This series was was preached to a congregation of people at all levels of spiritual maturity over a period of nearly half a year. It will take you about half an hour to read. The notes were made for small groups to look at these themes together and apply to their own lives. The purpose of the series was to help us to:
1) To focus on God Himself
2) To appreciate His nature and character
3) To be inspired to revere, love, worship, please Him and get closer to Him
4) To help others to know Him as He is.
Bearing in mind all that we have seen of the nature and the character of God so far let us take a moment to look at how to relate to God…
Consider first, what an awesome thing it is, that we can know God at all – that we can have a relationship with the most important person in the universe – the creator of everything! The one who has all the power and all the resources wants us to know him and to share it all with us!
But how can we know Him? It is more than knowing about Him. Most of us know various things about the Queen, and it feels like we know her, but really we don't know her at all. Knowing things about God does not mean we have a relationship with Him even if we think we know Him. We can have a relationship with God and know Him ONLY if…
We have a pure heart - Jesus said "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" (Matthew 5v8). By nature no one has a pure heart before God. Can any of us say that we have had no other desires but a pure desire to know and please God since we were born? No, so once again we are confronted by our inability to relate to God before we begin, and once again there is good news – the gospel, tells us we can be forgiven, we can be reconciled to God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as we come to the cross in repentance and humility we begin to relate to and to know God - as long as our hearts remain pure.
We love God - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12v30). We only really get to know the ones that we really love and we only really love the ones we really know! Actually in human relationships that is more difficult, because when we really get to know someone, we get to know their imperfections, but with God the more we know Him the more we discover how wonderful and perfect He is!
We obey Him - "This is the love of God - that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5v3) "This commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also" (1 John 4v21). "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4v8).
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2v15-16). The surest thing to rob us of an intimate relationship with God is to let the things of this world fill our lives. God "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment" (1 Timothy 6v17) but let's remember WHO gave them to us and enjoy Him MORE and not replace Him with those things!
We pursue Him - We want to spend time with the ones we love. Even then, it may be difficult to do so because of the pressures of work and the constraints of time, but love finds a way. The Psalmist said "O God, You are my God, early will I seek You, my soul thirsts for you" (Psalm 63v1). He goes on to say "I meditate on You in the night watches" (v6). Think on this, as we have looked at the wonderful character and ways of God over these past few months, we have seen… His shimmering glory, His limitless power, His absolute sovereignty, His omnipresence, omniscience, unchangeableness, and His eternity, which are awesome. His truth, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, and His wrath, which call forth our respect. His wonderful love, His perfect goodness, His great faithfulness, His amazing grace, and His mercy, which make Him approachable and wonderful to be with!
As an old chorus says: "We serve a great big wonderful God, a God who loves every one of us, does so much for all of us, a great big wonderful God!"
"The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits."
Daniel 11v32
THE FEAR OF GOD
We can only relate to God if we relate to Him the way He is.
God's shimmering glory, His limitless power, His absolute sovereignty, His omnipresence, omniscience, unchangeableness, and His eternity are awesome. His wonderful love, His perfect goodness, His great faithfulness, His amazing grace, and His mercy make Him approachable and wonderful to be with. On the other hand His truth, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, and His wrath (which all come from His love) call forth our respect.
The Fear of God for all mankind
By nature, unless they have an encounter with God, most men and women have no fear of Him, because if they did, they would not behave the way they do. The day is coming for all those who have not had a healthy fear of God, to experience the terror of Revelation 6v16 when men will say 'to the mountains and the rocks "fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb."' The Apostle Paul said "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Corinthians 5v11). That same terror will be experienced by those who did know the truth but turned their backs on it, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10v26-31).
The Fear of God for believers
In view of the above, it behoves us all to have a fear of slipping back (Hebrews 12v28-29 & Proverbs 8v13) and even that is a most healthy thing. The fear of God comes out of love. If you know someone loves you, and you love them, you avoid doing things that will upset or hurt them, that is a healthy and worthy fear. Furthermore if you do inadvertently incur their wrath, it hurts you too and that healthy fear drives you to put things right.
The Fear of God is most positive
For the true believer, the fear of God is not terror, but the natural outcome of appreciating how great and awesome God is and this is a most positive thing. Furthermore such fear of God has many benefits, a few of which are listed below for our encouragement and rejoicing:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Proverbs 9v10 It will be well with those who fear God Ecclesiastes 8v12
Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones Proverbs 3v7
The fear of the Lord prolongs days Proverbs 10v27
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life Proverbs 14v27
The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction, he will not be visited with evil Proverbs 19v23
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him Psalm 25v14
How great is your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You Psalm 31v19
There is no want to those who fear Him… those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing Psalm 34v10
Come you children, listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psalm 34v11
See how: in verses 12-14
The Lord is my light and my salvation who shall I fear? Psalm 27v1
"The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear Him you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else." Oswald Chambers
THE ALL KNOWING GOD
“His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147v5)
How can the finite mind of man even begin to understand the infinite God? John Wesley said "Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend God." Paul said "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (Romans 11v33). God is too wonderful and out of reach to our tiny brains, yet we can begin to know Him with our hearts in our spirit, through the revelation of Himself in His Word and through the coming His Son into our world.
Consider our infinite, all-knowing God: GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING about everything -
God knows everything about His creation – "He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name" (Psalm 147v4). Every detail, from the tiniest atom to the furthest star and beyond, every detail, past, present and future – from eternity to eternity – and all of that is current (there's nothing stored in a memory bank somewhere) – God is consciously aware of every detail all the time!! He even knows about what could have been!
God knows everything about His creatures – When God rebuked Job for his hasty words, God gave him a glimpse of His knowledge of His creatures (Job 39) and in the process He revealed to Job how little he knew about anything – that is a good place to come to, if it brings us to our knees before the all-knowing God!
God knows everything about us - He knows our motives, secret thoughts and hidden sins: "You O Lord… know the hearts of all" (Acts 1v24), "All things are open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4v13), "I am He who searches the minds and hearts and will give to each one of you according to your works" (Revelation 2v23).Once again even the tiniest glimpse of God brings us face to face with ourselves and our guiltiness before the all-knowing God. It also highlights our need to be reconciled with Him.
The good news (the gospel) is that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Corinthians 5V19). That is wonderful in itself, but it is even more amazing when we consider that in order to do that, God had to send His Son into the world and in the process, the infinite became finite, the eternal became mortal, the limitless became limited, and the all-knowing Son laid aside His knowledge to be subject to the Father and to become like us in our humanity, yet without sin.
The all-knowing God cares about us His care is shown in sending His Son "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life." – Our response – to believe on Him.
The all-knowing God cares about the tiniest details of our everyday lives. Jesus said "The very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10v30). Our response – to trust Him
The all-knowing God knows best Psalm 139 speaks of God's intimate knowledge of us – if He has known us before we were born and allotted the number of days of our lives, and loves us so much that He would personally come into our world and suffer with us and for us, our lives are safe in His hands. Our response – "Lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139v24.
Point to ponder – How does knowing that God is all-knowing effect your life?
THE POWER OF GOD
“Power belongs to God” (Psalm 62v11)
Job was not immune from the sufferings of living on this planet and in the midst of his own torments he spoke these words in Job 26v5-14: “He stirs up the sea with His power…indeed these are the mere edges of His ways and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” In other words we get a small demonstration of God’s power in nature but the full extent of His power is beyond imagination!
Habakkuk 3v2-16 gives a vivid picture of God’s power which could almost be a poetic description of the Tusunamai: “He had rays flashing from His hand and there His power was hidden. Before Him went pestilence…the mountains saw You and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice…You walked through the sea with Your horses, through the heap of great waters. When I heard, my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered my bones and I trembled in myself.” Notice that the prophet says this was the hiding of God’s power. His power was hidden in these events. In other words God was at work but even so, we have hardly had a glimpse of His great power! Notice also the response of the man of faith in this situation: Habakkuk 3v17-19
Events like the Tsunamai do not say that God is impotent or that He is not in control, quite the opposite – they tell us that God is all powerful, that God is at work. They are a wake up call. God has already warned us in His word that “there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24v7-8). The apostle Paul wrote, “The whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs until now” (Romans 8v22). These things are alerting us to the fact that we need to be prepared to meet our Maker, that judgement is coming. Once again facing God as He really is, confronts us with ourselves the way we really are and our need of salvation. The gospel… is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1v16).
For those then who are saved, the power of God is a great comfort for the following reasons:
1) All power in heaven and earth is given to Jesus, our Saviour (Matthew 28v18). We are in safe hands.
2) He is coming again with “power and great glory” (Mark 13v26) to take us to Himself.
3) In the meantime He has given us power over the devil (Luke 10v19).
4)“His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness” 2 Peter 1v3
5)Jeremiah said: “Ah Lord God You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You” (32v17) - There’s no prayer too hard for Him to answer, no need to great for Him to meet, no temptation too great for Him to deliver us from, no problem to big for Him to solve. He is the all powerful God, God Almighty.
“I have looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory”
(Psalm 62v2)
THE TRUTH OF GOD
“The truth of the Lord endures forever” (Psalm 117v2)
We live in a world where lies are the order of the day. Many people tell lies as a matter of course, it becomes a way of life, and they consequently live a lie. Such people cannot be trusted, or relied upon. We have never met anyone who is totally truthful. There are people who avoid telling lies, but they are economical with the truth and that is almost as bad as lying, and many think they are honest, but they tell the truth the way they see it. Only God is absolutely, objectively truthful, because truth is His nature. He is the God of truth (Isaiah 65v16).
We can be totally secure in God, because He is true. What He has revealed of Himself - He is love, He is just and fair, He is merciful, He is good and He never changes – we can therefore trust and rely on Him being all these things because He is the God of truth. Furthermore, because God Himself is truth…
His Word is truth – many have questioned and doubted it, but if there was the slightest possibility of God being untruthful, then we could not be sure about anything that He has said. But the opposite also follows: If God Himself is pure truth, then what God says is absolute truth – totally dependable and utterly reliable. "His truth endures to all generations" (Psalm 100v5).
We can rely on the Bible's accuracy – it has been wonderfully preserved over all these centuries. It not only contains God's word – it is God's Word, it not only contains God's truth it is true. Jesus said "Your Word is truth" (John 17v17). Everything that God has said will come to pass because His word is true, and it does not change. He has said He will judge the world in righteousness and He will. Furthermore that judgement will be absolutely just and fair because it will be based on the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the meantime He extends His mercy and offer of salvation to the world. It is worthy of note that on numerous occasions, especially in the Psalms, mercy and truth go together (Psalms 57v3, 85v10, 86v15, Proverbs 14v22, 16v6, 20v28).
His Son is the truth When Pilate asked, "What is truth?" he was articulating what all humanity needs to know. What Pilate did not know however, was that he had the personification of truth standing before him! When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14v6), He did so because as God's only begotten Son, truth is His very nature. We do not have to look very far in the records of the life of Jesus to see that truth coming through in everything He did; and everything He said, has the ring of truth about it. So everyone who believes on Jesus, is believing the truth. "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8v32).
His Spirit is truth 1 John 5v6 says "The Spirit is truth." The Holy Spirit could have been called the Spirit of love, or the Spirit of power etc. but on three occasions in John's gospel Jesus calls Him the Spirit of truth. The reason for that is because that is the way He relates to us. We have agreed above that we all need to know the truth – we are lost and uncertain without it. So the Holy Spirit who is all that God is, ministers truth to us. He will be with us and in us (John 14v17). He will help us, and testify of Jesus and help us to do the same (John 15v26-27). He will guide us into the truth and reveal further truths to us (John 16v13).
God's absolute truthfulness challenges us to be totally truthful with ourselves, and with others (Ephesians 4v25) and to speak the truth not in a harsh or condemning way but in love (Ephesians 4v15).
Point to ponder: How does God's truth affect our lives?
THE GRACE OF GOD
“The God of all grace” (1 Peter 5v10)
God is a gracious God.
When we think of a gracious person (usually someone older, living at a more relaxed pace than most of us), we probably define them as gracious because they are serene, gentle, kindly, and positive in the way they speak of, and to others. But the grace of God is much more than that. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is not getting what we deserve, but taking it one mighty leap further… It's getting what we don't deserve.
Grace is one of the major recurring themes of the Apostle Paul. He began and ended his letters with words like: "Grace to you" (Romans 1v7) "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" (Romans 16v24) because he had experienced it!
As Saul of Tarsus he was a zealous man but a totally misguided, cruel and merciless man. He persecuted Christians, hounding them to their death. When he described himself as "the chief of sinners" (1 Tim 1v15) he wasn't being modest, he knew what he had been. He knew what he deserved – punishment for being such an awful man. But in his encounter with Jesus, he knew he had been given what he didn't deserve – that was grace! He had experienced God's grace, which he didn't deserve, and he could never forget it.
He said "Unto me, who am less that the least of the saints, is this grace given" (Ephesians 3v8). "I am the least of the apostles… because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15v10).
It's God's nature to meet us in our misery, to forgive and forgive again, to give and give again – God is not obliged to do so, He does it because it's His nature. His grace comes out of His love and He shows us His love by bestowing His grace. Let's look at how He does that…
Titus 2v11 "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." God has shown his grace to the world by sending Jesus to save us but to receive it we have to humble ourselves before Him:
"God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5v5).
John 1v17 "The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus is the manifestation of the grace of God and by receiving him we begin to receive the grace of God.
THE RIGHTEOUS GOD
“The Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness” (Psalm 11v7)
God is absolutely righteous.
He is the source of all that is right and good and true. "He is righteous in all His ways" Psalm 145v17. His righteousness effects everything that He does in other words He always does the right thing because He is righteous.
As with all His attributes, His Righteousness comes out of His love – He loves what is right and He is well disposed towards those who do what is right. As with all the aspects of His character His Righteousness makes Him absolutely dependable – He is totally predictable, not in what He will do next, but how He will react and what He expects from us. He always does what is right and good and true. This makes us totally safe in His hands.
We have seen already that God is Just – He is fair and impartial in all His ways, He is absolutely Good, He is totally Faithful, He is Holy and expects His people to be holy, and even His anger at sin means we know what He is like and how He reacts. We are safe with Him especially since we know how much He loves us and that He will always forgive sin if we truly repent of it. Therefore we can depend on Him to always do that which is right by everyone.
Because God is absolutely righteous, He loves righteousness (Psalm 11v7) but this also means that He hates all unrighteousness (everything that is not good, everything that is wrong, everything that is sin). God's perfect righteousness exposes our condition: "There is none righteous no not one" (Romans 3v10). Once again a confrontation with the perfect character of God shows up our total depravity, throws us on His mercy, drives us to the cross and preaches to us the good news of the Gospel: "We need to be saved…All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" Isaiah 64v6.
When a person comes in faith to the foot of the cross not only are their sins forgiven them, but the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS is imputed to them. In other words, righteousness is put into the account of the person who has faith in Christ. As the Apostle Paul says, "I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3v8-9).
Paul talks about the gift of righteousness: "If by the one man's offence death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5v17).
"He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5v21). In other words when we put our faith in Christ and His work on the cross we are counted righteous in God's sight – as righteous as Jesus - as God Himself is!!
God has done everything to make it possible for us to be right with Him and to be righteous before Him. What glorious good news the Gospel is! What a wonderful Righteous God He is!
"Surely the Judge of all the earth will do RIGHT"
Genesis 18v25
We have taken a brief, but breathtaking view of the character and attributes of God. – His glory, His holiness, love, righteousness, justice, wrath, mercy, goodness, faithfulness, power, grace, sovereignty, omnipresence, omniscience, unchangeableness and His truth. ALL of these are attributes of the triune God. Every aspect of the character of the Father is true of the Son, and true of the Holy Spirit.
THE TRIUNE GOD
God in three Persons
The Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, Christadelphians and other sects, all have problems with this doctrine. They acknowledge the Son and the Holy Spirit in varying degrees, but they deny that they are coequal with the Father. It is true that the term Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible at all, but all through the Bible the Son and the Spirit are there, and our understanding of the Godhead is built up as the story unfolds. We are introduced to God the Son in His coming into the world, but that coming is foretold in the Old Testament, and the Son introduced the Holy Spirit, when He was sent by Jesus to take His place, but again the presence of the Spirit is seen from Genesis 1v2.
The Eternity of God
So far in our study of the nature of God, His eternity has been mentioned in passing and we will not do a separate study of this, but it is important at this stage to see how the Father is eternal, and the Son is eternal and the Spirit is eternal…
The Eternity of the Father: "From everlasting to everlasting You are God" (Psalm 90v2)
The Eternity of the Son: "The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1v1-2) The Eternity of the Spirit: He is described as the "eternal Spirit" (Hebrews 9v14)
There was never a point in eternity when the Son (Hebrews 7v3) or the Spirit came into being. They have always existed together with the Father. No one other than God has no beginning and no end, so the very eternity of the Son & the Spirit establishes the fact of their being God with the Father. They are distinct aspects of God, but they are not three gods or 3 thirds of God, they are three distinct personalities, yet there is ONE God. "Hear O Israel the LORD our God, the LORD is One." (Deuteronomy 6v4). It's a mystery, and it's so complex that no man would ever have come up with the idea – it is beyond the human mind to comprehend – God revealed it to us Himself in His Word.
Trinity working together
The Three Persons have total unity of purpose but they do have different functions within the Godhead and this is important as it determines how we relate to each of the persons at any given moment in our lives.
God the Father conceived of us (Genesis1v26), gave us life and freedom of existence, and knowing how we would abuse that freedom, conceived the way of redemption before the world existed (Rev 13v8). Jesus constantly sought to relate us back to God as Father and we can approach Him directly as our Father because of the access Jesus has provided for us (John 16v23).
God the Son who is the image of the invisible God, created us, reconciled us to the Father, redeemed us by His blood (Colossians 1v14-16), gave us everlasting life (John 17v2), intercedes for us (Hebrews 7v25), and is waiting to take us to Himself (1 Thess 4v16-18).
God the Spirit is working in the world to bring people to Jesus and hence to the Father (John 16v8). He is our teacher and guide and brings spiritual growth in our lives (John 16v10-13). He gives us power to be witnesses (Acts 1v8) & makes the power of God available to us.
Point to Ponder: We may be able to relate to Jesus more readily because of His humanity but if we do not equally have a relationship with the Father & the Holy Spirit we are not fully relating to God the way He is – the Triune God.
THE UNCHANGEABLE GOD
“I am the LORD, I do not change” (Malachi 3v6)
The reason that God can be known to us is because He does not change. The true and living God who walked with Adam in the cool of the day, who met with Moses at the burning bush and on Mount Sinai, who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, who saved Jonah from the great fish, who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, is the same today as He was then.
The God that Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, Peter, John and Paul knew is just the same to us as He was to them. The way God was THEN is the way He is NOW. The truths they discovered, and the way God was to them is no different in any way all these centuries later, because God changes not. There is "no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1v17) with Him. If He was subject to change we would never know how to relate to Him at any given time. We would be totally insecure and lost in the universe, but we can be secure in knowing Him because:
God's Nature does not change One of the great theologians of old put it very clearly when he said: "All that God is, He has always been; and all that He has been and is, He always will be." This is based on an understanding of God's revelation of Himself in scripture which says: "From everlasting to everlasting You are God" (Psalm 90v1). He is the eternal "I AM" (Exodus 3v14) He is eternally the same. If at any point along the way God had changed in any way, He would be a different God from what He was before. Also if He was to change, it would either have to be from better to worse or from worse to better, but that would mean that His is not perfect, therefore to be perfect from everlasting to everlasting – He is changeless.
God's Character does not change God is love, God is good, God is righteous, God is holy – if any aspect of His character were to change, He would cease to be who He is and we would be in big trouble. The fact that His character does not change in the slightest means that He is totally predictable – we know how He acts and reacts – and we can relate to Him with the confidence that the way He treated His people Israel thousands of years ago, He will do the same for us today. "I am the Lord, I do not change therefore you are not consumed O sons of Jacob" (Malachi 3v6). "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from you" (Isaiah 54v10).
God's Truth does not change "Forever O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119v94), "Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever" (Psalm 119v152). Because God does not change, what He has spoken will never be altered or rescinded. "Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away" (Matthew 24v35). His unchangeableness makes His Word totally dependable, rock solid. It also means that what He has warned mankind of, will surely come to pass – that judgement is coming, that the wicked will be punished.
Once again God's unchangeableness brings us face to face with our own fickleness and changeableness. It also leads us again to the good news of the gospel, as revealed in His unchanging Word, that "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10v13).
God's Purposes do not change "The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33v11). This is set in some awesome statements that are very relevant to all our lives – see v8-10 & v12-22. See also Proverbs 19v21, & Isaiah 46v9-10.
What God has planned will not be changed and He will bring to pass what He has spoken however long it takes. We can trust His plans because they are best, and because they come out of His character of goodness and love.
Point to Ponder – How does God's unchangeableness affect our lives?