What is God Like ?- Part 7

“There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, ‘God is spirit’ (John 4:24). In the Greek there is no indefinite article, and to say ‘God is a spirit’ is most objectionable, for it places Him in a class with others. God is ‘spirit’ in the highest sense. Because He is ‘spirit’ He is incorporeal, having no visible substance. Had God a tangible body, He would not be omni-present, He would be limited to one place; because He is ‘spirit’ He fills heaven and earth. Secondly, ‘God is light’ (1 John 1:5), which is the opposite of darkness. In Scripture ‘darkness’ stands for sin, evil, death, and ‘light’ for holiness, goodness, life. ‘God is light’ means that He is the sum of all excellency. Thirdly, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8). It is not simply that God ‘loves,’ but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.” (Arthur Pink)

That God ‘is’ love, not merely that it is ‘in’ His nature to love, defies human comprehension. Our attempts to define God’s love are framed by our own conceptions of what ‘love’ means, and what it should look like. Sadly, the tendency to define God’s love in human terms has also invaded His Bride, the church, to the extent that characteristics and attributes of God clearly set forth in scripture that contradict our definitions, are rarely mentioned from the pulpit, are explained away, or are simply tossed out. Our ‘Christian’ minds have been so well-conditioned by man-centered humanistic psychology, that we can no longer conceive of a God who ‘is’ love displaying wrath and judgment. So what does scripture tells us about God’s love?

1. The love of God is not influenced by anything we do or don’t do. “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deut 7:7-8). The reason any of us loves God is because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19).

2. God’s love is eternal. Since God is eternal, and because He ‘is’ love, His love is also eternal. In Jeremiah 31:3, God declared His everlasting love for His people even though they were in exile, while promised deliverance from bondage. “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” While the prophet Jeremiah spoke directly to God’s Old Testament covenant people, the Apostle Paul expressed the same eternal truth to believers in Ephesus, whether they were Jews or Gentiles: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—” (Ephesians 1:4-5). 

3. God’s live is sovereign. Since God is sovereign, and since He is love, His love is sovereign. This truth also follows from the eternal nature of God’s love. Our Ephesians passage (Ephesians 1:4-5) tells us that God, because in His love it pleased Him to do so, predetermined to have a people unto Himself that He would present as a love gift to His Son (John 6:37-40). Once again, the Apostle Paul, drawing upon God’s  words to Moses, reminded New testament believers of the sovereign nature of God’s love:  “Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:13-16).

4. God’s love is infinite and unchangeable. For God SO loved. . .(John 3:16). “Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present, and future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So His love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement, by any creature standard.” (Arthur Pink). 

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17). All of God’s attributes are forever, as is the character of His beloved Son: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8).

5. God’s love is infinitely gracious. For God SO LOVED that He gave His Son to die for OUR sin! Because the wages of sin is death, by His own unchangeable decree, and because since the Fall of man every human being has been born spiritually dead and separated from God for eternity, God sentenced His own beloved Son to die so that all who would come to believe in the Son would be reconciled to Himself and find eternal life.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:1-9)

Not only did God send His own Son to die on our behalf, when we would not even seek Him on our own (Romans 3:10-18), God Himself draws us to the Cross of Calvary (John 6:44). Without a supernatural work of God in the human heart, no one would choose Christ! Can a dead man see? Can a dead man hear? Can a dead man choose? When God exposes a man to the true nature of his sin and lost condition, and presents to that man His Son and Savior, that man will run to the Cross!   That, dear friends, is the irresistible grace of God who ‘is’ Love!  

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Part 5

Part 6

What is God Like ?- Part 6

Not only did God create the universe and everything in it, He is ruler and judge over all that He created. If you don’t believe this writer, believe scripture:

“Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25)

“The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:10)

“But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.” (Psalm 9:7-8)

“For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.” (Isaiah 66:15-16)

God as Judge is not a very popular topic these days, but His righteous judgment is a theme that flows throughout Scripture, beginning with the judgment of Adam and Even and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), and culminating with the final  judgment of all mankind spoken of in Revelation 20. God judged the corrupt world of Noah’s day, sending a flood to destroy the earth (Gen 6-8). Later in Old testament, we have the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18-19).God judged the Egyptian taskmasters with a series of plagues (Exodus 7-12), the worshippers of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:26-35), those who who offered God ‘strange fire’ (Leviticus 10:1-3), and the nations of His chosen people for her unfaithfulness, sending them into captivity in Assyria (Israel) and Babylon (Judah).

While we don’t see God’s judgment demonstrated in the same way in the New Testament, we have this from the Apostle Paul:

“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)

Another expression of God’s judgment in the New Testament comes from Jesus himself during his encounter with Nicodemus:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)

Among the persons of the Trinity, the office of Judge is occupied by he Son, at the decree of the Father. (John 5:22) In Jesus’ words to some religious leaders of His day, we have the criteria by which men are judged for eternity – their belief or their unbelief.

Since God is creator, He has the authority to judge His creation. Because God represents all that is good, and right, and true, He is certainly qualified to judge that which is evil. Since God possesses perfect wisdom, He will always judge fairly and without error. Because God is the supreme authority, because He represents all that is good and right, and because He possesses perfect wisdom, He needs no jury.

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” He most certainly will! A more pertinent question is, are you ready to meet the Judge of all the earth? 

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To be continued. . .

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Part 5

What is God Like? – Part 5a

We are living in turbulent times, not only throughout the world, but also in our nation – perhaps the most turbulent time in recent history. While the major media and the political liberals see economic recovery, all Americans safe in the government’s care, and world peace down the road, conservatives see a headlong rush into socialism, Marxism, and the death of freedom on many levels, if not the very death of our nation. Students of Scripture and eschatological prognosticators see end-time prophesies being fulfilled at a frightening pace. The spectrum of emotion that accompanies these perceptions ranges from blind euphoria on one end to fear and hatred on the other end.

Regardless of current circumstances, or what they mean for us as individual Americans, our society and culture, or even our status as a nation, God, in his sovereignty, exercises complete control at every level, and over every nation on earth, including the United States of America. That is the proposition before us, one that we need to understand, and the single proposition that will bring us comfort beyond description in the most turbulent of times.

To present the case for God’s sovereignty over America, consider these words from the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts:

“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,” (Acts 17:24-26)

Here are a few questions for consideration and discussion:

• Where, to whom, and why did Paul speak these words?
• What do these words tell us about God’s Sovereignty?
• How do these words apply to America?

I suppose you could say this is a Bible study of sorts. Don’t just consider these verses, but look elsewhere in scripture for specific examples God’s sovereignty over the areas you identify in this passage. The results are astounding and irrefutable.

Please share with us what you discover!

What is God Like? – Part 5

“When people are getting sleepy, if you want to arouse and wake them up thoroughly, preach the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty to them; for that will do it right speedily.” C. H. Spurgeon

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines sovereign as: “Supreme in power; possessing supreme dominion; as a sovereign ruler of the universe.” Concerning the ruler of the universe, the Psalmist gives us these words:

“The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” (Psalm 103:19). “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases him.” (Psalm 115:3).  “I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” (Psalm 135:5-6)

The meaning of sovereignty could be summed up in this way: To be sovereign is to possess supreme power and authority so that one is in complete control and can accomplish whatever he pleases.

A number of similar definitions of sovereignty can be found in books on the attributes of God:

“Furthermore, His sovereignty requires that He be absolutely free, which means simply that He must be free to do whatever He wills to do anywhere at any time to carry out His eternal purpose in every single detail without interference. Were He less than free He must be less than sovereign.

Grasping the idea of unqualified freedom requires a vigorous effort of the mind. We are not psychologically conditioned to understand freedom except in its imperfect forms. Our concepts of it have been shaped in a world where no absolute freedom exists. Here each natural object is dependent upon many other objects, and that dependence limits its freedom.”[1]

“God is said to be absolutely free because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do as He pleases always, everywhere, forever. To be thus free means also that He must possess universal authority. That He has unlimited power we know from the Scriptures and may deduce from certain other of His attributes.”[2]

Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him. So His own Word expressly declares: ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’ (Isa. 46:10); ‘He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand’ (Dan. 4:35). Divine sovereignty means that God is God in fact, as well as in name, that He is on the Throne of the universe, directing all things, working all things ‘after the counsel of His own will’ (Eph. 1:11).”[3]

“God’s supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creatures, all perform their Maker’s bidding. At His pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Ex. 14); and the earth opened her mouth and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit (Nu. 14). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Josh. 10); and on another occasion went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isa. 38:8). To exemplify His supremacy, He made ravens carry food to Elijah (I Kings 17), iron to swim on top of the waters (II Kings 6:5), lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames.’ (Psa. 135:6).”[4]

“The ‘god’ of this twentieth century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The ‘god’ who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality.… A ‘god’ whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits naught but contempt.”[5]

The creator of the universe is the ruler of the universe! We all are born with that knowledge (see Rom 1:18-28). The atheist doesn’t rail against false gods, but he hates the God he knows exists.  Furthermore, we will all one day acknowledge Him, if not as we live and breathe, at the judgment seat of Christ before we face the torments of Helll.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phi. 2:9-11. cf. Rom. 14:11. Isa. 45:23)

[2] Ibid., p. 116.

[3] A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Swengel, Pa.: Reiner Publications, 1968), p. 27.

[4] Ibid., p. 25.

[5] Ibid., pp. 23, 24.

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To be continued. . .

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What is God Like? – Part 4

Merriam Webster defies majesty as 1) “sovereign power, authority, or dignity”; and 2) “royal bearing or aspect”. Living in Colorado I can look at the Rocky  Mountains and call them majestic. Having also seen, up close and personal, the European Alps, the Rockies don’t seem quite as majestic, by comparison.

Majesty is also a term applied to Kings and Queens – persons of royalty, whether or not they actually exercise complete sovereignty over their subjects.

In scripture, majesty is used to express the thought of the greatness of God.  We are told that the Lord reigns, clothed in majesty from His eternal throne (Psalm 93:1-2). We are told twice in the book of Hebrews that Christ now sits  at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb 1:3, 8:1). The word majesty, when applied to God, is always a declaration of His greatness and an invitation to worship (Psalm 48:1, Psalm 95:3,6).

“Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.” (Psalm 48:1)

“For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.  . . .Come, let us bow down in worship,  let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;” (Psalm 95:3,6)

“Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort we are – weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite and almighty. He has us in His hands, we never have Him in ours. Like us, He is personal, but unlike us, he is great. In all its constant stress on the reality of God’s personal concern for His people, and on the gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, patience and yearning compassion that he shows toward them, the Bible never lets us lose sight of His majesty and unlimited dominion over all of His creatures.” – J.I. Packer

So how do we maintain great thoughts of the majesty of God?  First, we need to remove from out thoughts of God limits that would make Him small. How can we do that? Psalm 139 gives us a starting point. We can listen to and meditate on the words of the Psalmist as he describes God’s unlimited wisdom (vv. 1-4), and His presence (vv. 5-10), and His power (vv. 13-14). We can read of God’s revelation of Himself to Job in Job 38-41.

We can also compare God to that we might consider great. Listen to the prophet Isaiah as he comforts the nation of Israel in exile.

The Nations

“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.” –  (Isaiah 40:15, 17)

We mortals might tremble before the nations, but the nations are nothing to God!

The World

“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” – (Isaiah 40:22)

The world dwarfs us, but God dwarfs the world!

The world’s great ones.

“He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.” – (Isaiah 40:23-24)

The world’s greatest men are but dust in the wind to the Almighty God.

Now look at the stars.

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” – (Isaiah 40:26)

This is our God!

Reader, when God is mentioned, what are your thoughts of Him? Do you think of a “small” God, who exists mainly to serve us, or are they BIG thoughts of the majestic God of the Bible!

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To be continued. . .

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Part 5