In his sermon 'Introduction: The Existence and Attributes of God,' David Green explores the themes of God's existence and attributes, using Psalm 145 as the primary text. He explains the concept of Hebrew acrostics found in biblical poetry, emphasizing their purpose in enhancing the beauty and memorability of God's Word. Green discusses the theological importance of understanding God's existence as a transcendent being, distinct from creation, and examines His attributes as revealed in scripture. He recommends studying works by theologians like Stephen Charnock, John Gill, A.W. Pink, and J.I. Packer to deepen understanding. Green stresses that theological knowledge should lead to a deeper personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, cautioning against the potential for knowledge to foster pride. He emphasizes that knowing God is foundational for believers, urging them to pursue a relationship with the living God rather than mere intellectual understanding.

In the 145th Psalm, be our text today, beginning in verse 1 and going down to verse 7. Psalms 145, beginning in verse 1. Verse 1, I will exalt you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is Yahweh, highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty deeds. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the words of your wondrous deeds I will muse. Men shall speak of the strength of your fearsome acts, and I will recount your greatness. They shall pour forth the memory of your abundant greatness, and will shout joyfully of your righteousness." So reads the infallible, the inerrant, the all-sufficient word of the living God. One thing you'll notice in this psalm, if you're following along with me in the LSB, is each couple of lines are divided by Hebrew letters.

So you've got Elif, Beth, Gimel, and so on and so forth. This is called the Hebrew Acrostics, and it's found often in Hebrew poetry. At times, and I refer to the forward of the LSB for a lot of this information, but at times the biblical authors structured their writings where each section of poetry begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 119 is perhaps to most of us the most well-known text which is done like that. Because even in our King James versions, that's the way it was written in the King James.

But it's by far not the only one in the Hebrew Bibles. In fact, Psalms 9 and 10, Psalm 25, Psalm 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145, even Proverbs 31, 10 through 31. Lamentations chapters one, two, three, and four, and Nahum, one verses two through eight are other examples which are written that way. Because the legacy standard Bible endeavors to be a window into the original text, all known acrostics are labeled in our English translations, with each section not only having its respective Hebrew letter but also the English transliteration. The reason why that it was written this way in the Hebrew is because it brings out the, well the acoustics themselves bring out the beauty of God's Word, reflect the completeness of thought and theology in the passage, and provided ease of memory for the original hearers.

It's a feature intended by the inspired writer, and sometimes gets lost in translation, but deserves the attention of the modern reader. So if you've ever wondered why that's there, that's kinda some of the thoughts behind it. So with that out of the way, and I wanted to bring that to your attention if you've ever wondered about it, the question might be why are we in Psalms on a Sunday morning during our Sunday school hour, our Bible study session this morning. Why Psalm 145? Psalm 145.

Well, last week we did end our studies in Jude And as I had been thinking about and considering where would we go next, I thought about another book of the Bible. Certainly considered going on into Revelation. However, I also wanted to go this direction and so this is the direction that we're going. And that is, that is it's not a series on a book of the Bible, but rather a series on the existence and attributes of God. So it's going to be A little bit different than some of the other series that we've done in the past.

At least the past few months, last couple of years. But the existence and attributes of God is an important subject, important series that needs to be considered. When we think about the existence and attributes of God, We refer to the fundamental, well let's break this down into two separate things and we'll bring them together in this introduction. The existence of God refers to the fundamental theological claim that a transcendent being distinct from the created world is real and actual. That God does exist.

And it addresses a foundational question. Why does anything exist at all and what accounts for the universe's order and meaning? Obviously we've touched on some of that when we've gone through Genesis and we've looked at some of the other studies that we've done through other books of the Bible. But Lord willing we'll get into some of this a little bit deeper. By his attributes we mean what God has revealed to be true of himself.

Sometimes we may describe this as His Majesty's or other times His Perfection's. In our text we want to focus in especially on verses 3-6. But in this passage, David is describing Yahweh as being unsearchable. But in this text, He says, great is Yahweh. In this text, He's saying that there is one being.

His name is Yahweh. This one being whose mighty deeds will be discussed from one generation to another. He gives us His name. His name is Yahweh. The eternal, self-existing, ever-living, ever-acting one.

David is determined here in this passage to muse in verse 5 or meditate is another word is frequently used here. To meditate, to muse, to repeatedly daily contemplate the glorious splendor of God's majesty. Certainly that's what we Certainly, that's what we want to do as we think about and consider who God is. Theology proper is the study of God. Theos being Greek for God and ology being the study of.

That's what theology is. More broadly, it's the science of God and the relations between God and the universe. Everyone in this world is a theologian. You're either a good theologian or a bad one. There's a lot of bad theology in this world.

Thanks to the internet, sadly, much of it gets spread far and wide. Used to be that someone would write a book and it would get published and take a while for it to spread. Now, someone just makes a video or writes a blog, clicks send and it goes out very, very quickly. Charles Darwin, I think of him and the damage that he did to the world. He wrote a book and it got published and went out.

It took a while for it to catch on, but now it's not like that. It seems like something gets spread and it gets spread very very quickly. But that being said, there are many good books that have been written on theology. Some good books, some good videos, good resources. Videos, good resources.

And I commend four to you in this introductory sermon or introductory lesson today. Four authors that you should know when it comes to this subject of the existence and attributes of God spanning from the 1600s all the way up to our present day. The four authors that I commend to you are Stephen Charnock. Stephen Charnock lived from 1628 to 1680. He was a Puritan and He wrote extensively on the existence and attributes of God.

John Gill lived from 1696 to 1771. He was a Baptist. And he wrote a body of divinity in which he addressed the existence and attributes of God very deeply in his volumes. A.W. Pink, 1886 to 1952, so coming up more into the modern era.

A.W. Pink, he wrote on the attributes of God and did a very good job of it. And then coming into more of our modern era, J.I. Packer. J.I.

Packer lived from 1926 and he just died six years ago in 2020. He wrote a book, he wrote a book and the name slips me right off the top of my head. However, oh it's Knowing God. Knowing God is the name of the book. It is a very excellent book, a modern theologian to be sure, but it is definitely worth getting a hold of.

One of the best on the subject in the modern era. But understand something. Even though these books have been written and they are deep and they are good to read and to study. Understand something even though there have been conferences that have been done the existence and the attributes of God. There are other books that have been written and many other sermons preached.

And even though we're about the journey on this very deep and exciting subject, it is not exhausted. Also. Also. Also, also, even though the books that I've mentioned, these authors, some of them were authors. Some of them were deep theologians, some of these books very thick.

It does not mean that this subject is only for the mature saint. Indeed, there was a time when God's attributes were thought to be so important that it was included in the catechism that even young children were to be taught. And so for instance, the West Minister shorter catechism and also the Baptist Catechism and Spurgeon's Catechism and some of the others that followed were very similar. But the fourth question was, what is God? And the answer was God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

And so this was something that even young children were being taught in previous generations, and in some circles still today, from a very young age. But let us also understand that knowing God does not come naturally. While it is true that the evidence of God is all around us, it is also true that in Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 18, The Bible tells us, What then Are we better? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. There is none who does good, there is there's not even one. Their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they keep deceiving.

The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths. In the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." So he says very clearly, there is none who understands.

There is none who seeks for God. And so the problem is not the intellect, the problem is not that there's some issue with retardation among the people of this world. The issue is a spiritual problem. Even though the evidence of God is all around us, the heavens declare the glory of God. There is no language where their voice is not heard, the psalmist declared.

It's so evident that Paul, the same writer here, declares that they are without excuse. That they are without excuse. That even the most remote tribesmen, even those who have All their faculties about them, their mind, their intellect, and even if you were to give them an open Bible in their own language, they still in and of themselves have an issue of understanding. Knowing God does not come naturally. Without Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, there is no understanding of who God is.

And so as we embark on this study of the existence and the attributes of God. Let us remember that Jesus is more than just a fire escape. Praise God that we're not on our way to hell. And thank the Lord that we're on our way to heaven, but we have so much more than removed guilt in the future in heaven. We have a real personal relationship with the true and living God through Jesus Christ.

Not somewhere in the future. Not a hope that maybe sometime time going to happen, but now. This is the beauty of living in the New Covenant. And so we read the scriptures and we sing. The Bible does say that the wicked fool says in his heart there is no God.

We look around us and we see the evidence of God all around. We read in the Bible and we see who God is. We know Him through Jesus Christ. And as we embark on a study like this, we must ask ourselves why. Why do we do it?

What is your aim in occupying our minds with these things? What do we intend to do with our knowledge about God? As J.I. Packer wrote in his book, he said if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited.

The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us. We shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it. And we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens." Didn't Paul say this in 1st Corinthians chapter 8? Go with me there for a moment. 1 and 2.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, verse 3 says, He has been known by Him. Packer goes on to say, To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than to know all the answers is a direct route to a state of self-satisfied, self-deception.

We need to guard our own hearts against such an attitude and pray to be kept from it." End quote. There's enough self-righteous, arrogant, Baptist in this world and really probably enough in this community without us joining their ranks. We don't need that. Whether we're in the Bible itself or in our favorite theology books. That's not the end of it, so that we can pull out our swords and win arguments and look better than everybody else.

That's not what this is for. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance not simply with the doctrine of God's attributes but with the living God whose attributes they are. Packer says as He is the subject of our study and our helper in it, so He Himself must be the end of it. We must seek in studying God to be led to God. It was for this purpose that revelation was given, So it is this use we must put to it.

We love the Word of God, but how much do we get into the Word of God so that we may know the God of the Word. You see. Over in Philippians chapter 3, there's a passage that I love. As I was studying I came across this text and I actually almost used it as my text this morning. My text this morning.

Philippians 3. Verse 7-11. Paul writes to the church of Philippi, and he writes these words, he says, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul had a desire, a desire to know Christ. A desire to know Christ.

That's what we get out of that as we read this passage. We often read over this and not think much of it, but How long do you suppose that Paul had been a Christian when he wrote this? A month? That would seem reasonable. These are the words of a new Christian.

The reality is he had been saved for about 20 years by the time he wrote this. He'd been through a lot already. For over 20 years, He had done things that most of us have never done in a lifetime of being a Christian. And yet, he had this desire to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings. Even as a mature saint, the knowledge of knowing God, knowing Christ, didn't get old with Paul.

Didn't get old with Paul. He didn't get to the point of thinking that he had come to some pinnacle of knowledge, pinnacle of knowledge. But had this great desire, May we have that same kind of desire. As we embark on this study to know Him, as we continue on life to know our God, to know our Savior. You know, You know, there's a difference how we know people.

How we know people. Even in human relationships there's differences. My wife has some health problems. I take her to the doctor. The doctor knows things about my wife.

He looks at charts. He knows things about the human anatomy. He studies. Goes to school. He knows things about her.

But he doesn't know my wife the way I know my wife. But after years of being married to her, I'm still learning my wife, because women are a mystery. All the intellect and all the studies and all those things, those doctors will never know my wife the way I know her. So they don't have a relationship with her. There's a difference in what I'm trying to say is this, there's a difference in taking a book and learning about someone, there is in having a relationship with someone.

John Gill, the Baptist preacher from the 1700s that I mentioned earlier, he made the observation that if there is no God, Then religion is a vain thing and it matters not, neither what we believe nor what we do, since there is no superior being to whom we are accountable for either faith or practice. And so when we think about why are we doing this, I would argue that this is foundational. That's why most books, most confessions of faith, faith they begin with the Bible or who God is. Someone once said the proper study of mankind is man, but for the child of God, for God's elect the proper study for us is God. I quote again J.I.

Packer, The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls Father. And I would agree with that. I trust that this series will be a blessing as we go through it. And Lord willing for the next, How can you put a time frame on the study of God? But for the next good while we'll be in this study and I trust there will be a blessing.