are we to build our church? We would need power outside of ourselves! Yes. Fortunately, Jesus Himself said,

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20; p. 1044).