(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, in Colossians chapter 1, the part that I'd like to focus on is there, beginning in verse number 9, where the Bible reads, For this cause also, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. And what I want to preach about tonight, if you would turn to 1 John chapter 4, is I want to preach about some of the attributes of God. The Bible says that we should increase in our knowledge of God. And Paul, of course, talked about his greatest aspiration in life as being that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. We need to increase in the knowledge of God is, and certain characteristics about God's personality. Now obviously, I can't preach all of God's attributes and all of God's personality in one sermon. In fact, it would take a lifetime, you know, to preach all about the nature of God and who He is. And really, you'd have to read and study and meditate upon the entire Bible to learn every aspect of who God is, because of course, the Word was in the beginning with God and the Word was God. But tonight, I just want to cover some basic attributes of God. Now first of all, the first attribute that I want to point out is God's love. Obviously, that's one of His main attributes. It says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. So as we get to know God and we know the aspect of God's character that is His love, that's going to enable us to be able to love and to be able to have love one for another. Look at verse 9, And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Go to Romans chapter 5. And obviously, there are multitudes of chapters that we could turn to if we want to talk about God's love. It's obviously a theme that comes up over and over again throughout the Bible. But this is part of God's character. He is a loving God. Now, a lot of people accuse Him of not being loving. You know, usually when you're talking to people that are atheists and unbelievers, they'll try to attack God and say, well, God's not loving, and look at this that God did here in the Old Testament, or look at what He did in the New Testament, what He's going to do in the book of Revelation that's so negative and hurtful and harmful. Well, if He's a God of love, then why didn't He do this? Well, if He's a loving God, then He wouldn't send people down. But here's what it is. They don't understand God's love. Why? Because everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. You know, people that aren't saved, they don't even know what love is. They can't even comprehend the concept of love properly because love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That means in order to love properly, you have to be born of God and you have to know God. And so people will accuse God of not being loving. And here's the funny part. People will say, because the God of the Bible is not a loving God, He doesn't exist. Now, where do I even begin to point out how foolish that is and how that is so illogical to say, well, if He's not a loving God, then He doesn't exist. Well, let me tell you something. No matter what He is, that's what He is. And whether you like Him or not doesn't make Him cease to exist. There are probably a lot of people who don't like me and who think that I'm not loving. But does that mean that I do not exist? Do they not believe in me? Do they not think that I'm real? See, it's foolish to say, well, because God isn't the way that I want Him to be, He doesn't exist. And that's the logic of most atheists today. Well, I don't agree with what He did here, therefore there's no way that He created the world. That doesn't even make any sense. But this is their foolishness, the fool that said in his heart, there is no God. Whatever God is, and whoever He is, and however He is, you're stuck with Him. Because there's only one God. And He created you, and you didn't create Him. And it's not for you to sit and decide and stand in judgment of whether or not He's right. He's right. And it's up to you to get on the page with Him and not vice versa. But thank the Lord He is a loving God. You know, I mean whatever He is, He is. We can't change it. We need to just learn about what He is. And thankfully He is a very loving God. Look at Romans 5. This is to show us how loving God is, Romans 5.6. The Bible says, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. What's that saying? He's saying, you know, it's rare. Scarcely is something that happens rarely. He's saying, it's rare that one person will die for another person. And He said, rarely one person will die for a righteous man or for a good man or for someone that they love, someone that they care about that is worth dying for because they're a good person. But He says the difference between that and God's love is that in verse 8, But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. So God's love is on a different level than man's love. See, God loves the unlovable. God loved those who did not love Him in return. You know, even those who nailed Him to the cross, He said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And so the fact that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him, that is the evidence of God's love. The fact that He sacrificed His Son, the fact that He died on the cross for all of our sins, was buried and three days later and rose again. The Bible says that is the evidence of God's love right there. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God's love is one of His most major attributes throughout the Bible and it's a theme of the Bible. But let me explain some to you. That's not His only attribute. He's not just only love and nothing else. And a lot of people because they look at some of His other attributes that they don't agree with, they say well He's not loving. Well yes He is loving. But He's also just. He's also holy. He's also some of these other things. And let's go through some other aspects of God's personality. So number one, thanks be to God He's a loving God. If He wanted to He could just be a wrathful God that just damns us all to hell. What are we really going to do about Him? We can huff and puff about it but what are we going to do about it? But thankfully He loved us. He provided salvation through Jesus Christ and it's easy to be saved. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. God's a loving God and He loved us so much He made it easy to be saved. He did all the hard work and just made it easy for us. But number two, not only is God a loving God, He is an omnipotent God. Go to Revelation chapter 19. So first we talked about His love but also I want to talk about His omnipotence. Now there's a term that's used throughout the Bible that expresses God's omnipotence and that term is almighty. And almighty is a term that's used 57 times in the Bible to talk about God and what that basically means is all powerful because the words might and power are both used synonymously throughout the Bible. And so when it says He's almighty it's saying He's all powerful. He has power that is limitless. Look at Revelation 19 verse 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Omni, that's like the word omnivore, right? Carnivores eat meat, herbivores eat plants, and then the omnivore eats all things or both. And so omnipotent, potent, what does potent mean? If something's potent it means it's powerful. And so God here is all powerful. Jesus, of course, who was God in the flesh, said in Matthew 28 18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. And who gave Him that power? The Father. God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have all power. They are omnipotent. Now some people misunderstand God's omnipotence. Turn if you would to Titus chapter 1. Some people misunderstand God's omnipotence and here's how they interpret God's omnipotence. They say, well God can do anything. That is not true. God cannot do anything. All powerful does not mean that He can do anything. It means that He has all power. He has the ability as far as the power. He's not limited. His power is without limit, but there are still certain things that God cannot do. And let me show you some examples. Titus 1 verse 2, the Bible reads, In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So because God is omnipotent, He never lacks power. He never runs out of strength. There's no physical act that He cannot perform. The Lord's hand is not shortened, that He could not do anything. He spoke the whole world into existence. While He was on this earth in the form of Jesus Christ, He raised the dead, He walked on water, He multiplied food, He did all these miracles. He spoke the entire universe into existence. I like what Paul said when he was preaching about the resurrection. He said, you know, seemeth it, I forget exactly what he said, does it seem marvelous to you? Why does it surprise you that God should raise the dead? And here's what I find funny, when people try to pick apart the miracles of the Bible and say, well, you know, they didn't really cross the Red Sea, it was like the Reed Sea, it was kind of shallow water and the wind came, or in the fiery furnace there was a cold spot, that's how Daniel and the book of Daniel and Abed-gos survived. If God could create the whole world just by speaking it into existence, why would it surprise you that you can walk on water or raise the dead? I mean, give me a break, just face the miracles. I remember Brother Garrett was telling me when he was in a seminary, was it Fuller Seminary, right? He was a student of Fuller Seminary and there were professors there teaching that there's this ridge in the Sea of Galilee that Jesus, this isn't a seminary, that there's this ridge that Jesus was walking on a ridge, that He wasn't really walking on water. Isn't that what you were taught? Yeah. So, I mean, that's the kind of garbage, and you say, Pastor Anderson, you need to go to seminary and get a degree, you know. I mean, that's the kind of blasphemous garbage that's being taught in these institutions, okay? Fuller ought to be called full of baloney, is what it ought to be called, okay? But basically, God has all power. I mean, there's nothing that He cannot do because of a lack of power. I mean, He has all power, but He can't do anything because He can never violate His word. You know, He has certain attributes and those attributes are laid out in Scripture. Go to Hebrews chapter number 6. Certain attributes of God are laid out in Scripture and He cannot violate His own character. He cannot deny Himself, the Bible says. Did you hear that? He cannot deny Himself. That's found in 2 Timothy chapter 2. It says here, He cannot lie. Look at Hebrews 6, God states it in another way, just in case you think that that's a misunderstanding. He tells us the same thing again in Hebrews chapter number 6 verse 19. He says, I'm sorry, verse 18, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. Do you see that? He's reiterating it again. We might have a strong consolation to have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. So God has all power, but He can't do anything because He cannot do anything that would contradict Scripture or contradict who He is or deny His character or step outside of who He has said He is in the Bible. And He can't tell a lie because He is the truth. And Jesus said, I am the truth. Not only did He speak the truth, He is the truth. Which leads me to my next point, God's holiness. Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 19. Jeremiah chapter 19. So we talked about God's love, we talked about His omnipotence, and in regard to God not being able to lie or to basically do things that are wicked, there's no wickedness in Him. The Bible says God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is holy. You're turning to Jeremiah, I'll read for you from Isaiah 6.3, one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. In the book of Revelation the Bible talks about the four beasts. They cry out day and night continually. I mean they're doing it right now. They do it for weeks, months, years, decades. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come. They cry out every minute of every day God's holiness and proclaim His holiness. This is a key attribute of God. Now God's holiness is what prevents Him from being able to lie or being able to deny Himself or being able to do something that would be in the category of wickedness or darkness. Now because of God's holiness, and holiness means set apart, God cannot, basically He cannot have a wicked thought and He cannot look upon iniquity the Bible says, and God is a holy God. Now look at Jeremiah 19 verse 5. The Bible says they've built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind. Now back to God's omnipotence for a second. Just because God is omnipotent, just because He has all power, does not mean that He is always using that power all the time. Now a lot of people will use this word sovereign. Have you heard people say God's sovereign? Now I don't use that word for the simple reason that that word is not found anywhere in the book that I'm holding in my hand from Genesis to Revelation. You will never find the word sovereign unless you're reading the NIV. You'll find it a hundred times in these false new Bible versions. I believe that's the NIV that has it over a hundred times, but it's found in all the modern perversions, the ESV, the RSV, the HIV, the SUV, the ATV, they all contain this word over and over again, sovereign. And you'll constantly hear people that are Calvinists harp on this, God's sovereign, God's sovereign, God's sovereign, sovereign, sovereign. They just keep repeating it and they repeat it so much you start to think it's a Biblical truth. It's like well of course God's sovereign, right? Like whenever you start talking, that's like their starting point. Well you agree that God's sovereign, right? And I always say, no. I don't even know what that means. Why? Because it's not a Biblical word and it's not that I'm ignorant. That's not why I don't know what it means. I don't know what it means because it means something different to everybody who's using it because people use it to mean different things and since there's no Biblical definition, there's no concrete definition. See, words that are used in the Bible have a concrete definition that's found in the Bible itself. We can use the Bible to pin these words down and have a concrete definition. But when we use words that are not used in the Bible, they mean whatever people think they mean. Isn't that the truth? And words change in meaning over time to mean things that are completely different. Sometimes a word starts meaning one thing and hundreds of years later it will mean the opposite. Literally. And if you study etymology of words, you'll find that to be true very often. That words change in meaning over time. But see, the words in the Bible are anchored in the Bible and we can use the Bible to define them and to interpret them. Words like sovereign, they're just words that can easily be abused and twisted because they have no Biblical meaning. Because they're not in the Bible. Now, when people say he's sovereign, I mean I'm assuming that they mean he's the king. Now I do believe that God's the king. He's the king of kings and lord of lords. Isn't there a coin that's called like a sovereign? Isn't that like a gold coin? Somebody help me out. Is it a British sovereign? I don't know. It's some kind of money. A five year old's raising their hand, but I don't know if I'm going to call on them. But anyway, the sovereign is some kind of a coin and it's got some king or queen on the front of the thing. So I believe God's the king, but when people say he's sovereign, here's what they mean. Oh, he's controlling everything. He's controlling everything. Everything is happening on this earth according to his will. And let me tell you something, that is a lie. If that's what you mean by sovereign, no. If you mean he's the king sitting on the throne and that he has all power, I believe he has all power. I believe he's omnipotent. But here's the thing, let's go to the illustration of a king. God does compare himself to a king and he actually is a literal king as well. But when the king sits on the throne, he has all power perhaps. But wait a minute, does that mean he's controlling everything that's happening in the kingdom? Does that mean no one can disobey him? No, here's what it means. No one can disobey him without consequences. But does that mean that no one can disobey? No, because nobody can make you do anything. I mean, you could spit in the king's face. Now it's probably going to be off with his head if that happens, but you could still do it. He's not controlling everybody or everything. So that's a false doctrine. If that's what you mean by sovereignty, that God's controlling the events on this earth, then that is a heresy and a false doctrine. Let me explain something to you about Calvinism. Calvinism, and I don't want to just paint with a really broad brush right now, because Calvinism, again, means different things to different people. Now every definition of Calvinist I've ever been exposed to, I disagree with all of them. Whether it's the hyper, the hypo, the quasi, the pseudo, do whatever prefix in front of it you want. The five point, the four point, the three point, I guess the line, the triangle, the square, the pentagon, whatever. Pentagram is more like Calvinism to me. They should make their five points into an upside down star because it's a satanic doctrine. That's what the five points of Calvinism should be, an upside down star because it's of Satan. That's their real five points. But let me tell you this, a lot of Calvinists, when you talk to them, and I guess this would be more like the extreme Calvinists or the hyper Calvinists, they believe that God is controlling the events that are taking place on this earth. That He basically controls the heart of every person, that everything that happens, everything is God's will, and that no one is exercising any free will because God is controlling events. Now in order to believe this you have to be a pervert. Let me explain to you why. Because of the fact that people make God in their own image many times when they make a false God, the God of the Bible is not controlling everything, God is not perverted. These Calvinists who believe that God's controlling everything, they believe in a perverted God, therefore I believe it's because they are perverted in their heart. And here's what I mean by that. There are some very wicked, sick, perverted things that go on in this world, are there not? I mean there's all kinds, and I don't want to go into it, but there are some really bad things. There's molestation going on, there's murder going on, there's rape going on, there's abortion going on. And here's the thing, if you're one of these Calvinists who believes that God's controlling everything, you're basically saying that God is the inventor or the author of sodomy, that God is the author of abortion, that God is controlling abortion doctors as they abort, God is controlling rapists and homos, and it's all according to His will. Look, if you believe that those kind of sick things are God's will, you're sick, and you have a sick God that you worship. You are worshiping a perverted, sick God, and that makes you sick and perverted because you're the one who dreamed Him up. Because the God of the Bible is holy, and He has nothing to do with the filth and smut of this world, He has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with Him. And look at the Bible, I'll prove it to you tonight. Look at Jeremiah 19, verse 5. It says, they have built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons within the fire. Now that's pretty bad, isn't it, burning your son in the fire? For burn offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it. Listen to this, neither came it into my mind. Oh, everything that happens, it's for God's glory, and it's God's will. No, God said, that never came into my mind. Go to Jeremiah 32, verse 35, he says the same thing. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not. Neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. You say, wait a minute, where did all this stuff come from? Where did all this filth and sin and wickedness? And they always use logic, not scripture, logic. Oh well if God created everything, then that means God is the author of all this perversion and filth and sin and it's all for His glory one day to basically be like a puppet master up in heaven, make his puppets, do all these sinful, perverted, sick things, and then punish them for it, and then that gives him glory. What? Kind of a weird God. Like he's just creating bad people, making them do sick, bad things, just see how weird they can get, see how perverted we can make them, and then damn them all to hell and everybody glorify me. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is holy and righteous and He is light and there is no darkness at all in Him. And He did not dream up this stuff. You say, then who dreamed it up? Man. But God created man. Listen fool, God created man and gave him free will. And let me prove it to you from the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter number 7 verse 29, lo this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. Did you hear that? God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. Now that word invention is a key word. Go to Romans 1. Inventions. You see, the sin and perversion and filth in this world did not come from God's imagination. It did not come from God's mind. It was invented by man. And it came from the imagination of man's heart. Calvinists, and I'm not saying that all Calvinists believe this, but most Calvinists that I've talked to that are serious about their Calvinism, they believe God's controlling everything, even the sick perverted weird things that are going on in this world. Now let me prove it to you false. I've already showed you some scripture, but look at Romans 1. The Bible says in verse 24, and of course this is talking about the downward spiral of people who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and reject God's word. It says in Romans 1.24, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, watch this, through the lusts of their own hearts. So God is very careful to explain to us in Romans 1, that even though He's the one who gave them over to a reprobate mind, and gave them over unto uncleanness, is He the one who dreamed up the uncleanness? Is He the one who invented it? Is He the author of it? Is He the source of it? Is He controlling it? No. He gave them over, He said in verse number 24, to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. So where did the lusts come from? Their own heart, not from Him. He says to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Now again, this is not God making them do vile things. Oh no, don't misunderstand the passage. This is not God controlling people, well now I'm going to make you do vile sick things. No, it's God giving them over. Let me illustrate this to you. Come here brother Matt. Matt's going to represent a guy, he's not saved, but even an unsaved guy, don't they still have morals, some kind of a moral compass, some kind of rules that they live by? I'm not talking about a horrible reprobate, I'm just saying your average unsaved joke. There's still lines he doesn't want to cross, there's still things that he's not going to do. Most people that are unsaved, they still have an attitude that says, I'm going to do right. They're going to do what's right in their own eyes, not necessarily follow God's laws, but they have certain parameters. There are certain things that this guy, he's going to find them disgusting and revolting, he's going to look at acts of violence, he's going to look at really perverted things, and it's going to gross him out. He's going to look at things that are dirty and things that smell bad and he's going to want to stay away from them. I mean, is an unsaved person just a complete animal? No. They're still a human being, a soul made in the image of God. Well, as unsaved man here rejects Christ, rejects God, doesn't want to retain God in his knowledge. Eventually God gets fed up with this guy. And what he does is he turns him over to a reprobate mind, he gives him over to uncleanness, he gave him up to the lust of his own heart. So what it is is that right now there are certain parameters that he naturally has as a human being that animals don't have. I mean animals, they could just look over and see other animals being ripped to shreds and they don't care. They'll vomit and then eat their own vomit. Human beings don't want to do that because human beings have different parameters that are God-given than what animals have. So let's basically say that this is the line right here. This line represents just the normal parameters of what a human being thinks is right and normal and just a line that even unsaved people aren't willing to cross because it's just too sick, it's too perverted, it's too evil. You know what I mean? Because even people who maybe will go out and get drunk and party and fornicate, but that doesn't mean that they're willing to kidnap a child or commit really bad stuff like a Jeffrey Domino. They're not going to cross these kinds of lines. It's just a normal parameter. A boundary is what I'm talking about. This area up here on the platform represents just the normal human mind as created by God, not talking about a saved person, not the renewed mind but the carnal mind, the human mind as created by God in an unsaved, unregenerate condition. Does everybody understand? Still not just a total mass murderer though automatically no. That's a false doctrine, okay? That every unsaved person is just an evil mass murderer, you know, just monster. He's a normal guy because God has basically created him with a certain parameter that he operates in. God gets sick of him and says, you know what? See ya! And he puts him in that zone, which is basically the beast zone. So now Matt's in the beast zone, the animal zone right here. Basically this is where God had some boundaries on him, keeping him normal. But God basically just shoved him into that zone and said, you know what? I'm through with you. And basically just gives him over to just whatever. Just total freestyle, total animalistic, just no holds barred. Now he might start out, right now he's only a couple feet over the line, right? So he still seems pretty normal, right? But then what happens is, now that he's just in this no man's land, he just keeps drifting, gets weirder and weirder and more evil, more sinful, just more depraved. Pretty soon the Bible says he's past feeling. See what I mean? Hey, I didn't tell him that. I didn't control him and say go outside. He came up with that. See what I mean? See what people come up with? I'm glad you're back on this side of the line, man. See what people come up with when they're over there? All of a sudden being 20 feet back is not enough. It's like, well I want to go outside now. Next thing you know he's going to be like 5 miles from here. He's going to be in downtown Tempe where it's really weird. He's going to be on Mill Avenue, before you know it. And so what I'm saying is, it's not that God is controlling people, it's that God removes the constraint and the restraint that is on a normal human being and basically now they're in a zone where, like an animal, they just do whatever. I mean animals don't have a concept of, wait a minute, hold on a second, I cannot mate with this animal because this is not my wife. You know what I mean? I need to be faithful to my wife. They don't have that. And here's the thing, in our godless public school system, basically animals are lifted up like we need to learn from the animals. We need to live like them. Let's pattern ourselves after the animals. That's just because our society is going down this Romans 1 road. They rejected the other Romans road. They ought to be on the Romans road that starts with Romans 3.23 or Romans 3.10. They're on the Romans road that's described in Romans 1. But what I'm saying is that God is not controlling them. God is just giving them over to whatever their own wicked heart dreams up with the normal restraints removed. And He gives them the heart of a beast and He describes them as beasts. Let's keep reading. It says, likewise also the man leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another, man with man, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And the word convenient there means things that don't come naturally to a human. But when you become reprobate, you get past feeling, you lose your normal sense of decency, cleanliness, not wanting to just needlessly harm your fellow man and just commit senseless acts of violence and you see people who cross that line. But look at verse 30. Here's a key verse here. In the description of the reprobates, God uses this term. He says, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, and then look at this, inventors of evil things. So we see that they are the ones who are dreaming up evil things. They're inventing evil things. You don't have to turn there, but let me read you some other scriptures. Of course, I already read you Ecclesiastes 7.29, lo, this only have I found that God has made man upright, but they've sought out many inventions. The Bible also says in Psalm 106.29, thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the plague break in upon them. He said in the same chapter, verse 39, that's where they defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions. Now if God invented it, he wouldn't say it was their own invention. God is not the author of confusion, right? And in Leviticus chapter 18 and in Leviticus 20, God describes these abominations and these sins. For example, I'll just give you one of them. It says in Leviticus 20.12, if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, this is right before the famous Leviticus 20.13, but in verse 12 he says, if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have wrought confusion. Their blood shall be upon them. Now let me ask you this, is God the author of confusion? And he refers to some of the other weird sins. I don't even want to go into them tonight, but in chapter 18 and chapter 20, he lists a lot of perversions and he calls a couple of them confusion. He says confusion. And he said, I'm not the author of confusion. These homos, he said, they did that from their own heart. I didn't come up with that. These people who are murdering their own children and sacrificing their sons and daughters unto Baal and making them to pass through the fire unto Baal, he says, that never even came into my mind. Why? Because God is too holy to come up with something like that. Did you hear me? God is too holy, too righteous, too good to come up with this stuff. This is the stuff that man comes up with, okay? Say, well why did God create people to be so bad? He didn't create them to be bad. He created them to have a free will to do right or to do wrong. And in doing so, he gave them the ability to go down a wrong path and you know what? That wrong path just keeps going. It leads outside, okay? And it just gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse. And that's what's going on. The Bible says in Genesis 6 verse 5, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Again, man's imagination dreaming up evil, dreaming up wicked things. And so don't ever let anybody convince you that the reason that there are wicked things going on in the world and sinful bad things is that it's somehow God's will. This is what they'll do. Every leader in the world, this is what they'll say, oh God put him in office. Right? Oh yeah, you know, President so-and-so or King so-and-so or really so-and-so, God put them in office. That's God's man. Okay, but then it's like, well did he put Hitler in office? Did he put Joseph Stalin in office? And they'll say, well God did that to punish people or whatever. Yeah, but that's not God's will. God's will is not to punish. God said I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God would rather that the wicked will change his ways and not be punished. God is willing also that all men would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And so God is not just delighting in, you know, I really like to make people do bad things and then punish them for it. No, God's up in heaven crying out for people to repent, to stop it, to change. He doesn't want to have to punish. He doesn't want to have to send people to hell. That's why he sent his son. That's why he made salvation easy through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so God, not only is he a loving God, not only is he omnipotent God, meaning he has all power, but he's also a holy, righteous, and good God that basically cannot do wickedness. He cannot dream up this filth. He does not think about filth. He does not live in filth. He does not commit these type of sins. He is holy and righteous and he only does right. That's all he knows how to do. He's righteous. But not only that, God is omnipresent. Go to Psalm 139. We're just looking at some basic attributes of God tonight. You know, he's a loving God. He's an all-powerful God. There's nothing he can't do. With God, all things are possible. I mean, no matter what our need is in our life, he can step in and fill that need. But does that mean that he always uses that power? No. He's not going to necessarily answer every prayer, but he has the power to answer every prayer. He can't do anything, but he has the power to do whatever, but there's certain things he can't do because of his holiness. So you see how God's holiness basically limits his omnipotence? Because yes, he has all power, but that power will only act within the parameters of his holiness. His power is held in the parameters of his holiness. His love also is basically held in check by his holiness because God's love, so people will say, well if he's so loving, why doesn't he just love everybody and just let everybody go to heaven? Well, because that would violate his holiness and his justice. God's a just God. That means he has to punish iniquity. He has to punish sin. And so all of these attributes work together to form the personality of who God is. You can't just put God in a box and say he's just this one thing. He's just love, that's all. Or he's just justice. I mean, if he were just nothing but justice, we'd all be going to hell. That's where his love kicks in. You know, if he was just all power and he just had complete omnipotence, meaning that he could do anything, then theoretically he could do wrong. But he can't. He can't sin. He can't deny himself. So all of these things go together. That's why we can't just make God too simple. We've got to get the whole Bible to get the whole picture of God. But here's another interesting aspect of God is the fact that he's omnipresent, meaning that he is in all, this word is not used in the Bible, omnipresence, but it's a word that most people understand. It just means all present. It means he's present everywhere. He's in all places. Now this should prove to you that he's in all places. Look at Psalm 139 verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. So right there he says, look, God's everywhere. If I go to heaven, he's there. If I go to hell, he's there. If I go to the furthest point out in the sea, he's there with me. So if he's in all those places, he's everywhere. You don't have to turn there, but in Amos he talks about people even if they were to go down to the very depths of the bottom of the sea, God's there. God's everywhere. Not only that, but look at John chapter 3. Not only is God omnipresent, and God's spirit is omnipresent, but our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, also can exist in more than one place at a time. Jesus Christ shares this attribute of omnipresence. You say, I don't believe that. Okay, well, here's the thing. In Revelation, you're turning to John 3, but in Revelation chapter 14, the Bible very clearly, when talking about people being punished in the lake of fire and brimstone, he says this, he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Now the Lamb of God is very clearly Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God. And the Bible says that those that are in hell are tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Now, if someone who's burning in hell is in the presence of the Lamb, and we also know that the Lamb of God is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, doesn't that show that He is also in both places? Not just God the Father or the Holy Spirit, but honestly, Christ is present if you're in heaven and Christ is present in heaven. And on this earth, Jesus said, listen to this, where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them. So right there, Jesus Christ said, when two people, when two believers are gathered together, praying together, he said, I'm there with them. And not only that, the scripture that we read at the beginning, Colossians chapter 1, said that the great mystery was Christ in you, the hope of glory. The Bible says, know ye not that Christ dwelleth in you? So according to the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells within us, obviously the Spirit of Christ, not His physical body. But the Spirit of Christ is in us, He's in me, but He's also in you. And He's also in heaven, and He's also in hell. This is all Biblical doctrine. Look at John 3.13. Even while Jesus was on this earth, He covered this aspect of His personality. John 3.13, and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Now here's an interesting thing about God too. God speaks of the things which be not as though they were. God talks about things in the future as if they've already happened. Have you ever noticed that? Like for example in Isaiah 53 it talks about Jesus being crucified. It says He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Past tense. God speaks of the things which be not as though they were. He talks about things that are going to happen as if they've already happened. Why? Because He knows the end from the beginning. Because He's omniscient, He's all knowing. He knows the end from the beginning. And so to Him it's as if it's already happened. Because He dwells outside of time, He dwells outside of our chronology. So He says no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. So there He's basically stating that He has already ascended up to heaven. Even though He's not going to ascend until when? Acts chapter 1. But He said no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that except for, that's what but means there, except for, but he that came down from heaven, watch this, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So right there Jesus is saying that the Son of Man has ascended up to heaven and is in heaven. But at the same moment He's talking to Nicodemus very much on this earth. So do you see how Jesus Christ could be in both places at the same time? He says the Son of Man is in heaven and the Son of Man is talking to you right now. He told the thief on the cross, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. But then He went down to hell for three days and three nights according to the scripture, Acts 2.31 and many others. And then He rose again. And so clearly Jesus Christ, yes, it's not like He's just going to be in hell for all eternity. Like I'm just here, I've just got to supervise this, you know, for all eternity. Because they said they're going to be tormented in the presence of the Lamb. He'll be there supervising for all eternity. Make no mistake. But that's not all He's doing. He's also up in heaven. He's also with the Father. He's also going to lead us into rivers of water of life. He's also in our hearts. So God is not limited by space and time. God does not dwell within those type of parameters. The only parameter God dwells within is His word. He cannot violate His word. But within the parameters of His word, He dwells outside of space and time. He can be in more than one place at the same time and He can basically exist in different points in time at the same time. He is, He was, He is to come. He knows the end from the beginning. To Him it's all done. It's over. I mean, you read the Bible at the end, it's like it is done. It's over. I mean, isn't it weird to be living in a book story? I mean, did you know that every single one of us is a character in this book? Isn't that interesting? Have you ever thought about that? Maybe this is kind of a rabbit trail. But you know, this book that I'm holding in my hand, you remember that, I don't know if you, you know, this was a corny movie from the 80s, but you remember the movie The Neverending Story? You remember that? You know, it's like, and I'm not promoting the movie obviously, but I'm saying, you know, when I was a kid I read the book. Who read the book? Did anybody actually read the book? No one. Everybody. Who watched the movie? Like, every hand goes up. That's the society that we're living in, right? Well, I read the book a few times, and basically this is what it's about. You know, the kid's reading the book and then he's like in the story and it's about his life and it's about it. But here's the thing, that's just a fairy tale, but let me tell you something. The Bible is really like that. Because I mean, you open the Bible and read it and you can actually read about yourself in the Bible. Like, I think the greatest example, and my mom is here tonight, it's good to have my mom here tonight, and my mom actually brought this up, she came up with this. In Revelation chapter 7 when John looks upon the great multitude that comes up in the rapture, and this great multitude appears in heaven of all nations, kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, and it's a multitude that's so great that no man can number it. And John asks, you know, who are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? Actually the elder asks him and he says, sir, that I don't know. And he asks, who are these people? Where did they come from? And they're of all nations, all kindreds, all tongues, all peoples, and think about it, we were in that crowd. Isn't that weird? Because we're going to be there, because it's everybody in heaven, it's this great multitude of all people that have come up in that first resurrection, you know, the dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught together with them in the clouds. And when we're all caught up in there, we're going to be standing in that crowd, we're going to be seeing John, he's looking at us, I'm going to try to make eye contact, you know, I don't know if it's going to work, but he's looking out at the crowd and that's us. So I mean literally, when you read Revelation, you get to chapter 7, that's your life you're reading. I mean that's your story. You are a character in the story. And at other points in the story, when he returns with all of his saints to rule and reign, you're reading literally your own story and the interesting thing about it is that the story's not over. You're reading your story of your life and you're basically able to read later pages of your story. This is what's going to happen to me someday. I'm going to be in heaven, this is what it's going to be like, this is what I'm going to be wearing. I mean, isn't that weird? That's interesting. But anyway, that just should show you how God dwells outside of time. He writes a book and hands it to you and says here, you're in this and I already know the end of your life. I mean God already knows everything about your life. He knows what you're going to do 10 years from now, he knows what you're going to do 20 years from now. Now it doesn't mean that he's controlling it. And people, again, this is where the Calvinists get it wrong, they confuse his foreknowledge with him controlling everything. Just because I know what's going to happen doesn't mean I'm the one making it happen. Human beings make the bad things happen. God makes the good things happen. The right things, the just things, the holy things, and the bad, sinful, wicked, dark, evil things. God does not make those things happen. That's man's sinful heart that makes those things happen. And the reason that Calvinists are unable to understand this is because of the fact that we cannot create anything that has an imagination. You know, we can make a computer and a robot, but that robot does not have imagination, does it? It cannot invent. God is so much greater than us and so much more creative and powerful than us, he's able to create something that has free will and that has its own imagination and its own inventions. We cannot create an invention that invents. A computer will only do what you program it to do. It won't make decisions. Well you know what? I know I was programmed to do this, but I got my own ideas. I got my own plan. And see, Calvinists are basically dragging God down to the level of man and saying he can only create a robot, because that's all man can create, a robot. Well guess what? I'm not a robot. Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'm going to choose how to live my life. I'm going to choose whether or not I read my Bible. I'm going to choose whether or not I sin and walk in the flesh, or whether I do right and walk in the spirit. That's my choice, and God even said, choose this day whom you'll serve. As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. He said, choose. I've set before you this day life and death and blessing and cursing, and he said, therefore choose life. But you have to choose. Tomorrow God will not make you, you know, and people have this false doctrine, well if you're saved you're going to live right. No. You're going to wake up tomorrow morning and you're going to choose whether to walk in the spirit or to walk in the flesh, and only you can make that choice. No one can make it for you. My children can't, I can't make it for them. They choose whether they're going to do right or wrong. I can preach to them and guide them and pray for them and help them, but each day they have to choose not to be a fool. They have to choose to do right. They have to choose to read their Bible and love God, and so obviously we make them read their Bible, but some day they're going to have to make that choice when they grow up. You know, mom and dad aren't going to be there to say, did you brush your teeth? Did you read your Bible? Will you eat your vegetables? Some day that's going to be their choice, okay, because my wife did not give birth to robots. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.