Chapter 1  God Is Not A Spring Bean

  Chapter 2  Who Is God?

  Chapter 3  What Are God’s Essential Qualities?

  Chapter 4  The Name Of God

  Chapter 5  Symbols Of God’s Person And Presence

  Chapter 6  The Greatness Of God

  Chapter 7  The Character Of God

  Chapter 8  God’s Relationship To His Creation

  Chapter 9  Our Obligation To God

1

God Is Not A Spring Bean

      In a small Sunday School in Lemon Cove, California, a teacher asked her class of junior boys, "Who is God?"  Immediately one bright young fellow responded confidently, "God is a spring bean."

      The teacher stared at him for a moment, an expression of bewilderment written across her face.  What on earth could he mean?  Recovering her presence of mind, she asked him to explain himself, which he did gladly.  He had heard God referred to as the Supreme Being, but in his young mind "spring bean" was as close as he could come to that majestic term.

      We smile at the lad's childish understanding.  But do we ourselves really know who God is?

      Of course, none of us would refer to God as a "spring bean."  But what do such terms as: "the higher power," "the ground of being," "the cosmic life force," and "the man upstairs" reveal about one's concept of God?

      Some people's impression of God is physical, like Michelangelo's old man with a long, flowing beard.  Of course, God is nothing like that.

      Then, who is God?  Is He near or far off?  Is He directly involved in human experience, or aloof from the world?  Is He essentially a stern Judge? a doting old grandpa? a good luck charm, or a "genie" to call on only when in need of help?

      Each of us should ask himself or herself "Is God of primary importance to me?  Is He truly the Supreme Being in my life, or is a formal nod toward Him now and then about the extent of my recognition of Him?"

      To most people God is so vague that He seems like a dream, like a character in a fairy tale.  Many doubt that He really exists.

      This is a matter of utmost practical importance because our understanding of God is the basic determining factor in our lives.  The very meaning of life itself, our attitude toward ourselves and others, our concept of sin and salvation--everything of real importance--is ultimately the result of our concept of God.  So then the very nature of the inquiry urges us to proceed seriously.  As we do, let us keep three things in mind:

      (1) by His very nature, God is infinitely greater than any attempt to study Him, greater than all that can be said about Him.  So we must confine our consideration of God to His revelation of Himself.  If we do not, we will drift into speculation and error.  We will be like the Samaritans, who did not know what they were worshiping (John 4:22).

      We will be like the little boy who was scribbling on a piece of paper.

      "What are you drawing?" his mother asked.

      "A picture of God," he replied confidently.

      "But, dear, nobody knows what God looks like," the mother responded.

      "They will when I get through," he announced.

      So it is with speculative theology.

      (2) the second thing to keep in mind is that what is revealed about God applies to all three Persons of the Godhead--the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit--with particular application to the Father because of the Father's primacy.

      (3) thirdly, no one can truly know God merely by studying about Him.  God is a Person, and He is truly known only by a personal relationship with Him.  So then, if we gather all the information we can about God, yet fail to meet Him personally in Jesus Christ, we will miss everything.  Also, we can truly know God in Jesus Christ, even if we know very little about Him at the moment.  Relationship is established by an encounter; it grows by fellowship.

      So, depending fully on the illumination of the Holy Spirit, Who is God guiding us to Himself, let us begin our exploration.

2

Who Is God?

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF

      During a psychology class at Chabot College, in California, discussion turned to the subject of constructs.  In psychology, a "construct" is a group of mental impressions put together in a specific form to aid the imagination in its speculation.  A construct does not exist in objective reality.  It is only a mental form, the product of one's own mind.  It is useful only as a mental "scaffold" to help build more concrete understandings.  Once it outlasts its usefulness, it can be discarded.

      During the discussion a student asked the instructor, "Is God only a construct?"

      In a display of candor regarding spiritual matters uncommon in secular classrooms, the instructor replied that the subject of the existence of God is beyond the scope of the scientific method.  Science deals only with physical observation and experimentation.  Being non-physical and non-observable as to His Person, God is outside the jurisdiction of science.

      The instructor was correct.

      Does this mean that God has not made Himself known? By no means!  On the contrary, God has provided a full range of compelling evidences of Himself--His existence, His nature, His will and His purposes.  In fact, when properly and fully considered, the honest inquirer will discover them to be conclusive.

      "But I must have absolute proof!" the atheist demands.

      And what kind of proof does he or she require? The answer of course is physical proof.  The evidence must fit the unbeliever's own specifications in order to meet his or her personal criteria for belief.  In other words, the unbeliever assumes the prerogative to set the rules of inquiry and to demand that God follow them.  Having arrogated sovereignty to himself, the secularist proceeds to dictate the epistemological terms.  Instead of giving serious and objective consideration to the existing evidence, he insists on other empirical data as a pre-condition for personal faith.

      This is highly presumptuous and unfair.  It is also sheer nonsense.  The Creator will not reveal Himself on any terms that presuppose the creature's ultimate sovereignty or right of ultimate determination in the inquiry.  It should be obvious that this is inherent in the very nature of the inquiry.

      God will not concede ultimate authority to man.  He is too wise for that.  His regard for His honor, the integrity of His moral government and the well-being of His creation prevent such a degrading proceeding.  God will not climb onto anyone's laboratory table, fit into anyone's test tube, slide under anyone's microscope and play "specimen" for any homo sapiens who insists on being a validator of Deity, smug in his own self-defined and self-ruled cosmos.

      Of all the challenges to the human mind, this one more than any other requires and should produce humility in the inquirer.  But it is the one that elicits the most untempered pride, the one where humility, objectivity, and the due degree of diligence are most wanting.  The reason for this is that it confronts the person himself or herself most directly and totally--the ego, the lifestyle, the value-system, the basic issue of who is going to occupy first place in the heart.  Thus for most unbelievers there is a subjective vested interest in avoiding an encounter with the truth of God and the God of truth.  The bias is not merely intellectual, but moral.

      In view of the very nature of the inquiry itself, if we are to know God, God must reveal Himself to us and we must accept His self-revelation.  We must follow God's rules, including the indispensable conditions of humility and faith--reasonable faith, faith demanded by the evidence.

      When we consider honestly the full testimony that God has given to us concerning Himself, we must ask, What more can God say to us without yelling at us? What more can He do without forcing Himself on us? Does the agnostic want God to come and forcibly crush all his cavils? Will additional evidence convince the person who does not want to believe? What good is "proof" to the one who does not really want proof? Will the person who refuses to give due consideration to the evidence now available examine further evidence?

      Are most unbelievers investigating this subject with a diligence commensurate with its vital importance? No.  They are not seeking after God.  Their quest is for a rationale for avoiding Him.  They do not want "to retain God in their knowledge" (Romans 1:28).

      Truly it has been said that people are not seeking after a lost God; God is seeking after lost people.

      Certainly God has revealed Himself to us.  In a myriad of ways He is telling us things about Himself, communicating so that everyone who will listen can hear.  For that reason the Bible does not attempt to "prove" the existence of God.  It needs no proof.  God's own testimony is proof enough for the honest heart.

Nature

      God is speaking to us through nature, saying to us that He really is and that He has unlimited power and intelligence.  "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities --his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20 NIV).

      We look at the natural world around us.  Then we think of the material universe beyond us.  We consider the massiveness, complexity, purposeful design, order, detail.  Where did it all come from? Could it all have just happened? Is matter eternal, with no beginning, no source, no cause? Can blind forces produce what obviously requires supremely intelligent planning and skill? Could all the good that nature and natural laws tend within themselves to secure be the product of accidental, non-intelligent, amoral processes?

      Think!

      Nothing cannot create something.  The universe must have an adequate first cause.  Intelligent, purposeful design demands an intelligent purposeful Designer.

      Materialistic theories of origins are intellectually and morally bankrupt.  They are inadequate to account for the data and they provide no moral basis for human society.

      There is only one adequate alternative: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

      The natural creation indicates how great and how intelligent God must be.  From the beauties, bounties and balance of nature we see that God dearly loves us and designs everything for our good.  This is evident in spite of the fact that because of man's sin, God has had to limit the human life span on earth by introducing into the ecosystem the process of deterioration.  Nature is no longer perfect (see Romans 8:19-23).

      God is; God is great; God is good.  This is the clear testimony of creation.  "The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1 NASB).  "The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples have seen His glory" (Psalm 97:6 NASB) "He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17 KJV).

Man

      Man (both male and female) is a mystery.  He cannot be accounted for by naturalistic explanations.  Secular theories fail to explain him.  The whole is far more than the sum of the known parts.

      We carry within ourselves the image of God.  We are free moral agents, possessing reason and will.  We are capable of perceiving values and of making intelligent value-decisions.  Also, we know the moral character of our decisions.

      We have within us an awareness of the eternal.  No evolutionary mechanism can account for this.  Man reaches for the heavens, just as an eagle raised in a chicken coop longs to soar the heights.  And we cannot accept the finality of death without forfeiting something distinctly human within ourselves.

      Universally, the human race has had a native consciousness of the existence of God that does not depend on sensory perception.  Take away a person's five senses, and the inner consciousness of personhood remains undiminished.  That person is just as aware as before that he or she is, that space and being are, that God is.  Although we can learn more about these things, we do not need to be informed of their existence before we are conscious that they are.  We are.  Being is.  God is.  We know these things intuitively and we cannot deny them without denying ourselves.  Let a person argue ever so eloquently to the contrary.  When he has fully presented his case, he walks away carrying within himself a reality that demolishes all his specious sophistry.

The Bible

      Although God is ineffable (He cannot be fully expressed in human language) all we need to know about Him for life, salvation, and godliness can be expressed in words; and He has chosen to reveal that to us in words, words that we can understand.  Here is a book that tells with total accuracy about events centuries before they happen; a book that is demonstrated to be accurate by historical and archaeological research; a book that contains a system of theology and morality so perfect that it cannot be the product of mere human thought or culture; a book that records the only possible plan of salvation that is morally and governmentally sound; a book that alone answers with complete satisfaction the basic questions of human origin, nature and destiny; a book that has endured all attacks against itself; a book that has revolutionized whole societies for good, laying the foundation for human freedom and dignity.

      Who alone can be the ultimate author of such a book? The answer is God.  God is talking to us in the Bible, telling us about Himself, revealing His Person, His character, and His purposes.

      For a complete, accurate, authoritative, verbal revelation of God to us, read the Bible.

Jesus Christ

      In the Bible God reveals Himself in words and events.  In Jesus Christ God reveals Himself in Person.

      Jesus not only told us about God; He showed us God.  He is God revealed in the flesh, the "living photograph" of God.

      Jesus said to Philip, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9 NIV).  "God...has spoken to us by his Son, ...the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Hebrews 1:1-3 NIV).

      Jesus Christ is God's highest, most eloquent revelation of Himself.  No one will find God as long as he or she continues to reject Jesus Christ.  The person who rejects God's testimony about His Son is rejecting God's revelation of Himself.  If we want to know God, we must meet Him in Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6).

Human experience

      God's revelation of Himself in The Scriptures and in Jesus Christ is a complete revelation to us.  But it is not just a past revelation; neither is it a passive revelation.  What God has revealed Himself to be He is demonstrating Himself to be right now in human experience.  He is the God of transformed lives, the God of answered prayer, the God of ordered circumstances (Providence), the God of miracles.  God is now.

      The true Christian experiences personal fellowship with God.  This is more than emotion, though it involves the emotions.  It is more than mental impression, though it involves the mind.  It is conscious communion with a real Person.  It is the witness of the Spirit, the inner testimony of God.

      Subjective? Yes, but not private.  Each believer is aware that this same personal fellowship with God is experienced by all other believers, though not all to the same degree.  Fellowship with God is the basis for fellowship among believers.

      "Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him" (John 14:23).  This is the most personal revelation of God.

GOD IS A PERSON

      God has revealed Himself in the Bible as a Person.  He is not merely an idea or a concept.  He is not an abstract quality such as "goodness" or "wisdom."  When the Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8 and 16), it does not mean that God is a "thing" called "love."  If that were the case, it could equally read, "Love is God."  That would be saying that truth is anything that reads backward as well as forward.  That would be nonsense.  When the Bible says that God is love, it is summing up His moral character.  Every purpose and act of God is motivated ultimately by a design to secure the highest good.

      Also, God is not a mystic principle such as "Universal Mind" or "Cosmic Consciousness."  He is not a philosophical abstraction such as "the Ground Of Being."  He is not an impersonal energy or force.  He is not nature or the force of nature.

      God is a Person, with all the qualities of conscious personality, including choosing, thinking, and feeling.  He can communicate personally intelligently and verbally.  God's qualities of personhood are infinite.  He is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, infinite in love, and infinite in His personal capacity for happiness.

God Is One

      God reveals Himself to be One--the only true and living God.  He is not one "god" among many "gods" (polytheism).  He is not the chief "god" among several "gods" (henotheism).  He is One, alone--the only God that is (monotheism).

"The Lord, he is God; there is none else beside him" (Deuteronomy 4:35).

"The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4).

"Thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee; neither is there any God beside thee " (2 Samuel 7:22).

"Thou art God alone" (Psalm 86:10).

"I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.  I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior" (Isaiah 43:10 and 11).

"I am the Lord, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:18).

"I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 46:9).

      Yes, God is one; yet the One God exists in, and reveals Himself as three distinct Persons: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  These three Persons are the One God.  They are not three separate "gods."  A belief in three gods is an error called tritheism.

      Neither is each Person in the Godhead "one-third" of God.  Each Person is totally God and fully represents the Godhead as a whole.

      The question has been raised, "how can one plus one plus one equal one?" The answer is, it cannot.  But that is beside the point.  The fact is that God cannot be expressed or understood by a mathematical equation.  The attempt to do so is an effort to reduce God down to the categories of our own comprehension.  But a completely explainable God could not and would not be God.  A God small enough for us to comprehend fully would not be big enough to be God.  He would be limited to the parameters of our understanding.  The moment that we believe that we can explain God fully is the moment that we miss Him.  God is reasonable, yes; explainable, no.

      Even if God could be expressed by a mathematical formula, the formula would be one times one times one equals one.

      God is not a committee of three separate individuals.  I remember very clearly a statement by an instructor in a Bible class many years ago.  He asserted, "The Father wants to destroy the world, but Jesus won't let Him do it."  That is nonsense, of course.  God is One, existing in three Persons indivisibly and harmoniously in essence, will and qualities.  We call this tri-unity of God the Trinity.

      The Trinity is a sublime mystery, inscrutable, ineffable.  Nevertheless, it is the truth, because this is what God has revealed Himself to be.

      The term "God" can be applied in its true meaning only to the One True God.  Only God is God, and He is fully God in each and all of His three Persons.

      In Isaiah 44:6 God declares, "beside me there is no God."  Here God is speaking in His tri-unity, the indivisible One in Three, because anyone not included in this Scripture cannot be God in any proper definition of the word.

      Jesus Christ is God (John 20:28; Hebrews 1:8).  He cannot be merely a god, because God is God alone (Psalm 86:10), and beside Him there is no God (Isaiah 44:6).  So then, Jesus Christ, being God, must partake of and share in the very essence of the One indivisible God.

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

"...through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:1).

      It is a well-established rule of New Testament Greek that when the definite article (the) is followed by two nouns of the same case connected by kai (and), both nouns refer to the same person.  So then "the great God" and "our Savior" (Titus 2:13) both refer to "Jesus Christ."  The same is true in 2 Peter 1:1.  The literal Greek rendering is "in righteousness of the God of us and Savior Jesus Christ."  "God" and "Savior" both refer to Jesus Christ (see also 2 Peter 2:20).

"There is none other God but one.  For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him" (1 Corinthians 8:4-6).

      In this passage the Lord Jesus Christ is not spoken of apart from God.  He is included in the very essence of "one God," just as the Father is included in the very essence of "one Lord."  "One Lord Jesus Christ" cannot mean that the Father is not Lord also.  Just so, "one God, the Father" cannot mean that Jesus is not God also, in view of Romans 9:5 and Colossians 2:9.  The contrast here is between mythical "gods" on the one hand, and the Father and Jesus Christ together on the other.

      In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."  Jesus is the Mediator because He is both God and man.

      The word "Trinity" itself is not found in the Bible, but the truth expressed by it most certainly is.  The tri-unity of God is woven throughout the fabric of Scripture.

      In the Old Testament the Persons of the Trinity speak to each other (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 110:1).  In the New Testament Jesus spoke of the Father and of the Holy Spirit as Persons distinct from Himself and from each other.  At our Lord's baptism, the Father spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit rested upon Him in the form of a dove.

      In Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, "Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Thus our Lord clearly declared the fact of the Trinity; nevertheless, He was careful to teach also the unity of God.

      Several comparisons have been used in an attempt to illustrate the Trinity: a simple musical chord (three notes, one sound), three glasses of water poured together to form one body of water, a triangle, a tripod, even the tri-unity of man (spirit, soul, body).

      I used such illustrations in time past in preaching and teaching on God, but the Holy Spirit stopped me.  Perhaps the most that can be said is that these things somehow vaguely hint at the general concept of unity in diversity, and diversity in unity.  But that is all.

      Whenever we say that God is "like" something, we immediately reduce God down to the level of the object to which we compare Him.  God is infinitely greater than any attempt to explain or illustrate Him.  Any attempt to illustrate what He is "like" misrepresents Him.

      The attempt to represent God in some form or likeness results in idolatry, the degrading of God.  For that reason God forbade Israel to make any likeness of God in the form of anything created (Exodus 20:4).  God is not "like" anything.  He is the "unlike anything" One.

      When people say, "I like to think of God as..." they are forming a mental image of God.  But a mental image of God can be a false god just as much as a metal image.

      A common mistake is to build a concept of God out of the raw material of one's own experiences or the experiences of others.  If things go well, God is good.  But if rough times come, or if tragedy strikes, God is mean, or He has failed.  This is the way many form their ideas of God, and so create a distortion of Him.

      God is not made out of the clay of subjective experiences, emotions and impressions.  He is not someone for us to mold according to our personal tastes or standards.  He is Who He is-- beyond definition.  Words, including inspired words, cannot communicate Him totally.  This is why it is impossible to explain the Trinity.  The Bible does not explain the fact of the Trinity, but only declares it.

      Some passages of Scripture emphasize the essential unity and equality of the Persons of the adorable Godhead.  Others teach that in the sustaining of relationships and in the allocation of administrative roles, some members of the Trinity occupy positions and exercise functions that are subordinate to the greater whole.  This is a well-known principle of government and holds true even when all participants are equals.  Functional subordination and essential equality--both truths are taught in Scripture and must be recognized if we are to have a proper understanding of the nature and relationships of the Holy Trinity.

      If the full mystery of God could be comprehended within the framework of our finite minds, He would not be God.  A God who could be fully understood by the human mind would be a very limited God.  In that case He would not be God, because the terms "limited" and "God" are self-contradictory and mutually exclusive.  Let it be emphasized--a God who is small enough for us to comprehend completely would be too small to be God.

      The person who refuses to believe in God beyond the limits of his own human reason is not believing in God at all, but in his own reason.  This is not to say that God is contrary to reason, or that belief in Him is anti-intellectual.  Everything that God has revealed about Himself is in full harmony with reason and reality.  Also, true intellectualism leads us to the conviction that there must be in the infinite God that which is beyond the limits of our reasoning capability.  It is pseudo-intellectualism that leads to the folly described in Romans 1:21-25.

      "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen."

      The New King James Version states verse 25 more clearly:

      "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator..."

      Only the Divine reason is co-extensive with the Divine being.  That is, only God fully understands Himself.  To humble ourselves before Him and accept Him by faith as He has revealed Himself to be--this is the only intellectually and morally acceptable course for us.  Even though we cannot know all about Him, through Jesus Christ we can know Him.  This is our life and our joy.

3

What Are God’s Essential Qualities?

      You might have noticed that "qualities" rather than "attributes" is used in the title of this chapter.  The choice is deliberate.  Attributes are what we think about God.  That is, if we start from ourselves, what we conclude about God would be His attributes.  They might or might not be true.

      But we are not starting from ourselves.  We are starting from God and His self-revelation.  We are studying what God says about Himself and what God says about Himself He really is.  So "qualities" is used because qualities are what something really is as distinct from what we say about it.  We want to know God's revelation of Himself so exactly that what we ascribe to Him is true and correct.

      God is beyond our comprehension, of course.  We cannot know Him totally, but we can know Him and know Him correctly.  What God has revealed about Himself is sufficient and accurate, and has been communicated to us by appropriate media and in intelligible forms.

      This reminds us again of the necessity to approach God with all humility, confining our thinking about Him to what He says about Himself.  Any departure from this principle becomes a point from which theology proper degenerates into the subjectivism and caricaturization for which human "god-makers" are so notorious.  Therefore, we do well to focus our attention on what God has said about Himself.

God Is A Spirit

      Jesus said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).  God is an intelligent Person without a physical body.  The artist has depicted Him as an old man with a long white beard.  Of course, that is only the product of a creative imagination.

      God is a spirit Being, not in an abstract, impersonal sense but in the definite and personal.  "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

      The Bible does speak frequently about God's eyes, hand, arm (even feathers!), but these are representative terms, meant to teach something about God in figures that have specific meaning for us.  They do not teach that God has physical eyes, hands, or arms (much less feathers).  We will consider these anthropomorphisms later.

God Is Invisible

      Because God is a spirit-being, He is invisible.  Physical eyes see physical things.  God is not physical; therefore the physical eye cannot see Him.  When Moses requested to see the full glory of God, God replied, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live" (Exodus 33:20 NKJV).

      John 1:18 says, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him."  Jesus Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).  God is "the King eternal, immortal, invisible" (1 Timothy 1:17), "whom no man has seen, nor can see" (6:16).

God Is Eternal

      Because He is "the King Eternal," there never was a time when God was not, and there never will be a time when He will not be.  God has no beginning and no ending.  He always was, is, and forever shall be.  He is eternally self-existent and the same (immutable as to His being).  He declares, "I live forever" (Deuteronomy 32:40).  He announces Himself as "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah 57:15).

      "The Lord shall endure forever" (Psalm 9:7).  "Thou, O Lord, remainest forever; thy throne from generation to generation (Lamentations 5:19).  "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8).

      The concept of no beginning and no ending is beyond our comprehension now because we think in a linear mode--straight backward into the past and straight forward into the future.  We live in time and space.  But with God there is no past, present, or future.  He lives in the eternal now.  "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 32:27).

God Is Omnipresent

      God is everywhere present at once.  The inspired psalmist asks,

"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139:7-10).

      God asks, "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the LORD.  Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:24).

      Although He fills His creation, God is a Person distinct from His creation.  God fills nature, but God is not nature and nature is not God.  Who God is is one thing; what He fills is something else.  We must beware of pagan pantheism ("God is everything; everything is God"), posing as a system of religious and/or metaphysical "science."  Pantheism confuses God with His creation.  It subjectivizes God and reduces Him down to abstractions.  Such systems de-personalize God and therefore miss Him altogether.  This is one of the errors of the so-called "New Age" philosophy.  We do not find God by rummaging around in our psyche.

      When the Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:16), it does not mean that God is composed of "love," or that love is God.  It is simply describing God's moral character.  Interpreting a predicate adjective as a predicate nominative is a mistake.  Thus, "everywhere" is not (that is, does not compose) God; but God is (that is, He is present) everywhere.

      God not only fills the heavens and the earth, but the heavens and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him (1 Kings 8:27).  On a clear night focus your attention on a distant star on the horizon.  Then in one steady sweep take in the grand panorama of the heavens, resting your gaze at last on a distant star on the opposite horizon.  Consider how far it is from the one star to the other, keeping in mind that all the naked eye can see is but a tiny part of what is out there!  Then pause to reflect on the fact that God is so infinite, so limitless, that the entire universe cannot contain Him.  Oh, how great, how awesome is God!

      Yet, in His omnipresence He is immediately present with each of us.  No other person can be as close.  He is not far from every one of us (Acts 17:27).  He is "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

God Is Omniscient

      God is all-knowing and all-wise.  All facts are before Him and He totally comprehends each one.  He knows in Himself, not by process.  He fully knows the potential outcome of every possible course of action, and He always wills what is best.  God sees everything and He pays total attention to everything He sees.  Here is the testimony of Scripture:

     "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5).

     "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he sees all his goings" (Job 34:21).

     "Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm 44:21).

     "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3).

     "For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes" (Jeremiah 16:17 NASB).

     "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to every one according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds" (Jeremiah 17:10 NASB).

     [God's] "eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 32:19).

     "Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth" (James 5:4.  "Sabaoth" means "Hosts").

     "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).

     "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?" (Psalm 94:9 NASB).

      God is not a casual observer.  As the moral governor of the universe, He witnesses every act and He knows every motive.  But, although He must and will punish sin, judgment is not the primary purpose of God's superintending view.  "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers" (1 Peter 3:12).  And in 2 Chronicles 16:9 we read, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him."

      God sees the sparrow fall, and the hairs of our head are all numbered in His sight (Matthew 10:29, 30).  Every time we run a comb or brush through our hair and pull out a few, God notices the change in the total.  That is how closely He watches over each one of us.

      God has been watching over us from the moment of our conception.  "Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written" (Psalm 139:16 NASB).

      They who commit abortion disregard the fact that they and the helpless little people they kill are under the watchful eye of the Creator.

      The very limited scope of our personal human observation moves us at times to great sorrow and at other times to great joy.  How greatly then must God be moved, both in sorrow and in joy, by all that He sees.

      God's omniscience extends to every detail.  Even our innermost thoughts are known to God.  "The LORD searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts" (1 Chronicles 28:9).  "You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off" (Psalm 139:2 NKJV).  God says, "I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them" (Ezekiel 11:5).

      God's omniscience includes complete and perfect foreknowledge.  It is according to His foreknowledge that He established His purposes and His decrees.

      Some deny the absolute foreknowledge of God on speculative grounds.  Their reasoning is that if God foreknows everything, why does He not prevent evil from happening? The fact that evils do happen is due to "blind spots" in God's foreknowledge.  He did not know they would happen; therefore, He is not to be blamed for not preventing them.  Thus they attempt to "salvage" the character of God.

      But in no way does God's foreknowledge discredit His goodness.  Although He foreknows every evil, God does not prevent many of them simply because to do so would require measures that would not be wise in the situation.  This is a period of probation, of human choice, a time for the testing and formation and expression of human character.  One of its foremost features is divine forbearance and longsuffering (2 Peter 3:9).  God has no intention of establishing a "police state" in this present gospel age.  Judgment will come later.

      It is interesting to note in passing that the very ones who blame God for not stopping others from sinning resolutely resist Him when He commands them to repent of their own sins.  How they insist on their own freedom of choice!  How they view any divine restraint upon their rebellion as interference with their rights!

      In support of the notion that God has limited omniscience (a self-contradictory term), Genesis 22:12 is sometimes quoted: "now I know that thou fearest God..."  But the Hebrew verb here is "have known."

      The attempt to qualify or place a limit on God's foreknowledge misrepresents Him.  In effect it denies His full deity.  God foreknows absolutely, and His foreknowledge conditions His purposes and decrees.  This does not mean that God's purposes are only reactions to what He foreknows.  God acts, not reacts.  It means simply that in His sovereignty God acts in full accord with all of His qualities, including His wisdom.  Knowing this prevents us from erroneously ascribing to God an arbitrary fatalism.

     "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18).  (However this verse reads in the modern versions, the core truth of divine foreknowledge remains).

      Referring to Jesus Christ, Peter declared, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23.  See also 3:18).

      Without the foreknowledge of God there would have been no Calvary.  God did not gamble when He gave His Son to die on the cross.  It was a deliberate act of His "counsel and foreknowledge."  It is important to note that this verse also assumes human responsibility.  Both divine sovereignty and human responsibility are recognized in Scripture.

      Believers are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter 1:2).  Most of the controversy over the relationship between divine sovereignty and human will results from not recognizing the proper role of God's foreknowledge.  We are not foreknown according to God's election, but elect according to His foreknowledge.

      This is not foreknowledge merely of what we would do, but of what He could do with us consistent with wisdom.  Foreknowledge and election are one unit in the mind of God.  One does not precede the other.  With God they are simultaneous.  God's character and His works maintain a beautiful and complete consistency throughout.

      God foreknew those in Israel who would be saved.  "God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew" (Romans 11:2).

      Were it not for His foreknowledge, God could not be certain that anyone would accept His mercy through Jesus Christ.  God did not send His Son to die on the cross in hope that somebody would believe and be saved, and then to figure out afterward what to do with them.  Of course not.  From eternity God has foreknown what His redemptive act in Christ would accomplish.

     "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son" (Romans 8:29).

      Jesus clearly stated that the Father foreknows the day and the hour of the Son's return:

     "But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Matthew 24:36).

      Our heavenly Father knows what things we have need of before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8).  So, before we call He will answer, and while we are yet speaking He will hear (Isaiah 65:24).

      Nothing can come into our lives that God has not fully anticipated.  Before the worlds were created, God knew every situation that you would face and everything that people would do to you; and He has known all along exactly what to do about it and how to make it work together for your good if you will trust and obey.  Because God knows how to make all things work together for the good of His elect, nothing and nobody can prevent the believer from succeeding.  God has so many ways of handling the situation that the believer cannot lose.  So let us relax, trust God, and let Him work things out for the good.

      Let us remember that God is omniscient.  He is perfect not only in His knowledge and foreknowledge, but also in His wisdom and understanding.

     "Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).

     "The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens" (Proverbs 3:19 NASB).

     "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.  His understanding is inscrutable (Isaiah 40:28 NASB.  See also Isaiah 28:29).

     "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 16:27)

     "To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.  Amen" (Romans 16:27).

      No thought, word or act can be hidden from God.  He knows our hearts, our motives, our secrets; and some day He will reveal it all.  Yes, the Father sees in secret (Matthew 6:4, 6).

God Is Omnipotent

      God is all-powerful.

     "Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.  Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all" (1 Chronicles 29:11, 12).

     "Ah, Lord GOD!  behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee" (Jeremiah 32:17).

     "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for me?" (verse 27).

      Jesus said that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).  He prayed, "Father, all things are possible unto thee" (Mark 14:36).

      The angel Gabriel assured Mary, "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

      Jesus assures us, "My Father is greater than all" (John 10:29).  God is greater than we can possibly comprehend.  We cannot begin to imagine how great He really is.  He is infinite in His greatness and power.  This fact He has revealed to us in creation and in the Scriptures.

      Our comprehension of God's greatness will always be far less than the full reality of that greatness.  As Christians, our awareness of the greatness of God can and will continue to grow without any fear that it will ever surpass the reality.

      Yes, God is greater than we think.  And think we should.  God wants us to think about Him, to think Biblically about Him, to think BIG about Him.  God wants to expand our awareness of His greatness, because the measure of our faith depends on the measure of our correct awareness of His greatness.

      God wants to be bigger in our lives than we have allowed Him to be.  How big is God to you? That is how big your faith is.  That is how big you have allowed Him to be in your life.  God will be just as big in our lives as our faith allows Him to be, and that depends largely on how much we become aware of His true greatness.

      The fullness of God's ability is revealed in the Scriptures.  The three Hebrews were confident that "our God whom we serve is able to deliver us" (Daniel 3:17).  John the Baptist told the people that "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Luke 3:8).  Romans 4:21 reports that Abraham was "fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."

      "God is able to make all grace abound toward you" (2 Corinthians 9:8).  Jude 24 assures us that "God is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."

      God is able to make the weak brother stand (Romans 14:4).  He is able to save to the uttermost (completely and forever), according to Hebrews 7:25.  Paul declares, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1:12).  He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).  And in Philippians 3:20 the word of God proclaims that "he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

      No matter what the need or the situation, GOD IS ABLE.  Hallelujah!  The Lord God omnipotent is our strength.

      In Heaven the combined voices of God's servants thunder like the sound of many waters: "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" (Revelation 19:6).

     "God is my strength and power" (2 Samuel 22:33).

     "God is our refuge and strength" (Psalm 46:1).

     "The Lord is my strength and song" (Exodus 15:2).

     "The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed" (Psalm 28:8).

     "My flesh and my heart fail: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:26).

     "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee" (Psalm 84:5).

      Now, only He Who possesses these three natural qualities--omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience--can be God.  A limited God is a contradiction, an absurdity.  Paganism has a hierarchy of "gods" of varying degrees of power.  But they who have received God's revelation of Himself know that the term, "God," by the very nature of the concept, can be applied truly only to an unlimited, infinite Being, and that only God in His three Persons possesses these qualities.  Only God can be God.

      By His spoken word, God created billions of stars and set them in orderly motion in their orbits.  He spoke, and the foundations of the earth were laid.  He set the boundaries of the seas and the limits of the oceans.  He pushed up the mountain ranges and scooped out the valleys.  He then took the finest of the clay and shaped it.  He released His breath, and man became a living soul, created in the image of God!

      God keeps the universe in perfect synchronization.  He guides the courses of the heavens, directing the gigantic spheres of galaxies both known and as yet undiscovered by man!

      And God, Who made and directs it all by the word of His power, stands ready now to bring the power of His word--the power that moves the heavens--into your life to meet your need, fulfill His promises, save your soul, heal your body, lift you up, set you free, and make you more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ!

      Yes, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."  Trust Him.  Believe His word.  He cannot fail!

4

The Name Of God

      "What's in a name?" asks the old saying.  A rose by any other name smells just as sweet.  So it is with names that only identify.  But names that have qualitative content and significance in themselves are a different matter.  Such names are important in themselves.

      This is especially true with God.  Both in itself and in all of its various forms and expressions, God's name stands for the reality of Himself--His Person, position, nature, character, purposes, and works.

      These forms and expressions of God's name in Scripture do not indicate that the covenant people worshiped different "gods" at different periods of their history.  Neither do they signify that their concept of God "evolved."  True, revelation in Scripture is progressive; but it is progress in divine revelation, not merely the development of human religious understanding.  It is progress in truth, not into truth.  That is, as God revealed Himself, what was revealed was (and still is) all truth, but it was not all of the truth.  More remained to be revealed.  The progress was from truth to truth.  Nothing else is true revelation.

      The variety of forms and expressions of the name of God demonstrates the multiplicity and scope of the qualities and actions of the one true and living God.

      In the Old Testament God is seen more as Judge than as Father.  In the New Testament the reverse is true.  This does not mean that God has changed.  He cannot change.  Neither does it mean that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament.  It is a matter of emphasis and relationships.  God is both Judge and Father throughout the Bible.

      God's name expresses His nature and works.  It reveals His qualities and character.

      In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament, the name of God takes three basic forms: El, Jehovah (Yahweh), and Adonai.  El signifies power and authority.  It often takes the plural form, Elohim.  Frequently it joins another word, as in El-Shaddai (God Almighty).

"The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless'" (Genesis 17:1 NASB.  Also 35:1-1).

"The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting" (Psalm 50:1 NASB).

      In Revelation 4:8 the four living creatures "rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

      When God spoke to Hagar in the wilderness, she called Him El-Roi, "God is seeing" (see Genesis 16:7-14).

      Adonai means "Lord," and "Master."  It emphasizes God's authority and our corresponding responsibility to Him.  In this authority-responsibility relationship we experience care and intimacy.

      Often Adonai was either substituted for or connected to Jehovah (Yahweh), the covenant-name of God.  This is the sacred tetragram (four letter word), made up of four Hebrew consonants, YHVH or YHWH (the "W" being an alternate pronunciation of the Hebrew letter VAV.) It is said that the ancient Hebrew scribes held this name in such high reverence that they avoided pronouncing it, substituting Adonai instead.  As a result, the original pronunciation has been lost.  A variety of vowels have been added to the four basic consonants.  This accounts for the variations in spelling (along with alternate pronunciations of two of the consonants).  One could just as correctly say "Yahvah" as "Yahweh."  The form, "Jehovah," is used in the King James Version of the Bible.

      As was stated, this is the covenant-name of God.  In the third chapter of Exodus we read that God called Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt.  Moses prayed, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" (verse 13 NASB).  God's answer to Moses is a profound self-revelation:

"And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM'; and He said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.' And God, furthermore, said to Moses, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.  This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations" (verses 14, 15 NASB).

      The name, Jehovah, comes from the same verb, being the third person, singular of "I AM."  God says "I AM."  We respond, "HE IS."  This means that God is Who He is in Himself, and He is what He chooses to be in relationship to His creation, particularly to us.  God exists and is active here and now in intimate involvement with His covenant people however He chooses to be and however we need Him to be.

"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them" (Exodus 6:2, 3.  "LORD" is "Jehovah" in the Hebrew).

      Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were aware that Jehovah is God's name, but they did not know the full covenant relationship embodied in His Name.

"I am the LORD; that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images" (Isaiah 42:8).

      Jehovah, God's covenant name, signifies who He is in specific, practical ways to all who are in covenant relationship with Him.  Jehovah is who He chooses to be and what we need Him to be in every life situation.  The gracious provisions of God toward us expressed in the hyphenated forms of His name are part of His immutable nature.  That is, the elements of God's name are unchanging qualities of His very nature.  Thus God is:

      Jehovah-jireh, the God who sees (provides), the Providing God.  "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen [Provided] (Genesis 22:14).

      Jehovah-nissi, the Lord our Banner.  When God gave Israel victory over Amalek, "Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi" (Exodus 17:15).

      Jehovah-shalom, the Lord our peace.  When God called Gideon to deliver Israel from oppression, "Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom" (Judges 6:24).

      Jehovah-sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts.  "Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 47:4).  "The Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name" (Jeremiah 32:18).

      Jehovah-rohi, the LORD my Shepherd.  "The LORD is my shepherd" (Psalm 23:1).  This is a beautiful revelation of God's personal relationship to us.  He lovingly, carefully, tenderly watches over us.  He leads us, feeds us, protects us, and brings His own into His house there to dwell forever.

      Jehovah-m'qadesh, the LORD who sanctifies.  "And you shall keep my statutes, and do them; I am the LORD which sanctify you" (Leviticus 20:8).

      Jehovah-shammah, the LORD who is present.  "...and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there" (Ezekiel 48:35).

      Jehovah-rapha, the LORD who heals.  "I am the LORD who heals you" (Exodus 15:26 NKJV).  He is the healing God.  It is His very nature to heal, and no dispensational considerations can change that fact because they cannot change Him.  He is immutable.

      Jehovah-tsidkenu, the LORD our Righteousness.  "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 23:6.  See also Jeremiah 33:16).  This is a direct reference to our Lord Jesus Christ.

      Jesus is "Jehovah our Savior."  "And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

      Jesus Christ is the Second Person of Jehovah (The God-head; the Holy Trinity).  All that Jehovah is is present in Him and is mediated to us through Him.  He is "the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  And you are complete in him,..." (Colossians 2:9, 10).  "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

      Who is Jehovah? He is "my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower" (Psalm 18:2).  "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1).  "I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in him will I trust" (Psalm 91:2).  "But the LORD is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge" (Psalm 94:22).  "The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation" (Psalm 118:14).

      Jehovah is our everything.  HE IS!  Whatever you need Him to be, that is what He is--right now.  So, come to Him.  Trust Him.  Open up to the fullness of who He is and what He wants to be in your life.  "Trust ye in the LORD forever, for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength" (Isaiah 26:4).

      He is God of gods and Lord of lords, great and mighty (Deuteronomy 10:17).

      He is the eternal God.  "The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

      He is the Most High.  "I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High" (Psalm 9:2).  "...the most High uttered his voice" (2 Samuel 22:14).  "The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice" (Psalm 18:13).  "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth" (Psalm 83:18).  "...the most High rules in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:17).

      He is the Holy One.  "...to thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 71:22).  "For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 43:3).  He is "the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah 57:15).

      His name is Jealous.  "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14).  Believers in Christ are God's covenant people, His bride.  His heart belongs to us and our hearts belong to Him.  Because He loves us, He will tolerate no unfaithfulness, no flirting with sin and the world.  Let us be true to Him, because He is a jealous God.  What a joy it is to know that He loves us that much.

      He is the Judge.  "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25).

      He is the living God.  "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you" (Joshua 3:10).  "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:2.  See also Psalm 84:2).  "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).  "...who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26).

      The fact that God is our Father was known in Israel in Old Testament times.  But it was Jesus who fully revealed God to us as our heavenly Father.  And so He taught us to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven..."  (Matthew 6:9).

      God honors His name, and we are required to do the same.  God honors the covenant commitments of His name.  He is faithful to us for His name's sake.  "For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake" (1 Samuel 12:22).  "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake" (Psalm 23:3).  "For thy name's sake, pardon my iniquity" (Psalm 25:11).

      "For thy name's sake, lead me and guide me" (Psalm 31:3).  "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name" (Psalm 79:9).  "Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power known" (Psalm 106:8).  See also Isaiah 48:9-11 and 63:12-14.

      Remember that when we are referring to God, the name is the reality.  Psalm 111:9 says that His name is holy and reverend (awesome).  God solemnly commanded, "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain" (Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11).  In Leviticus 18:21 He warned, "neither shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD."  See also Leviticus 19:12.

      In Leviticus 24:10-16 we read the sobering account of what happened to a man in Israel who blasphemed "The Name."

      The cursing, swearing and blasphemy that swirls around us and reaches the ears of God as an abusive roar is nothing short of sheer madness!  What insane folly!  Thoughtlessly, recklessly, people play the fool before the Majesty in the heavens!  How the angels must look on with horror.  See that madman flippantly calling on God to damn everything in sight? He seems totally oblivious to the dreadful frown of the One Who sees his every thought and hears his every word.  He cares not about the condemnation that is piling up against him daily in the court of Heaven for the insult and injury that he continually heaps upon the Lord God Jehovah!

      If we have a proper awareness of the holiness of God and a true regard for the honor of His name, profanity should always shock and outrage us.

      We who name the name of Christ must be so very careful how we speak His name.  Let us never use "God," "Lord," or any other form of the holy Name as a by-word or a mere exclamation.  Let the "damns" and "hells" that pour like sewage from profane hearts and mouths never occupy our sanctified tongues!  Even slang words--"minced oaths"--seem totally out of place in His holy presence.

      Also, our actions can either honor or dishonor His name.  In 1 Timothy 6:1 we read: "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed."

      As professed Christians, we carry the honor of God's name with us everywhere.  May God's honor be safe with us at all times.

      The highest and most noble motive in intercessory prayer is concern for the glory of God and the honor of His name.  When Israel was defeated at Ai because of sin in the camp, Joshua interceded on their behalf: "For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth; and what wilt thou do to thy great name?" (Joshua 7:9).

      King Solomon's dedicatory prayer included this petition: "Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to thee for, that all the people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel..." (1 Kings 8:43).

      Jesus expressed it simply and perfectly when He prayed, "Father, glorify thy name" (John 12:28).  And the Father's answer should bring joy and anticipation to everyone who truly loves God: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

      "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name" (Matthew 6:9).  Wherever that is the expression of a pure heart, it will also be the rule of a pure life.

      We can trust God's name.  It is our defense and our victory.  When David came against Goliath with only a sling and five stones, he was relying totally on the name of the Lord.  Remember, David was putting his life on the line.  The name of the Lord was more than just a religious term to David.  It embodied the very reality of God's presence and power in his life.  That is why he could say to the Philistine with settled confidence, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (1 Samuel 17:45).

      This personal, experiential knowledge of God is expressed in the psalms.  "The LORD hear you in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend you; ...in the name of our God we will set up our banners...  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:1, 5, 7).  "For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name" (Psalm 33:21).  "...through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us" (Psalm 44:5).  "Save me, O God, by thy name" (Psalm 54:1).  "I will wait on thy name" (Psalm 52:9).  "Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 124:8).  "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee" (Psalm 9:10).

      When the Ethiopians came against Asa, king of Judah, "Asa cried to the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest in thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude" (2 Chronicles 14:11).  And so God gave Judah a great victory.  God always honors His name, and He will always honor faith in His name.  So, if we truly know His name, our hearts and minds can be at ease because our trust rests solidly in Him.

      Again we read the testimony of the psalms: "Thy name is near" (Psalm 75:1).  "...thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name" (Psalm 138:2).

      When we sign a contract or an agreement, we put our name on the bottom line.  In this way we legally establish everything above our name and pledge ourselves to it.  Just so, God has given us His written word and has put His name to it.  The word of the Lord is guaranteed by the name of the Lord.  It is backed up by the full reality of all that He is.  For this reason we can safely put our complete trust in His word.  Speaking of the person who dwells in the secret place of the most High, Psalm 91:14 says, "Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known my name."  God's name is a safe refuge, for it represents His saving and keeping power.  Proverbs 18:10 assures us, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe."

      There is salvation in His name.  Quoting the prophet Joel, Peter declared on the day of Pentecost, "...whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21).  The same promise is repeated in Romans 10:13.

      In His high-priestly prayer for us, recorded in John chapter seventeen, our Lord prayed, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are...  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name" (John 17:11, 12).

      The name of the Lord is the ground of our confidence.  By putting our trust in God through Jesus Christ, we lock in by faith to all that God is and all that He can do.  Our commitment of faith is backed up by all the resources of Heaven.  The name of the Lord keeps us, upholds us, and will see us through.  We can trust Him.  His name will not fail us, because His name embodies and represents all that He is.  And God cannot and will not fail.

      We are to proclaim the name of the Lord.  Moses said, "I will publish the name of the LORD" (Deuteronomy 32:3).  The psalmist said, "I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations" (Psalm 45:17).  Jesus said, "I have declared to them thy name, and will declare it" (John 17:26).  He commanded us to baptize new disciples "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).  There is power in the proclamation of His name in the act of water baptism.  It declares that we have eternal life because we know the Father and the Son (John 17:3).

      Glorify His name.  "Give to the LORD the glory due to his name" (Psalm 29:2).  "And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory" (Psalm 72:19).  "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name" (Psalm 86:9).  "I will glorify thy name forever" (verse 12).  "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to thy name give glory" (Psalm 115:1).  "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?" (Revelation 15:4).

      Exalt His name.  "...blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise" (Nehemiah 9:5).  "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together" (Psalm 34:3).

      Fear His name in loving reverence.  "Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name" (Psalm 61:5).  "But to you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2).

      Love His name.  "Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee" (Psalm 5:11).

      Remember His name.  "I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law" (Psalm 119:55).

      Give thanks to His name.  "Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy name" (Psalm 140:13).

      Bless His name.  "Sing to the LORD; bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day" (Psalm 96:2).  "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise; be thankful to him and bless his name" (Psalm 100:4).  "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy name" (Psalm 103:1).  "I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.  Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever" (Psalm 145:1, 2).

      Praise His name.  "According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 48:10).  "...let the poor and needy praise thy name" (Psalm 74:21).  See also Psalm 44:8; 54:6; 99:2, 3; 113:1-3; 135:1-3; 148:13; 149:3.

      Sing praises to His name.  "I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High" (Psalm 9:2).  "Make a joyful noise to God, all ye lands; sing forth the honor of his name; make his praise glorious" (Psalm 66:1, 2).  See also Psalm 7:17; 18:49; 61:8; 68;4; 69:30; 92:1.

      First Chronicles chapter sixteen contains a psalm that David gave on the occasion of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to the place that he had prepared for it.  This psalm includes a four-fold praise to the name of the Lord.  "Give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name" (verse 8).  "Glory ye in his holy name" (verse 10).  "Give to the LORD the glory due to his name" (verse 29).  "Save us, O God of our salvation, ...that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise" (verse 35).

      Psalm 63:3 and 4 reads, "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.  Thus will I bless thee while I live; I will lift up my hands in thy name."  Do it.  It is Scriptural.

The name of the Lord is as lovely perfume to those who know and love Him." ...thy name is as ointment poured forth" (Song Of Solomon 1:3).

"The desire of our soul is to thy name" (Isaiah 26:8).  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1 and 9).

      The name of the Lord shall endure forever.  Earthly names rise and then fade, but the name of the Lord shall shine forever.  There shall be no diminishing of its glory.  "Thy name, O LORD, endures forever; and thy memorial, O LORD, throughout all generations (Psalm 135:13).

      Psalm seventy-two is a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ.  Verse seventeen says, "His name shall endure forever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun."

"For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, says the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 1:11).

      In this gospel age God is calling out a people for His name (Acts 15:14).  He is calling us out of sin, out of darkness, out of bondage, out of the lusts of this present world-system.  He is calling us to Himself, to eternal life, to walk with Him in the light.  He is calling us into a personal relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ, a relationship of love and holiness.  He is calling us to complete and eternal compatibility with Himself in love.  He is calling us to victory, to be overcomers by His grace over the world, the flesh, and the devil.  "Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name" (Revelation 3:12).

      In Revelation 14:1 we view the triumphant scene.  There on the mount Zion stands the victorious Lamb, "and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads."  What a prize!  What a high calling!  What a glorious hope!

      How exalted is the name of God!  His name is so great and all-encompassing that it cannot be expressed in merely one form, but must be seen as embracing many nominatives.  O Father, hallowed be Thy Name!

      Let us call upon His name with all our heart and with all our soul.  Call upon Him in all sincerity and truth.  Call upon Him in faith, for "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

      The psalmist expressed it in such beautiful simplicity: "What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD" (Psalm 116:12, 13).

5

Symbols Of God’s Person And Presence

      As was noted earlier, the moment we say or imply that God is like something, distortion sets in.  Because God is not like anything, the attempt to liken Him to something tends to limit Him in our thinking to the limitations of the thing we use as a comparison.

      Nevertheless, the Bible does use symbols in referring to God, their built-in limitations and dangers notwithstanding, because they are useful up to a point and their potential for meaning is greater than their potential for misunderstanding.  It should be emphasized, however, that such references are specific and are made within the total body of Biblical teaching about God.  If they are understood within the full context of the Scriptures, they will be understood correctly.

      The Scriptures employ several symbols to express the Person and works of God.  These symbols in themselves are not part of the Divine essence.  That is, they are not what God is.  They are used because something about the symbol conveys to our understanding something about God.

      Although God is a Spirit-being, the Bible at times speaks of Him in human, physical terms.  He is spoken of as having hands, arms, eyes, ears, a face, and so forth.  These references to God in human, physical terms are called anthropomorphisms.  They do not by any means teach that God has physical arms, hands, and so forth, except as Jesus Christ now possesses a glorified body.  This form of speech is employed in the Bible only to make the character and works of God more vivid and meaningful to us by relating them to human features and actions that express themselves in and through a physical body.  God is a Person functioning without a physical body.  We are persons functioning in and through physical bodies.  The use of anthropomorphisms makes His Personhood more understandable to us by comparing it with ours.

      It should be noted at this point that God is sexless.  He is a Spirit-being, and spirit-beings are sexless.  He is our heavenly Father, and the masculine pronoun is used in reference to Him throughout the Bible.  But masculinity does not necessarily imply sexuality.  Masculinity in this sense is defined as that which acts upon, as distinct from that which is acted upon.  Masculinity initiates action; femininity receives the action, processes it, and produces the result.  This is true both in nature and in our spiritual relationship with God.  So we use such terms as Heavenly Father, and Mother Earth.  Christ is the Bridegroom; believers are the Bride.

      A number of years ago I heard a minister relate a personal experience on this very point.  It seems that he had been around a group of Christians who were constantly receiving what they believed to be "Divine guidance" in the details of living (what suit to wear, what to cook for dinner, etc.).  At first it all sounded very spiritual, and he began to wonder why he was not close enough to God to receive such up-to-the-minute directions in his own life.  And so he went to prayer and sought the Lord earnestly about it.  He asked God why He did not guide him in such daily matters.  The answer came clearly to his mind, "Because I am your Father, not your mother!"

      Sometimes the Biblical symbol is taken from nature or the forces of nature.  At other times the reference is to an inanimate object, or something functional.  We have already noted this in some of the names of God (e.g., Rock, Fortress, Shield, High Tower).  We see, then, that the names of God themselves embody much symbolism.  In this chapter, however, we are focusing on specific objects and how they are useful in teaching us about God.

Fire

      Fire signifies judgment, purification, stimulation, illumination.  In Exodus 3:2 through 4:17 God appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  Also, on the Day of Pentecost tongues of fire accompanied the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3).  When associated with the Holy Spirit (the Third Person of the Holy Trinity), fire indicates illumination, conviction, purification, and stimulation.  Fire also speaks of judgment.  "For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29).

Wings

      Wings symbolize speedy deliverance and protection.  God said to Israel, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself" (Exodus 19:4).

      Boaz said to Ruth, "The Lord recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you are come to trust" (Ruth 2:12).

      In Psalm 17:8 the psalmist prayed, "...hide me under the shadow of thy wings."  And in Psalm 36:7 the psalmist worships God in these words: "How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings."  Also, Psalm 91:4 promises, "He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you trust."

      Of course, these Bible verses do not teach that God has physical wings (much less feathers!).  They convey the truth of the overshadowing protection of God.  They are metaphors intended to help us understand more fully God's loving care for His people.

Voice

      Voice signifies personality and communication.  Only persons truly speak.  God is not a quality or an idea.  He speaks.  He is a Person.  Adam and Eve "heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8).  On Mount Sinai "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice" (Exodus 19:19).

      Later, Moses said to Israel, "Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?...Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you; and upon earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire" (Deuteronomy 4:33 and 36).

      God communicated with Elijah in "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12).

      The ancients compared the authority of God's voice to the booming of the thunder.  Elihu said, "...he thunders with the voice of his excellency.  ...God thunders marvelously with his voice" (Job 37:4, 5).  Later, God Himself asked Job, "Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like him?" (Job 40:9).  It was in this context that the psalmist declared, "The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty" (Psalm 29:4).

      On the mountain, when Jesus was transfigured before some of His disciples, "there came a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5).  Peter, who was one of the eye-witnesses of this glorious event, wrote many years later, "For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (2 Peter 1:17).

      When Jesus prayed to the Father, asking that the Father's name be glorified, the voice of God answered, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28).

      In Hebrews 12:25-and 26 we are warned, "See that you refuse not him that speaks.  For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth...."

      The voice of God is the voice of authority, of rebuke, and of warning.  It is also the voice of comfort and of promise.

      The fact that God communicates implies that He is immediately concerned with human affairs, and that He designs that His will be known and obeyed.  "And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard" (Isaiah 30:30).  "And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory" (Ezekiel 43:2).

Eyes and ears

      The meaning of these symbols is obvious.  God sees and God hears.  He is all-wise and all-knowing.  Nothing escapes His attention.  He is not a casual observer, but knows all things thoroughly and purposefully.  And it should be emphasized that God does not know by process, but in Himself.

"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His" (2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB).

"The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men" (Psalm 11:4).

"The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.  The face of the LORD is against them that do evil" (Psalm 34:15, 16.  Peter quotes this passage in 1 Peter 3:12).

"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3).

"Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men" (Jeremiah 32:19).

"In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God; and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears" (2 Samuel 22:7).

"Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth" (James 5:4).

Arm

      The arm of the Lord is an oft-used metaphor that represents the extension of God's power and protection.  God assured Israel, "I will redeem you with a stretched out arm" (Exodus 6:6).  Isaiah 63:12 reports that God "led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm."

      Referring to ancient Israel's deliverance, the apostle Paul said, "The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm brought he them out of it" (Acts 13:17).  See also Deuteronomy 5:15.

      God asked Job, "Have you an arm like God?" (Job 40:9).  In Psalm 89:13 the psalmist said to God, "Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand."  And Psalm 98:1 urges, "O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand, and his holy arm, has gotten him the victory."

      In a prophetic reference to God's saving power in Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53:1 says, "to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?"

      In Isaiah 51:5 God declares, "My arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands will wait for Me, and for My arm they will wait expectantly" (NASB).  Here "arms" signify God's ability both to judge and to uphold.

      God's arms are also a symbol of His integrity.  Isaiah 62:8 says, "The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength."

      The "arm" of the Lord represents His strength, assistance, security, the removal of obstacles, and firm but gentle guidance.  It signifies His extended power and ready assistance-- real, actual, and not just potential.  It is the assurance of His present provision.  God's power extends to our need right where we are, no matter where that might be.  We do not stand alone and defenseless.  The arm of the Lord--a present, all-powerful, committed assistance--is constantly undergirding and sustaining all who trust Him.  "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Hand

      Whereas the arm of the Lord symbolizes the extension of God's power, the hand of the Lord symbolizes the application of that power.  It is the power of God working in behalf of human need.

      In Isaiah 48:13 God affirms that His power in creating the universe was direct, not indirect: "My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens."  And in Psalm 119:73 the psalmist confessed, "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me."

      The hand of the Lord signifies God's direct action in judgment, chastisement, adversity, and also conviction for sin.  God said, "I will stretch out My hand, and strike Egypt..." (Exodus 3:20 NASB).  "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst" (Exodus 7:5 NASB).

      Referring to Israel's forty-year wandering in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 2:15 says, "For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them."

      In her discouragement Naomi complained, "the hand of the LORD is gone out against me" (Ruth 1:13).  1 Samuel 5:6 reports, "the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them."

      And Job begged his friends, "Have pity on me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God has touched me" (Job 19:21).

      Conviction of sin is likened to the pressure of the hand of God upon the offender.  David remembered vividly how he experienced this when he attempted to keep quiet about his sin with Bathsheba.  "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me" (Psalm 32:3, 4 NASB).  "Thy hand has pressed down on me" (Psalm 38:2 NASB).  "Because of the opposition of Thy hand, I am perishing" (Psalm 39:10 NASB).

      When Elymas the sorcerer interfered as Paul was preaching the gospel to Sergius Paulus, the Roman official, the apostle rebuked him with these startling words: "The hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season" (Acts 13:11).

      Certainly, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

      God holds our very breath in His hands.  Part of God's indictment against Belshazzar, the Babylonian ruler, reads as follows: "And the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified" (Daniel 5:23).

      "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6).

      His hand is also a hand of guidance.  Concerning Ezra the scribe, Ezra 7:9 reports, "on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him."  (See also Ezra 8:18 and Nehemiah 2:18).

      God's "hand" is also a hand of encouragement.  "In Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the LORD" (2 Chronicles 30:12).

      It is also a hand of blessing.  "Thou openest thine hand; they are filled with good" (Psalm 104:28).  "You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing" (Psalm 145:16 NKJV).

      It is a hand of protection.  The prophet testified, "He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me" (Isaiah 49:2).  In Isaiah 51:16 God assures His people, "I have covered you in the shadow of my hand."

      His is a hand of salvation.  "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear" (Isaiah 59:1).

      God "stretches out His hand" to heal.  During a time of opposition, the early disciples prayed, "Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant to thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy hold child Jesus" (Acts 4:29, 30).

      The "hand" of God is a hand of assistance.  The psalmist testified, "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me" (Psalm 138:7 NKJV).

      As the early Christians went out preaching the gospel, "the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord" (Acts 11:21).

      In Jeremiah 1:9 the young prophet testified, "Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my mouth.  And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth."

      When John the Baptist was but a child, "the hand of the Lord was with him" (Luke 1:66).

      The hand of God sustains those who put their trust in Him.  In Psalm 37:24 we have this reassuring promise: "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the LORD upholds him with his hand."

      A promise that believers have always found to be especially comforting is found in Isaiah 41:10.  "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (NKJV).

      Jesus assures His sheep, "And I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28, 29).  Obedient sheep remain securely in the hand of the Shepherd.  Blessed assurance!

      Jesus Christ holds the seven stars (His ministers) in His right hand (Revelation 1:16; 2:1).

      On Calvary those very hands in human flesh were nailed to a cross, and forever they will bear the marks of that sacrifice of love.  Thus our gracious God says to us, "I have graven you upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16).  By faith we are securely protected in those hands.

6

The Greatness Of God

      How big is God? How great is He? No one has the full answer to these questions.  No one can.  We cannot possibly think of God bigger or greater than He really is.  We may think our biggest thoughts about God, think about His greatness to the limits of our minds.  The reality is still bigger and greater.  God is infinite, limitless.

      The human mind is not capable of comprehending fully the greatness and magnitude of God.  Even Moses, who had seen His glory in some very spectacular ways, confessed that what he had experienced was only the beginning: "O LORD GOD, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand"...  (Deuteronomy 3:24).

      Overwhelmed with the greatness of God, the prophet Jeremiah prayed: "Ah, LORD GOD!  Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.  There is nothing too hard for You.  You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them--the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts.  You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 32:17-19 NKJV).

God Is Unsearchable

      The Bible pictures God as dwelling in "the thick darkness."  In Exodus 20:21 we read, "And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was."  Many years later King Solomon said, "The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness" (1 Kings 8:12).  And in Psalm 18:11 it is written, "He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies."  We have also the testimony of Psalm 97:1, 2--"The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof, Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne."

      The motif of darkness in these Bible passages is not intended to convey anything sinister or negative about God.  Rather, it represents the inscrutability of God.  The human mind in itself cannot penetrate into the mysteries of the person and nature of God.  All is darkness beyond what God has revealed to the human intellect.

      At the same time, God dwells in the light that no one can approach (1 Timothy 6:16).  How can God dwell in the thick darkness and in the unapproachable light at the same time?  The answer is this: everything God has chosen to reveal to us about Himself is light to us.  Everything beyond that is now darkness to us.  That is where God dwells.  To us it is darkness; to God it is perfect and full light, the light we cannot approach now.

      Job said, "I would seek to God, and to God would I commit my cause, which does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number" (Job 5:8, 9).  He expressed the same idea in chapter 9:1-10.  Later, Elihu added,       "Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out" (Job 36:26).  Still later in his speech to Job, Elihu said, "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out..." (Job 37:23).

      Job's three friends said some things about God that did not apply in Job's case and therefore misrepresented His character and providential workings.  But Zophar did ask the right question when he said, "Can you by searching find out God? Can you find out the Almighty to perfection" (Job 11:7).

      The psalmist confessed, "Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

      David was inspired to sing, "Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3).  Read also his words in Psalm 139:1-6, especially verse six: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain to it."

      In Ecclesiastes 3:11 the Preacher confesses, "He has made everything beautiful in his time; also he has set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end."

      He expresses the same truth in 11:5--"As you know not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so you know not the works of God who makes all."

      God Himself puts it this way in Isaiah 55:8, 9--"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

      The unsearchableness of God is reaffirmed in the New Testament.  In 1 Corinthians 2:16 the apostle Paul asks, "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?" And in Romans 11:33-36 he exclaims,

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!  For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever.  Amen." (See also Isaiah 40:12-31).

      Yes, God is unsearchable.  The human mind, starting from itself and using only its own abilities, is unable to achieve a clear comprehension of the specifics of the person and nature of God.  Every effort to do so has resulted in a caricature of God.  True, human reason perceives the fact of God's deity and power from the reality and design of nature.  This perception imposes moral obligation, and demands humility of us.  But the humility thus demanded by reason implies the honest confession that the Being Who created such a universe as we know it to be is a Person of infinite intelligence and power, Whose qualities are infinite and therefore cannot be perceived in their fullness by finite mind.  What we are to know correctly about God must be revealed by Him.  Still, His self-revelation is given to finite minds and, though true and correct, extends no farther than the capacities of finite minds though illuminated by the Holy Spirit.  We know God.  He has revealed Himself to us.  That is a true and correct revelation.  It is also a full revelation so far as our needs are concerned.  Yet there remains a reality in God that is far beyond us, and in that realization we bow in wonder and adoration!

God Is Sovereign

      Simply put, God's sovereignty means that He does not have to ask anyone about what He does, nor does He have to give account to anyone for what He does.  He wills.  He purposes.  He decrees.  He acts.  And He does not have to ask anyone's permission.  Although He has sufficiently good and wise reasons for all that He does or permits to be done, He is under no obligation to explain His actions to anyone.  To place Himself under such an obligation would be totally wrong for Him.  It would be a denial of Himself.

      But, although God is sovereign, He is not arbitrary.  He does not act capriciously or despotically.  He is infinitely wise and perfectly benevolent.  He has sufficiently good and wise reasons for everything He does and permits to be done.  In the exercise of His sovereignty He always acts in accordance with His infinite wisdom and goodness.

      God is love (1 John 4:8).  The fact that God is perfect in love and wisdom is grounds for full confidence in Him.  Moreover, it demands such confidence, and the withholding of such confidence is sin.  It is a denial of God's character, hence of God Himself.  Knowing that God is good and wise, we can trust Him to exercise His sovereignty in full harmony with all of His natural and moral qualities.  How else should we do? To whom would God give account? Who is wiser and more just? Who is able to sit in judgment on the purposes and actions of God? The idea is preposterous.  God gives account only to His intelligence, and that is forever perfect and complete.

      Yet, God does condescend to commend His purposes and actions to our intelligence; and whenever we perceive them in their true light, we find them to be most reasonable and wise.

      Knowing that God is perfect in love and wisdom, our only reasonable course is to trust Him, even when we do not see the wisdom or justice of His ways.

      God is in full and absolute authority.  His word says so.  He is "the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth" (Genesis 14:19).  "The LORD shall reign forever and ever" (Exodus 15:18).  "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.  For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever" (Deuteronomy 32:39, 40).

      David confessed "Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all" (1 Chronicles 29:11).

      Many years later king Jehoshaphat "stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, and said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee" (2 Chronicles 20:5, 6).

      Even in his affliction and adversity Job acknowledged the sovereignty of God: "Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, 'What art Thou doing?"' (Job 9:12 NASB).

      "Why do you strive against him? for he gives not account of any of his matters" Elihu asks Job (Job 33:13).

      The psalms also teach the sovereignty of God.  "But our God is in the heavens; he has done whatsoever he has pleased" (Psalm 115:3).  "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places" (Psalm 135:6).

      Proverbs 21:30 says, "There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD."

      Through the prophet Isaiah God declares His sovereignty in His purposes and decrees: "The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand" (Isaiah 14:24).  "Even from eternity I am He; and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?" (Isaiah 43:13 NASB).

"I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country; yea, I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it; I will also do it" (Isaiah 46:9-11).

      God told the prophet Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house for a revelation.  There he observed how the potter used the clay at his own discretion.  Jeremiah reports: "Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD.  Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel" (Jeremiah 18:5, 6).

      Daniel was in real trouble.  King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and none of the "wise men" could interpret it.  So the king became angry and ordered all the wise men of Babylon to be destroyed.  Of course, the decree included Daniel and his companions.  So they prayed.  There is nothing like a death sentence to get people down to business in prayer!  God answered and revealed to Daniel the interpretation of the king's dream.  In his prayer of thanksgiving, Daniel acknowledged the sovereignty of God: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, and he changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding" (Daniel 2:20, 21).

      Later, king Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God is the true Sovereign in Heaven and on earth.  And so he admitted: "he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say to him, What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35).

      In his epistle to the Romans, chapters nine through eleven, the apostle Paul addresses the issue of the justice of God in His dealings with mankind, in this case with Israel.  Just as God asserted His divine sovereignty in His answer to Job (Job 38-41), so the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: "You will say then to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?" (Romans 9:19-21).

      Now, what is the Bible teaching in this passage? That God is arbitrary, tyrannical, despotic? Not at all!  It simply asserts the fact that God is sovereign.  Remember that the character of God is perfect.  All of His qualities harmonize.  Each is in perfect accord with all the others.  God is all-wise and perfect in goodness.  So then, He can never act unwisely or unjustly in the exercise of His sovereignty.  God's sovereignty is always perfectly consistent with His love, His wisdom, His justice, His holiness--His every virtue.  The sovereign God always knows what He is doing.  If we knew all that God knows, we would see the wisdom and the necessity of His purposes and actions.  We would immediately glorify Him for taking the course that He does, marveling at the wisdom and lovingkindness of His ways.

      Because God is sovereign, He is able to make "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

      The Bible teaches both divine sovereignty and human free will.  We are free moral agents.  We make decisions and those decisions have consequences.  God commands us to make the right choices and holds us responsible for our choices.  "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

      But an over-emphasis on human free will can result in our losing sight of the sovereignty of God.  We sin; we blunder; we make wrong choices.  Other people, especially people very close to us, say and do things that harm us.  Now, if all we see is human free will in action--if we see ourselves only as the product of our own choices and the victims of other people's actions--we can be devastated.  As a result, we live in regret, discouragement, resentment, bitterness, even hopelessness.

      But if you love God...!  Ah, here is where the over-ruling sovereignty of God goes into action!  And it operates according to His foreknowledge.  Nothing takes Him by surprise.  From all eternity He has foreknown every choice we would make and every act of others that would affect us, every situation that would come into our lives, and He has already determined how He is going to make them all work together for good.  Because He is sovereign, He uses whatever human choices He wills to use and over-rules whatever human choices He wills to over-rule in the process.  He is never out of options.  If you love God, He has so many ways to make everything work together for your good, you cannot lose!

      "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).  This should liberate our faith, lift us out of discouragement, and purify us from resentment and bitterness.  "And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?" (1 Peter 3:13).

      Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery.  In Egypt he was lied about and mistreated.  It was one "raw deal" after another.  But through it all God's sovereign purpose was being worked out.  When he finally saw his brothers again, he said to them, "It was not you who sent me here, but God" (Genesis 45:8).  You just can't keep a person like that down!

God Is The Fullness Of Glory And Majesty

      God is "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach to; whom no man has seen, nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting.  Amen" (1 Timothy 6:15, 16.  See also Acts 1:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

      The Bible declares the glory and majesty of God, and describes some occasions when His glory and majesty were displayed.  On Mount Sinai "the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire" (Exodus 24:17).  When Moses asked to see the full glory of God, God replied, "You cannot see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live" (Exodus 33:20).  When the tabernacle was completed, "a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  And Moses was not able to enter..." (Exodus 40:34, 35).

      Many years later king Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.  During the dedication celebration "the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD" (1 Kings 8:10, 11.  Also 2 Chronicles 5:14).  When Solomon finished his dedicatory prayer, "the fire came down from heaven,...and the glory of the LORD filled the house.  And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD's house.  And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped" (2 Chronicles 7:1-3).

      Under such a direct and awesome display of the glory and majesty of God, who would dare trifle? Who would be so reckless as to take His holy name in vain, so perverse as to utter profanity in the presence of Almighty God, the Majesty on High, the Dread Sovereign of the universe!  What a contrast to the shocking carelessness of our present rash society, blind to the glory and majesty of God, spiritually dull and insensible, self-righteous and pseudo-sophisticated, that madly plays the fool before the Majesty in the Heavens!  Nothing but the impact of the revelation of the awesome holiness of God will shock this secular generation to its senses and bring it to repentance in genuine sorrow for sin!  May God grant us such an act of His mercy and grace.

      Job 26:11 declares that even the "pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof."  How then can mortal man be careless and indifferent in his sins?

      "God thunders marvelously with his voice; great things does he, which we cannot comprehend....  With God is terrible majesty" (Job 37:5, 22).

      The glory and majesty of God are extolled in the psalms.  "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!  who has set thy glory above the heavens" (Psalm 8:1).  "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1 NASB).  "Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength; so will we sing and praise thy power" (Psalm 21:13).  "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth" (Psalm 57:5).  "The glory of the LORD shall endure forever" (Psalm 104:31).  "The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens" (Psalm 113:4).  "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob" (Psalm 114:7).

      One day the prophet Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, "high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."  Upon seeing this vision, the prophet cried out immediately, "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 mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).

      Oh, that we who name the name of the Lord would receive such a purging, cleansing impression of the holiness and majesty of God!  Without it there can be no true revival.

      Ah, here is God's promise: "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it" (Isaiah 40:5).  We rejoice in this glorious assurance.

      God asks, "'Do you not fear Me?" declares the LORD.  'Do you not tremble in My presence?'" (Jeremiah 5:22 NASB.  See also Jeremiah 10:6-13; Amos 4:13; Nahum 1:3-6; Habakkuk 3:6-15; Romans 1:20; Revelation 4:11).

      One night during the first true Christmas, a group of shepherds were in the field, keeping watch over their flocks.  Suddenly, "the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid" (Luke 2:9).

      On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was temporarily blinded and driven to the ground by the power and brilliance of God's glory (see Acts, chapter nine).

      What profound changes would such a revelation of the glory of God make in our lives? Certainly we would not--we could not--be the same after such an experience.  It would completely re-focus our view of reality.  Our values would be corrected instantly and our behavior would be disciplined from that moment on.  May God grant it!

      Please read Paul’s prayer recorded in Ephesians 1:15-23.  This prayer has been inscripturated by the Holy Spirit as the will of God for believers in all generations.  It expresses the heart-desire of God for us.  He wants to give us "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him."  He desires that the eyes of our hearts be enlightened that we "may know what is the hope of His calling...the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints...the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe."

      God warns the unrepentant: "Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty" (Isaiah 2:10 NASB).  Here is the picture, recorded in Revelation 6:15-17—

"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"

      Yes, the day is set; the appointment has been made for a personal interview with God.  Each of us is going to face Him, and He will face each of us with the open books that contain the details of our lives, including every idle world that we have spoken.

      Think of it!  God, Who created the universe by His spoken word--God, Whose glory and presence shook mount Sinai--God, Whose glory and presence filling a tabernacle and a temple was so intense that no one could enter, and that drove the crowd outside the temple to the ground with their faces flat against the pavement--God, Whose majesty melted Isaiah's heart-- God, Whose dazzling glory unveiled will one day melt the galaxies--the Almighty God will have words with each one of us!

      "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?" (1 Samuel 6:20).  We need a Savior; oh, how desperately we need a Savior!  And God has provided for us the Savior that we need.  He is Jesus Christ, God's very own Son.  He is our only provision for pardon and reconciliation with God.  If you have not done so, flee to Him.  Receive Him.  Trust Him now.  Get reconciled to God.

7

The Character Of God

      If people are mistaken about the nature of God, they will be mistaken also about the character of God.  On the other hand, if we have a true Biblical view of the nature of God, it should not be difficult for us to keep a true Biblical view of the character of God.

      It is a common practice by some folk to blame God for what people are doing.  This is indeed a strange way of thinking.  Some blame God for natural disasters, failing to take into account secondary causes.  Some are bitter against God because sickness or tragedy has taken a member of their family; others because of personal or business reverses; still others because of social injustices in the world.  And so people take up and carry their inner "causes" against God.  The "bottom line" of such an attitude, of course, is the desire for a rationale, an excuse, for personal unbelief and therefore for continued disobedience.  But all charges against Almighty God collapse under the revelation of His true nature and character.  God is a good God.  He is worthy of implicit and total trust.

God Is Perfect

      The song of Moses, recorded in Deuteronomy chapter thirty-two, proclaims God's perfection, particularly in verses three and four: "For I proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!  The Rock!  His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He!" (NASB).

      It is always wrong to attack the character of God.  His ways are perfect in every respect.  Any denial of the justice or morality of the acts and providences of God comes from unbelief, that is, from an unwillingness to acknowledge the moral perfection of God.  This kind of unbelief includes an unwillingness to acknowledge that God sees these events in their true light, and that we do not.  God always knows and does what is right, just, and best when all factors are considered together.  And in most cases only God is able to consider all the factors together.  Therefore, even when we cannot understand why God is allowing certain things to happen, we can rest in His moral perfection.

      He is the God of truth.  God's motives are true; His ways are true; His words are true; His judgments are true.  And so, to have fellowship with God, our hearts must be true.  If our hearts are not true, if we have not received the "love of the truth," if we are not honest with Him, we cannot have fellowship with Him or live in His presence.  A heart that is not true is totally incompatible with God.  God can accept into fellowship with Himself only those who come to him with an honest heart.  Light cannot have fellowship with darkness.  To have fellowship with God, we must "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7 KJV).  Only the pure in heart shall see God (Matthew 5:8).  "As for God, His way is perfect" (Psalm 18:30).  "I know that whatsoever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; and God does it that men should fear before him" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

      Referring to the heart of God and to our moral obligation to be sincere of heart, just as God is, Jesus said, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).  This kind of perfection is what is known as subjective perfection, that is, perfection of heart.  It means sincerity and honesty of heart.  This is not objective perfection.  Objective perfection depends on perfect knowledge, and only God has perfect knowledge.  God is both objectively perfect and subjectively perfect.  Subjective perfection is trueness and purity of heart, and we are under a moral obligation to be true and pure of heart, just as God is.

God Is Immutable

      God is unchanging.  He does not and cannot change.  This follows from the fact that He is perfect.  God cannot possibly improve; therefore, any change in Him would be a deterioration from absolute perfection, and that would destroy His perfection.  That God cannot do because He will not do.  Thus, God is immutable, changeless.  His person, character, purposes and decrees are unalterable.

      Were we to consider the immutability of God primarily as to His being, we would have done so in Chapter 3, "What Are God's Essential Qualities?" But because the Bible places the greater emphasis on the immutability of God's character, we are considering the subject here.

      Because God is immutable, He is dependable.  This gives us a solid basis for confidence in Him and in His word.  "God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent.  Has he said, and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19).  "And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind" (1 Samuel 15:29 NASB).

      It is interesting to note that verse thirty five of 1 Samuel chapter fifteen goes on to say that "the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel" (NASB).  Other passages of Scripture also speak of God being sorry that He had made man (Genesis 6:6, 7), and changing His mind (Exodus 32:12, 14).  The King James Version of the Bible uses the word, "repent," in these and other like verses; that is, it says that God "repented."  But these passages of Scripture that say that God regretted something that He had done, or that He changed His mind have nothing to do with His immutability or the immutability of His purposes.  They merely refer to the fact that when people either meet certain conditions or violate certain conditions, God often takes a different course of action with them.  When the conditions change, God can take a correspondingly different course of action from what His wisdom would otherwise have prescribed.  For example, God said through the prophet Jonah, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).  Now, if the city of Nineveh had not repented, it most certainly would have been overthrown, just as God said.  But Nineveh did repent, and God spared the city.  This is called "conditional certainty."  If people today do not repent, they will certainly perish (Luke 13:3).  But if we do repent and trust Jesus Christ as our Savior, we shall not perish (John 3:16).  Instances of conditional certainty have nothing to do with God's immutability or the immutability of His eternal purposes.  That never changes.

"He is in one mind and who can turn him? And what his soul desires, even that he does.  For he performs the thing that is appointed for me" (Job 23:13, 14).

"The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11).

"There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand" (Proverbs 19:21).

"For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27).

"For I am the LORD; I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6).

      God's infinite goodness will never change; neither will the beauty of the many aspects of His perfect love.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).

      Hebrews 6:17 and 18 speaks about "two immutable things" about God: His promise and His oath:

"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

      God assures His people: "You shall not be forgotten of me."  (Isaiah 44:21).  "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget you.  Behold, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:15, 16).  "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you" (Isaiah 54:10).

      The assurance of God's faithfulness continues on in the New Testament.  In 1 Corinthians 1:9 Paul declares, "God is faithful, by whom you were called to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."  And in 1 Corinthians 10:13 we have this assurance: "There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."

      After praying that God would sanctify the Thessalonian believers wholly and preserve their whole being blameless to the coming of the Lord, Paul declares, "Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24).

      In 2 Thessalonians 3:3 we read, "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil."  And even "if we believe not, yet he abides faithful.  He cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).  "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith; (for he is faithful that promised)" (Hebrews 10:23).  And Hebrews 11:11 records that Sarah "judged him faithful who had promised."

      They who are suffering persecution for the Lord's sake are instructed in 1 Peter 4:19, "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as to a faithful Creator."

      In Revelation 1:5 Jesus Christ is called "the faithful witness."  And in Revelation 3:14 Jesus refers to Himself as "the faithful and true witness."

      The drama that unfolds in Revelation chapter nineteen, starting with verse eleven, begins as follows: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True...."

      Yes, God is the unchanging, faithful God.  We can trust Him.  Who and what He is, He always has been and always will be.  He will never change His person or His character.  He will never change His word.  His purposes and His promises are just as sure and steadfast as He is.  God cannot fail!

God Is Love

      Love is God's essential moral quality.  All other virtues are expressions and applications of love.

      Love is a choice, a decision.  It is a fundamental commitment to the highest good, including whatever is necessary and useful to secure that good.  This commitment called love has many qualities.  That is, it is exercised and expressed in many ways.  Justice is not a quality separate from or opposed to love.  Rather, it is love considered in certain relationships and circumstances.  Justice is the commitment to the highest good (that is, love) expressing itself in relationship to wrong-doing, opposing wrong-doing and seeking to prevent it.  Justice endeavors to secure what is just, and this includes the punishment of evil-doers.  Justice, then, is one expression of love.  If God did not oppose evil, if He were not determined to uphold moral order against all who would undermine it, He would not be a God of love.  Because God is love, He is just.

      Placing God's love over against His justice is a very common error.  Often it is said, "God is a God of justice as well as a God of love."  That statement is faulty.  It erroneously considers God's justice to be something outside of His love, even antithetical to His love.  Now, it is correct to say that God is a God of justice as well as a God of mercy, because justice and mercy do stand over against each other, balancing each other.  But both are actions of love.  God is both just and merciful because He is love.

      Be it always remembered that everything God does is motivated by a determination to secure the highest possible good under the circumstances and with all things being considered together in His omniscient mind.  This commitment permeates God's whole being, providences, government, law, and gospel.  All of God's moral qualities truly are qualities of perfect love.

"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.  He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing" (Deuteronomy 10:17, 18 NKJV).

      God said to Israel, "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).  Most of us know by heart John 3:16, the "golden text" of the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  Jesus said to His disciples, "For the Father himself loves you" (John 16:27).

      Paul the apostle writes, "But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is conclusive proof both of the fact and also of the greatness of God's love for us.  God's love fully and gloriously exhibited at Calvary should shut every mouth that would question the fact of His love, and settle once and for all any doubts concerning His true character.  He is the God of love and peace (2 Corinthians 13:11), "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us" (Ephesians 2:4).

      God's love is not sentimentalism.  Rather, it is a rock-solid commitment to our good.  At times this commitment requires that He discipline us.  After all, believers are the center-piece of God's eternal purpose, and He is vitally interested in how we turn out.  Thus Hebrews 12:6 teaches us, "For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives."

      "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).  Divine love not only redeemed us at the tremendous cost of the death of Jesus Christ; it also elevates us to the status of sonship with God.  How great is God's love!

      Yes, and the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New Testament.  People who think that the God presented to us in the Old Testament must be of a different character from the God presented to us in the New Testament understand neither the diversity of responsibilities and relationships that God must exercise in the full implementation of His determination to bring about the highest good, nor the complexity of the ramifications involved in determining the most expedient course in maintaining moral order and hence the highest good.

      God's infinite love always directs His infinite power according to His infinite wisdom to secure the greatest possible good.  We can rest assured in this fact.  It is an absolute certainty.  "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16).

God Is Righteous

      God is always right in everything.  In all His ways, He is perfectly conformed to truth.  He is correct.  He never errs.  He is perfectly honest and equitable.

      If there is any controversy between God and us, we are the ones in the wrong.  God is in complete conformity with truth and reality.  The only way for us to be right--to be in conformity with truth and reality--is to give up all controversy with God immediately and confess honestly that He is right in all things.  To be saved, we must repent; and repentance implies an open, honest acceptance of blame for wrong-doing.  The heart must drop all charges against God.  He is the God of truth and righteousness, and therefore He will never compromise with a self-justifying soul.

      Elihu said, "I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker" (Job 36:3).

      Paul's epistle to the Romans chapter nine declares the absolute sovereignty of God.  Verse fourteen raises the question, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?" The immediate response is, "God forbid!" That is, "May it not be!" God always exercises His sovereignty righteously.  At times we do not readily see or understand the wisdom or justice of a particular precept or providence of the Father.  In such circumstances our obligation is to rest in the assurance that "The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works" (Psalm 145:17).  God says, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).  Some day, either in a closer walk with God here on earth, or in the light of Heaven, we shall see things more as God sees them and rejoice that our confidence in Him has not been in vain.

"His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endures forever" (Psalm 111:3).

"Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments....Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth" (Psalm 119:137 and 142).

      We find assurance and comfort in God's beautiful promise found in Isaiah 41:10--"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (NASB).  All unrighteousness is totally incompatible with God.  God cannot tolerate it.  To walk with God, we must walk in righteousness because there is where He walks.

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

"If you know that he is righteous, you know that every one that does righteousness is born of him" (1 John 2:29).

"Little children, let no man deceive you.  He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous" (1 John 3:17).

      We see how this theme is carried through the first epistle of John.  God is moral light (absolute truth and absolute conformity to truth in character and works).  If we live contrary to light (truth), we are in moral and spiritual darkness and do not know God, no matter what we might profess.  "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them..." (Hosea 14:9).

      God's true children are they who are being conformed to His moral character.  They walk according to the truth just as God walks according to the truth, and therefore they walk with God.  They certainly do not have all the light that God has.  Only He has all light.  But where the light is, there they are, and they are walking in all the light that they possess.

      Someone has said, "Where we go hereafter depends on what we go after here."  If our hearts are truly "going after" God, we will honestly seek to know more of Him and His ways.  We will "cast off" the works of darkness and walk in the light of His word.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His-righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33 NKJV).

God Is Holy

      God is morally pure.  He is perfectly and absolutely holy.  Holiness is moral perfection.  God's motives and therefore His character are totally free from any form and degree of moral impurity.  Sin cannot stand in His presence.  He is "glorious in holiness" (Exodus 15:11).  The prophet exclaimed, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look on iniquity" (Habakkuk 1:13).

"Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity" (Job 34:10).

"Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3 NASB).

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10 NASB).

"The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity" (Zephaniah 3:5).

"There is none holy as the LORD" (1 Samuel 2:2).

      After they had gone through an experience that taught them that God cannot be trifled with, the men of ancient Bethshemesh cried, "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?" (1 Samuel 6:20).

      The mighty choirs of Heaven continuously sing of the holiness of God.  Part of Isaiah's vision of the exalted Lord was of the seraphim who cried to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3).

      In Revelation 4:8 the four living creatures, representing all living creation, take up the refrain: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come."

      Finally, the grand panorama of the victorious redeemed unfolds before our wondering eyes.  And what anthem fills the vast reaches of Heaven of heavens? It is recorded in Revelation 15:3, 4--"Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.  Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy...."  Modern translations read "King of nations," or "King of ages."

      No human pride raises its perverse head there.  No unbelief, no cynicism dares question the integrity of the Almighty.  That great multitude is made up only of those whose hearts are in full sympathy with all the ways, the wisdom, the works and the providences of the Holy One!  The questions of life have been fully answered.  The believers' trust during the dark valleys of their earthly pilgrimage has been completely vindicated.  The sweet reasonableness of the gracious providences of the Holy One is now clear and plain.  How glad they are that their faith did not fail!

      Who are present there? Only they who are redeemed by faith in the blood of the Lamb; only they who have obeyed the Divine command, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16 NKJV).

God Is True

      Again we remind ourselves that God is a God of truth (Deuteronomy 32:4).  And we read in Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that he should lie."  Also, 1 Samuel 15:29 affirms, "the Glory of Israel will not lie...."

      Absolute truthfulness is one of God's moral qualities.  Romans 3:4 exclaims, "Let God be true, but every man a liar."

      God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).  God's truthfulness is the indispensable foundation of our confidence.  Hebrews 6:18 assures us that we have "strong encouragement," because it is "impossible for God to lie."  And yet so many people, including some professed Christians, speak and act as though God is not truthful, as though He was not sincere in His promises, as though His word is not to be relied on.

      Is God truthful? Did He mean what He said? Can His word be relied on? Absolutely.  Let us take any question marks off of our Bibles.  Let us believe what God has said.  He is eternally and infinitely the God of truth!

God Is Good

      "Good" has a various kinds and degrees of meaning, depending on the qualities and properties of what we are referring to.  We talk about a good meal or a good game.  We say that someone is a good musician or a good dentist.  But when we say that God is good, we mean that He is infinitely and perfectly so, and that His goodness is absolute.  Specifically, God is good in that He is morally excellent in character and therefore in His disposition and acts toward His creation.  God's goodness is not acquired, but is an essential and immutable quality of His moral nature.  God is a good God.  "Good and upright is the LORD; therefore will he teach sinners in the way" (Psalm 25:8).

      God's goodness, His moral excellence, extends throughout all of his works and providences.  He reveals Himself in all of His ways as a good God, and we daily experience His goodness.  Much of His goodness comes to all through the blessings of life and the provisions of nature.  So much more is experienced through faith.  So the Holy Spirit invites us through the psalmist, "O taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man that trusts in him" (Psalm 34:8).

      God's goodness is revealed in His precepts.  That is, because God is good, His word is also good.  So Psalm 119:68 teaches: "Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes."

      God's goodness is one reason that we should praise Him.  Absolute moral excellence deserves, even demands, praise that is worthy of itself.

      "Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good" (Psalm 135:3).  Gratitude and thanks to God for His great goodness should spring spontaneously and generously from each of us.

"O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever" (Psalm 136:1).

"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.  The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.  The LORD is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalm 145:7-9).

"I will mention the loving kindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses" (Isaiah 63:7).

"Praise the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his mercy endures forever" (Jeremiah 33:11).

"The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in him" (Nahum 1:7).

      When a young ruler, confident of his own goodness, came to Jesus with a question about eternal life, he addressed the Lord as "Good master."  Jesus knew that this young model of religious and financial success did not grasp the concept of true goodness.  The young man was only expressing the notions of goodness current in his religious culture.  Jesus, God in the flesh, refused to accept to Himself the popular glib, relative definition of goodness.  So He confronted the rich young ruler with the only true definition of goodness: "There is none good but one, that is, God" (Matthew 19:17).  Jesus Christ is fully worthy of that definition.

God Is Kind

      Kindness (sometimes called "lovingkindness") is a beautiful quality of God's character.  Kindness is goodness being gentle.  "Thy gentleness has made me great," the psalmist said to God (Psalm 18:35).

      "The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD" (Psalm 33:5 NASB).  "The lovingkindness of God endures all day long" (Psalm 52:1 NASB).  "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee" (Psalm 63:3).  "Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!" (Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31 NASB).

      Jesus told us to love our enemies, to do good, to lend, for in so doing from a pure heart we would be the moral offspring of the Highest, "for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke 6:35).  This is a solemn imperative to all who are committed to living according to God's moral character.

      The moral character of God is beautifully displayed in His kindness.  People ignore Him, insult Him, injure Him, and yet He continues to be kind to them.  He gives them rain, and they curse it.  He heaps blessings upon them, and they are ungrateful.  We marvel that such kindness does not immediately subdue the human heart and turn it to its gentle Benefactor.

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4 NASB).

"Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off" (Romans 11:22 NASB).

      The revelation of God's infinite kindness to us through Jesus Christ will continue to unfold forever.  So Ephesians 2:7 assures us: "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

God Is Compassionate

      Compassion is pity toward the suffering.  True compassion is more than a feeling.  It is a commitment to come to the relief of the suffering, or to prevent their sufferings, by all reasonable means.  This beautiful quality of character is fully conspicuous in God.  He is full of compassion.

      The actual expression of God's compassion is often conditioned on repentance.  God forewarned ancient Israel that disobedience would bring chastisement.  Then He assured them that if they would return to Him, He would have compassion on them and restore them (Deuteronomy 30:3).  We find an instance of this very thing in 2 Kings 13:22, 23--

"But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.  And the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet."

      In the last days of the morally and spiritually bankrupt kingdom of Judah, Zedekiah was king Nebuchadnezzar's vassal on what was left of the throne in Jerusalem.  Priests and people alike were corrupt.  "And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place" (2 Chronicles 36:15 NKJV).

      God's compassion toward disobedient Israel is mentioned again in Psalm 78:38--"But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath."

"But You, O LORD, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth" (Psalm 86:15 NKJV).

"The LORD is gracious and full of compassion" (Psalm 11:4).

"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not....  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies" (Lamentations 3:22 and 32).

      Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God in human flesh.  And it is in Him that we see the compassion of God so gloriously displayed.  Our Lord touched the leper and made him whole.  Seeing the grieving widow, He was moved with compassion and restored her son to life.  He healed the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, the deaf.  Wherever there was human suffering, there the compassion of God was poured out through the heart of Jesus Christ.  And Christ is still the same today, because He is God and God is still the same.  The great compassion of God reaches out wherever there is suffering, for God yearns to put an end to suffering and to bring joy and happiness instead.  Yet, in His wise economy, God can do so only as people open up by faith to Him and to the principles of His kingdom.  He will not force the human will.

God Is Impartial

      God deals with all people upon the same principles of justice, fairness and equity.  He is fair to all.  He administers His moral government without partiality or favoritism.

"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe" (Deuteronomy 10:17 NASB).

"Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness, or partiality, or the taking of a bribe" (2 Chronicles 19:7 NASB).

      The very idea of "buying God off" seems too ridiculous for anyone even to think of it.  Bribe God?  Nonsense.  But in practice that is exactly what many people try to do.

      Every attempt to satisfy God short of unconditional surrender is in effect offering God a bribe.  The world is full of people who are trying to make a "deal" with God.  The great non-Christian religions are based on the premise that we can offer something to God (or to whatever occupies the place of God in their particular system) that will gain His favor.  And even in the name of Christianity millions entertain the notion that somehow they can get God and His blessings on their own terms if only they offer Him the right things.  This, too, is pagan nonsense.  The only morally and governmentally sound condition on which God can offer His grace is full obedience, and that means unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ in faith.  Upon that condition alone God freely and impartially grants His grace.  It is a free gift, unmerited and unearned.  Trying to get it on any other terms is only bargaining with God, and that is trifling with the Almighty.  God cannot and will not bargain with the rebellious heart.  He demands its immediate and complete surrender.

      An officer of a lending institution thinks that he has bought his "ticket" to Heaven because he made a loan to a church.  A woman spends long hours doing church work and thinks that thereby she has piled up enough credits to secure her entrance into Heaven.  A young man enters the ministry and spends his life helping people because it is so "rewarding," and feels confident that he is "in solid" with God.  The total number of precious people who entertain the delusion that what they offer God will be accepted as an adequate substitute for honest obedience and genuine faith in Jesus Christ must be astronomical.  The pernicious persistence of this deadly delusion is an enormous spiritual tragedy.  How to overcome it is one of the greatest challenges facing the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

      To assume that God can be induced to partiality is to deny His integrity.  To accuse Him of being guilty of partiality is blasphemy.

"He is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor; for they are all the work of His hands" (Job 34:19 NKJV).

      Even the apostle Peter had been so conditioned by prevailing prejudices that God had to take dramatic measures to get him to preach the gospel to gentiles.  When God saved some of them and filled them with the Holy Spirit, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is accepted with him" (Acts 10:34, 35).

      Later, Paul wrote, "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him" (Romans 10:12).

      Just as with the other qualities of God's moral character, impartiality also must be practiced by all who truly are in fellowship with Him.  God's impartiality was the basis of Paul's appeal to Christian masters in Ephesians 6:9--"And, you masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him."  Likewise he writes to bond-servants in Colossians 3:22-25.  Verse 25 reads, "But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done, and there is no respect of persons."

      Finally, the apostle Peter writes, "And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear" (1 Peter 1:17).

      As God is impartial in His justice, so is He in His mercy.  His mercy through Jesus Christ is offered freely to all.  If we come to Him, He will not reject us.

God Is Longsuffering

      God patiently endures insult and injury for a long, long time.  He puts up with a horrible amount of abuse just to give people greater opportunity to repent.  God knows whom He will save, and endures them until He saves them.  He also endures a lifetime of dishonor from those who never will be saved.  Such is the longsuffering of the gracious God!

      "The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression..." (Numbers 14:18).  Sometimes the Bible expresses the longsuffering of God by saying that He is "slow to anger."  Thus we read:

"...but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not" (Nehemiah 9:17).

"The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy" (Psalm 103:8).  Read also Psalm 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:3).

      Paul asks, "What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction...?" (Romans 9:22).

      There was a time when "the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah" (1 Peter 3:20).  And Peter tells us that in the last days scoffers will point to the seeming delay in Christ's return as support for their unbelief, not realizing that it is due to God's longsuffering love for them, giving them opportunity to repent.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

God Is Forbearing

      Because He is longsuffering, God is forbearing.  Forbearance is lonsufferance in action.  It is the restraint of punishment that God exercises because He is longsuffering.

      The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah cried for judgment.  But Abraham had so locked his heart into the forbearing heart of God that when the patriarch prayed for God to spare the city if only ten righteous persons could be found in it, God went along with him.  Tragically, it turned out that not even ten could be found.  Nevertheless, the great forbearance of God is clearly demonstrated in those long-ago events, recorded for us in Genesis chapter eighteen.

      To unfaithful Israel God said, "For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off" (Isaiah 48:9).  Through the prophet Ezekiel God reminded the nation of His forbearance toward the rebellious generation that wasted out their lives wandering in the wilderness.  "Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness" (Ezekiel 20:17).  Though the older generation perished, the nation was spared and emerged to possess the land of Canaan because of the forbearance of Jehovah.

      Were God not forbearing, He would not have allowed the human race to continue long enough to reach Calvary.  In fact, were it not for His forbearance, God would not have created man in the first place.  The same is true of us individually.  Concerning redemption, Romans 3:24 and 25 reads:

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."

God Is Merciful

      Mercy is the disposition to pardon wrongdoing whenever it is possible to do so consistent with the public good.  It is the opposite of justice.  Both justice and mercy are expressions of love.  Both seek the same end--the highest good--but by opposite means.  Justice punishes because the highest good demands it; mercy pardons for the same reason when the conditions of mercy make its exercise possible.  Both harmonize and neither is exercised at the expense of the other, or at the expense of the highest good.

      God is merciful.  He desires to pardon and works to bring about the conditions that make it morally possible for Him to pardon.  Thus, "mercy rejoices against judgment" (James 2:13).  See Luke 6:36; 2 Corinthians 1:3.

      Moses said to ancient Israel, "for the LORD your God is a merciful God" (Deuteronomy 4:31).  When King David sinned against God, the Lord sent the prophet Gad to him with three alternatives: seven years of famine, three months of military reverses, or three days of pestilence.  David chose the last.  "And David said to Gad, 'I am in great distress.  Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man'" (2 Samuel 24:14 NKJV).  David put his trust in the mercy of God because he had confidence in the magnitude of that mercy.  He knew that all of God's moral qualities are as vast as God Himself.  God's character cannot be less than what He Himself is.

      Centuries later, as they led the returned Jewish captives in confession to God, the Levites acknowledged, "...but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsook them not" (Nehemiah 9:17).  "Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God" (verse 31).

      The mercy of God is celebrated throughout The Psalms:

"For thou, LORD, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee" (Psalm 86:5).

"The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.  (Psalm 103:8).

"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him" (verse 11).

"But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness to children's children" (verse 17).

"O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever" (Psalm 106:1).

"For thy mercy is great above the heavens" (Psalm 108:4).

"The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy; teach me thy statutes" (Psalm 119:64).

      Psalm 136 is an antiphonal song in which every verse ends with the response, "for his mercy endures forever."

      Isaiah 55:6 and 7 is where we find the summons, "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

      Through the prophet Joel God urges, "turn to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness" (Joel 2:13).

      The prophet Micah closed his prophecy with these words of praise to God for His mercy:

"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy.  (Micah 7:18).

      In what is called The Magnificat, Mary declared, "And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation" (Luke 1:50).

      It is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5 NKJV).

      The mercy of God has been brought to us fully in Jesus Christ.  How merciful is God? How great is His desire to forgive? Look at the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Look at that scene of suffering and agony.  The Lord of glory died for the sins of the whole world to bring redemption to all who will believe.

      Friend, we need carry our guilt no longer.  He bore it for us.  Leave your sins and flee to the Savior.  Believe Him.  Trust Him.  The throne of absolute holiness is also the throne of absolute mercy.  The fullness of God's mercy is waiting for you now.

8

God’s Relationship To His Creation

      God is not a static force, or a closed system--passive, inactive, non- communicative.  God is a Person in the fullest sense.  He loves.  He thinks.  He purposes.  He chooses.  He acts.  He feels.  He communicates.

      God has a grand design, and all of His works and administrations are part of that design.

      God is supremely active.  He is the Great Initiator.  What He has begun He will accomplish, and He will do so according to His eternal purpose.

"Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts which are toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered" (Psalm 40:5 NKJV).

      God's works are the most visible demonstration of the magnitude of His power and greatness.  It is by "the things that are made" that God's "eternal power and Godhead" is clearly revealed to all humanity in all places and in every age (see Romans 1:18-32).

God Is The Creator

      By His spoken word God created the physical universe out of nothing.  The Scriptures begin with this sublime statement: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 NASB).  No statement of the origin of things can come close to this majestic declaration.  It is simple, yet complete and totally satisfactory.  Nothing else is.  It is categorical because it is authoritative.  It is authoritative because it is true.  Reject it, and one moves immediately toward the absurd.

      Exodus 20:11 likewise declares simply and plainly, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them" (NASB).

      Job was not a scientist as we define a scientist today, and he lived in what is called a pre-scientific age.  But in Job 26:7 we have his amazing statement: "He stretches out the north over the empty place and hangs the earth upon nothing."  This was written long before Copernicus and Galileo.  Where did such information come from? There is only one answer--God.

      God created everything by His unaided word (Psalm 33:6).  He laid the foundations of the earth (Psalm 104:5).  The entire physical universe is the product of His command and is subject to it.

"I have made the earth and created man upon it.  I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded" (Isaiah 45:12).

"Surely My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand together" (Isaiah 48:13 NASB).

      That God is the Creator of all things is a fundamental of our faith and testimony.  It was so for the early Church.  On one occasion of persecution the early disciples prayed, "Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is" (Acts 4:24).  They were praying Exodus 20:11 back to God as a confession of faith.

      This clear confession stands out in total contrast to pagan polytheism.  Greek and Roman mythologies are completely absent here.  So also are the speculations of modern evolutionism.  The God of the Bible is also the God of fact.

      When the people of Lystra went about to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, thinking that they were gods, the apostles cried out, "We also are men of like passions with you, and preach to you that you should turn from these vanities to the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein" (Acts 14:15).  A correct cosmogony is essential to the gospel.

      To the speculative thinkers of Athens, who by implication admitted to the failure of unaided human reason to know God, Paul confidently introduced Him as the God who "made the world and all things therein" (Acts 17:27).

      The question of origins is unanswerable except by Divine revelation.  The event itself is beyond scientific demonstration.  True science must limit itself to observation and experimentation, and the conclusions and hypotheses that result therefrom.  The origin of the physical universe was an event that was not observed by human beings and of course cannot be reproduced.  For this reason science can truly say little or nothing about it.  Science can guess, but then it ceases to be science in the strictest sense.  How the material universe could come into existence out of nothing is beyond finite reason, and therefore is beyond philosophy as well as science.  It is a matter for Divine revelation only.  Every honest mind should be grateful that God has given us that revelation.  The faith that accepts that revelation will find the knowable data, when truly and fully known, to be in harmony with that revelation.  Such a faith is not blind.  On the contrary, it is truly enlightened.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3).

      Long ago a thinking man wrote: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? and the son of man that Thou dost care for him?" (Psalm 8:3, 4 NASB).

      A correct cosmogony is essential also to a correct anthropology.  A proper regard for God as Creator is necessary for a proper view of man.  Without it man inevitably thinks wrongly about himself.  Paradoxically, at the same time man both exalts and demeans himself.  In his view of himself he becomes either the "supreme animal," or, as is so common in current "new age" pseudo-spirituality, a potential or actual "god."  Either way, man becomes a self-contradiction.

      Long ago a chastened wise man wrote that God "has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also He has put eternity in their hearts..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV).

      We should never lose the sense of wonder at the greatness of God displayed in His creation.  Every advance in scientific knowledge should increase our sense of humility and awe before the Almighty God.

God Is Owner And Sole Proprietor

      As Creator, God is the owner and sole proprietor of His creation.  His title reads: "All the earth is mine" (Exodus 19:5).  Psalm 24:1 affirms, "The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein."

      Genesis 14:19 records the blessing that Melchizedek pronounced upon Abraham: "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth."

      Moses declared to Israel, "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's your God, the earth also, with all that therein is" (Deuteronomy 10:14).

      God said to Job, "Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine" (Job 41:11).  And in Psalm 50:10 God says, "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."  (See also Leviticus 25:23; 1 Chronicles 29:14; Psalm 95:5; Haggai 2:8).

      Consider the tragic failure of humanity's efforts to rule this planet without proper regard for God's jurisdiction over it.  How beautiful things would be if the human race would acknowledge with the psalmist, "The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fulness, You have founded them" (Psalm 89:11 NKJV).

God Is the Creator Of Man

      To find the masterpiece of God's creation, we look not at the stars but at that marvelous creature that was created in God's own image--the human being.  We are the product of special creation.  After the animal kingdom had been brought into existence, God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).  Verse 27 continues, "So God created man in his own image."  Genesis 2:7 gives the specifics: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (See also Genesis 5:1 and 9:6).

      Many centuries ago a devout person was inspired to write, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works" (Psalm 139:14).  In the psalmist's day comparatively little was known about human anatomy and physiology.  Today, in the light of modern medical science, this passage takes on new significance, and each advance in man's knowledge of himself adds fresh grandeur to this truth.  How great is our Creator!

      Man is made in the image of God.  We are the expression of our Maker.  We human beings can never erase the indelible conviction that we are tied to eternity.  God is a Trinity in unity; man is a tri-unity (spirit, soul, and body).  God is a free moral agent; so is man.  Our moral powers, redeemed and sanctified, are the demonstration of our everlasting resemblance to our Creator.

God Is The Owner And Governor Of The Human Race

      In Ezekiel 18:4 God says, "All souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine...."  We belong to God not only by right of creation, but also by right of redemption.  So Paul affirms in Romans 14:8--"We are the Lord's."  This is a fact that the proud, impenitent heart refuses to acknowledge, but it must be acknowledged if there is to be true repentance, humility and peace.

      God governs, or has a right to govern, man not only because He is our Creator but also because we need His moral rule.  It is necessary to our well-being.  For this reason God has a clear right to govern us morally and we have a clear obligation to support His moral authority by our obedience.  Declaring ourselves independent of God's moral authority is as contrary to reason as declaring ourselves independent of the traffic laws while driving the freeways.  The only difference is the greater amount of havoc and ruin that results from disobedience to God.

God Reveals Himself.

      The infinite intelligence of God is demonstrated in the complexity and design of His creation.  And behind the intelligent act is an intelligent purpose.  God created us for a purpose, and He intends for us to know Him and His purpose.  This requires Divine revelation.

      Sometimes people are spoken of as "searching for God."  The truth of the matter is not that people are searching for a "lost" God, but that God is reaching out to lost people.  The Bible is not the record of man's struggle to develop a concept of God; rather, it is the record of God's progressive self-revelation to man.  God is the self-revealing God.  He did not stop at a general revelation of Himself in nature.  God is a Person and He purposes to make Himself and His will known.  God desires to have a personal relationship with us.

      Throughout Biblical history God made Himself known to individuals on various occasions.  God communicated directly and personally to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:9 and 13).  Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:22-24).  So did Noah (Genesis 6:9).  The Bible records that God "appeared" to Abraham on a number of occasions (see Genesis 12:7; 17:1; 18:1).  In fact, Abraham was called "the friend of God" (James 2:23).

      God "appeared" to Isaac (Genesis 26:2).  He "appeared" to Jacob in a dream (Genesis 28:13).  And when Jacob came out of Padanaram, God appeared to him again (Genesis 35:9).

      God communicated with Job in a powerful revelation of His sovereignty that straightened out Job's thinking immediately and completely.  (Job chapters 38-41).

      One of God's most dramatic appearances to a human being in the Old Testament was when He met with Moses at the burning bush (Exodus chapter three).  During that interview God specifically commanded Moses to declare categorically to the people that God had appeared to him (verse 16).  Later, God appeared to Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9, 10).  God told Moses that He would meet with him at the mercy seat (Exodus 25:22).  And Exodus 33:11 says that "the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."  Moses caught a glimpse of the "afterglow of God" on Mt.  Sinai (Exodus 33:23), and his face shone as a result of that encounter with the Almighty (Exodus 34:29).

      God appeared to king David at the threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite.  This was on what was known as Mt.  Moriah.  Later, "Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared to David his father..." (2 Chronicles 3:1).

      God appeared to Solomon in a dream (1 Kings 3:5).  He appeared to him again after the temple was completed (1 Kings 9:2).

The prophet Isaiah records, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1).  The impact of this encounter with God changed his life and prophetic ministry.

      No mortal has ever seen or ever could see God in His fullness, that is, His unmodified essence.  This is stated categorically in John 1:18--"No man has seen God at any time."  Our mortal bodies could not stand such a total revelation.  God said to Moses, "You cannot see my face, for there shall no man see me and live" (Exodus 33:20).  So then, every "appearance" of God to man must be in a modified form, a mode that would be both possible and comprehensible to us in our present mortal state.  But even that is tremendous!  Here is how such a visible expression of God affected Job: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5, 6).  Isaiah felt the same sense of unworthiness when he saw the Lord "high and lifted up."  "Then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).

      Yes, God does love us, and it is His purpose to reveal Himself to us so that we will truly know Him and enjoy personal fellowship with Him.  Such is His joy--and ours.

God's Condescension

      By condescension is meant reaching down from a position of superior rank and state of being, stooping to an inferior in order to do him or her good.  God is so infinitely exalted above all His creatures in being, position and authority that for Him to reveal Himself to us in a personal, intimate way involves unlimited condescension on His part.  Only God can span the gap between God and man.

      Psalm 113:5, 6 declares, "Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!" So then, even to look at what is going on in heaven is an act of condescension on the part of God!  How high and lofty He must be.  And yet, He "remembered us in our low estate" (Psalm 136:23).  "Though the LORD be high, yet has he respect to the lowly; but the proud he knows afar off" (Psalm 138:6).

      We see the full condescension of God in Jesus Christ.  God in the flesh lived among us, experienced poverty, ate with publicans and sinners, washed the feet of His disciples, suffered the abuse of sinners and was crucified on a cross.  Oh, the gracious condescension of God, that He, the Highest, would stoop to the lowest to redeem us and make us His very own.

God Is Near

      Nearness to Himself--personal, intimate communion now and forever--this is the yearning of the great heart of God toward us.  And in response it should also be the yearning of our hearts toward Him.

      The notion that God is a detached, impersonal Being who made the world and then showed little or no concern for humanity is a gross impeachment of His character and a misrepresentation of His very nature.  To assert that God acted in creation with no real and wise purpose is to accuse Him of creating us with a need and a longing for Him and then abandoning us.  It is a denial that God is love.  The charge is really a rejection of God's moral authority by a denial of it.

      Whether they will admit it or not, all human beings need God's providence, direction, forgiveness and fellowship.  To say that God is not personally concerned about each one of us is to charge Him with the most cruel wickedness.  The Scriptures do not reveal God to be such a being.  On the contrary, the word of God everywhere assures us of His immediate involvement and care.  God is not off somewhere playing "hide and seek" with us, daring us to find Him.  He is near.

"For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15).

      God sees the sparrow when it falls, and knows the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:29, 30).  He is "not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).  He said to Jacob, "I am with you" (Genesis 28:15).  He assured both Moses and the nation of Israel, "My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest" (Exodus 33:14).  We are assured in Psalm 34:18, "the LORD is nigh to them that are of a broken heart."

      Time after time the human heart has trusted God in the hour of difficulty and thus has experienced the reality of Isaiah 43:2--"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you."

      We are always in God's thoughts.  His thoughts toward us are thoughts of love in all of its fullness.  The psalmist exclaimed, "How precious also are thy thoughts to me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand..." (Psalm 139:17, 18).

      Yes, the God of heaven and earth has focused the infinite resources and power of His thoughts upon the formulation and implementation of grand designs for our good.  Climaxed by Calvary and the resurrection, and through that completed redemption extending to all time and eternity, unlimited benefits have been devised by the great heart and mind of God for all who will come in faith to His abundant grace through Jesus Christ.  Only the miserable, blind selfishness of man drives him to reject it all and to turn instead to his beggarly trifles and eternal ruin.  But the redeemed rejoice in the full blessings of His grace.  No finite mind can begin to grasp the potential of the infinite mind of God to devise good things for His people.  His grand design for our eternal happiness is at the forefront of His attention.  And we shall experience its full development.  All praise to the Lamb who has redeemed us and brought us into this inheritance!

      Believers are God's personal treasure, made for His close companionship both here and now, and in the eternal ages.  And so He has promised, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).  "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20 NASB).  God is near, and His sufficient grace is ours in the time of need.  He bears every burden.  He feels every care.  He is our Father!

God Leads His People

      After many years of wilderness wandering, an aged Moses stood before a new generation of Israelites and solemnly exhorted them,

"And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not" (Deuteronomy 8:2 NASB).

      So then, the purpose of God's leadership is the moral development of His people.  God leads us as He does to build character in us.  He does not drive us, but leads us gently, as a shepherd leads his flock, going before us, preparing our way, and choosing our pastures.

      Again concerning Israel the psalmist said to God, "You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psalm 77:20).  He led Israel also for the glory of His name, according to Isaiah 63:14--"so did you lead your people to make yourself a glorious name."  The same purpose is expressed in the Twenty-third Psalm: "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake" (verse 3).  So then, if we are going to glorify His name, we must follow His leadership.

      The psalmist prayed, "lead me in a plain path because of my enemies" (Psalm 27:11).

      There are times when we do not understand God's sovereign guidance, or are unaware of His directing influence.  Yet we can rest assured that even in such times He is continuing to lead us, working out His purpose all the while and through it all.  "Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?" (Proverbs 20:24).

God Protects and Defends

      Moses reassured the nervous Israelites, "The LORD shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14).  After God delivered the people from Egypt, Moses gave them a song that went in part: "The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is His name" (Exodus 15:3 NASB).

      This fact bothers some people, but only because they do not yet have the full perspective of God's character.  Let us keep in mind that "The LORD is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Psalm 145:9).  God does not start wars; people do.  In James 4:1-3 the Bible tells us where wars come from.  People choose passion and violence over reason and love.  Nevertheless, once wars get started, God has at times directly assisted in the defense of the innocent and the cause of right, exercising a providential influence that assures an outcome that is in accordance with His righteous will.  God can override the selfishness of tyrants and use their cruel aggression as an occasion to chastise disobedient nations, as was the case when the Chaldeans (Babylonians) violently overthrew the apostate kingdom of Judah, and God did not intervene to stop them.  In a few very specific cases in the ancient past some wars were initiated at the direct command of God.  Many do not understand this and are perplexed over the wars of judgment recorded in the Old Testament.  Some have gone so far as to assert that God (as the Israelites then understood Him) was cruel.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  God is always love and He is always wise.  And justice is one of the qualities of that love.  God mercifully tolerated the horrible iniquity of the inhabitants of Palestine for hundreds of years, particularly during the centuries when the Israelites were in Egypt.  A study of the cultures of that time and region reveals how cruel and corrupt they were.  In the light of the facts it is a marvel that the mercy of God waited as long as it did before society was cleansed of these hopelessly wicked cultures.  Only God knows the evil and misery that would have resulted had they been allowed to remain to perpetuate and compound their abominations.  One can only imagine the outcome if Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers had been allowed to prevail.  For one thing, the horrors of the holocaust would have engulfed the whole world.  In the case of ancient Palestine, the time came when God could not in wisdom and justice allow such a moral malignancy to continue.  God did not delight in the pain and misery of those He had to judge, but He did take satisfaction in the fact that the highest good under the circumstances was secured by the administration of justice.  The new nation of Israel was God's scalpel in performing moral major surgery on the Palestine of that day.

      Even the innocent infants and young children who were killed in the action were the object of God's mercy.  Where would they be today had they been allowed to grow up, identify with their slain parents, and revert to their own culture?  They would have corrupted Israel and ruined their own souls.  Today they are in heaven, thankful that God received them into His everlasting kingdom and conferred eternal life on them as a free gift.  The same principle applies to the innocent infants and young children who died in the Noachian flood.   God does not see things as man sees them; He views everything from the perspective of eternity.

      No, God's love is not short-sighted, although some people think it ought to be.  God is not trifling with sin.  Sin is the most destructive influence in the entire universe of moral beings.  God is determined to restrain it and eventually put an end to it, even if though serious measures must be used to do so.  And it is precisely because He is a God of love that He is so determined.

      God opposes evil.  He resists selfishness.  He is determined to inhibit man's destructiveness, at times allowing the use of force, if necessary, to do so.  God providentially uses human government as an agency to secure justice and to maintain moral order on earth.

      "Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle" (Psalm 24:8).  It is worthy of note that this psalm follows the Twenty-third Psalm.  God is a Shepherd to all who love and obey Him, but He is awesome in His dealings with all who disregard Him and His just moral government of the universe.

      It is important to keep in mind that God is also the only one who will make wars to cease (Psalm 46:9).  Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9).  A person who is truly serious about peace will begin by making peace with God through genuine repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.

      God is our Deliverer.  He announced to Moses, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them..." (Exodus 3:7, 8).

      David declared, "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold" (Psalm 18:2 NASB).

      When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the kingdom of Judah, He encouraged the timid youth with these words; "Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD" (Jeremiah 1:8).

      God protects.  When Jacob and his little family were surrounded by hostile neighbors, "the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob" (Genesis 35:5).

      The entire Ninety-first Psalm is a grand and eloquent pledge of God's protection and deliverance.  Verse seven says, "A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you."

      Jesus promises His disciples, "But there shall not a hair of your head perish" (Luke 21:18).

      God defends.  "But let all those that put their trust in you rejoice; let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them" (Psalm 5:11).

      God is our hiding place.  "Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings" (Psalm 17:8).  "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.  He shall set me up upon a rock" (Psalm 27:5).  "You shall hide them in the secret of your presence from the pride of man.  You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues" (Psalm 31:20).

      "You are my hiding place" (Psalm 32:7).  This is the sweet experience and the personal testimony of all who walk by faith.  Fleeing to God for refuge is not cowardly escapism.  Rather, it is a natural thing to do for one who has a living relationship with God.  It is people who do not have this relationship who become escapists in times of stress.  They escape into alcohol and other drugs, pleasure, or some other unreality.  Unbelief and cynicism can make no valid statements of self-sufficiency.

      The Christian who rests in God has found the spiritual resources to cope with life's realities.  "The eternal God is your refuge" (Deuteronomy 33:27).  "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).  "Be my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort" (Psalm 71:3).  God is not a "crutch" for the believer any more than food is a crutch for the hungry or water for the thirsty.  No, God is not an "escape mechanism."  He is not the last resort; rather, He is our "continual resort" (Psalm 71:3).  "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).  Believers everywhere would enjoy much more victory and peace of spirit if only they had a fuller knowledge of God as "a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat" (Isaiah 25:4).

      God is a shield of protection.  God assured Abraham, "I am your shield" (Genesis 15:1).  We possess the same assurance right now.  "He is a shield to them that put their trust in him" (Proverbs 30:5).

      It is important to remember that all of God's provisions for the believer are realized in our lives only by faith.  We must believe.  We must put our trust in God.  As we exercise faith in God, the gap between His provision and our appropriation narrows.  This is the way we move toward God and into His blessings.

      God is our Rock (Deuteronomy 32:4).  "He only is my rock" (Psalm 62:2).  "My God is the rock of my refuge" (Psalm 94:22).  A rock signifies strength, stability, permanence.

      God keeps and preserves.  At Bethel God said to Jacob, "I am with you and will keep you in all places where you go" (Genesis 28:15).  Jesus prayed, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me" (John 17:11).  And in 1 Peter 1:5 we are assured that believers are "kept by the power of God."  The power of God is committed to the defense of the integrity of each believer's confession and commitment.  It is made operative by faith.  No Christian need fall; our Father is greater than all (John 10:29).  In Jude's epistle, verses 24 and 25 we read, "Now to him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.  Amen."

      God is our strength.  It is written in the song of Moses, "The LORD is my strength and song" (Exodus 15:2).  David declared, "God is my strength and power" (2 Samuel 22:33).  And in Psalm 28:8 we read, "The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed."

      God is our helper.  Isaiah 41:10 has been a source of assurance to God's people for thousands of years: "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand" (NKJV).  So also the promise of Hebrews 13:6 is ours today: "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."

God Supplies Our Needs

      As the forty years of wandering in the wilderness drew to a close, Moses reminded the new generation of Israelites, "Your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing" (Deuteronomy 2:7).

      God used ravens to feed Elijah (1 Kings 17:6).  He saw to it that the barrel of meal did not become empty and the cruise of oil did not run out (verse 16).  Elijah ate "angel food cake" and drank water supplied by a miracle (19:6).

      God did the same for Elisha.  In the events recorded in 2 Kings chapter four, the only thing that stopped the miraculous flow of oil was the inability of the widow to find another container.

      Jesus told us, "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:32, 33).  Also, here is the clear promise of Philippians 4:19--"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

God brings peace

      He is the God of peace.  Paul wrote to the Roman church, "Now the God of peace be with you all" (Romans 15:33).  "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20).  Paul admonished the Corinthian church, "live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you" (2 Corinthians 13:11).  To the Philippians he said, "the God of peace shall be with you" (Philippians 4:9).  And the Thessalonian believers received this message: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  Real peace comes only from God.  Where God is loved and obeyed, where His will is done, where people walk humbly with Him in obedience to His word, there is peace.

God gives us light

      "The LORD is my light" (Psalm 27:1).  "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

      "Light" is truth clearly perceived in its moral character and practical applications.  God is light--that is, God is the source of truth and He is in absolute moral harmony with the truth.  If we are to know God and have fellowship with Him, we must come to the light because that is where He is.  We cannot have God on our terms.  He will not move from the light in order to compromise with us.  If we want God, we must have Him on His terms.  We are the ones who must move--from darkness to light.  This means acknowledging the truth, loving it, living it.  The truly regenerate person has abandoned all deliberate self-deception.  He or she has given up all controversy with the truth and with the God of truth.  The honest heart loves the truth and conforms to it willingly to the full extent that it perceives the truth.

      Truth comes readily to the person who is walking with God in the light.  He or she is surrounded by it.  Truth is the believer's natural way of living.

      The practical result of a relationship with God in the light is intelligent living.  Because he walks in the light with the God of light, the Christian can be certain of his path.  When he finds himself in confusing circumstances, he does not have to remain there.  "When I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light to me" (Micah 7:8).

      God will be our everlasting light.  In Revelation 22:5 we are told that "they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever."

God teaches us

      This follows from the fact that God is light.  Light is truth revealed, not concealed.  Light is the radiation of truth.  The fullness of truth is in God.  If we have fellowship with God, we have fellowship with the truth.  Fellowship with the truth involves the communication of the truth, from God to us.

      God revealed the truth because He intended for us to know it.  Moses said to Israel, "Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you" (Deuteronomy 4:36).

      If we are to be taught of God, we must have reverence for Him.  The psalmist said, "What man is he that fears the LORD? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose" (Psalm 25:12).  And in Psalm 32:8 God gave us this delightful promise: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go; I will guide you with my eye."  Happy is the person who can honestly say, "O God, you have taught me from my youth" (Psalm 71:17).  The person who takes God as his Teacher from his youth on will never be a failure, neither in this life nor in the next.  The wise young person will accept His instructions and follow them diligently throughout life.

God cares for us as our Father

      Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father who is in heaven..." (Matthew 6:9).  On the same occasion our Lord also said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11).  This spiritual relationship is so unique and sacred that Jesus prohibited us from ascribing the term "Father" as a religious title to any man.  "And call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9).

      At the new birth the Holy Spirit brings the new believer into an awareness of his or her new "sonship."  So Romans 8:15 says to us, "You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."  "Abba" is an intimate term for "father."  See also Isaiah 63:16; 64:8; Luke 12:32; 2 Corinthians 6:18.

      As Father over the "household of faith," God is in the position of paternal authority.  As members of that family, believers are accountable to Him for our conduct.  At times God corrects us, just as our earthly fathers did.  When I was a boy, I could not get by with some of the things I saw other children seeming to get by with.  But my father never spanked the neighbor kids.  As Christians, sometimes we see unbelievers doing things seemingly without any Divine chastisement.  But let the Christian try it, and God will take him to the woodshed!  "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9).

God governs this world

      God is the Judge.  His is the true Supreme Court.  As the moral Governor of the universe, He is the only one qualified to exercise ultimate and final justice.  And because ultimate and final justice is a moral necessity, God has a moral mandate to administer it.

      Abraham's question about this is recorded in Genesis 18:25--"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Of course, the answer to this rhetorical question is "yes."  God is a righteous and just God.  He is "the judge of all" (Hebrews 12:33).  "He shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth" (Psalm 96:13).  See also Acts 17:30, 31.

God is our Redeemer

      Redemption is the greatest and most sublime of all of God's acts on behalf of the human race.  This He accomplished in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  If redemption had not been at the forefront of God's eternal purpose and plan, He never would have created man.  So then, the very existence of the human race is conditioned on this supreme act of God.

      The humble, repentant soul has always looked in faith to God as the Redeemer.  Job declared, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25).  And the psalmist prayed, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).  Peter reminds us, "you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold...but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18, 19).

      What a marvelous act on the part of Almighty God toward us!  We mortals cannot comprehend the magnitude of the love, the wisdom, and the mercy involved in it.  But we can come in faith and receive the full blessing of it through our Lord Jesus Christ.  To Him be all glory and praise forever!

9

Our Obligation To God

      It is evident to us from God's self-revelation that He did not create us and then abandon us.  God is not aloof, standing off somewhere merely observing what is going on.  Neither is He negligent, governing the universe in a slap-dash fashion.  Somehow a general notion has developed that God is either so careless or so far away that He does not really care how we live or what kind of attitude we have toward Him and His word.  Such thinking could never be more wrong.  God knows our every thought, word and deed, and the attitude of our hearts is of vital concern to Him.

      God is infinitely great.  His interests, well-being and happiness are supremely valuable and thus supremely important.  Therefore our moral obligation to Him is total and all-inclusive.  This is the great essential of life.  Jesus made it very clear that God's interests have first claim.  Our Lord said, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33 NKJV).

      God is a jealous God.  He zealously guards His divine prerogatives.  He is watchful and protective over His honor.  His is a just, righteous, and holy jealousy.  He is jealous, not in the selfish sense, but in love.  He values His indispensable position and His vital relationship to His creatures.  He guards that relationship.  He demands exclusive love and worship.  In view of who He is He cannot justly require anything less.  In so doing He has our good as well as His own glory in view.  Our vital well-being is dependent upon our rendering to Him supreme love and exclusive worship.  Because He loves us, God is concerned lest we serve other "gods," and thus dishonor Him and ruin ourselves.  This fundamental moral principle heads the Ten Commandments.

"You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God," (Exodus 20:3-5 NKJV).

      Again, in Exodus 34:14 we read, "for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (NKJV)."  And to the new generation of Israelites Moses solemnly declared, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 4:24).

      When Joshua saw the people's carelessness in contrast to God's integrity, he said to them, "You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God" (Joshua 24:19).

"You shall not tempt the LORD your God..." (Deuteronomy 6:16).  "Tempt" here means "put to the test."  We must never attempt to "tease" God into giving in to our whims and desires by trying to make Him jealous.  We cannot play games or "toy" with God.  "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" (1 Corinthians 10:22).

      God is worthy of our all.  In Revelation 4:11 the "four and twenty" elders, representing the redeemed of all ages, joyfully cast their crowns before God and declare, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."  The first and great commandment is to love God with all our heart.  Can any personal obligation be greater than to love God with all our heart, and therefore to obey, honor, glorify and please Him? Of course not.  God made us.  Our mental, moral, and physical capacities and abilities were conferred on us by God to be developed and employed for His glory and for our good and the good of others.

      Each of us must ask himself, "Do I love God? Is my aim to glorify and please Him? Is this my conscious purpose and motive? Do I sincerely and honestly seek to use my capacities, abilities and resources intelligently for His highest well-being and that of His creatures? Or do I constantly defraud God by using them primarily for my own personal gratification?" This is the most important issue.  God is infinitely important; therefore He is worthy of our supreme devotion.  This clear definition of our obligation to our Maker and lawful Sovereign was embodied in the Mosaic law.  We read in Deuteronomy 10:12, 13--

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes which I command you this day for your good."  See also Micah 6:8.

      Deuteronomy 11:1 gives us this charge: "Therefore you shall love the LORD your God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments always."  Under the law of Moses the people attempted to observe this as a legal requirement, and for this reason they failed.  Now under grace the believer in Christ does so naturally because the love of God motivates his heart.

      Joshua urged this universal moral obligation upon a later generation of Israelites: "But take diligent heed...to love the LORD your God and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cleave to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Joshua 22:5).

      People who want only enough "religion" to ease their consciences, to gain acceptance in their church, and to give them a hope of going to Heaven have missed the whole point.  The real, personal issue is this: "What does the Lord my God and my Maker deserve and require of me?" The Lord Jesus defined it very clearly when He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 in answer to a question about the greatest commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

      Genuine, honest, sincere, whole-hearted love for God and man is the minimum requirement.  In fact, this genuine love for God and man is the whole of religion and morality.  It is the point of beginning, not an ideal that we struggle to attain.  It is where self surrenders and Christ takes control.  Until this happens there is no true religion in the soul.  It is the dynamic of true saving faith.

      Included in the obligation to love God is the duty to fear Him.  Genuine love for God naturally includes a deep reverence for Him.  To recognize that God deserves all our love is to recognize that He deserves our highest regard in every way.  God is infinitely great, awesome and majestic.  When Moses turned aside to see the burning bush, God said to him, "Do not draw near this place.  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5 NKJV).

      The Scriptures admonish us to fear the Lord.  This is not a slavish, cringing, selfish fear.  Rather, it is giving to God in love the solemn, reverential awe and respect that are rightfully His, coupled with a healthy regard for the serious consequences of not doing so.  There is nothing inconsistent between loving God and fearing Him.  In fact, the person who truly loves God supremely will reverence Him supremely.  They who trifle with God neither know Him nor love Him.

      "Stand in awe and sin not" (Psalm 4:4).  "Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him" (Psalm 33:8).  "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him" (Psalm 89:7).

      The fear of the Lord is intelligent and reasonable.  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7).  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10).  A proper regard for God is the beginning point of a truly liberal education.

      Reverential fear is evidence of a proper sense of values and an acknowledgement of our moral obligation.  Ecclesiastes 12:13 expresses it this way: "Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man."  People who are not afraid to sin have no true regard for God.  With little or no hesitation they disregard His interests and injure His honor.  How grossly insensitive they are to God's feelings!  One of the two thieves crucified with Christ was so hard and impenitent that he finally drew from the other this rebuke: "Do not you fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation?" (Luke 23:40).

      Sin has to take on the magnitude of a public scandal before many people even regard it to be wrong.  But a soul in tune with the holy One is so sensitive to His honor that they recoil from even the thought of disobeying Him.

      It is possible to become so accustomed to the sublime that it becomes commonplace to us.  The ungodly can camp, hunt and fish in the great outdoors, surrounded by nature's eloquent testimony to the power and majesty of God.  But instead of being inspired to worship in awe and wonder, they swear and throw beer cans around.  Madness!

      The words of Habakkuk 2:20 are for us today: "the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."  This is not the silence of indifference or estrangement, but the silence of wonder, awe, reverence, and adoration.  Oh, that we would wake up and realize the awesomeness of approaching the presence of the Majesty in the heavens!

      The fear of the Lord has a profound effect on our behavior.  In 2 Corinthians 7:1 we are admonished, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."  We are admonished also in 1 Peter 1:17, "And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."

      Our moral obligation to God also includes the duty and the privilege to glorify Him in all things.  The true Christian loves God.  This love is more than an emotion, a sentiment.  It is a purpose, a commitment to glorify God.  This is the motive, the great objective, of all who are truly born again.  Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).  "Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples" (John 15:8).  A true disciple is primarily concerned about the Father's honor and glory.  He goes beyond religious wishful thinking and sentiments.  Feelings alone are not enough.  The genuine Christian seeks to glorify God directly or indirectly in all things.  His heart's desire is found in 1 Corinthians 10:31--"Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God."  Earlier in the same epistle the apostle reminds us, "For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20).

      People who truly love God aim to please Him.  It seems to be an assumption with some that the first question in religion is, "How can God please me?" God is a means to an end.  But let it ever be remembered that true religion is aimed at pleasing God, not ourselves.  God's blessings are great, of course, but we must always serve God for His sake and not just for the sake of the blessings.  Let us live to be a source of pleasure and happiness to God.

      Jesus said that He did always the things that please the Father (John 8:29).  This is the motive of every truly saved soul.  Paul knew what he was living for.  He said, "not as pleasing men, but God" (1 Thessalonians 2:4).  Hebrews 11:5 records that "Enoch...had this testimony, that he pleased God."  Ah, here is the real meaning and purpose of life; here is our highest reason for being--pleasing God!  One might attain fame, fortune and status in this life; but if that person fails to please God--to make pleasing God the grand aim of life--that person is a failure both for time and for eternity.

      Yes, God does open His blessings to those who love Him supremely and therefore live to please Him.  In 1 John 3:22 we read this promise: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

      Another privilege that we have is to praise God.  God is worthy of all praise now and forever.  "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee" (Psalm 67:3).  Praise should be as natural to the Christian as breathing.  It is the soul's language of love to God.  Thus it will be forever, for God has redeemed us for the high calling and privilege of praising Him forever.  See Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 1:3, 12; 3:17.

      The Bible is a praise book.  It gives us the reasons why we should give praise to God, and then tells us how to do it: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name" (Hebrews 13:15).  God is worthy of total and exclusive worship.  All the hosts of Heaven worship Him, and the universal response resonates in the hearts of the redeemed.

      Every neglect or refusal to glorify and worship God defrauds Him of what is rightfully His.  Every sinner is guilty of continuously cheating God.  When Satan suggested that Jesus worship him, the Son of God retorted with the eternal mandate: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve" (Matthew 4:10).

      Real worship is not the heartless recital of mere words, the mechanical performance of church ritual.  Jesus said, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).  In Psalm 96:9 we are urged: "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."  Genuine worship must be accompanied by the radiance of a holy life.

      God is our highest love and our highest joy.  Desire God above all else.  Hunger and thirst for God.  Seek God.  Believe God. Know God.  Experience God.  Walk with God and talk with God.  Worship God.  Praise God.  Adore God.  Enjoy God!

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul after You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1, 2 NKJV).

"O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1 NKJV).

"My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God" (Psalm 84:2).

"O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8).

"Be filled with all the fullness of God!" (Ephesians 3:19).

      Psalm 95:6 sums it up beautifully: "O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker."  Amen and amen.