April 12, 2009 am
A STUDY OF GOD (6)
THE CHARACTER OF GOD (1)
Today we continue our study of who is
God. As I have stated
throughout – the purpose of this study is for us to gain a greater
appreciation of who God is and what He has done for us so that we will
give Him the reverence He deserves and better understand what He expects
of us. In our last lesson of
this study we noted how God is a person, He is Spirit, Our Creator and
the ONE True, eternal God (though God consists of 3 distinct persons –
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit).
In the next few
lessons I want to examine some of His attributes and their impact on our
lives. We will examine
attributes that we as His followers need to strive to develop (following
His perfect example) such as His goodness, love, patience, etc),
attributes that should cause us to respect and reverence Him such as His
severity, righteousness, exactness, justice, etc, and those attributes
that are excusive to His deity.
Today we want to address some of these.
Note: Concerning
these attributes there are SO MANY passages that describe God that it
would be almost impossible to quote every one concerning a single point
in a single lesson. One of the great benefits to studying the Old
Testament including the prophets is the numerous statements that
describe His character. It
would be a profitable study to consider these as you read through and
study your Bible. The more
time you invest in learning about God the more impressed you will be of
Him. My goal in this study is to whet your appetite to learn more about
Him.
I.
He
is Holy
a.
What does the word “holy” mean?
Thayer defines the word as, “revered, worthy of veneration.”
Kittel notes that the Greek term
hagos denotes an object of
awe.
It is a word associated with purity and cleanliness.
IT is an interesting word because it is spoken often in reference
TO God and at other times in reference to us in relationship to Him as
we shall see.
b.
In
reference to God, the term
describes His venerable nature.
That is, God is by His very nature is above all things in purity.
He has “incomparable majesty.” (Thayer)
Holiness describes His divine perfection.
Therefore He is to be treated with the highest of reverence.
There is NO sense in which God should be treated common or average.
He is ABOVE all things and the ultimate of all that is good!
After safely crossing the Red Sea, the song of Moses in
Exodus 15:11 said, “Who
is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises doing wonders?”
c.
Isaiah 6 records the call of Isaiah.
It begins with him seeing a vision of the Lord sitting on a
throne. Seraphim above cried
one to another, “Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (3).
Isaiah knows what he has seen and fearfully says, “Woe
is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts.” (5) Vs. 6-7
record one of the seraphim purifying him of sin.
He is then sent to prophesy to a rebellious Israel.
There are several things to consider in this text about the holiness
of God:
i.
The phrase
“holy, holy, holy”. In
Hebrew language (and Greek) when something was mentioned twice it gave
special emphasis. Mentioning
it three times “expresses an extraordinary superlative of
unheard-of-majesty.” (God
the Redeemer, Jack Cottrell, pp. 245-246, via
http://beavertonchurchofchrist.net/oldhome.htm)
The same phrase in found in Revelation 4:8-11 where John see the throne
of God in heaven.
ii.
Note how
Isaiah feared he would die because he had seen God.
Throughout the Old Testament we read examples of those who feared
death because they thought they had seen God (Moses – Ex. 33:19-23,
Jacob - Gen 32:30; Manoah & his wife (Samson), Jdg. 13:22).
This was because of who He is – His holiness.
It is a matter of reverence.
iii.
The angel
purified Isaiah by touching his tongue with a coal from the altar.
Consider the holiness of God in
contrast with sin.
In Him there is NO sin whatsoever - 1 John 1:5.
Why it is that sin is so detestable to Him?
It is because of His holy nature and the fact that ALL sin in
UNHOLY! It was His holiness
that made the price for sin’s forgiveness so high.
d.
Our
holiness is to be based upon His holiness.
i.
That is,
we are to set ourselves aside to Him as we consider His majesty.
1 Peter 1:15-16 says, “but as he
who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it
is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (cf. Lev. 11:44,45, etc.)
ii.
Considering the holiness of God, we need to live pure and clean lives so
that we can be in His presence.
See Heb. 12:14 we are told that without holiness we will not see
the Lord., and Eph. 5:27, when the church is presented to God it will be
“holy and without blemish.”
iii.
Everything
belonging to Him is holy (Haggai 2:10-14, Romans 11:16).
We belong to Him and as such we
need to be holy. God will
NOT tolerate a shared loyalty (Matt. 6:24, James 4:4)
iv.
Psalm
24:3-4 – who can approach God, only those who are pure and clean, i.e.
holy.
II.
He
is Omnipresent
a.
The word
omnipresent means that God is everywhere.
Because of our limited perception of everything as humans we have
a difficult time comprehending this.
But God sees everything and everywhere – whether light or dark,
high or low, inside or outside.
b.
Psalm
139:7-12 is the ultimate passage that describes this.
David acknowledges in clear terms that there is NO place where
one can hide from God.
c.
Consider
the book of Jonah. The prophet was called to go preach to Ninevah.
Jonah did not want to go so he boarded a ship to Tarshish which
was the opposite direction.
He could not hide from God even on that ship.
We learn from him we cannot EVER hide from God.
d.
In Ezekiel
8 we find the Lord carrying him from Babylon to Jerusalem where he is
told to dig into the wall.
Inside he found elders of Israel committing idolatrous deeds (8:7-8).
e.
Jeremiah 23:23-24 – He fills
heaven and earth and is everywhere.
f.
Even
Hebrews 4:13 tells us, “there is
no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to
the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
g.
Because of this we can know that
He hears our prayers when we offer them.
We also know that we cannot hide from Him – EVER!
Also in this, we ought to find comfort as we know that He is wherever we
are. Remember the promise of
our Lord to His disciples in Matthew 28:20, “LO I am with you always…”
We will continue our study in our next lesson by noting His Omniscience and Omnipotence