Enjoy the Attributes of God – Session 1

Introduction: What We Can Know About God

Reading: Psalm 8

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

Handout – Session 1

Lesson Notes

• Introduction – Why do we care about God’s attributes?
  • What are God’s attributes?
    • You and I have defining attributes
      • Qualities that describe and define us physiclaly, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually
      • Height, weight, hair and eye color, strength, health, intelligence, humor, faith, virtues, vices, etc.
    • God has attributes as well – some of which are like ours, only more and better, others of which are completely different from us
      • God’s attributes are the qualities and characteristics of God’s nature, being, and character
      • Things like goodness, love, power, wisdom, intelligence, righteousness, holiness, love, and many, many more
    • Our topic for the next 8 weeks, but why do we care?
  • To worship – to worship more and more richly
    • The more we know of God, the more we know He is worthy of worship
    • The more we know, the richer, broader, deeper, and more creative our worship (public, family, and personal) becomes
    • We see this reflected in the variety of Psalms – God’s many attributes are praised throughout and worship is better for it
    • Such knowledge enriches our prayer life, worship experience, and faith
  • To know God more correctly amidst a world of lies about Him
    • God invites us to know Him
    • He made Himself known by proclaiming His attributes – Exodus 34: 5-7
    • He commands us repeatedly to seek Him – that means we need to see Him clearly and correctly
    • There are many false images and claims about God out there
      • Those who say all religions are the same -> NO! Our God isn’t the same, and we need to understand His attributes to explain why
      • A loving, benevolent, all powerful, just, holy, sovereign, eternal, 3-in-1 God is NOT the god of Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, or any other religion on earth
      • He is the god of Judaism, but Jewish knowledge of Him is unacceptably incomplete
      • Christians go astray and fall into false teachings about God because we often don’t know enough about Him to defend, correct, or even get excited about Him
      • We must know about Him to avoid falling into these traps
      • Isaiah 11: 9-11 – the knowledge of God shall one day fill the earth
    • To delight in God – Psalm 37: 4
      • God wants us to delight in Him. Do we? How can we?
      • The more we invest in getting to know someone we love, the more we love and enjoy them
      • This course shouldn’t be a dry, academic lecture series
      • I pray our time together will be a celebration of God that feeds your daily private celebrations with and of God
      • Jeremiah 9: 23-24 – boast and delight in knowing God and His attributes
• The Challenge: God is Shrouded in Cloud
  • Old Testament appearances of God are always in a cloud – there are things we can know about God, but some things are too wonderful and beyond us to know
  • Our knowledge of God is something like that
    • There are things we can absolutely know, because He wants us to 
    • But God will always remain “incomprehensible”
      • That doesn’t mean “uncomprehensible” – we can understand much about Him
      • He is knowable
      • But our finite and human nature, combined with our fallen situation and sinfulness limit how much we can know about an infinite and holy God
      • There will always be things we can’t know or understand – Deuteronomy 29: 29
  • He is “immanent” – near to us, so we can know Him
    • God created us in His image for relationship with Him
    • So we are rational, willful, moral, and emotional as He is
    • These are tools to know Him; these tools were damaged by the fall into sin, but we are illuminated (helped to understand) by the Holy Spirit
    • God is in us and with us
    • He loves, forgives, strengthens, and indwells us
    • He reveals Himself to us
  • Yet He is also “transcendent” – unimaginably above and beyond us
    • Read from Job 38-41 – dozens and dozens of questions illustrating the transcendence of God
• Good News: God Reveals Himself
  • Revelation = God’s gracious and kind disclosure of truth we wouldn’t know
    • Revelation doesn’t make the truth
    • The truth is eternally true
    • Revelation reveals the truth
  • General Revelation
    • God reveals Himself broadly to the world so that everyone can have a general idea of who He is
    • Characteristics of all people in all the world
    • Creation itself reveals God
      • Psalm 19: 1-6
      • Romans 1: 18-20
      • General truth about God – wisdom, order, power, beauty, creativity
      • There’s enough to hold everyone accountable for sin – falling short of God’s glory, standard, and design for the world
    • We have consciences that tend to mirror that of God
      • The commonality of essential concepts of right and wrong across cultures around the world
      • Romans 2: 14-16
    • There isn’t enough general revelation to save us from God’s wrath
  • Special Revelation
    • Specific content about God given to one person or group
    • Because we can’t figure it out on our own
    • Appearances – God appeared to Moses and Abraham, spoke to prophets
    • Miracles – the primary purpose of the Exodus was to reveal God to the world (Exodus 14: 18, 31)
    • Scripture
      • 2 Timothy 3: 14-17
      • 2 Peter 1: 20-21
    • Jesus Christ, the incarnate revelation of God
      • John 1: 14-18
      • John 14: 8-11
      • Colossians 1: 15-20

Closing Praise & Prayer

Isaiah 55: 6-9 – His thoughts aren’t ours, His ways aren’t ours and that’s a good thing!