Sermon #22 Series: Who Is God?
Title: The Life of God
Text: Ephesians 4:18
Reading:
Subject: Life As An Attribute of God
Date: Tuesday Evening - July 3, 1990
Tape #
Introduction:
When I first announced to you that I
would preach a series of messages on the attributes of God, I thought it would
be a series of ten or twelve messages. That was 21 sermons ago. Tonight’s
message is #22. And I am only scratching the surface! But my purpose in
preaching these messages is that you and I may, with our hearts, behold the
supreme excellence, glory, and greatness of God, and that we may be consumed by
it. If we are, indeed, consumed with a sense of God’s greatness and glory, we
will do whatever we can to make him known. And that is my heart’s desire. I
pray that God will be pleased to make himself known by us in this generation (1
Kgs. 18:36-39)
·
I want us to
know God (John 17:3).
·
I want us to
live in the comfort of knowing God.
·
And I want us
to make God known to others.
I
can think of nothing more suitable to that end than a study of the divine
attributes. Tonight, if the Lord will enable me, I want to preach to you about The Life of God. In Ephesians 4:18,
Paul tells us that all unbelievers, all unregenerate men and women, live in the
vanity of their minds, “Having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” But
the believer, those who are born again, are by the grace of God made partakers
of the life of God.
I realize that it is impossible for
us, with our puny, finite brains to comprehend the life of God. I only hope
this evening to set before you a sense of the infinite, incomprehensible
greatness of God’s life.
Proposition:
God is life; and apart from him there is no life.
Divisions:
1.
God is life
essentially.
2.
God is life
eternally.
3.
God is life
efficiently.
I. GOD IS LIFE ESSENTIALLY.
There are many forms of life in the universe. The lowest
form of life is plant life. In animals there is a higher degree of life. Like
us, animals breathe, see, smell, hear, taste, and feel. Like us, they eat and
drink. But there is a much higher form of life in God’s rational creatures, in
angels and men. Angels and men have all the sense of life possessed by plants
and animals; but we have other senses of life which set us apart from those
lower creatures. Angels and men are rational creatures, capable of
understanding, affection, and will. However, there is still a much higher form
of life among God’s creatures, spiritual life. Spiritual life is that which is
given to men and women in the new birth. It is a principle of life, grace, and
holiness implanted in us by the Spirit of God.
·
Spiritual life
makes us partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; Gal. 2:20).
·
And spiritual
life produces in the believer a nature that is as far above natural human life
as human life is above plant life (Gal. 5:22-23).
But even this highest form of life
among God’s creatures falls far short, infinitely short, of that life which is
God. All creature life is derived life. God is life essentially. All creatures
get life from God. God gets life from no one. He is life!
A.
God is life in and of himself (John 5:26).
God the Father has life in himself.
And he has given to the Son, (not to the Son as God, but to the Son as Man), as
our Mediator to have life in himself.
1.
God the Father
is life.
2.
God the Son is
life (John 1:1-4).
3.
And God the
Spirit is life (Rev. 11:11 - “The Spirit
of life.”).
B.
Because God is life in and of himself, God’s life is totally free and
independent.
There is no cause for his life and nothing upon which his
life is dependent. Our lives, both naturally and spiritually, depend entirely
upon God (Deut. 30:20).
·
He gives us
life, physical life and spiritual life.
·
And he
sustains us in life, physical life and spiritual life.
But
God lives his own life.
1.
Our natural
life depends upon the union of our bodies to our souls.
2.
And our
spiritual life depends upon the union of our souls to Christ (John 15:1-6).
·
A union of
grace.
·
A union of
faith.
·
An
indissolveable union.
3.
But the life of God depends upon nothing. His name is El-Shaddai, God
all-sufficient, blessed and happy in himself forever.
C.
The Lord our God is the one true and living God.
Throughout the Scriptures, God’s very glory by which he is
exalted above and distinguished from the idols of men is his life.
1.
The law was
given by the authority of the living God (Deut. 5:26).
2.
Joshua led
Israel in triumph into the land of promise by the power of the living God
(Josh. 3:10).
3.
David’s love
and the thirst of his soul was for the living God (Psa. 42:1-2; 84:2).
4.
Our Savior is
the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).
5.
And believers
are the temple of the living God.
All the idols of men are motionless,
lifeless, and dead (Jer. 10:5, 10, 15, 16; Acts 14:15; 1 Thess. 1:9).
Therefore, the worshippers of idols place great emphasis on dead ceremonies.
But we believe, trust, worship, and submit to the living God (Rev. 10:5-6).
When I was a boy, a professor at
Pfiefer College, a Methodist school close to my hometown, started a foolish lie
that caught the nation, and spread like wildfire. He said, “God is dead!” Well,
that wretch is now dead. And his philosophy never even disturbed God. Someone
says, “God is alive.” But that is not exactly true. God is not alive. God is
life! God is life essentially.
II. GOD IS LIFE ETERNALLY (1 John 5:20).
God is life without beginning, without
succession, and without end. The eternality of God is a subject that baffles
human reason. We cannot think in terms of eternality. But God is eternal. His
life is eternal. The eternality of life in God implies many things: His
simplicity, his spirituality, his independence, etc. But I want us to
concentrate for a moment on just two things that are revealed in the eternality
of God.
A.
Immutability (Psa. 102:26-27; Mal.
3:6; Heb. 13:8; James 1:17).
Only God is eternal. And only God is
immutable. God who is eternal life must also be immutable life. He never
experiences any change of any kind. Blessed be his name! Because God is
immutable...
1.
His purpose is
steadfast.
2.
His promises
are sure.
3.
His people are
secure.
Eternality
and immutability go hand in hand. And eternality and immutability go hand in
hand with...
B.
Immortality (1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16).
1.
Angels are
immortal because God made them so.
2.
The souls of
men are immortal because God made them so.
3.
The bodies of
the saints shall be made, like Christ’s, immortal, because God will make them
so in the resurrection.
4.
Even the
bodies of the damned in hell will be made immortal by God.
5.
But God alone
has immortality in and of himself, because God alone has life in himself
eternally.
God is life essentially. God is life
eternally.
III. AND GOD IS LIFE EFFICIENTLY (Psa. 36:9).
God is the source, the Spring, the
Author and the Giver of life. Life in its lowest form and in its highest form
is the gift of God. And God is totally sovereign over all life.
·
He gives life
to the grass; and he takes it away (Gen. 1:11-12; Isa. 40:7).
·
He gives life
to the beasts; and he takes it away (Gen. 1:20-25; Psa. 104:29).
·
He gives life
to men upon the earth; and he takes it away at his pleasure (Gen. 2:7; Psa.
68:20; Heb. 9:27).
·
When he is
pleased to do so, God can make a jackass talk and reason like a man (Num.
22:28). And when he is pleased to do so, God can cause a brilliant, powerful
man to eat grass like an ox, grow feathers like an eagle, and his nails to
become claws like a bird’s (Dan. 4:32-33).
God
is totally sovereign over all life. He alone can give life. No man can make a
living fly. He might as easily create a world. And no man can destroy a fly. He
might as easily destroy the world. As God is sovereign over all natural,
physical life, so he is sovereign over all spiritual, eternal life.
A.
Spiritual life is the free gift of God (John 5:21, 25; 11:25; Rom. 8:2).
All men by nature, though alive
physically, are dead spiritually, dead in trespasses and in sins. And they
cannot give themselves life. No one can give what he does not have! It is God
alone who gives us life.
1.
He gave us
life legally by the sacrifice of Christ (. 7:4).
2.
He gave us
life spiritually by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:1-6). - A
Resurrection!
3.
He gives us
life continually by the power of his grace (1 Pet. 1:5).
B.
And eternal life, so often spoken of in the Scriptures as that which the saints
shall enjoy forever, is the gift of God’s free and sovereign grace (Rom.
6:23).
1.
It is our
predestined inheritance, promised before the world began (Eph. 1:11 Acts 13:48;
Tit. 1:2).
2.
It is our
purchased possession (Eph. 1:14), purchased for us by the blood of Christ.
3.
It is the gift
of God to all who trust his dear Son (John 17:2; 10:28; 1 John 5:12).
NOTE:
Every aspect of eternal life is the gift of God. No degrees of reward!
·
God is life
essentially!
·
God is life
eternally!
·
God is life
efficiently!
Application: Colossians 3:1-3