Essentials #2: God (Isaiah 40:25-31) | 9/19/2021
Isaiah 40:25-31 | 9/19/21 | Will DuVal
A.W. Tozer famously said: ““What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”. So let me begin this morning by asking you a question: what comes into YOUR mind, when YOU think about GOD?
Do you picture… THIS? An old guy, with a white beard, and a somewhat dispassionate expression on his face, who is TRYING to get through to us, but always seems to remain somewhat distant, and unreachable? Art historians might also point out here the resemblance of the curtain in which God is riding to a human BRAIN. Maybe that fits with how some of you think of God as well; he’s just a figment of our imagination. He’s not a real, personal being; he’s just a concept.
Or perhaps you picture… THIS? Yet another of Michelangelo’s frescos, on the same ceiling, in the Sistine Chapel. Btw, I just Googled images for “God”, and then pulled the most popular hits; I figured that must tell us something about what comes into our collective mind, when we think about God. He looks ANGRY. Barking down orders, from somewhere far off again, mostly displeased with what he observes of us, such that even the angels are cowering in fear.
Or maybe you envision THIS. Still old, still distant (hanging out in the clouds), but he’s kinder, gentler, like a loving old grandfather; kind of a Dumbledore vibe (from the first two movies, before Michael Gambon ruined him in the later films).
Whatever your mind thinks of, when you think about God, the Bible warns us time and time again, that our earthly, mental pictures are ultimately doomed to fall woefully short:
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, [says the Lord] ” (Isa 55:8-9)
“[He] dwells in unapproachable light; no one has ever seen or can see [Him]. ” (1 Tim 6:16)
“his greatness is unsearchable.” (Ps. 145:3)
“how small a whisper do we hear of him! The thunder of his power: who can understand?” (Job 26:14)
At least ONE of the reasons we can’t fully, or even satisfactorily comprehend God, is that He is infinite, and we are finite. Some theologians use the analogy of an ANT trying to make sense of a human, except that ANTS are at least finite, like us. God is on an entirely different plane of existence; he is orders of magnitude greater than us. And that’s a really good thing. Because “A god small enough for your MIND, isn’t big enough for your problems.” !Praise GOD that He is too big to be understood by little pea-brains like us!
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But another reason we can’t get our heads around God is that in all his wisdom, He has chosen not to reveal certain things about Himself to us. Deuteronomy 29:29 declares, ““The secret things belong to the Lord…”; there are some things we’re not MEANT to understand. But here’s an even more shocking truth, from the SECOND half of that same verse: “but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of his law””. Many things about God will always remain a MYSTERY to us, but then there are OTHER things - important things - about Him, that He really HAS graciously revealed to us, because DESPITE his utter incomprehensibility - the fact that the world’s smartest theologians have pondered God for millennia now and barely scratched the surface - nevertheless, God tells us in His word, the Bible, that He DESIRES to be known by us, and therefore He lovingly reveals Himself to us IN his word.
Last week we kicked off our fall sermon series - “The Essentials”: foundations of the Christian faith - with arguably the MOST foundational of them all: the BIBLE. I argued that accepting, by faith, that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, ultimately authoritative word of God, is perhaps the most foundational, axiomatic belief in the Christian worldview, because all OTHER beliefs are derived FROM it. There’s no reason to believe in JESUS, without the record we have OF him, in the BIBLE. You might believe in SOME god, without the Bible, but not the God we’re going to be studying and worshipping this morning.
But almost more mind-blowing than how amazing this God is, is the fact THAT this God - the magnificent, transcendent, awe-inspiring God of the Bible and of the universe! - for some reason, He wants relationship with sinners like US! So in LOVE, God decided to REVEAL himself to us, so that we can KNOW Him. Not fully (not even close!). But we can know him sufficiently - enough to trust Him - and we can know Him personally - enough to actually love HIM - in return. So God reveals himself IN his inspired word, the Bible; it is God’s autobiography. And now that we have that crucial first foundation in place - that’s exactly where we need to turn for reliable information on pillar #2: GOD.
So would you stand with me as you’re able… Isaiah ch40, vv25-31. There are LOTS of great passages I could have chosen to tee up a sermon on “God”. But of them all, I think this passage from Isaiah best highlights the 3 main points I want to make about God this morning. They are once again the 3 main sub-points in our church statement of faith under core doctrine #2: God, so I will invite you again this week, AFTER I’ve finished reading the Scripture for us, to respond, corporately, by reciting together our church’s statement of faith in God. Even if you’re not a member of West Hills, if you believe in this same God of the Bible that we do, I would invite you to declare your faith in Him along together with us this morning. Hear the word of the Lord:
““To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.””
Your Response? We believe: “There is one God, self-existing in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), who is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, is immortal and eternal, knows all things and sovereignly rules over all things, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration.” (WHC STATEMENT #2)
Amen. Let’s pray...
If you had to try and describe God in just ONE WORD, which word would you go with?
Again: LOTS of strong candidates: God is GREAT; and He’s also GOOD. God is JUST; yet he’s also MERCIFUL. He’s transcendent, yet immanent. He’s omnipotent, yet loving. The list goes on and on.
But Isaiah starts where the majority of biblical scholars do, with the word “HOLY”. God is HOLY. ““To whom will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.”
To say that God is “holy”, is to affirm that He is “wholly other” (with a “w”); God is “set apart”. He’s not LIKE us; He is set apart in his PERFECTIONS. God alone is perfect. A related doctrine, then, is God’s simplicity. In theological terms, to say that God is “simple” is NOT to say He’s dim-witted, or that He’s easy to understand, “not complex”; rather, God’s simplicity here is the opposite of His being composite. God is not made up of parts. He doesn’t “possess” qualities or characteristics; rather God IS those attributes, He perfectly embodies them.
You and I exist. We possess existence. But God IS existence. He is the very ground of all being; Scripture says, “‘In him we live and move and have our being’”; even God’s personal NAME, in the OT - Yahweh - simply means “I AM”.
Your parents might be lov-ING. They possess love. But your heavenly father IS love. 1 John 4:16 “God IS love”. He’s the very definition of love. We know what love IS, by comparing it against God, who is Himself the standard of love.
So God is totally unique, different, “other” than us; he is HOLY. But then Isaiah goes on to LIST for us 3 specific WAYS in which God is set apart in his perfection. And they just so happen to be the same 3 perfections that our church statement of faith lists concerning God. So let’s exposit BOTH Isaiah 40 AND the West Hills’ SOF. And I’ll conclude with a practical exhortation to respond, with some application for us; if this really is who GOD is, then how ought you and I to respond? Okay?
#1: God is ETERNAL TRINITY. He is Eternal Trinity.
Isaiah declared: “The Lord is the everlasting God...
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.” He is ETERNAL!
We’re all mortal; we’re all gonna DIE; but God is immortal; he CAN’T die. It’s not just that He WON’T die; because remember: God is not just “living”; He is capital “L”, LIFE itself. So God CAN’T die. Let’s go ahead and get THAT out of the way - YES, there are things God can’t do. NO, that doesn’t limit his omnipotence. Because failing to do something that is either a logical contradiction - the classic “Can God make a rock big enough that He can’t lift it?” question; or as Luke Werth reframed it in his “Ask the Pastor” podcast question for me: “Can God microwave a burrito so hot that He can’t eat it?” - the answer is “NO, he can’t”. But that doesn’t compromise his omnipotence. Neither does the fact that God can’t DIE, or his inability to SIN. Because the only god more powerful than a god who can die or sin or create illogical rocks but chooses NOT to, is a God who is SO perfect, so ALIVE, so logical, that he CAN’T even do those things. But I digress…
God is eternal trinity. Let’s take each of those in turn:
First, God is ETERNAL. As stated in our church creed: He is “self-existing… immortal and eternal”.
He’s “self-existing”. Theologians describe God as the only “non-contingent, or necessary being”. His existence in no way depends on anyone else’s. I’m here because of Bill and Jill DuVal. They’re here because of John and Margaret DuVal, and Berkeley and Jane Brandt. And every ONE of us could rewind our family tape all the way back to Adam & Eve, and THEY got here because of GOD. So the next logical question is… WHAT? [Where did GOD come from?] And the answer is: He DIDN’T. God didn’t COME from anywhere; He’s just HERE. God just IS - Yahweh, “I am”. Psalm 90, v2: “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” He’s the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. But even THAT kind of cheapens it, because God was here even BEFORE the beginning; Genesis 1: “In the beginning, GOD.” He’s already THERE! Before there’s even a universe, before there’s even time or space to exist IN, God already existed outside of it, as the only necessary being. The Prime Mover. And for eternity future, long after the universe as we know it has passed away, God will STILL be. Psalm 102: “the heavens… will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment… and pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” God is immortal and eternal.
Second, God is TRINITY. He is “triune”, three-in-one. One God, three persons. Now, I’m really not gonna spend ANY amount of time trying to EXPLAIN it for you, because I CAN’T, any more than the opening video attempted to, or anyone ELSE can. Although I would highly recommend as a resource, Lutheran satire’s video “St. Patrick’s bad analogies”. But anyone who CLAIMS to understand the Trinity, to be able to explain it for you, is a LIAR. It’s NOT like an egg, with 3 parts - shell, white and yolk. It’s NOT like water, which can exist in 3 different states - ice, liquid water or gas. The Trinity is not like ANYTHING. Because GOD’S not like anything; remember, He’s HOLY!
So the Trinity is a paradox. It cannot be understood, it even seems self-contradictory, yet it points us to a truth about God that is even deeper than human reason.
So rather than waste time on the “HOW” of the Trinity, I’ll quickly highlight the “WHY” instead. Namely: 1) why we BELIEVE it; and 2) why it MATTERS.
We BELIEVE that God is triune because that is how He reveals Himself to us in the BIBLE. It is clear, biblically, that there is only ONE God:
Deuteronomy 6:4 ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “there is only one God,”
Galatians 3:20 “God is one.”
But it is equally clear, biblically, that that one God exists as three distinct persons:
It is assumed in his very TITLE - “God”. Long before God even revealed his personal name, Yahweh, the Bible refers to him as “Elohim”, which is just the Hebrew word for “god”. But the fascinating part is that it is the PLURAL form of the noun. 2,598 occurrences of that word, that title for God, in the Bible, and every single ONE of them uses the plural “Elohim”, never the singular “Elowaah”. I’ve got a person name: “Will”. And I’ve got a title: “Pastor”. But imagine if I always referred to myself as “PastorS Will”, plural... yet singular. You’d start to worry about me, wouldn’t you? Multiple personality disorder! And yet GOD is “Yahweh Elohim”; plural... yet singular. And that’s obvious from the very first PAGE of Scripture: in Genesis ch1, v26, God says - by the way, who’s he TALKING to? The animals he just created on Day 5? I don’t think so; God’s talking to HIMSELF! And he says, ““Let us [plural] make man[h] in our image, after our likeness.” That’s God the FATHER, talking to God the SON and God the Holy Spirit. And God does it AGAIN, in Genesis 3:22, and ch11,v7, and Isaiah 6:8, and 48:16, and 61:1, and all over the NEW Testament. And elsewhere, the Bible clearly states that Jesus IS God; not “part of God”, not “like” God. He IS God: Jn 1, Rom 9:5, Col 2:9, Heb 1:8, 1 Jn 5:20 - Jesus IS God. And the Holy Spirit is ALSO God: Acts 5:3-4, 1 Corinthians 3:16… So God is BOTH one and He’s also THREE.
Now why is that IMPORTANT? Well, because each of the three persons of the Trinity has his own distinct ROLE to play within God’s great unfolding story of redemption. And since we’re going to spend one whole upcoming week on God the son, Jesus, and another on God the Holy Spirit, I think I will just use this as a nice segue way back to our focus for today: what is the role of God the FATHER, then?
Main Point #2: God is POWERFUL CREATOR. God the FATHER, is powerful Creator.
According to our church creed: God is “the Creator of ALL things, visible and invisible”.
I’ve already referenced Genesis 1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” And we just got done studying our WAY through the book of Genesis, a couple weeks ago. So let me point us instead to just a few of the DOZENS of other passages throughout Scripture, Old AND New Testament, that highlight our Creator God, and his awesome power AS Creator. In fact - and I want someone to fact-check me on this, because I heard this somewhere in the past but I wasn’t able to conclusively confirm it this week in my research - but I’ve been told that other than God’s work of SALVATION, reconciling us to Himself through the death of His son Jesus on the cross in our place and raising Him from the dead to grant us eternal life in Christ, after THAT amazing feat of God the Father, the thing that Scripture PRAISES God for more than any other accomplishment or attribute, is His CREATION. God is to be praised for being such a powerful Creator.
Just listen (and I’ll give you the references for each passage; feel free to jot them down if you want to go back later and do what you’ve been MADE to do, and PRAISE God, as you re-read them for yourself and reflect on God’s GLORY in Creation. Or just take a drive west on Highway 109 at sunset this evening. Or better yet: take a drive, find a scenic lookout to pull over, THEN pull out your Bible and be DOUBLY reminded of how amazing God is, through both His Creation AND His word!)
Isaiah 40, we read it already: “Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing…
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.”
Nehemiah 9:5-6 “Bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. [For]... You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them [we’ll come back to that in just a moment, in point #3…]; and the whole host of heaven worships you.”
Isaiah 45:18-25, “For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens...
who formed the earth and made it...
“I am the Lord, and there is no other…
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’[d]
In the Lord all the offspring of Israel… shall glory.””
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above[a] proclaims his handiwork...”
Psalm 104: “Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
...He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment..
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures…
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works…
Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 139:13-14 “For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.”
Romans 1:19-20 “what can be known about God is plain to [all], because… his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. ”
1 Corinthians 8:6 “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist”
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father ”
Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Revelation 4:11 ““Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, [WHY??] for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.””
Friends, God is GREAT, and he is greatly to be PRAISED, because His CREATION is great! I’ve BEEN to the tops of the Rocky Mountains, just this summer, and looked out over Creation - and I don’t have enough FAITH to be an atheist! I’ve taken a human ANATOMY class - you’re trying to tell me that we are all just happy ACCIDENTS?! The product of random, unguided collisions of molecules over millions… billions… I don’t care: TRILLIONS of years; take as long as you WANT. Gazillions of years, of molecules randomly bumping into each other, and evolving over time, but without a CREATOR, you ain’t getting a HUMAN! I mean, how bad do you have to WANT there NOT to be a God, to look up at the stars in the night sky, or watch your child be born, and conclude that there’s NO creator. No higher power. I don’t think so! Romans 1 says, “No; we ALL know, deep down, that there’s a God.” Biblically speaking, there’s no such thing as a true atheist. We ALL know. The question is: will you WORSHIP him? Will you worship Him?
Friends, He is worthy of your worship. Because not only is He eternal Trinity, and powerful Creator, but...
#3: God is SOVEREIGN SUSTAINER. He is Sovereign Sustainer.
Our church creed says: God “knows all things and sovereignly rules over all things, ”
This is perhaps the most shocking, awe-inspiring truth of ALL about God the Father: that the same God who created the universe and all that is in it, from the most distant, undiscovered black hole, to the tallest mountain, down to the most minute and extravagant detail - the intricacy and complexity of the mantis shrimp’s eyeball, that same God CARES about the most minute and seemingly insignificant of all details.
Jesus said that God notices every time a bird falls off a branch (Matt 10:29); in fact, He said, “not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father.” God doesn’t just NOTICE; he actually oversees. He allows it all to happen, even CAUSES it to happen.
Jesus goes on: “even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Again: God doesn’t just notice - “Huh, only 34,728 hairs on his head; when the average is 100,000. Interesting” No; God CAUSED me to have 34,728 hairs. I can blame HIM for that! He numbered them before the beginning of TIME, and decided to give me exactly that many!
Because God is SOVEREIGN. “Having supreme power and authority”
Psalm 115:3 declares, “God… does all that he pleases.”
Job 42:2 “no purpose of [His] can be thwarted.”
Proverbs 19:21 “the purpose of the Lord will stand.”
Ephesians 1:11 “God works all things according to the counsel of his will”
He is SOVEREIGN.
And here’s why that is so wonderful: because AS the Sovereign King, who rules over all the universe, who has the power and authority to do anything and everything, and according to Scripture NOTHING happens outside of the counsel of His will, THAT God promises us that He’s working all things together for good if we belong to Him and love him. He’s not just Sovereign; he is our sovereign SUSTAINER. He takes CARE of us.
“Why do you say… O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?”
“God must have FORGOTTEN about me.”
No! ““Can a woman forget her nursing child?!
...Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you,” says the Lord, Isaiah 49:15.
Or Isaiah 46:3-4 - ““Listen to me, O house of Jacob…
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
4 even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will sustain you.
I have made, and I will keep;
I will carry and will save you.”
Or Isaiah 41:10 “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Or right here in ch40: “He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
Because God Himself has promised to sustain you, to the very end.
And do you know HOW He sustains us? You remember how the apostle Paul concludes that most famous passage in all of Scripture, on God’s promise of sovereign sustaining - Romans 8: “God works all things together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” What’s the very next verse?
“FOR [Because… I’m gonna tell you HOW God works it all together for good…]
FOR those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Translation: God sustains us by choosing us, and then changing us, to be like JESUS, by removing our sin, so that we might be adopted as God’s own children. And friends, God does NOT forget his children: “Those whom he justified he also glorified.” Glorification means “making it to Heaven”. Paul says: “you’ve already BEEN glorified!” Past tense. It is FINISHED. Your name is written, in INK, in the Lamb’s Book of Life!
IF… IF… you’ve trusted in Jesus.
So let me invite you, in closing, to trust in Jesus. Our response to who God is, is that We should WORSHIP.
As our statement of faith affirms: “He is worthy to receive all glory and adoration.”
To worship literally means to “assign worth”. And how do you “assign worth”, how do we “give value” to God the Father? By valuing the things that HE values. God says “if you love me, you’ll keep my commands.” God values human life, so we do too. God values justice, so we do too. He values holiness, purity, righteousness, so we do too. God values His Creation, the environment, so we do too.
But what does God value more than ANYTHING else, in ALL of Creation? His SON! JESUS! 2 Peter 1:17 “when Jesus had received honor and glory from God the Father, the voice [said] “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. God VALUES His son - he bestows on him HONOR and GLORY; God LOVES his son (“my beloved son”); and God DELIGHTS in His son (“with whom I am well pleased”).
And the greatest mystery of ALL, is that the eternal, triune, powerful, Creator, sovereign, sustaining God of all the universe wanted relationship with US so bad, loved US so much, that He did not WITHHOLD his only begotten son, but sent him to die so that sinners like us might be reconciled TO God the Father.
THAT is the gospel. And for THAT glorious truth, we worship God the Father for choosing us, we worship Christ the Son for saving us, and we worship God the Holy Spirit for regenerating us. Praise God!