This summer I have been preaching about the attributes of God. I’m approaching the subject from the perspective of knowing God rightly. Every week I recall the words of A. W. Tozer who writes in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” The danger that we all face is the tendency to fashion a god after our own preferences. This is idolatry and folly. I want to know the living God intimately and, therefore, I must know him rightly.
God has revealed to us that he is unchanging. “I the LORD do not change.” (Malachi 3:6). In this character quality, we as humans are radically different from the eternal God. In my study of the attributes of God, I have gained great insight from the writings of Arthur W. Pink. In his book, The Attributes of God, He brings out the vast difference between the Creator and the creature. Since God is both all-knowing and all-powerful there is never any need for him to revise or alter his plans in any way.
Herein we may perceive the infinite distance which separates the highest creature from the Creator. Creaturehood and mutability are correlative terms. If the creature was not mutable by nature, it would not be a creature; it would be God. By nature we tend toward nothingness, since we came from nothing. Nothing stays our annihilation but the will and sustaining power of God. None can sustain himself a single moment. We are entirely dependent on the Creator for every breath we draw. We gladly agree with the Psalmist, “He has preserved our lives.” (Psalm 66:9). The realization of this ought to make us lie down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of him in whom “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28).
One of the elders in our church family shared a verse with me that I’ve been thinking about for the past few weeks. “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” (Isaiah 2:22). I have been aware of how people are responding to the way I have been dealing with a problem. As a result I think the sin of pride has risen within me. Why should I be so concerned about people’s opinions? They, like me, are but a vapour: changing and temporary. To know God rightly, is to know the One who never changes. Again, Pink reorients my thinking about the character of God.
Herein is solid comfort. Human nature cannot be relied upon; but God can! However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God changes not. If he varied as we do, if he willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if he were controlled by caprice, who could confide in him? But, all praise to his glorious name, he is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, his will is stable, his word is sure. Here then is a rock on which we may fix our feet, while the angry torrent is sweeping away everything around us. The permanence of God’s character guarantees the fulfillment of his promises.
I want to be motivated by the same perspective of the Apostle Paul, “It matters very little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular opinion. I don’t even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters are pointless. I’m not aware of anything that would disqualify me from being a good guide for you, but that doesn’t mean much. The Master makes that judgment.” (1 Corinthians 4:3-4 The Message).
For more of the writings of A. W. Pink see Godrules.net or Christian Classics Ethereal Library
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