THE GREATNESS OF GOD

THE GREATNESS OF GOD

Psalm 18: 29; John 20: 16-18; Revelation 3: 7-13

I have in mind, dear brethren, with the Lord’s help, to speak about God, the greatest theme for any creature; One whose greatness, indeed, is unsearchable. Hence one would speak humbly, with the consciousness of definite limitations; nevertheless God would be spoken of. The Psalmist says, “let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified,” Psalm 40: 16, and he repeats in other psalms the words “The Lord be magnified.” God is to become continually greater to us; the meaning of being magnified is that He becomes greater; not that He could be greater in Himself, for “Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,” 1 Chronicles 29: 11. David says God would have our hearts continually open to receive fresh impressions of Himself, so that He becomes greater and greater to us. The continuation of the magnifying of God will never cease because there is no limit to His greatness. The same applies to Christ Jesus our Lord. It is the mind of God to magnify Christ, as it is said of Solomon that God greatly magnified him, and He magnifies His word above all His name, Psalm 138: 2. I believe He is doing it in our day. He is magnifying His word. What a day it is to hear His word — His voice, to hear that which expresses His mind, and it is to be magnified. It is the divine antidote to what is coming in in christendom, for we are drawing near to the time when there will be a man who will “magnify himself above every god,” Daniel 11: 36. “He magnified himself even to the prince of the host,” we read in Daniel 8: 11, and this is beginning around us; the exaltation of man away from God. The ministry of the present time is to magnify God, to magnify Christ and to magnify His word — His present voice to our souls contained in the precious Scriptures, for they never were more dear to those who have ears to hear.

I had in mind to say a few words about God. The Psalmist says, “from eternity to eternity thou art God,” Psalm 90: 2 — from eternity — that is backward. Think of God from eternity! Scripture speaks of the beginning of His way; when He began to move in relation to creation — the beginning of His way, not the beginning of God — there is no such thought, but the beginning of His way; the beginning when He moved out in relation to creation; but before His way began, “from eternity... thou art God.” God was, dear brethren, in eternity, in His inexpressible sufficiency. Our feeble minds cannot take it in, but from eternity there was God; sufficient in Himself in eternity, when there were no heavens and no earth and no angels and no men. He was God. Then we look on to eternity, and God will fill it — God, all in all, 1 Corinthians 15: 28. A more blessed and glorious outlook cannot be perceived, the new heavens and the new earth inhabited by families, and God all and in all; God everything in His universe; a condition of such blessedness and such delight to God, that it will go on to all eternity. That is what God is preparing us for. He is not only preparing us for the world to come, when He will see His triumph over evil, when He will display that “the Lord is a man of war,” Exodus 15: 3. The Lord has triumphed gloriously, He will display that, but the world to come is the victory of good over evil, and God over Satan, and Christ over the world; but God is also preparing us for eternity when God is all and in all — He is everything — He is worthy to be everything. He is disclosing to our hearts more and more what He is so that we should come to it that He should be everything.

The great question in the history of mankind is idolatry. There was never a more idolatrous world than this one in which we live. Idolatry is sweeping through christendom; 2 Timothy 3 makes clear that there are many idols controlling men’s hearts in the last days. It says “in the last days” men will be lovers of themselves — which is idolatry — lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having no love for what is good. I only refer to that as modern idolatry in the last days, every feature of which as it is allowed displaces God from our hearts. But David says, “The Lord be magnified,” and that is the way God displaces the idols. He magnifies Himself to us and He magnifies Christ.

I want to refer for a moment to God as known by His people. When we reach that blessed day of which I have spoken, when God is everything, there will be gathered up into that world all the true knowledge of God from the outset; all that Abel knew about God carried over to it, all that Enoch knew, for he walked with God for three hundred years. Who can say what he did not know — for three hundred years he walked with God, and all that he learnt in his soul of God is intact for eternity, and also all that Noah knew of God. God is spoken of in Scripture as the God of Shem — the God Shem knew; we know little of what Shem did know, but the thing that Shem knew will adorn eternity — the knowledge that he had of God. Blessed be the God of Shem, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and the God of Nahor. Nahor may not have had much knowledge of God, but Scripture speaks of the God of Nahor. The God of Joseph — for what a God Joseph knew! Think of the accumulated knowledge of God that he gathered up and secured in his day. The God of Moses, the God of Samuel, the God of David, the God of Solomon; every feature of the knowledge of God in these beloved saints is intact. Mary the mother of Jesus said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour,” Luke 1: 46, 47. Is that lost? It cannot be lost. All enters into that which will fill that coming day when God is all in all.

I want now to say a word or two of some who speak of God as “my God,” as if they were alone here. Jacob speaks of “my God.” God is the God of Jacob, but he also says, “my God,” feebly at first, for little he knew God at first, but he does say this, “then shall the Lord be my God,” Genesis 28: 21, and in speaking to Joseph he says, “the God of thy father.” One loves increasingly the end of Jacob’s life, because it may be our own end, please God, the end of the assembly on earth, the end of the Spirit’s work in our day, typified in the closing scenes of Jacob. He had some knowledge of God from the outset, for he valued the blessing immensely; that denotes he had some knowledge of God. He would take steps to get the blessing of God, denoting that he had some knowledge of God, and in his prayer to which I have referred he speaks to God, that if He would bless him and keep him, then the Lord should be his God.

As the accumulated knowledge of God comes to light when Jacob is dying and his journey is finished, we see how beautifully he speaks of God.

He says to Joseph, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day,” Genesis 48: 15. He is looking back upon all his life, he is looking at every day, at every sorrow; he thinks of the death of Rachel, of the loss of Joseph, Simeon, and Benjamin, of his own unhappy doings at times, his wanderings; he can think of all the sorrows that had come into his heart as he learnt what he was in his children — a most painful way to learn it. That is what he did. He learnt what he was in his sons, as well as what he had already learnt in himself. As the journey is drawing to an end and he looks back on it all, he says, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day.” There has never been a moment He has given me up; He has followed me, cared for me, protected me and fed me all my life long. “The Angel that redeemed me from all evil,” Genesis 48: 16 — the Angel there is another reference to God. He has redeemed me from all evil. He has taken me out of its power when I would have been swept away but for His gracious hand. So Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph. He puts Ephraim first, and Joseph must learn as well as Jacob that the matter of first importance is fruitfulness. Ephraim means fruitfulness. Jacob could say, I have come to it and I know it. Joseph did not know it yet, but Jacob knew it; God must be first; something for God in our lives must be first. Forgetfulness can come afterwards; there is much to be forgotten, but the first thing is something for God. In his earlier days the first thing with Jacob, as with all of us, was something for himself, but Jacob has reversed all that now by his knowledge of God. Then it says he worshipped. God is so blessed to his soul that language cannot express what is in his heart. Mere language is not worship; worship is more than language. As the beloved poet says, “There only to adore.” That is not mere words, there may be that which cannot be expressed in words. The deepest feelings of the soul cannot be expressed in words. We are not told that Jacob said anything at that moment. It says he worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff — a dependent man at the end — dependent on God as knowing Him and loving Him, so that he says “my God,” the God that has brought me to be true to my name — a supplanter. Jacob has come to it that all that is natural in him must be supplanted, and what is of God and of Christ must take its place. The knowledge of God establishes his name. “The God of Jacob, Selah.”

I refer now to David. David says, “by my God have I leaped over a wall.” What a God was David’s God! A God that David had learned to recognise as his own — “my God.” You will find it repeatedly in Scripture in relation to David — especially in the Psalms. He says “my God,” the God that would make me true to my name. The name means “beloved.” A man that is lovable — a man that God loves. Think of God operating to make that true, a man that God can look down upon and love. He says, “by my God have I leaped over a wall.” Every wall that has ever confronted me, by my God have I leaped over it. Think of his early days, the first two walls that he ever faced as far as we know, when it says there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. That young life — descriptive somewhat of Christ. The lion and the bear came as they always do to young souls. No Christian has gone many days in his spiritual history before the lion has come to devour him, and the bear to rend him in pieces. It was Satan that attempted to destroy David in his youth. Many are marred for the testimony in their early days because the lion or the bear assails them; and we all would be unavailable but for divine grace. David learned to know God — “my God.” He says, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear,” 1 Samuel 17: 37. He had learned God in secret as able to deliver him from the lion and the bear. It is a matter of the greatest importance to young Christians that we should learn in secret when we are young what God can do for us. If we have not learned this, we shall be unfit to have part in the testimony in relation to anything that is public. What lies behind what is public must be learning to know God in secret. When David comes into public view he says, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”

David had also learned what God could do through the power of the musical instrument. He had learned in secret that a heart responsive to God was a wonderful instrument. I wonder where our hearts are secretly. Not what we say publicly, but what are the movements in our hearts in secret? It was said of David in his early days that he was a cunning player on the harp — a man who produced music as an expression of his heart towards God. So far as we know he had never played in public before Saul sent for him, saying, “Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.” He came with his harp, and shows that it is a mighty weapon against evil. The power of evil must flee if we have good harps and skilled music spiritually. David learned the value of that. Later when Solomon had built the temple and the singers and players were serving with the musical instruments and made one sound, the glory of God filled the house.

David’s knowledge of God as “my God,” he learned right through his life. As every wall appeared he is in touch with God as his own God, “by my God have I leaped over a wall.” Every difficulty is overcome by the true knowledge of God.

Just a word as to Daniel, who also says “my God.” A God that he personally knew, who controlled him personally and for whom he lived, as Darius recognised when he said, “is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee?” Darius had watched him, and so he says, This man continually serves his God. Daniel says, “My God hath sent his angel,” Daniel 6: 22. What an experience Daniel had with God as learning to know him from his youth! There is no time more important than youth. It is of the greatest importance that we should gain the knowledge of God in our youth, and Daniel does that. Daniel with his friends purposed not to defile himself with the king’s meat — a holy purpose takes possession of their hearts, and God grant it may take hold of every one of us, that we may not be defiled by the corruptions of the world, however attractive to the flesh they may appear to be, however much they may appear to bring pleasure. Daniel determined he would not defile himself with the king’s meat or with the wine which he drank, and he learns that God can make him “fairer and fatter” than others by having pulse and water — captives’ food. Simple as to the natural mind and of no importance, but food that develops a fairer and better constitution than all the king’s food and wine could do.

Daniel learns that the God whom he serves is such a God as this. As he learns God further he learns that He can disclose secrets. When the inhuman decision of Nebuchadnezzar was made that all the wise men of Babylon must be slain because they could not tell him his dream, Daniel seeks God and finds that He is a discloser of secrets, and he blesses the God of heaven. As he is strengthened in his soul there comes increase in the true knowledge of God and he grows by it. Later he finds that God is so to be trusted and so to be served that He can maintain him in integrity in all his responsible life. Not one thing could be laid as a charge against him in which he was unfaithful. Who could enable a man to do that but God? The secret of it is that he was in touch with God. Indeed it says at that very time that Daniel opened his window towards Jerusalem and prayed and gave thanks to God three times a day as aforetime, Daniel 6: 10, as he was accustomed to do. The secret of Daniel’s prosperity was that he was accustomed to open his window towards Jerusalem to look out upon divine interests. On the earth, however broken and under the power of the enemy they might seem to be at the moment, his outlook was Jerusalem. Three times a day — as he began his day, in the heat of the day, and at the close of it — he prayed and gave thanks to God. He gave thanks as well as prayed, as aforetime. We hear of some of the customs amongst the saints today. Let us embrace this custom of Daniel’s, that three times a day he prayed and gave thanks. His whole day was characterised by dependence on God and thanksgiving, and interest in what is of God on the earth. Finally we find him cast into the den of lions, and there is not the slightest evidence of struggle. The Scripture records no idea whatever of any struggle on Daniel’s part. He submits to the whole matter, committing himself to God, “my God.” We shall need that soon if the Lord does not come; for without doubt there are lions’ dens ahead, there are great tests ahead, and what will support us is that each can say, “my God.” So there comes back the message from the dungeon to Darius, “My God hath sent his angel” — Daniel’s God — a God that makes Daniel true to his name. Daniel means “God is judge,” and Daniel has God’s judgment of the whole situation, whether it be Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar, whether it be the princes of Darius, whether it be the food and the wine of the king, he has God’s judgment about things; his name is Daniel and God works in him to make him true to his name. Daniel will be in the new heaven and the new earth, he will have his part in the new universe and take into it all that he gathered up of the knowledge of God, whom he describes as “my God.”

A word or two about Paul’s God. Paul also says “my God.” He says “our God” as every Christian does, but he says “my God.” What an accumulation of the knowledge of God Paul gathered up! Think of what came into his soul near Damascus as he heard the words of Jesus “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Acts 9: 4. What he learned there was this, “God, who is rich in mercy,” Ephesians 2: 4. There came an indelible impression into the soul of Saul of Tarsus of the wealth of divine mercy that could speak like that to him from heaven — blasphemer, persecutor, insolent, overbearing man, but he says, “I obtained mercy,” 1 Timothy 1: 16. I do not think we have much of the knowledge of God if we do not come to that. Mercy is the first impression we get of God if we get right impressions: Then Paul went his way growing by the true knowledge of God, learning to know what God could do under all conditions, until he could say in truth, “whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God,” 2 Corinthians 5: 13. God was so great, so blessed to the soul of Paul that it led him to an ecstasy. He was lifted out of himself, as David also says in almost similar words, “God my exceeding joy,” Psalm 43: 4. Paul says, “whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.” He also says, “my God shall supply all your need,” Philippians 4: 19, as if to say, I have learned to know my God and the boundless stores of wealth that He has according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I have learned my God in such a way that no situation can arise but what He can provide everything that is needed for me. He tells the Philippians that God will provide for them, for they had provided for him and sent to him out of much affliction. He turns to them and says “my God,” the God I have learned, the God I know, He will supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus; so that he is maintained to the end true to his name — Paul, which means “little” — and he is maintained in true lowliness in his own eyes from outside the gates of Damascus until he says, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” How truly he said, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,” Ephesians 3: 8. In every soul this is going on in various measure, and it will all be manifested; all the knowledge of God that the saints have acquired, will be found resplendent in the day of eternity.

I want to say a little, with the Lord’s help, on what the Lord Jesus says when He speaks of “my God.” He says to Mary, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” This is something infinitely great, altogether greater than the knowledge that Jacob had of God. Jacob says “my God,” David says “my God,” Daniel says “my God,” Paul says “my God,” but when Jesus says “my God” it is on a platform infinitely higher than anything that had been known or spoken of by anyone before. Our knowledge of God is first acquired through the unravelling of the question of good and evil in our souls; through the work of God in the heart that has been stained by sin and brought under Satan’s power. The works of the devil have had to be undone in our hearts, idols removed before bringing God into the heart of the creature; but that can have no connection with our Lord saying “my God.” All those of whom I have spoken were naturally “of the earth, earthy” — they bore the image of the earthy, they have partaken of fallen Adam in their moral being. The Lord Jesus was the Second Man, out of heaven; that is what He was as coming into this world, the Second Man, out of heaven, the heavenly One; He never was of the earth, earthy. He was the last Adam, the life-giving Spirit, but He was Man, a Man of another order. The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” Luke 1: 35, and in another place He is called “the Son of the Highest.” He belongs to heaven. His manhood belongs to heaven. He is not of the earth. He is the Second Man, out of heaven, but He is a Man. There is something there that never was there before; a mystery that no human mind can comprehend! He is God, of course, as to His own Person, and we love to confess it. He was God and He is God as to His Person; but He is the Second Man, out of heaven, and as in that position He says “my God.” O what must be in that! It is His language all through. “I was cast upon thee from the womb; ...thou art my God,” Psalm 22: 10. As He came into this world it is said of Him through David, “thou art my God.” No question of God’s place being usurped by another there, but a heavenly Man who says, “my God.” He says, again through the Psalmist, “O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days.” He knew God and He loved Him, a God that He served, a God that was the delight of His soul, in holy heavenly manhood. He says when upon the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22: 1. A knowledge of God that was peculiar to that heavenly Man — the Second Man, out of heaven; a different knowledge of God from Jacob’s, or David’s, or Daniel’s, or Paul’s. He says it to Mary at the tomb in resurrection, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” The One who had ever been supreme as known by the Second Man, out of heaven; that God, He says, is also your God; He would bring them into it by breathing into them anticipatively His own life, that of the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. How little we know of God in that character every heart must admit.

In the Revelation, the Lord speaking from heaven confirms it. He says to Philadelphia, to him that overcomes, to him who gives Him His own right place in the assembly, who refuses any other, but enthrones Him as the Head of the assembly, to him that does that and maintains it, to him that overcomes, “I will write upon him the name of my God,” put an indelible mark upon him, so that he is expressive, by the name that is on him, of My God. God as known by the Second Man, out of heaven; a different knowledge of God, a higher knowledge of God, a more glorious knowledge of God than can ever be conceived by any of the fallen sons of Adam, known primarily by the Second Man, out of heaven, who speaks of God as “my God.” The Lord says, if there is anyone who overcomes in Philadelphia, and who secures to Him His proper place in the assembly, as far as he is concerned. He says, “I will write upon him the name of my God.” The One of whom Jesus speaks as “my God” — that God will be known and loved and served, and His name written on those who inhabit that glorious scene in the day of eternity, when God will be all and in all.

May the Lord help us, dear brethren, to grow by the true knowledge of God.