Foundations of the Faith

Lesson 2 – The Attributes of God

Introduction

• Having a belief in God is not enough. One must believe in the ‘right’ God – the true God.

– “But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.” (Jer. 10:10a)

• Understanding God’s attributes will help to:

– Recognize perversions of God

– Better communicate truths about God

– Motivate us to worship God in daily life

– Empowers us to do His will as we see circumstances from His point of view

• “The attributes may be defined as those perfections of God which are revealed in Scripture and which are exercised and demonstrated by God in His various works.”

– Fred Kooster, Basic Doctrines

• “A divine attribute is an essential property of God. . . . A divine attribute is a property which God could not lose and continue to be God . . .”

– Ronald Nash, The Concept of God

• “. . . God always remains incomprehensible. It is not that we do not have knowledge of Him, and genuine knowledge at that. Rather, the shortcoming lies in our inability to encompass Him within our knowledge. . . . The best mode [method] of investigating the attributes of God, then, is to examine the scriptural statements carefully and make reasonable inferences from them.”

– Millard Erickson, Christian Theology

The Nature of God

• There is only one God

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4)

"…and there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior: there is none besides me. Turn to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:21b-22)

• The one God is manifested in three persons

– 1 Peter 1:1-2 To those . . . . . .who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, . . .

– Heb 1:8 But of the Son He says, "YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.”

– Acts 5:3-4 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? . . . You have not lied to men but to God."

• God is Spirit

– "God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)

– God is a pure spiritual being. He has not a body limited by space or time.

The Solitariness of God

• There is no one else like God

– Ex 15:11 “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

– Jer 10:6 “There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might.”

• God is self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied

– Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God . . .”

He existed from eternity past

He needs no one nor any thing

– Rom 11:34-36a “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things . . .”

• “He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none.”

Arthur Pink, The Attributes of God

– 1 Tim 6:15b-16 “. . . He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

The Knowledge of God

• God is Omniscient (Possesses all knowledge)

– Job 28:24-25 “For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.”

– 1 John 3:20b “ . . . God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

– Ps 147:5 “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

– Job 34:21 “For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps.”

•

• Ps 139:2-4 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all.”

• He knows everything: everything possible, everything actual; all events and all creatures, of the past, present, and future.

• Nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden from Him, nothing is forgotten by Him.

• God is absolutely and universally supreme over all things animate and inanimate.

• 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.”

• 2 Chronicles 20:6 “O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.”

The Sovereignty of God

• His Sovereignty is the exercise of His Supremacy.

• God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases.

– Psalms 135:6 “Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.”

– Isaiah 46:10 “ . . . My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; . . .”

• Job 23:13 “But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does.”

• Psalms 115:3 “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”

• Daniel 4:35 “ . . . He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand . . .”

The Immutability of God

• He never changes in His nature or attributes. He is perpetually the same.

– He is "the same yesterday and today, yes and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

– “I am that I AM.” (Exodus 3:14)

– “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation” (Psalm 33:11)

The Holiness of God

• “…Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)

• Holy – two distinct meanings

– Righteousness

• He can do no wrong and is completely separated from sin and evil

• 1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

• Otherness

– Literally means to be separate.

– He is profoundly different. There is none like Him.

– Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, . . .’”

– 1 Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the LORD, indeed, there is no one besides You, . . .”

The Power of God

• God is omnipotent (all powerful).

– Jeremiah 32:17-18 “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You, . . .”

– He alone created all that exists. (Genesis 1:1)

– He preserves all things since He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:3)

The Faithfulness of God

• God can be counted on to do what He says.

• Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, . . .”

• Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

• Hebrews 10:23 “. . . He who promised is faithful;”

The Goodness of God

• It is the perfection of His nature. There is nothing lacking or defective in Him. Nothing can be added to Him to make Him better.

– Jeremiah 31:14 “ . . . My people will be satisfied with My goodness," declares the LORD.”

– Psalms 119:68 “. . . You are good and do good;”

– Nahum 1:7 “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

The Patience of God

• The power of control which God exercises over Himself, causing Him to bear with the wicked and forbear so long in punishing them. (Arthur Pink, The Attributes of God)

– Psalms 145:8 “The LORD is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.”

– Numbers 14:17-18 “ . . . now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, ‘The LORD is slow to anger, . . .’”

The Grace of God

• God’s favor shown to those who do not deserve it, but rightfully deserve punishment instead.

– Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

– Exodus 33:19 “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, . . .”

The Mercy of God

• God’s care for those who are suffering or in need.

– Psalms 136:1 “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

– Psalms 116:5 “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful.”

The Love of God

• God is love in the very essence of His being.

– 1 John 4:8 “ . . . God is love.”

• He is the source of all love.

– 1 John 4:7 “ . . . love is from God;”

• He demonstrates it.

– 1 John 4:9-10 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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.”

• We can not be separated from His love.

– Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Wrath of God

• God’s eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. (Arthur Pink, The Attributes of God)

– Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men . . . ”

• There are more references to God’s anger and wrath in Scripture than to His love and tenderness.

– Psalms 7:11 “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”

• God is holy and must hate all sin and His wrath will be poured out on the sinner who does not repent.

– 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 “ . . . the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

Our Response

• We should love one another. (I John 4:7)

• We should be holy. (I Peter 1:15)

• God's discipline teaches us to share in His holiness and yields the fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:10, 11)

• The kindness, forbearance, patience of God leads us to repentance. (Romans 2:4)

• We should serve God with gratitude, reverence and awe, for He is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:28-29)