God, With All His Perfections, The Christian God.

Adapted From A Sermon By

George Burder

that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

(Psalms 48:14)

The glorious perfections of God have been the subject of the preceding sermons; in which, after an introduction on the importance of the knowledge of God, we have considered and contemplated the power, the wisdom, the holiness, the justice, the omnipresence, the patience, the sovereignty, the goodness, the mercy, the love, and the faithfulness of God; and now, what remains but to exult in this glorious Being, and to say in the triumphant language of the Psalmist, in Psalm 48 verse 14, “this is God, our God forever and ever!”(Psalm 48:14)

These words conclude a hymn of praise, composed, probably, on occasion of some eminent victory; but, undoubtedly applicable to the glories of the Gospel-church. The psalm begins with a declaration of the greatness of God, as he manifested himself in Sion. The location of the temple, which was remarkably beautiful, provided a suitable emblem of the Christian church, in which true happiness may certainly be found; there, the love of God in Christ is manifested and enjoyed, and there he presides for its infallible protection; and the Psalmist concludes with the words of our text, exulting in such a God, and in his interest in him, with the security it provides through life, to its end. These words furnish us with a good conclusion to these sermons on the Divine Perfections, and it will be our present business to prove that

It is the unspeakable privilege of believers,

that God, in Christ, is their own God,

and will be so forever.

A pious Jew, in ancient times, looking on all the nations around him, and beholding the heathen bowing to their pretended gods of wood and stone, would pity their ignorance; but contemplating the God that made the heavens, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, glorious in holiness, venerable in praises, and doing wonders, would, with sacred joy, exclaim, “this is God, our God!”—“our God is greater than all gods!”(2 Chronicles 2:5)

The believer in Christ enjoys this privilege also; for it is the great blessing of the covenant of grace, as mentioned in the eighth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, “this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,” (that is, with the church of Christ,) “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”(Hebrews 8:10)

A covenant is either an agreement or an appointment. Covenant, in this place, stands for an appointment—a gracious appointment made by God himself, in behalf of all real Christians; the New covenant, in distinction from the Old covenant, made with the nation of Israel at Sinai, which consisted chiefly in precepts, prohibitions, and types of future blessings to be revealed in the gospel. This covenant was given by Moses, but “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”(John 1:17) In the new covenant, or appointment, we mainly have promises—promises of all spiritual blessings, in and through Christ Jesus. One of these promises is “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,”(Hebrews 8:11) The importance of this blessing was shown in the first sermon in this series; and the goal of all the following sermons was to promote the knowledge of God, in all his glorious perfections; but the greatest blessing of all is,—“I will be their God.”(Jeremiah 32:38) This includes all good things: it includes all that can be needed or desired; indeed, infinitely more than “we can ask or think.”(Ephesians 3:20) We justly admire the perfections of God—what he is, in himself; but how much more wonderful is it to have a personal interest in him,—to know that he is all this to, and for, his people; so that they may boldly say, “this is God, our God!”

But let it be observed, that it is only in, and through Jesus Christ, that he becomes our God. He does not interact with man directly, but through a Mediator: “No one comes to the Father except through me;”(John 14:6) and through him, God the Father comes to man. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.”(2 Corinthians 5:19) Hence the name of the Savior is “Immanuel”—that is, “God with us.”(Matthew 1:23) As Immanuel, he is God in our nature; God engaged in our behalf; and manifested for our salvation.

Through faith in his blood, the sinner comes to God, and obtains the pardon of all his sins, which is another blessing of the covenant, mentioned in verse 12, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”(Hebrews 8:12) And by the influence of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in every true believer, a real separation from the world is brought about, and a life of communion with God begun, which will never end; according to the promise recorded in second Corinthians, “as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Truly happy, then, are all believers in Christ; having come to God, through faith in him, they are divinely authorized to adopt the words of the text, “this is God, our God!”

In ancient times, long before the brighter revelations of the gospel were made, we find some eminent believers distinguished as having a special interest in God. Jehovah, who, by his sovereign grace, called Abraham from among the idolaters of Chaldea, was pleased to call himself “the God of Abraham.”(Exodus 3:6) By this name he made himself known to Moses at the burning bush, when he was about to deliver the posterity of Abraham from their slavery in Egypt. He called himself also, at the same time, “the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”(Exodus 3:6) and in this way he encouraged the children of Israel to expect that the promises made to their fathers should certainly be accomplished.

Likewise, New Testament believers are more clearly taught to expect a future and eternal inheritance in Heaven; “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city:”(Hebrews 11:16) as if it had been said, God would be ashamed to be called their God, if nothing more than the good things of this life were given them; especially as it is the lot of far the greater part of them to be poor and afflicted in the present world; but, having “prepared for them a city,” a glorious habitation, even “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;”(2 Corinthians 5:1) he is not ashamed,—he thinks it no dishonor to be, and to be called their God and Father. “This,” said he, as if exulting in the relation, “This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”(Exodus 3:15) God's relation to his people is what he will ever remember, let us then never forget it; never neglect to take the comfort, nor to give him the glory of it.—It is God’s memorial; let it be ours also.

We find Moses, the faithful servant of the Lord, glorying in his relation to God, “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.”(Exodus 15:2) As this was part of the song composed when the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea, Moses may perhaps allude to the name of God, as “the God of Abraham;”(Exodus 3:6) such indeed he proved himself to be to his posterity. Happy is he who, celebrating a still greater salvation than that of Israel, can sing—“He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him!”(Exodus 15:2)

In the book of Psalms, we frequently meet with this tender appropriation of the name of God. The Psalmist speaks in these words—“From my mother's womb you have been my God;”(Psalm 22:10)—“I trust in you, O Lord I say, You are my God;”(Psalm 31:14)—“I will sing praise to my God;"(Psalm 104:33)—“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever!”(Psalm 145:1)

Daniel, also, had good reason to confess his relation to God, when the king, who had caused him to be thrown into the lions’ den, asked, with a lamentable voice, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”(Daniel 6:20) The praying man of God replied, “My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths.”(Daniel 6:22) Such was the impression produced by this exertion of divine power in behalf of the prophet, that Darius required that all his subjects should “tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.”(Daniel 6:26)

We might multiply instances of this kind; but let us rather pass on, and show more particularly that the several attributes of the blessed God, which have been surveyed in the preceding sermons, provide abundant encouragement to the believer to rejoice in his relation to Jehovah, and to triumphantly say, “this is God, our God!”

Our God is Almighty. Is anything, then, too hard for him? Whatever he has promised he is able to perform; and he has performed such wonders in the fulfillment of his promises to his ancient people the Jews, and to all his believing people ever since, that it is most unreasonable unbelief to suspect he will ever fail to accomplish with his hand, what he has spoken with his mouth. Remember his mighty works in the creation of the world; in the preservation and government of the world; and in his marvelous interposition in behalf of his people: the waters shall not drown, the sun shall not set, the fire shall not burn, lions shall not devour, when he forbids; and if he gives the word of command, bread shall descend from Heaven, water shall flow from the rock, devouring birds shall feed the prophet, five loaves shall satisfy five thousand people, and the dead shall rise from their graves. What cannot he do for his friends? and should they not say, “this is God, our God;” and, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”(Romans 8:31)

Our God is wise—he is Wisdom. What a privilege then is it to be under his direction! and this is the privilege of his people, as it follows immediately after the words of our text—“He will guide us forever;”(Psalm 48:14) he will direct our steps through this tangled wilderness, nor forsake us when we die, but lead us safely through Jordan to the possession of the promised rest. Well may we “cast all our anxieties on him,” if we believe that “he cares for us.”(1 Peter 5:7)

Our God is holy; unlike the pretended deities of the heathen, who were abominably impure, the patrons and patterns of awful vices; so that we may say with exultation, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness?”(Exodus 15:11) A wicked man, wishing to indulge his sins, might wish that God were like himself, and would wink at his impurity; but a Christian rejoices in the holiness of God; it keeps him low in his own eyes; it makes him hunger and thirst for righteousness; and encourages the hope that his holy God will, by all his ordinances and all his dispensations, make him “share his holiness.”(Hebrews 12:10)

Our God is just. Shall he not then always do right? It is the glory of the Gospel, and that which makes it peculiarly agreeable to the mind, that in it God has manifested his justice no less than his mercy—he is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”(Romans 3:26) The Christian, then, has nothing to dread, but everything to hope from this attribute. He who said to Abraham, on leaving his native land, “I am your shield,”(Genesis 15:1) said also, I am “your exceedingly great reward.”(Genesis 15:1 NKJV) Nothing can possibly be lost by adherence to Christ and his cause; God is not unrighteous, so that he should forget the work of faith and the labor of love; “he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life;”(Galatians 6:8) and God, the righteous Judge, will, at the great day, bestow the crown of life on every one who was faithful to death.(Revelation 2:10) How joyfully will every conqueror, on receiving that crown, exult, This righteous God is my God!

Our God is omnipresent. This is a pleasing reflection to the Christian! Wherever he is, God is there,—in his study, in the church, in the world; at home, abroad; by sea or land; among friends or foes, Believers or Infidels; in prosperity or in adversity, God is there. The encouraging thought restrains the unruly tongue and the roving eye, repels the intruding thoughts of sin, and quenches the fiery darts of temptation. It stills the rising murmur of impatience, corrects the mistakes of unbelief, and enables the soul to endure, “as seeing him who is invisible.”(Hebrews 11:27)

Our God is patient. It is well for the world, it is well for us, that he is so. As someone once remarked, if the most tenderhearted man in the world were to sit down on the throne of God, for a single hour, and behold, as God continually does, the provoking abominations committed by men during that hour, he would undoubtedly, in the next, set the world-on fire and destroy it. But he is God, and not man, therefore “we are not consumed.”(Lamentations 3:22 NKJV) Let us not abuse this wonderful perfection by continuing in sin, but rejoice that this patient God is our God, and learn from him to be patient too.

Our God is sovereign; he does as he pleases, among the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. Let us glorify him as such; even when we do not understand his sovereign direction. So did the apostle Paul, when he had contemplated the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews, with their future restoration—“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”(Romans 11:33) And how much reason has every believer to admire the divine sovereignty, for to this he ascribes his personal salvation; “by the grace of God I am what I am.”(1 Corinthians 15:10) He alone “made me to differ”(1 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV) from the most abandoned wretch on earth; O to grace how great a debtor am I! “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”(Psalm 103:1)

Our God is good, and does good. Well may man say so; man so highly favored in his very body, in the powers of his mind, in his superiority over the creatures, in his immortality, and above all, in his redemption by the Son of God. God is indeed in a vast variety of respects “good to all;”(Psalms 145:9) “his mercy is over all that he has made,”(Psalms 145:9) and “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”(Psalm 33:5 NKJV) Would that men, would that all men, would praise the Lord for his goodness; but let them especially do so, who have a special interest in his favor; let them shout for joy, and say, This good God is our God forever and ever!

Our God is merciful.— “Mercy belongs to him,”(Daniel 9:9) it is his prerogative, his peculiar excellency, one of the brightest jewels of his crown; it is his delight, it is his glory. Now, every believer, like converted Saul of Tarsus, has “received mercy;”(1 Timothy 1:16) and who can sufficiently prize it!—it is great mercy, rich mercy, free mercy, manifold mercy, matchless mercy, infinite mercy, indeed, eternal mercy! O praise the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever! Well may the pardoned sinner cry, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy.”(Micah 7:18 NKJV)

Our God is faithful. This crowns the whole. He is faithful to his promises; and his promises insure the final salvation of every believing soul. He has promised never to “forsake the work of his own hands;”(Psalm 138:8) and, by putting “his fear in the hearts of his people,” he has guaranteed that “they will not depart from him.”(Jeremiah 32:40) And so our text celebrates the permanence of the privilege enjoyed—“this is God, our God forever and ever”—terms which in Scripture always indicate that which is positively eternal. What a portion then is that of the believer!

The landlord cannot say of his fields, these are mine forever and ever. The king cannot say of his crown, this is mine forever and ever. These possessions will soon exchange hands; these possessors will soon mingle with the dust, and even the graves they will occupy, may not long be theirs; but it is the unique, the supreme happiness of every Christian to say, or to have a right to say, “This glorious God, with all his divine perfections, is my God, for ever and ever, and even death itself will not separate me from his love.”

And now for some closing observations:

It may be truly said of the wicked—They have no God. They may have wealth, and property, and intellect, and friends; but they are without God in the world; they are therefore miserably poor, and on the path that leads to eternal misery. Today, you may seek to fill up your fleeting moments with the business and pleasures of a transitory world, banishing God as far as you are able from your thoughts. In this way you may live; but how will you die? for die you must, and may die soon: and remember that after death comes the judgment.

At the awful tribunal of God, what are you to expect? From which of his divine perfections can you hope to profit? Perhaps you will say, from his mercy. But know this, that it is not at the bar of judgment that mercy is to be dispensed. This is the world, this is the time, for Mercy; and if not sought now; through Jesus Christ, it will be refused when sought too late. Therefore seek it now! Delay is dangerous; it may be fatal.

The truth of the matter is, if you could see clearly for just a moment: You do not have a moment to lose. Lament your neglect of God until now, and cry with all your might, “God be merciful to me a sinner;”(Luke 18:13) for how dreadful would be your state, if you should see all the people of God around the throne, shouting, “this is God, our God forever and ever,” while you, justly banished to an awful distance, and doomed to eternal darkness, must be constrained to say, Alas! alas! this God is not my God, nor will be mine for ever and ever. May divine grace prevent so awful a condition!

And now, should not every serious person present be putting this question to his own conscience: is this blessed privilege mine? May I honestly say, this God is my God?

In answer, Do you consider this as the most desirable of all good things?—do you prefer it, infinitely prefer it? Compared with this, do wealth and pleasure, friends and relations, the whole world, appear as nothing? Can you wholeheartedly adopt the words of the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides (or in comparison to) you!”(Psalm 73:25) If you see the value of having God as yours, then this will be your deliberate language, these are the thoughts that will resonate with every true believer.

Wishing that God may be yours, do you come to him, in the only way that you can come, through faith in Jesus Christ? and so coming, can you, and do you, renounce the idol of self-righteousness, accounting all things but loss that you may be accepted in Christ! Do you yield yourself to him,—gladly forsaking your vain companions, and sinful pleasures, and willing to part with the world for his sake?

Do you give up soul, body, and spirit to him, as your reasonable service, determined, by divine grace, to serve him faithfully, and follow him fully, all your days? to obey him as your God? to submit to him as your God? to love him, and to glorify him, as your God? If so, you may be permitted to say, and you will say it most humbly and thankfully, “This God is my God.” Happy the man that is in such a state! Happy is he who has the Lord for his God, whose hope is in the Lord!

Happy Christian, you are indeed “rich, and have prospered, and need nothing”(Revelation 3:17) more to make you happy. Divine Power protects you, Wisdom guides you, Holiness sanctifies you, Justice secures you, Omnipresence surrounds you, Patience will not be provoked at you, Sovereignty has chosen you, Goodness enriches you, Mercy forgives you, Love delights in you, and Faithfulness will conduct you safely to Heaven, and place the crown of glory on your head. Then, amid a multitude of saints and angels, you will exult in the matchless privilege, and say, “This God is my God, and he will never cease to be mine! this is God, my God forever and ever and ever!”