God's Nature and Attributes Review

If you will, grab your handout first. And I want to show you something on the back to kind of let you know where we are. We are starting Unit 3 this evening.

If you look on the back in the lower right-hand corner, we have our 10 headings of systematic theology. The first one we did was actually number 2, theology proper. We did that about a year ago. We started in August, and we finished in November of last year. Can you believe it's been six months since we did that? We went through 15 weeks, each week looking at just one attribute of God. So we did a deep dive into His character, His attributes, if you will. Then we took a break, of course, for the holidays. And then we did Next Steps Discipleship in February. And then we started in the very first unit, which is bibliology. We just finished 10 weeks on that. And that was a very rewarding study. Now we're starting on number 3, which is theology proper number 2. And if you look down below, you'll see the next eight lessons that we're going to be doing. Next week we'll be looking at the decrees of God, which is a way of talking about God's plans or God's will. Have you ever wondered what God's will for your life is? Come next week and you'll find out, okay?

Then we're going to be doing the creation. Pastor Casey's going to be teaching that. We'll be studying preservation in lesson 4. Caleb's going to be teaching us providence in lesson 5. Hal's going to be teaching us miracles in lesson 6. Then we're going to spend lesson 7 looking at the holy or elect angels, and then lesson 8 on fallen angels or demons, okay? So it'll be a very rewarding study.

Tonight, though, we're doing number 1 here, which is theology proper 1 review. It's God's nature and attributes.

Why do this? Because we know we took 15 weeks going through the nature and attributes. So to go from one night through all 15 attributes, we're not going to be able to go in depth. We're not going to have all the applications that we have in the past. But the reason why it's very fruitful to do is this. Your works, your deeds, your actions, they always flow from your character. Do they not?

What does the Bible tell us? That even a child is known by his deeds, whether they be pure and whether they be right.

Every now and then on the news, you'll see a public figure, whether it's a politician or a celebrity or an athlete who does something terrible.

You know, it's a scandal they're involved in. Maybe they were drunk driving and they harmed somebody. And normally they'll make, in the aftermath, they'll make a public apology. They'll say, "You've seen the video, that's not me. That's not who I am." Now what they mean by that is they were acting out of character, right? And maybe they were. Maybe they were inebriated. And so their senses were dulled and they did some foolish things. But our God never acts out of character. And in the next several weeks, we're going to be looking at His acts, His works. And all of His works are colored by who He is. So that's why we're starting off tonight with the review of the attributes of God, okay?

So let's look on the first page at number one. The first one is the spiritual nature of God. God is not material, but is spiritual. Because God is spirit, He is — the first blank is invisible. The second blank is immortal. And the third blank is incomparable. He is invisible, immortal, and incomparable. Because God is spirit, we can see Him only through His Son, Jesus Christ.

What this teaches us is that God is not like mankind, right? He doesn't have a body like us. Yes, Scripture sometimes talks about God as having hands or eyes. That's what we call anthropomorphic language. It's a way for us to be able to relate to God and understand God, but He doesn't have a physical body. And because of that, He is immortal and incorruptible and invisible. If we look at John 4:24, Jesus says, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth." We must worship Him how He's revealed Himself to us.

Number two, God is what we call the living God. All throughout Scripture, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, God is referred to as the God who is living. And that's in contrast with the dead idols of this world, right? All throughout Scripture, idols are chided because eyes are painted onto them or ears are carved into them, but they cannot see and they cannot hear. God is the living and true God. The living God creates, sustains, and directs all things. He creates, sustains, and directs. We're going to be looking at these three things the next few weeks — creation and providence, whereby He directs all things, of course, and is sustaining all things.

He is attentive to His people and delivers them. Only the living God can give us eternal life. We serve a God who hears our prayers, right? When we pick up the spiritual phone, so to speak, and we call out to God, He is there, right? He's not an AI program. He is not a figment of our imagination. He's active and He moves heaven and earth for our defense. Jeremiah 10:10 says, "But the Lord — Yahweh — He is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation." And Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the" — what? — "the life," because He's the living God.

Number three, the personal nature of God. God is not a vague force or a higher power, as you may call on and say in an AA meeting, right?

As a person, God is rational — that's the first blank. This means that God thinks and reflects about Himself and His creation. As a person, God is also resolute — that's the second blank. This means that God freely wills and acts with purpose from within. He's not a brute beast who's just following instinct. He has a will and He acts upon that will. As a person, God is relational — that's the very heart of His being, is that the capacity to love. He loves His people. So He's rational, the second blank is resolute, and the third blank is relational. Because of this, God is not a thing. He's not a force. He cares intimately about His people. That's why He called Moses to lead Israel out of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt. And in Exodus 3:14, it says, "And God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.'" His very name implies personality and presence. He says, "And he said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you.'"

And 1 Peter in the New Testament says, "We cast all of our cares upon God, for He cares for us." Again, an idol can't care for us, a thing can't care for us, but God does.

Number four, the triunity of God — also what we call the Trinity of God. The Trinity of God is a big subject, but it can be summarized in four points: that there is one God; the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Spirit is God, right? Scripture tells us that there is only one God — that's the first blank. Scripture represents God as one undivided essence, but three eternally distinct persons. So the first blank is one, second blank is three, the third blank is persons. The three persons — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit — are equal in glory and honor.

God is incomparable. There's nothing in our human experience that compares to the Trinity; we can't do it. We often make analogies to try to understand the Trinity. You'll hear people talk about an egg: you've got the shell, and you've got the white part, and then you've got the yolk. But that doesn't really display God's glory, right? It speaks of God as having parts, and that's not true, right? Sometimes we speak about God as almost being three gods who act in unison or in partnership together, but that's denying their one essence, right? So the best way to understand the Trinity is simply to look to Scripture, okay?

And two great examples of that — one in the Old Testament and what we call the fifth servant song, a song of the Messiah in Isaiah 61. And this is what Jesus quoted in Luke chapter 4 at His very first sermon in Nazareth. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me." He says the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit — "The Lord God is upon Me," Christ is the Messiah — "because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Christ's entire ministry was done in the power of the Spirit and in obedience to the Father. So we have the Trinity in the Old Testament.

Of course, in the New Testament, we see this at Christ's baptism, Matthew 3. "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. The heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'" He hears the Father's voice, He sees the Holy Spirit alighting — coming down on Him — showing His approval and the love of the Father. So we see all three in the same breath here in Christ's baptism. So don't try to explain the Trinity by using analogies, because they're always going to fail, but point to Scripture. And there are plenty of Trinitarian passages in Scripture to help us understand and grasp it.

Number five, the infinite nature of God. Our infinite God — that's the first blank — has no limits or bounds. So infinite is the first blank, limits is the second, and the third blank is bounds. Infinity is not a number or a place. That's the way we tend to think of it. We talked — remember about Buzz Lightyear — he would say "to infinity and beyond," as if it's some place that you could actually get to, or we could count to infinity, but you can never count to infinity. It's a quality; it's not a thing. It's limitless. But it's a boundless supply from within. Everything that God is, in all of His attributes, is colored by His infinity, right? His love has a boundless supply from within. God doesn't have just a little bit of love and He gives some to Shawn and then He runs out and He can't give any to Natalia, right? He's got plenty of love and more than we could ever hope for. He has plenty of power, plenty of wisdom — boundless supply from within.

All creation is finite, which means limited, small. Limited and thus dependent on God. We're dependent on Him, but He is in no wise dependent upon His creation. He needs nothing because He has boundless supply from within.

Isaiah 40, a famous passage — you know, in fact, Caleb read this just recently in the worship service — "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. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength."

Number six, the self-existence of God. This is sometimes called the aseity of God. And it means that God is uncreated. He has the power of life within Himself. The principle of all being comes from God.

It says, "Our God has no beginning or cause." The first blank is beginning, the second is cause.

Don't we have a beginning? Yes. And don't we have a cause? Who is that cause? God — exactly. He is the One who created us. He's the One who holds us together. He's the One who gives us breath. But who gave God breath? Who holds God together? Himself. He's always been. He's unlike anything in our realm. God is the beginning and cause of all things. The Bible just assumes that God has always been, from the very first verse of Scripture, right? Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God." It doesn't try to explain God's existence. It doesn't try to explain His origin, because He has no origin.

Revelation 22:13 — Christ says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." He's A to Z and everything in between. He sums up all of life because all of life finds its basis — all of our being finds its basis — in the divine being. Okay?

Number seven, the immutability of God. That simply means that God doesn't change, right? He doesn't mutate. He doesn't ever go from one state to another. God's nature, will, and ways — those are the three blanks — are exempt from all change.

God can't change because He's totally perfect. God can't be better or worse. Sometimes Scripture talks about God changing. In fact, Jack was talking on Sunday morning about how God regretted making Saul king because Saul sinned against God. He didn't obey God.

And that's what we call a narrative passage describing God's disposition towards Saul. God, though, did not change, because later on in the passage it says God is not a man that He should change. He's not a man that He should relent. The didactic tells us — asserts the truth — that God doesn't change. But He is spoken of as changing because Saul changed. He was no longer a righteous man. He became a rebel. And so God had to treat him as a rebel. But that was no changing in God. God was holy before Saul sinned and He was holy after Saul sinned. The difference was He can no longer look upon Saul with favor. He had to show punishment towards Saul, discipline towards Saul.

Malachi 3:6 says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." That's a good thing, that God does not change, right? His mercy that He first showered upon you the moment that you put your trust in God, the moment that you placed your faith in Jesus Christ — that same mercy and compassion is still being poured out on you now. God's not going to get tired of you and say, "Okay, I've had enough of Zeke. He's done one time too many. I'm done with this boy." Not at all, right? He always loves us. He's always gracious towards us. Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."

Number eight, the eternity of God. Eternity is infinity — that's the first blank — in relation to time. God is not — that's the second blank — not in time. Third blank is time. God is free from all succession of time. So infinity is the first blank, not is the second blank, third blank is time, and fourth is free. Everything in our life is a succession of time, right?

Just here in the last year and a half, hasn't it been neat to be able to watch Joshua, being in his stroller, to now he's running around, right? How great it is — how needed it is — to see all of our kids grow in the knowledge of the Lord, to see our little ones come up here and quote Scripture, right? To see them progress and grow in their faith, right? All of our life is marked by change, right?

Sometimes, of course, it's on the other end as we get older, right? We get aches and pains and things, you know, that we didn't have when we were younger, right? But God is exempt from all change. He is timeless. All creation is subject to time. We're created beings; we exist in time. Time is the record of change. But to God, the past, present, and future are but one eternal now. God can see perfectly the past, He can see perfectly the present, and He can see perfectly the future. Isn't that amazing? Wouldn't you like to be able to see the future, right? Wouldn't you like to be able to even recall the past? My memory's so bad I can't remember things that Toby tells me — don't you remember this person or that person? I'm like, no.

(Laughing) God clearly sees the past and future as vividly as He sees the present.

Isaiah 57:15 on the back says, "For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits" — what? — "eternity," stands outside of time, "whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to receive the hearts of the contrite ones."

His eternity is supremely humbling to us when we realize that Christ entered time in the incarnation for us, to accept those limitations when He took on humanity in order to die for us, right? How awesome that is.

Number nine, the immensity of God. God alone is immeasurable. God surpasses heaven and earth. God is transcendent. When we talk about the immensity of God, we're talking about His transcendence — being above and beyond creation. Immensity is infinity — that's the first blank. It's infinity in relation to space. Remember, infinity is not a number; infinity is not a place, but it's a boundless supply from within. And so immensity is infinity in relation to space. It's above and beyond space where God exists. God is not in space. God is free from the dimensions of space. All creation is bound by height, depth, and width. We're created beings, right? And as such, we are bound by space. We are three-dimensional beings, right? We can go up and down — that's height. We can go backward and forward — that's depth. We can go right and left — and that's width. And those are the confines whereby we live. But is God so confined? Not at all, right?

Space is the record of place and extent. We can measure where we've been and how far we've gone. But you can't measure that with God, right? Because He is not bound by space. Again, He's different — altogether different than us. 1 Kings 8:27 says, "But will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built."

Number 10, the omnipresence of God. The omnipresence of God speaks of God's immanence, or nearness to us, just as His immensity speaks of His transcendence as being above and beyond creation. His omnipresence talks about His nearness to His creation. Because though God is above and beyond all space, He also fills every bit of space. He is immanent — meaning nearby and close to us. God is omnipresent. The first blank is He is everywhere; present at all times — that's the second blank. Everywhere, present at all times. God can be both here and there at the same time. He is with us right now. He's with Doug at home as he's convalescing and catching up on his rest. He's with us wherever we are at all times.

God's omnipresence speaks of His immanence, or nearness to His creation. Then we have Genesis 28. Remember Jacob, when he was on the run from his brother Esau, knowing that his brother would probably catch up with him and kill him. He was away from his family and afraid. And he lays down his head upon a rock, he falls asleep, and God gives him a vision of a ladder extending up to heaven and angels ascending and descending on that ladder. And he wakes up — of course he had a vision of God at the top of that ladder. And he realizes that God is right there with him this whole time. And he wasn't even aware of it.

And he says, "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.'"

And in the New Testament we find out that Christ is on Jacob's ladder, right? And His incarnation — Him coming to be near us, right? To take on human flesh, to be able to be our substitute, to die in our place.

Number 11, the omniscience of God. God is all-knowing. Science, of course, speaks of knowledge, and omni means all knowledge. God is all-knowing. God alone can see — that's the first blank — know, the second blank — and understand, the third blank. God alone can see, know, and understand everything at all times. Don't you wish you could see, know, and understand everything at all times? Yeah, it would overwhelm our little senses. We wouldn't be able to handle it, right? Now we think we could, but there'd be no way we would be able to grasp that. Psalm 139 — the whole psalm is about this — but verses 1 through 4 says, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether."

Have you ever thought or felt like no one understands you, no one gets you, no one understands what you're going through? God does. He created you. He knows your every thought. He knows your words before they leave your lips when you pray. That's the kind of heavenly Father that we have.

Number 12, the omnipotence of God. God has all power over all things at all times. So all, all, and all for these blanks here. God does everything that He desires. Nothing is challenging or too difficult for God.

Have you ever been overwhelmed with a task? Ladies, have you ever been around the house and you see there's more dishes and more laundry and more stuff than you can handle — more school to prepare, right? Men, have you ever said, "There's no way I'm going to be able to cut the grass, and there's no way I'm going to be able to caulk the bathroom. There's no way I'm going to be able to change the light bulbs and take out the trash and get the work done on the computer tonight." It's not going to happen, right? Because again, we're finite beings, and we can be overwhelmed with our tasks, but not God.

There's nothing that He desires to do that He cannot do. And we'll be talking about that next week when we speak of God's decrees and His plans.

Revelation 1 — this is the words of Christ, by the way. You'll see in most of your Bibles that's in red letters. I still wanted to read this this past Sunday, but we'd have been there another hour, so I didn't. But Christ says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Christ is saying, "I'm the beginning and the end of all things." The Bible tells us that, right? That all things were created by Him and for Him, and in Him all things consist, right? And He says, "Who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty." He's saying, "I am," right? That's what "I am" means — the One who is, who was, and who is to come. This is the Almighty. That word is used 10 times in the New Testament. Nine of those usages are in the book of Revelation. It's a Greek word, pantokrator, and it means the One whose finger is on everything. It means God is in control over everything, steadying everything, holding everything together, right?

Sometimes we try to juggle too much, right? And we drop stuff, make a mess of things. People get hurt when we try to take on more than we should, right? When we cut corners. God never has to do that. Literally, His fingers are on everything. He is the only One who is Almighty.

Number 13, the truth of God. God is truth. God is infinitely true in His entire being. This includes His ways, His words, His works. God is the source and objective standard of truth. Because God is true, He is authentic — that's the first blank. Right — the second blank — and faithful — the third blank.

Because God is true, He is authentic. And what we mean by that is this: God alone is the true God. All throughout this world, there are little gods that try to exalt themselves in His place and try to claim your allegiance. They make false promises to you. They say, "I can give you satisfaction. I can give you power. I can give you fulfillment." They're liars. Only God is the authentic God. That's part of being true — that He is the true God, the living God, the only God who can give us abundant life, the only God who can give us eternal life, the only God who can satisfy the very purpose for which you are created. And that's to know Him, to glorify Him forever, right? So being true means that He's authentic. It also means that He is right.

Meaning that He's altogether just. There's no injustice in God. There's no shadow of turning in God. There's no evil in God. He's altogether righteous. That's part of being true, right? And also He's faithful — it's the third part of being true. What we mean by that is all throughout Scripture, God is depicted as being faithful and true. He's faithful to His promises, right? We make promises and we intend to keep those promises, but do we always keep those promises? No. Sometimes life happens and circumstances change, or sometimes we run to the end of our rope and we don't have the strength or the ability to fulfill our promise, even though we meant to and we wanted to, right? There's not a single promise that God makes that He doesn't faithfully fulfill. All of His promises that are in the Scriptures you can take to the bank, okay?

Look at Psalm 31:5. This is a Messianic Psalm. You'll recognize this because Jesus quotes this on the cross. "Into Your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." Yahweh Adonai of truth.

Number 14, the love of God. God is love. That's normally one of the first Bible verses — it's a part of the Bible verse that kids memorize, right? — from John's letters: God is love. God is infinitely loving in His entire being. Love is God freely, fully, and faithfully giving Himself to another person for their highest good.

When we say that, it means He's not being compelled to do it, right? Then we always joke — and it's so true — we have the habit of outmarrying ourselves, right? And we think, "I can't believe she freely married me, right? I didn't have to knock her over the head with my club and drag her into my cave. She wanted to marry me," and that's God's grace, right?

And "fully" loves us — fully gives Himself to us. It's not like our wives say, "Okay, well, I'll see you on Saturday because we'll have a date on Saturday," and they don't see us the rest of the week. They want to have their lives with you. My wife wants to be wherever I go. She wants to hang out with me. And again, I'm amazed by that. And "faithfully giving himself" — God never pulls back.

God never forgets His people. He never turns His back on His people or is unfaithful to His people.

So love is God freely, fully, and faithfully giving Himself to another person for their highest good. God's love for us is His desire to impart — that's the first blank — to impart Himself. What better gift could you have than God Himself? His love for us is His desire to impart Himself to us, to fill us — that's the second blank — with Himself. And the third blank: bring us into union and fellowship.

There's no greater blessing than receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, right? The fullness of God is in Christ Jesus. And God gives us His Son. Love and giving are always yoked together, right? "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." And so Christ comes to live within us and the Father comes to live within us via the Holy Spirit. He's filled us with Himself to forever possess us as His own chosen and beloved people, right? That's what we talk about when we talk about the blessing of union with Christ — is God choosing to make His home in us. And we can say truly that we are in God as well.

1 John 4:16 says, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in" — who? — "God, and God in him." That's union with Christ, right? We're in God and He is in us.

Number 15, the holiness of God. Holiness is God's infinite moral perfection and purity. He is — the first blank is source. Second blank is standard. Third blank is right. He is the source and standard of right. All moral law finds its basis in the character of God, right? Christ is not under the law. He's not above law. He is law. It's who He is. He is the embodiment of perfect purity, right? The embodiment of holiness. He is free from all stain and wrong.

God is entirely, or wholly, holy. He's not just holy; He's holy, holy, holy. The threefold holy — which is the way Scripture emphasizes things, right? We talked, when we did this lesson six months ago, that you look all throughout Scripture, you'll see, for example, the angel in Revelation — he says, "Woe, woe, woe," right? Meaning judgment is coming; it's going to be terrible, right? But God is holy, holy, holy. Even in heaven, right? Where there is no sin — before the throne of God, where things are perfect in heaven — what did the cherubim cry out continuously but "holy, holy, holy"? That is God's self-expression, right? He is holy.

Holiness is the fundamental attribute of God. The reason why we say that is this: God's entire being is compelled by His holiness. The Bible says that God's throne is based upon — or founded upon — His righteousness and justice. God's righteousness is His love of what is right, where He must bless and uphold and approve what is right. And justice is where He meets unrighteousness with penalty. He punishes that; He has to, right? We have a judge in our midst — if you are a judge and you pervert the law and you don't uphold the law, are you a good judge? Not at all, right? What kind of a judge would that be if he winked at sin, if he let the evil go free? A good judge rewards and protects righteousness and punishes evil, right? And that's the momentum of God's being. He cannot overlook sin. We sometimes think in this world, "Well, where's justice?" You know, the evil seem to grow stronger every day. They seem to get away with things scot-free.

They're not going to escape God's perfect justice, okay? First of all, they're going to die in this world. The wages of sin is death. And then in the second world, they'll have the second death, right? If they do not repent in this world, it'll be too late. And they will stand before the judgment throne of Christ, right?

God tells us — or wills for us — His holiness through His commands. That's why He says, "Be holy as I am holy," right? Jesus says, "Be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect." 1 Peter 1:15–16 says, "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'" He is our standard. He is our model.

So we've gone through those very quickly tonight, but the purpose of that is, A, so you can see them from a bird's-eye point of view — how they all fit together, how infinity colors all those attributes. And so now, going forward, we're going to see each of these attributes at play in the works of God, because God always acts according to His character. So His creation is perfect, right? His providence is perfect. His will is perfect. His will is holy. His will is loving. His will is all-knowing. His every attribute colors all His works.