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Volume. XXV, No. 34 The Lord is G-R-E-A-T (Part 2)In Part 1 last week, I indicated that each individual letter in the word “G-R-E-A-T” represents some character of God. They are as follows: 1. The letter G stands for G-OD. 2. The letter R stands for R-EDEEMER. 3. The letter E stands for E-MANCIPATOR. 4. The letter A stands for A-DVOCATE. 5. The letter T stands for T-RANSFORMER. In Part 2, we will consider the letter “G” in GREAT. Great G-OD Who is this Great God? He is the One in whom we believed and who sent His Only-Begotten Son to us to shed His Precious Blood and to die on the cross to save us from eternal damnation. This God is not only Great, but He is the Mighty One, the Lord of hosts. Jer 32:18 “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name”. God is all powerful – He is omnipotent. Jer 32:17 “Ah Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee”. Our Great God is the one living and true God. There is nothing too hard for Him. Deut 6:4 “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord”. Jer 10:10 “But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king”. The Word of God declares He is the One Lord, who is the Living True God. The Lord God is all powerful. By His great power He created the heaven and the earth, and created them out of nothing. He just said “Let” and the creation happened. Gen 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light”. When God said “Let”, the light appeared. In verses 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, 20, 24, and 26 of Genesis 1 the Lord God used the word “Let” in all these verses to create. Every “Let” was followed by a perfect creation. There is nothing that he cannot do and there is nothing too difficult for God to do. Luke 1:37“For with God nothing shall be impossible”. Despite his all-powerful nature he is still merciful. For man, when he becomes powerful, mercy and lovingkindness may not follow, but with God, mercy, love, and forgiveness come with power. He shows lovingkindness to us and is always willing to forgive our sins – if we repent. He is omnipotent, meaning His power is infinite, awesome, amazing and unimaginable by our feeble minds. In Rev 1:7 “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen”. Some say the earth is round and they wonder how people from opposite ends of the poles would see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, at the same instant when he comes in the clouds at His Second Coming. There is no need to use human technology or any form of human assistance – for the Lord God is omnipotent, he will appear and everyone from whichever corner of this earth will see him. How this is going to happen I have no idea, but I know this for a fact - if we try to question this or have doubts, we are actually suggesting that this Great God of ours is not omnipotent, but impotent! If the Word of God says that “every eye shall see him” let us accept this without question and with faith that our God can do it. His omnipotence extends further in that He cannot lie. Heb 6:18 says “It is impossible for God to lie”. Tit 1:2 says “God cannot lie”. If He cannot lie, He cannot sin either. Our God can therefore be trusted and is faithful. God is all knowing. Our Great God is omniscient. He has infinite knowledge of all things. Acts 15:18 says “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world”. God knows everything and all things. Nothing is hidden from him. He sees and knows our thoughts and desires, and our actions. While we can hide our thoughts, desires and actions from man, we cannot hide them from God. God sees through us! When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3) God knew that straight away. When Cain murdered Abel, God was a witness (Gen 4). Whatever we do good or bad, God is our silent witness. Even our unkind thoughts of others are known to Him! We will face God one day and we will have to give an account of what we have done. Are we ready for that day? As God is omniscient, He is also all-wise. Rom 16:27 “To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen”. God is really wise, wiser than any wise or intelligent man on this earth. He is smarter than our best genius! God is the best teacher, the best physician, the best creator, the best sculptor, the best of every thing – no one can beat him. 1 Cor 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men”. God is never foolish, but if ever God were foolish, His foolishness would still be wiser than men. Man can be wise, but he will never have the full wisdom of God. Man will never be stronger than God. God is in control and on the throne. God will continue to be so today and tomorrow, as He had done so in the past. Our God is sovereign! John 15:5 “For without me ye can do nothing”. We do well to remember this for the rest of our lives. God is everywhere – He is omnipresent. He is immutable! Ps 139:7 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?”. King David said in this Psalm that he could not run away from God. We cannot run from the presence of God. He is everywhere. He is in this House of God with us and watching us. He is in heaven right now, and also in the depths of the ocean. Even in hell there is the presence of God. 1 Tim 1:17 “Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen”. We cannot see Him nor can we touch Him. He can see us. God is a Spirit. A spirit has no body like ours. John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”. To worship God without knowing what He is like is difficult indeed. Man in his evil imagination has made images, pictures to represent God but He has specifically commanded that we are not to do such things. We commit a terrible sin if we worship any image, or picture representing God! Even though God is invisible and a Spirit, He is immutable, meaning unchangeable. Mal 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed”. God was the same God thousands of years ago and will remain so now and the future. Heb 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever”. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the same Lord and God yesterday, today and will be the same tomorrow. His Word is valid for all generations and for all ages. If He never changes and His Word remains the same, then the Word of God is valid today! God is from everlasting to everlasting. God is eternal. Rev 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty”. The Lord is eternal. He has no beginning or ending. He is from everlasting to everlasting. God has always existed and will continue to exist. He will never become extinct! God was there when the world was created. Psalm 90:1-2 “1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God”. How did our wise men, the scientists, get it so wrong by dreaming up evolution? How did they work out that the universe or the earth for that matter was billions of years old? Did they have pictures of those days? Did they have witnesses? In other words, to quote the words of that noted creationist, Dr Ken Ham, “were you there?” in the beginning of time to make so many assumptions, theories, and even “facts”? Of course not. They only speculate. They put their trust in dating methods that gives timeframes of millions of years which have been proven to be unreliable. They refuse to listen to and believe in the Word of God. The Lord God was the beginning and the ending of our universe as we know it. He will be there when this present world ends and when a new era comes into effect (when there is a new heaven and a new earth). Let us come and accept this fact – that our God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. …….to be continued next week. Elder Michael D Lee |
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