The Attributes of God and why does it Matter to us

Bob LaForge

www.disciplescorner.com

1 Who is God and why does it Matter to us?

In the 1640’s a group of Scottish and English clergymen wrote a document called the Westminster Shorter Catechism that consisted of 107 questions and answers that were to be used by parents and the church to teach their children the ways of God. This document along with two others written at the same time-The Westminster Larger Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith-are considered to be the grandest doctrinal statements to come out of the English Reformation.

The most famous question in the Shorter Catechism is the first one:

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Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

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Across time after the Fall, God has moved closer to us.

1) OT: God dwelt before His people. He dwelt within the inner chamber of the Temple or appeared as a pillar of fire. The Holy of Holies was carried veiled before the congregation. It could be seen but only at a distance and it could not be touched under penalty of death. Only the High Priest could directly enter into His presence.

2) Gospels: God dwelt among us. More intimacy. People could talk to and touch Jesus. He interacted with thousands of people. But His presence was limited to a small geographical area and for a limited time.

3) Now: God dwells in us. 1 Cor. 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” God’s temples are now all over the world and each one of us at any time can rely on God’s grace and pray to Him.

4) Heaven: God dwells everywhere. In Heaven God will be our light, we will be able to appear before His throne.

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The surface of the ocean is vast and marvelous, but it is much easier to swim on its surface than to explore the unknown riches of its depths. Too often, we sadly take the same approach towards God. When it comes to reading the Bible or understanding who God is, we are too often satisfied with some general well-known facts rather than digging in deep and knowing God’s heart and ways.

Or another way of looking at it.

Probably like most people, when I eat a bowl of chicken noodle soup my first few spoonfuls are usually just the broth off of the top. Then I will start getting to the noodles and bits of carrots. Eventually as I get closer to the bottom of the bowl I find the chunks of chicken.

This is what reading the Bible is like. If we read quickly and skim the surface of every chapter and book we will get a lot of broth. It is nourishing and good but we will rarely discover just how amazingly fulfilling God’s Word really is. We must set aside the time to study it and to let the Holy Spirit feed us with words that directly meet the true needs of our soul. If we are struggling with a sin (anger, lust, envy) or have a need (loneliness, discouragement, anxiety) then do an in-depth study of that subject in the Bible. Or pick just one book and spend a year examining it. You will be amazed how nourishing that time will be. Do not be merely content with broth when an entire feast awaits you.

What we as spiritual people can experience the natural man can hardly even dream of.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

but just as it is written,
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

1.1 How do we get to know God better?

How do we dig down deep? How do we get further than the much-quoted phrases and sentiments? How do know the heart of God?

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Bible

The word “Revelation” means “an uncovering, a bringing to light of that which had been previously wholly hidden.”

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Think of yourself in a completely dark place; you cannot see anything. Then someone puts your hand on a light switch and you flip it on and discover that you are in the Sistine Chapel.

This is what it is like reading the Bible and being given the privilege to see into the supernatural. I remember the day I got saved and listening to a Christian telling me about Christ’s Second Coming. It was like being struck by lightning. I was completely astonished.

How could man invent a God who created the universe from nothing, but then becomes one of us so that He might die for our rebellion and sin? Only the Bible can reveal this.

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Other Christian’s teachings

Listen… intently… to your pastor’s sermons. Remember what was said. Apply it to your life.

Also, listen to other good Christian teachers. Learn from their experience. Learn from their mistakes.

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Your own and other people’s experiences including biographies

Perhaps keep a notebook of answered prayer.

One of the main reasons as to why we doubt and why we sin is because we forgot what God has done. Notice this pattern in Psalm 106.

We have gone astray, we have behaved wickedly.

They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses

They quickly forgot His works;

But became lustfully greedy in the wilderness

So they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,

What is the pattern?

They did evil because they forgot what God had done for them.

What is one way to remember God? Keep a grace journal.

· Write down answered prayers and moments of God’s grace towards you

· Write down moments of unusual peace in a time of turmoil

· Write down supernatural occurrence such as a healing

Read biographies of great Christian women and men.

· Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place

· George Muller’s biography

· Dietrich Bonhoffer

And so many more.

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Nature

See God in the world. After all, it is His creation. Therefore, you can see some of His character and personality.

Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

The world is not businesslike and dispassionate. It is filled with beauty and intricacy. The colors. The sounds. It has such variety and wonders. We can see the hand of God in all of it.

We can see how everything fits together.

Job 12:7, “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.”

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Reason

All truth is God’s truth.

True science never clashes with Christianity because God created science.

Someone said that the greatest psychology is summed up in the Beatitudes.

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1.2 Why is it important to know God better?

The better we know God the bigger He will be

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If someone is standing several hundred feet away you can easily fit them between your thumb and index finger if you close one eye and spread those two fingers an inch apart. But if a tiny spider crawls across your glasses it appears as though a monster is in your face. An aspect of perspective is how objects appear to us based on our relationship to them. The closer something is to us the larger it will appear. In the above situation we know that a person is larger than a spider but at that moment the spider is more intimidating.

This same principle holds true for our problems and God. Whichever one we keep closer to us the bigger it will appear than the other. If we keep God at a distance by not reading the Bible, praying, or attending church then He will appear to be small and ineffective. We may occasionally yell to Him for help but it is like we are talking to someone on the other side of a parking lot. Whereas if we constantly focus on a problem, thinking about it, mulling its worst consequences then it will be like that spider on our glasses. Of course, the reality is that God is greater than any problem but our perspective of these may be distorted because of which one we are keeping closest to us.

It is only by being in the constant presence of God that we can begin to see just how great and powerful He is. Only those who draw near to God will see Him as great

If your problems are closer to you than God then they will seem bigger.

We were designed for a relationship with God

God created us in His image. The closer we come to that image the more joy we will have. The more peace we will have. The more we will forgive, show mercy, be kind, and be patient.

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When someone designs a pair of high heal shoes, it is with the expectation that they will be used for walking. They design the sides so that they comfortably fit a foot. The heal is designed to hold up the body.

But what happens if you use a shoe for a purpose that it was not designed for? Like, say, hammering a nail. It breaks.

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When a car manufacturer wants a new car, one of the first things that they do is to design that car. They will then build a prototype and ensure that that car is everything they want it to be. If it is a sedan, then it is expected to be driven on a road and, really, nowhere else. That is its expected behavior. If it is truck, then it is expected that it could be driven over rough terrain and hold up just fine. Then every vehicle that is of that model will be built to that same concept and image.

But what happens if you drive a sedan where it wasn’t built to go?

[Slide – Car in woods]

They oftentimes don’t make it. It breaks.

It is the same with us. We were created in the image of God. In that way, we are models of God. Therefore, we are expected to behave like God in His character. We are to be righteous, kind, gentle, loving, joyful, and so on.

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But when we do not live our lives the way that God designed us to, we are broken. We have problems with drinking, gambling, anger, depression, pornography, and many other issues. Our world is not as it should be and so we are confused and troubled.

We are created in the image of God and thus we have been endowed with aspects of God’s nature such as wisdom, love, justice, holiness, mercy, and patience. A key aspect of God designing us similar to Himself is that we can have a personal and endless relationship with Him. That we have similar natures draws us to each other. We see this principle throughout creation: Lions form a pride, fish swim in schools, and ants live in colonies. Whereas all the rest of creation has only one type that they are similar to—their own species—we are unique because there are two types that we are similar to and, therefore, can form deep relationships with: other people (individually and in community) and God.

When we lack any of these relationships we feel incomplete. When we try to fill any of these voids with something other than with what God intended then we can make a wreck of our lives. But when we delight ourselves in the Lord and with His people, then He will give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4).

Intimacy is God’s desire

The Bible is not a book of rules; it is a book about relationships and primarily our relationship with God. In Genesis 1 right after man and woman were created we read an amazing sequence in verses 27 and 28, “… He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them...”: creation, blessing, and then immediately personal interaction.

Then 1189 chapters later we come to the last quote in the Bible. Revelation 22:20 is from Jesus, “Yes, I am coming soon.” We see God’s promise of coming to be more intimate with us. And everywhere in between these two passages we continually read the premium that God places on relationships with us. He is our Father, we are adopted as sons and daughters, we are the bride of Christ.

It is crucial that we read the Bible not just to learn about God but to know God. A fascinating example of this is Job. In Job 1:1 Job was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” He had a true heart for God, but there was one thing that lacked. It was not until he had persevered through his terrible trials that he was then able to conclude, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5). Job had made that transformation from knowledge to relationship.

We can become more like God because we see it in God first

Proverbs 29:19, “A slave will not be instructed by words alone; for though he understands, there will be no response.” God created us primarily to learn not by mere words and isolated commandments. He created us to learn primarily by example. Hence children imitate their parents. This is why story is so powerful. If we learned well enough from words then the Bible would only have to be lists of what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s.

But, though those do exist in the Bible (the Ten Commandments, for example), the Bible is through and through a book of stories. The Gospels are what?—the stories of Jesus. What we find most compelling about Jesus are not His acts; although His miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection to be the central moments in world history. But what most people find compelling about Jesus is… Jesus—the person Jesus.

The miracles of Jesus impress us not so much regarding His power but rather they impress us with His heart. That He multiplied fish and bread is in itself quite amazing. But that He noticed that people were tired and hungry and needed to be taken care of and then that He did something about it is what really draws us to Him. Jesus’ miracles were not drama simply to wow people; rather, they were always aimed at helping someone. Jesus did miracles because He cared. When we read the Gospels and see the sacrifices that Jesus did for others, are we not motivated to likewise sacrifice also?

How can we expect to become more faithful until we first understand God’s faithfulness?

How can have a desire to hate sin and be holy until we first grasp God’s hatred of sin?

How can we not forgive others if we truly experience God’s forgiveness of us?

It is important to know God better because He is our primary model of all good and right behavior.

We will trust God more

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Was there someone whom you were good friends with and you used to talk all of the time and share your feelings and thoughts with?

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But then, for some reason, you didn’t talk to them as much? Didn’t you then have some suspicions about what they thought about you? Like maybe they had a bad attitude towards you? Lack of communication between two people will nearly always lead to speculation and suspicion. That is the same with us and God. If we do not know God then we are in a trial we will be more likely to blame God than to turn to Him.

On the other side, how can we think that God wants to make us miserable if we truly gasp the truth that Jesus Christ died a horrible crucifixion so that we might be freed from the penalty of our own sins?

As we deepen our understanding of God it will deepen our relationship with Him and so strengthen our prayer life and our desire to read the Bible

We should have a desire to steer clear of gossips. We migrate towards people that we trust and the more kinship that we feel towards them the more we want to be with them. So it is with God. The better we know Him, the more we are motivated to want to know even more about Him. It is an upward spiral. And, of course, what better ways to know about God then through the Bible and with prayer?

When we realize that God has the power and love to change things for the best whether it be our circumstances or our own hearts then our first response in all situations will be to pray rather than to grumble.

As we understand more who God is it will deepen our worship

If your view of God is that He is distant or that He is so incomprehensible that it is like a worm trying to contemplate quantum physics then God will seem so far beyond us that we will never feel close to Him. Our worship will likely be shallow. You will find yourself singing worship songs thinking more about the tune than about the God to whom they are directed. When you do think about God instead of awe and reverence there is a mild interest.

The closer that we come to God, the heavier our hearts will be with worship.

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You walk into an art gallery, and you see a picture on the far, distant wall. It just looks like a multi-colored rectangle. You really have no real appreciation of it. It is too far away.

Then you walk closer and get right up to it.

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You now see that it is The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. Now you can appreciate the bright swirling clouds and stars. How the cypress trees in the front look like flames. You notice how the church in the village reaches up towards the brightness of those starts. There is a turbulence in the sky and yet it is also fascinating.

It is the same with God. When God is at a distance, there is little appreciation. God is a mere story, a character. But when we draw near to God, He becomes more complex, more intricate, and yet more intimate. We appreciate Him more and this leads us to greater worship.

As we know God better it will motivate us to evangelize more

If you have a favorite sports team that you are fanatical about you will wear shirts with their insignia. You will have their memorabilia around your house or office. You will talk about how that team is doing and especially if they are doing well. How much more if you are fanatical about God? And especially knowing full well that God is always winning.

We will want to talk about Him more. We will not be ashamed. We love to talk about that which we love. Love God and your evangelism will not be forced. Rather, it will naturally flow out of you.

You will be more motivated to go to church

Though a big part of church is fellowship, church’s primary focus is God: who He is, what He does, and what He wants us to do. The more that you know God, the deeper will be your thirst for God and to be around those who also love God and want to talk about Him.

Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.”

It creates a correct and proper self-image

A lowered self-image sees us as dull and worthless. A God centered self-image sees us as having dignity and tremendous value and worth. An inflated self-image sees us being arrogant and independent. A God centered self-image sees us as sinners who need the grace and mercy of a Savior.

A wrong self-image is self’s view of self; a right self-image is God’s view of self.

 But we can never understand how God sees us until we understand who God is.

It creates right relationships

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” This is not only the theological basis but also the practical basis. As we understand God’s responses and attitudes toward us then we will know what our responses and attitudes should be in those same types of situations.

Colossians 3:13 is a prime example of this. “Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave, so also should you.”

Notice how God commands us to do something but only because He already has that same attitude towards us already.

1.3 Division of Attributes

You can divide God’s attributes into two categories.

There are many, many attributes of God. These are the ones that we are going to study in this class.

Metaphysical, Incommunicable (does not exist in people), Absolute

The Eternal God

The Immutable God

The Omnipotent God

The Omniscient God

The Omnipresent God

The Holy God

The Sovereign God

Moral, Communicable (does exist in people), Comparative

The Divine Love

The Divine Faithfulness

The Divine Comfort

What was the first temptation?

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The serpent told Eve that God had lied to her; that God is not really what He makes Himself out to be.

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And this is the same lie that the Devil wants everyone to believe, that God is not really who He says He is. The lie is that we can shape God into whatever we want. Our effort in this class will be to thwart the Devil’s lies and the best way to do this is to know what is real.

God is infinite in His immensity and also infinite in the perfection of every detail.

God is not a machine that can be taken apart and put together again. All of what He is functions together as one. This attribute is called the simplicity of God.

The wicked try to conform God to what they want Him to be and when they cannot twist God any further then they deny Him. Ps 10:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” As Christians we no longer have to twist God to justify our sin, but, rather, we know that we are forgiven and so can strive to become more like God.

· We can have great techniques on evangelism.

· We can have a topnotch program on discipleship.

· We can have a sincere, zealous heart.

But if we do not know how to call upon God, if we do not know Him who “only doest wondrous things,” then who will bless our efforts? Who will supply the power?

Hosea 6:3, “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD
         His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
         And He will come to us like the rain,
         Like the spring rain watering the earth."

This course is all about one thing: pressing on to know the Lord.

2 The Eternity of God

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Four sections to the study of each attribute:

1) Contemplation

2) What does it mean to us

3) Discussion questions (Possibly)

4) Situation (Possibly)

Perhaps the eternity of God is the attribute of God most difficult to understand.

We can somewhat conceive of never having an ending, but it is nearly incomprehensible to think of no beginning.

We naturally think of beginning, developing, and ending. God has none of these.

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What does the eternity of God mean? It means that God has no beginning or end. Nothing came before God and nothing will outlast Him; He is the alpha and omega—the first and the last. God is not limited by time but exists outside of time’s constraints. He simultaneously exists in all of time.

God knows the future because He is already there.

The first five words in the Bible sets the tone for the rest of Scripture, “In the beginning God created…” God created what?—everything including time. It was in the beginning of everything else. To create the beginning, God had to be before the beginning.

Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the high and exalted One
         Who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy,
         ‘I dwell on a high and holy place,
         And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
         In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
         And to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

Key phrase, “dwells in eternity.” The word “dwells” in the Hebrew has the sense of “to lay oneself down,” “to abide,” “to pitch one’s tent.” It also means tabernacle. It is not just that God remembers the past and knows the future but that He dwells and exists in all of time simultaneously. Thus He witnesses every moment in all of history all at once.

2.1 Three analogies of God’s eternity

1) Existence in time

At any given moment I exist in a thin slice of time.

Us

History:

At any given moment God exists in all of time.

God

History:

We pass through time; God exists in all of time at once.

2) Two views of a parade.

I can see one slice of a parade; that which is passing by directly in front of me.

God can see the entire parade at once.

3) Existence in time

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Think of time as being an ocean.

We are like a small boat cutting through a small part of the ocean. God is like the planet that ocean is in.

An example of how time does not affect God is the book of Revelation. John was on the island of Patmos when he was taken in the Spirit to see future events that spanned over a thousand years. God did not give John a movie presentation of what the future would be like; He actually took him there. John’s book is unique in that he did not write as a prophet (as one who was told about the future) but rather as a witness. He was told to record not just what he heard but also what he saw. His witness spanned not only time but also space as he saw events both in Heaven and on the Earth. And then God brought him back to the present time.

God’s eternity proves His self-sufficiency. Before God created anything there was no space, no matter, no time. It was just God.

2.2 Time does not affect God

Isaiah 40:28,

“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
 The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
 Does not become weary or tired
 His understanding is inscrutable.”

At the end of the day we are tired. Sometimes we just collapse into a chair. Nothing that God does wears Him out. Even at the end of the six days of creation God rested not because He was tired from all of that work but because He wanted to give us an example.

2.3 When God determines something, it is forever if He so chooses

Psalm 119:89, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”

The principles that God states in the Bible will last forever. There is nothing unforeseen in the future that will cause God to need to change them.

Also, what God says never limits Him. For example, God says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God will never come up against the situation where someone will confess their sins but God will say, “Gee, I really don’t want to forgive them, but I guess that I have to because I promised.” The Scriptures are not merely something that God says but are expressions of who and what He is. When God forgives us because we have confessed our sins, it is not just because God promised to—although that is indeed true—but even more so, because that is what God wants to do. “Thus says the Lord” has authority not just because God said it but because it is consistent with who God is.

Romans 7:12, “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

The Law is holy not because God made the Law holy but because God is holy and the Law is an expression of God.

The commandment is righteous because God is righteous.

The commandment is good because God is good.

When we write something it generally flows out of our imagination and creativity. When God wrote the Bible it flowed from all that He is. It does not merely convey His thoughts; it conveys His being, who He is. And this is why we can trust the Bible.

We must take the Bible seriously because God takes it seriously. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Matthew 24:35.

2.4 Salvation requires an eternal God

Hebrews 10:11-12, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD”

Colossians 2:13-14, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

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Isaiah 53:4-5, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
         And our sorrows He carried;
         Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
         Smitten of God, and afflicted.
         But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
         He was crushed for our iniquities;
         The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
         And by His scourging we are healed.”

· We don’t have to whip ourselves for our sins; Jesus was already whipped for our sins.

· We don’t have to chastise ourselves for our sins; Jesus was already chastised for our sins.

· We don’t have to bear the guilt of our sins; Jesus already has bore our guilt.

The dots represent everyone who has ever and will ever live:

If God were not eternal then Jesus could not have paid for sins that were committed after the crucifixion because He would not know about them. But because God exists all throughout time, He knows about each and every sin and so is able to then concentrate all of those actual and real sins into one very brief moment in time. That is how Jesus can pay for all sins across all time in one moment of time.

If God is not eternal then we cannot be saved.

Time will take two different courses in men’s lives. For those in Hell, it will become their prison as they will spend it in utter anguish and pain. Eternity will become their main tormentor since it will destroy any hope of relief.

Yet, for those in Heaven, it will be our freedom as it will give us the hope of being with and worshipping God forever. We will forever say, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” (Revelation 5:13) How sweet the thought of being forever with our God and with His people, to gaze upon His face with no more the threat of sin and to bow with all the host of heaven in wonderful adoration. This is a hope and a destiny cherished by all the people of God.

2.5 What does His eternity mean to us?

2.5.1 Trust God for the future

Because God is eternal He does not have to scramble to help us out when there is a crisis. Thus, we can believe that great promise in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Because God can operate outside of time, He is able to comfort and help us in ways that we cannot imagine. He is never caught off guard and then must rush to set up triage. Several years earlier He might have brought certain people into our lives to help us for that moment of crisis. Or He had the pastor’s preaching schedule work out so that the sermon that we need to hear is delivered on that one Sunday that we need it the most.

He knew before we were even born what temptations will attack us and what hurts we will suffer. Therefore, many events in our lives might be preparing us for those difficult times that are ahead. God does not always just lift us out of trying circumstances; sometimes He wants us to persevere through them until we reach the end. The latter develops greater character, trust, and spiritual stamina. Those qualities are developed over time and God can weave circumstances, people, health, finances, etc. through our lives in order to prepare us for those difficult times. Of course, we may fail to utilize those resources and will instead struggle and be bitter, but that is not God’s fault.

2.5.2 Can know that He is always listening

Do you believe that God does not have the time for you? Do you think that there are many other more important people or events occurring that require God’s attention? God exists outside of time. He can be simultaneously and fully concentrated on each and every person including you. You can have His undivided attention not because He is ignoring everyone else but because He is not restricted by time. Time does not matter to Him but you always matter to Him.

2.5.3 Confidence in His guidance

Is God confused about the best route to take in a given situation? You are praying about whether or not to marry that person or to take that job. God does not rely on statistics to determine the best solution. He knows what will be the precise outcome of whatever you choose because He is already there. He knows that every one of His promises will be faithful because He already sees the outcome of every person who has believed them and of those who have disobeyed.

2.6 Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s eternity means to us?

2) If God has always existed then who created God?

3) By contemplating God’s eternity how can that help us through a trial?

4) The concept that God exists outside of time is hard to grasp. Is there any kind of visualization or analogy that can help someone understand this?

5) It has been said that God created time. If that is the case then what existed before time was created?

6) How can a God who exists outside of time be involved in each moment of my life when I am confined by time?

7) God is eternal. When we are born we will live forever. What is the difference?

8) What are some things that we can do to get to know God better?

9) How can someone always exist without ever being born?

2.7 Situation

Peggy is always nervous about the future. If you mention some situation to her, she will always think of the worst possible outcome and get uptight about it. This not only fills her with anxiety but also puts a damper on any plans or ideas that someone else suggests. One time someone suggested a church picnic at the nearby park and she responded, “That park has a playground and children can get hurt on those and then the church will get sued. And then there’s the bugs and what if it rains?” Is there anything about God’s character and perhaps particularly His eternity that you can use to help alleviate Peggy’s chronic fears?

3 The Immutable God

James 1:17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

The shadows from sun shift; but the sun does not appear to change.

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3.1 Contemplation

To say that God is immutable:

· He cannot vary

· Cannot change

· Cannot decrease

· Cannot increase

· He is all that He will ever be, all that He ever was

Job 34:14-16

¹⁴"If He should determine to do so,
         If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,
¹⁵All flesh would perish together,
         And man would return to dust.
¹⁶"But if you have understanding, hear this;
         Listen to the sound of my words.

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We are like dust, easily blow away and gone forever.

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God, on the other hand, is immovable.

Even if the entire universe should rebel against God, it would be like a canoe attacking a battleship.

3.2 What really lasts?

Sin and time wear us down. By the end of the day we are tired. After decades we find ourselves with less energy, our illnesses last longer, and our bodies betray us more easily.

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So what is permanent? Look up at the sky. There are stars and galaxies. The universe is enormous. It is estimated that there are 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 300 sextillion stars in the universe. Yet God says that even the universe is like an old sweater that is fraying at the elbows and with buttons falling off. Even if God does not come back for a very long time and after tens of billions of years the universe shutters to an end, God will still be there unchanged. He will not be even the slightest different than when the universe began.

Psalm 102:25-27

²⁵"Of old You founded the earth,
         And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
²⁶"Even they will perish, but You endure;
         And all of them will wear out like a garment;
         Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.
²⁷"But You are the same,
         And Your years will not come to an end.

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3.3 Nothing can change God

God cannot be influenced to change either from without or from within.

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God cannot be influenced from without because it is not merely that He stands far and above everyone else in power and might but that He alone has power and might. We have only what He has given to us. There is no great cosmic battle between good and evil, between God and the Devil. The Devil only has being because God allows him to. Should God so choose, in an instant the Devil would completely cease to exist.

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God cannot change from within because there is no facet of His being that is in any way in conflict with another part of His being. As infinite and complex as God is, everything within Him functions perfectly together.

This is in contrast to ourselves. We have self-doubts and misgivings. Our spirit strives with our flesh waging war within our members (Romans 7:23). We sin and repent. We grow and regress. God has none of this.

God is not like the ancient mythologies where occasionally the gods had to rush back home to take care of some crisis. And because God does not have to worry about Himself, He is able to focus all of His attention on us. That is why He is able to boldly promise in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Because God does not need to hold back any resources for Himself, He is able to apply all of them to us. And knowing that the purpose which He has for our lives is one of perfection should give us an enormous sense of honor and hope.

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3.4 God’s immutability is our survival

Malachi 3:6, “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Since God is perfect in all ways, if He changed in any way it would have to be for the worse. So how would He change? Would He become less patient? Less forgiving? Less merciful? Choose any one of those and it could easily mean our destruction. We survive not because we are good or desire to, but only because God is good. Since all that God is, is involved in the matter of people, then any change in God would have to be to our detriment.

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It is true that:

· God is self-sufficient and so does not need us.

· God can immediately take anyone’s life and still be righteous.

· We are sinners and God is perfectly holy.

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However, it is also immutably true that:

· God is rich in mercy.

· God loves us with a great love.

· Although God does not need us, nonetheless, He greatly delights in us. We are not without a friend in Heaven.

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3.5 Because God does not change then neither do His eternal purposes

Hebrews 6:17-18

“In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,

¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

We will not die and find ourselves annihilated or find, as Christians, that we are in Hell.

Every future promise of God is secure and every current promise of God is secure.

If God said it, then we can be assured of it.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

But notice the two verses before this verse.

18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but has been yes in Him.

20 For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

Paul is saying that the Gospel that he and others preach is not wishy-washy. It is not merely hopeful. It is not preached with a shrug of the shoulders and “If you believe that Jesus is God and that He died for your sins and then rose again, you stand a good chance of being saved.”

No, Paul preached with confidence. He preached a Gospel with an emphatic “yes!” Why? Because God’s promises are an emphatic “yes!” And what we know is true in God, is true when we share it because God is always true. What God says is not true for some people and false for others. It is true for everyone. The Gospel can save anyone because God’s promises are “yes” for everyone.

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3.6 Truth is forever

Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

Truth is never dependent on our understanding or acceptance of it. It is as true if we believe it and just as true if we doubt it.

If I do something truly terrible and think that God can never forgive me that does not make it suddenly true that I, indeed, cannot be forgiven. God’s promise remains true and if I come to my senses someday, then I can still claim God’s promise of complete forgiveness. His promise of cleansing me from all unrighteousness remained available through all of my doubts. It was always right there for the taking even if I closed my eyes to it.

Truth does not have to be experienced to be true. I am saved even if I do not feel like I am. I am still a child of God even when I am a jerk.

If I hid some money in my house and forgot about it. It is always still there.

3.7 Jesus Christ is immutable

The Bible says that Jesus Christ was born as a baby and that He “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). And Philippians 2:6-7 reads, “Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

Yet Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Is this a contradiction?

Jesus was distinctly fully God and distinctly fully human. Though theologians have struggled with understanding this for years, it is best understood that His two natures were not blended like shaking together sugar and sand. But, rather, that both reside together in the one person of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, His human aspect could increase in wisdom and stature, but His divine side would never change.

We see both sides in John 17:5, “And now You, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world existed.”

The human side is in the first half of the verse, “glorify me.” The human side was not fully glorified and so Jesus asked the Father to do that. The divine side is in the second half of the verse where Jesus refers to the glory that He had as God and with the Father before He became a man and, indeed, before anything was even created.

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3.8 God raises us up

Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
         And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

God does come down to our level to have a relationship with us but raises us up to His level.

Ephesians 2:6, “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Because God cannot change, He, therefore, changed us.

When we are saved we are not just made more righteous than we were; we now have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We now fully meet all of God’s demands of perfection and holiness.

2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Our salvation is secure not because it rests in our loyalty and character since those things change like a paper bag blowing in the wind. Our salvation is secure because it rests in the fact that God does not change and we are in God through Jesus Christ.

3.9 What does God’s immutability mean to us?

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3.9.1 We can trust God

James 1:17 says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” We can easily agree that any good thing that we receive is from God. God is good and He gives good gifts. But notice how this verse ends: “with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.” We can paraphrase this verse as, “God gives us good things and only good things and God never changes.” He will never give us anything that is not for our ultimate good. This means that we can trust God. He will not suddenly decide to toy with us. He will not grow weary of our stupid and foolish ways and decide to crush us or abandon us. God will never renege on any of His promises.

When what the Bible clearly says we should do is opposed by what our culture is telling us then we should, without question or hesitation, obey what God says in the Bible. Maybe we will not get that promotion as quickly or we will not marry as soon as we had hoped or we will never hear those accolades that we so desire but ultimately our blessings will be much more abundant and our satisfaction for doing what is right will go deep into our bones. It is God who blesses and God who curses. We will never regret trusting God and His word. The world and its culture changes on a whim. What was bad yesterday is good today and what was good yesterday is bad today. God is the same, always.

Even in what we may perceive as failure may be a great success in God’s eyes. Many times we set out to accomplish something but it fails and then we are quick to question God, “Why didn’t You help me out? Where were You when it all came crashing down?” God is not in the business of making us successful in all aspects of life but rather to be successful in godliness and sometimes those two goals may be at odds. Through failure we learn perseverance, hope, proven character, and to trust in God. All of the great people in the Bible had spectacular failures that they rebounded from to eventually rise even higher. Failure does not mean that God is against us or that we are hopeless and inept. That failure may be exactly what God wants so that, in the end, we may not have a great accomplishment but we have become a better person. Our success must be measured by righteousness and not by power, fame, or money.

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3.9.2 Resist Temptation

The verses immediately preceding James 1:17 address temptation. God never tempts us to sin. Temptation is the work of the world, the flesh, and the Devil. This is important because we know that since temptation is never from God we can readily apply 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.” No matter how intense the pressure to sin, God will always, without fail, give us an opportunity to escape from it. This will never change. It also means that when we do sin then it was because we chose the sin rather than the escape. No one can ever force us to sin because no one is greater than any of God’s promises.

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3.9.3 Confidence in His desires for our life

Do you struggle with thinking that God might suddenly turn on you and fill your life with garbage? That He will suddenly stop loving you or caring about you? Then immerse yourself in the truth that God will never change, not even in the subtle way that a shadow may shift. The intensity of His desire to give us the abundant life that He promises in John 10:10 does not vary from person to person. Its manifestation may differ but never the passion of His desire to bless. The fullness of joy and pleasures forever in Psalm 16:11 are not capriciously here today and gone tomorrow. God did not love you when you got saved only to leave you when you sin or in a trial.

Because God does not change neither does His tremendous affection and desires for us ever change. Circumstances may seem to dictate otherwise, but we can be assured that behind them God is still the rock and fortress that He always has been and always will be.

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3.9.4 We can become more godly

[Slide 3x]

If God kept changing, then for us to develop godly character would be like trying to build a house when the plans keep changing. You get partly through and then, “oh, no,” we now have to tear it down and build it another way.

Or it would be like trying to score a goal when the net or goal post constantly moves. But because God is always the same, we have a fixed goal that we can aim at.

One example is that we can become more faithful because we are confident of what God’s faithfulness is like.

[Slide]

Moses made great mistakes and yet because God was faithful to him Moses eventually became the leader and representative of God to a nation. Peter likewise made many mistakes and yet because God was faithful to him Peter ultimately became a great man of God and a foundation of the early church. In these two people we can see this same faithfulness of God across thousands of years. This should not only motivate us but also give us great confidence knowing that as we work on being faithful God will give us the grace necessary.

[Slide]

Any example of God’s character is like driving towards a mountain. It is steady and certain. We will not blink and it is suddenly different. What God was in the Bible, God is today.

3.10 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed about, what are some other assurances that God’s immutability means to us?

2) Why would an unchanging God do things differently because of prayer?

3) If God does not change then why does He appear to be different in the Old Testament than in the New Testament?

4) How does God’s immutability make us feel more secure as a Christian?

5) If God does not change then how come sometimes I feel more like He loves me and other times I feel more like He is mad at me?

6) If God is always the same then why do so many religions have such different views of God?

7) If God loves us so much then why does He not change? In a marriage, the husband and wife will change to better themselves for the sake of the other person?

3.11 Situation

Max has been a fairly steady Christian for a number of years. He has had his ups and downs but has always managed to work through them. For the last several months he has been overwhelmed with a very difficult trial and his faith has wavered. He often says, “God doesn’t love me” even though many of those times he says it in a mildly joking manner. He skips church every once in a while and when he does go he seems uninterested in the singing and sermon. You have been one of his close friends over the years. How can you encourage Max and is there anything regarding God’s immutability that might be especially helpful?

4 The Omnipotent God

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Think of the greatest demonstration of God’s power.

Creation of the universe?

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the crushing of Satan?

The final destruction and recreation of the universe?

Job 26:14, “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways.”

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Omnipotent

· Having all power

· Having infinite power

· Having all authority

· God is not as powerful as He needs to be; He is as powerful as anyone can ever be

The first name for God used in the Bible is in Genesis 1:1 and is Elohim. It is used over 2,570 times in the OT and it comes from a Hebrew word meaning “strength” or “power.”

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Names of God relating to His omnipotence:

· Almighty

· Lord of Hosts

· Lord God Almighty

· Consuming Fire

· Arm of the Lord

· Creator

The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Spirit is not the term used because a spirit is wispy and invisible. But, rather, spirit denotes power. It is in contrast to the flesh which is weak and vulnerable.

Isaiah 31:3, “Now the Egyptians are men and not God,
         And their horses are flesh and not spirit”

Here we see the contrast between flesh, which is weak and associated with men, and spirit, which is strong and associated with God.

Yet as great as God’s power is it is fully controlled by all that He is. It is governed by His love, mercy, and patience.

Job 36:5, "Behold, God is mighty but does not despise any.”

Picture this scenario

All of the armies from every nation on the Earth gather together and surround the one object of their hatred: a small city with unarmed people. The numbers of these armies are so great that they are like the sand on the shore: they cannot be counted. Their one goal is total victory and annihilation. Their rage is so great that there exists no room for compromise, no room for mercy. They are united together and lead by the greatest force of evil in all of history: Satan.

Revelation 20:7-9

^“7When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,

⁸and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.

⁹And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and…”

What happened?

Did God gather His army of angels and attack?

Did God create earthquakes and tidal waves and hurled great hailstones?

Was this a battle for the ages? Good versus evil? Might versus might?

Here is what happened.

“…fire came down from heaven and devoured them.”

That’s it. No drama. No huge battle. Just God wiping them out in one easy moment. God is not challenged by anyone or anything.

God does not sit in the Heavens and do whatever He pleases merely to amuse Himself. Whatever He does He does to His glory.

When the Israelites were trapped at the Red Sea and the Egyptians were coming to destroy them the Bible says in Psalm 106:8, “Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He might make His power known.”

[Slides]

Why did God want to make His power known?

· So that we might worship and glorify Him.

· So that we might know the power that is available to us.

· So that we might look to Him in trust and obedience.

But notice verse 13, “They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel.”

How easily we can forget what God has done for us.

We think that it is difficult to worship that which we cannot see, but then we ignore what we do see.

God’s works are plenteous but our eyes are dim and our memories are short.

How much more able are we able to recall the little good that we do and then forget the much greater good that God does?

4.1 Great Evacuation

An evacuation is when people are moved from a dangerous place to one that is safer.

· The largest ancient evacuation was in 480 BC when 100,000 people left Athens because of the approaching Persian army.

· More recent evacuations involved 3.75 million people in British cities starting in September 1939 due to World War II.

· 14 million Chinese in July 1998 because of flooding

· 2.5 million residents fleeing the Houston area from Hurricane Rita.

All of these efforts required a huge amount of planning and resources. These people moved because they desired life over death.

However, there is one evacuation that has involved hundreds of millions of people and has been ongoing throughout our entire human history. Its planning was before the foundation of the world and it required the greatest sacrifice from one person to bring others to safety.

Before we are born-again we are prisoners in a place of darkness burdened with a yoke of sin. An eternal Hell awaits us. We could never be in greater danger. But Jesus Christ died so that we could be evacuated from this domain of misery to a place of supreme joy and abundance. The very instant that we are saved we are moved from:

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· darkness to light

· from judgment to forgiveness

· from oppression to true freedom

· and from present and eternal danger to safety

Never has there been an evacuation as great.

Colossians 1:13, “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son”

There is nothing that we can do to slice off even the tiniest sliver of punishment from one of our sins let alone to remove all of the punishment of every single one of them.

Yet this is what God did. He transformed a child of wrath burdened with sin and depravity into a child of God able to stand unashamed before the magnificent presence of God.

4.2 Sin is conquered

When dealing with recurring sin in our lives the primary focus should not be on the frequency or magnitude of that sin. When we view that sin against our own abilities and motivations it is easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. But when we compare that sin against the power of God then we are more than conquerors. God promises in Romans 5:20, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

The issue is not what resources we can summon up to fight that sin but, rather, the infinitely greater power of God available to us.

Doubt is crushed by the burden of sin; faith sees the victory at the cross and clings to it.

2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”

[Slide]

How do we obtain this power?

· Prayer (“God, give me the power to forgive.”)

· Transforming our minds (Romans 12:2) from defeatism and justification to victory and righteousness

· Stepping out of the boat to do what is right (Putting away excuses and just doing what is right)

God glories in doing the impossible in our lives because then it is obvious that it is Him and not us.

Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You”

Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

4.3 Our salvation is protected by the power of God

1 Peter 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

That word “protected” has the same meaning as guarded. To guard something has two meanings:

1) You guard someone from escaping. So in this case, we cannot, even if we wanted to, escape from our eternal salvation.

2) You guard someone from harm and danger. What is the danger here?—of something or someone else taking away our salvation.

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What’s left?

The same power that created from nothing, 300 sextillion stars in the universe is what is also guaranteeing that you will make it into Heaven. Can there be any doubt?

4.4 Our ultimate response to God’s power

Psalm 21:13, “Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.”

[Slide]

4.5 What does God’s omnipotence mean to us?

4.5.1 We can trust God in tough circumstances

There has always been great discussion about why good people have terrible things happen to them. The two attributes that come into play in this discussion is that God is all loving and He is all powerful. It is generally accepted that God is love and wants to see us happy. Therefore it does not seem to make sense that He would want to see us suffer. So if He is all powerful then why does He not do something about it? Why does He not prevent these crises from occurring to begin with? If He truly loves us and is all powerful but tragedies still happen then something must be wrong so the thinking goes.

One theory about this is that God wants us to always be happy, but He is frustrated in His attempts to accomplish this because certain circumstances are too big for God. He can try His best but sometimes that is not enough. This is rubbish. God created the Universe with a word; He can change any circumstance in any way that He wants. So then why does He not do so? If God loves us enough to want to give us an abundant life overflowing with joy and if He is omnipotent then why do we oftentimes seem to stubble from one crisis to another? There are two important considerations.

The first is that God has allowed sin and rebellion to often override His choices and desires. This is what is known as free-will. Genesis 19:17-22 is right before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. God wanted Lot to escape into the mountains but Lot preferred going to a town instead, so God let him. Of course, Lot then got into trouble so he should have listened to God in the first place.

God will allow us to do what we truly want to do. If we want to be bitter then God will let us be bitter. If we want to be self-centered then God will let us be the center of our own universe. If we want to be ungracious and allow petty disagreements to ruin friendships then God will let that happen.

Just as there are laws of physics and chemistry and biology so also are there spiritual laws. If you throw a baseball straight up into the air, no matter how hard you may wish for it to keep going, it will stubbornly reach its peak and then come back down. In the same way there are spiritual laws that cannot be broken without dire consequences. We can read a number of these spiritual laws in the book of Proverbs.

· Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions.”

· Proverbs 11:17, “The merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.”

· Proverbs 12:28, “He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.”

Do good and you are blessed. Do what is wrong and you will suffer the consequences.

Sometimes bad things happen to us because, even though we may be genuinely sincere in wanting to do good, we still sin and that sin carries with it bad consequences. If God prevented us from experiencing bad things no matter what we do then the result would be a lot of happy but evil people.

Also, because our lives intertwine with so many other people’s lives their sins will affect us also.

Secondly, we are usually more interested in our own happiness than in God. We tend to ignore God when things are going well because we have what we want—our happiness. But we are down on our knees when trouble hits because we do not have what we want—namely, our happiness. Only God can deeply fill our emptiness and only as we become more and more like the character of God will we experience the true fruit of the Holy Spirit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Trials bring us to the point where we draw closer to God. So if God prevented us from experiencing bad things the result would be a lot of happy but shallow people.

There are also a number of other reasons as to why trials are not eliminated by God. As we experience hurt and then comfort we are able to comfort those who are currently experiencing the same hurt. Trials allow us to feel God’s grace in a fuller and richer way. And because coming out of trials redeemed rather than rescued is usually a far better thing.

God is all powerful but He knows that oftentimes it is better for us to experience terrible things then to always be quickly and easily rescued from them. That bad things can happen to good people does not at all mean that God is not omnipotent.

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4.5.2 God can accomplish great things in our lives

God can transform us.

· There is no sin so terrible that God cannot forgive.

· There is no habit so deeply engrained that God cannot give us triumph over it.

· There is no pain so wrenching that God cannot heal completely.

God has the power to transform a child of wrath, oppressed with sin and depravity into a child of God able to stand unashamed before His magnificent presence.

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God’s omnipotence means that numerous people who are enslaved to sins such as alcohol or drugs are able to quit and never return.

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God’s omnipotence means that people who were terribly hurt by someone are able to forgive and move on with their lives.

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God’s omnipotence means that people who are depressed or have terrible self-worth are able to walk in confidence and victory.

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Because God is omnipotent we can echo Paul from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Justin Nixon, who was a Congregationalist said, “The basic difference between physical and spiritual power is that men use physical power but spiritual power uses men.”

[Slide]

4.5.3 We can trust in His promises

When God says in Isaiah 41:10, “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” we can believe that because we know that God is able.

When God says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” we are confident because God is all-powerful.

When David says in Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” we can stand firm on that because we know that God is omnipotent.

God’s promises are not “hope fors,” they are just what they are called—promises.

[Slide]

4.5.4 The future will be exactly as He says in the Bible

There will be a new heavens and a new earth. Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire. We will go to Heaven if we are saved. We will be healed of all of our aliments, freed from all of our sorrows, and delivered from all of life’s anguish. We will walk on streets of gold. And we will see our Savior Jesus Christ face to face. These are not pipe dreams or fairy tales. They will happen one day for each of us if we have been born-again. God’s omnipotence will make sure that it happens.

4.6 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s omnipotence means to us?

2) If God is so powerful then why does He appear so helpless during some of history’s greatest tragedies such as the Holocaust, World Wars, and a number of genocides?

3) What does it mean to make God our foundation? That sounds good, but how do we do that? How do we in a practical way build upon God’s foundation and not on sand?

4) Why is it important to learn more about God’s attributes? Isn’t it enough just to know that God loves us?

5) If God can do anything that He wants to then why can we read in the Bible about people doing the opposite of what God wants them to do? Why does not He just force them to do what He wants?

6) If God can do anything then why did He have to become a man and die for our sins? Why could He not just decide to forgive anyone that He wants to without having to have gone through all of that in the Gospels?

7) Does not God and Satan do constant battle with God winning sometimes and Satan winning other times?

8) Why do we not see more of God’s miraculous power today?

4.7 Situation

Kathy had a rough childhood. She was raised solely by her mother who was verbally abusive. There was always just barely enough food available and oftentimes in the winter the heat was turned off because of non-payment. At an early age Kathy would get drunk a lot to help her cope with this misery. When she was 20 years old Kathy got saved and threw herself wholeheartedly into knowing and serving God. But overcoming her dependence on alcohol has proven to be difficult and she often relapses. What counsel might you give to Kathy to help her out particularly regarding God’s omnipotence?

5 The Omniscient God

[Slide]

Omniscient

· God knows everything

· He knows all of the actual

· He knows all of the possible

· He does not learn

· He does not forget

· He commits no errors

· He makes no mistakes

· He knows all thoughts, intentions, and desires

· He knows all mysteries and secrets

God does not operate on the basis of chance.

His love can give the best because He knows the best.

There is no question to which He has not eternally known the answer.

The supernatural can never be discerned except by the revealing of God.

· Hell

· Heaven

· The Second Coming

· Satan

· Angels

· Salvation

Of all of God’s infinite knowledge He has chosen to reveal only a tiny sliver of it. So if God revealed something then it is of such vast importance that we should study and learn as much as we can.

The Bible is endlessly deep. We can spend our entire lifetimes studying just one theme, one book.

Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

God just does not pour out tons of knowledge on us so that we can pick whichever part interest us the most. Rather, He wants us to search, to study, to meditate and to learn.

[Slide]

5.1 The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation

God knows every possible world. If there was an easier way for God to bring people to Himself then He would have taken that route. There will never be a time when God will suddenly slap His knee and say, “I wish I had thought of that earlier.”

The way this world exists also requires Hell, sin and rebellion, Satan, pain, cruelty, and horrors. Yes, God could have created a world that was always perfect. But we can be certain that this is also the type of world that will bring God the most glory and honor. God not only knows the end from the beginning but, more so, He caused the end from the beginning. Oddly enough, this world is the one that, in the long run, most pleases God.

Acts 4:12, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

[Slide]

5.2 Confidence in how we were created

Psalm 139:13-15

For You formed my inward parts;
         You wove me in my mother's womb.
¹⁴I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
         Wonderful are Your works,
         And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You,
         When I was made in secret,
         And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

God created this world in such a way that He will be most glorified by it.

Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
         And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”

And yet the heavens are the earth will one day be annihilated (2 Peter 3:10-13) and replaced.  They are not worth keeping around forever.

There are only two parts of God’s creation that we know will last forever: angels and people and eventually people will be exalted above the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).

So of all of God’s creation, we are probably the most precious in God’s eyes.

[Slide]

“Wonderful are Your works.” We are God’s works. We are, to the minutest detail, the marvelous handiwork of a loving God. God created each one of us specially and in such a way that we can give Him the most glory. So maybe you don’t like how you look or the sound of your voice or some other aspect. Yet that is how God created you to serve and love Him best.

[Slide]

5.3 Fear of sinning

Psalm 139:1-6

¹O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
²You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
         You understand my thought from afar.
³You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
         And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴Even before there is a word on my tongue,
         Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
⁵You have enclosed me behind and before,
         And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
         It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

That God sees everything that we do and knows our every thought, desire, and motivation should strike fear into our hearts. He knows us better than we know ourselves.

[Slide]

No darkness is thick enough. God still sees you.

We can sometimes hide from people, but we can never hide from God.

[Slide]

Think of being followed around by photographers everywhere that you go. That is not even close to how closely God sees you at every moment.

God’s omniscience should be a great motivator to resist temptation. Oftentimes we sin because we think that we can get away with it; that there is nothing to be ashamed about or be guilty of because no one will ever know. But God knows.

Our eyes may be blind to God, but God’s eyes are never blind to us.

Proverbs 5:21, “For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD,
         And He watches all his paths.”

Job 34:21-22

²¹"For His eyes are upon the ways of a man,
         And He sees all his steps.
²²"There is no darkness or deep shadow
         Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

We can sometimes trick people, but we can never trick God.

Would you commit that sin if you knew that God was standing right in front of you? Well, He is.

[Slide]

5.4 God understands and can heal

Psalm 103:14

¹⁴For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

God understands our discouragements and though He never condones sin, nevertheless, He understands.

[Slide]

Because God knows all things

· Whatever hurts can be healed

· Whoever is grieving can be encouraged

· Whoever is weak can be strengthened

Though we do not need to explain to God our situation He still loves to hear our voice in doing so.

Matthew 10:30, "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

On one level this verse tells us that God cares enough about us to even know details that we do not even know about ourselves. But think too, hair constantly falls out and grows back. So God’s concern and interest in each one of us is continuous. It is not, “Well this morning you had x amount of hairs on your head.” No, at any given second God is so keen on each one of us that He knows everything about us at that moment.

Exodus 3:7-8a

⁷The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

God saw the suffering of His people. So what was His response?

⁸"So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey”

God comes to us. And then He raises us up.

[Slide]

5.5 What is sin as defined by God’s omniscience?

Sin is many things but let’s define sin by God’s omniscience.

God knows the implications and consequences of every action, of every thought, of every desire. He tells what the best is.

[Slide]

When we sin we are saying that we know better than God, that our understanding of what makes us happy is superior to God’s understanding. That we know our needs better than God does. It mocks the truth that His commandments are not burdensome. Insanity is where a person is unable to correctly perceive reality.

[Slide]

Sin is temporary spiritual insanity because we are not, at that moment, correctly perceiving spiritual reality; we are denying God’s revealed truth. How dare we to question what the Almighty has said.

[Slide]

In a room facing left.

You see a small table with cotton candy on it.

You hear a voice saying, “Turn around, there is something better behind you.”

But you refuse and eat the cotton candy.

[Slide]

When it is finished you continue to ignore the pleading voice and go to sleep.

[Slide]

You never turn around and see the feast that God has for you.

Sin distracts us from the good that God has for us. Sin is a thief. It robs us of God’s elaborate feast and feeds us cheap candy instead.

[Slide]

5.6 God’s omniscience affects the quality of our eternity

For the saved our good works will be rewarded in Heaven.

Hebrews 6:10

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

For the unsaved it will determine their torment.

Revelation 20:11-13

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.

¹²And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

¹³And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

[Slide]

5.7 What does God’s omniscience mean to us?

5.7.1 He has wonderful plans for our lives even before we are born

Psalm 139:13-16 states how God knows us before we are even born. We are divinely chosen objects. When God was creating us in the womb He was not just creating us physically but He was also creating and planning out key aspects of our lives.  It is not in God’s plans for us to be defeated or fearful or depressed and isolated. These may be the result of your sin or other people’s sin, but they are not God’s choices. 2 Corinthians 2:14 proclaims, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ.” Plan and lead a life that is triumphant because is the kind of life that God has in mind for you.

5.7.2 We can pray anytime and anywhere

· We don’t need to be in a church to pray.

· Or around other Christians.

· We don’t have to be on our knees.

· We can be in the most pedestrian place or the most vile place where sin is rampant and evil is all around us.

God is there. God is there. God is there.

You can “Pray without ceasing” because God never ceases to be around you.

[Slide]

5.7.3 God’s way is always the best possible way

God does not do something and then go, “oops.” He does not flip a coin. We can pray for God’s guidance and know that He is not trying to decide between door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3 and then say, “Uh-oh, picked the one with the goat again.” We can be confident that His guidance will be the best.

We can obey God’s commands knowing that He is not tweaking them as He goes. If God says something we know that it is the best.

We can ask God for wisdom and know that His response is the best answer.

[Slide]

5.7.4 He can heal us deeply and completely.

God knows us better than we even know ourselves. How many times have we tried to find the solution to some terrible heartbreak and come up empty? Jeremiah 8:11 refers to this type of situation, “And they heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.” But God knows what is happening in our heart; He knows how it is affecting our emotions. In Psalm 147:3 it says of God, “He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.” The Hebrew word “binds” is the same word used to bind or wrap a turban around your head. In the same sense God meticulously wraps up our emotional wounds and protects them and heals them. Because God knows us He can heal our troubles at their deepest source.

5.8 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s omniscience means to us?

2) If God knows everything then why does He ask people questions in the Bible? Examples are God asking Adam, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9), God asking Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” (Genesis 4:9), and Jesus asking the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).

3) If God knows everything then why does He test people? Examples are Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22), Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2, 16), and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:31).

4) If God truly knows the future then why does not He tell us more about it such as when we will marry or what disaster or victory is imminent.

5) God is omniscient. Jesus is God. Then how could Jesus increase in wisdom (Luke 2:40, “And the Child [Jesus] continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”)?

6) If God knows everything then He must have seen ahead of time that sin was going to come into the world. So then why did not He do something to stop it?

7) Does the Devil know our thoughts? Why or why not?

8) How can God know the future when it has not occurred yet?

5.9 Situation

Sam had an older brother that he greatly looked up to and who took Sam under his wing. When his brother was 12 years old and Sam was 8 his brother was hit by a car and killed. When Sam was in college he became a born-again Christian but he has always been filled with caution and mistrust towards God. One day you and Sam are sitting together and he looks at you and asks, “If God knows everything and is all powerful then why didn't He stop that car from hitting my brother?” How would you answer Sam and how could you use God’s omniscience in your answer?

6 The Omnipresent God

“Omni” means all.

Omnipresent means “all present” or, more correctly present everywhere at the same time.

Here are some analogies to try to give this some perspectives.

[Slide]

The Earth is about 196,940,400 square miles.

Each one of us takes up 10 square feet.

[Slide]

Each person is on 0.00000000000018% of the earth

God is on 100% of the Earth

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If we walked 3 mph it would take us 3747 years to walk on every square foot of the Earth

God is on all of it at once.

[Slide]

Astronomers estimate that there is between 100 million and 2 trillion galaxies in the universe.

Each galaxy has an average of 100 billion stars.

Using just the lowest number, that multiples out to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 with 19 zeros) or Ten Quintillion stars.

God is present in, around, and between each one of those stars. But even more amazing:

He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. – Psalm 147:4

And even beyond that, He is present throughout the depths of the Earth

In fact, God is present in every part of the Universe down to even beyond the atomic level.

1 Kings 8:27, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!”

[Slide]

God does not fill the universe like a hand would fill a glove; rather, God fills the universe like the ocean fills a bottle on its bottom.

Omnipresence is not to be confused with pantheism. Omnipresence states that God is present everywhere. Pantheism states that everything is god and that god is everything. Omnipresence is truth; pantheism is blasphemy.

God is spirit. Spirit and matter do not compete for space. The can coexist.

Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Each atom only exists or stays together because God holds it together. So should there be a place where God does not exist then, in fact, that place could not exist either. It wouldn’t even be empty space; it would be nonexistent.

Because God is omnipresent it means that all of God exists in every place. There is no place in the Universe where God is more loving or more holy. We do not have to go to a church or a temple to get more of God.

When the Bible speaks of God sitting on a throne in Heaven that does not mean that the person of God is in Heaven and everywhere else is some kind of non-personal spirit. Nothing could be God that is not all of God.

[Slide]

6.1 God’s omnipresence vs. the presence of God

These should not be confused.

One is the positional being of God; the other is an immediate relationship with that being.

Psalm 16:11, “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

Though God is everywhere it is obvious that there is not fullness of joy everywhere.

The presence of God is not just an awareness that He is present; the unrighteous can believe that and still be joyless. The presence of the Lord is experiencing what He is, not merely that He is. It is drawing near to God that He might draw near to us. The presence of God is direct intimate communion. It is not merely thinking of God as Creator but as Father and friend.

[Slide 2x]

This is knowing that ice cream is present.

This is experiencing ice cream.

[Slide]

You can be surrounded by people and everyone is ignoring everyone else. Presence does not necessitate intimacy.

[Slide]

Or an image that we have seen. A bunch of people together but not together because they are all staring at their phones.

[Slide]

Or there can only be two people but be in a relationship.

[Slide]

6.2 We can never escape God’s presence

Jonah 1:3-4,  

³But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

⁴The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

Verse 3 twice states that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Then the very next verse tells us what the Lord did to Jonah.

Jonah was never further from God on the ship then when he was being directly spoken to by God on the land.

It was not like God followed him, God was already everywhere that Jonah went and everywhere that he did not go.

Two verses, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament affirm this.

Jeremiah 23:24, “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" declares the LORD "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD.

Hebrews 4:13, And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

As with God’s omniscience, when we are tempted to sin, we should remember that God is right there. He is watching us. He hears us. He knows what we are thinking.

[Slide]

Where can we go to avoid the One who fills all in all? The solution to rebellion and temptation is not escape but obedience.

[Slide]

6.3 God all around us

When a solder goes into a war zone he does not want to be exposed and vulnerable. Danger can come from any angle. He prefers to be surrounded by as much armor as possible with the best option being inside an armored vehicle.

There are many ways and angles that life can hurt us. Sometimes our past can haunt us. At other times we may be heading into a bad situation. We may be blindsided by a malicious attack from a colleague, friend, or relative. But praise God that He is there for us.

[Slide]

God is behind us. He protects us from our past. Isaiah 58:8, “The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”

God is above us. He covers us from those who arrogantly stand above us and make accusations. Psalm 91:4, “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge.”

God is in front of us. He goes before us so that we might make right decisions. Isaiah 45:2, “"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth.”

God is under us. He cushions and comforts us when we fall. Deuteronomy 33:7, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

God is to our left and to our right. He guards us from unexpected attacks. Psalm 125:2, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”

Of course, God does allow some attacks to get through, but, even then, He is there to give wisdom, support, and comfort. We are truly surrounded by God.

[Slide]

Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.”

[Slide]

6.4 What Does God’s Omnipresence Mean to Us?

6.4.1 Nothing can block out God

· No matter how great the evil surrounding us

· No matter how large the physical barrier

· No matter how thick the darkness

God can always hear our prayers

He can always deliver us

He can always comfort, support, and encourage us and fill us with His grace

[Slide]

He is always with us to the end of the age

Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

He will never leave nor forsake us

Hebrews 13:5, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, " I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"

No matter how horrible the crisis or how confused life may become, God is always right there to help us out. No matter how deep our sin, God is always there to give us victory. Even if we are abandoned by all others God is still there for us.

[Slide]

God is not so much a lighthouse that we have to move towards to get out of trouble;

[Slide]

Rather, He is like a shepherd who picks us up and carries us away from danger.

If God is for us then who can be against us?

If God is with us then who can triumph over us?

Who could ever imagine a god as great as the One who is real? We could never create a god as great as the One who created us.

[Slide]

6.4.2 Living God’s Presence

As we enter into a saving relationship with God one thing we notice is a greater awareness of His presence.

Brother Lawrence wrote “Practicing the Presence of God.” The book details Brother Lawrence's desire and ways of drawing near to the presence of God. Here are some quotes from the book.

[Slide]

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.”

“I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of GOD. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of centre of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.”

“The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence.”

― Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

A good verse to remember and memorize about God’s immediate presence is:

Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”

Maintain a constant mindset of God being right here with you.

· While singing in the church, think of God sitting next to you.

· While driving, think of God as in the seat beside you.

· While going to sleep at night, think of God as lying down in bed with you.

· While walking, think of God as walking right next to you.

When you pray, don’t pray as if God is distant, but prayer as if God is right there face to face with you.

When you read your Bible, do so with the feeling that Jesus is leaning over you from behind reading with you.

Cook, brush your teeth, get the mail: do all things with God as your constant companion.

Psalm 73:23-24

²³Nevertheless I am continually with You;
         You have taken hold of my right hand.
²⁴With Your counsel You will guide me,
         And afterward receive me to glory.

[Slide]

6.5 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s omnipresence means to us?

2) If God is everywhere, then why do so many people, including many Christians, feel so abandoned and alone?

3) How does knowing that God is omnipresent help us as we go through life?

[Slide]

4) How will our understanding of God’s relationship to us help us in our relationships with others?

5) If God is all around me and with me then why do not I feel His presence in some special obvious way?

6) Romans 8:9 reads, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” If God is everywhere then how can someone not have the Spirit of Christ?

[Slide]

7) Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” If God is omnipresent then is not He already in our midst all of the time anyway? So what does this verse mean?

[Slide]

6.6 Situation

Floyd got saved around a year ago and when he started coming to your church you became friends. Though you know that no one completely cleans up every aspect of their life soon after becoming a Christian you have a suspicion that Floyd still regularly indulges in pornography. You have asked him about it and his reply is always that he used to be heavy into it but that stopped immediately after he got saved. Then one day you are at his house and you notice a pornography magazine that was carelessly left on a table. You notice that it is a recent issue. Just then Floyd walks into the room and sees what you have found. He stammers but cannot explain it away. You ask him to sit down. What will you say to him and how might God’s omnipresence prove to be a deterrent?

[Slide]

7 The Holy God

[Slide]

To define holiness as an abstinence from sin and a hatred of sin is be half right.

Habbakuk 1:13a

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,  And You can not look on wickedness with favor

Holiness also means to be separate, to be above. It has a sense of supreme excellence.

Exodus 15:11

Who is like Thee among the gods, O LORD? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?

1 Samuel 2:2

There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God.

[Slide]

“Holy” is the only attribute of God that is repeated three times in any one place.

Isaiah 6:3

And one called out to another and said," Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."

And since He is the same God in both the Old and New Testaments, “Holy, Holy, Holy” is repeated in Revelation.

Revelation 4:8

And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."

[Slide]

God is called:

· The Holy One (Acts 2:27)

· The Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 49:7)

· Blessed and Holy Ruler (1 Timothy 6:15)

· Holy Spirit

Psalm 5:3-7 is a great passage that extolls the holiness of God.

⁴For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
         No evil dwells with You.

Do any of us take pleasure in wickedness? Of course, we all do.

· How many people take pleasure in getting drunk?

· In using profanity?

· In watching pornography?

· In sleeping in late on Sundays and not going to church?

· In criticizing other people?

· In not forgiving?

God has none of this. He takes no pleasure in any kind of sin. He does not even allow sin to stay close to Him

⁵The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
         You hate all who do iniquity.

⁶You destroy those who speak falsehood;
         The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

But even more than not taking pleasure in sin; God hates sin. He is not passive about it. He does not have an attitude of out-of-sight, out-of-mind. He actively opposes it.

We, likewise, should not take the attitude of “As long as I’m not doing it then I’m not worried about it.” We should actively oppose sin. We should do something

· about abortion,

· about human trafficking,

· about discrimination,

· about bullying,

· about gossip.

Of course, none of us can fight all and every sin that is out there, but do we do anything about any sin at all? Or do we just see some sin on our phones or computer or TV and do nothing more than shake our heads and move on?

⁷But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house,
         At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.

God will destroy those who lead lives of evil. But as for me, as for you, we can enter into God’s house with confidence and assurance. Because of God’s abundant lovingkindness, we are cleansed of our sins and so we cannot just approach God, but we can go into His house. This is the ultimate sense of acceptance.

And our response is to worship.

[Slide for each sin]

7.1 To understand holiness we need to understand what sin is

I examined a number of lists but this one seems to be the best. It lists seven basic types of sin.

1. "Hamartia" = "To miss the mark", as in archery competition, and therefore fail to receive the prize, or blessing. This is the general Greek word for sin, and is used 221 times. "Hamartia" encompasses the other 6 words for specific sins, in the sense that in all types of sin, we are "missing the mark". Example: Heb. 12:1, "the sin (hamartia) which doeth so easily beset us". We are aiming at God's best, but miss it.

2. "Hettema" = "Diminishing what should have been given full measure". Example: 1 Cor. 6:7, "there is a fault (hettema) among you". Not giving God and all that is related to Him their proper place.

3. "Paraptoma" = "Falling when one should have stood". This is actually an unintentional slip. Example: Eph. 1:7, We have "the forgiveness of sins (paraptoma), according to the riches of His grace".

4. "Agnoeema" = "Ignorance when one should have known". Example: Heb. 9:7, "the errors (agnoeema) of the people". This passage speaks of how the Old Testament was a shadow of the New Testament. Ignorance is no excuse.

5. "Parakoe" = "To refuse to hear and heed God's word". Example: 2 Cor. 10:6, "disobedience". In this passage, Paul urges us to hear God's Word and to bring every thought into captivity for Christ.

6. "Parabasis" = "To intentionally cross a line". Example: Heb. 2:2, "every transgression (parabasis) & disobedience (parakoe) received a just recompense of reward". When God "draws a line in the sand", we can suffer great loss of rewards and blessings by intentionally "stepping over".

7. "Anomia" and "Paranomia" = "Lawlessness, or willfully breaking God's written rules". Example: Titus 2:14 Jesus gave himself for us in order to "redeem us from all iniquity (anomia)". God gives us "rules" so as to bless us, not to curse us.

Ultimately, we must realize that the great heinousness of our sin lies not so much in how it compares to other sins but how it compares to God’s holiness.

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We may think that the lie that we just told is certainly not as bad as killing someone so it is not a big deal. And, yes, murder is a worse sin than lying. But we put sins on a rating system. As long as we did not commit that terrible sin (like that other person), we will be OK.

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However, compared to God’s perfect holiness lying is still a great sin.

Sin will never seem so bad if we view it in light of ourselves. We can always find someone worse.

The person who murdered only one person can say, “Well I never killed a whole bunch of people like Ted Bundy did.”

Ted Bundy can say, “Well I may have killed a bunch of people but I never ate any of them.”

And Jeffery Dahmer can say, “I may have killed people and ate some of them but I was no Adolph Hitler.”

And on it goes.

It is amazing how we can justify our sin.

But how, compared to God’s holiness, can any one of us justify his sin? Who when standing with the great multitude before the final judgment of God look smugly at the person next to him and think, “I’m going to get off easy compared to this guy.” No, they’ll see the majestic God before them and cower.

Sin is an outrage to the holiness of God. It slanders all that God is and all that God says. In 2 Peter 3:10 God says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” God hates sin so much that at the final time the best way that He will purge all of sin from everywhere will be by completely destroying everything and then recreating it.

The punishment of sin is not so much based on the sin itself but by the quality of what was sinned against.

[Slide each point]

If we take a hammer and break an ordinary stone we will most likely not suffer any punishment because a stone is not worth much.

If we take a gun a kill a person then we will probably go to jail for many years because a person is worth more than a stone. However, at some point we will have paid our debt and be free.

However, if we sin against God then our punishment is infinite because God is of infinite quality. And so for any one sin we can never pay off our debt and be free.

The payment for even one sin is eternity in Hell. That is the gist of James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

Sin is a crime against God. Any crime on this Earth demands punishment. If I murder someone, when I stand before the judge I am not going to say, “Well, look at all of the people that I didn’t kill!” Likewise, when a non-Christian stands before God and God reveals that person’s sin, they are not going to say, “But look at all of the good things that I did!” It will be clear to them how terrible even one sin is when compared to God. No one will bargain with God at the Judgment Seat.

So our sin requires an infinite punishment. The only thing that any person has that is infinite is time. That is why the non-Christian must spend an eternity in Hell to pay for each sin.

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However, there was one person who had infinite quality and that is Jesus Christ. So when He died on the cross He was able to pay for every sin from every person because He had infinite quality; He didn’t need infinite time. He is the only person who could pay the infinite punishment required for each one of our sins.

There is no greater distance, no greater separation between any two things in the Universe than between human sin and God’s holiness.

Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

No amount of good works can ever bridge an infinite gap.

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Suppose we all lined up at the Jersey beach and was told that we needed to swim to England. Some might get farther than others but ultimately everyone would drown. Every one of us would need something to take us to the other side be it a boat or a plane.

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Similarly, only Jesus Christ can take us to Heaven. We are all drowning in our sin otherwise.

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7.2 The Wicked Mock God’s Holiness

Psalm 10:11 records the thoughts of the wicked: “He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it."

The wicked think that God will dismiss their sin. They think that their sin does not matter to God and by thinking that they mock His holiness. Because they may not have received any immediate punishment for their sin they think that they have gotten away with it. But they do not realize that their sentence has already be determined; all that remains is its execution. They are already condemned. The noose may be just out of their sight but it nearby nonetheless.

The longsuffering and patience of God is perverted to the leniency of God. This is the warning of Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is no mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

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7.3 God’s Holiness gives us Security

God’s holiness should not be a cause for terror but for love.

Because God cannot sin, His promises are sure and our salvation is secure.

It is not that God would not sin but that He could not sin. Sin is a choice for us; it is not a choice for God.

Two passages that give us confidence about God being faithful to His promises are:

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

2 Corinthians 1:20

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

God’s omnipotence guarantees that no one will ever be able to tear us out of God’s hands, but it is God’s holiness that guarantees that God Himself will never cast us out.

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7.4 God wants us to be Holy

1 Peter 1:15-16

but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;

because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

For all of our lives, God is working in us to be more like Himself, to be more holy. The way that He does this is by shining a light into different corners of our lives revealing sins that we did not know were there. But He never reveals more than He knows that we can handle at one time. His delight is not in the exposing of sin but, rather, in the triumph over it. He reveals sin not to show us how evil we are, but to make us as holy as we can be.

On the cross, Jesus conquered all of our sins for all eternity. It is our firm belief in that, that gives us our confidence of Heaven as a sure possession. So why should we think any less of Jesus’ ability to conquer the sins that plague us every day?

The deeper our understanding of how holy God is, the more motivated we will be to conquer sin in our own lives. God’s hatred of sin is so great that it caused the most dramatic event that could ever happen. It caused the death of God on a dusty planet among ugly, hostile people. When Jesus died, He could not have given any more or any less. He gave all; He gave Himself. How can we choose sin when we consider the goodness of God toward self-indulgent sinners such as ourselves?

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7.5 God’s Holiness is Praised Throughout the Heavens

Our few glimpses into heaven find God being much adored and worshipped for His holiness. Isaiah heard the seraphim herald the glory of the triune God saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) As they did this, the thresholds trembled and the temple filled with smoke.

Likewise, in the book of the Revelation, the victors proclaim, “who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify They name? For Thou only art holy.” (Revelation 15:4)

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7.6 What does God’s holy mean to us?

7.6.1 When we are saved we can be assured that our sins are not merely overlooked but are fully paid for.

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No other attribute of God places such an impossible burden upon us. God’s holiness demands nothing less than absolute purity every second of our lives and each time that we sin we now owe God and each sin puts us further into debt. God’s holiness demands payment which is why God could not merely pretend that the penalty is gone. But we can never pay off this debt. That is why on the cross Jesus had to pay for every person’s sin debt. So when a person is born-again she can be assured that all of her sin’s debts have been completely and forever forgiven.

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7.6.2 He expects us to be holy also.

God wants us:

1) To recognize sin

2) To not sin

3) To hate sin

4) When possible, to act against sin

We recognize sin primarily through the Bible, through our conscience, and from other people.

We not sin by controlling what we think, guarding what we take in, and watching our actions. We resist temptation.

We learn to hate sin we understand the consequences of any particular sin and not just focus on its pleasures.

We can act against sin in numerous ways from standing with the oppressed, feeding the hungry, saving the lost, and the list goes on.

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7.6.3 We will never need to stop becoming better.

Our lives are full of sin that will take more than one lifetime can clean up. Therefore, as we grow as Christians we will never come to a point where we can let our guard down or feel that we have “made it.” Every day there is a challenge to clean up yet another sin. That may sound tiresome but each time that we triumph over another sin we are becoming more like the character of God.

Sin is the muck that clogs the opening of God’s blessings.

Holiness opens that up so that His blessings go flow freely.

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7.7 Praise God for His Magnificent Holiness

Non-Christians will curse God’s holiness. But as Christians, we will praise Him for it.

Psalm 30:4

Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones,
         And give thanks to His holy name.

Psalm 99:5

Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool;
         Holy is He.

[Slide]

7.8 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s holiness means to us?

2) Why is it important to us that God is holy?

3) How can we learn how to hate sin?

4) What are some practical things that we can do to become more holy ourselves?

5) What are some obstacles to a person desiring to be holy?

6) Why, when we first get saved, does God not just make us completely free from sin for the rest of our lives?

7) If we have been doing well overcoming a sin in our lives but then slip up once does that mean that we have to start all over again as though we had not made any previous progress?

8) In my quest to become holy why should I not compare myself to others?

[Slide]

7.9 Situation

Jill has been a Christian for quite a while but every once in while when she is confronted by temptation she readily gives in to it and sins. Her explanation is that God promises to always forgive and so once she confesses her sin and repents it is completely wiped out. Therefore, there is no problem and if anyone points out that sin then that person is being judgmental since God no longer remembers it. Keeping in mind God’s holiness, how would you explain to Jill that her reasoning is flawed and that her behavior is destructive?

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8 The Sovereign God

The sovereignty of God carries with it several connotations.

· God is the most important

· God has all authority

· God sustains all things

· God has the right to command, establish laws and standards, exact obedience, and be final judge

· God can freely delegate authority as He so pleases

Romans 13:1b, “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

This attribute dispels any notion of God being a distant observer of this world’s events and people.

It is not that God will reign but that He does reign.

It is not that God will be King but that He is King.

Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”

This statement has no conditions, no limitations, no qualifying statements. Through prayer we may move God to do something that would not otherwise happen, but if God determines something, then nothing can or will ever change its completion.

God is not like a ship’s captain that pushes button and turns wheels hoping to steer the boat onto a right course. Rather, He is the sovereign ruler who does whatever He pleases.

Yes, we have free will; we have the ability to make choices that will affect our and other people’s eternity. But the choices that we have are limited by what God allows. Now God apparently allows quite a bit of latitude since we tend to choose sin so often. But if God determines that something will happen in our lives then that will indeed happen and no amount of free will can alter that.

Isaiah 46:9-11

⁹"Remember the former things long past,
         For I am God, and there is no other;
         I am God, and there is no one like Me,
¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning,
         And from ancient times things which have not been done,
         Saying, My purpose will be established,
         And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';
¹¹Calling a bird of prey from the east,
         The man of My purpose from a far country
         Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
         I have planned it, surely I will do it.

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Just listen to the names of God related to His sovereignty.

· Adonai (Master or Lord)

· The Lord of Hosts

· King

· King Eternal

· King of Kings

· King of the Ages

· Lord

· Lord God Almighty

· Lord Jesus Christ

· Lord of All

· Lord of Glory

· Lord of Lords

· Lord of our Righteousness

[Slide]

· Highest

· The Most High God

· Shepherd

· Chief Shepherd

· Great Shepherd

· Shepherd of our Souls

· Commander

· God over All

· Head of the Body

· Head of the Church

· Leader

· Lion of the Tribe of Judah

· Ruler of God’s Creation

· Ruler over Kings of the Earth

· Ruler over Israel

Satan is called:

· “the ruler of this world” (John 16:11)

· “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

· “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2)

But is it God who is the “great King over all the earth” (Psalm 47:2)

The first verse in the Bible establishes the primary truth: “In the beginning God…” Here, all priority is defined.

Nothing preceded God and nothing shall usurp Him. The reign of God will go unchallenged.

Isaiah 40:15, Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
         And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
         Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

[Slide]

8.1 God’s sovereignty should not be equated with that of earthly kings

When we try to picture sovereignty, we may think of an earthly king or ruler. We may even think of a king back in medieval times. Here is a comparison of that earthly king and God.

An Earthly King	God
From an isolated castle	Is among and in His people
Decrees are best guesses	Decrees are based on omniscience
Enforced by his soldiers and minions	Enforced directly by Himself to each person
May decree laws that benefit only himself	All of His decrees will benefit us
May be corrupt	Is never corrupt
May be overthrown by enemies, by revolutions, or by his own inner circle	Can never be overthrown
Authority is probably shared	Authority is absolute
Spends much of his time maintaining his power	Spends much of His time guiding and perfecting us
Average reign of a medieval king was just over 20 years	Average reign of God is just over an eternity

Daniel 2:21

It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.

[Slide]

8.2 The wicked scorn God’s sovereignty

The wicked look at this world and they scorn God.

“How could a loving God let that person suffer and die like that?”

“That guy killed some many people and now he is going to spend the rest of his life in jail with free medical care, a warm bed, and three meals a day. Then he’ll probably die in his sleep. If there is a God then He is certainly unjust.”

“Look at all of the wars, famine, and disasters. Where is God and why doesn’t He do something?”

These attitudes reveal the very heart of people’s arrogance. What person is innocent? Who has suffered more than their sin deserves? For what does the Most High owe anyone?

Lamentations 3:39, “Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?”

One day they will be silenced when confronted with the truth of God’s sovereignty as stated in Romans 14:11.

For it is written,
         AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME,
         AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.

Philippians 2:10-11

¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ultimately everyone will see that God is never unloving, never unjust, and never unconcerned.

[Slide]

8.3 God’s perfect will vs. God’s permissive will

Genesis 19

¹⁷When they had brought them outside, one said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away."

¹⁸But Lot said to them, "Oh no, my lords!

¹⁹"Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

²⁰now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved."

²¹He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

²²"Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.

God’s perfect will was for Lot to escape up into the mountains.

Lot did not want to go into the mountains; he wanted to go to a small town.

God let Lot go to the small town.

Lot stayed in Zoar a short time and then left because he was afraid.

Lot went to a cave.

Lot got drunk.

Lot was debased.

God, as a rule, never forces us to do anything. However, when we do not do want He wants, then usually it will not turn out as best as it could have.

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8.4 End-time prophecy is assured

God has told us in the Bible the exact events and attitudes of the end-times and we can be assured that these will occur exactly as His says because He reigns.

Who can deceive the omniscient?

Who can overpower the omnipotent?

Daniel 4:34-35

         For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
         And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
³⁵"All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
         But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
         And among the inhabitants of earth;
         And no one can ward off His hand
         Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'

Read any verse in the Book of Revelation. No matter how unlikely, how unbelievable, how fantastical, it will occur EXACTLY as how God said it would. Of this we can be assured.

[Slide]

8.5 All Messianic OT prophecies were completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ

The 39 books of the Old Testament (OT) were written centuries before Jesus was born.  The OT has around 315 prophecies regarding the coming Messiah. Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of them.  But could many people have fulfilled those prophecies?

Professor Peter Stoner in the book Science Speaks calculated the odds of one Person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies. They were:

· His place of birth (Micah 5:2)

· The time of birth (Daniel 9:25)

· The manner of birth (Isaiah 7:14)

· How He was betrayed (Zechariah 11:11-13)

· The manner of His Death (Psalm 22:16)

· The piercing of His hands, feet and side  (Psalm 22, Zechariah 12:10)

· The fact that people mocked Him (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22)

· How He was buried (Isaiah 53:9)

He found the odds to be 1 in 10¹⁷. To put this in perspective, this many silver dollars would cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Mark only one of these silver dollars. Now blindfold someone and let him parachute and pick only one coin. That this would be the one and only marked coin is the same odds as 1 in 10¹⁷.

George Heron, a French mathematician, calculated that the odds of one man fulfilling only 40 of those prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷. The estimated number of electrons in the entire universe is only around 10⁷⁹.  

God made sure that every one of those prophecies happened in exactly the predicted way and at the exact predicted time.

Is God sovereign?

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8.6 God’s sovereignty means that He can use anyone

Because the power and authority to accomplish righteousness comes from God and not from ourselves we can be confident.

Whoever sin has hardened, God can sanctify.

Whoever is depraved, God can glorify.

Whoever is foolish, God can make wise.

Whoever is weak, God can make strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

⁹And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  ¹⁰Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

If you were a great orator before you were saved, and now you are still a great orator, then you are said to have the talent of oration.

But if you were shy and not confident before you were saved, and now you are a great orator, then you are said to have been blessed by God.

God uses our weaknesses to make us strong because then it is an obvious act of God. So don’t be afraid to try something just because you aren’t good at it. Maybe God will give you the grace to succeed. But you won’t know if you don’t try.

[Slide]

8.7 Satan rejected God’s supremacy

In Isaiah 14 we see Satan’s attitude when he fell. There are the five I will’s.

¹³"But you said in your heart,
         'I will ascend to heaven;
         I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
         And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
¹⁴'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
         I will make myself like the Most High.'

All five attitudes show Satan wanting to usurp the authority of God. This was the first sin.

Then in the Garden of Eden Satan convinced Eve and then Adam to have this same attitude of usurping God’s authority.

Genesis 3:5, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

In both instances it was a case of wanting to pull away from God’s authority and setting themselves up as their own independent authority. They wanted to make their own rules.

Romans 1:25 states this clearly, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Every day we have the choice to seek our own interests or to glorify God, to put ourselves on the throne or to put God on the throne.

8.8 We cannot serve two masters

Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve God and wealth.”

As independent as we may think ourselves to be the truth is that we are always a slave or servant to someone.

We are either serving God or we are serving the world, ourselves, or the Devil.

We can present ourselves as instruments of righteousness or of unrighteousness.

2 Timothy 2:20-21

20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver implements, but also implements of wood and of earthenware, and some are for honor while others are for dishonor. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be an implement for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

What are implements of honor? Those who:

· Put others above themselves

· Are kind and generous to others

· Stand with and support the oppressed

· Glorify God in their thoughts, motives, and actions

What are implements of dishonor? Those who:

· Consider their own wants as more important than other people’s wants

· Consider how to get from others

· Bully and oppress those who are weaker and more vulnerable

· Glorify themselves in their thoughts, motives, and actions

We can add hundreds of bullet points to each of those lists.

Which life will you choose to be? An implement of honor or an implement of dishonor. The choice is yours. Your decision will affect all eternity.

We are designed to obey. May it always be God and His eternal reign that we choose.

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8.9 What does God’s sovereignty mean to us?

8.9.1 He is not merely a distant observer.

Jeremiah 23:23 declares, “’Am I a God who is near,’ declares the LORD, ‘And not a God far off?’” God has His hand in everything so we can be confident that He is always in control and able to heal, provide guidance, support, encourage, and lead us in triumph. God is a king who is deeply involved in every affair under His rule. Even a sparrow can’t fall to the ground without God being aware of it.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Notice the connection between the first half of this verse and the second half.

Be strong, be courageous! In what?

· Determining to put away that sin

· Doing what is right regardless of the cost to you

· Asking forgiveness from someone when you’ve sinned against them

· Sharing the Gospel

· Not going along with gossiping or complaining when everyone else is doing it at work

· Being kind to that person who is unkind to you

· And so on

But why?

Because God is with you.

· God is with you to give you grace

· God is with you to give you power

· God is with you to bless you

[Slide]

8.9.2 God can direct and control whatever He wants

Romans 8:28 states, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Notice the key word “causes.” God does not merely hope that the best path for us is available; He is able to cause it to be there if He so chooses.

[Slide]

8.9.3 We never have to be overcome by Satan or by any other evil or sin.

Nothing can keep us from doing what is right if we truly want to do what is right. We always have a choice of whether to sin or not to sin, but this is only because God is sovereign.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

In medieval Europe a man’s village was overrun by barbarians from the north, but having been a citizen of the Roman Empire he still wanted to live under the laws and culture of Rome. But he was unable to do so because the barbarians now controlled him and his village. He had no choice; he had to submit to the ways of the barbarians or be killed. In our spiritual battle if we want to serve God nothing can prevent that from happening because God is sovereign everywhere all of the time. He cannot be conquered; He cannot be overtaken. And, therefore, neither can you.

Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice.”

[Slide]

8.10 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s sovereignty means to us?

2) If God is sovereign then why do bad things still happen? Does not this mean that He has relinquished at least a little of His power or authority?

3) How does knowing that God is in control help us in our struggles?

[Slide]

4) If God is sovereign then why did He allow sin into the world?

5) If God is in control then why does not He just come back now and set everything straight?

6) What are some ways that we can give God greater control of our lives?

7) Can you think of any examples of God’s sovereignty being demonstrated in any of the people in the Bible?

[Slide]

8.11 Situation

George is not a Christian and every time that you try to bring up the Gospel his response is that he would never want to serve a God that allows such horrors as genocide, torture, and war. So if God really is in control, he will say, then He must not care what happens to people and so is not worthy of our worship. The only other option, he will continue, is that God really is not in control and so then how could He guarantee our eternal future? After giving it careful thought, how would you answer George’s contention?

[Slide]

9 The Love of God

The love of God is the most adored, most sung about, and most discussed attribute of God. It is probably the subject of more Bible studies than any other topic. And yet, when we are tested, when trials come, how quickly we doubt it.

The Father proved it by giving us His Son and yet we demand more proof.

He confirms it every day and yet we remain unconvinced.

Our goal is not to just know about God’s love but to believe it.

9.1 Three types of love

People have categorized love in several ways.

Here is one: intimacy, passion, and commitment

Here is another: The first love, The hard love, The quiet love

We are going to look at: if, because, and no matter what

[Slide]

9.1.1 “I love you if…”

This love is conditional on what the other person does.

· I love you if you love me back.

· I love you if you cook me meals, do my laundry, and clean the house.

· I love you if you make a lot of money and make my life comfortable.

9.1.2 “I love you because…”

This love is conditional on what the other person is or has.

· I love you because you are attractive.

· I love you because you are smart.

· I love you because you are funny.

[Slide]

9.1.3 “I love you no matter what”

This love is unconditional. It does not depend on anything regarding the object but only on the source. God is the source and so as long as God is love we will be loved.

God loves us now,

· Regardless of what we will become

· Regardless of what we are

· Regardless of what we were

9.2 The Gospel in John 3:16

For God	the greatest lover
so loved	the greatest degree
the world	the greatest number
that He gave	the greatest act
His only begotten	the greatest sacrifice
Son	the greatest gift
that whosoever	the greatest invitation
believes	the greatest simplicity
in Him	the greatest person
shall not perish	the greatest deliverance
but	the greatest difference
have	the greatest certainty
everlasting	the greatest time
life	the greatest possession

[Slide]

9.3 Four Greek words for love

• Storge (στοργή storgē) Affection

It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. It is mostly used in the context of relationships within the family. It is considered the most natural because it is the result of familiarity rather than coercion.

• Philia (φιλία philía) Friendship

This is a dispassionate virtuous love. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. It usually develops between people who share common interests or activities.

• Éros (ἔρως érōs) Romance

This is a passionate love, with sensual desire and longing; however, eros does not have to be sexual in nature. Eros can be interpreted as a love for someone whom you love more than the philia, love of friendship. It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage. It has a sense of emotional intimacy.

• Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē) True, Unconditional Love

Agape is the highest form of love there is. This is an unconditional love for others in spite of their character flaws and weaknesses. It is a difficult love to obtain simply because we are usually concerned more with ourselves and how the world and people around us affect us. Agape is used in 1 Corinthians 13 and is described there and throughout the New Testament as sacrificial love. In the New Testament it describes, amongst other things, the relationship between Jesus and the beloved disciple. Its meaning and usage is illustrated by self-sacrificing, giving love to all--both friend and enemy. It is used in Matthew 22:39, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and in John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," and in 1 John 4:8, "God is love."

[Slide]

9.4 All of God’s attributes affirm His love

Because God is eternal and so simultaneously exists in all of time, He loves us now as much as He loved us when Jesus was dying on the cross for our sins. He loves us now as much as He loved us in eternally past and will love us in eternity future. There has never been a point in time when God first began to love us.

Because God is omniscient and has always known everything about us, there is nothing that we can say or do that will surprise Him and cause Him to pull away from us.

Because God is immutable He will never change and become bitter or resentful towards us because we are so sinful and foolish.

Because God is holy His love is pure.

Because God is just His love disciplines.

Because God is omnipresent His love is always with us.

Because God is omnipotent His love is inseparable from us.

Because God is infinite His love is limitless.

[Slide]

9.5 The cause of salvation

God does not save people because He has to. There is nothing in God’s character that forces Him to save anyone.

His patience may delay judgment but it does not and cannot eliminate it.

His mercy may cause Him to withhold the immediate wrath that we deserve but it does not and cannot withhold all wrath.

God saves people simply because He wants to. The gratification that God gets from saving someone is deeper and more complex than the benefits that even we receive. What we sometimes see merely as a fact, “I’m saved,” God cherishes.

Though God does not need us; nevertheless, we are the primary objects of His infinite love.

The book of the Song of Solomon is often used as an example of God’s love for us, as Christ’s love for His bride—the church.

Song of Solomon 4:9, "You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes.”

[Slide]

To be without sin is to be pure.

To be pure while having a deep hatred towards sin is to be holy.

To be holy and yet to die in order to pay for another’s sins towards you is to love.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

God did not die for us to prove His love, nor did He die in order for Him to love us. Rather, He died because He already did love us.

Ephesians 2:4-7

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

⁵even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

⁶and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Notice what God’s love gets us in salvation:

We were dead in our sins -> His love made us alive

We were alone -> His love brought us to Christ

We were low -> His love raised us up

We were struggling on the Earth -> His love seated us in Heaven

Our destiny was eternal torment in Hell -> His love will show us the surpassing riches of His grace

God’s love does not mean that He sits there and makes puppy dog eyes at us. His love changes us. It moves us. It gives us hope.

[Slide]

9.6 God’s unwavering love

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

If God cared enough about us at one point in history to send His only begotten Son to die a vicious death on a cross to pay the punishment for our sins then why when something bad happens do we think that we can suddenly accuse God of not loving us? That was the defining moment. That was the greatest proof of all. So why do circumstances suddenly trump that? When did our finances become more important than the nails driven into His hands? When did our health become more of a factor than the thorns pounded into His scalp? What in our lives counts more than the spear thrust into His side? It is perhaps one of the greatest blasphemies to define God’s love for us more by our circumstances than by the crucifixion. We are so shortsighted that we cannot see beyond the here and now and look back to the cross. God gave us His best demanding nothing in return.

[Slide]

9.7 God’s giving

When God blesses us He does not merely supersize what the world will give us.

God does not promise us a bigger house or a better job. He does not give us a better made car that never breaks down or a spouse that is a perfect complement to us in all ways.

Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

So what are these blessings?

One list is Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

Indeed, the great issue is not what God wants to give to us but will we receive it?

Psalm 81:9-11

⁹"Let there be no strange god among you;
         Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
¹⁰"I, the LORD, am your God,
         Who brought you up from the land of Egypt;
         Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
¹¹"But My people did not listen to My voice,
         And Israel did not obey Me.

What is God saying here? I rescued you. I saved you. It was Me and Me alone. But I want to give you even more. I want to fill you up. I want to give you as much as you want and as much as you can hold.

BUT… you did not even listen to me. You turned your back on me.

James 4:2b, “You do not have because you do not ask.”

[Slide]

9.8 The cause of our obedience

We do not obey to get God to love and accept us. That is like putting the cart before the horse.

[Slide]

Because God already loves and accepts us, we should obey.

Psalm 116:12, “What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me?” Notice the order here: God already gives me wonderful blessings so what should I give back to Him in return?

This gives us great freedom. We can enter into God’s presence not to have to appease Him but to enjoy him.

Colossians 2:6, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? It was through faith and humility. There was no excellency in our life which won us to God; so why should we now think that it is our performance that will keep us there?

Thinking that we need to work to keep us in God’s good stead is perhaps one of our greatest barriers to fully loving and worshipping God. We will always be hindered in our love for God if we concern ourselves more with trying to win His acceptance rather than simply believing it. If our attention is focused more on the merit of what we do for God rather than on God Himself then we will love more the praise for our actions rather than love to praise the One for whom our actions were intended.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

¹⁴For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

¹⁵and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

What should control our actions?

· Fear?

· Worry?

· Missing out?

No, none of these things. What should control us is Christ’s love for us and our love for Christ.

Imagine how things would be if every thought that we have, every word that we say, every action that we do was motivated by love?

[Slide]

9.9 What does God’s love mean to us?

9.9.1 Personalize God’s love

It is not enough to say that God loves people or that “God is love.” We must personalize it. We must say and believe that “God loves me.”

“For God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16)

“Because the love of God has been poured out within my heart through the Holy Spirit who was given to me” (Romans 5:5).

“But God demonstrates His own love toward me, in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me” (Romans 5:8).

Make a list of 30 ways that God shows that He personally loves me.

[Slide]

9.10 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s love mean to us?

2) If God is so loving then why do so many people live in poverty or terrible suffering?

3) If God’s love is unconditional then why do we have to confess our sins?

4) What does the fact that God unconditionally loves you mean to you?

5) Give some practical examples of God’s love in action in your own life.

6) Give some practical examples of how you can love others with God’s love.

7) Why do not trials and miserable circumstances prove that maybe God does not love us right at this moment?

8) Why is it important to personalize God’s love for us? I.e., why is not it good enough to only claim that God’s loves everyone?

9) Why do we sometimes doubt God’s love for us?

10) Are there times when God does not love us? Why or why not?

[Slide]

9.11 Situation

Amy has a terrible problem with feeling like she has no value or worth. She hates her appearance and thinks that everyone looks down on her. She was picked on while growing up both in school and by her parents. As a result, she struggles in her Christian walk since she does not think that she can do anything that anyone or even God will find useful. What are some things that you can say to encourage her and give her a new and victorious outlook on herself all the while emphasizing God’s love?

[Slide]

10 The Faithfulness of God

The faithfulness of God means that God will never desert us nor forsake us.

It means that He will stick by us whether we are doing well or doing poorly, whether we are on the top of the spiritual mountain or down in the valley.

God is always available.

Walter Winchell said, “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”

And in our tough times when it seems that everyone has walked out on us because they have more important things to attend to, God remains with us, sitting next to us, holding our hand and ready to listen.

[Slide]

10.1 God’s Faithfulness is a necessity

There are many passages in Scripture that describe our sinful state.

Romans 3

· We are unrighteous

· We do not seek for God

· We are useless

· We do not do good

· We are deceitful

· We do not fear God

· We are sinners

Ephesians 2

· We are dead in our sins

· We live in the lusts of our flesh

· We are by nature children of wrath

These are not good things. In fact, they are very, very bad things.

When we realize what we really are then God’s faithfulness is not merely an added blessing; it is a necessity.

[Slide x2]

The world crowds around celebrities, the wealthy, the famous. God surrounds the poor.

[Slide]

10.2 God will always receive us back

Psalm 73

²¹When my heart was embittered
         And I was pierced within,
²²Then I was senseless and ignorant;
         I was like a beast before You.
²³Nevertheless I am continually with You;
         You have taken hold of my right hand.

If there ever was a reason for God to leave us, then there never was a reason for Him to have been drawn to us. God does not save us because we have any intrinsic value in ourselves nor does He stay with us because we are so valuable, talented, rich, or good-looking. The assurance of God’s faithfulness rests wholly in the One that we call Lord and Savior.

[Slide x3]

If God accepted us as unforgiven sinners then what would induce Him to leave us as forgiven saints?

God is infinitely invested in us; He bought us with His Son.

When I bought a scooter for a dollar at a garage sale for one of my girls and then ran over it with my truck, I stood over it and thought, “Oh, well.” But when I bought a new car and then accidently scratched it with a shovel I was, “AAAAAHHHHH!” The difference was the amount invested. If I had paid $20,000 for the scooter then I would have been “AAAAAHHHHH!” when I ran over it. Our heart is where our treasure lies and God put His greatest treasure into us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Why is God righteous or just when He forgives us? We associate justice with punishment; not with forgiveness. It is because Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the entire sum of the penalty for our sins. And then because the Father raised His Son from the dead, it showed that He fully accepted Jesus’ payment for sins. The risen Christ is proof that God will, indeed, forgive us of our sins. So when we confess our sins, God must forgive us or He will not be righteous and just. The penalty was paid. If God did not forgive us of our sins when we confess, then He would be charging us twice for those sins.

Even in our sin God is faithful.

Why is that important?

Because no matter how sinful we may be God is always faithfully waiting for our repentance.

And when we do repent God will take us back with open arms ready to restore us.

If we commit a really terrible sin and then a year later decide to repent and come back to God we will not cry out “God? Hello? God, are You there?” and hear a hollow echo coming back.

Instead, there will be God’s arms eagerly waiting to embrace us and welcome us back.

Luke 15:11-32 is the story of the Prodigal Son. We know the story. A son takes his share of his father’s inheritance, and squanders it on wild living. When he hit rock bottom he decided to go back to his father. In his speech to his father one line was, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But when he returned home, his father ran to him and embraced him and what was the first name the father called him? “…this son of mine…” The Prodigal did not consider himself worthy to be called “son” anymore. But to his father, he never stopped being his son.

There are times when we may not feel like we are saved, or that God does not love us anymore. But all the while, no matter how anything is going, God still, and always will, consider us His sons and daughters.

Because God is faithful, He is in the details of our lives.

[Slide]

· Do you sometimes think that God has abandoned you?

· Do you wonder if you might have lost your salvation?

· Do you sometimes think that you’ve been so bad that God no longer loves you?

Then study and mediate on God’s faithfulness. It will change your life.

[Slide]

10.3 We will be brought to Heaven

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

¹¹For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

¹²Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

¹³each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

¹⁴If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

¹⁵If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Verse 11 is what this series is all about: laying a solid and proper foundation.

· Not a foundation of emotions.

· Not a foundation of our or other people’s experiences.

· Not a foundation of positive circumstances.

But a foundation that is rooted in the knowledge and firm belief in who Jesus Christ is—that is a foundation that will never be shaken.

Verse 15, even if a person never accomplished any good in his life, even if he never did anything that would survive into eternity, even if he were so lazy or so uncaring that he never once obeyed God then, if he were truly saved, then he would still be guaranteed a place in Heaven.

We are so used to an economy of give and take that it is only with difficulty that we are able to accept the truth that God gives. Pride wants to earn divine acceptance; humility simply believes it.

[Slide]

10.4 Security of our relationship

2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

Even when we are weak and doubting, Jesus Christ remains faithful to us.

The assurance of our relationship with God cannot be determined by including ourselves in any part of the equation; it must be solely determined by the character of God. It rests not on our loyalty but on God’s commitment to us.

[Slide]

Our Security of Salvation = (My character x 0%) + (God’s character x 100%)

Our Security of Salvation = God’s character

Hebrews 13:5, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU."

1 John 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

But not only is our future relationship with God secure but so is our current relationship.

Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God will remain faithful to finish His work in us.

I know someone who wanted to build a shed. He bought all of the materials, had the plans, and started it. That was over ten years ago. He lost interest about halfway through. So now there sits a partially completed structure that is worthless and has so fallen into disrepair that the only thing that can and should be done with it is to tear it down.

God will never lose interest in us and let us go to waste. He will not abandon us for someone with more talent or who is more popular or better looking. He has promised to work in our lives to bring us to perfection and He will be faithful to that task no matter what.

An interesting verse is 2 Timothy 2:12b, “If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” This verse does not mean that a believer who denies Jesus will lose his salvation since that would contradict God’s promise of always being faithful to us. Those who deny Jesus are those who made a temporary but insincere confession and then, thinking it all to be useless, turned away. I once shared the Gospel with a stranger and he told me that he was once an enthusiastic, professing Christian. But he did that to get over a hump in his life. Once all was well again he did not need Jesus anymore. He said that Jesus was like a shoehorn; once you get your shoe on then you do not need the shoehorn anymore. And once Jesus got him over the problem in his life then he did not need Jesus anymore. Have more arrogant words ever been spoken?

This is clarified in

Hebrews 6:4-6

⁴For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

⁵and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

⁶and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

How many people think that they came to experience Jesus but really did not. To them, Christianity was like joining a club. You participate in the activities and your life is not changed. Jesus is more of a historical figure like George Washington. You can study about Washington, visit key places where Washington was, even re-enact parts of what Washington did. But you can’t have a relationship with Washington because, well, he’s dead. That is how these people treat Jesus. The huge difference is that Jesus is alive and we can have a relationship with Him.

Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [s]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

[Slide]

10.5 We can always have joy

John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

God tells us that He wants to see the same joy in us that He has in Himself. This is clear enough, yet the paradox lies in what happened in Jesus’ life.

Jesus proceeded to speak of how the world hated Him, rejected Him, and persecuted Him and when He finished the Upper Room Discourse, the Prince of Peace was betrayed, tried, and crucified. The One truly meek and humble of heart was mocked and spit upon by the criminals for whose crimes He willfully paid for. Is this the joy God wishes on us?

The issue lies not upon the circumstances but in an attitude of delightful dependence upon a faithful Father. Situations will change. There will be times on the mountain with the glory of God surrounding us and times in the valley filled with doubt and confusion.

But we can always say with the psalmist, Psalm 91:2, “I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!’"

A fortress is a fortified place of exceptional security; a stronghold.

A fortress is beyond a fort or a city with walls. It was considered to be an impenetrable place of safety. Towns may be overrun and burned down but a fortress would withstand any attack. Its walls were thick so that they could not be broken down, they were tall so that they could not be easily scaled, and they were complete in that they offered protection from all sides.

This is God in our lives: strong, tall, and complete.

[Slide]

10.6 God is faithful in providing us with opportunities for persecution and affliction

Psalm 119:67, 75, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word. I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous,  and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”

Hmm, that seems to be an undesired aspect of God’s faithfulness. “Be faithful to stay with me, God, but don’t be faithful to afflict me.”

An often-overlooked aspect of God’s faithfulness is His constancy in shaping our lives to become more like the character of Jesus Christ.

All of the promises of a trouble-free life without hurt are reserved for heaven when we shall be without sin. It is then that we shall forever rest from our labors. Until that time, however, we must be prepared to suffer persecution from men and to suffer discipline from God. Through this means, perhaps more than any other, He refines stubborn people such as ourselves to become more like Himself. The Lord is good to be so faithful to us. We strongly tend to grumble and complain. Instead, we should believe and obey.

God puts us on an anvil so that we can be shaped into the people that He wants us to be.

[Slide]

10.7 Escape from temptation

As you read the Scriptures with your mind focused on one or more of God’s attributes you will see how crucial it is in so many ways.

1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

No one can ever make us sin. When we sin it is always our choice, our decision.

Proverbs 7:22 is a classic version on how we are tempted, tempted, tempted and then suddenly give in. A man went to a place that he should not have. That was his first mistake. It shows that he already had a desire to sin. And so many times in our own lives we really want to sin and so we place ourselves in a position to do so. Then a woman approaches him and tempts him with many words. And he listens and he listens some more. He should have run. Then comes verse 22, “Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool.” Suddenly, at one decisive point, he made his decision to sin. The man in this story had many chances to avoid sin, but he did not avail himself of any of them.

Someone was trapped on a rooftop from a flood.

[Slide at each step]

First someone in a boat came by but the person refused to get in because he was waiting for God to rescue him.

Then someone came by in a helicopter to rescue him but he refused because he was waiting for God to rescue him.

Then he drowned.

When he stood before God, he complained, “I was trapped on the roof and You didn’t bother to save me.” God repled, “I did try to save you, first I sent a boat, then I sent a helicopter. But you refused.”

When we are tempted we do not have to wait for some spectacular, supernatural guidance or rescue. Sometimes the best approach is to just get away from it. Close that webpage, pour that alcohol down the drain, bite your tongue instead of lashing out.

But no matter how God does it, it is always the faithfulness of God that allows us to escape from each and every temptation.

2 Timothy 4:18, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

[Slide]

10.8 What does God’s faithfulness mean to us?

10.8.1 He is in the details of our lives.

                When we think of a faithful friend we think of someone who is devoted to us and who cares about what is happening in our lives. God is our Lord and our King, but in John 15:15 He announces a relationship that is startling, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” God wants us to be intimate with Him. He has shared a great portion of His heart, thoughts, and desires with us in the Bible. As we read the Bible we quickly discover that it is not a manual but an autobiography and that its author is calling us to share ourselves with Him at all times and in all ways.

[Slide]

10.8.2 God is always ready and available to comfort and protect

                God is a constant presence in our lives. He does not go away to attend to more important business. He is always ready to hear our personal prayers, to comfort our intimate pain, to strengthen us when we falter, and to guide us when we are confused. The phrase “I am with you” or a close variation is repeated over 20 times in the Bible. Psalm 91:4 provides us with a strong promise, “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.”

[Slide]

10.9 Lamentations 3:20-23

This is a great passage about God’s faithfulness. The book of Lamentations is about loss, disappointment, brokenness. It is five chapters long. But in the middle of the middle chapter, in the midst of all of this sorrow, bookended by pain, there stands God’s faithfulness. Constant. Triumphant. Renewing.

And our response—worship.

²⁰Surely my soul remembers
         And is bowed down within me.
²¹This I recall to my mind,
         Therefore I have hope.
²²The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
         For His compassions never fail.
²³They are new every morning;
         Great is Your faithfulness.

[Slide]

10.10 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s faithfulness means to us?

2) How does knowing that God is faithful help us through difficult times?

3) Is God still faithful to us when we are in sin or does He leave us only to return when we repent?

4) What are some ways that God has proven His faithfulness to you personally?

5) Who are some people in the Bible that God proved His faithfulness to?

6) If God is so faithful then how come some people claim that in their darkest hour they felt as though God were not there at all?

7) If God has promised to be faithful no matter what then why cannot we use that as an excuse to do whatever we want?

8) What is the difference between God’s faithfulness (God will never leave nor forsake us) and God’s omnipresence (God is everywhere)?

9) What are some practical ways that we can be faithful to other people the way that God is faithful to us?

[Slide]

10.11 Situation

Elizabeth’s father abandoned her family when she was eight years old. As a result she has had a hard time keeping friends. When she feels that someone is getting too close to her she will say harsh things to that person and become distant. She is often lonely and many times it is obvious that she longs for a close friendship. You have been getting close to her and you are starting to see her doing the same thing to you. The other day she insulted your clothes and you have left several friendly but unanswered messages in the last two weeks. When you started to get to know her you knew that she is like this and you promised yourself that you would stick it out and show her that you are a loyal friend. You know that she is hurting and that her behavior is a defense mechanism to avoid being hurt, but it is difficult to endure the growing insults and cold shoulder. You decide that rather then pull away from her like everyone else you will talk to her. What will you say to her and can you incorporate God’s faithfulness into your discussion?

[Slide]

11 The Comfort of God

We may not fully understand God’s omniscience.

We may not think too much about His omnipotence.

And we may not easily get at all what the big deal is concerning His eternity.

But because no one is a stranger to pain and affliction we can easily embrace “the God of all comfort.”

For this study we are going to split it into two sections: 1) A contemplation of God’s comfort and 2) How to experience God’s comfort.

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11.1 Jesus can relate to our pain because He has experienced it Himself

Hebrews 4:15-16

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

What are some ways in which Jesus has been tempted as we are.

Loneliness: Matthew 26:46, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying," ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Temptation: Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Death of close relative/friend: Matthew 14:11-13, “And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus. Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself…”

Physical pain: Matthew 27:35, “And when they had crucified Him…”

Betrayal by a close friend: Matthew 26:47-48a, “While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, who came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign…”

Falsely accused: Matthew 26:59, “Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death.”

Abandonment by friends: Matthew 26:71-72, “When he had gone out to the gateway, another servant-girl saw him and said to those who were there, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ And again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man."

Financial loss/homelessness: Matthew 8:20, “Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’”

Isaiah 53:3-5

³He was despised and forsaken of men,
         A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
         And like one from whom men hide their face
         He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
⁴Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
         And our sorrows He carried;
         Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
         Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
         He was crushed for our iniquities;
         The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
         And by His scourging we are healed.

The Man of Sorrows has become the God all comfort.

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11.2 All of God’s attributes intensify the magnificence of His comfort

Because God is omniscient He knows the deepest and most intimate details of our lives. This includes our thoughts, hopes, desires, and feelings. Therefore, He is able to fully understand what we are going through. But not only does He understand the pain, He also knows the perfect solution.

Because God is omnipotent there is no pain too deep or too complex that He cannot heal. His arm is not too short to save; therefore, it is not too short to heal.

Because God is eternal He knew our sorrows from time past and has a solution for all time in the future.

Because God is immutable His desire for our well-being will never change.

Because God is love He will always have deep concern for us. He will never toy with us or be glad to see us suffer because we deserve it.

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11.3 Our source of comfort is God

In Psalm 143 David speaks of a number of anguishes.

· He was persecuted.

· His life was crushed.

· He was dwelling in dark places.

· He was like one long dead.

· His spirit was overwhelmed.

· His heart was appalled.

· His spirit was failing.

· His enemies were after him.

So in all of this to what or whom did he turn?

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 Verse 6, “I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land.”

· The thirsty soul will find no greater satisfaction than in that of its God.

· The best that the world has to offer is escape; God offers Himself.

· The world scorns weakness; God uses it.

· The world encourages us to complain about our misery; God tells us to focus on His greatness.

· We love self-pity; God wants self-denial.

The Scriptures abound with promises to the afflicted.

 Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.”

 Psalm 40:17, “Since I am afflicted and needy, the Lord is mindful of me; Thou art my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.”

 Psalm 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.”

Isaiah 57:15, “’I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

 Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for Thou art my praise.”

What must grip our hearts is that these are not abstract principles but concrete promises confirmed by none less than the supreme God.

Our main source of comfort is not always what God gives but in who God is. Psalm 73:28, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.”

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11.4 How to receive God’s comfort

It is easy in Christianity to toss out clichés. When someone is confused it is easy to say “Trust God.” Now that is true to a very great degree, but then we leave the person sitting there saying, “But how?” We have given them the glorious destination but with no map on how to get there.

Jeremiah 16:14, "They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.”

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We are all probably guilty of this. We take the easy road. It is a road that is short and well paved but it does not really take us very far. It is the road of simple clichés. Then there is the hard road. It is longer, not so well lit and in a lot of places we have to hack through the entanglements and underbrush. But at the end it is much more satisfying. This is the road of support, encouragement, friendship, and caring.

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11.4.1 Humility

1 Peter 5:6-7

⁶Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

⁷casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

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Humility means what?

· Not demanding that God do something right now

· Not telling God how He must remedy the situation

· Not focusing on “Why me?” and playing the victim card

· Telling people about the pain so that they might prayer, support, encourage, and help but not telling them so that you might be the center of attention

· Not despising yourself because you are weak and vulnerable or because you make mistakes or because you let your emotions get the best of you

Our frailty is not a cause of scorn from God, but because He knows our weakness,

Psalm 103:14

For He Himself knows our form; He is mindful that we are nothing but dust.

He has compassion. It is, indeed, our very impotence which draws forth the kindness and strength of God. How often we are tempted to think of our weaknesses as reason for the Lord to despise us, to shun us. We take the attitude that because we fail, we must stand alone and overcome or be overcome. We are driven by some prideful compulsion to prove ourselves to others, to ourselves and to God. Because we judge on the basis of outward appearance, we assume that God does also. Yet it was the lepers, the paralyzed, and the dead whom Christ touched. The scriptures say, “For power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). What we regard as a hindrance, God may see as a vehicle to manifest His great and magnificent glory.

The wicked want God to give them gain; the righteous see that their gain is God.

If we do not understand the “why” of a situation then it becomes more necessary to understand the “Who.” Understanding the “why” of a trial is limited to that one situation. But understanding God applies to all situations.

At the end of the book of Job, God never tells Job why he suffered. Instead, God tells Job about His magnificence. Job’s relief and comfort did not come from understanding the trial better; it came from understanding God better.

Isaiah 51:12, “I, even I, am He who comforts you…”

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11.4.2 Prayer

Philippians 4:6-7

⁶Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In this verse we see four different types of prayer being mentioned: prayer (general talking to God), supplication (praying for yourself), thanksgiving (gratitude to God), and requests (asking God for anything else).

Basically, what God is saying is that when you are feeling anxious you should pray, pray, pray, and pray.

And the result is peace. But not the peace of the world which comes from everything falling into place. This is the peace of God which is knowing that the sovereign creator is in control and cares about you no matter what the circumstances are.

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11.4.3 Recovery comes mainly through growth and not rescue

We want immediate results. When we are in pain we want the pain to be gone now. So we turn to alcohol, drugs, eating, or other immediate, and not ultimately helpful, means of relief.

Our faith may not be big enough to move a mountain, but it is always big enough to move God.

Hosea 5:15, “In their affliction they will earnestly seek me.” Our greatest need is the presence of God; our greatest motivation is, oftentimes, pain.

Let us look at John 5:1-9.

John 5:1-9

¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.

³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;

⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]

⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?"

⁷The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me."

⁸Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk."

⁹Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

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In John 5 there was a man who suffered from paralysis for 38 years and every time he thought that he might be healed someone else stepped in front and stole away his hope. Then Jesus came and, in His mercy, healed him. This man never gave up hope. He kept trying for 38 years. When the waters were stirred up, he always tried to get in. Had he been home feeling sorry for himself he would never have met Jesus. Whether our pain is emotional, physical, social, or spiritual, Jesus can heal us.  And Jesus can more than heal; He can restore. This man may never have walked and yet not only did Jesus heal his paralysis but He enabled him to carry his pallet and walk without falling.

Jesus can do more than heal our crushing grief; He can give us joy.

Jesus can do more than heal our social fears; He can teach us to be a great friend.

Jesus can do more than deliver us from hell; He can make us a citizen of Heaven.

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11.4.4 The intimacy of healing

Healing is one of God’s greatest times of intimacy. When God heals someone, that person is not merely a character in a big show. He is not a prop used to wow everyone and then left to go his way. Yes, many of Jesus’ healings were done publicly, but if we examine them, we see that His attention was on the person and not on the crowd. He did not approach an invalid and wave His arms and shout, “Come gather around and see what I am about to do.” Rather, He asked, “What can I do for you?”

In Mark 5 a 12-year old girl had died. When Jesus arrived at the official’s house there was a commotion. There were relatives and friends and, as in the tradition of the times, mourners hired to weep and wail.

Mark 5:40, “He took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.”

But Jesus put them all out and only took with Himself the child’s father and mother and His three companions. And in the silence of the room He took the child’s hand and spoke and the child rose up alive.

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There were three healings here: the child’s death and the grief and fear of both the father and the mother. And here in a small room in a dusty village Jesus healed all three and allowed them to release all of their emotions, all of their joy, and all of their praise in intimacy.

Sometimes your greatest healing may be in the solitude of your room or in a quiet corner of the church.

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11.4.5 Healing and then giving

2 Chronicles 32:25, “But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him.”

Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, Manoah’s wife, and Elizabeth were all barren. Moses was driven from his people and Joseph was sold into slavery. We are crushed and left wounded. But why does that hurt often remain untouched? One reason might be to prepare us for God’s healing, not that we might be able to receive it, but so that we will be able to give even more once we do receive it.

God wants us to be a giving people. He gives us an ocean of blessings so that we might be a stream of blessings to others. But there is a problem. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…” What is the wrong motive? It is “that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” We want to keep and not to give. Pray not just for your own healing but that you might then be used by God to comfort others.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

⁴who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

When we are hurting terribly, we wonder why God is not there. But that is never true. God is always with us and when the time is right and we are ready, He will accomplish a great thing in our lives. It may not be what we expect or when we expect it, but this we can be assured, it will be better because God is faithful and compassionate.

When we see someone else in pain we can take our experience of God’s comfort and give it to them. We can share verses that mean a lot to us. We can be available to listen or just quietly be with them. We can pray with them. We can help them work out the situation. We knew pain and then we knew how wonderful God’s comfort can be. Our response then should be to share God’s with comfort with others.

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11.4.6 God can use many means to heal

Oftentimes, and possibly even most times, God will choose a means other than Himself directly to heal.

Some of these means may be:

· Counseling: Professional, Pastoral, and from other Christians

· A Christian book

· Deliverance through our own efforts: God did deliver the Israelites from Egypt but they played a big part in making that happen

· The Bible

· By us changing our attitude

· Through our own efforts to change the situation: ex. Making our work environment more righteous

· We forgive

11.5 Exodus 4:31

“So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped.”

Even in the most difficult of times He is worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise.

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11.6 Discussion Questions

1) In addition to the ones discussed above, what are some other assurances that God’s comfort means to us?

2) Why do we find it easy to blame God for difficult circumstances?

3) God does not physically hug us or whisper audible words of encourage in our ears. So what are some ways that we can actually experience the comfort of God?

4) What are some ways that we can comfort others?

5) Why is it that sometimes when we are in the lowest point of a trial that we do not seem to feel the comfort of God at all?

6) How do our own afflictions enable us to better comfort other people?

7) In the Bible, what are ways in which God comforted some people?

8) Why is God so perfectly able to comfort us?

9) If someone is in a tough situation that is entirely their own doing then when should we offer them comfort and when should we admonish them? Feel free to compose your own example of such a situation and how you would respond to it.

10) What are some ways of how we might willfully or unconsciously refuse God’s comfort?

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11.7 Situation

You oversee the “Mercy Ministry” which responsibilities include hospital visits, encouraging the discouraged and fainthearted, going to the homes of the incapacitated and helping out, and listening to those who need support. Todd is someone who views emotions as a weakness and whose response to everything is to either repent or to “just do something about it.” Inexplicably, he just joined your ministry. You are concerned that he will be overbearing and overwhelm those who are tottering, but you do not want to discourage his desire to serve. So you take him aside to give him some examples of situations where people might need comfort, encouragement, and support and what you would do for them and say to them. What might you say?