Calvary Road Baptist Church
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This is the first in a series of messages
related to what makes a great church. However, I will bring these messages to
you fully realizing that there is nowhere found in God’s Word any appellation
or description of any church that would declare or imply greatness. This should
be no surprise to any of you who have heard me preach for any length of time,
since I have often said that God uses no great men, for there are no great men.
Rather, God uses men greatly. Therefore, as there really are no great men,
since churches are comprised of men (I speak generically), there are no great
churches. Therefore, when I speak in this series of messages of a great church,
I do not refer to any congregation’s reputation, to any congregation’s size, to
any congregation’s missions budget, or to any congregation’s inherent
superiority. In reality, a church congregation is great when, as in the early
days of the church in
There have been many occasions over the
last two thousand years when God has given to a people great grace. It happened
repeatedly in the First Great Awakening. It happened repeatedly in the Second
Great Awakening. It happened repeatedly in the Korean and in the Welsh Revivals
of 1905. It happened on the Isle of Lewis. It is happening in numerous places
around the world, such as in
Note carefully that the messages I
purpose to bring over the next few weeks will not be “do this” sermons, as
though if we do this or embrace that concept we will be a great church. I know
of no such guarantees found in the Bible. What I do believe in is what I will
call correspondence, a correlation that exists when a church is blessed with
great grace from God. Therefore, that is what I will address, those realities
that are linked to and correspond with God’s great grace in a congregation.
My message is titled, “To Be A Great
Church We Must Have A Great God.” I am not suggesting that we set as our goal
to become a great church, and embrace the notion that we have a great God in
order to become a great church. Not at all. What I am declaring in no uncertain
terms is that a great church, a church upon which great grace from God has been
bestowed, is a church whose God is great. Is God great? These are more than
just words. I understand the word great to refer to big, to powerful, to
majestic, to glorious in every way, and to superior in His virtues to the nth
degree. Understood in this way, do you embrace the notion that God is great?
If a great church is a church with a
great God, as I have described the concept for you, then it should be understood
that since a church is comprised of people, the individuals comprising the
church must have a great God. Sir, do you have a great God? That is the
important question for you to contemplate this morning. Why don’t we ponder
three considerations related to God’s greatness before you answer that question
for yourself?
First, CONSIDER THE GREATNESS OF GOD
Allow me to quickly read a few of the
many verses that speak directly to the greatness of God:
Deuteronomy 10.17: “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.”
Nehemiah 1.5: “. . . I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments.”
Nehemiah 4.14: “And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”
Nehemiah 9.32: “Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.”
Job 36.26: “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.
Psalm 47.2: “For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.”
Psalm 48.1-2: “Great is
the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the
city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is
Psalm 77.13: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
Psalm 86.10: “For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”
Psalm 95.3: “For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”
Psalm 96.4: “For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.”
Psalm 135.5: “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.”
Psalm 145.3: “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”
Psalm 147.5: “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.”
Proverbs 26.10: “The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors.”
Isaiah 12.6: “Cry out and
shout, thou inhabitant of
Jeremiah 10.6: “Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.”
Jeremiah 32.18: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name.”
Titus 2.13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Many verses, I know. However, they form a
bedrock foundation for my comments about the greatness of God, in two parts:
Part #1 has to do with God’s objective
greatness. By objective, I refer to facts, to reality, to truths about God that
are not subject to opinion. First, God is great in His essence. First, there is
spirituality. God is a spirit and not comprised of material substance in any
way.[1] He is a person, possessing intellect,
sensibility, and will. He is alive. He is invisible. He is also immaterial and
incorporeal.[2] Next, God in His essence is
self-existent. That is, it is His very nature to exist, as His words to Moses
from the burning bush suggest: “I am that I am.”[3] Third, God is immense, which is to say that He is infinite
in size.[4] Since God created the time-space-matter
continuum of observable reality, He is actually greater than this physical
universe in which we live and is not in any way not present throughout His
creation. Four, God is eternal. Being the Creator of the time-space-matter continuum,
He is the cause of time, and is Himself outside of time. In the Bible, He is
said to be “the eternal God,” to be the One who “inhabiteth eternity,” and to
be the only one who has immortality.”[5] God is not only great by reason of His essence; He is also
great by reason of His attributes. Attributes speak to the qualities of God,
which I shall list in two groups, His non-moral attributes, and His moral
attributes: When referring to God’s non-moral attributes, I can list four: First,
God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere present, which is a wonderful
comfort to the believer. Next, God is omniscient, meaning He knows everything,
including His comprehension of the future as well as the present, and every
combination of possible outcomes that might be. Third, God is omnipotent,
meaning that He is not only the most powerful of all beings, but that He is the
possessor of all existing might and of all existing power. There is no might
and there is no power that does not ultimately originate from Him. Fourth, God
is immutable. Immutability has to do with God being unchangeable. Being
perfect, there is neither need nor room for improvement with God: “I am
the LORD, I change not.”[6] God’s moral attributes have to do with
moral qualities. First, there is holiness, that attribute by which God wanted
to be especially known in Old Testament times.[7] Holiness is what separates God from moral evil and sin. Next,
there is righteousness and justice, which is that quality of God’s holy nature
that is seen in the treatment of His creatures. Third, there is God’s goodness,
reflected in the fact that God is love, that God is benevolent, that God is
merciful, and that God is gracious. The final moral attribute of God is His
truthfulness. As Paul stated to Titus, in 1.2 of that epistle: “In hope of
eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Therefore,
we see that when the facts about God are considered, it is objectively true
that He is great.
However, there is another way of seeing
God’s greatness, which is by comparing the incomparable One to other so-called
gods. This is Part #2 of our consideration of God’s greatness: Let me begin by
saying that God is comparatively great because there is no god to compare Him
to. In fact, He is the one true and living God, unique as a being, as these
verses establish:
Isaiah 44.6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the
LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am
the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Isaiah 44.8: “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I
told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my
witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
Isaiah 45.5: “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there
is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.”
Isaiah 45.6: “That they may know from the rising of the
sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.”
Being the only true God, eternal,
self-existent, all-powerful, etc., He must be great. However, even when He is
compared with the fictional gods of the false religions of this world, He is
recognized to be great. Consider four comparisons:
When the God of the Bible is compared with
the god of Hinduism, He is seen to be great. This is for several reasons: First,
Hinduism embraces the notion of millions of gods. Second, Hinduism embraces the
concept of pantheism, making no meaningful distinction between gods and the
material universe in which we live. Add to that the insufferable caste system
of Hinduism, and the Hindu practice of burning living wives alive on their
husband’s funeral pyres before British colonialists outlawed it, and you can
easily see why God is greater than any Hindu conception of gods.
When God is compared with the Buddhist
conception of God, He is again seen to be great. Buddhism is essentially an
atheistic religion that believes in an endless cycle of reincarnation and
bondage to a deterministic notion called karma. Buddhism has no notion of a
personal God, and no grasp of any loving and benevolent relationship being
possible between a god and man. Millions pray to a cross-legged fat man with a
ruby in his navel who betrayed his marriage vows, by abandoning his wife and
baby to “find himself.” This is Buddhism. God is obviously great by comparison.
When the God of the Bible is compared to
the Allah of Islam, God is obviously greater than Allah. Why so? Allah is an
invention, existing before Mohammed’s birth as the name of an Arab moon god. As
well, Allah is said to possess many characteristics in Islam, but here are
three ways in which he falls short of the God of the Bible: First, God is love,
something that is nowhere stated of Allah in Islam’s sacred texts. Second, God
is gracious, providing for the salvation of sinners apart from works of righteousness,
while Allah demands good deeds to curry his favor. Third, the God of the Bible
has a Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ. Muslims vehemently insist Allah has no
son. I agree. It is their loss, for it shows Allah for what he really is, a counterfeit
claimant to the throne of God, who has provided no sin-bearer to pay the
penalty for our sins.
Finally, when compared to the god of
materialism, God is great. In fact, though they deny there is such a thing as
God, and claim there is nothing beyond the material, materialists such as
communists, humanists, environmentalists, and others of their ilk, they do have
a god of sorts. It is what they describe as the evolutionary process; a
mindless mechanism that they claim explains everything about life on earth. However,
it does not explain the big bang, how the very first effect could have occurred
without any cause. It does not explain why they ignore the Second Law of
Thermodynamics, that for evolution to proceed as they explain it would have to
proceed against the observed patterns of increased randomness and disorder seen
by science in the universe. However, most importantly, it does not explain the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, a historical event with such
serious attestation only the most belligerent opponents of the historical
record refuse to admit it. God compared to no god is obviously great. However,
God who raised Jesus from the dead, in the face of opponents who say such a
thing cannot happen, is even more obviously great. You would think a God like
this, who is objectively great and who is comparatively great, is a God who
would be thought trustworthy, which brings me to my second main point.
Next, CONSIDER OWNING GOD AS YOUR OWN
It is one thing to admit the God of the
Bible is great. It is quite another thing to embrace the God of the Bible as
your own God. It is one thing to admit to facts that are presented, while it is
quite another thing to assimilate those truths and so make it part of your
being, essential to your existence. To phrase it another way, it is one thing
to sing “God reigns,” but quite another thing to sing (and to mean) “My God
reigns.”
Do you own God as your God? Do you
acknowledge Him as your Creator and Sustainer? Psalm 100.3 reads, “Know ye that
the LORD he is God: it is he that
hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of
his pasture.”
Do you own Him as your sovereign ruler
and the great Object of your worship? Psalm 72.11 informs us that there will
come a day when “all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve
him.” Must you wait until that terrible day, or will you fall down before Him
now, voluntarily owning Him to be your God?
Hebrews 12.28 encourages us, “let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” If
God is your God, then His cause is your cause. What will you do to advance His
cause, your cause? Will you do what the early Christians did? They gave their
time, their talent, and their treasure to serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear.
What about your will? Knowing that God is
a spirit, we claim that He is also a person, with intellect, sensibility, and
will. Unlike the impersonal gods of many false religions, one cannot worship
and serve God without conforming your will to His will, since He being holy and
we being sinful do not have wills that align. Will you yield your will to the
will of God? You must to own God as your God.
Finally, CONSIDER BEING OWNED OF GOD AS
HIS OWN
Do we not acknowledge that God is great? Sure
we do. Whether you consider Him objectively or comparatively, in absolute terms
or compared with other so-called gods, the God of the Bible is truly great. Reasonable
and thinking men endorse the notion that God is great. As well, there is owning
God as your own. Who would not want to own the Creator and Sustainer of all
things as his own? Who would not admit to the propriety of bowing before Him as
the sovereign ruler and proper Object of worship? Finally, it is admitted by
thinking people that the lesser gives to the greater in every arena, therefore,
we as His creatures should find it only right and fitting to give Him of our
time, of our treasure, and of our talent. He is the only Being who exists to have
an absolute claim on our wills. Who would deny that?
Admittedly, there is a difference between
realizing and even voicing God’s greatness, seeking to own Him as your own, and
being owned by Him as His own. After all, there are a billion people in the
world who claim to be Christians, who profess allegiance of some kind and to
some degree to the God of the Bible. They say He is great and they want to own
Him as their great God. However, what can be said about being owned of God as
His own?
We know from both the Old and New
Testaments that before the coming of Christ, great clarity existed concerning
who was owned of God as His own. As the Apostle Paul reminds the Christians in
Ephesus, there were those who were part of the commonwealth of Israel and those
who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, those who had received the
covenants of promise and those who were strangers from the covenants of
promise, those who had hope and those without hope, those with God and those
who were without God in the world.[8]
Though both Jeremiah and Ezekiel foresaw
it, the Lord Jesus Christ introduced the notion of the new birth to Nicodemus
in John chapter three, when He said, “Ye must be born again.”[9] Later on, the Apostle Paul remarked
about being adopted. Whether it is known as regeneration, the new birth, being
born again, or being adopted, what is referred to is an event wrought by God
whereby someone becomes a member of the family of God. Are you a member of the
family of God? If you are, you will go to heaven when you leave this life. If
you are not, you will go to Hell when you leave this life. As with the Jewish
people and the covenants and promises God made to Abraham, it all has to do
with being owned of God as His own. If you are in the family of God, God is
your heavenly Father. If you are not in the family of God, you are God’s enemy.
Moving from a consideration of the
covenant people to a consideration of the family of God, let us now distinguish
between the family of God and the
Each of these three kinds of
relationships with God found in the Bible speaks of some aspect of God’s
ownership of someone as His own. With each aspect of God’s ownership come
different duties, obligations, and responsibilities. The covenant people of God
were give the rite of circumcision and, until Christ fulfilled it, the Mosaic
Law to live by. The family of God, believers in Christ, have the duties and
obligations associated with life and fruit bearing. The member of the
To be a great church we must have a great
God. To be sure, God is great. He is not only objectively great, but He is also
comparatively great. Who of all the gods of the various religions of the world
can compare to the God of the Bible? Beyond the bare admission of those
glorious realities, however, there are other considerations arising from the
personality of God and the personalities of human beings, made in His image and
after His likeness. Just as there is a difference between a car and my car, a
house and my house, a wife and my wife, a child and my child, so there is a
difference between God being great and my God being great.
He is my God when I bow to Him as my
Creator and Sustainer, when I yield to Him as my Sovereign and Object of my worship,
and when I give to him of my resources (my time, my talent, and my treasure). He
is my God when I consciously surrender my will to Him to obey and glorify Him.
However, there is yet another consideration
of my great God. To be sure, He is great whether I admit it or not. All the
more thrilling to me is my ownership of God as my God, when my God is great. However,
the pinnacle is when you are owned of God as His own. It is one thing to say
“My God,” while it is something else entirely for God to say, “My servant,” “My
friend,” or “My child.”
Great churches, or churches with great
grace bestowed upon them, are congregations who know God is great, who
consciously own God as their own, and are owned of God as His own.
Let us see, this morning, if God bestows
great grace upon us, as evidenced by our willingness to live for Him.
[1] John 4.24
[2] See Henry Clarence
Thiesen, Introductory Lectures In Systematic Theology, (Grand
Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949), pages 119-121 and
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology Volume I, (Hendrickson
Publishers, Inc. Edition), pages 376-385.
[3] Exodus 3.14
[4] 1 Kings 8.27; 2
Chronicles 2.6; Jeremiah 23.24; Psalm 139.7ff; Isaiah 66.1; Acts 17.28
[5] Genesis 21.33; Isaiah
57.15; 1 Timothy 6.18
[6] Malachi 3.6
[7] Leviticus 11.44-45;
Joshua 24.19; 1 Samuel 6.20; Psalm 22.3; Isaiah 40.23; Ezekiel 39.7; Habakkuk
1.12
[8] Ephesians 2.12
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