Lesson 4
Theology
Proper - Who is God?
The Excellencies of God
1. Introduction
Many people have an erroneous view of who
God is!
The
purpose of this series of studies is to explore the essence of God, the excellencies of God, and then to align our thinking about
God with those divine characteristics revealed in the Scriptures.
2. The Testimony of some Great Men of God from
the past.
Some examples:
A.
W. Tozer
A.
W. Pink
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
J.I.
Packer
3. Relevance of God's Character to the Christian
Does such a study really have any practical value?
J. I. Packer raises this
very question and promptly answers it:
Why need anyone take time off today for the kind of study you
propose? Surely a layman, at any rate, can get on without it? After all, this is 1972, not 1855. A fair
question!--but there is, I think, a convincing answer to it. The questioner
clearly assumes that a study of the nature and character of God will be
unpractical and irrelevant for life. In fact, however, it is the most practical
project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for the
living of our lives ... Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself
to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded as it were, with no sense of
direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.
Consider the following ways the study of the attributes of God
impacts the life of the Christian.
(1)
The way to "see"
God is to come to know Him is through a study of His character as revealed in
the Scriptures.
We
are among those who have not "seen" our Lord physically so our grasp
of the nature of God as revealed through Jesus Christ must be limited to what
the Scriptures teach concerning His character.
In the final analysis, we can "see" and know God
only through the Scriptures as they reveal His character to us. (John 20:29-31; 1 Peter 1:8).
(2) The character of God is the basis and
standard for all human morality.
Do we wonder why the church has become so wishy-washy about
morality? The Bible tells us why. We
have ceased to ponder and appreciate the moral perfection of God.
And once our view of the holiness of God is diminished, our
moral values decline proportionately.
A study of the character of God will establish and under gird
morality.
Rem: Basic principle, noted many times, our conduct is directly
related to our view of who God is!
(3)
Failure to think rightly about God is the sin of idolatry, and it leads
to countless other sins.
Tozer rightly
identifies mistaken or distorted views of God as idolatry:
Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any
other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel
on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is .... Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the
erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects
of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The
essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are
unworthy of Him." [Knowledge of the
Holy pp.10]
(4)
Knowing God intimately is our calling and destiny, our future hope, our
great privilege and blessing, and thus it should be our great ambition.
- Jer. 9:23,24; Phil. 3:10;
1 John 3:2; Eph. 3:14-19
(5)
The attributes of God are foundational to our faith and hope. [hope = expectant
confidence]
Faith in God is trusting
in God, and His attributes are the basis for that trust because He is able and
willing to do all that He has promised.
Heb. 10:23; 11:6; 1 Pet. 4:19
(6) A study of the attributes of God
enhances our worship.