Studies in Identity - God: The Supreme Names of God - 02-18-24

Overview: Pastor Williams discusses the importance of seeking a closer relationship with God through understanding His names. He shares a personal story about meeting a godly man who prays to be drawn closer to God every day. The speaker encourages the audience to make this their prayer as well. The sermon focuses on the supreme names of God, starting with El-Elyon, meaning God Most High, emphasizing God's position and power above all other gods. The second name discussed is El-Roi, meaning the God who sees, highlighting God's ability to see and care for His people, even in their darkest moments. The sermon emphasizes the need to prioritize God over other gods or idols in our lives. Transcription: Amen, I encourage you, invite you to turn in your copy of God's Word to Jeremiah 29, verse 13. Jeremiah 29, verse 13, and this is by no way an exegetical sermon on Jeremiah 29, verse 13, but it's a launching point for us this morning because I've often said that God is as close to you as you want Him to be. God is as close to you as you want Him to be, and my heart, my thought for this series on the Who is God, the identity of God, the study on the names of God during these next few weeks, is that we will get a clearer picture, a clearer understanding of who God is through His names, and in understanding who He is, be drawn into our relationship with Him ever more closer. I had the great opportunity with my family yesterday to deliver the valentines that the kids worked on as a mission project this past Wednesday, and one of the people we got to go see is Brother Bud Hendricks. Now, some of you may not know who that is because he has not been able to come for quite some time, but from my personal testimony of who he is, he is one of the top five, if not top two, godliest men that I have ever known. His knowledge of Scripture, his love for the Lord, his Bible memorization is phenomenal and a challenge to me, and yet this is what he said to us on Saturday. He said, my prayer every day is this, draw me closer to you, O Lord. And I was thinking, brother, if there's anybody that I've known on this side of eternity that's close to the Lord, it's you. And for that to be your prayer, maybe that's why he's so close to the Lord, because that is his prayer. And again, a challenge to me is, make that my prayer. And so as we study these names of God in these next few weeks, my prayer for myself and my prayer for you is just that. It's that by understanding and pushing into the names of God, we will be drawn closer to Him. I've entitled this morning's message, The Supreme Names of God. Jeremiah 29, verse 13 says this, And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your hearts. Brethren, I'm going to pray for us in here in just a moment, but I want this to be your prayer as I pray. That for at least the next 30 to 45 minutes, that we will search for God with all of our hearts. That we won't let personality, we won't let preferences, we won't let the hurts and heartaches and the cares of this world distract us from searching for God through His Word. So let's pray together. Lord God, we are seeking You this morning. Your Word right here says we will find You when we search for You with our whole hearts. And so Lord, the honesty here this morning, the facts are that we can't search for You on our own accord. That the only way we can search for You wholeheartedly is that You draw us unto Yourself. And so Lord, remove the doubts, the distractions, the hurts, the struggles that we face. Remove them for these next few moments and help us to search for You with all of our heart that we might find You. Reveal Yourself to us in a mighty way, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. We began last week by studying the name Elohim. Genesis 1-1 is riddled with that name. That's usually where we begin understanding of a God, of there being something out there that's greater than us and greater than this Word. Elohim means the Supreme One. He is supreme over all of creation, including time, space, and matter. When combined with other attributes, the name Elohim is usually shortened to El. And so His supremacy would have been understood by the hearers of these other names during that time. So I want to provide for you seven names of God, supreme names of God. And keep this in your mind when you hear this. The supremacy of God is underlying all of these other attributes, all of these other names that we see in Scripture. And we're going to be all over Scripture, so I've done us all a favor. For time's sake, I have put the Scripture on the screen so you don't have to flip all over the place to follow me. You can simply look at the screen, and if you would like to make notes, again, they will be up there for a few minutes. And you can jot those Scriptures down. But seven supreme names of God. These are not all of the names of God, but these are some that I thought are pretty powerful and impactful in our lives. And so the first of those comes from Genesis 14, 18, and this is El Elyon. El Elyon, Abraham is coming out of leading the people there, his family, and he's coming out of a battle, and it says in Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High. El Elyon, God Most High. What does this tell us about God? This tells us that He is highest in position. What we need to understand is during this time of Abraham, in this culture that he found himself in, there was a lot of polytheistic religions in all of these nations. And so this name out of all of these other gods that all of these people serve, and all of these gods that they know, God is positionally supreme above all of those. He is higher than any of these gods that you have created. He is higher than any of these other gods that you worship. He is supreme in His worthiness of our worship. He is the One for Israel that brought you out of the land of Egypt. He is the One that has provided for you and done for you. He is supreme in His worthiness of worship. He is the highest in position. He is the highest in power because of all these other gods. No matter what you think the power that they have in your life, God is more powerful than them. You see, they served all of these gods and they would make sacrifices to all of these gods. The God of fertility for their families and for their gardens and for their livestock and their all produce and all of these things. We've got to sacrifice to the fertility God because if we make that God happy, then we'll have a bountiful harvest. They'll sacrifice to the sun God. They'll sacrifice to all of these other gods. And what this name says is that all of these gods you created and that you worship, there's one true God. He's the Most High God. He is supreme in position and power over all of these other gods that you've created. Now for us today, how do we apply that? We don't serve a multitude of gods here at Kings Grove Baptist Church. We serve one God. Elohim. He is a triune God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But He is one God. We serve one God. And He is the Most High God. And so this name should let us know that He should be higher in position and power than the gods that we allow into our life. You say, I don't allow any other gods. Really? Because within the church, universal, we serve a God of popularity. We serve a God of prosperity. We serve a God of possessions. We serve a God of vanity. We serve a God of performance. We serve a God of competing against the church down the road. There's a lot of things that if we're not careful, we will put in the place of our worship. And this name, El Elyon, tells us this. That if that is receiving your worship, whatever that is, that job, that family, that relationship, that prosperity, that popularity, whatever that is that you have put into that place of worship, that eventually, that God, that worship is going to let you down. Your money will only go so far. People will only like you as long as you're telling them what they want to hear. Your possessions are rotting away right before your eyes. This sanctuary has been here since what? 2001 I think is when it was completed? Twenty-three years ago. Beautiful. It's still beautiful. But I just want you to look up for just a second. You say, Preacher, why are you pointing this out? Because we're getting ready to move forward and try to get all this fixed. Amen? But this building right before our eyes, as beautiful as it is, and as functional as it is, it's falling apart. Why? Because this building makes a horrible God. My relationship with my wife, some days, man, it's like heaven on earth. We're laughing, we're cutting up, we're getting along. It's wonderful. There's other times when I don't do what I'm supposed to do. I'm a little bit of a jerk. I like to rub my mouth. I like to just go and do what I want to do. And so it's not heaven on earth, it's the opposite place on earth. Why? Because I make a horrible God. Beloved, as your pastor, please do not put me on a pedestal that I don't need to be on. Because I will fail you. I will let you down. I will say something that's wrong. I will fail you as a God. Why? Because I make a horrible God. And here, beloved, anybody that stands behind this pulpit is in the same boat I'm in. Because there's only one true God who is most high above anything. And only when our worship, and only when our adoration is in Him, will we have it in a place that will never fail, that will never falter, that will never do us wrong. He is the Most High, El Elyon. The second supreme name of God that we see in Scripture is El Roi. El Roi, Genesis 16, verse 13, Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. For she said, Have I also here seen Him who sees me? Abraham has had this illegitimate child with this handmaiden and his wife and her can't get along, and so Abraham kicks her out. Her and her child, wandering the wilderness with just whatever groceries she could carry, whatever water she could carry. She gets to the point in her life where they've run out of everything that they have. And she takes the child away and lays him under a bush in the shade. And she goes away from him because she doesn't want to watch her baby die. I don't know about you, but I couldn't picture a worse situation to be in. To know that you and your child are going to starve to death and there's nothing you can do about it. She cries out to God. God speaks to her. Why are you crying? She tells Him, I'm going to make a great nation out of that young man. Get up. Go back to where you were. I'm going to take care of you. In her deepest, darkest moment in life, God saw where she was. God saw her. He is the God who sees. He is seeing the plight, the struggles, the hurts, the heartaches, the unknowns that we don't know. They're not unknown to Him. He knows them. He sees this moment. He sees the next moment. He sees all for eternity to come. He sees every moment in your life. He sees where you are today. We're a church family and we're here to help and love and support on you. That's what we are called to do. That's what we were made to do in the New Testament church. We were made to come together and support and love on one another. But there may be something that you're keeping to yourself, this hurt, this heartache that you're carrying, that you think, oh, I've got to keep this to myself, because if they know this, then they'll never do this. They'll never accept me. If they do this, they'll make fun of me. If they'll do this, they'll turn their back on me. If they knew this, you're keeping that all close to the vest. Nobody knows it but you. Let me tell you, beloved, whatever that is, God knows about it. He sees it. Whatever you need in that moment, He knows it. He sees it. He's there. He sees the struggles. He sees the victories. He sees the hurts. He sees the wonderful times in your life. He sees everything. It's kind of hard for us to really grasp at it. To understand that this God who is most high, this God who is supreme, this God who is above everything, this God who spoke into existence the very earth that we stand on, the very trees and the grass, the oceans, the fish, the animals, who formed you and me in our mother's womb, that very God who has all of that power cares about your water bill. He cares about your job. He cares about that wayward son. He cares about that emotional turmoil that you're going through. He sees it. He sees the struggle. But not only does He see the struggle, He sees the person. He calls to her. He calls to her and talks about her baby. He's very personal in that. He speaks, beloved. He wants to speak to you. I wish God would speak to me. I just wish He would thunder and clap from heaven and give us this voice like it did for this lady. There's some times in my life I wish that too. But there's other times in my life where I realize that fear would set in and I'd probably run and hide. So oftentimes, He speaks to us in that still, small voice. That out of the whirlwind comes that whisper. He speaks to us because He sees us. He is El Roi. The third name El Shaddai. Genesis 17. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. Walk before Me and be blameless. Now this is very similar to the El Elyon that goes God Most High, the Supreme One of Elohim. It's very similar to that, but this really speaks to the application of that in our lives. This is where El Elyon is. The position that he has. The power that he has. El Shaddai really speaks to how does that play out in our lives as His children. And El Shaddai, Genesis 17. I am Almighty God. This means He is authoritative. He deserves a place of authority. Now, this comes from our understanding of who He is, doesn't it? If He is the Creator God of Genesis 1-1, Elohim Supreme over all of these things, then that alone should say, well, He deserves a place of respect. If that's who He is, if He's really that Who spoke into existence something out of nothing, which would be the only time ever in history that's ever been done, then He deserves a place of respect. We put people in places of respect for a lot less, don't we? Oh, I really like that song. My respect. Oh man, they're a great baseball player. Respect. Great football player. Respect. To the point that we'll put their names on our bodies. Get a jersey. LeBron James across the back. We'll put their names on our bodies. That's the level of respect we give them. How much respect do we give the God Who created us? How much respect, how much authority do we give that Person in our lives? You see, we give all of these American idols the authority to tell us what we should wear, what we should think, where we should go, what we should eat. And yet, give God somewhat of authority to tell us we've got to go to church on Sunday. What about the rest of the week? How much authority are we giving God El Shaddai in our lives? Because He deserves that place of authority because He is Almighty God. He is not only authoritative, but He is administrative. He deserves that place of administration to lead us, to guide us, to the point where Moses in the book of Exodus, God gets mad at Israel. He said, I'm going to give you the promised land because I promised it to you, but I'm not going before you. Moses cried out, we're not going to the promised land unless you go with us. Unless you lead us. Unless you guide us. That should be our attitude. God, I don't want to move unless You're leading. I don't want to go unless You're telling me to go. I don't want to follow anything other than El Shaddai. Beloved, for too long, we as church members, as children of God, have been following the ways of this world, the patterns of this world, even though Romans tell us not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It is a mind renewal that has to take place. Because some of us have been brought up so much in the world that we allow that to lead us instead of allowing this to lead us. The world sets the standards. The culture sets the standards. My own wicked heart sets the standards instead of God's Word setting the standards. For the people of God, that should not be. And I don't care what excuse we want to come up with. We should give God a place of authority and administration in our life because He is El Shaddai. Fourthly, El Qanna. El Qanna, Exodus 20, verse 5. It says, "...you shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." And it continues in Exodus 34, verse 14, "...for you shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God." El Qanna. The God is demanding. He demands our allegiance. Why? Because of who He is. He doesn't give us an option. He gives us a choice. Him or not Him. That's it. Well, God, I want to follow You 70% of my life. No. Well, God, I'm going to submit my allegiance to You on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. No. The covenant that God enters into with us at the moment of salvation is this. Here's my life. All of it. Every bit of it. You gave it. Sin destroyed it. You're restoring it. It's all You. You gave it to me. He demands our allegiance because He is a jealous God. He will not share us with anybody. And that speaks volumes to this. That He is not only demanding, He's desirous. What do I mean by that? He desires a relationship with you. "...to the point that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him does not perish but have everlasting life." That's the Gospel. That God loves you and desires a relationship with you so much that He paid the penalty. He paid the price. He redeemed you through the blood of His Son because He knew that you and I couldn't do it on our own. Here's us stiff-necked and stubborn and sinful people who want nothing to do with God on our own. I said, I love you enough to pay for you. I love you enough to redeem you. I love you enough to reconcile you with me. The God of this universe, the Elohim, the El Elyon, the El Roi, the El Shaddai, He is the God who desires a relationship with you to the point of when you pray to Him, He listens. When you seek His face, He makes Himself known. When you call on His name, He comes close to you. El Qanna. Fifthly, El Gibbor. Deuteronomy 10.17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. That word right there, great God mighty. That God mighty is El Gibbor. What does this mean? This speaks to His warrior-ness. This speaks that He is mighty in valor. He is valiant because God fights for you. God fights for you. What do I mean by that? There is nothing in your life that God cannot overcome. Why? Because He's the Supreme One. I've said this, and I want you to understand this. I try to alliterate it to make it easier to memorize. There is no sin too deep, too dark, or too depraved that God cannot overcome with His love and His grace. Why? Because He fights for you. Every battle that you face in this life, God knew about and He fights for you. Oftentimes, the struggles in my life come because I try to fight it on my own. I look at God, metaphorically speaking, and say, God, You just have a seat. Get comfortable. I've got this. And I fall and I fail and I falter because I'm weak. But in my weakness, He has shown to be strong. God fights for you. He's valiant. He is victorious. Every battle that you face, every struggle you find yourself in, there is victory on the other side. Now that victory may not look like what you think it looks like. But if God reveals His power and He brings you through this and He grows your faith, and He makes you stronger, and He reveals Himself to you so that you have a greater understanding of who He is outside of that struggle, that's a victory. God, I've seen in the midst of this storm, I've seen Your grace and Your mercy and Your strength. That's victory. God, in the midst of this storm, because I walk through this valley of the shadow of death, I'm coming out with fuller faith in You. I trust You. I know You will provide in the moment of my deepest need. I fall on my face before You. That's victory. You may lose everything in this world, but if you draw closer to God, that's victory. Paul said it this way, I count all this rubbish, garbage, dung that I may know Christ and Him crucified. That's the victory that God gives us in this life because He is El Gibbor. And El Chai. El Chai. Psalm 42. My soul thirsts for God. For the living. That's where I want us to get right there. Where our souls, our souls, the deepest part of our emotions and our motivations, thirst for God. God, I want to see You and experience You in every area of my life. I want to see You and experience You on my job. I want to see You and experience You at the grocery store. I want to see You and experience You in my family. I want to see You and experience You when I go to the lake. I want to see You and experience You when I'm driving down the road. God, my soul thirsts for the living God. We get there today. El Chai. The living God. He is alive. Several years ago, there was a series of movies that came out. God's Not Dead. If you remember the cover of that movie or the advertisement for that movie, it had this phrase across the top. It said, God is dead. And the is was crossed out. Not was plastered across the top of that. Well, that thought process comes well before you ever heard of a guy named Nietzsche. A philosopher back in the 1800's who is often assigned with that thought, God is dead, but it really came before him. But he wrote a book that the official title is called The Gay Science. Now, that doesn't mean the same thing that it means for us today. The more accurate title for that book would be Joyful Wisdom. And in that book, there's a section of the book that he gives a parable of a madman. And I want to read that little excerpt for you from Nietzsche called The Madman. He says, have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern and ran to the marketplace calling out unceasingly, I seek God! I seek God! And there were many people standing about who did not believe in God. He caused a great deal of amusement. Why? Is he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a child? said another. Or does he keep himself hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea voyage? Has he immigrated? The people cried out laughingly all in a hubbub. The insane man jumped into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. Where is God gone? he called out. I mean to tell you, we have killed Him, you and I. We are all His murderers. But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whether does it now move? Do we move away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there still above and below? Do we not stray as though infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the grave diggers? We are burying God. Do we not smell the divine putrefaction? For even God's putrefy. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed Him. How shall we console ourselves? The most murderous of all murderers. The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed has bled to death under our knife. Who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not ourselves have to become God's merely to seem worthy of it? Now, beloved, let me tell you something. Right there, I see where the world is. Dashing to and fro, trying to make up for the God that they reject and the God that they kill over and over in their life. And they've become themselves gods to make up this, to think themselves worthy of those names that we're reading about this morning. It continues, there never was a greater event and on account of it, all who are born after us belong to a higher history than any history hitherto. Here, the madman was silent and looked again at his hearers. They also were silent and looked at him in surprise. At last, he threw his lantern on the ground so that it broke into pieces and was extinguished. I come too early, he then said. I am not yet at the right time. This prodigious event is still on its way and is traveling. It has not yet reached men's ears. Lightning and thunder need time. The light of the stars need time. Deeds need time even after they are done to be seen and heard. This deed as of yet further from them than the furthest star, and yet, they have done it. What he's saying is they are killing God and they don't realize it. Now, not physically, because God is eternal. We'll get to that in just a moment. But in their life, in their understanding, in their thought, they are killing God and they realize it not, beloved. That's our culture, beloved. That's many churches in our day. They're killing His supremacy. They're killing His Most Highness. They're killing His seeing of them. They're killing His personal attributes towards them. They are killing God and yet, they don't see it. It is further stated that the madman made his way into different churches on the same day and there intoned his message when led out. They pushed him out of the church and called to account. He always gave the reply, what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and monuments of God? God, help us not to become a tomb and a monument for the God that we've killed in our lives. God is alive. He is alive. And He loves you enough to have that relationship with you and He's calling to you, come unto Me. You are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. He is alive and He is life. He's the Creator of life in the book of Genesis. He's the Creator of our life in Jeremiah when He says, I knew you before the foundations of the earth in your mother's womb. I knit you together. He is the Creator of life and He is the Giver of rebirth. There's only one way to have the abundant life that Scripture talks about. And that's that we be born again by putting our faith and trust in Christ and He cleanses us from all of our unrighteousness and kills the deadness to sin and makes us alive in Christ. He gives us life and He gives us rebirth. He is alive. He is El Chai. Lastly, He is El Olam. Isaiah 40, 28, Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God. The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. God is El Olam. He is eternal. We cannot physically kill God because we don't have that much power. Men have been trying since the beginning of time. Satan has been trying since the beginning of time. And all have failed because God is supreme. He is the Most High. He is eternal in existence. There is never a time where He didn't exist. There will never be a time when He doesn't exist. He is eternal in existence and in understanding. And I love it, He knows every moment of your life. Every moment. You and I don't even know what this afternoon holds. You may know a portion of it. Well, when I leave here, I'm going to this restaurant. They're going to get me a big old plate of food. I'm going to scarf it down. Then I'm going to go home, kick back and recline. I'm going to take a nap. That may be what you think you know. But a flat tire can change all those plans. It's a phone call. Your plans can change. God knows everything. He is eternal and He is inexhaustible in strength. He's inexhaustible in strength. He never gets tired. I'm reaching that age now where I get tired. I had a Saturday the other day a couple of weeks ago where I played basketball. I was coaching JD's basketball team. And I got up there one Saturday. I was playing with them, shooting some ball. And I thought, I feel good. Got in my truck and drove home. And from the Central Clemson Rec to my house, I get out walking like this. I get three steps in the door. What's wrong with you? I'm hurting. My ankles, my calves, my knees, I'm hurting. My body gets tired. Long before my mind does. You see, my mind, I'm still a strapping young 25-year-old and do whatever He wants. My body screams, no, I get tired. I'm exhausted. God never gets tired. He never sleeps. He never goes on a voyage. He's always near. He's always awake. He's always attentive because He is inexhaustible in strength. And He is inexhaustible in understanding. Beloved, I submit these names to you this morning not to try and completely explain the God that we love and serve and that loves us. But I just want to give you a glimpse into who He is. I'm reminded of the young lady in the New Testament who had the issue of blood for 12 years. She spent all of her money seeking all of the world's wisdom and the best doctors, and none of them could figure out what was wrong with her. And then one day, Jesus is coming through town. And she says, if I could just touch but the hem of His garment. Just touch, not even hem, just the hem of His garment. Just a little bit of who He is. Then I'll be healed. Beloved, I just want to reveal to you the hem of His garment this morning. About who God is. As Elohim, the Supreme One. As El Elyon, the Most High. As El Roi, the God who sees. As El Shaddai, the Almighty God. As El Qanna, the Jealous God who demands our worship. I couldn't find it in my notes. As El Gibbor, the God who is mighty. As El Chay, the Living God. As El Olam, the Everlasting God. That's the God we serve. That's who God is. The question this morning is this. Simply, the understanding I should say is this. God is everything that you need. He is everything that you need. He is the Great I Am. Will you come to Him today? For whatever it is that you need. Salvation, strength, wisdom, someone to fight for you. Will you come to Him today? Ms. Patsy's going to begin to play something on the organ for our time of invitation. Now, God hears your prayers in that pew just as much as He hears your prayers around this altar. But I'm going to invite you, if you'll come to Him today, to come to this altar and lay whatever it is that you need at His feet in this symbolic submission to Him. Just pray to Him because He hears you. Pray to Him because He desires a relationship to you. Pray to Him because He is everything that you need. And lay it out before Him. Let's stand together. This altar is open. I'd love to pray with you, to pray for you. I'll be down here. Right here in front, you come for our time of invitation. Come to the God Who is everything that you need.