The Greatness of God – Dr. Charles Stanley
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Devotional, subscribe today in touch with Dr Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through sound biblical teaching next on in touch, the greatness of God.
When you think of God, what comes to your mind?
Is it a person, person with the body, a force some kind of power, maybe some kind of ethereal kind of energy or maybe you just draw a blank.
You don’t have any idea what God is like.
I think most people’s idea of God is the kind of person somewhere sitting out yonder in space who is controlling some things or maybe most things, but certainly not all things people have all kinds of ideas about what God is like.
But probably most people have an idea about God that best suits them.
Somebody who overlooks sin as someone who wants to do the best for them.
At least most of the time, someone who is around part of the time, someone who is more like an old grandfather or maybe an emergency cord that you can pull in time of need.
But what’s he really like?
And if you had to describe not just what your God does, but what is the being of your God?
Like, what would you say? How would you describe God?
Don’t tell me what He does, but how do you do? How would you describe His being?
Who is, and what is this God?
Well, one thing for certain, all the way through the scriptures, it’s very clear God’s opinion of himself.
God’s revelation of himself and what He wants you to know about Him.
I would not even begin to be so proud for us to tell you that I’m gonna tell you what God is like because I don’t believe there’s anybody on the face of this earth who can do that adequately.
I don’t believe there’s any words to convey adequately who God is and what He’s like in the light of the way I would like to know all that there is to know about Him.
But one thing for certain, if you’re gonna get a proper accurate view of God, you’ll have to open this book and find out what it says about God because this is God’s revelation.
This is God’s unveiling of his character, of his being, of his attributes, his attributes, of those characteristics of God, those things that describe who He is in His being and what he is able and capable of doing and what He does.
And so when you look in the scriptures, you’ll find throughout the Bible that when we think in terms of God’s greatness, the Bible speaks of the Majesty of God, the greatness of God, his great majesty.
Now, when you uh when you talk of somebody’s majesty, what you’re doing is you, you are speaking and referring to their greatness and you are certainly acknowledging reverently in a way of concerning them, for example, like the people in England and say her majesty, the queen.
When you turn to the word of God, everywhere you find Majesty, you’re gonna find a relationship to God.
You’re gonna find a reference to Him because God is a great God. And that’s what Majesty really means.
It means greatness. And I want you to turn for example, just for one verse or two there in Psalm 93 he says the Lord reigns.
He is clothed with majesty. God is clothed with greatness.
And then if you slip all the way over to Second Peter, for example, chapter one.
And here is a reference to what Peter was more than likely referring to when he and James and John met the Lord Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.
And the Lord Jesus was just transformed right in front of them with Moses and Elijah.
And he says in verse 16 of this first chapter of Second Peter, but we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
We witnessed his greatness as he spoke with Moses and Elijah then go back two or three books here to Hebrews chapter one for a moment and notice how the right of Hebrews begins this entire book because it is all about Jesus and his atoning death at Caribe.
Listen to how he begins. Speaking of revelation.
He says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world.
And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature referring to the father and upholds all things by the word of his power.
When he that is Jesus had made purification of sins.
He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Jesus recognized the majesty of the Father all through the Old Testament, the New Testament.
When we recognize who God is, we certainly say He is majestic. Indeed, God is a great God.
And we sing Majesty, we sing of His majesty and we refer to his majesty, the Lord Jesus Christ, his majesty, God, the Father.
We think of His Majesty being his greatness.
So when you think about God and somebody says to you will tell me, tell me about your God.
What would you say if you cannot give them just simply versus of scripture or if you could not say to them, here’s what God does.
No, that’s not the question. The question is not, what does he do? But what is He like?
Who is this God? I wonder how you would answer that.
And I want you to be able to be sure that you can define to someone to the best of my knowledge.
Here is the God whom I serve.
And if you let them tell you who their God is in comparison to who your God is.
You’re gonna want to pray for them because they want to know Christ as their savior.
Sooner or later, once they understand, they have no earthly idea concerning the God of the Bible. That’s the God.
I’m gonna have to face the judgment. This is the God who is our creator.
This is the God with whom we live every day.
This is the God, to whom we have to give an account for our life. Who is this God?
Well, I want you to turn if you will to Isaiah chapter 40.
And what I’d like to do is to take just a portion of this chapter to give you an idea of His greatness.
And I want us to look at several verses and love to take this entire chapter, but we’d be here till dinner time tonight on this chapter.
This is an absolutely fantastic chapter And I want you to notice just several verses in this 40th chapter because here’s what he says, Isaiah is saying, God is greater than this.
Is this majestic God whom you and I serve. First of all, he’s great.
Listen, he’s greater than his own creation.
Look what he says, verse 12, who has, who has measured the waters in the whole of his hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales who has directed the spirit of the Lord or who is his counselor or who has informed him, God is greater than the creation.
He’s greater than everything is great.
He says, listen, he says, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
Think about all the oceans, all the seas, all the legs, all the streams, although he’s put them in his hand, He says, not only is he great in the creation, but he is greater than the nation’s verse 15.
Behold. Look. He says, the nations of the world are like a drop of water from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales.
How heavy is a speck of dust on the scales? It does not even move the scale God.
Listen, God is not impressed by our worlds are nations.
He says they’re like a drop of a bucket in his might and power and his greatness.
Look, if you will in verse 18, all the idols that people worship to whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare with him?
As for the idol, a craftsman casts a Goldsmith plates it with gold, the silversmith fashions chains of silver.
He who is too impoverished for such an offering, selects a tree that does not right?
He seeks out for himself, a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter, an idol that is lifeless, an idol that cannot speak an idol that cannot hear, cannot smell, cannot see, cannot answer your prayers, cannot empower.
You cannot go with you, an idol that is absolutely worthless.
He says, God is above and beyond all our idols, then if you’ll notice, he says he’s above.
Listen, he is above and beyond all of this world.
Verse 22 it is he who sits above the vault or the circle of the earth.
Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in verse 23.
He is greater than the greatest of all men.
He he it is who reduces rulers to nothing who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
He is greater than all the heavens, all the Galaxies, all the constellations, everything he’s created the heavens.
Look at you in verse 26 lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars.
The one who leads forth their host by number.
He calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might, the strength of his power, not one of them is missing.
Not a one. Then I want you to read a passage because I just want you to remember this for your own good.
Look, if you will, if you’ll notice in verse 28, do you not know?
And have you not heard the everlasting God? The Lord that created the ends of the earth?
He doesn’t become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary, the Him who lacks might. He increases power though the youth shall grow weary.
Entire vigorous young men shall stumble badly. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.
They will mount up with wings like eagles, run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary.
That is the great God whom you and I serve.
Now, he gives us a very clear warning in the scripture.
I want you to go back to this 20th chapter of exodus.
Now he is the person of the God. He’s the person that God had.
Listen to what he says.
Now I’m gonna go, I’m gonna read these verses again for a very specific reason.
And then I want you to show you why, listen, I want to show you why idolatry is so heinous in the eyes of God.
Why it’s such blasphemy in the eyes of God. Why it is so horrible in the eyes of God.
Listen to what he says verse one.
Now back to chapter 20 then God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord, your God who brought you in the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. Now listen to this next verse.
You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth, beneath or in the water under the earth.
What is He saying? He says, you’re not, you’re not to make you not to take anything that is in existence and make a God out of it.
Now, now, why, why, why does that bring God’s such grief? Here’s the reason because of who He is.
Listen, he is. He is the majestic, great awesome God of this universe above and beyond every single thing that there is holy, above all things that are wholly wiser, more omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all the characteristics, all the attributes of God, no human tongue can spell them all, no mind can conceive of them all.
And here He is the awesome God. And here’s what idolaters do.
They create something, four footed living beast, something that crawls something that creeps something that flies and they bow down to worship that.
Here’s what they’ve done. They have taken this awesome God, this and this eternal everlasting God and they have brought him down out of his majesty and greatness and holiness and power and they have confined him to an oxen or a calf and they in the old testament made a golden calf so that they could worship this calf.
What have they done? They have absolutely insulted God.
They’ve made the God of the universe look like a calf.
They’ve made the God of the universe look like an eagle or a reptile.
Something that is creeping, sleeping along in the earth. That is absolute, totally dishonoring to God.
God hates idolatry. Anything.
Listen, anything that takes preeminence in our life, anything that controls us, anything that we bow down to anything that we submit ourselves to above almighty God.
He says you’re to worship me and worship me only.
So when you ask a friend, well, tell me about your God.
See if they say anything in the world about the fact that He is spirit.
See if they see any, if they tell you anything in the world about the fact that He because he’s spirit, that means it’s if He can be infinite.
God is absolutely infinite.
Take any one of his attributes, justice, righteousness, judgment, love, kindness, whatever it is.
Here’s what you’ll find in every single attribute. He is infinite in that area.
Think about this God’s love is infinite immeasurable, indescribable.
But listen, wonderful enough to know that when you and I are loved by Him, when you and I are loved by Him.
There is this awesome sense of wonderful joy and peace and contentment and happiness.
Knowing that the God of this universe has condescended to love people like you and me infinite.
Listen, infinite is righteousness. How right is God in the absolute infinity?
Of what right can be like how merciful is God more merciful than the whole human race could possibly be.
So He’s infinite. That means time and space cannot contain him. As we said, being spirit, being infinite.
You can’t say he’s over yonder back end over there that he is everything that he is in his absolute total possibility and only God knows how infinite He is.
So if you and I, for example, we said, well, how much do you love somebody?
We have a line on a sheet of paper, we’d say well, that that far.
But now love them this much further and this much further.
If you drew a line to explain the infinity of the love of God, listen, you couldn’t see the end in either direction.
Now, listen, nor would there be an end in either direction because it is infinite, ood indescribable and immeasurable the God of this universe.
That’s why he talked about the nation is being like a drop of water in the bucket, like 11 speck of dust on the scales.
What is he saying? How much, how much, how much does one speck of dust on the scales way?
Does it weigh how much do all the nations of the world and listen, all of our power and our bite and our nuclear energy and all of our alarms and all the things we think about what we’re gonna do.
We’re gonna do this and the other.
And God says the end of that, in fact, he doesn’t even have to blow on it.
All he has to do is think it and it’s absolutely annihilated.
Well, I think about lost people and I’m not being critical, my friend and I think about people who do not know God.
So here’s what I’m gonna do when I get before the God of judgment, here’s what I’m gonna tell him.
You’re not gonna tell him anything. Absolutely nothing that you’re gonna tell him. Remember who He is.
He is the God of this universe who controls every single drop of water, every law, every principle.
He is an absolute control of every single thing. There’s not anything that’s out of his control.
He is infinite. Where is he go back to Psalm? 1 39 for a moment.
Psalm 1 39. Look at this wonderful passage of scripture.
Now, if you’re living in sin is not a very good passage, but it’s a great passage.
If you’re not. Look at this, the summer says in verse seven, Psalm 1 39 where can I go from thy spirit?
He didn’t say where can I go from your body?
He said, Where can I go from your spirit? Listen to this. Where can I flee?
Where can I flee from thy presence? Why you wanna get away from God?
If I ascend to heaven, you’re there. If I make my bed and she, oh behold, there are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there, thy hand will lead me and thy right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night.
Even the darkness is not dark to the and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to the, where are you going to get away from God.
I don’t know about you, but I’m glad I’m grateful that He’s a person with whom I can talk and He is spirit that is, I can’t get a listen.
Even though sometimes I may have wanted to get away from Him. Thank God. I couldn’t thank God you couldn’t.
The last thing you want to do is to be able to get away from God.
You cannot, it doesn’t make any sense what you do, where you go, how much you covered up that He says the darkness and the sun shine are just the same with Him.
He sees through it all. There is no escape from God.
Who is this wondrous, great, mighty, awesome being person who is spirit, who is infinity.
And so what did he say his disciples?
He said, as you go make disciples of all nations baptizing them.
He says in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit teaching them, he said to observe all the things that I have commanded you.
And he says, Lo I’m with you all the way even at the end of this age.
Well, how could he be with the apostle Paul and Peter and James and John and other pastors and myself and you and everybody else, how can he be with us?
Because he is a person and he is a spirit and he’s unlimited by anything that means listen, when every single one of us go home today, let’s say that all of us got on our knees at the same time to pray tonight.
Let’s say 11 o’clock tonight, we’re all in prayer. Well, as God is God in your bedroom or your dent.
Yes, he is in mind. Yes, because you see he’s spirit. He cannot be contained by man.
He is so awesome. He can’t even be contained in the mind of man, in the Burbage of man, in the presence of man in the body of man.
Absolutely totally infinity. He is unlimited in every aspect.
And think about this when I think about who he is, I can tell you personally this morning, when I got on my knees this morning before I came.
And I was just thinking over this message, I found myself weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping.
Why just one reason when I think about how great he is And that he would save me as a 12 year old kid and he wouldn’t let me waste and wreck and ruin my life.
And that he’s answered thousands of prayers and been good and kind and gracious and loving and forgiving over and over and over again.
Who makes his presence known?
Speaks to my heart and lets me talk to him and assures me he’s heard me and he loves me unconditionally.
How could I ever, how could I ever choose not to worship him and praise him and love him and obey him to the best of my God given ability.
How could I do otherwise? How could you do otherwise?
That’s just a little glimpse of who God is.
And I want to ask you my friend, if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, what do you have?
You don’t have anything. And he said he that comes to the father must come by me.
I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father.
But by me, if you’re willing to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, he will wipe your slate clean.
He wipes the blood of the lamb, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who died at Calvary.
He will change your life. Listen, he won’t change, but I guarantee you he will change your eternal destiny in a split second faster than you can bat your eyes.
That’s the offer of God.
And if you’re wise, you’ll take the offer.
