Embark with us on a profound journey through the complexities of divine attributes, where intellect meets the open heart of revelation. Our latest episode delves into the essence of God, drawing wisdom from William Branham and scripture to light the way. Uncover the distinction between human and divine jealousy, and marvel at God's sovereignty and meticulous plans, revealing a tapestry of purpose interwoven with our very existence.
Grasp the significance of God's wrath balanced by His boundless mercy, as we explore scriptural narratives that bring to life His patience and invitation for repentance. Our conversation traverses the vital understanding of divine jealousy, contrasting it with human envy, and underscores the intricate decrees of God that orchestrate the unfolding of history. Join us, and let your heart be stirred by the awe-inspiring realization that every aspect of life dances to the rhythm of His divine control.
As we conclude this enlightening exchange, we reflect on the message of Psalm 37, discussing the virtue of patience and trust amidst life's adversities. With a deep appreciation for our listeners, we invite you to consider how the interplay of good and evil unveils a grand design under God's sovereign hand. Thank you for your continued support and for being part of our journey of faith and discovery, where each episode is an opportunity to grow in understanding and awe of the Divine narrative that encompasses us all.
Support podcast for $5 to $10 per month: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1466707/support
Website: https://jasondemars.com
Embark with us on a profound journey through the complexities of divine attributes, where intellect meets the open heart of revelation. Our latest episode delves into the essence of God, drawing wisdom from William Branham and scripture to light the way. Uncover the distinction between human and divine jealousy, and marvel at God's sovereignty and meticulous plans, revealing a tapestry of purpose interwoven with our very existence.
Grasp the significance of God's wrath balanced by His boundless mercy, as we explore scriptural narratives that bring to life His patience and invitation for repentance. Our conversation traverses the vital understanding of divine jealousy, contrasting it with human envy, and underscores the intricate decrees of God that orchestrate the unfolding of history. Join us, and let your heart be stirred by the awe-inspiring realization that every aspect of life dances to the rhythm of His divine control.
As we conclude this enlightening exchange, we reflect on the message of Psalm 37, discussing the virtue of patience and trust amidst life's adversities. With a deep appreciation for our listeners, we invite you to consider how the interplay of good and evil unveils a grand design under God's sovereign hand. Thank you for your continued support and for being part of our journey of faith and discovery, where each episode is an opportunity to grow in understanding and awe of the Divine narrative that encompasses us all.
Support podcast for $5 to $10 per month: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1466707/support
Website: https://jasondemars.com
John 17.3, and this is eternal life that they might know the the only true God and Jesus Christ, who now ascent. We're gonna go through the scriptures and Look at the attributes of God. Now, this topic isn't so much dealing with the elect as His thoughts and a part of his life and thus his attributes. Neither is this gonna look at the doctrine of the Godhead. I Want to look into the scriptures and I want to know God through his characteristics and attributes. Characteristic means a feature or quality identifying a person or thing. Attribute means a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something. We want to know God in truth, and if we misinterpret the attributes of God, you're actually in ignorance or or willfully rejecting the true knowledge of God.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24 Says this. Thus sayeth the Lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorious glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving, kindness, judgment and Righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, sayeth the Lord. Psalm 139, verse 6, says such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it's high, I cannot attain it. So it's important to know that the greatest achievement that we can make in our life is knowing God. Second is like unto it, which is you can't know God on your own. He has to reveal himself to you and Along with that we have to understand is the knowledge of this. Knowledge is too Wonderful for us. It's too incredible, it's too glorious, it's too majestic, it's high. We cannot attain it on our own.
Speaker 1:Now let's look at some quotes from brother Branham. When I made that remark a while ago about education, I wasn't trying to take crutches for my ignorance, but what I'm trying to say? That it doesn't take education to know God. It takes a submissive heart to know God. From the sermon Moses in 1950. Now Saul found out that his ecclesiastical vest didn't fit a man of God. Just don't work. You don't need to know theology, you need a little neology to know God.
Speaker 1:From the sermon faith by experience, 1958. In the sermon 70th week of Daniel, he says Now we may not be educated, we may not be highfalutin people and things like that, we may not be dignitaries, but we do know God, we know him because there's a Holy Spirit, see, and it compares word with word by word through the Scripture. Then we know that it's true. We're living in the last day, in the sermon, putting on the whole armor of God, you might have enough degrees to plaster that wall with them and still not know God. See, you know God by faith. Nothing else. How? By faith? What faith in his word? That's the only way he recognizes faith. Faith come by comeeth, by hearing, hearing the word of God. That's how it comes. By hearing the word of God. We know God as he reveals himself and his word to us personally. It's not knowing God ethereally through some experience that disconnected from Scripture. God deals with us Personally, based on the scriptures, and we know him as he supernaturally reveals himself to us personally Via the word. And so in today's podcast, we are going to look at the attributes of God, a vital and important subject that, if you misunderstand, you actually do not know who God is.
Speaker 1:Greetings Bible believers and followers of the end time message. Welcome to another episode of the Jason DeMars podcast, the place where we explore the incredible mysteries Hidden within the pages of the Bible. I'm your host, jason DeMars. It's time to get started on another journey into the heart of God's word. If it's your desire to grow in revelation and see the message in the light of the Bible, you're in the right place. Today, brothers and sisters, we delve into the scripture guided by the extraordinary Revelations that God chose to unveil through brother William Marion Branham, a messenger with a unique calling to fulfill Malachi 4 and revelation 10 7 and unlock the secrets Of the end time message. Our purpose isn't to have another basic Bible study. We're going to dig deep and peel back the layers of prophecy, decoding the signs and perhaps discovering how the Bible resonates Within the very fabric of our present day and time. In this podcast, my purpose is to help you grow in your faith through solid Bible teaching through the lens of the message of Malachi 4. So grab your Bible cup of coffee and let's get started and remember that your feet are in the right place. Coffee, and let's get started and remember that your feedback, testimonies, questions and prayer requests are always welcome. Please send them on social media or at jasondemarscom.
Speaker 1:Before we go into today's episode, I want to share something with you. Head over to jasondemarscom, where I'm giving away free books. These books have been ordered by believers around the world and many testimonies have been given about the great blessing they have been. I also want you to know that, by God's grace and provision, we are also covering the shipping costs. Free books and free shipping. My purpose is not to sell books, but to proclaim the message of the hour Free of charge. I've written these books to build your faith, increase your spiritual revelation and be a witness for God's message in the end time. Here's a list of a few of them a summary of the revelation of the seven seals, the end time message handbook, the mystery of the malachi, 4 Elijah, holiness to the Lord, and foundations. Head over to jasondemarscom right now and claim your free books. With that said, let's get into today's podcast. Hey everyone, god bless you. Hope everyone is doing well.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about this subject. I I feel like I've preached this in different areas and, uh, for some reason, folks aren't quite as excited as I am about it, but I feel like this is, uh, this is critically important, because if we misunderstand the attributes of God, we actually don't even. We have A clouded, darkened understanding of who God is, and so I I feel like this is important. Lord willing, at some point in time I hope to turn it into a book. Um, again, this is this. To me, this is a critical Subject, and if we don't get it right, we actually don't get much anything else right, um. So, um, I've got a trip coming up. This is uh, this episode is going to be released in um the end of february and I'll be going on a missions trip in march to um the middle east, a couple different countries there, uh, visiting some believers in uh israel, and I'm going to egypt to um Do some outreach there. So Please pray for me and pray for that missions trip. Definitely appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Um, as we talked about on our last podcast, there's Few new books coming out. You can get those at jason damarscom. They're totally free. Shipping is free as well. If you're capable of supporting that outreach work Of the books, we sure appreciate that. That's our faithful supporters are the way that we're able to uh print the books and mail them out for free, and so we want to keep doing that.
Speaker 1:As god provides for us. I pray for that ministry as well. Um, we're continuing to work on the translations into the arabic language. Um, we're getting through quite a number. Uh, trusting the lord that by the end of this year will be able to have most of the major Uh sermons done uh, from 63, 64, 65 and even some from 62. Uh, very thankful that the lord has provided for us for that and number of things that we have and that I'm praying about for the future, some trips that we have that we're looking at planning, places that I've been invited to teach the word. I'd like to go there, but we're just waiting on the lord for the right timing. Um, just balancing everything out with ministry, life, family. So pray for us, there's a lot to balance out.
Speaker 1:Let's get right to our subject. Knowing god. That's what we want to deal with to start with, is what we talked about in our cold open. As a natural human being, you're incapable of knowing god. Paul proves that in romans 1 through 3.
Speaker 1:Romans 3, 11 says there's none that understand it, there's none that seek it after god. 1 Corinthians 2, 10 through 14 says but god has revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, ye, the deep things of god. For what man knoweth, the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him Even so, the things of god knoweth no man, but the spirit of god. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of god, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of god. Which things also we speak not in the words, which man's wisdom teaches, but which the holy ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of god for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually Dissirened. So we receive the spirit of god so that we know, can know, the things that god has freely given to us. All right, so Knowing god is connected to receiving the spirit of god.
Speaker 1:Knowing god is not merely a natural thing. Right, we in our natural state, we can know certain things about god facts, but we can't know god personally. The truth is that we, as believers, we all want to know god more and more. I want to know god more and more. We have to remember that knowing god is a spiritual affair, not a natural one.
Speaker 1:The next question is what is your motive? Why do you want to know god more? Are you seeking the knowledge of god for the sake of knowledge itself? Because you love knowledge? First, corinthians 8, 1b says knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifya. So love builds up. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up. You want to be built up Through knowing god. It has to be the motivation of love, not knowledge. Knowledge is good. We want knowledge, but it has to go far beyond that.
Speaker 1:First Corinthians 8, 2 says and if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. See, we know god as he reveals himself to us and shows us. If you think, you figured something out and got to understand something, and I studied this so hard and I studied, studied and I came to this conclusion. Stop, warning bells are going off in my mind. Theological knowledge sought for the sake of the knowledge itself will go rotten on us. The greatness of the knowledge of theology is a high thing, and seeking it for the sake of itself is bound to bring us to the place that we are proud and hard. It will then cause us to look down on others because of their lack of it. Ji, his book Knowing God, says to be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself.
Speaker 1:To approach Bible study with no higher emotive than a desire to know all the answers is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude and pray to be kept from it. As we saw earlier, there can be no spiritual health without doctrine on knowledge, but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it if it is sought for the right purpose and valued by the wrong standard. In this way, doctrinal study can really become a danger to spiritual life, and we today, no less than the Corinthians of old, need to be on our guard here. Amen, it is very true. What is your motive and objective? This is critical Philippians 3.8-10. Let's read the Adout List.
Speaker 1:I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but done that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. You can know a lot about God, but you can know God very little. It's a big distinction between knowing God and knowing about God. Knowing God is a life process. You know Him as he reveals Himself through His Word in your life. And Paul says this is the most excellent thing to have is to surrender all that you are so that you can know Him. He suffered the loss of all things and counted those things as done, that he would know that he would win Christ and that he knows Him and the power of His resurrection, fellowship and sufferings being made conformable to His death. That's a process of life knowing Him by the Word in our lives. Every person can know a lot about God without knowing God personally. A little knowing of God is worth much more than a great deal of knowledge about God.
Speaker 1:In the sermon confirmation of the commission in 1962, he said well, you just don't know your Bible. I said well, that may be so, but I know the author real well. I said that's it. You know it doesn't say to know His book, but to know Him as life. See, satan knows His Word, but to know Him, the author of the Word, see, this isn't to endorse ignorance of the scriptures.
Speaker 1:In many other instances Brother Branham chastises the people for not knowing their Bible and the world is falling apart. 1963, you know. The Bible said don't call no man father. What's the matter with you? That's the teaching of our Lord. What's the matter? Don't you know your Bible? Don't you know your Lord? The Holy Spirit wouldn't teach you to do a thing like that. We know God through His Word, but it has to go from knowledge about to knowledge of knowing personally.
Speaker 1:Knowing knowing the Bible is critical, it's key, it's important. But if all you do is know the Bible, you'll become hard and proud. You have to know the Bible, you have to know the author of the Bible to really know the heart of the Bible. So how do we get, get it from knowledge about to knowledge of? Well, it's the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You have to receive the Spirit of God. Once you receive the Spirit of God, then you can't, can't remain in a an approach of. I want dry theology.
Speaker 1:No, psalms 119, 11 says Thy Word, have I hidden my heart that I might sin, not against me. You take the word that you listen to it, you hear it, you feed on it, you memorize it and you pray over that word so that word can live in you and you wouldn't sin against the Lord. So I'm 119. 148 says my eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in Thy Word. Meditate means to put forth, mediate, use, commune, speak, complain, ponder, sing. So you're thinking on the word, you're memorizing the word. In order to think about the word, you have to memorize it, otherwise you're just walking around with the Bible, reading, reading, reading. You read that enough. It becomes stuck in your memory. You meditate on it, you think about it, you pray over it and God begins to reveal it to your heart by the Holy Ghost. Psalm 12,.
Speaker 1:But his delight is in the law of the Lord and his law Death. You meditate day and night. This is his lifestyle. Day and night he spends time thinking on the word of God, praying through the word of God. Psalm 63, 1 through 6. Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory. I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands and my name. My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful watches. So again, this is a relationship, this is a love relationship. This is a heart on fire, passionately seeking to know God through prayer, through worship, through meditating on the word Romans 10, 17. So, then, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So knowing him comes by hearing the word, with faith Matthew 16, 15 through 17. We're familiar with it. We're not going to read it, but this is what. This is what Jesus says that his church is built upon the revelation of who Jesus is a spiritual revelation to your heart. Not a knowledge, a head knowledge, but a spiritual revelation which transforms you.
Speaker 1:Now I love speaking about the greatness of God. I love to speak about who he is. I love to make him the center of everything. Too often, as believers and preachers, we focus on the elected bride and those things only pertaining to ourselves. I feel it's very important to very often lift our hearts up to the majestic holiness of God. He is the center of everything. He should be our focus, our delight, our main thing, our main theme of absolutely everything that God revealed through Christ. We need to do away with man centered, man focused religion and lift up God centered reality Exodus 3, 14.
Speaker 1:And God said unto Moses I am that I am. And he said thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel I am hath sent me unto you. The phrase I am that I am is closely connected to the old covenant name of God, yahweh or Jehovah. Yahweh means the self existing one who reveals himself. We are not to know God as he reveals himself, not as we think or reason him to be. Matthew 11, 27. All things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father. Neither knoweth any man, the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. You can only know the father through the son revealing himself to you. Has the son revealed the father to you? That's the question I have. That's the question you need to answer for yourself by the spirit of God. Has the son revealed the father to you? Do you know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death? There's nothing better. There's not there's. It's a far surpassing Excellency of knowing him.
Speaker 1:All right now, in this topic of the attributes of God, you have to distinguish between these three things the being of God, the nature or essence of God and the attributes of God. The word being is defined as existence. The being of God speaks of his oneness, more of the topic we call the Godhead. Deuteronomy 64, hero Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. The nature of God is who he is, at his essence. This is closely related to his attributes and his nature reflects his attributes, and there are several attributes which are at the core of his essence and that all of his attributes flow out of. All right, so let's look at those.
Speaker 1:First, john 4, 16. And we know, we have known and believed the love that God had to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. God is love. God does not merely have love as one of his attributes. God is love. That is who he is. First, john 1 5. This, then, is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is light. That's who he is. He is light. And, of course, light speaks of manifestation unto others. Darkness has no impact upon him. Light speaks of the fact that he manifests holiness, purity, goodness. God is that light. We are only light as we derive that light, that holiness, that purity, that goodness from him.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 12, 24 for our God, excuse me. Hebrews 12, 29, for God is a consuming fire because he is holy. It leads directly to the truth that he is full of righteous wrath. John 4, 24 God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. From this verse we understand God is not limited to a body or one particular place. The mighty conqueror, 1956, brother Graham, says the place cannot be too humble, too little for you to come, and yet you fill all space and time. Jeremiah 23, 24 says can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Say at the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth. Say at the Lord. Second Chronicles 6, 6, 18. But will God, in very deed, dwell with men on the earth? Behold heaven. And the heaven of heavens cannot contain the, how much less this house which I have built.
Speaker 1:God is spirit, that's his nature, that's his essence, not that he is a spirit that he can be compared to other beings. God is spirit as such, he covers all space and time, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, as acts 1728 says, for in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring, the essence of God, from which flows all his, of his attributes are spirit, one, spirit to light, three, love, spirit, light, love. That's God's essence or nature, and out of those three attributes flow the rest. So let's take some time that's going to take a lot of time to reflect on the awesome grand Jermus, majestic glory and worship, provoking splendor of God. Spirit would do us a great deal of good in our souls to meditate upon these things on a daily basis. It's in knowing him personally, by revelation, that we receive the strength to endure this life, the promises to fulfill every need and the comfort necessary on this journey of faith. So I'm going to give you a starting list of the attributes of God the self existence or aloneness of God.
Speaker 1:2. The Councils of God. 3. The Knowledge of God. 4. The Supremacy of God. 5. The Sovereignty of God, 6. The Holiness of God. 7. The Wrath of God. 8. The Glory of God. 9. The Power of God, 10. The Faithfulness of God, 11. The Jealousy of God, 12. The Love of God, 13. The Mercy of God, 14. The Grace of God, 15. The Goodness of God, 16. The Eternal Revealing of God, or the inexhaustible Fountain of God. So the aloneness or uniqueness of God. I would say also it means His self-existence.
Speaker 1:Genesis 1.1 starts in the beginning. God In eternity. God dwelt alone. In fact he wasn't even God yet, because God speaks of an object of worship. There was no one to worship Him yet. He was the Eternal One In the beginning.
Speaker 1:Elohim, el means the strong one, ohim means to swear or bind by an oath. The strong one bound by an oath is the first one who appears in the Bible. Before the beginning there was only this strong one who, even before time, is bound by an oath. The fact that he is bound by an oath speaks to the fact that he is already bound by His own word. He is bound by who he is actually. He is bound by His own attributes. Not only did God dwell alone before time, but he is alone in Excellency.
Speaker 1:Exodus 1511. Who is like unto the O Lord among the gods, who is like the glorious and holiness fearful in praises, doing wonders? Romans 11, 34 through 36. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who hath been His counselor, who hath first given unto Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:God is not in need of anything we can give. Everything belongs to Him in the first place and there's nothing that we could add to Him or take away from Him. God is self-sufficient. There's no other being in the world that is self-sufficient. Angels are not self-sufficient, humans are not self-sufficient. Animals are not self-sufficient. We all derive our life and everything that we are from Him. He derives nothing from us. There's no word of blasphemy that could take away from who God is in His character and essential being, and there's no amount of faith that we could put in Him that would add to His essential being and character. God is glorified or dishonored by us, but that takes nothing away nor adds nothing to Him. To glorify Him is to merely recognize reality. To blaspheme Him is to fall upon an impenetrable rock. It can only crush you. You cannot crush it.
Speaker 1:Isaiah 40, 21 through 23 says have you not known? Have you not heard it? Hath not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth. It is he that siteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that stresseth out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in. That brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth as vanity. God is so far, so high above us. In His eyes, we are like grasshoppers. The sky in His sight is just like a window with a curtain over it. The sky itself is like it, just merely like a tent. The earth is like a chair. Isaiah 66 says Heaven is as throne, earth is as footstool. Those that the earth esteems as great and powerful, he makes them as nothing. This is the great God that we serve. He is so far above us, so high above us, so beyond our comprehension.
Speaker 1:Exodus 8, 10,. And he said Tomorrow. And he said Be it according to thy word that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord, our God. 2 Samuel 7, 22,. Wherefore thou art great, o Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 1 Timothy 6, 16,. Who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man has seen, nor can see to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. It is only God that is known to us by His Spirit. He is not known to us by His intellect. We know Him as he manifests Himself. He has to approach us, but he is so far above us, so beyond our understanding and comprehension. All we can know Him is as he shows Himself to us. 1 Corinthians 2, 10 says but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, ye the deep things of God. We can only know Him as the Spirit reveals to us. So that is the aloneness, the uniqueness of God. Next one is the holiness of God. Isaiah 6, 1 through 7.
Speaker 1:In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face. With twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried under another and said Holy, holy, holy as the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, and the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, in the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said Lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken from away and thy sin is purged. God is so holy. Even the sinless seraphims must cover their face and their feet and they sing out three times Holy, holy, holy.
Speaker 1:So in the Hebrew language, repeating a word gives it a great emphasis, but repeating it three times speak of something, something that is infinite in nature. So God's holiness is infinite. When God spoke, the very posts of the temple shook. Here is a prophet who was a man set apart for God's service, a man distinguished from the sinners of a day. We could say he was more holy than any other man alive at the time. Yet his response to seeing God in his holiness was woe is me, woe is a passionate cry of utter despair.
Speaker 1:Seeing the holiness of God caused Isaiah to cry out in despair for his lack of holiness. Undone means to cease, cause, to cease, to cut off, to destroy, to perish. The word undone speaks of being ruined, but it means more than merely being ruined. It connotes that you have been disintegrated. You know the saying that person has it all together. Well, this is the opposite. Isaiah is saying woe unto me. I'm falling to pieces in a single moment of time.
Speaker 1:In the vision, the presence of the three times Holy God, isaiah mentally and emotionally falls to pieces. All of his self esteem, all of his views of himself, all of his self worth, all of his right standing melted away and was cut in pieces. His sense of integrity and spirituality was annihilated. Now, if this is how the God called and God ordained prophet viewed himself in the presence of God, then what about the rest of us? Holy speaks of being set apart. God is absolute and infinite purity. God is infinite in holiness. He's totally and utterly and completely different and other from you and me.
Speaker 1:Revelation 154 says who shall not fear the old Lord and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy. Exodus 1511, who is like unto the old Lord among the gods, who is like the glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Habakkuk 113,. Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and can'ts not look on iniquity. God's holiness also speaks of complete and total moral perfection. Psalm 145, 17 says the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. So all of God's attributes can be described as holy and all that he does is holy.
Speaker 1:Romans 7 12 tells us that the law is holy, god is. God's holiness is manifested through 10 commandments. Proverbs 3 32 says For the forward wicked is abomination to the Lord. Psalm 55 says the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hateest all workers of iniquity. Psalm 711 says God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. God hates all sin and in turn loves all righteousness. God must punish us for our sins. This is the beauty of the gospel. We're all deserving of God's just anger against our sin. But God poured out his righteous anger upon Jesus Christ at Calvary. He forsook him in the Garden of Gethsemane because our sin was laid upon in there. God's wrath was satisfied by the cruel death and torture of his son.
Speaker 1:Psalms 99, verse 5, says Exalt ye the Lord, our God, and worship at his footstool, for he is holy. We are to worship him because he's holy. We're to exalt him because he's holy. He's so different, he's so set apart. He's not like us. He has moral perfection, moral purity. He is light. Awp writes. Herein we find proof for the divine inspiration of the scriptures.
Speaker 1:The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of his character is altogether one sided. They fondly hope that his mercy will override everything else. Psalm 5021 says you thought that I was just like you, is God's charge against them. They think only of a God patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Next attribute of God we want to cover is the wrath of God. God, the wages of sin is death. The day you eat thereof, that day you die.
Speaker 1:In the 1964 sermon, the token brother Branham says God is a good God. That is true, but he is a God of anger too. He's a God of judgment, he's a God of wrath. We fail to get that. You make him so good to. You make him some old Dodie grandpa. He's not no Dodie grandfather, he's Almighty God and he don't have no grandchildren. Amen.
Speaker 1:He brought his judgment upon all of creation when Adam sinned for one sin. For one sin, he cursed Canaan and his generations. For one sin, moses was excluded from the promised land. For one sin, elisha's servant was struck with leprosy. For one sin, Uzziah was struck with leprosy and lived with it the rest of his life. For one sin, ananias and Sapphira were struck down dead.
Speaker 1:God commands Saul to utterly destroy all the men, women, children, animals and all possession of the Malachites. And for that one sin, god forsakes Saul. When Korah, dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses, god opened up the earth and they were all buried alive into hell. Luke 13 1 through 5, there were present at that season, some of them, some that told him of the Galileans who, whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices, and Jesus, answering, said unto them supposed ye that these Galileans were sinners, above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Or those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them? Think ye that they were sinners, above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
Speaker 1:We all sin and we're not struck dead instantly. The whole world does the same, and because they take this for granted, that one sin, we deserve instant and immediate death. And because of that we recoil in horror when God does give various people through history exactly what they deserve. We think we deserve mercy, but mercy is not something we deserve or earn. Mercy is freely given. We don't deserve it, that's why it's mercy.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy 32, 39 through 42. See now that I, even I, am he and there is no God with me. I kill and make, I make alive, I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand, for I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives. From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
Speaker 1:God's wrath is his eternal hatred of sin and evil. His wrath is not a malignant or malicious anger poured out without consideration, as though he is reacting to various outside forces that cause him personal damage. It is the just equity that God has towards sin and evil. God is holy and therefore he's morally perfect, and his law demands that man live up to this same moral perfection. And he gives to his creation what it so richly deserves. God's anger is an attribute that is a result of his holy character meeting with the evil character of his creation. It's God's holiness activated against sin.
Speaker 1:The flood is a nice little story we tell children, but when we really examine it it's a story of God's judgment on an unprecedented, unimaginable scale. It's like come here, children, let's learn about how God sent a flood to kill all of mankind except eight and most of the animals. Billions of people perished in the flood. They perished because God's holiness became active against wickedness that was all pervasive in the hearts and actions of mankind Romans 1.18,. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness Romans 1.32, who, knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them.
Speaker 1:So we have to be careful not to devise a picture of God in our souls that is not based on Scripture. We need to have a basic understanding of God's wrath. That would produce the fear of God within us. It should then give us a heart of rejoicing, knowing God has delivered us from the wrath to come. In other words, without a good understanding of the wrath of God and what we deserve, we can never understand his mercy. These things are so interconnected, as you'll see as we go on. One connects into the other, connects into the other.
Speaker 1:Matthew 5, 45, that you may be children of your father, which is in heaven, for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and said it's rain on the just and on the unjust. God is so patient. He gives the evil and the good son reign and provisions for this life. He gives all space. He gives everyone space to repent. He's so patient. The world takes it for granted and continues to store up wrath for the day of wrath, all right.
Speaker 1:Next attribute of God we wanna cover is the jealousy of God. Oh my, exodus 25,. Exodus 20, verse five, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord, thy God, I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. Exodus 34, 14, for thou shalt worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. The fact that his name is jealous means that his character or reputation is jealous.
Speaker 1:For us, jealousy carries a very negative connotation and people use this and they speak and they mock God for his jealousy. But let's look at this more closely. Jealous means suspicious, apprehensive of rivalship, uneasy through fear that another has withdrawn or may withdraw from one of the affections of a person he loves or enjoys some good which he desires to obtain, followed by of and applied both to the object of love and to the rival. We say a young man is jealous of the woman he loves or jealous of his rival. A man is jealous of his wife and the wife of her husband. Two, it means suspicious, that we do not enjoy the affection or respect of others or that another is more loved and respected than ourselves. So very often the characteristic of jealousy is for us personally, for humans. Characteristic of jealousy is a soul robbing, destructive character flaw that literally ruins everything in its past, in its path.
Speaker 1:God not only says he's jealous, but he revels in it and declares that his very name is jealous. God delights in being jealous and even reminds us all of his jealousy time and time again. Deuteronomy 4, 24, for the Lord, thy God, is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Deuteronomy 6, 15, for the Lord, thy God, is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord, thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. God's jealousy has to be considered when we look at the rest of the context of scripture. God is jealous and if you violate his jealousy, his wrath will break forth upon you.
Speaker 1:Exodus 34, 6, and 7,. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children under the third and fourth generations. I find this amazing. So here he declares who he is, and then he gives Moses the list of his attributes Jehovah, god is merciful, gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness, abundant in truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, punishing the guilty, jealous. So how can jealousy be a virtue in God when it is a moral vice in men?
Speaker 1:First of all, the word jealousy used in the Bible is what we term as an anthropomorphism, that is, it speaks of God in human terms that we understand, even though he transcends them. We cannot measure God by man, but we measure man by God. That's what the problem with atheists they mock God for his jealousy, but they're measuring God by man. We measure man by God. We must measure man's jealousy in the light of God's jealousy, not man's jealousy in the light of God's jealousy. In other words, if we define jealousy using our human understanding of it, then we'll be perverting God's word and we'll have no idea who God is. James 1.20,. For the wrath of man works, not the righteousness of God, but the wrath of God is the judicial outworking of his righteousness. God's jealousy is a positive thing. It's not a combination of frustration, envy, spite and anger. It's a praise worthy zeal that works for the preservation of something precious above all other things.
Speaker 1:There's two kinds of jealousies, even in humans. There's a wicked jealousy, which is a hatred for others because they have what you want and have taken what was once yours, or you're afraid that someone is gonna take what belongs to you. Two godly jealousy is that of a husband or a wife towards their spouse or an engaged couple, which demands complete purity and faithfulness to one another. God's jealousy is that of the latter. The second jealousy is a virtue and shows a correct understanding of the situation, in this case the marriage covenant, ezekiel 8.3, says and he put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of mine head, and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me, in the visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north. Where was the seat of the image of jealousy which provoked to jealousy?
Speaker 1:Now John Kelvin writes this the Lord very frequently addresses us in the character of a husband, as he performs all the offices of a true and faithful husband. So he requires love and chastity from us, that is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan. As the pure and chaser chaser a husband is, the more grievously he is offended when he sees his wife inclining to a rival. So the Lord, who has betrothed us to himself, in truth declares that he burns with the hottest jealousy whenever, neglecting the purity of his holy marriage, we defile ourselves with abominable lusts, and especially when the worship of his deity, which to have been most carefully kept unimpaired, is transferred to another or adulterated with some superstition, since in this way we not only violate our plighted troth but defile our nuptial couch by giving access to adulterers.
Speaker 1:I, god's jealousy first starts with his love to us, his elective love. He chose us in his sovereign grace. Because of that, he's jealous over us. We're as bride and we must be faithful to him as he is faithful to us. God's jealousy is actually speaking of his zeal to fulfill his purpose, to fulfill his righteousness and justice. This word, zeal, kinah, means ardor, zeal, jealousy, ardor, jealousy, jealous disposition of a husband. Isaiah 9.7 says of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice. From henceforth, even forever, the zeal or the jealousy of the Lord of hosts will perform. This is equal five, 13. Thus shall my anger be accomplished and I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted, and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in my zeal when I have accomplished my fury in them.
Speaker 1:God is zealous or jealous for his own righteousness, and when it is violated, he responds. The only way a just and good God could respond is with wrath. So God is the most glorious being, the most perfect being, and so therefore, whenever that is violated, it demands his zeal for his holiness, his perfection, his glory, his red hot fervor for himself. If he calls us to be red hot on fire for him, he himself is red hot on fire for himself. He's a consuming fire. Isaiah 42.8 says I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory will I not give to another, and neither my praise to graven images. So he's not gonna share his glory with anyone else. He's zealous for his own glory. Isaiah 48.11, for my own sake, even for my own sake, will I do it, for how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory unto another. That is a perfectly correct thing. He is zealous for his own glory and for his own name to be magnified.
Speaker 1:Let's continue on. We're coming up on an hour now and I'm gonna continue this. I wanna get about halfway through so that we can finish this in two parts for this podcast. Next attribute we wanna cover is the counsels of God or the decrees of God. Decree or counsel speaks of God's plan or purpose that he has ordained to accomplish.
Speaker 1:Acts 15, 18,. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. So God, from the very beginning of the world, he knows what he's going to do. He has a plan. In other words, ephesians 3, 11 says according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So that plan was planned in Christ Jesus, the Lord. Acts 2, 23,. Him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. We see that the crucifixion was the one of the centerpieces of his plan, the key that unlocks the door, and it was God's counsel and foreknowledge, pre-planning, that done that.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 1-11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him, who works all things after the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1-9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. So as we read these verses, we see God's purpose is eternal. It has no beginning and no ending. It changes not. God's decree or counsel is predetermined. God works everything after the counsel of his own will. In other words, with his creation he works. He actively works within it to accomplish what his original purpose and plan is. God's will is free and his purposes cannot be thwarted or changed by any of his creatures. Isaiah 40, 13, and 14 says who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or, being his counselor, hath taught him, with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding?
Speaker 1:In the Church Ages book, the Smyrnian Church Age, brother Branham says the eternal thoughts of God. Let me ask you are the thoughts of God eternal? If you can see this, you'll see many things. God is unchangeable in both essence and behavior. We have studied that and proven that already. God is infinite in his abilities. So therefore he as God must be omniscient.
Speaker 1:If he is omniscient, then he is not now learning, nor is he taking counsel, even with himself, nor is he at any time adding to his knowledge. If he can add to his knowledge, then he is not omniscient. The best we could say is that sometime he will be. But that's not scriptural. He is omniscient. He has never had a new thought about anything, because all his thoughts he has always had and always will have, and knows the end from the beginning, because he is God. Thus, the thoughts of God are eternal. They are real. They are not simply like a man with a blueprint he has drawn up which one day will be translated into substance and form, but they are already real and eternal and part of God. Amen.
Speaker 1:God's counsels are absolute and unconditional, isaiah 46.10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. God's purpose is immutable and invincible. Immutable means incapable of change. Unimutable means that they cannot be conquered or overcome. The next attribute we want to cover is the supremacy of God. Supremacy means the state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power or status.
Speaker 1:First Chronicles, 29.11.12,. Thine, o Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, o Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto all. He reigns over all now, not in the future, in the millennium. He's in control of everything now. He makes some rich, he makes some poor, he puts some in power, he gives some with no power, he makes some strong, he makes some weak. He does all of these things. Second Chronicles, 26.
Speaker 1:And said O Lord, god of our fathers, art not thou, god in heaven, and rule us, not thou, over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Job 42.2,. I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholding from thee. Jeremiah 32, 17,. O 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. Proverbs 21.1,. The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it wither, so ever he will. Romans 11.36,. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen.
Speaker 1:So we read of many instances, both in the Bible and in history that men and women defied the word of God with their fists. They shake their fists at God. That's very true. They're defying the external word of God that is preached and proclaimed throughout the earth. However, they're not defying the counsel or plan of God. Their very defiance is a fulfillment of that plan. When the Pharisees and the Sadducees went together and made a conspiracy against Jesus and handed them over to the Romans for crucifixion, god said their disobedience and defiance of God was according to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. They weren't thwarting the plan of God, they were fulfilling it.
Speaker 1:Romans 9.22,. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Jude 1.4,. For there are certain men crept in and aware, as were before, of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into soliciviousness and denying the only Lord, god and our Lord Jesus Christ. So their defiance is a fulfillment of God's preordained plan. So God is, even in their defiance, showing forth his supremacy. We can take courage and comfort to know that every detail of our lives is ordained by God and no purpose can be thwarted. It's all purpose by his hand in order to accomplish eternal good for you. God is the supreme being. He reigns over all. He's on the throne. Nothing happens outside of his purpose and plan.
Speaker 1:Next is and you see again as we go through this, they blend, blend, blend, blend. Each of these blend together. Next, we want to look at the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty of God speaks of the exercise of his supremacy. Psalms 135.6,. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places. Daniel 4.35,.
Speaker 1:And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou? Romans 9, 19 through 21,. That will say then unto me. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? Nabid, o man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing say to him that formed it. Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay Of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Nothing is more repugnant and disgusting to the sinner's heart than the sovereignty of God. We certainly are placed on free moral agency, but this does not make our free moral agency above God's free agency. Romans 2, 1 through 4,.
Speaker 1:Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. So God laughs at their defiance of him, because he is sovereign over them. He sits in the heavens and reigns over them.
Speaker 1:Psalm 37, 7 through 13,. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Seize from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself and anywise to do evil, for evil doers shall be cut off. But those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shall diligently consider his place and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plodeth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeeth that his day is coming. Amen.
Speaker 1:So God is working all things out. He's sovereign over everything the wickedness, what its effect is upon you, what it produces in you and his purpose for them and everything surrounding them. Just wait and you'll see what God is doing. God will have his laugh at them and I think we'll laugh with them. Psalm 59, verse 8,. But thou, o Lord, shall laugh at them. Thou shall have all the heathen in derision.
Speaker 1:Remember this is Isaiah 46, 9, and 10. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. See, god has the power, the authority, the freedom and wisdom to bring everything that he intends to happen to pass. Everything that has happened or that will happen has been purposed by Almighty God. Nothing is outside of His control, nothing is outside of His sovereignty. Proverbs 16, 33,. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. God is sovereign over nature. In Jonah we see, he commanded a fish, commanded a plant to grow, commanded the worm to destroy that plant. God is sovereign over the supernatural realm. In Job we learn that God gives Satan certain permissions, but he can only go so far.
Speaker 1:Exodus 4, 11,. And the Lord said unto him who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord. This shows us that God is sovereign even over disabilities 1 Peter 4, 19,. And he has a purpose in those disabilities. Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator.
Speaker 1:God is sovereign over our suffering. God has a purpose over our suffering. So when we suffer, when we go through trials, when we have a disability in our life, whatever it might be, god has a purpose in it and he's going to accomplish that purpose. He also has restoration in mind. Amos 3, 6, and the ESV is a trumpet blown in the city and the people are not afraid as disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it. God is sovereign even over natural disasters.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy 32, 39,. See now that I, even, I am he and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. God is sovereign over life and death. It's not the grim reaper, not the devil. God is sovereign over it. Names 4, 13 through 15, go to now.
Speaker 1:You that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be on the moral. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that you ought to say if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. So God is sovereign over our financial situation and the success or failure of our business ventures. He's in control. We ask the Lord what to do, we follow His leadership and we ask His blessing, but sometimes he just doesn't do that. He has another purpose for us.
Speaker 1:Matthew 10, 29,. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father? God is sovereign even over the death of the smallest animals and bugs and every plants, everything. 1 Timothy 5, 21,. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. God is sovereign even over the angelic hosts. The ones that fell and the ones that didn't fall were elect. Genesis 5, 50, verse 20, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. So God works intricately. Through every situation, every purpose, everything that happens. There is a beautiful tapestry being woven. When we look at one instance, we say, boy, that's terrible. But if you see the whole tapestry that God is building once his plan for evil is finished, you'll see all of it work together and it'll be an incredibly beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for listening in. I sure appreciate that. For those who are subscribers, I just want to thank you again for that. Every week, we send out a special short podcast as a thank you to our subscribers. You can do that through the Buzzsprout link that's attached to this, whether you're listening on X or Facebook, youtube or one of the many podcast services. Thank you so much for your support. We appreciate that, and may God go before you and richly bless you.