Title: What the Bible Teaches Us about God Pt 3
Text: Various
Date: 2-11-07.am
Introduction:
The point of this series of messages is:
1. God desires for us to know Him and to know about Him and has revealed Himself to us in the pages of the Bible.
2. The Bible warns believers about the danger of a lack of knowledge of God and of faith.
3. Evidence indicates that within the universal Christian community, embracing all denominations, there is a growing lack of knowledge about our God and our faith. This lack of knowledge is leading to a weakening of the influence of the church in the world, to confusion among believers about what the Bible teaches, and is a major factor in many “Christians” leaving the church or embracing a syncretistic blended form of religion that mixes Christianity with other things.
Again consider this statement found on an internet web site, I’m not sure if this person claims to be Christian or not after reading some of the things on the site and you might think his subject a little far out, but this kind of thinking is on the rise among people who claim to be Christians:
“I am often amazed at some folks who are so intolerant of this, especially among the Pagan community. I have run across Wiccan folks who mix dieties (sic) as if they were choosing them at a buffet and these same folks scoff at a person who call themselves ‘Christian Witch’. The Christian Witch may or may not attend church services, but they also practice witchcraft. This is not so difficult to come to terms with because what is really the difference in praying to the Christian God for help and guidance and calling upon the ancients and ancestors who have come before us for the same purpose, they are both supernatural in nature. The greatest conflict here lies within the frequent Christian concept that if you are not calling upon the Holy Trinity you must be calling upon Satan or his minions.
In conclusion is (sic) is not so incredible for someone to be a Christian Witch, living and practicing, to some degree, in both worlds. My question to those who would oppose this is why are you so intolerant of this, does your intolerance make you better than those whom you decry or does it make you the same in many ways. I personally do not see a clash between Christianity and Witchcraft. One is a religion and the other is a way of life, both of them calling upon what may be considered as the supernatural.”
What did the prophet Hosea say? “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Hosea 4:6 (NAS)
As we saw previously in our study of the nature of God. There is a vast difference between calling upon “ancients and ancestors” or any other thing natural or “supernatural” and calling upon God. And the nature of God demands worship of and allegiance to the one true God
Last week we talked about the “natural” attributes of God – Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence and Immutability. This week we are going to look at what are called the Moral attributes of God. If those natural characteristics were all that God possessed He might be considered an amoral God a God who was unconcerned with right or wrong and who responded to creation in impulsive or arbitrary ways. But that’s not who God is. God is a good God. He is a God who can be trusted. He is a moral God who posses moral attributes. By moral we mean God has certain standards of right and wrong, good and bad and displays characteristics which reveal those standards and qualities to His creation.
III. The Moral Attributes of God
1. Holiness - God is Holy
Isa 6:1-5
1 In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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."
4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." (NAS)
In both Greek and Hebrew the root of the word means separate. In respect to God, holiness refers to His ultimate uniqueness. God is separate from all that is, everything unclean, evil or contrary to His perfect nature and all of creation. God alone is Holy. Contained within the idea of holiness is the concept of purity. God is not only unique He is absolutely pure. He is completely free from anything wicked, evil or impure.
God’s holiness is emphasized over and over and over throughout the Bible.
Ps 5:4 For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with Thee. (NAS)
God’s holiness means He cannot tolerate or look upon anything that is not absolutely pure and holy like Himself.
The Bible also makes it abundantly clear that because God is holy we as believers are to be holy as well.
God’s holiness reveals that we are sinful. His absolute perfect holiness is the standard for our moral character and the motivation for practical Christian faith. The moral code of life flows from God’s holiness. God commanded Israel in Lev 11:44 'For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. (NAS) He repeated that command throughout the book of Lev. Paul shared that command for Christians in Eph 1:4, He emphasized it for the church as well in 5:27. Peter also quoted it as a command for Christians in 1 Pet 1:15,16.
I’m always amazed and dismayed that some Christians feel no compulsion to live holy lives. Too often, like the web site we quoted from earlier, we somehow have come to believe that we can separate our faith from our lifestyle. (Dog the bounty Hunter) Where we can pray in Jesus name then cuss ever other word and use the Fword over and over. I don’t think that’s what the Lord had in mind when he commanded us to be holy. I talked about that last year when we talked did a series on developing a Christian world view. Right living, right conduct naturally flows out of a right understanding of God and what He demands.
That is definitely not what post-modern people want to hear in or out of the church. Consider the Lakewood Church in Houston, TX where Joel Osteen is pastor. I’m not necessarily picking on Joel Osteen, but he’s had a national stage several times lately and dodged some basic questions about faith. His church is considered the largest church in America with 40,000 members. It’s also considered Evangelical depending on how you characterize evangelicalism. Osteen has been described theologically as a blend of Charismatic and Pentecostal, the next generation of Health - Wealth Prosperity, Name it and claim it gospel proponents. He’s kind of a Pentecostal Tony Robbins. He’s recently been named as one of the top 5 most influential evangelicals in the United States. But what is his message. Melton Duncan, Director of Church Relations for R. C. Sproul’s Ligonier (lig un ear)Ministries in an article about Osteen’s recent speaking tour wrote, “At the end of the day, Osteen encouraged his crowd not to seek Christ as the solutions to their problems but something else. (He didn’t say “don’t seek Christ” but didn’t call people to Christ) That something else seemed to be a clever but highly charged view of self. Self-interest, Self-gratification, Self-fulfillment, Self-realization, Self-actualization, with a little bit of sanitized obligatory righteous buzz words thrown in to make it appear evangelically kosher for the uninitiated.” That’s really an apt description of what the latest movement within Christianity called the Emergent Church Movement is about. It’s a form of Post-modern liberalism. Where the concept of mankind as being sinful and in need of a savior is at best minimized or ignored.
The holiness of God reveals how sinful we are. When Isaiah came into the presence of God he could only cry out, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." We might compare ourselves to someone else and come out ok, but when we use God as the standard we are woefully short and anything but ok.
The holiness of God also demands clear cut decisions on our part concerning how we live. God demands a life that strives for perfection. “We live in a generation that tends to excuse anything and explain away everything.” If you choose to live in habitual, premeditated, willful sin you hang by a spiders thread over the mouth of hell, on a thread about to be burned in the middle. (Dr. John Bisagno. God Is.).
Another moral Characteristic that grows out of God’s holiness is”
A. Righteous - another dimension of God’s purity. Righteousness is God’s holiness applied in moral governance and the domain of law. It’s holiness in action. It means God always acts in accordance with what is right in His relationships and dealings with His creation. He is completely just and fair.
God’s righteousness is often expressed through His judgement of sin. There are 3 aspects to the righteous judgement of God.
i. Wrath - God righteous response towards sin. He hates sin and evil and all unrighteousness. It is the personal manifestation of God's holy, moral character in judgment against sin. It is neither an impersonal process nor is it irrational and fitful like anger. It is not vindictive or malicious. It is holy indignation-- God's anger directed against sin.
Rom 1:18-19
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. (NAS)
ii. Impartial 1 Pet 1:17
1 Pet 1:17 And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth
(NAS)
Col 3:25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. (NAS)
What is that impartial judgement?
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. Paul is not talking about just a physical death but a spiritual death which separates from God
1 Cor 6:9-10
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
10 nor thieves, nor {the} covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (NAS)
Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (NAS)
iii. Longsuffering
Exod 34:6
6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; (NAS)
Long suffering means God’s wrath and judgement against sin is balanced by another attribute of His moral character.
2. Love
When we talk about God’s moral attributes the first thing that comes to our mind is probably love. The Bible tells us in 1 Jn 4:8, God is love. What does that mean?
1 Cor 13:4-8 is a human description of God’s perfect love.
i. Love is Active
When we say God is love, what we are really saying is God is loving because love is something you do, not something you are. Now don’t misunderstand I’m not contradicting the Bible. But the Bible teaches love is love is active. In other words you can’t be love unless you show love and that’s what God does. Consider these verses:
I Jn 4:10
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (NAS)
John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (NAS)
Rom 5:8
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (NAS)
ii. The ultimate manifestation of God’s love is Jesus Christ
Those same verses not only show that love is active but that Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation or manifestation of God’s love.
iii. Humans are the special objects of God’s love
God’s love is demonstrated in throughout the salvation process. It begins before we trust Him. While we were still sinners His love is demonstrated. It is demonstrated throughout our lives through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and will ultimately be displayed when we receive our glorified bodies and reign with Him throughout eternity. It is seen in His promises and provision for us. That God is love means He is continually active in our lives and in the world.
1. Benevolence - or concern, God recognizes that we are incapable of being holy.
3. Grace - Giving us something we don’t deserve
3. Mercy - withholding something we do deserve
4. Persistence or long-suffering
2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
(NAS)
God’s holiness reveals the fact of our sin. It also brings the unfortunate realization that we can not meet the righteous demands of a holy God. Like Isaiah we can only say, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! We can only become holy and righteous when God’s holiness and righteousness is applied to our lives because of the Love of God. It can only be applied to our lives through the blood of Jesus Christ.
John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (NAS)
God’s holiness and love are applied to our lives through complete surrender to Him. Are you willing to surrender all to Him today?