by David Scott Robertson
NOTE: This thought was the text for a sermon I preached in 2003.
My daughter Abigail and I very much enjoy watching nature shows on television. She, like me, is fascinated at the wonders of nature and rightly so. God had done such a magnificent, spectacular, (fill in the blank with your own adjective), job in creating creation, don't you think?
To be sure there are vast wonders in the areas of astronomy, biology, physical science, geography, and all the other complex segments of our universe, but it's the animal world that has captured my daughter's attention.
As Abbey and I watch these programs together, it is my delight as her father to have opportunity after opportunity to teach her about the many facets of the Inventor of the animals - Creator God.
It was God who gave the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin), and Jeff Corwin, and the explorers on Wild Kingdom, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and all other nature shows something to talk about. In fact, as these scientists perform their excellent job of bringing nature up close and personal to the rest of the world by way of a television camera, they are also, whether they realize it or not, glorifying God who created the subjects of their commentary.
Abbey and I particularly enjoy a series on Animal Planet called "The Planet's Most Extreme." It's a show that counts down backwards from ten to one the most peculiar organisms in the natural world: The most extreme camouflage, the most extreme intelligence, the most extreme speed, the most extreme strength, and so forth. We love it!
I want you to know that this show is the inspiration for this "Thought About God."
It got me thinking about how God holds the title for "The Planet's Most Extreme." Extreme what? Let's take a look at some of the attributes of God that are unparalleled in this or any universe. Let's begin our countdown of what I think may be 10 of the most extreme characteristics about God. Coming in at #10, is the fact that God possesses…
#10: The Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS
God is so smart. Abbey and I get giddy with laughter as we look at the innumerable, incomparable, ingenious variety of wildlife on the planet! Recently we visited the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg (Tennessee) and saw colorful fish of every shape and size - it was fantastic! But God's genius and creativity doesn't stop with fish! In His creation are tiny and huge birds of every description - tiny birds like a hummingbird that can fly backwards and large birds like geese that somehow migrate thousands of miles back to their original nesting grounds.
God invented insects that look like they're from outer space! Yesterday, in my daily devotions, I was reading about the Noah and the ark and I had this funny picture flash through my mind of Noah feeding the animals and suddenly and instinctively he realizes something is biting his neck and - SLAP! - Noah squashes a mosquito and cries out: "What have I done? I've killed a species!"
Anyway, the genius of God has created critters ranging in size from microscopic to massive.
Moreover, it's not just what they look like, it's where they live and how God has crafted their bodies to survive their environment. Critters survive in the oceans, the lake and river systems, the savannahs, the desserts, the frozen wastelands of polar regions, the rainforests, the everglades - they flourish on top of the ground, underground, or spend their days soaring in the sky -- the ecosystem and chain of plant and animal life are beyond incredible!
I watched a documentary one time about volcanic holes in the floor of the ocean where the water pumping out of the earth's crust was superheated and poisonous and guess what? God invented tubeworms to thrive there! Friends, it would take a Genius to think all this up. And it did.
To believe that all of this was the result of a process called evolution takes more faith than to believe in the creation account.
Evolution basically says that TIME + CHANCE = EVERYTHING.
To believe that everything evolves over billions of years is tantamount to believing that you can throw a grenade into a print shop and out of the explosion comes an unabridged dictionary! If you believe that then you'll have no problem believing that the United States Navy can fire a cruise missile into an airplane hanger and out of that explosion will come the space shuttle!
No, things don't go from chaos to order all by themselves (investigate the "law of entropy"). You can look at your kid's room and figure that out! No, things don't go from simple to more complex all by themselves! Evolution is a THEORY, not a fact, and it's a bad theory at that based on lies and false assumptions.
You see, the earth has a very complex design, therefore it must have a Designer. Seasons follow a plan, so there must have been a Planner. Creation had a Creator, His name is God, and He is a genius!
It is Abbey and my firm conviction that when it comes to high intelligence and creativity, God is the Planet's Most Extreme GENIUS.
Coming in at #9 on the countdown of God's extreme attributes is that God is the owner of…
The Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE
God is so patient. He's more patient that you or me or all of us called humanity put together. And it's a good thing too because if God were not patient, there would be no humanity. The Lord God could have, at any given time, spoken the word and the earth could have been reduced to a sterile ball of matter floating through space.
And it's not like we haven't tried His patience. By and large, every people group on the earth today has offended God, transgressed His laws, and for the most part ignored Him.
As a matter of fact, the Bibles predicts a day in which the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth to claim His Bride, the Church, and leave the rest of humanity to contend with a period of history known as "The Great Tribulation." What's preventing Him from showing up? Patience.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
I could go on and but suffice it to say that God is the clear winner when it comes to longsuffering and exercises the Planet's Most Extreme PATIENCE.
#8 - God possesses The Planet's Most Extreme GLORY
God is so glorious. In Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, he writes "that no flesh should glory in his presence" (1:29). When we compare the glory of man with the glory of God, there is no comparison!
God is so great and so glorious that the angels in heaven bow down and give Him glory and praise with complete adoration continually.
His glory provided light in the beginning before there was a sun (Genesis 1:3) and His glory will illuminate the universe when the sun is extinguished in the new heavens and new earth at the consummation of the age (Revelation 21:25).
A man in the Bible named Saul got a glimpse of the glory of God and the brightness blinded him for three days (Acts 9:8-9). Peter, James and John caught a glimpse of the glory of God on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2) and they instantly fell on their faces deeply afraid! The Israelites saw the glory of the Lord settle on Mount Sinai for seven days and it looked like a consuming fire (Exodus 24:16-17). When King Solomon was dedicating the newly built temple of God the glory of the Lord was so thick that the priests could not perform their service (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Friends, the glory of the Lord is beyond description and human understanding. When it comes to magnificence, splendor and wonder, the Lord God most definitely possesses the Planet's Most Extreme GLORY.
#7 - The Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS
God is so holy. God is unspeakably holy. He is utterly good, flawless, sinless, He is perfection personified. He is so holy that there are living creatures in heaven right now who day and night never stop saying:
"...holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).
It's a good thing God is holy. You see, if God were not holy, then Jesus' sacrifice on the cross would have been insufficient to purchase mankind's salvation and restore the severed relationship between God and Man lost in the Garden of Eden through Adam and Eve's sin.
But because God is holy, and Jesus is God, then His sacrifice was all-sufficient (Hebrews 7:27) and allowed Christ to die a vicarious and atoning death as the ultimate sin offering. It worked! Now, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved! (Acts 2:21).
Why? Because when it comes to sanctity, godliness, and consecration, nothing even comes close to God who has the Planet's Most Extreme HOLINESS.
#6 - The Planet's Most Extreme POWER
God is so powerful.
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3).
Can you do that? When God speaks, it is so powerful that whatever He says happens.
Let me illustrate the power of God's creative power this way. Since it is impossible for God to lie, if God were to say to me: "David, you're 8 feet tall." Before I could get the words out of my mouth saying "no, I'm 6 feet 1 inch tall…" - I'd be 8 feet 0 inches tall! Why? Simply because God's word would cause it to be so.
God is so powerful that - as Nahum 1:5 tells us - that…
"The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it" (Nahum 1:5).
God is so powerful that no man can see him face-to-face and live (Exodus 33:20).
All the atomic weapons in the world combined couldn't rival one atom of His power.
As a matter of fact, God is so powerful that there's a special word in the English language reserved exclusively for Him and nobody else: the word is "OMNIPOTENT." That means "all-powerful."
I think that means God can handle the mess you've gotten yourself in to.
When it comes to supremacy, command, and authority, God is most assuredly the Planet's Most Extreme POWER.
Well, at this point, we're halfway through the countdown! We're talking about attributes of the Lord our God that are so extreme that nothing on earth, nothing in heaven, and nothing under the earth can compare with the majesty of Almighty God.
We're talking about the One who is going to lead us into 2004. This is the One that who says, "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." This is the one who said in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you!" This is the One who said "ALL authority in heaven and in earth has been given to ME!" and this same Jesus wants to be your Best Friend in the New Year - if you'll let Him!
His GENIUS is extreme. His PATIENCE is extreme. His GLORY is extreme. His HOLINESS is extreme and to be sure, His POWER is extreme. But although these are incredible qualities that our Lord King possesses, there's still more! The half has not yet been told!
Have a look at my #5 most extreme attribute of God...
#5 - The Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM
God is so wise. He doesn't possess a portion, part, slice, or fraction of wisdom, He IS wisdom embodied. Everything He does is just and fair and right (Proverbs 2:9).
There's not a single decision or plan He's made that wasn't perfectly wise. There hasn't been a solitary incident of Him saying or doing anything that wasn't the exact right thing to say or do. His counsel and advice are wise, His laws and decrees are wise, His commands and statues are wise. Even His rebukes and judgments are completely wise!
Without a doubt, God has a monopoly on wisdom.
"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3)
If that's not enough, the Bible teaches that ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ! (Colossians 2:2-3). And where is Christ? That's the mystery of the ages - "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Colossians 1:27).
Compared to God, man's wisdom is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:20), and yet God has generously consented to share His wisdom with whoever needs it.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).
When it comes to being intelligent, prudent, and judicious, God most certainly wins the award for the Planet's Most Extreme WISDOM.
Coming in at #4, please consider that God is also…
#4. The Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER.
God is such a dreamer. You see, in the beginning there was a perfect God walking in the cool of the day through a perfect garden on a perfect earth with a perfect atmosphere and perfect environment in perfect balance with a perfect man and a perfect woman in perfect fellowship with each other and God. That's what's called "paradise."
Enter sin…and the rest is history.
Now listen to this: God's dream is to restore fallen mankind back to that original state. He's not going to just refurbish or remodel the planet, He's going to make it brand new!
Let's take a quick look at a couple of verses out of the Book of Revelation:
"He [God] who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5)
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea" (Revelation 21:1).
Before God concludes His plan for the ages, He's going to restore all that was lost in the fall of man. Before all is said and done, we are going to end up with a perfect God visibly and physically living with perfect men and perfect women on a perfect earth in perfect relationship with each other and God. (By the way, God will be on the throne and the devil, that old serpent, will be in the lake of fire!)
In my daily devotions I'm reading through Genesis right now and I just finished reading the account of creation. It never ceases to amaze me that in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, that He made all that real estate but only put two people on the planet. The earth is a large land mass 12,000 miles in diameter at the equator. Why do you suppose, then, that God only put Adam and Eve on the planet in the first place? It's because God is a Dreamer!
The Father's dream right from the beginning was to ultimately have billions and billions of sons and daughters on the earth that look like Jesus. And He sent Jesus to reconcile a fallen race to Himself and to challenge us with a Great Commission to go and win souls and make disciples so that His Father could have His dream fulfilled. When you say "yes" to God's Great Commission ("Therefore go and make disciples..." - Matthew 28:19-20), you are saying yes to becoming a part of making God's dream come true.
What a Visionary God is! Talk about positive thinking! This is one dream that is guaranteed to come true because it's God's dream.
When it comes to thinking big thoughts and dreaming big dreams, wouldn't you agree that God is absolutely the Planet's Most Extreme DREAMER?
#3. God, undeniably, is the title-holder of The Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
God is so gracious. Grace means that you don't have to do it but you do it anyway.
Somebody somewhere once wrote that God's grace was amazing. Grace is the ex-murderer going to heaven. Grace is the former homosexual walking down streets of gold. Grace is the disabled man's body functioning properly again. Grace is the woman who once only used God's name as profanity who now cherishes that name and worships her precious Lord with all her heart.
There is no grace found on planet earth greater than the grace of God.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
Jesus volunteering to leave the comforts and glories of heaven to intercept fallen humanity's death sentence was the single most profound act of grace in the history of the world.
Therefore, when it comes to unmerited favor, God has a corner on the market making Him the owner of the Planet's Most Extreme GRACE.
I'm thankful for God's grace, but I'm also thankful that God is…
#2. The Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
God is so generous. There is no greater giver than God.
He gives food to the animals, sun and soil to the plants, and water for the creatures of the sea to play in. He gives weather and atmosphere and environment to keep things running smooth.
He gives man and beast the basic staples of life to sustain their existence, and yes, He even gives all creatures great and small the very breath of life itself.
His compassion knows no bounds as in His benevolence He gives time, money, resources, energy, willpower, choice, understanding, common sense, wisdom, self-worth, and a reason to live to mankind. And get this: God's generosity extends to everyone, good and evil alike! Even the wicked benefit from the kind, benevolent, giving hand of the Lord.
2 Peter 1:3 says it well what God has given us. The World's Greatest Giver through
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
But God went beyond giving the basics of life or providing people with a higher quality of life, He went on to give a Gift that purchased for mankind eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
My dear friends, when it comes to giving, no one has yet to out give God! That's why God is the undisputed champion of giving and by far the Planet's Most Extreme GIVER.
And so we've come to end of our countdown. We've talked about various aspects of our God that demonstrate to us, unequivocally, that He is without equal. There is no God like our God, the Holy One that does awesome wonders!
But there 's outstanding quality about God that perhaps stands out more than any other. And that attribute is #1 in our countdown…[this would be the place where Animal Planet would put a commercial - but I'm not going to do that to you!] #1: God is the possessor of…
#1. The Planet's Most Extreme LOVE
God is so loving. As we come to the end of our countdown, we have examined several attributes of God that has recognized Him to be THE Most Extreme Deity. This great God we serve is not just the greatest of many lesser gods, He is in fact the One True and Living God! (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Although the Lord is strong, He has also chosen to be loving (Psalm 62:11-12). He is big enough and tough enough to be and do anything He wants to - after all, He's God!
What makes God so incredible, so wonderful, so extreme, is that
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8).
The prophet Jeremiah commented that "His loving kindness and tender mercies are from everlasting to everlasting" (Jeremiah 31:3) and went on to say that God's plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11) - plans to give us a hope and a bright future.
God the Father demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in sending Jesus to die for our sins (John 3:16).
Jesus demonstrated the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to become the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world on the cross (John 13:1).
The Holy Spirit demonstrates the full extent of His love for us in agreeing to remain on earth in the hearts of every believer and lead and guide us continually into all truth (John 16:13).
In this God confirmed that "greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
When all is said and done, at the end of the day - as 1 Corinthians 13:13 says - there are three things that remain…
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
We end our countdown of the Planet's Most Extreme with a quote from God Himself proclaiming His name in Exodus 34:6-8:
"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped" (Exodus 34:6-8).
My question to you is: Will you follow the example of Moses the man of God and bow down to the God of all men?
DSR
4/12/04