July 12, 2009 am
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD CONTINUED
a.
In
Luke 18:18-19 we read, “Now
a certain ruler asked Him, saying, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?’ So
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One,
that is, God.” What did
Jesus mean since we know He too (Jesus Himself) is Good.
Perhaps the intent was a slight rebuke because one of the Judaistic
titles for God was GOOD (cf. Psa 106:1) and this rich, young ruler did
not fully understand Who he was talking to.
Jesus here appealing to His deity challenged the rich, young
ruler, “Are you willing to receive Me for who I am?”
Whatever Jesus meant, the text points out clearly that God is good.
In fact, like all of His attributes, His goodness is greater than
ours. He is the essence of
what it means to be good.
As Vine’s says, “God is essentially, absolutely and consummately
‘good’”.
b.
It
is a word associated with excellence
(KIttel).
We don’t always give this word a
strong meaning. Good
often means simply that you are not bad (i.e., “Be good!” or “That is
good”). But it can mean so
much more. For example, in
Romans 5:6-8 we find that
one who is good is a better person than one who is righteous.
The point being – a righteous person (as used here) does just
enough to get by (but he obey only the letter of the law) while one who
is good is willing to go further.
He shows GOODWILL and kindness.
And that is what we mean by appealing to the goodness of God.
c.
Truly God
IS good. Everything He does
is good and it is done for our good.
Psa. 145:9 says, “The
Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.”
His goodness is seen in all that He has done for us - David understood
thin in Psa. 8:3-4, when he said, “When
I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the
stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you visit him?”
Matt.
7:11, , “IF you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to
those who ask Him?”
Titus 3:4 ties it to His
part in our salvation. (I.e.
– his mercy and grace demonstrate His goodness).
d.
AS a
result of His goodness, let us consider:
Rom. 2:4, “Or
do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and
longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to
repentance?”
Romans 11:22, “Therefore,
behold the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity;
but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.”
a.
When Jesus
stood before Pilate He said, “Everyone
who is of the truth hears My voice.” This prompted Pilate to say, “What
is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
Truth is something that He understood emanated from God.
In its basest sense, truth is that which is opposite of what is false or
a lie. Vine’s defines it as,
“the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested,
veritable essence of a matter.”
b.
God is
truth in every sense of the word.
What He says will happen comes to pass
What is created was by His word and it continues by the very same word.
(2 Pet. 3:5-7) The
laws of nature are true because He spoke them into existence.
Good and evil are defined by His truth.
How we live our lives is determined by His truth.
He cannot lie –
Heb. 6:18, Titus 1:2, Num. 23:19 – etc.
John 17:17 says His word
is truth. What He speaks and
what He commands MUST stand.
It becomes the standard that all other things ought to conform to.
Psalm 25:10 says, “All the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and
His testimonies.”
We must also keep this in mind as we study His word (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).
In John 8:26 even our Lord
said, “I have many things to speak
and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things
which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
c.
The
problem with the world is that man does not respect the truth of His
word.
All the problems we face are a
result of this.
d.
One
of the manifestations of His truth is His wisdom –
God truly is wise when it comes to matters of what it truly best.
Man’s concept of wisdom often involves how one can achieve what
he wants in this life, but as has been proven time and again, what he
thinks is best is usually wrong or at best, temporary.
But the wisdom of God imparted to us, if applied can give our
lives REAL meaning and hope.
Whether man wants to admit it or not, that which will make this world a
better place is in accord with God’s word.
Psalm 19:7-10 says, “The
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise
the simple; The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord
is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord
are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they
than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb.” What a
wonderful description of His wisdom and truth.
Ephesians 3:10 tells us, “the manifold wisdom of God is made known by
the church…” In the church,
we have but one example of the multi-faceted love of God.
Truly, he alone is wise – (Jude 25, 1 Timothy 1:17)
a.
Faithful
means, “to be trusted, reliable” (Vine’s); When one is faithful, it
means they can be counted upon and have proven themselves to be such.
It is based on the same word as faith.
Faithful is one in whom you can have faith.
b.
We live in
a world that is becoming increasingly more Unfaithful.
We can’t count upon what our leaders say and we know many whose
word is not their bond. We
live in a litigious society where just about everyone thinks about
themselves. They will try to
get out of their obligations by looking for loopholes in agreements.
At times even our family and/or our brethren will let us down.
c.
God
is certainly faithful.
He has constantly proven Himself to be one that we can count
upon. We know that whatever
He says is true and will be done.
He has not made empty promises to us.
As one author said, “God’s faithfulness means that because He is
the truth, everything He says and does is certain.
That means he is 100% reliable 100% of the time.
He does not fail, forget, falter, change or disappoint.” (Ray
Pritchard, Great is Thy Faithfulness)
Another author said, “He not only advances and confirms that which is
true, but in faithfulness abides by his promises, and executes every
threat or warning He has made.” (Lewis Sperry Chafer)
1 Cor. 10:13 – “No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may
be able to bear it.”
In
Romans 3:3,4, speaking of
the Jewish nation to whom the oracles of God was committed,
we read, “ For what if some
did not believe? Will their
unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
Certainly not!
Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar…”
Paul’s point in this text was that God can be counted upon
even when we cannot. Let
God be true.
That is the same thing Paul told Timothy in
2 Tim. 2:11-13, “This
is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with
Him. If we endure, We shall
also reign with Him. If we
deny Him, He also will deny us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”
God faithfulness is also seen in His fulfillment of His plan for our
salvation. 1 Cor. 1:9 says,
“God is faithful, by whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 John 1:9 we are told, “If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
d.
The
truth is – we have hope,
even beyond this life because of the faithfulness of God.
a.
1 John
1:5, “This is the message which we
have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is
no darkness at all.”
b.
Throughout
scripture light and darkness serve as a contrast between good and evil.
God is described as light and as the source of true light.
What this defines about God is that He is pure and
unpolluted. In actuality it
demonstrates so many things that we have discussed –
i.
He is good
(as opposed to evil) “in Him is no darkness”
ii.
He is
wisdom and enlightens us with His word,
Psalm 36:9, “For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”
iii.
He cares
about us in love
iv.
He is holy
– to be held in reverence,
1 Tim. 6:16 speaks of him
“who alone has immorality,
dwelling in unapproachable light,…”
v.
He is our
hope
– Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is
my light and my salvation”
vi.
He is
constant - as the “Father of lights” (James
1:17) there is no variation or shadow of turning.
vii.
He is our
guide – as He led the children of Israel through the wilderness as a
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:22, Nu. 14:14)
c.
As to the
purity of God we find:
i.
There is
NOTHING impure or diluted about God.
He is genuine in all things.
He is perfect
ii.
Matthew 5:8 we need to be
pure in heart if we are to see God.
iii.
1
John 3:3 tells us that we
must purify ourselves if we are to see the Lord because, “Everyone who
has this hope in Him purifies Himself, just as He is pure.”
iv.
Psalm 119:140 says, “Your
word is very pure; Therefore your servant loves it.”
v.
Matthew 5:48 tells us, “Therefore
you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
And thus we can see some of the
attributes of God. In these
attributes we find great hope and consolation.
It is my hope that we see that He does care and that He has used
all that He is for us.
The question is, how will we respond to Him?
As we conclude,
it must be said that there is another side to God.
There are many who will willingly accept all that was said this
morning, but we must also realize that God is a severe God and jealous.
He is righteous and just all of which demands that He hold into
account all who refuse to obey His will.
We will discuss these attributes next week.
BUT, you don’t have to leave here fearful of His wrath!
If you will come to His light and wisdom and obey His will in
love you can be saved. What
do you need to do? Obey the
gospel!