Title: What the Bible Teaches Us about God Pt. 1

Text: Gen 1:1

Date: 1-28-07.am

Introduction:

The Bible begins with the words “in the beginning God”. As we have mentioned before there is no explanation of God, nor is there any attempt to answer the many questions we might have about God where came from or how He came to be. Just a simple statement declaring His existence. But, God want us to know Him. He wants us to know Him personally. So through the pages of the Bible He has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

In addition to His commandments He has revealed His nature and His attributes or inherent characteristics. God’s attributes are classified in a number of different ways moral/nonmoral or absolute/relative natural/moral the names of the different classifications are not set in stone they include the same things. The classifications themselves are human ways to identify and understand God’s revelation of Himself to us. Someone else may use different classifications than I am this morning. And, often the breakdown gets very specific. I’m going to try to be more general in my approach. I want to give you the broad idea of these characteristics. You may already be familiar with them I didn’t look back but I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before. They are things, as Christians, we ought to be aware of and be somewhat familiar with. The late Dr A. H. Strong defined them as, “those distinguishing characteristics of the divine nature which are inseparable from the idea of God and which constitute the basis and ground for his various manifestations to his creatures.” They are characteristics and attributes which help us understand God and His dealings with us. That’s what we are going to be looking at over the next several weeks trying to understand them and understand why they are important to us as Christians.

I. The Nature of God

First I want to talk about the nature of God. There are 4 important distinctions to make about God.

1. God is Spirit

John 4:24

24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." NASB

What does that mean?

God is not a material being like we are. He doesn’t have a body. He is invisible. He is not composed of matter; or having no material existence.

1. This distinguishes the God of the Bible, the one true God, from all the other “gods” worshiped in biblical times and anything substituted for God or worshiped in place of God past or present.

This helps form the basis for the first two of the Ten Commandments

Ex 20:2-5

2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not worship them or serve them; NASB

2. It has implications for worship. Talking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. She made a statement, which was really a question about true worship.

John 4:19-20

19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

John 4:23

23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. NASB

The question was one of place, where to worship but it encompasses more than where. Jesus said that because God is a spiritual being worship isn’t confined to or suppose to focus on material/physical things. True worship is about the heart and the condition of the heart it’s about why we come to worship whether we come to experience the reality of the presence of God in our lives or whether we come to check something off a list. And to understand worship isn’t confined to the Sabbath or the Lord’s day which is Sunday or to a particular place. This day and this place are set aside for the purpose of worship the purpose of experiencing God’s presence and learning of God in a corporate or group setting. The Bible teaches us we are to come together for that purpose but true worship isn’t confined to here and now. It can and should take place anywhere you are and everywhere you go because God is Spirit and not bound by space time restrictions.

2. God is Person or Personality

What do we mean by that? What is personhood?

I think we commonly define someone as a person because they have a body. Neither material or physical existence is necessary for personhood. Scientifically or philosophically a person is defined as a being who has the powers of self-consciousness; and self determination and to that the late Southern Baptist theologian Dr W. T. Connor adds the dimension of moral consciousness. He said the other two characteristics are incomplete without moral consciousness. All three of those are flawed imperfect and incomplete in fallen humanity. God is the only being who has perfect and complete self-consciousness, self-determination and moral consciousness. Therefore in reality God is the only being with true perfect personhood.

That God is person is indicated in a number of ways in Scripture.

1. He is spoken of in what are called anthropomorphic terms. Terms that define Him with human characteristics for human understanding. Eyes hands ears etc. These are ways in which the invisible God makes Himself known in visible ways. Also in the Old Testament we see God manifest Himself through what is known as a theophany - a visible (but not necessarily material) manifestation of Himself to a person such as in Gen 16:7, 10, 13 (Gen 3:8)

2. He is given personality attributes such as anger, love, compassion, and jealousy among others. His personality is seen by His active interest and participation in all things, particularly those involving mankind. The entire Old Testament reveals His personal interest, concern and involvement with Israel.

And we see His personality in the fact God has a name – In the Bible names were important, they revealed something about the character of the person. The same is true for God. He has a name he gave to Himself and by which He reveals Himself particularly to Israel in the Old Testament and other names He uses of Himself.

Ex 3:13-14

13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"

14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" NASB

"Yahweh" is probably the closest equivalent to the original pronunciation of I AM. It literally means the self-existent one. There are a number of other names used of God in both Old and New Testament. In His dealings with us as human beings the name he used to reveal Himself often revealed an aspect of himself that people could relate to in their everyday lives.

Some of those include:

JEHOVAH-JIREH: "The Lord will Provide." Gen. 22:14.

JEHOVAH-ROPHE: "The Lord Who Heals" Ex. 15:22-26.

JEHOVAH-NISSI: "The Lord Our Banner." Ex. 17:15.

JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH: "The Lord Who Sanctifies" Lev. 20:8. "

JEHOVAH-SHALOM: "The Lord Our Peace" Judges 6:24.

JEHOVAH ELOHIM: "LORD God" Gen. 2:4; Judges 5:3; Isa. 17:6; Zeph. 2:9; Psa. 59:5, etc.

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU "The Lord Our Righteousness" Jer. 23:5, 6, 33:16.

JEHOVAH-ROHI: "The Lord Our Shepherd" Psa. 23,

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH: "The Lord is There" (Ezek. 48:35).

JEHOVAH-SABAOTH: "The Lord of Hosts" The commander of the angelic host and the armies of God. Isa. 1:24; Psa. 46:7, 11; 2 Kings 3:9-12; Jer. 11:20 (NT: Rom. 9:29; James 5:4, Rev. 19: 11-16).

Jehovah is the Latinized version of Yahweh.

What is the importance of God’s personhood or personality?

1. Personhood balances His spiritual nature. By revealing Himself as a person He reveals the fact He is not an abstract, unknowable being or inanimate force. That means He has value for who He is not just what He does, i.e. He is not something to be manipulated or used like a tool or magic wand or good luck charm.

2. Because He is a person we can have a personal intimate relationship with Him. It is a reciprocal or two-sided relationship. That means He loves and He is to be loved. He has compassion, mercy and understanding. He desires to know and be known by us. He wants us to listen and obey but also to share.

3. God is Unity

Deut 6:4 "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! NASB

(The Shema)

This is one of the most essential doctrines of the Bible. It is clearly revealed in passages of both the Old and New Testament ( Ps. 86:10; Isa. 43:10-12, 44:6, 8, 45:5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22, 46:9; Mark 12:29; John 17:3; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; Eph. 4:6; 1 Tim. 2:5).

Isa 43:10-12

10 "You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.

11 "I, even I, am the Lord; And there is no savior besides Me.

12 "It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And I am God. NASB

Mark 12:29-30

29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;

30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' NASB

Eph 4:4-6

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. NASB

Why is the doctrine of the unity of God important?

1. It establishes the fact there is only one God - no pantheon of gods

2. In the matter of worship. God, Yahweh, the one and only God, is to be the absolute object of worship.

The unity of God along with the spiritual and personal nature of God is part of the essence of the first and second Commandments, which forbid owning or confessing any other god but the one true God, or the worship, even unintentionally by placing something ahead of God in importance, of any created thing whatsoever, angels or men, or any other creature, or their likeness or anything created by man. To do so is to worship the creature, besides, or along with the Creator and God forbids that.

4. God is Trinity – Matt 3:16-17

Father, Son and Spirit