This week at Burnet Bible Church, Pastor Hopkins gives his sermon entitled, The Attributes of God for Children. Instead of going forward with the book of Romans, what I wanted to do is to look briefly, because we can't go really in depth into this, we don't have the time to do so, into something that we have looked at in times past, in fact spent over two years with the men studying, and that is the attributes of God. And we are in a dreadful situation in our country today because professing believers don't know who God is. They don't know the God of the scriptures. They don't know the God of the Bible.

And as I was praying about this, I was saying, Lord, please help me to be able to communicate somewhat of the attributes of God, the knowledge of God to the congregation in such a way that the five-year-old, the child in the congregation can understand. I'm not sure how many children we have here today, but we have many. And so I wanted to start off by defining an attribute for the children. So you hear these big words and it sounds like, wow, the attributes of God. I don't even know what is an attribute.

So an attribute is that which makes something what it is. So an attribute is like a quality of something or a characteristic of something that makes that what it is. It could be someone or something, that attribute. And when we went through the men's study on the attributes of God, we went through A.W. Pink's attributes of God.

And I recommend that to anyone who has not studied the attributes of God. As I said, we did it every Wednesday night with the men for over two years, and we asked that the men would go home and share what they learned with their families, because our families need to know who God is. They need to understand who God is. And A.W. Pink is, you know, one of many who has taught on the attributes of God.

Stephen Charnock is another great one, a reformed theologian from history that you could look at. But he started with, and I thought this was so good, How many of you remember us talking about the solitariness of God? The solitariness of God. Anybody remember that? Raise your hand, man, if you remember that.

Okay, a very small handful. So The solitariness of God is this. So you children that are looking over and you're listening, understand this. The Bible begins, the first four words of scripture, in the beginning, God. Before there was anything else, there was God.

In the beginning, God, the fifth word is created, and then creation begins. But what we have to understand is that before God ever formed anything, God was, God existed. God existed solitarily. He existed alone but he wasn't lonely. Children understand that?

God was alone before creation but he wasn't lonely. There was full fellowship, perfect fellowship, perfect unity within the Godhead. God did not need to create. The fifth word didn't have to come into being. God chose to create.

God was perfectly self-satisfied within the unity of the of the Trinity. You remember when we talked about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity? God is one God. One God, one nature one substance one essence But within that one nature of God God has revealed to us in three persons There are three persons who share So to speak the one essence of God Okay, And they're revealed to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And before there was any creation whatsoever, God existed, and in the unity of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were perfectly satisfied, self-satisfied, with perfect unity and perfect fellowship without any need to create whatsoever.

So if you want a scripture reference for that, Psalm 90 verse 2, and Let me see if I can find that. You all can turn there really quickly if you would like. Psalm 90 verse 2, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. God is. God is.

Second, and this is not second on A.W. Pink's list, but I want to put this second on our list, is that we need to understand there are what are known as the communicable attributes of God. That's attributes that God communicates to his creation and incommunicable attributes, those which he cannot communicate that are specific to God alone. And one of God's incommunicable attributes is another kind of hard sounding word, and that's assayity, his assayity, A-S-E-I-T-Y, which is very simply his self existence. God alone exists in and of himself.

That is an attribute of God that cannot be communicated to us. We will never exist in and of ourselves. We exist because God exists and because He created us we exist. But God is self-existent. He exists in and of Himself.

God is not reliant upon any other for His existence. Everything that He created, including you today, young children understand this, you exist because God exists. If God didn't exist, you wouldn't exist. If He hadn't determined to create you, you wouldn't be here. None of us would be here and nothing would be here.

But God is in and of Himself, exists in and of Himself. A scripture-proof text for that, a good one would be, which also is specific to his eternality, would be Exodus 3 14 where God says to Moses from the burning bush, Remember when he revealed himself in the burning bush? He said, I am that I am. I was talking to my family about this verse this past week and I said, you know, I understand that the modern theologians and the modern versions I understand why they felt it was necessary to change the wording from I am that I am which has been what the church has understood for centuries and centuries and centuries, to I am who I am, or I am what I am, there's all the different versions. I hold to I am that I am, and you know if you go back and you look you read Calvin, you read Martin Luther, you read Matthew Henry, you read all of the great theologians of history that we love, they all communicate the self-existence and the eternality of God using the scripture, I am that I am.

And I was telling my family that, you know, I understand why many godly men have gone there and changed to that, but I don't agree with it. And I was just telling them that, you know, I think it was Popeye, right, who used to say, I am what? What he used to say? I am what I am, okay? And anyone can say I am who I am, but only God Almighty can say I am that I am.

And it infers self-existence in and of himself and also eternality. One of the other incommunicable attributes of God, I hate to use those big words, One of those things that is specific to God, those qualities or characteristics of God that is not able to be communicated to man is God's eternality, His eternality. Again we could use the same passage of scripture, but just to make it really simple and clear, God is eternal. He created beings like us who have, Once we're created have no end, but God alone has no beginning God alone has always been God alone is the only is Okay God is and he has always been There was never a time when God was not. God is eternal.

He is self-existent, and he is eternal. Another one of his incommunicable attributes, Another one of his characteristics that are specific to God alone and that cannot be communicated to men is God's infinity. I take issue with Toy Story where the character, and we've had it in our house, I'm not saying you can't watch the movie or whatever with your kids, where one of the characters in Toy Story says to infinity and beyond. That's blasphemy. God alone is infinite and there is nothing beyond the infinite God and there's nothing beyond his infinity.

God alone is infinite. Well what does infinite mean? Infinite means unbounded, unlimited. God is unbounded and unlimited in his being and he is unbounded and unlimited in his attributes. All of his attributes are unlimited and unbounded.

His love, his mercy, his justice are all unlimited, unbounded. He is unbounded in his person. He is infinite in his being. He knows no limits. He is not only in creation, in all of creation, but beyond all of creation.

1 Kings 8.27 says, will God indeed dwell on the earth behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him cannot contain thee nothing can contain God he is high above all and he is completely infinite and unbounded in his being and in all of his attributes and his perfections. He is, in the words of theologian John Owen, unbounded, unlimited, unmeasurable, immense. Now, Because he is, and this pertains to his attribute of omnipresence. Again, children, big word. Omnipresence of God simply means that God's everywhere at all times.

God is everywhere at all times. You're in one place at one time. Everything on earth is in one place at one time. God is in all places at all times. Jeremiah 23, 23 says, Can anyone hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?

And of course, it's a rhetorical question. The answer is within the question itself, and it's no. God sees everyone, everywhere, at all times, because He is everywhere, in all places, at all times. He goes on to say in Jeremiah 23, 23, do not I fill heaven and earth. God fills the heavens and the earth.

When thinking about his omnipresence and the fact that nothing can be hidden from God and the fact that God sees as well in the light as in the darkness. A question for you children, if your mom, your dad says You can only have one cookie and you sneak and you get another cookie Okay, and you take that cookie into your closet Your mom and your dad don't see you does God see you What do you think is it God see any of your children can God see in the darkness Does He know what you've done? Yes. Okay. Older sons and daughters, If you are in your bedroom and the light is off and you're under the covers and nobody can see you, does God see you?

God sees everything because God is everywhere. And it also has to do with his omniscience. He is all-knowing. That's another big word, but it just simply means that God knows everything. Yes, he is omnipresent.

He is everywhere at all times. He is also omniscient. Omniscient is, there again, children, it's a big word that means omni, which is all, and then science, which is knowledge. God has all knowledge. His knowledge, as well as all of his attributes, are infinite.

His knowledge is boundless, infinite. His knowledge is all knowledge. Now, God communicates some of his attributes to us, right? Nobody would have knowledge if God didn't communicate knowledge to man, right? God communicates wisdom.

He is all wise, all knowing, but he communicates wisdom to man. Man would have no wisdom except it comes from God. But he is all wise and he is all knowing. Psalm, well let's start with Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28. God's infinite wisdom, God's infinite understanding, God's infinite, unbounded, unlimited, unmeasurable, perfect understanding.

Isaiah 40 and verse 28 says, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. It Doesn't mean we're not supposed to search it out, we are, but there is no searching as understanding. In other words, you're never going to get to the knowledge of God. You're never going to ascend or reach the perfect, infinite, all-knowing, wisdom knowledge of God. There's no searching of his understanding.

His ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts beyond searching out. You're not going to get there. But man should be attempting it. And it's something I've been, again, talking to my family about recently because I'm so interested in the pursuit of the medical community in seeking out God's wisdom in his creative power and design in constructing the things of nature, especially the human body. And I've been praying for a long time that men would return, scientists, medical scientists would return to a design aspect of seeking the medical advances rather than man separating himself and saying, no, we just, here's all that's in nature, but we're going to take our own wisdom and we're gonna pull chemicals together, make chemicals and fix all, you know, put band-aids on all the problems of man.

Never curing anything. Never seeking to cure anything. Rather than admitting God is all wise, he's all knowing and we need to be seeking out what he has created in nature and take that, as I've been saying about FMT, and apply that. Take the things that God has made, whether it be taking stem cells, which God has created from the healthy body and transplanted them into the body of those who are not healthy. Taking the good bacteria, FMT, from the body of healthy individuals and putting them into the bodies of unhealthy people.

It's an admission that God has made something that we cannot make. It's an admission that God has designed something that we can take it and transfer it, and we can have the knowledge of how to transfer it, but we're not able to create it. Man cannot create that good bacteria he's tried. Man cannot create those stem cells he's tried. So anyways that's one of the things that I've been been praying about for quite some time and would love to do some writing on at some point in time and would love to see young men raised up who would be, you know, medical scientists who would be looking to God's wisdom and trying to take the things that God has made and use those for the benefit of man rather than saying, no, we're smarter than God, Which is where we've been for a long time and we're in trouble and I'm experiencing you know that now I'm experiencing that they make more and more powerful antibiotics and then the the germ The bacteria continues to overpower man's antibiotic and they keep making greater ones and the greater more powerful antibiotics they make The more destructive they are to the heart Into the body and it can only go so far and then finally the bacteria overtakes everything, overtakes it all, overpowers it I should say.

Anyways didn't mean to go into all that but I think it I think it really does correspond. So Isaiah 40 28 there's no searching of his understanding and then Psalm 147 5 says it very plainly his understanding is infinite God's understanding is Infinite his understanding is unbounded his understanding is unmeasurable His understanding is boundless and unlimited. Okay so we looked at his omniscience, we looked at his omnipresence, God is also all powerful. Children, look at me. How many of you know that God is all powerful?

God has all the power in heaven and earth. God has all power. Good. Love to see those little hands up. And guess what?

All power belongs to God and all power comes from God. You would not have the power to stand on your feet in the morning or draw a breath if God did not give you the power to do so. And that's been very much been emphasized in my life, you know, recently. You all power belongs to God. Psalm has said it.

I've heard it once, twice have I heard it. Power belongeth unto God. When we pray the Lord's prayer, what do we pray at the end of the Lord's prayer? Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and earth as it is in heaven. Give us Day by day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and thine the power." It's an admission there again. It's God's kingdom. Everything belongs to him. And that power comes from God.

Thine is the power. Thine is the power that created all things. Thine is the power that sustains all things. If God did not exert his power, you would immediately cease to exist. All things are created by him and for him and by him all things consist.

We read in the New Testament. He is all-powerful. Genesis 17 and verse 1 is a good proof text for this. 17 and verse 1. This is when Abraham was 90 years old And the Lord appeared to him.

He said to him, I am the Almighty God. I am the Almighty God. He sang to him, I'm the God of all power. There's no might beyond my might. God is absolutely almighty and God is all-powerful and therefore of course he can be He can be trusted He is omnipotent.

All power comes from God. And God is holy. God is holy. Another attribute of God is His holiness. When we think of God's holiness many times we think of righteousness.

We think of His, that He's good. We think that He's holy. He never does anything that is evil. All of those things are true. Primarily when we look at the word holy in Scripture as it pertains to God, and really as it pertains to the sacrifices and the utensils used in the sacrifice, When we speak of God being holy, we speak of God being separate.

God is separate from His creation. We can speak of the righteousness of God, yes, and we can speak of the goodness of God, we can speak of God as being perfect and morally perfect, but when we speak of God being holy, primarily what we're speaking of is God being set apart. He is holy, He's set apart from all his creation. There is God in one category and then there is his creation. There is none like God.

There is none like him. Second Samuel chapter 7 in verse 22 says, Thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee Neither is there any God beside thee? There is no God beside him. There is none who is like him. You're not like God.

I'm not like God There's nothing in creation that you can say is like God God is set apart in a category all his own and then there's his creation Jeremiah 10 6 there is none like unto the Jeremiah 10 6 there is none like unto the Jeremiah 10 6 there is none like unto the God cannot be compared to anyone or anything the angels the seraphim and the cherubim cry out 24 hours a day, continually, holy, holy, holy. They don't cry out as I remember R.C. Sproul once said, even though there are other attributes of God that we look at and we think upon, there's no place in scripture where the angels cried out, love, love, love, or wrath, wrath, wrath. They cry out continually, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.

Amen? I am the Lord. Isaiah 45, 5, and there is none else, There is no God beside me. He's set apart from all. And then there's this verse that I think is very important which sets him apart once again.

All the gods of the nations, Psalm 96, 5, are but idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Look how that sets him apart. I was talking to a Buddhist couple one time and selling them a truck. She was buying for her future husband. Very nice couple.

We got to talking, found out that they were Buddhists, and after a while I wanted to be bringing the gospel, and I wanted to also be kind and speak to them in a nice way and give them an opportunity to say what they believed and I said, tell me about your gods. And they began to tell me about their gods, their Buddhas and all of their beliefs. And after they were finished, I said, now, I said, can I tell you about my God? They said, sure. And I said, my God made the heavens and the earth.

And of course, immediately that said, all your gods are false. My God created the heavens and the earth. Beside Him there is no other God. God is sovereign. One of his attributes is that he is sovereign.

He is sovereign over all. He is sovereign over all of his creation. In Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 10, we read, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done God says my counsel shall stand I will do all my pleasure God does as he sees fit he is sovereign over all creation. We already know he's all-powerful. He's all-knowing.

He's in every place present and his counsel will stand and no one can oppose him. He will do all his pleasure and he does do all his pleasure. He is sovereign not only in the salvation of man but in all things. He is sovereign over your life and he's sovereign over all the things that are taking place in the world today and he can be trusted. He works all things for his own glory.

Proverbs 16, 4 says he's made all things for himself. Guess what? Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil. And that's talking about destruction. Even the wicked for the day of evil.

And that's talking about destruction. Even the wicked for the day of evil. He does whatever he determines to do. Daniel, when you read Daniel, you read of him bringing up, you know, men and putting down men. We go to the voting polls and we think, wow, we're putting men into office and taking men out of office.

Ultimately, it is God, Daniel 4, 25, and 31 through 32, the most high rules over the kingdom of men and he gives them to whosoever he will. God gives them to whosoever he will. Why? Because he is he's sovereign. He is he's sovereign.

The most high rules in the kingdom of men, and given it to whomsoever he will. Everything is under his control. Everything is under his power. We don't have to fear that things are going to get out of control. There's not one single atom, again, quoting R.C.

Sproul, in the universe that's out of control. Everything is underneath the control of God. Hebrews 413 says there's not any creature that's not manifested in sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." He knows everything that's going on. He knows the very thoughts of our minds. Ezekiel 11 5 says, I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

I know the things that come into your mind before they come into your mind, every single one of them. Acts 15, 18 he says, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. He is working everything after the counsel of his own will, as we read earlier. And then I'll end with this. We could go on and on and on.

I hope I haven't made this too complicated for the children, but God is immutable. There's a big word again. How many of the children here, how many of the adults know what the word immutable means? Raise your hand. How many of the children know what it means for something to be or someone to be immutable?

It's not like mute, like you can't shut them up, but kind of like that. Immutable. It's immutable means unchangeable. Immutable means unchangeable. I see children listening to me and I'm gonna I'm gonna ask them this later.

Immutable means unchangeable. God alone is unchangeable. Everything in the entire universe including you is in a constant state of flux and change Right now as I'm speaking I'm not the same person that I was when I sat down here to teach You're not the same person you were when you walked in the door of this church house. You're changeable. You're continually changing.

Everything in the universe is continually changing. We speak of the second law of thermodynamics, that everything is continually deteriorating. You'll hear creation scientists talk about that everything is in a constant state of flux and change but not God God never changes God never changes He is unchangeable in his nature and he is unchangeable in his attributes. Malachi 3.6, he says, I am the Lord, I change not. Malachi 3.6.

I am the Lord. I change not. God never changes. Isn't it a wonderful thing that God never changes? Because we read again and again in the scriptures that His mercy endures forever.

We read again and again in the scriptures that His mercy endures forever. We read again and again in the scriptures that God sent His Son into the world and to suffer for His people and to die in our place. And that everyone who believes on him, on his name, will never be put to shame. We read that his love is eternal also and unchangeable. And those whom he sets his love upon, his love is upon them forever.

It's not that God loves them one day and then the next day he no longer loves you. No. We read in Romans that God's love, nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And I'll just say this really quickly because there's so much misunderstanding here. The Reformers understood this, but in our modern era we don't understand this.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. God is love, but because God is love, God must also hate. And that's what they don't understand today. Many do not understand today. And so people go along thinking that, well, I just, you know, God's love is the same upon me as it is upon anyone else.

But that's not what that verse says. He's speaking to the Jews saying, God so loved the world that He didn't leave the world without a Savior, but that anyone, whether they're a Jew or a Gentile, who believes on Him. Because the Jews back then thought, well, we're the chosen people, we're it. No. Whoever believes on Jesus' name.

Whoever. It's straight into the face of the Jews that God did not leave the world which he loved without a savior, but anyone, Whether Jew or Gentile who believes on his name will not perish but have eternal life But we also have to understand that God also hates And guess what God never sent one sin to hell. God sends sinners to hell In Psalm chapter 5 verse 5 says God hates all workers of iniquity And to leave that out of the character of God is to not understand God as we should understand him God hates all workers of iniquity ouch True the Psoas John 3 16. It's also true Anyone who believes on him He loved the world so much he didn't leave the world without a savior. And anyone who believes on his name, anyone who trusts in him will be saved.

But he is immutable, he is unchanging, which is why we can trust him. We can trust him. We can trust him. God never changes. He's not like me.

He's not like you. He never changes. And I just wanted to end with this, because I was thinking about something that a pastor said many years ago, and I want you children to listen to this, because we're talking about Christ and believing on Him, and anyone who believes on his name is not going to be ever put to shame. The Christ has already put to shame for their sins and he's going to save all that come to him. God saves everyone who comes to him through Christ with faith in him.

I got a blood transfusion. Some of you little ones, look over here. I got a blood transfusion. You know what that means? They took a needle, they put it into my arm, and they attached a tube to it and it went up to a bag that had blood in it.

And that blood, somebody else gave that blood. They put a needle in someone else's arm and they voluntarily went in and they took the blood out of their body and they put it in that bag and then they hung that bag up there and they put that blood in my body. Why? Because I would die without it. If I kept losing blood I would die without that Well, I heard this Pastor years ago and he was talking about I don't know how many children ever heard this but probably 10 15 Maybe 20 years ago and he was talking about a little girl who needed a blood transfusion.

So this little girl had to have blood but she had a special kind of blood that was rare but her little brother had that blood. Anyone heard the story? Had that blood and so the parents asked the little boy, they said would you give your blood so your sister can live? Sure. And they, she would die without it.

So they, little boy, is there, they put the needle in his arm, they attach the tube, and they begin to draw the blood out of his arm. And he's sitting there thinking, this is so that my sister can live. My parents asked me to do this and as they're taking the blood from his arm he turns to his mom and dad and he says will I die right away? Or will it take a while? He thought he was being asked to give his life so his sister could live.

That's what Jesus did for us. Shed his blood and he laid down his life that we might live. So I was thinking about that last night as they were giving me the transfusion. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for the truth of your word.

We thank you for your attributes. Oh God, you are holy, set apart from all others. You are omnipotent, all powerful. You are everywhere, present at all times. You're all-knowing, all-wise, all-just.

Oh God, our wonderful Lord, and you love us God. You love your people and you displayed that and manifested that to us ultimately in sending your son to shed his blood and to die for our sins. And we thank you for that. We thank you for your unchangeableness and your unchangeable truth, oh God. We thank you for your unchangeable love.

You're so, so good, so good to your people. And we praise and thank you for your goodness, O God. We thank you for your mercy, which endures forever. And we thank you that you're our loving God and Father in heaven. Above all, that you sent your Son to die for us, that we might live.

Oh God, as we prepare to share in this Lord's table now, this table which is also set apart from all others, God, we pray that you'd help us to examine ourselves before we eat of that bread and drink of that cup showing the Lord's death for us until his return. It's in his holy name, Jesus we pray these things. Amen.