In the sermon 'The Spirituality of God', Scott Brown explores the profound doctrine that God is Spirit, emphasizing its practical significance for believers. He underscores that God's spiritual nature, though invisible, is foundational to hope, comfort, and wisdom in life. The sermon draws on biblical passages like John 4:24, Psalm 139, and Isaiah 40 to illustrate how God's omnipresence and immensity surpass physical bounds, offering solace and assurance. Brown argues that while God's invisibility may be a barrier for some, it parallels the unseen yet undeniable realities in life, such as air and gravity. The sermon also delves into the spiritual blessings that God as Spirit bestows, assuring believers that they are never alone and always have access to divine resources. Through examples and scripture, Brown highlights that God's presence transcends physical spaces, and His attributes are available to those who seek Him. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to embrace the spirituality of God as a source of eternal comfort and strength.

We're making our way through the attributes of God, and the attribute that we'll be focusing in on now is God as Spirit, or the spirituality of God. And in just hearing that, you might think, well, what does that have to do with me? Well, it has absolutely everything to do with us. It is, I would argue, I could easily argue, and I will argue, that this is one of the most helpful, practical doctrines of God that exists there. And my goal in the next few minutes really is that we all, as a church, would find ourselves maybe in a new way enjoying the spirituality of God, the fact that God is Spirit.

Because before us in this doctrine is an expression of God's inapproachable goodness and light, and it's an attribute of God that should really draw us into enjoyment of God and the worship of God. And the key passage of scripture that I want to begin with, there are many that we'll deal with, is John 4 24 that speaks of the fact that God is spirit. Well those are the words, God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. So God is spirit. You cannot see Him and the fact that you cannot see Him is one of the great foundations of hope and help in your life for happiness.

And I think that by the time we get to the end of this session, I pray you'll really receive tremendous comfort in the thought that God is spirit. And if you need comfort, run to God as Spirit. If you need wisdom, run to God as Spirit. If you need strength, run to God as Spirit. He is Spirit.

And, But that means that he's invisible. And that's a problem, isn't it? I mean, at meal times, when we pray, we pray to a God who is invisible. We can't see him. And we sing every Sunday.

We just sang to an invisible God. Well, the song started out, immortal, invisible, and we were singing to an invisible being. This is what we do all the time. And many, Many people believe that the invisibility of God is the reason that they cannot believe. When I was a young pastor in California, I met a man who said something I'll never forget.

He says, I'm a seer believer. I have to see it. Well, that's a real problem because God is invisible. And so it is a barrier to many people, but there are many things that we cannot see that are real, that we know are real. And we cannot see them with our eyes, but there's no question that they are there.

For example, almost everyone, every adult here is carrying a phone, a mobile phone, and there are radio waves that allow you to talk to people and send pictures and videos and things like that, but you can't see those waves with your eye. Right at this moment there's a Wi-Fi operating and this message is being broadcast over the Wi-Fi, through the Wi-Fi to the internet. And you can't see that happening, It's happening invisibly. There are many things that are like that, like air and oxygen and like the satellite waves that give you your GPS coordinates. You can't see gravity but you know it's real.

You can't see wind, but you know it's there. You can't see ultraviolet light, but your skin knows it when you get sunburned. So there are many things that We believe in, but we can't see. It's a little bit hypocritical to think that you can't believe in God because you can't see Him. That's really hypocritical because there are dozens of things we believe in and we ought to believe in like gravity that we cannot see.

So this shouldn't surprise us that God is spirit and he is therefore invisible. But all of us, I think, have hearts a little bit like Doubting Thomas, who said, you show me. You show me and I'll believe. At that point, he was a seer believer. And then he was a believer seer as a result of God's work in his life.

But it shouldn't bother us so much that we can't see God. And it also should help us to understand a little bit about the Christian life because the whole Christian life is lived in the presence of a person who is spirit that we cannot see. And that's why the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4 verses 16 through 18, he said, We look to the things not seen. So children, I just want you to grasp this. God is invisible, you already know that, but that shouldn't bother you.

Because he is spirit, this should be the most comforting thought that you'll ever have you know when you talk about the invisibility of God you have to think about the you know how children are thinking about this but children think of it this way you know There are many things that you believe in that you can't see, so you should believe in God. But God as Spirit is bigger than big, and he's closer than close. That's what he is and that should be a great comfort to all of us. I had to sing this song immortal invisible only God wise because of this because of this this principle here. Let's define the spirituality of God.

Thomas Watson in his sermon commenting on this matter in his book The Body of Practical Divinity, he says, By a spirit I mean God is an immaterial substance of a pure, subtle, unmixed essence, not compounded of body and soul, without all extension of parts. And the Baptist confession elaborates on this. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God whose subsistence is and of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself, and this is the part that really zeroes in on this subject, a most pure Spirit, invisible without body, parts, or passions, who only has immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach, who is, as a spirit, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, Most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory. Most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty so when you are close to God as spirit you get all those things All those things are yours because God is Spirit.

And you know, God is different compared to all other beings. Man is confined to his body. Angels are confined to their bodies. But God is unconfined. He cannot be localized.

He cannot be limited to a particular time or to a particular form. Our bodies have boundaries. There are no boundaries in God at all. And so there's some passages of scripture that help illustrate this. Now the first I already referred to, John 4 24, in that passage where Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, She wanted to know where God was worshiped because she really did believe that worship was restricted to a place, that to find God you had to go to a place.

And Jesus just explodes her fallacy of holy places, that there are these certain places where God dwells and the woman had not received any spiritual benefit from the holy place in Samaria what she got in Mount Gerizim when she worshiped there didn't help her at all and what what this matter of the spirituality of God means is that there really are no holy buildings. There are no holy rooms in your house. There are no holy places in the sense of a physical thing. Things are holy because of God's presence and there's no you know holy force field you know that prevails around a place God is ever-present he is actually omnipresent And so Jesus deals with this woman who maintained in her mind this fallacy of holy places. Then you have another facet of this and this has to do with the bigness of God.

And 1 Kings chapter 827 makes it very clear that the universe in its size is nothing compared to God. Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you. So God as Spirit is bigger than big. We don't even know how big the universe is, But God is bigger than that as spirit. His spirit pervades infinitely into all that there is.

Another passage of scripture is Psalm 139, particularly verse 7. These are some of the most comforting words in the whole Bible, I think. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I go? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Where can I go? From your spirit." The answer is, you cannot escape him.

He is there, even though you cannot see him. Another passage of scripture is Jeremiah 23 verses 23 and 24. I am a god near at hand, says the Lord, and am not a God afar off. Can anyone hide himself in secret places? So I shall not see him, says the Lord.

Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. Another passage of Scripture in Psalm 36 verses 5 through 9 which makes it very clear that God's resources of his character and of his attributes are everywhere. And particularly that the righteous have God greater than anything else man can see or experience. And this is how it reads, Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like great mountains. Your judgments are great deep. O Lord, you preserve man and beast. How precious is your loving kindness, oh God." And this passage just makes it very clear that the resources of God in his love and his mercy and his compassion, everything that is of God is available to the children of God because he is spirit. Another passage of Scripture speaks of the immensity of God in Isaiah chapter 40, particularly verses 12 through 18.

And Isaiah 40 is a picture of how God is coming to comfort His people. And Isaiah really has just explained in some of the tenderest language God's care for his people. And he's saying that he feeds them, he gathers them, he leads them, he carries them. And then Isaiah, he qualifies all that and he says that God is a tender shepherd, but bigger than you ever imagined. It's a picture of how man is hopelessly small, that man is needy, that man is not sufficient, but God is.

So there's the immensity of God, the majestic superiority of God. In verse 12, Isaiah says, Who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand? Well, your hand can hold about one ounce of water. But God measures the waters in the hollow of his hand. Measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in measure, weighed the mountains in scales.

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? And Then in verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Or to what likeness will you compare him? Well, you can't compare him to anything that's been made. He's beyond it.

He is immense. Then you have the whole doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit communicated, particularly in the Gospel of John, we'll get to the upper room discourse where the work of the Holy Spirit and His person is spoken of very beautifully and clearly. And here, the Spirit of God is the helper. Because God is Spirit, you always have help in this world. Jesus says, I will pray the Father and he will give you another Helper that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

And then he says that you can know him, but you know him, he says, for he dwells with you and will be in you. And then he says that you will see him. A little while longer the world will see me no more, but you will see me." There is a way that you see God through the Spirit, but not completely. And so John 14 really explains some of the most beautiful aspects of God as Spirit. Now the question is, you know, has anybody ever seen God?

Because you have these statements in Scripture where it's clear that some people seem to see God, But then the Bible also says no man can see God. So how do you harmonize that? And let me give you several ways to think about this and to harmonize those two thoughts, which are both true. His divine nature is seen as Romans 1.20 says that his creation shows his spirituality. So when you look at the things that he has made, you can praise him for his beauty and his power.

There is a way that you see God in his creation. And 1 John 4 verse 12 says that he can also be seen in people. John says this in 1 John 4 12, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us. And then he says, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

You can see something of God in a person who loves. And then the divine nature can be seen by men in a way that I'm just going to call through a glass darkly, where men have seen God but not in his completeness. And that's why, you know, this is why 1 Timothy 6, 16 says no one has seen God at any time. John 1, 18, no one has seen God, but Jesus has revealed him. But in Exodus 24, the elders on Mount Sinai saw God.

In Numbers 12, 8, It says that God spoke to Moses face to face. Jacob says, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved. In Genesis 32 verse 30, Isaiah says, my eyes have seen the king in Isaiah chapter 6. So did they see God or not? What did they see?

And the explanation is that there is a difference between the way that God saw Moses face to face, or Isaiah saw God seated on a throne, compared to seeing him in his completeness, in His unapproachable light, in His infinity, in His invisibility, in His incomprehensible spirituality. No one ever saw God in His fullness. And there will come a day, says the Word of God, that we will see Him face to face. But I don't think that means that you'll be able to comprehend Him in His absolute, infinite perfection. But you will see Him in a way, in a particular way.

So God makes himself known, but he makes himself known only in the ways that he determines, whether that's in creation or whether that's in the presence of his love in a person, or whether he specially reveals a part of himself to a man like Moses or Jacob or the elders of Israel. Because many times God has made himself visible through a theophany. But if we have ever seen him like that, then we have not seen him as he is in all of his perfection and all of his beauty. So let's talk about about the importance of this doctrine. I've been very helped by this, just myself having the opportunity to look at this this week.

There have been many moments in the week where this has come to mind that God is spirit and he is there and his resources are there. Okay so first of all because God is spirit You are never alone. You always have the help you need. The Bible says the help of man is useless, but the help of God as Spirit is not useless at all. And it doesn't really matter where you are in this world.

It doesn't matter what you're experiencing right now. You might be at the bottom of a well. You might be in a terrible battle. You might be in a hard situation. You know, We're reading a story to our grandchildren this week where a little boy of four years old was put in a barrel and a cover was put over his head to hide him from attacking Indians.

But he wasn't alone, even though he was in a barrel. Because of his omnipotence, I can rest secure. Because of his external existence, eternal existence, I can be confident that he'll take care of me forever. Because of his omniscience, there's nothing he does not know that I need. Because of his immensity, I can know that there's nothing larger or more influential than God around me.

Because of his omnipresence, I'm never alone. Because of his unchangeable immutability, everything he ever said is reliable. Because of his wisdom, I can ask and he will give me wisdom. Because he is sovereign I can know that he is in control. Because of his serenity I can have peace.

Because of his goodness I can draw from a good source, because of His holiness I can experience His superior happiness and because of His faithfulness I can know that He'll never let me go. Now I'm just testifying to you how this doctrine has affected me personally this week. Now, another thing we need to recognize is that a spiritual being gives spiritual blessings. And we should never forget that. The spiritual blessings are the most important and they really the only ones we really need Thomas Watson reminds that us that if God is spiritual, shouldn't we expect his blessings to be spiritual?

And you know, God gives spiritual rewards that are tied to his presence in wisdom and love. A person can receive very little or no physical prosperity in this world, but can experience treasures in heaven. They can experience every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, as the Apostle Paul said to the Ephesian Church. And you can behold his face in a mirror. You can see him in a way.

You can see him enough to get you through. You won't be able to see him for all he is, but you can see enough through him and his word. There is much in the Bible that we are partakers of the divine nature and that we have the things of the spirit as a result. You know, if a person says, well, I'm lonely, guess what? You're not alone.

If you say, I'm confused, no! God is spirit. And those who worship Him worship Him in Spirit and in truth. You're never without resources because God is Spirit. I want to close with the prayer of Patrick of Ireland.

It's a very famous prayer. I won't read it all. I'll read parts of it. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through a belief in the threeness, through the confession of the oneness of the creator of creation, I arise today through God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me from the snares of the devil, from temptations of vices, and from everyone who desires me ill, afar and near, alone or in multitude, so that reward may come to me in abundance, Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through a belief in the three-ness, through a confession of the oneness of the Creator of creation. He is immortal, He is invisible, and he is God only wise. And the third verse of this song that we sang at the beginning might help us to grasp in graphic terms how helpful it is to know that God is Spirit. To all life thou givest, to both great and small, in all life thou livest, the true life of all, we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree and wither and perish but not changes thee and So this is God behold your God He's invisible He's spirit And that should really encourage you today. Would you pray with me?

Lord, where can we go from your Spirit? How can we hide? How can we hide? Lord, we're so thankful that you are who you are, an infinite, holy Spirit. We thank you, Lord.

We pray that as a church here, that we would be so mindful of you as spirit in all the moments of our days, to number our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom, that we would gain it all from your spirituality. Amen.