IV. The Attributes of God

IV. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

The attributes of God are the essential qualities of a perfect Being — the property of God.

A. The Omnipotence of God.

This means that God is all-powerful, all-mighty: "I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19:6); "Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26); "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen. 18:14a).

There is only one thing which can limit God, and that is His own holy will. Some foolish person may propose II Timothy 2:13: "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." This person says, "Here is something God cannot do." But this is not a question of what God can do, but what God will do.

1. God Has Power Over Nature. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps. 33:6-9); "Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land" (Hag. 2:6). See also Genesis 1:1-3; Nahum 1:3-6. Man has to have tools to make things — God only has to speak, and it is done.

2. God Has Power Over Men. "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For what ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (Jas. 4:12-15). See also Exodus 4:11.

3. God Has Power Over Angels. "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Dan. 4:35). 25

4. God Has Power Over Satan. In Job 1:12; 2:6 we notice that Satan is subjected to God; "The LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. . . . And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." And we know of the end of Satan from the following Scriptures: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly…" (Rom. 16:20a); "He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years...And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:2, 10). See also Luke 22:31, 32.

5. God Has Power Over Death. Paul prays that the Ephesians may know "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1:19-21). Ultimately, death shall be destroyed: "Death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Rev. 20:14).

B. The Omniscience of God.

Omniscience means "all knowing." God is the "All-Knowing God" — He knows everything! "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things" (I John 3:20).

1. Includes All Nature. God, the Creator, knows everything concerning His creatures.

a. Of His Inanimate Creatures. "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names" (Ps. 147:4); "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding" (Is. 40:28).

b. Of His Brute Creatures. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father" (Matt. 10:29).

c. Of His Human Creatures. God has full knowledge of man: "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" (Matt. 6:8). He knows man's need; he has knowledge of the need of man. He knows the very thoughts of man: "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off" (Ps. 139:2). "The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity" (Ps. 94:11). See also I Chronicles 28:9 and Hebrews 4:13. God knows the heart of man: "Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)" (I Kings 8:39). See also Psalm 44:21 and Acts 1:24. God knows the experiences we have gone through: "The LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows" (Ex. 3:7). How absurd for man to try to deceive God!

2. Covers All Time. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). And this covers the past, the present and the future. The past can God see, for He has given to us those things which have happened millenniums ago (Book of Genesis); the Present is an open book to Him: "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:13); and the future is known as the past and present is known. He knows the end from the beginning: "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Peter 1:20). I Kings 13:2 is also a marvelous illustration of God knowing the future: a baby was named three hundred years before it was born, its name given, from what family it was to come and the things it was to do in later life: "And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee." See also Isaiah 44:28; Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:15. 16; Exodus 3:19; Daniel 2:8. With God knowing the future, we must put ourselves in His hands.

3. Includes All Possibilities. Only God knows what would have happened if something had happened which did not happen. "Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" (Matt. 11:23). See also I Samuel 23:12; Isaiah 48:18.

The Omni-sapience of God

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