Pisgah Church of Christ

The Almighty God is awesome. Out of nothing He created all things. Psalms 19:1 states, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” The immense universe which cannot be seen by human eye, galaxies yet unknown, and stars without number are the work of divine engineering. God delivers with awesome power. Enemies are crushed, nations are crumbled, and oppositions are ruined. The army of Egypt was buried in the sea by “the greatness of thine arm.” Exodus 15:16. His children are admonished not to be “anxious for our life.” Matthew 6:25. His power provides “rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” Acts 14:17. Blessings innumerable are poured out from His bountiful hand. His awesome power keeps watch with His all seeing eye. His eye is upon the sparrow and the hairs of each head are counted by Him. Matthew 10:29-30. He holds us in the palm of His hand and is ever mindful of us. We cannot wander from His sight nor can we escape His care. God preserves with awesome love. “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Jude 1:24. “We are kept by the power of God through faith.” I Peter 1:5. No storm can overwhelm us. The winds and the waves and the demons obey His every word. His divine power maintains the universe and holds the enemy in check. And, God comforts with awesome compassion. He is “the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation.” II Corinthians 1:3-4. He is the one who dries the tears and heals the broken heart. Indeed, our God is an awesome God.

“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3. The love of God abides. His love has no degrees of temperature and various fragrances of smell. His love is not turned on and off. His love has no varied shades of color. The love of God continues and never fails. “I have loved you, saith the Lord.” Malachi 1:2. When His people, Israel, were obedient, He loved them. When they were disobedient, He loved them. Because of His love for them, He delivered them from their enemies. He gave them the land of promise, a land of opportunity and blessing. He blessed them with prosperity and protection. Even His rebuke of them was because He loved them everlastingly.

But, God’s greatest act of love was Jesus Christ. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. God, because of “great love”, has delivered us from the enemy of sin. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Ephesians 1:7. The forgiveness of our sins blesses us with peace and reconciliation. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:10. The God who has loved us has given us the promise of inheritance. “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” Ephesians 1:18.

Our God is the God of everlasting love.

The word which Peter, the apostle, told Cornelius concerning God’s attitude toward all men is truth. “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34-35. God extends His hand of forgiveness and fellowship to all men. It is the desire of God that “none should perish, but that all come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9. Indeed, God now “commands all men everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30. God is the “God of all men.” Under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, God has willed that “all shall know me from the least to the greatest.” Hebrews 8:11. The very first gospel sermon gave a universal invitation for fellowship with God: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:21. Jesus, by the authority of God, said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” Matthew 11:28. All boundary lines have been removed through Jesus Christ. The mercy and love of God rains upon all who will be obedient to His precious commandments. God becomes the “God of all” in the words of Jesus, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone who seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40.

“He that is our God is the God of salvation:” Psalms 68:20. He is the God of salvation because of His desire to save. His creation is lost. The nature of God is violated by sinfulness. Hence, He seeks to save. Not willing that one be lost, He offers salvation. God has the power to save. As One who is just, He provided the means by which all could be saved. Jesus, His Son, was offered as a remedy for man’s lost condition. In His creative power, He has appointed us unto salvation. “For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Thessalonians 5:9. In His infinite wisdom, He made salvation attainable. “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation.” II Thessalonians 2:13. In the beginning, man fell from the holiness of God and made that journey into alienation. God provided a plan of salvation. Instead of saving, He could have condemned. But, as the God of salvation, He reached out to lost humanity through Jesus Christ. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all.” Titus 2:11. God reached out from His abode of purity and opened a door by which lost man could escape wrath. The birth of Jesus and the cross of Jesus forever stand as monuments of God’s salvation. Our God of salvation was clothed in love and draped in grace. The garments of His salvation are longsuffering and truth. God’s salvation is a “common salvation.” Jude 3. God is only exclusive to those who seek what He offers. All who are lost can be found by the Shepherd who seeks and by the gospel which calls. The God of salvation is reached by faith through grace in Christ.

“Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth.” Psalm 119:151. There is comfort beyond understanding in knowing that God is near to us. God is at hand and He is easily accessible. As we seek for Him, we are able to find Him. We can know Him. God, who is near to us, allows us to enjoy His fellowship and friendship. God is near when we find ourselves in trouble. God is near when we find ourselves in joy. God will aid us in the carrying of burdens and will guide us through the darkness of dismay. God will help us in the battle against evil that we might know triumph. God is near unto us when we find ourselves in the valley and when we are traveling upon the mountain. Neither in the day nor in the night does God leave us. “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” Psalm 145:18. We call and He hears. We feel and He knows. Our tears are dried by His hand and our woes are driven away by His love. O, how wonderful, that God is near unto us.

The God of heaven is an impartial God. Unlike men, Jehovah “regards not the person of men.” Matthew 22:16. In choosing David as king in the long ago, God declared His true character when he said to Samuel, “the Lord looks on the heart” rather than the outward appearance. I Samuel 16:7. The apostle Peter declared unto the household of Cornelius, a Gentile, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” Acts 10:34. This is a declaration of God’s desire for the salvation of all men. Scripture affirms that God “would have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.” I Timothy 2:4. God is “longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9. God was so concerned about the salvation of all men that He sent His Son into the world so that through Him the world might be saved. John 3:16-17. Jesus, upon the completion of His mission to redeem all men, sent His followers on a world-wide commission. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 28:19. In the long ago, God made provision for His blessings to be poured upon all men. “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:8-9. Jesus Christ became the avenue of that universal blessing. The God of heaven, an impartial God, reconciled both Jew and Gentile, unto Him by the cross through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:15-16. Hence, the human family by obedience can “call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.” I Peter 1:17.