The PATIENCE of God.

The PATIENCE of God.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland, Pastor

God is patient and slow to anger. God preached His own character and nature and said to Moses: “the Lord…slow to anger” (Ex 34:6). One of the repeated qualities of God all throughout the Bible is that God is “slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Ps 103:8; Neh. 9:17; Num 14:18). For God to be patient means that He is marvelously long-tempered. He delays His wrath and His judgment. He doesn’t have to and nor does He always choose to do this the same way, but God wonderfully chooses to withhold wrath. History shows and demonstrates God’s profound patience with humanity. 

The patience of God consists in a deliberate, perfect, gracious forbearance. He can do this because “the LORD is slow to anger and great in power” (Nahum 1.3). All sinners are called and summoned (by God Himself!) to repent and return to this God genuinely with a true heart because God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger (Joel 2.13).  

It has rightly been called the “the majestic restraint of the Almighty.” In the face of human sin, rebellion, transgression, and great evil, God has marvelously delayed His wrath. God surely has all power to bring judgment on sin but He chooses, according to His wise and perfect designs, to delay and withhold His wrath for a time.  Don’t mistake it: God does not overlook sin; rather, He delays His wrath. God is not apathetic toward sin; He simply delays the punishment. 

God is a patient God not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3.9). We cannot think lightly (trivialize it, take advantage of it) of his patience (Rom 2.4) because it is meant to lead sinners to repentance! Sometimes, in the amazingly mysterious decrees and infinite sovereignty of God, He bears long with sinners and endures patiently with them as vessels of wrath who are prepared for destruction (Rom 9.22).  But, the patience of God must serve as a mighty catalyst to run quickly, immediately, unhesitatingly, and humbly to Jesus Christ for salvation! Delay not! God’s patience may not continue till tomorrow. Repent, return to Him, and be saved now, while God has given you time.

Ah, but for the child of God, for the believer, the patience of God is so humbling because we remember how manifoldly we have slighted Him, and sinned against Him, and broken His Law, and dishonored His wondrous Name and yet He has so patiently delayed His wrath and rather He has summoned us to His own dear Son. Our blessed Christ took infinite and holy wrath in our place and in our room. The patience of God cannot ever lead us to presumption but to humiliation and obedience!  God is patient with us because the Savior, Jesus, pleads in Heaven for us right now. Even when we sin, God remains patient because Christ has most wondrously paid for our sin and pleads for us in heaven to His Father.  

Oh, let the patience of God toward you prompt you to be patient with others! Patience is a Spirit-given fruit to every believer. Patience is what fosters and nurtures unity (Ephesians 4:2). Every day, believers are to put on patience (Col. 3.12). Follow Jesus patiently, perseveringly, continually as one who will inherit the promises soon (Hebrews 6.12). 

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The UNCHANGEABLENESS of God.

The UNCHANGEABLENESS of God.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland, pastor

 

Theologians call the unchangeableness of God the immutability of God. This means that God cannot and does not change. If God alone is perfect then He cannot change or he would then cease being perfect and become something else. But God everlastingly remains the same — yesterday, today, and forever. He says: “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3.6).  His being does not change. His essence and character never alters. His attributes never fluctuate. God never has a bad day. God never has a mood-swing. God never is frustrated because things don’t go His way. 

Men change and rise and fall. Animals are born and then die. All creation changes and shifts and is altered over time. But God, God alone, from the very beginning of time, indeed from all infinite eternities past, has never ever changed even in the slightest. He is the towering Rock, the eternal Lord, the unchanging God, and the mighty fortress. 

Kingdoms have come and gone. Rulers, Kings, princes, monarchs, Pharaohs, Prime Ministers and Presidents have taken office and then passed away. But God’s royal rulership and steady Kingship have not changed — ever!  This also means that God cannot learn anything. He never forgets anything. He never grows in wisdom. He can’t improve. He shall not enhance his knowledge of a circumstance or a possibility. All things are perfectly known and governed and ruled over by God alone. 

The unchangeableness of God means that everything God has purposed and decreed shall be accomplished. The unchangeableness of God also requires that God fulfill all His promises. Here is a solid footing for you to rest your weary, tired, fatigued, uncertain, and anxious heart. Come to the immutability of your God and gaze on His unchanging love for you. And bow low and worship Him! 

This attribute of God should instill absolute fear and dreadful horror in the hearts of all the unsaved. The God who has promised to repay the wicked to their faces (Deut 7.11) and that God’s soul abhors the covenant-breakers (Lev.26.30) and that God will punish the evildoers (Luke 13.27) and that the day of reckoning is coming with Christ the Judge when He will cast all unbelievers into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:15). Oh, this should compel unbelieving sinners to run quickly and decisively to Christ Jesus the Rock, the Substitute, the Lamb of God. 

For the believer, the unchangeableness provides immeasurable comfort and hope. The God who has made promise after promise shall fulfill them all! Our God has set sovereign, wondrous love upon us from eternity past and shall save all of them and bring them to His heavenly dwelling to worship Him forevermore. Christ’s crosswork shall always succeed and save. Not one sheep will ever be lost. Worship and bow low and consider deeply the unchangeableness of your mighty God!

 

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The FOREKNOWLEDGE of God.

The FOREKNOWLEDGE of God.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland, Pastor

 *This is part 5 in the ongoing series on the attributes of God!

For God to foreknow something means more than just God knowing an event *before it takes place*. The foreknowledge of God is a personal, relational, loving, intimate reality.  it is an attribute of God that speaks of His sovereign choosing to set his love upon an object. For those whom God foreknew, these He predestined (Romans 8:28-29).  

In the Scriptures, to know someone often speaks of more than just knowledge about some facts. It speaks of relational nearness and closeness.  Adam knew Eve his wife (Genesis 4.1). Jesus knows His own sheep by name (John 10:14). Jesus will say to the unbelievers: “Depart from me… I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).  These verses speak of more than just informational facts, but a real nearness and intimacy (or lack thereof for the unbelievers) with Jesus Christ. 

Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). That means that the Father had a perfect plan with Jesus in perfect, relational, intimate love for Him to come and suffer and die for us. Jesus was delivered over by the foreknowledge of God (Acts 2.23). This is more than just God *knowing* something ahead of time. He had a real, close, perfect, intimate plan with the Son to come and save sinners. 

Why is someone a Christian? It’s because God sovereignly, lovingly, tenderly, and particularly foreknew us.  Why is someone converted and a child of God? Because God relationally set his intimate care and watchful love upon a particular few. This is the foreknowledge of God. What peace of heart this brings.  What comfort to doubting souls!  What hope this provides for wandering hearts. You, as a foreknown child of God can say: I am eternally loved, eternally kept, eternally His, eternally united to God through Jesus Christ.  This is the sweet and saving foreknowledge of God.  Let this calm your heart, comfort your soul, compel you to godly obedience, and cast away every fear. Your security of entering heaven is not about your strong hold on Christ but on His sovereign foreknowledge and intimate love for you — a love that He set upon you infinite eternities ago.  And he did it by love!  Rejoice!

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The KNOWLEDGE of God.

The KNOWLEDGE of God.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

*This is part 4 of the ongoing summer series on the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

 

God is knowable. The highest study that man can pursue is the knowledge of God. It is the queen of all the sciences. All studies of all topics of all areas of life and existence should lead to the worship of God and the greater knowledge of God!  God is the knowable God.  We cannot know everything there is to know about God (for He is exhaustive and infinite) but we can really and truly know this God. He cannot be exhaustively known but He can be genuinely known. 

The knowledge of God begins with the self-revelation of God. No one can possibly know God unless God first reveals Himself. And this He has done in three ways:  (1) in creation as He reveals His power, glory, order, stability and attributes;  (2) in special revelation of Scripture as we learn of this God sufficiently and perfect through the pages of the Bible;  and (3) in the Person of Jesus Christ the Son as He is the exact radiance of the Father and the perfect representation of His nature.  Thus, it is possible and dutiful to study and know God. 

It must be that we derive of our knowledge of God accurately — from the Scriptures. No one can contrive His own way to learn of God. No one can add to or fabricate his own idea of God independently of Scripture. We must go to the all-sufficient revelation of God, the Scriptures alone, to reveal who God is truly, gloriously, majestically, and sovereignly. 

God declares of His people: “they will all know me” (Jeremiah 31:34). Jesus the Good Shepherd says: “I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). All believers are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).  And we must pray for ourselves and for one another that we would increase in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10). And, true believers who have been known by God savingly can say with Paul: “I want to know Him…” (Philippians 3:10).  

The fact that God, this perfect and infinite God, is knowable compels all of us to study Him daily, to contemplate Him deeply, to ponder and mediate on Him humbly, to obey Him unquestionably, to proclaim and declare Him happily, and to thank and praise Him consistently.  Oh let the knowledge of this great God take you deeper into the infinite glories of divine beauty so that you will go deeper in knowledge of Him which will fuel your lofty worship of Him and your heartfelt fear and obedience to him! 

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The SOVEREIGNTY of God.

The SOVEREIGNTY of God.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland, pastor (Christ Fellowship Bible Church)

*This is part 3 of a blog series on the Attributes of God

 

The sovereignty of God fills the pages of Scripture from beginning to end. This marvelous & towering doctrine means that God is King.  As King, He has perfect decrees, plans, wisdom, protection, provisions and guarantees to ensure all His purposes are accomplished.  For God to be sovereign means that God is God. It means that He is in control — of everything.  Every single thing. This blows our minds. 

God is in control of the bird weaving a nest together.  God has ordained the laws of nature (all of them). God has created the world with His own effortless spoken Word (instantly without delay). God rules over heaven, over hell, over the righteous, over the unrighteous, over all angels, and over all circumstance in all the universe. 

God reigns as King sovereignly in a WISE and perfect manner. Everything he does is full of powerful wisdom. God reigns as King sovereignly in a GOOD manner. It would be tragic to have a powerful but corrupt king. It would be a pity to have a merciful but powerless King. But we have a Good King who is infinitely wise and powerful.  

Furthermore, this God is sovereign over the salvation of sinners. None can be saved apart from His merciful and compassionate mercy. God alone can raise the dead! He alone can give life to hell-bound and God-hating sinners (which we all were born that way). God alone can conquer sin, death, Satan, and the grave because Christ has died for sin (as King) and was buried and was raised (as King) and is now seated at the right of God in heaven at the highest place of honor and worship (as King).  Hallelujah!

Jesus will return again as the Lion-like King to righteously judge and slay all His enemies. He’ll cast them into hell. He will establish His kingdom on earth and rule over all nations as glorious, righteous King!  And this King is with you! This King is for you. This King has died for His elect. Why worry?  Why be afraid?  Why dabble in sin?  Why indulge in evil?  Our Sovereign King is wise and good and supreme and satisfying. He is in control of everything. Let God be God. Trust His Kingly and Wise goodness in every area of your life. Knowing God’s sovereignty comforts your heart when you’re unsure of the future, worried about a situation, fearful about a meeting, and confused about events out of your control. The Lord reigns!  Let your heart rest behind the mighty shield of God’s sovereignty!

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The EXCLUSIVITY of God

The Exclusivity of God

Geoffrey R. Kirkland, Pastor

 

The exclusivity of God means that God is God alone.  There is none like Him, none comparable to Him, none equal to Him, and none besides Him. 

 

Our God, the God of the Bible is the only God. He is the only True God.  He is the only Living God. That means there is no other created thing or being in all the universe that is comparable to our God. He is the infinite One, robed with perfect Majesty, triumphant and splendid over all other things.  King David said: There is none like you and no one besides you!   Jeremiah prayed and said: there is none like you O LORD for you are great and great is your Name in might. 

 

For God to be exclusive means that He alone reigns as supreme. It demands our sole and exclusive allegiance, praise, thanksgiving, worship and honor for Him. It means that we should live our days, with all our might and exerting all our energies for His supremacy. 

 

The exclusivity of God means that we are not God. But He alone is God.  It means we are under Him, accountable to Him, servants belonging to Him, and entirely at His bidding. He alone — as God — decrees and determines what is best for us and how and when our lives will begin and end.  God Himself decrees: “I am the LORD and there is none else.”

 

The exclusivity of God calls you to humility before His majesty.  It beckons your highest praise because He alone is perfectly, constantly and marvelously good and wise.  It summons you to heartfelt worship and thanksgiving.  It also means you and I should open our mouths and speak of our God for He alone is always and ever the great one, the perfect one, the unrivaled one.  Satan is not God’s arch-rival. God has no arch-rivals. God is entirely exclusive with none to stay his hand and resist God’s bidding and decrees.  So let the exclusivity of God propel you to worship Him for there is none like Him. And He gives Himself fully, personally, relationally, constantly to you. He says: I am YOUR God and You are My people!  Marvel! Worship! And praise the exclusivity of your God!

 

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The HOLINESS of God.

THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

The holiness of God describes and defines God as different than His creation. Holy is the only attribute and description of God that is mentioned three times for superlative emphasis. He is Holy! Holy! Holy! The holiness of God is not just an attribute (or, a description) of God. It is the very beauty of Who God is. It is the perfect sum total of all that God is and how He deals with all His creation. For God to be holy means that He is set-apart and different.  He is holy MAJESTICALLY — because he is different than his creation in his essence, in his being, in his perfections, in his God-hood.  He is holy MORALLY — because is he totally set-apart and distinct from everything that is profane, sinful, and corrupt. He is holy DELIGHTFULLY — because God is infinitely happy and perfectly delighted in Himself and in His perfections. 

When you begin to understand the holiness of God, you will necessarily come to realize your own vileness and sinfulness and despicableness before this perfectly pure God. Isaiah saw God’s holiness (in Isaiah 6) and immediately cried out: “Woe is me, for I am undone!” The great problem of the world today — and of many professing ‘Christians’ nowadays — is a loss of the magnitude and wonder of the Holiness of God. This Holy God is not to be joked about, trifled with, toyed with, bargained with, or ignored. To behold God’s holiness is to see His beauty, and then to realize our fallenness and depravity. And all of this then leads us to God’s Majestic Son, the Holy Lord of Glory, who clothes us with His own pure righteousness so we can not only stand before God’s holiness, and behold God’s holiness, but actually delight in God’s holiness.  The only way that sinners like us can draw near to this purely holy God is to come to Christ by faith, and be clothed in His holy righteousness (2 Cor.5:21) and then we begin to behold His glory, enjoy His delights, and reflect His holiness.  Without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). 

Because your God is holy, worship Him with trembling and with humility.  Walk with purity, devotion, and intentionality. Hate every stain of sin, every temptation that assaults your soul, and every corruption of this world.  Consider your Holy God! The angels in heaven cry Holy Holy Holy! The saints on earth must reflect His holiness! How can you grow today in enjoying God’s holiness and reflecting God’s holiness?

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