Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
Olive Drive Church
Lesson 7: Thursday, Aug 6, 2015
TEACHING NOTES
Q9. Where is God?
God is everywhere.
“Omnipresent” [om-nuh-prez-uh nt]
Q10. Can you see God?
No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me. We will see Him when Jesus returns at
His second coming to judge the world and to save the redeemed from sin and
punishment.
Welcome and good evening. I’m so glad you are all here tonight. It’s my honor to be delivering the catechism
questions and study tonight. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Steven Obert. I am the interim youth director and
have been in youth ministry here at Olive Drive since 2003.
Before we dive into tonight’s study, let’s open with prayer; please join me. Father thank You for all things: for Your
provision; for Your grace; for Jesus and the cross, without which no one could stand before You in righteousness. I
pray, Holy Spirit, that You would open our eyes, minds, and hearts to Your word tonight. Please guide our
conversations, and let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O
LORD, our rock and our redeemer. In Jesus’s name, amen.
If there has ever been a time in your life when you felt like God was absent, or maybe if you have ever done
something sinful that you tried to hide from others, then tonight’s catechisms will be helpful for you and me as we
begin to understand what it means that God is everywhere, and yet we are unable to see Him for now.
So let’s begin with our catechism questions. I’ll ask the question; please respond out loud together with the
answer.
Q9. Where is God?
God is everywhere.
“Omnipresent” [om-nuh-prez-uh nt]
Q10. Can you see God?
No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me. We will see Him when Jesus returns at His second coming to judge
the world and to save the redeemed from sin and punishment.
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
The goal tonight is to unpack the scripture verses that follow our catechism questions and help you tie them to the
questions so you are better equipped to defend and teach not only the question but the verses. I like to do things
in order, so my first point of the night will be to help you gain a deeper understanding of God's omnipresence. The
second point for the night will be to give you a right view of how and when we will see God. I plan to finish with a
very practical application and tie in to the Gospel and why these truths matter in our everyday life. So we will start
with omnipresence, we will then cover our inability to see God, and we will end with the practical implications of
these truths.
So our first question again: Where is God? God is everywhere. (Omnipresent) Here is a brief explanation and
definition of omnipresence.
God is unlimited with respect to space. This characteristic of God’s nature is called God’s omnipresence (the Latin
prefix omni- means “all”).
God’s omnipresence may be defined as follows: God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at
every point of space with His whole being. Nothing in the universe exists outside the presence of God.
During my preparation for this study, I tried to find an area of life that I could relate to God's omnipresence.
What I quickly learned was that like most of Gods characteristics, I would need to create a new category in my
mind so that I could understand correctly Gods omnipresence. What I mean to say is this, often as we are studying
anything new, our minds are searching for things we already know and understand to relate this new thing to. The
problem is, we do not have anything in this life in our understanding that’s visible and present and known to us that
to which we can relate omnipresence. We have some things that seem close, but as we chase those things out,
they still fall short in many ways. So the only thing to do as we begin to study something like this is realize we will
have to make a new category altogether. To have a right and true understanding of the omnipresence of God, we
have to create a new category in our minds and understand that it will not relate to things that we do know and are
familiar with.
So let’s begin with our first verse for question 9:
Jeremiah 23:23-24 "Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off? 24"Can a man hide
himself in hiding places so I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?"
declares the LORD.
God is present everywhere. This includes the earth and the heavens, or better said, every part of space. If we read
the context of Jeremiah, we will find that God is railing against false priests and prophets. He says this in verse 16
and 17: 16Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling
you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17They say
continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly
follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
Is this not the current situation we find ourselves in? We live in a world that has reduced God to a single attribute,
and not only has the world reduced Him to this attribute but they have defined it so that essentially, they can be
their own gods. The world we are in says all things are ok because God is love. The world’s definition of love is
anything that could make you happy is loving, so throw out the word of God; it will be well with you. Do what you
want; follow your own heart, and no disaster shall come to you. Well let’s see what the word of God says about
this in verses 18-22:
18For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD
2
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
19Behold, the storm of the LORD!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20The anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21“I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.
The word of God is to be taught, to be kept, and to be taken seriously. Just like in the days of Jeremiah, we exist in
a world of false teachers. It’s important to note that the false prophets God is speaking of in these verses are the
Jewish prophets or the prophets of Jerusalem. These are not the prophets from outside claiming a false god;
these are Jewish prophets who are inside claiming false prophecy. They are not holding people accountable to
their sin, in fact, they are doing exactly what Paul warns about in Romans 1:32: Though they know God’s
righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to
those who practice them.
So what does this have to do with Gods omnipresence? Well, the verses following God’s warning of His wrath are
the verses that we have used to show you how God exists everywhere in all space. Jeremiah 23:23-24"Am I a
God who is near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off? 24"Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do
not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD.
For those in opposition to the Lord, as these false prophets were, we need to head this warning. God says, “Can a
man hide himself so I do not see Him?” This is a rhetorical question. God is making it clear there is nowhere that
He does not exist. False prophets think they can’t be seen, but God is everywhere and sees all of this, and they
will not go unpunished. Do not be in fear of the conditions of our world. God is not absent and has not
commanded us to live in fear. He addresses these sins righteously, either eternally via His wrath or graciously
because of Christ and the cross. Verse 24 ends with, “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” We must not think
of this verse to mean God is so big He fills the heavens and earth much like I am so big I fill up this shirt. Please
remember God is not a created being and is not subject to spatial limitations. So it’s not as if He’s so big He fills
this space, but rather He is everywhere completely in all space that exists. Again as I said earlier, we need a new
category for this. Lastly, notice that God expresses His omnipresence in these verses so that He can warn that He
has wrath and punishment for sin. You see God is everywhere completely, but He acts differently in different
places; sometimes He’s there to bless, and sometimes He’s there to judge and pour out wrath. We can have
confidence in knowing that He is ALWAYS there to uphold what His predetermined will and plan has already set
into motion.
I imagine this verse much like a phrase my mom used to say to my brother and me every time we thought we
could get away with something we should have not been doing. My mom is a short Italian/Irish woman whom I
love dearly, but she always had sayings like, “Do you really think you’d get away with this? Don’t you know I have
3
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
eyes in the back of my head?” Anyone else hear that growing up? My brother and I would often hear this as a
warning; likewise in this verse, I think we ought to hear it the same way. Unlike humans, God does not have literal
eyes because He is spirit (remember this is anthropomorphic language), but He sees everything because He is
everywhere fully at all times. Let’s look to our next verse to see this in an even more intimate way:
God is everywhere and fills heaven and earth. God’s omnipresence is beautifully expressed by David in Ps. 139.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
GOD knows all things and is everywhere; He knows when you rise and when you sit, because He’s there. He
knows these things not only because He’s omniscient (which means: ALL KNOWING, which we will study in more
detail in a coming week) but also because He’s omnipresent. Look at David’s words: ”Where can I go to flee from
you, if I went to heaven you’d be there, if I went to Sheol you’d be there. If I rode the winds and blew as far away
as possible you’d be there. If I dove to the deepest depths of the sea you’d be there. Even as I was in my mother’s
4
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
womb you were there you knit me together. Even the darkest place I can imagine would have you there and to you
it wouldn’t even be dark. You were there when I was being made in secret; your eyes saw my unformed substance
because you were there.” David says this knowledge is too wonderful for him, too high; he cannot attain it. This
omnipresence is only for God; all created things, including Satan, are subjected to space. We’ll discuss Satan in
more detail in several weeks, but this is an important point related to the topic of omnipresence: Satan is not
omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent! The one true God is so much greater than the defeated enemy. Our God
is omnipresent!
There is nowhere in the entire universe, the furthest mass of land you can imagine, the deepest depth of sea, in
heaven or sheol, where one can flee from God’s presence. If you’ve ever felt alone, God was there! If you feel like
you’re hiding something, it’s not being hidden from God; He is there. In the previous passage we looked at, God
was there to punish false teaching, but in this passage, God is there to lead (“your hand leads me”), to uphold or
protect (“your right hand upholds me”), and to knit together or carefully and intentionally create (“you knit me
together in my mother’s womb I am fearfully and wonderfully made”). So as I said earlier, God is everywhere, but
He does different things in different places. All of these things that David speaks of are blessings. God is in all
these places to bless, to protect, and to wonderfully create!
A common misunderstanding when studying the omnipresence of God is that only a part of Him is there. God is
fully everywhere at all times; not just a part of Him, but His whole being is fully everywhere in every part of space.
It is God Himself who is present wherever David might go. We cannot say that some of God or just part of God is
present, for that would be to think of His being in spatial terms, as if He were limited somehow by space. So
contrary to common belief, God does not simply rest His armpit over Bakersfield in the summer time. It is more
appropriate to say that God is present with His whole being in every part of space.
God Does Not Have Spatial Dimensions: God is present in David’s mother’s womb. It’s not that God is so tiny,
He’s inside there; it’s that there is no space in which God is not. So even the womb of a woman, the depth of a
sea, the highest height of heaven, the smallest space or the largest space, God is fully present everywhere that
space exists. Just as important as the fact that God is fully present in every part of space is the fact that God is not
bound by space. He is not subject to spatial dimensions. In 1 Kings 8:27, Solomon says in his prayer to God, “But
will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less
this house which I have built!” Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God; indeed, He cannot be
contained by the largest space imaginable. Again, let’s be clear: it’s not as if God is so large He is too big and fills
the largest space imaginable; it’s that He is so present everywhere that there is no way to contain Him. He cannot
be held by spatial restrictions. Notice that this verse is not about blessing or cursing but rather just about God
being. God is everywhere, but He does different things in different places.
Let’s look at our last verse: John 14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my
Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
For the Christian, the one who loves Christ and keeps His word, God comes and makes His home with you. If God
is everywhere in every part of space at every time fully, then why does Jesus highlight this? Isn’t God with
everyone? He’s everywhere, so He must be. Notice the language used: “make our home with him.” God dwells in
a special way with His beloved. It is an intimate dwelling; a home where a family exists. You and I. if we have been
given faith, are sons and daughters of the one true God who is everywhere. Jesus assures us that for those who
love Him, God will make His home with them. Christian, if you have ever felt like God was absent, Jesus has said
something very different: not only is God not absent, but He dwells with you intimately. It is not like He dwells with
or is present with everyone else in this creation. Keep in mind, this dwelling with us is not only for the here and
now, but this is also referring to an eternal dwelling with us when Christ returns to consummate all things to
Himself and physically-bodily- dwell among us.
5
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
There is another false teaching that is called pantheism. This is the teaching that God is everything. For example:
He’s this podium; He’s the carpet; He’s the air I’m breathing, etc. God has created all things but is distinctly
different than His creation. So we reject that false pantheism teaching, boldly knowing our God is so much greater
than created things.
God is present in every part of space fully, and yet He does whatever His will is in every place He is. His
omnipresence does not restrain His omnipotence (omnipotence means that He is all-powerful, that He does all His
holy will). He will and does accomplish all that He wills everywhere in every part of space.
For example: will God be present in hell? As we said before, God is present in every part of space fully at all times.
We have heard so many times that hell is the absence of God, but this is not fully correct. God is present in hell,
though none of His grace, kindness, love, or forgiveness will be known or experienced there. God will be present
in hell carrying out His righteous wrath onto unrepentant sinners. God acts differently in different places.
There are some verses that seem to be a contradiction on this very subject, but since God’s word is perfect, we
know there are not contradictions in Scripture. To help us here, the Desiring God website has a neat short write up
from John Piper about them that I will summarize for you now.
Two of the passages of Scripture that express the unending nature of hell most clearly point to seemingly opposite
reasons it will be terrible. One speaks of being “away from the presence of the Lord.” The other speaks of suffering
“in the presence of the Lamb.”
“They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
“If anyone worships the beast . . . he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in
the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (Revelation 14:9–11).
These are not contradictory descriptions.
The first text describes the presence and power of the Lord as glorious in the sense of being thrilling to the souls
of the saints. As the next verse says, “He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at
among all who have believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10). Unbelievers will be excluded from this experience. Christ
will not be beautiful or marvelous to them.
The second text simply says the angels and the Lamb will be attending this punishment. They will be present. The
unrepentant “will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation
14:10). Their presence is not for enjoyment but for vindication.
God considers it right and suitable that those who rejected Christ see Him triumphant, pure, and justified over all
who considered Him unworthy of their trust. The focus in Revelation 14:10 is not that those in hell have the
privilege of seeing what they enjoy, but that they have the remorse of seeing what they rejected.
And — perhaps the deepest sting — they know He sees them.
“Christians who suffered for their faith did so in the presence of crowds of onlookers. Ultimately their tormentors
will be punished in the presence of more august spectators ‘in keeping with many other scenes of this book where
the deepest sting that bitter conscience is dealt is that it must suffer while utter purity is looking on.’” (R. V. G.
Tasker, Revelation, 181)
6
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
God existed before He created space. This means that before there was space, God simply was. It would not be
correct to ask, “Where was God before creation,” because He had not yet created a where; He simply was. You
see, God relates to space in a far different way than we do, so we must create a new category. We should not try
to think of God in spatial terms, because He is not limited or governed by space like we are.
In summary, God is present in every part of space with His whole being, yet God acts differently in different
places. This is a topic with many more verses, and we can spend days unpacking these, but I hope you’ve gotten
enough from the verses under the question to give you a good grasp of this. I said my first point was to help you
have a deeper understanding of the omnipresence of God and I hope this was accomplished.
Let's move to my second point now about how and when we will see God.
Let's read question 10 again, and repeat the answer out loud for me please:
Q10. Can you see God?
No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me. We will see Him when Jesus returns at His second coming to judge
the world and to save the redeemed from sin and punishment.
If Jesus were here, we would see Him, but before Christ ascended into heaven, He said it was better for us that
He go, so He could send a helper, the Holy Spirit. Because God is spirit, we cannot see God. He is invisible, but
Jesus taking on flesh and being fully God and fully man is the visible image of God, as we learned a few weeks
ago in our study that “God is spirit.” Because Jesus’ body has ascended, we cannot see God, but as our answer
states, we will one day see God when Jesus returns bodily to consummate all things to Himself and bring His
beloved home. That being said, let’s look at the first verse.
John 1:18 (HCSB) No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son—the One who is at the Father’s side—He
has revealed Him
Is anyone confused by this verse? No one has ever seen God; Jesus, the only Son who is God Himself, has made
God known. Didn’t people see Jesus? So If God has never been seen, but Jesus is God and was seen, then was
the scripture wrong to say God has never been seen? There is a difference between seeing the incarnated Christ
(Jesus in flesh) and seeing the fullness of God in spirit. The scriptures are clear that you cannot see God and live:
Exodus 33:20 But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" So what are the scriptures
getting at when they talk about seeing God through seeing Christ? Let’s look to our next verse:
Colossians 1:15 He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
As Matt said in lesson 3, “Christ (as God in flesh) in His human body, is the visible display of the invisible God.
Jesus ‘images’ God, He puts God on display; He makes what was invisible, visible.” Jesus is the exact imprint of
God’s nature, as Hebrews 1:3 says. Also note Christ is not the firstborn, as though He had a beginning. As we see
in the gospel of John chapter 1 verses 1 and 2: 1In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. The use of the word “Word” is in reference to Jesus here.
Jesus has always existed with the Father and the Spirit and did not have a beginning. If we continue to read in
Colossians, we get a fuller understanding of what the author meant by using the phrase “firstborn of all creation.”
Verses 16-17 read: 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before
all things, and in him all things hold together. You see in these verses that Christ was preeminent. He created all
things and thus had to exist before all things in order to create them, and He is before all things. Just as a firstborn
child would be before the rest of the family in inheritance and headship, so is Christ before all things in a like
7
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
manner. Again in these verses, God is invisible, but because of the incarnation, Christ (as God in flesh) in His
human body is the visible display of the invisible God.
Our next verse:
1 Timothy 1:17 reads To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen.
Over and over again you see the scriptures making this point clear: God is invisible and cannot be seen.
So our catechism question is answered with first: No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me. I think that point
is proven well in His omnipresence and the verses saying clearly that God is invisible. So let’s move into how we
will see Him when He returns:
Our next verse is:
Acts 1:11 “...This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go
into heaven.”
There’s really no complicated thing going on here; the verse is clear. Jesus will return to us the same way He left
us. And what we mean by this is He will return in His body; we will SEE Him then.
Our next verse is:
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an
archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
When Christ returns, and He will return, all of those in Christ will be joined with Him. We will see our Savior one
day, and the cares of this world will vanish, and our hearts will burst within us. Oh church. how we should long for
Christ to return. What an amazing day that will be.
This leads me to my last point. So we dove deep into understanding what it means that God is omnipresent, and
we have a clear view of what it means to not see God now but to anticipate His return when we will see Him, and
now I wanted to close with a practical Gospel tie in.
In light of what we learned tonight, church, we ought to see the gospel in a new and glorious way. What is the
Gospel? You and I and every person born since Adam are born sinful and willingly choose sin. This sin is a direct
rebellion to a perfect holy God. The scriptures are clear that the only right response from a holy God is death and
wrath for this sin. If that seems unfair, try to recall a few minutes ago when I was speaking of the sin you and I try
to hide from God as if He is not there. Consider that God looks into the heart of man where our sin comes from.
Something I like to say to put it into perspective is if I could throw your thoughts (not what you did, just what you
thought) for the last two days, maybe even just two hours, up on the projector, is there anyone in here that would
love to have that displayed for all the others? God’s only just response is punishment, and since the crime
committed is against Him, as the infinitely valuable God, it deserves an infinite punishment. Think about it: the
punishment for attempting to murder a president is far greater than the punishment for attempting to murder an
average Joe. If that’s true for humans, how much more for God? The gospel or the good news is God does not
leave us here; God has planned and carried out the way for sinners to be reconciled to Him, and it is through the
perfect life and substituted death of the risen Christ Jesus. The Lamb of God was sacrificed on the cross for His
beloved. Church, stop and think about this: God has seen every detail of your life. Not only has He seen it, He was
there. He is the eyewitness to your life: every detail, every secret, every thought, and yet despite us and our
rebellion, God has determined before the ages began that He would save His people from their sins, knowing fully
how wicked and sinful His people would be. Christ, before creating anything, had decided with the Father that He
would give His life to redeem His bride. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and yet He saves us
8
Word of Truth Catechism
Doctrine of God
despite these things. Oh how beautiful the grace and love of God is. God’s love for you, if you trust in Him as your
Savior and treasure Him above all things, is not and was not dependent upon you. Praise God the first time my
ears heard and understood this fact, it brought me to tears. He loves me despite myself, and since His love is not
contingent upon me, I have no ability to lose it, as I had no ability to earn it. It was grace given to me; it is grace
that keeps me. There have been times in my life when I thought God was absent, usually this was due to my selfrighteousness, but the reminder that the Holy Scriptures gave was a warm blanket to me. I have spent years of my
life in secret sin only to realize I was afraid of telling people due to shame, but God already knew about it. The One
I should have been most ashamed to confess to had not only already known but had His Son already die for it. So
let me say this plainly: if you do not know God, don’t leave here tonight in your sin and His wrath. You’re not hiding
anything; He knows it all, and yet He has you here. If you are not trusting Christ for your salvation, what are you
trusting in? Repent and believe in Christ, and you will be forgiven. If you are here tonight, and you are saved but
dealing with the distraction and evilness of secret sin, stop…repent. He already knows and has already forgiven
you, so confess this sin to your brothers and sisters, repent of it, and leave here tonight on a new path as a
forgiven child of God, not weighed down and hiding. It’s such a silly game we play when we are not honest about
our sins with our family. We don’t want our family to love us less, so we lie about who we really are. Don’t you see
you remove my ability to actually love you? I end up loving your lie and not the real you. So the very thing you’re
chasing, you are making impossible. Listen, the only One who ultimately matters is God, and He knows, so quit
robbing us of the opportunity to be able to love you- the true you- the same person that God loves if you are
indeed in Christ. Church, this is how the gospel transforms us through community, through repentance and killing
sin, through being honest and open. Watch the sin you’re dealing with lose its power when you’ve brought it into
the light. Watch how many others deal with the same sin and how you can help each other grow in Christ. Finally,
for those of us who have felt distant from God, Jesus left us with these words in Mathew 28: 18: And Jesus came
and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Always to the end of the age God is with us. He has not left us or forgotten us. You can trust someone who has
given their life as proof that He will do what He said He would. I know it's hard to trust people sometimes, but if
someone said they'd die for you, and you weren't too sure about it, then they proved it by doing it, don't you think
you'd trust them now? As we will soon learn through our Sunday sermon series in 2 Peter chapter 3, one of my
favorite verses in all the scriptures says God is not willing that any of His beloved should perish. He is not slow, as
some count slowness, but is patient toward us, the elect. As Mathew 1:21 reads, “She will bear a son, and you
shall call His name Jesus, for he will save His people from their sins.” Jesus will save. God has not forgotten; He is
unwilling that any of His people should perish. He is not gone or distant; He’s simply not done saving His people
yet.
Church, God has saved the most wretched of men not because of the man but because He chose to save. He will
never leave nor forsake you, lo He is with us even to the end of the ages. I pray this helps you open up during your
group time. I pray through this study and the hearing of the gospel proclaimed that the Holy Spirit would be
working in your hearts. I pray if you do not know Christ, that you would grab one of us leaders and not leave here
an enemy of God but a forgiven child of the King of Kings.
So I told you that my goal was three things: 1 to dive deeper into understanding God's omnipresence, 2 to better
understand what it means that we can't see God but will one day, and 3 to finish with a practical gospel application
in light of what we learned. I hope this time was fruitful for you and a catalyst for your time in your group.
Bow with me in prayer before we dismiss to our tables.
9