The Transcendency of God Pt 1

The title of the sermon is The Transcendency of God. The transcendency of God. You may say, well, what does transcendency mean? Well, it actually means an existence or experience beyond normal or physical levels. I liked, one man phrased it as, to understand it is to understand matchlessness. Matchlessness. To say God is transcendent means that God is exalted above the entire created universe. So far, so high above, this puny mind of ours cannot even begin to imagine it. That's what this transcendency of God means. I'd like you to go with me, if you will, to Isaiah 55. I think Isaiah put it very well. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9. You probably know these verses well. Isaiah 55 verse 8 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways, nor your ways, my ways. It says, O Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. What an incredible verse. He tells us just exactly where we are compared to God.

Just think of that. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, and as we know, the Bible references three heavens, three areas of heaven. One is where we see where the airplanes fly. Then you have space, which astronauts consider that the 62-mile mark. From sea level to 62 miles straight up is the first heaven. From there, you go to the second heaven, which is space. That's where people fly around. And then there's a third heaven where God exists, where God lives, because he exists everywhere, but it's where his throne is, is the third heaven. So far beyond, we can't even imagine that heaven. He's given men glimpses of it, visions of it.

But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so however high you go, God is so much higher in thought and in ways. Notice that. So are my ways higher than your ways. Ways. What's he talking about? I think it's best put by A.W. Tozer. He explains it in his classic book called The Knowledge of the Holy, and he uses this one line. He says, explaining this verse, this is not about distance, but about the quality of being. The quality of being. That's why his ways are so much greater than our ways. He's perfect, always been perfect, always will be perfect. We, hopefully, as Jesus Christ told us, become you perfect, like our Father in heaven is perfect. We are working at that process, and occasionally we may have a perfect moment or even a perfect day, but it says we're still not even close to him. God is so much greater, transcends anything that we can even grasp, and that's the problem with a lot of the world today.

They don't even believe there is a God, and if they do, it's in their image or some other image that somebody else has created. So I thought it was very important, since we are all studying for the Melchizedek priesthood, all part of that, that we be able to understand just who we worship and who we will help people.

To worship and to understand those people that he brings into our lives. So I think it's important that we know where we are when it comes to our God. God, synonyms for the word transcendent, supernatural, paranormal, unearthly, and I like this one, otherworldly, because God lives in a different world than us.

As he said, his ways, his thoughts are so much greater than ours. His way, everything about him is so much different than the way we live, the way we think. Isaiah tried to get us to envision this transcendency, and he realized for some unique reason God actually worked so much with Isaiah. And Isaiah couldn't help but try to get us to understand, as he was trying to grasp it himself, just exactly how great God is. I'd like you to go with me to Isaiah 6, if you will. Isaiah 6, turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 6 and verse 1.

It said, in the year that king Uzziah died, which for those who would like to know dates, that is 740 BC, 750 years or so before Jesus Christ showed up, king Uzziah died. Isaiah had just started his ministry that year, so this was fairly new to him. So God, I guess, said, hey, let me show you about me. Let me get you to really be able to visualize since you have such a big job of teaching.

Kind of a key for all of us, isn't it? We have a pretty good big job teaching about God because when we teach someone about God and his ways, we have a large subject to cover, don't we? And how do we put it best so that people truly grasp? Isaiah 6 and verse 1, in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, whoo, vision here, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high, and what?

Lift it up. High and lift it up. What did he see? How strange was this to see as God gave him a glimpse of God sitting on his throne in the third heaven because he then says, and the train of his robe filled the temple. So there's a temple and even the train of his robe. Now, I've seen big trains on weddings, brides, gowns, and a big train. I remember when princess died, got married, this train, and you had to have people go. This God's train filled the entire temple. And above it stood Sarafim. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he actually flew.

And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, telling Isaiah that guess what? This vision you're having, he is very, very holy. That's why he said three times, a superlative used. In Hebrew, that actually means the holiest of all. He says, the whole earth is full of his glory, and the posts of the doors were shaken by just the voice alone of him who cried out, one of those angels.

And the house was filled with smoke. Then he said, Isaiah, whoa, no, whoa, whoa is me, for I am destroyed, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord. So intimidated. So in awe of what he was seeing, that he said, this is the whole, I shouldn't even be here. I'm human, and my mouth has said things probably that it should never have said about what I just saw. Is it any wonder you should not take the Lord's name in vain?

Because if we truly saw the glory of God, we would be like so many men of the Bible. What happened? We'll talk a little bit about that next week, but most of these men, their knees would knock, they would fall to their face. They were so scared, so intimidated. It was such an awesome sight, and to just hear the voice, many men scrambled, trying to find a cave or somewhere to hide themselves. This is explaining about who we worship, what we worship, and why we worship.

High and lifted up. Let's make sure we understand that God is so high, even in His temple in the third heaven, He is so much higher and held in such esteem by all the angels, the host of angels, the millions upon millions of angels. They know who He is and what He is.

Go with me to Isaiah 57.

Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57. Verse 15 from the New King James Version. For thus says the high and lofty one. Here it is, high, but here He says, For thus says the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, trying to give us the picture of just how great God has been, is, always will be. I dwell in the high and holy place.

Isn't that great? I mean, God does it. He dwells in the high and holy place because He is what? Very, very, very, very, very, very holy. So He's so high. But here He makes the connection to us puny humans. Those who truly want to worship with Him, understand Him, and commune with Him. Go back and it says, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isn't this amazing? Does He come down?

Or does our life have to be lifted a little up?

I don't think God wants to wallow down here on this earth with all these people of unclean lips. But does He hear our prayers? Yes! Why? Because we're humble. Wait a minute. Doesn't He just listen to rich people? Or how about just poor people? Because they may be more humble. No! He listens to all those that realize where He is and where we are. He's here. We're way down here. Way, way down here. He is way, way up there.

That's what He's trying to get us to understand. Because we're going to see some scriptures that say, why would He even want to bother with us? But He really doesn't unless we have that humble and contrite heart. How many of you have seen many widows? I have seen many widows. Humble and contrite hearts. Why does He say so much about making sure you take care of the widows? Making sure that they're taken care of even by Him. And He says, you better not do anything wrong.

Because you see many who rely on Him. I have some incredible widows in the Church of God that put me to shame.

Their prayers, I need. Their hearts, it's all about God. Is this a reason, as we've looked at just here three different sections of Scripture here in Isaiah, is perhaps this is the reason the vision of Isaiah, the understanding of Isaiah, could this be the reason that Jesus quoted in His three and a half year ministry in the Scriptures that we have? He quoted Isaiah more than any other book.

It'd be hard to argue against, wouldn't it? Go with me to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, and I'll read, actually I'll read this if you just want to listen. I will read this from the New Living Translation. I like the way that it is laid out. If you want to read along, fine, but I found that this translation made it so crystal clear of who I worship and who has called me and asked me to worship Him, that I found this to be so humbling, and it helped me to understand the transcendency of God to a greater level. Isaiah 40, verse 12, who else held the oceans in His hand? How big is your God? The oceans? I go out and look, and I see how small I am just standing beside the ocean out here. He's saying, who else? God actually can hold the oceans, all of them, in one hand. Pretty big. Who has measured off the heavens with His fingers? How big is that hand? How big are those fingers? Oh, here we go. That's five universes.

Are we beginning to see just how great and awesome? Who else knows the weight of the earth?

You're a mathematician. Can you do that, William? You're a calculator. Or has weighed the mountains and the hills on a scale? That's a big set of scales. Nothing for Him. Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give Him advice or to teach Him? I don't care how many doctrine degrees you have.

Has the Lord ever needed anyone's advice? I would have to say, no. How many people give Him advice? Why, what? Well, God, I wonder why you're not doing this. God, I really need this. God, you need to...

He doesn't need anything from me. He doesn't need anything from anyone. He needs nothing.

Does He need instruction about what is good?

Did someone teach Him what is right or show Him the path of justice? No! For all nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. Everybody. Nothing. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. Have you ever seen scales that weigh something? There's a dust. How many people go, oh, wipe that dust off because it's going to make a difference? No. He said everything out here is just like dust on those scales. Why? He made it all. He could destroy it and make it all again and put us right back here tomorrow.

And it would be nothing to Him in the blink of an eye. That's how great this God is. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. I can't even see. He picks up the whole earth. It's nothing. All the woods in Lebanon's forests and all the Lebanon's animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of God. I think of the Smoky Mountains where I came from in Tennessee. You go to the Smoky Mountains, there's just trees everywhere, just beautiful trees everywhere. You look. All that, all the animals. He says, you take it, you couldn't even make an altar big enough worthy of Him.

The nations of the world are worth nothing to Him.

In His eyes, they count for less than nothing. As He looks at this righteousness compared to His righteousness, compared to His ways, nobody here is even close. All the world together couldn't be worth it. That's why one drop of Jesus Christ's blood was worth more than all the people who ever or will ever live. But we sometimes forget that.

In His eyes, they count for less than nothing. Mere emptiness, and this word said froth. Froth. Froth is like air bubbles that come up. Maybe a drink and you pour it and there's some air bubbles at the top. And they just disappear. Or foam that comes in off the ocean like a froth. So He's saying even this stuff does not. That's how small. It's how minute we really are, this entire world.

To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble Him? Can He be molded into an idol formed in a mold? Overlaid with gold and decorated with silver chains? Or if people were too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won't decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won't fall down. He's even at your best. And people tried. And down through the 6,000 years, we have many people who carved this and carved that or made idols out of this, out of that. Out of that. Then He says, haven't you heard? Haven't you heard? Don't you understand? Are you deaf? Are you deaf? To the words of God? Yes. Too many people are. They don't need this Bible. They don't need anybody telling them what to do. Oh, I can make up my own mind.

The words He gave before the world began, are you so ignorant? God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to Him. He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes His tent from them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking root when He blows on them and they wither. And the wind carries them off like, Jeff, to whom will you compare Me? Who is My equal? Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each one by name. They are trillions and trillions of stars, planets, and asteroids, and everything else that's up there. There are trillions of them and He names them all. Has a name for every one of them and knows them. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. He knows where they all are.

Can you envision the transcendency of God? We've just looked at a few scriptures. Can you envision that? See, we live in a world of matter, space, and time. We do. This is world. I want you to envision that. Those that can see it.

Little circle is earth. And on earth, we have space, time, and matter. It's all here. It's in our world. But you see, God isn't even close.

He doesn't live in this realm. He has nothing to do with this realm other than He just made it. And remember how He made it? Remember what He did? Oh, let me put this together and let me work out the mechanics of it all and the equations and everything. No! He said He did what? He spoke! He just said a word! Boom! This whole earth. We want to sometimes bring Him into this. Uh-uh. Not even close. We may live and work in a world of matter, space, and time. God doesn't. Not at all. Can you picture yourself with no physical body?

Can you picture yourself with no physical body, yet you exist? And you can go anywhere at any time. Can you picture yourself not breathing? Hold your breath. How long are you going to last?

Can you picture yourself not breathing, not eating or drinking? You don't need to. We have all that wonderful food back there, and I can smell it from here. Imagine that. It's hard for us to do that.

What about being able to be here, right here, in Miramar, and one second later, we are in Australia? And one second later, we're back here.

Can you see it? Can you picture it? Remember when I was growing up, my father, we used to watch westerns when I was growing up, when I was a kid. There were a lot of western shows on, and they would always talk about fast draw. You know, you would have Matt Dillon or one of these guys, and they would do, okay? And I remember my father when I was six or seven years old, you know, because I had one of those little holsters with guns, and you know, you'd be sitting there doing this and my father came up one time, and I was so enthralled at him. I looked at him, he said, would you like to see my fast draw? And I said, yeah. And he said, do you want to see it again? Yeah.

That's like God. Except he cannot only be here in Miramar and Australia, he can be there and doesn't have to move. He can be there and here at the same time, because he's omnipresent. He's everywhere all the time. You see how we're not even in his league when we're trying to tell him what to do? When we're trying to suggest to him that, well, maybe God you should do this. Hmm.

Do we think of God as the highest being of all creation? The highest being of all creation? If you do, we're wrong. Because I once thought that way. And I realized I was wrong. I had to change my mindset. Because God is not the highest since he is not even in the realm of created things. He created everything. He's not a created thing. He created everything. He's not even in our realm. He's not the greatest. He's not even in the ballpark. He is so far above it. But sometimes we want to pull him down here, don't we? Sometimes we don't want to hold him to his high and lofty position. Guilty. So why this sermon is so good for me, I have to work on me. Because he's not the problem. I'm the problem.

He is in another realm outside of every other realm, sphere, whatever you want to call it. He transcends above all. That's our great God.

I'd like you to ruminate, contemplate, or as we used to say in the South, I guess they still say it, I'd like you to chew on this a while. 1 John 1 and verse 5. You don't have to turn there. Write it down. This is something you can meditate on because it's a very short. It says that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. You realize that God is so bright. His glory is so bright. He's light all the time. The sun's always shining with God because He's bigger than any sun and He created the suns. But He is so bright that with God if and it's not if but He was in existence for all time, He had to create darkness. Do we understand that? Obviously, put this together, He's light, everything. So He had to create darkness. But in Him there is no darkness in any way, shape, or form. Whether it's letting off light, whether it's glory, whether it is positive. You know, you've been around negative people and they just pull you down. God's never been not negative. He can't be. He's always positive. But you see, it helps us to understand. Once we understand where He is, how great He is, then we can understand why John says in other places that God is love. God is love, but it doesn't define God because nothing can define God, because He's beyond and above everything. You say, well, wait a minute, this is just like mentally doing gymnastics and the theological world. And why should I even bother worrying about this? You shouldn't worry. You should be amazed. You should be in awe. In awe. That something that great, that big, that everything knows who you are, knows who you are. Tafari, would you bring me something up here? As Tafari was doing something for me today, if you'll bring that to me.

What do you have in your hand? You've got to see, too, huh? Well, in this thing is this little bitty thing. You see it? What is it? An ant. There is an ant in here that Tafari caught. We'll let him go. We're not going to... But you can see how small he is. Passes back through the back. You can see him in there. No one, everybody. Most of you know what ants look like. And when you compare, you can barely see it, right, Janae?

But if I was to take this ant and have Dwight stand over here next to that ant, you couldn't see the ant. But you can see Dwight. And see how much bigger he is than that ant? And yet Dwight's not... If you brought one of the Miami Dolphins in here, he would make Dwight look small compared to that ant. When you compare the two, it's not even close. You look at an ant and you look at Dwight, and Dwight can go... Matter of fact, if the ant was walking, you could barely get down to pick it up. It's so small. Now, look at the distance. If I can use that. This comparison between the size of that ant and Dwight. Now, compare Dwight to the glory of God, and it's not even close. What we just looked at, it's not even in the realm. And yet the distance between that ant and Dwight is measurable. You can measure it. You can compare weight, length, height, everything about it. With God and Dwight, you can't even compare God.

The distance between God and Dwight is infinite. The universe and everything about it in it was created. God and His Son are eternal.

God was, is, and always will be. But that's not really correct because God always was, is, and will always be. Right? Do we understand that? Let me do one other thing.

Thought I had this in here. A, Z. Right? This is time. This is us. We live in a world of time, space, and matter. Before A was eternity. After Z is eternity. And God sits above all this. He's always been from here, and He will always be to there. The only thing He's done for us is He said, I'm making a plan because you've never existed forever. I have. You've just existed in this little time. I'm offering you to live with me in eternity. And it's so important that we grasp that. Is that important? Because we see what He is offering. Does any of this deserve it?

No! Don't deserve it at all. But yet, He says in time, I want to give everybody that chance. Some I will give now. Some I will give now to show it can be done. Matter of fact, He sent Jesus Christ who was the first of the first fruits to show it can be done. Can we ever understand or much less explain the great entity we worship? Well, according to Scripture, we can. Go with me to John. Go with me to the Gospel of John, please. John 6. Sound familiar, Courtney? John 6.

John 6, verse 63, from the New King James Version. It is the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits everything. No, it says it profits nothing. Nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life. How important are these words? He says they're life. They're life. Why does He want us to read them? Why do we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? He says they are life and they are Spirit. And we stir up that Spirit. We feed it when we read these words.

And He said, but there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who would not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to Him by the Father way up on high. God knows He's so smart. We shouldn't even get into how smart He is. We've already seen how big He is, how He knows everything. But He says, that one, that one, that one, that one, that one.

You're going to get to know Me. You're going to have to get to know Me through My Son. It's an easier road that way.

But it's interesting because back down in verse 68, Then Simon Peter answered Him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life. He knew. Why do we read this? You have the words of eternal life. You want eternal life? Read these words. Don't just read them, but know them. Put them here. I will write My laws. And what? Your mind and in your heart. It isn't just like, oh, I can quote you this. Let me quote you that. It doesn't care how many verses you can quote. How many are in here? How many are written in our hearts? How many do we live by daily? That's what we do. And then he says in verse 69, He says, also we have come to believe, believe, and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. It takes the Word. It takes belief. They believed. You read the Word. They saw the Word. They heard the Word. Then they believed. And then what happens? The calling. God calls.

And how important that truly is. We have come to believe that you are the Son of the living God. If you don't want God's Word, and you don't believe it, why would God waste His time with you? If you're not willing to do this, why should He go?

Why? I'm giving you the greatest gift. I'm bringing you to here. You're just going to live right here. I've lived here. I've lived here. I live here. You want to live here? I want to live here. It starts with this, and starts believing that Jesus Christ is who He said He was, the Son of God. And then that incredible calling. See, God's not wasteful. He doesn't waste.

This incredible calling that He has, the human mind is being converted to a godly mind. That's what part of the calling is, as you begin to read this, and then you read stuff that you haven't read before, or you read stuff that you've read before, and go, wow, I never saw it that way before. What? Your mind is being converted. You're getting a godly mind. It's no longer, as Romans 8, 7, says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's hostile towards God. God is beginning to change your mind, and you begin to see.

Does it happen instantaneously? No. Not completely, but slowly. Slowly, over time, conversion takes place to where you begin to act more like God than like a human. So we wrap this up today. To truly know God, to feel God, to see God, we must transcend our minds daily to His realm, not ours. To His world, not ours, because we live here, and we are so corrupted by it, right? You could do nothing all day. Get in the car, drive to the store, pick up your stuff, and you are influenced by this world. Small ways and big ways, every little thing. The guy that hunks at you because you're one half of one second late at the light.

Pushing the cart down, and somebody just pushes you out of the way and gets their stuff. Everything. Everywhere we go. But God wants to see what we're going to do with it. Because that's why Christ came to be that walking, talking, living example of how we're to live. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2. You all know it. I have quoted it many times. It's one of my favorite verses. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says what? 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 says, I have not seen, nor you are hurt, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has planned for those who love him. And that's such a powerful verse. But I'm sorry, brethren, it's time to move to another level.

Let's go to verse 10. Let's go to verse 10. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. What? What?

He is going to reveal everything he has planned for us. Everything that we want to know, he can do it. For the Spirit searches all the things, yes, even the deep things of God, things that no man on earth could ever know, and it comes through the Spirit. For what? Man knows the things of the man except the Spirit of the man which is in him, the Spirit of man, not the Spirit of God. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God, the actual energy, power, essence of God that he grants to human beings if they'll use it. Because if you don't use it, you're going to lose it. It's a fact. He's not going to waste it. Not going to waste this greatness on pathetic humans who think of it as just something else to learn. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That spiritual iron is going to sharpen that spiritual iron. And you can only learn the deep things of God through it. But yet, what does man think? They mock God.

He's called G.D. How many times you heard it? Or O.G. Or all this stuff. Just like, it's nothing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Saying these words. It's not Him. They're not holding Him high and lofty. We got to make sure we don't get caught up in that.

But the natural man does not receive, in verse 14, the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to Him. Nor can He know them because they are spiritually discerned. That's why people don't understand. They don't understand that they don't understand. Because this stuff has to be spiritual.

But He who is spiritual judges all things, yet is Himself rightly judged by no one. Why? Because they can't judge a spiritual thing. Why would you people go to church on Saturday? You bunch of idiots. Why would you go to church on Saturday? You know. Everybody else goes Sunday, and those go on a Sunday go on Friday. Well, wait a minute. Jesus Christ set the example, and He worshiped on the Sabbath. Yes, but He changed all that. When He died, He changed all that. Don't you understand? Boy, you are stupid people. You are ignorant. Now, who's really ignorant when God looks at it? Because they can't understand. And we can be, oh, if I work with this person, no. God has to change. We set the example. We can answer questions, but when it comes to whether they are called by God, we can't do anything about it. We can just be there in case they are. And we can pray. And then He says in verse 16, For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?

You get the gravity of that statement? Who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.

Do you get it? I didn't. I read that 10 times and didn't get it. Who? Who? He says we do. We can instruct God because we have the mind of Christ.

We can say, God, Father, I need you to do this. And He has answered many prayers. But you better have the mind of Christ. It's what this Scripture is saying. I hope you will drink that in. I hope you will.

Because I love those words. God wants us. Why? It defies human logic. Why He wants me? But I'm not questioning. I'm just thankful because He has called us. And He says, God wants us and He wants to tabernacle with us. Why? Why? Because high and low. As long as we know where we are and where we know that He is, we will always be with Him because He chooses to dwell with a humble, contrite heart in His high and lofty place. And He wants us with Him. Next week we will have part two. We'll have part two of the sermon. And I will leave that with you.

Fear or reverence are both. Next week.