The Four Great Ponderances
By W.E. Davis, Jr.
Foundation
I. The Awesome Truths About God Are So Easily Brushed Aside By Many In Religion…
1. They are falsely interpreted with little or no concern for accuracy…
2. Or quickly dismissed as mysteries, NOT to be understood.
II. We Should Be Concerned About the Great Mystery of Godliness
1. If we as humans are so concerned about the great mysteries of the past that we will dig into the heart of the earth, through rocks and caves, or plunge into the depths of the oceans…
2. If we are so concerned about mysteries of the universe that we will gaze through telescopes for hours or years…
3. If we are so concerned about the mysteries of mind and body that we will exhaust our resources to understand the human species…
4. Then why are we not so concerned about The Great Mystery of Godliness?
1 Timothy 3:16
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in
the flesh…
1. “Controversy” — descent
2. “Great” — majestic
3. “Godliness” — Holiness and Deity
III. What Does God Want Us To Think, To Know, To Understand About Him?
1. To change our perception of God to one that is incorrect…
2. OR… To think rightly about God is a command from God!
Acts 17:30
“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
* “Times of ignorance” — lack of perception
* “Winked at” — held back punishment
* “Commandeth all men everywhere to repent” — to change their thinking
IV. The Framework of the Knowledge of God
1. Words and phrases in Scripture are used to mark, to identify and distinguish the manifestations of one true God.
2. BUT…These words and phrases are not to be construed as persons and / or personalities of God or the Godhead.
3. THEREFORE…
i. “Let us make man…” has a Biblical answer
ii. The baptism of Jesus has a Biblical answer…
iii. Jesus’ prayer in the garden has a Biblical answer…
iv. “The right hand of God…” has a Biblical answer
The Answer to Genesis 1:26
There Are Two Words To Address:
1. “us”
2. “our”
V. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and letthem have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
1. Man is not
i. ‘Three person’ man
ii. ‘Three men in one person’
iii. A copy of a ‘three person’ God.
2. God is not a ‘three person’ God revealed as body, soul and spirit.
i. All of this language defies Scripture and it defies logic!
ii. ‘Us’ and ‘our’ are plural words; they are not a plurality or pluralities of persons.
VI. “Us”
1. The word ‘us’ denotes the plural majesty of God:
i. His greatness
ii. His infinity
iii. His incomprehensibility
2. The very nature of God is expressed in His attributes. God’s attributes are things that are right and true about Himself:
i. Power
ii. Goodness
iii. Wisdom
iv. Understanding
v. Knowledge
vi. Eternity
vii. Love
viii. Will
3. All of these attributes are perfections of God’s eternal nature
i. They are plural perfections of His ONE eternal nature
ii. They are not persons.
4. God can give voice to His presence wherever His presence is According to Jeremiah 23:24 His presence is everywhere!
Proverbs 8
ii. Verse 1 “Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?”
iii. Verse 6 “Hear; for I will speak of excellent things;”
iv. Verse 14 “Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom:”
v. Verse 22 “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.”
vi. Verse 24 “When there were no depths,”
ii. Verse 26 “While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the work”
iii. Verse 30 “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight,”
5. God said “Let us” “He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”
6. God addressed the entire essence of His being
i. The total attributes of His perfections – with pluralities of His [majestic] nature of infinities –incomprehensible majesty.
ii. When He (“us”) counseled with Himself, it was like this:
1. The Knowledge of God – “Can man be made?”
2. The Wisdom of God – “Yes.”
3. Goodness of God Motivates Him To Do
4. Will of God Decreed It
5. The Power of God Caused It
VII. “Our image… our likeness”
1. Man is a dual image.
i. Image of God – Who is Spirit.
ii. AND Image of – Him Who was to come… Jesus Christ!
2. In Genesis 1:26 there was a body – no flesh and bone.
i. The body was the body in His mind.
ii. Lamb – – –
In His mind – the Son of John 17 – along with…
3. Adam was in the figure of Him Who was to come!
i. Adam was in God’s image, he possessed a spirit (will, intellect and emotion).
ii. And in the image of Jesus Christ – Flesh and Blood.
The Answer To The Baptism of Jesus Christ
VIII. The Baptism of Jesus Christ
1. Voice
2. Man
3. Holy Spirit descending like a dove…
i. As mentioned in Matthew 3:16, “As a dove”
ii. As mentioned in Mark 1:16, “Like a dove”
iii. As mentioned in Luke 3:22, “Bodily shape like a dove”
IX. God is Omnipresent
1. Jeremiah 23:24
2. Psalm 139
3. God’s presence does and can give voice to wherever He is, and He is everywhere:
1. As is His Power – to save and heal
2. As is His Will – to work and to do
3. As is His Love – to reach all men
4. As is His Goodness – to do for the human race
4. God’s voice:
1. Is not separate as a person
2. Is not confined to one local
5. God, or the Holy Spirit, was not a dove – Romans 1
1. God was not a burning bush
2. God was not a Pillar of Fire
3. God was not a donkey
6. God employs whatsoever He wills to achieve His purpose
1. All things — all creation is at His beckoning command to fulfill His purpose and His will
i. “The Hosts”
ii. The Lord of host — all are His, and stand ready to serve Him
iii. God employed His voice to reveal His presence and pleasure in the Son of God.
iv. God employed His water to destroy the world.
v. God employed a bush and fire to communicate to Moses His will.
vi. God employed a donkey to talk to Balaam.
vii. God employed a woman to make a Son able to communicate the image of the Invisible God — power, love, truth.
7. God can employ (use) whosoever He wills, whenever He wills, to achieve whatsoever He wills.
X. There Are Several Things God Cannot Do:
1. God cannot stop being God.
2. God cannot will Himself to do that which is contrary to His divinity.
3. God cannot die.
4. God cannot pray to another god or deity.
XI. To Pray To Another Deity Would Prove Himself In Need of a
Greater Deity.
1. He would have to borrow from another power.
2. To need help from another deity would reveal His Self deficiency.
3. To be deficient would preclude Him from being All-sufficient, omnipotent.
4. That would place Him in a category with Dagon who fell in his own temple.
5. OR… It would place Him in the category of the gods of other nations who were not able to deliver the people from the hand of Sennacherib, King of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 32:13 – 15
XII. When Jesus Prayed In The Garden
1. He prayed as man.
i. He prayed as humanity.
ii. He was fully man, and therefore in need of strength greater than Himself.
XIII.
1. In the days (time) of His flesh, He was at the fullest of His human nature possessing all the attributes of humanity — He behaved as humanity.
i. He hungered
ii. He thirst
iii. He wept
iv. He prayed
2. When He hungered — someone had to give Him food.
3. When He thirst — someone had to give Him water.
4. When He wept — He needed to release the hurt and pain in His heart.
5. When He needed strength greater than His human strength, He needed divine strength — the humanity of Jesus Christ prayed to the deity within Him.
The Answer To The Question of The Right Hand of God
XIV. “God Is A Spirit” John 4:24
1. “… a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39)
2. God is a Spirit
i. Absent a body except in manifestation in an angel
3. Before the Bethlehem manger, God existed as Spirit
i. There was no body parts such as hand, arm, or face
XV. The Right Hand of God Denotes Symbolic Position of Jesus Christ – Expressions of Jesus Christ
1. The face of God is a symbolic expression
i. Genesis 19:13 “For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.”
ii. 1 Samuel 26:20 “Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.”
iii. 1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do
2. Face to face
i. Speaks of favor, fellowship and closeness
ii. Jacob in…
Genesis 32:30
“And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved”
iii. Moses in…
Exodus 33:11
“And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the
3. The arm of God
i. Speaks of the power of God
ii. The strength to do
Psalm 89:13
“Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
4. The Finger of God
Luke 11:20
“But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.”
XVI. The Right Hand of God — The Father
1. Sat down
Hebrews 10:12
“But this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins
for ever, sat down on the right
hand of God;”
3
Hebrews 1:3
“Who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of
his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high;”
2. Standing
3. Symbolic expressions of His Power, His Strength, and His position as Priest
4. Bosom of the Father
XVII. Stephen Looked Up and Saw the “Glory” of God, Not God
Jesus standing at the right hand
i. As Priest
ii. Sitting as an accomplished High Priest
XVII. Symbolic Language
1. Sheep (Lamb)
2. Shepherd
3. Priest
4. King
All refer to positions that God fulfills!!!
