God's Personality (2)

Well, we are in a study of the doctrine of God and I just want to say a word in the beginning about the study of doctrine. We're entiling this what the Bible teaches about God because a lot of people are afraid of that word doctrine, even more afraid of the word theology. And so, it has to use those words because that kind of puts people off. But the study of the nature of God is the greatest study that we can ever undertake. And the study of doctrine, the study of what the Bible teaches about any subject is the greatest study that we can possibly do. It's the greatest of all the sciences, theology has often been called the greatest of the sciences. And the reason is it will impact our lives much more than we ever realized. Not a day goes by but what I don't get, at least one, sometimes two or three questions from folks that have to do with what the Bible teaches. And it is clear to me over and over and over again every day that it is so crucial to understand what the Bible teaches, what the Bible teaches about God, what the Bible teaches about the Bible, what the Bible teaches about Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and man, and our sin, and salvation, and the church, and what's going to happen in the future, all of those things, all those areas of theology are very critical to us to understand life. And to be able to know how to live life, the questions that come to me, people are vexed about not just knowing how to interpret a passage of Scripture, but what does this do, how does this affect my life? And most every question that we are faced with can be traced back to some need for understanding what the Scriptures teach. It's very important that we know what the Bible teaches, particularly about God. We will stumble and blunder through life without any real direction if we don't understand what the Bible teaches about God. If we don't know who He is, what He has done for us, and our response should be to Him. A couple of three weeks ago, we started this study, and we have been talking in last week about the personality of God. I just want to remind you because we've got a lot of new folks in here tonight with all the Oana Ministries and so forth starting up. I want to remind you that when we talk about God's personality, we're not talking about whether or not God is outgoing or introverted. We're not talking about the kind of personality that we think of when we use that word. What we're saying is that we need to understand that God is a true person. So we're talking about God's personality in the sense that He is a person in contrast to an object like a tree or a force like the wind or an influence like an idea or in contrast to an animal. God is a true person, and when we understand what that means and who God really is, it influences everything that we do. Because we realize when we pray, we're not praying to some force out there. When we give an answer to God, we're not just some nebulous idea, we're talking to a real person, a real person. Now last week we talked about the characteristics of personhood being life, intelligence, purpose, freedom, self-consciousness, emotion and spirituality or in the case of God, He is a spirit. And we started taking them one by one. Last week we looked at the first one. God is living. God is living. And what we're doing is we're looking at what that means, looking at some scriptures that teach those these different ideas and then we're looking at how they can apply to our lives. Now what did we say last week about what God being a living person means? What does it mean when we say God is living? What does that mean? Okay, compared to other gods that are dead that are just made out of wood, other made out of inanimate objects. Okay, we can interact with Him. Yes, He interacts with us. Okay, He acted. He does things. He's involved in His creation. He's not just removed. He acts. And that's a very important part of our understanding of how we relate to God. When we pray, prayer is not just an easing of our conscience. Prayer is speaking to a living God who acts, who responds, who does things, who intervenes. Okay, what else did we talk about with the living God? He shows emotion. Yes. We'll talk a little bit more about His emotion as we go through the characteristics of God, but yes, He does show emotion. We looked at several scriptures last week, the three that are on the screen, Deuteronomy 5, Joshua 3, Jeremiah 10. We closed with last week with Jeremiah 10 and that tremendous description and contrast of the prophet between the living God and the dead idols made out of wood and that very sarcastic description of the false gods that Jeremiah gives. Oh, you got a God, huh? You went out in the woods and cut him down, right? And then you dressed him up and put all kinds of garland and stuff on him. Wow, and then you had to put boards under him so he wouldn't teeter, thought, or over and fall. Great God you got there. You have to carry him around because he can't walk. He can't hear you when you talk to him. He can't see anything. That's a wonderful God. I mean, that's the tone that you see in Jeremiah's contrast between idols, false gods and the true God. The true God is a living God. And Jeremiah really gave that description and that contrast beautifully. So let's pick up with the next passage tonight that talks about the living God and that is in Daniel chapter 6, Daniel 6. Now remember that in each of these passages, there is the mention of the fact that God is living, but there's also a mention of something that he does, which illustrates the fact that he's living. Activity that illustrates the fact that God is living. So in Daniel chapter 6, you probably can guess what this would be. This is the famous story of Daniel being protected in the lion's den. And remember because he was praying to the true God and some of his co-workers who were jealous of him had tricked King Darius into passing a decree that you couldn't pray to anybody else, but King Darius. They were trying to flatter him, but really they were trying to trap Daniel. Daniel is thrown into a certain execution, a den full of lions. And you remember the story of how God protected him and then King goes back. King didn't sleep that night. Daniel did fine, but the King couldn't sleep. And he goes back the next morning, finds Daniel alive. Now look at verse 25. Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth, may you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. And notice what he says next for he is the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves. He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. So what does the living God do here? He rescues. What else? Saves. Does miracles and wonders? All of those things are represented in the story of Daniel and how he's delivered from the lions. God is a God who acts. He delivers. He rescues. He saves. He does miraculous things. He's a living God. Okay. Next passage. First Timothy 4. Let's look at this one. First Timothy 4. Paul speaking to his young disciple Timothy. Who he is training in ministry. First Timothy 4. Verse 9. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living God who is the savior of all people and especially of those who believe. The living God. We've put our hope in the living God, not a force or an idea, but the living God. And what does the living God do in this passage? He saves. Doesn't he? He saves people. When you think about that, he rescues people from the darkness and the despair of sin. Sets our feet upon a rock puts us on a new path in life. He saves. We've put our hope in the living God who works, who acts and he saves. And notice that Paul says he's the savior of all people. That doesn't mean all people are going to come to Christ and be in heaven. But in some sense, salvation has been provided in such a tremendous and lavish fashion that it is available to all people. In some sense, salvation is available to all people. This is one of four passages that keeps me from being a five point Calvinist. I've told you that before. There are four passages that you have to really wiggle around to teach that God only died for a certain group of people. This is one of those because it makes the clear distinction. He is the savior of all people in some way. Salvation has been provided for all, but especially to those who believe. So salvation is especially applied to those who believe. It is only those who believe that will end up being saved and will be in heaven. But in some sense, the scope of salvation, the provision is so grand and infinite that it is provided on a scope that is universal. It is for everybody, but only those who believe will be saved. So God saves. He is the living God who saves. Hebrews chapter 10 is the last one that we'll look at. Hebrews 10. In one of the three warning passages of Hebrews, and I'm not going to try to settle the controversy about those tonight, but there are three passages in this book that are very difficult warning passages. At the end of the third one here, he says in verses 30 and 31, for we know him who said it is mine to avenge. I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Living God is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Why? What does the living God do? He judges, doesn't he? Now, is God a God of love? Certainly. Is God a God of judgment? Yes. Are those two mutual exclusive? No. Not in the Bible. God loves all people, but God will judge also. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the God who judges. He is a living God who will judge someday. And that is a fearful, fearful prospect. Okay. What does it mean to you that God is living? Let's apply this truth for a moment. The application of this truth, when we say, as we've looked at these passages, that God is living, what does that mean for you and your own personal life and your own walk with God and your spiritual life? What does that mean to you? Pardon me? Can talk directly to him in prayer. And know that we're not just talking to a block of wood that can't hear. We're talking to a real live person who's listening. Yes. Okay. How else do you apply this truth to your life? Can have a relationship with him. Yes. Great, great thought. We can have an actual relationship with God, a personal relationship because he is a living person. Great respect for him because of all of these descriptions of what the living God does. Certainly that leads to respect and all reverence for God. What else? It's a two-way conversation. Yes. We talk to him and he talks back, doesn't he? He answers. Two-way conversation. Now, that's how we're having a living God is different from having a pet. You can talk to your dog, can't you? You may think he talks back, but he really doesn't. There's no two-way conversation there, but with God it is a two-way conversation. Great thought. Yes, Walt? It's an awesome thing to be able to touch your whole life and whole thinking in my hands. It's a lot of life. It's a lot of love and peace. The way I'm looking at it is the point where I can rest. Yes. Great. Yes. We can trust him and have the rest of placing our life in his hands. Really, we can say that with every one of these characteristics we look at. The fact that we know he's living and everything else we're going to see about him gives us great confidence that we can trust him and put our life in his hands. Do I hear something on this side? Can we say something? He's eternal. He's eternal because he's living. He's eternal, isn't he? We're going to get to that later as well. That is an expansion of the fact that God is living. He has lived forever in the past. He's living now. He will live forever in the future. He is eternal. Steve? Yes. For sure. The fact that he's a living God means that he cares about us. These are great extensions of the fact that he is living and they also touch on many of the other things we will look at. Let's go ahead and take the next evidence or characteristic of personhood. Remember that the second characteristic is intelligence. A person has intelligence. Obviously for humans varying degrees of intelligence. But that's one of the marks of personhood. You have intelligence. A tree does not have intelligence. A rock does not have intelligence. A person has intelligence. Now what does intelligence mean? There are three biblical terms that describe intelligence best and they're kind of like a telescoping, expanding idea. First of all is knowledge. Knowledge is a part of intelligence. If you have intelligence, you have some knowledge. But knowledge is basically the perception of facts. Knowledge is the ability just to accumulate facts. You can accumulate knowledge just by learning facts. So there is a sense in which a computer has knowledge. Maybe not in the same sense of personhood, but a computer can obtain facts and gather facts. So knowledge is not enough. The second part of intelligence is understanding. Understanding is insight into the meaning of facts. It goes beyond just gathering facts and information. But understanding says, I know how to put those facts together. I have insight into what they mean. And thus I know what I should do in light of those facts. These facts or these, this combination of facts means that this is what I should do. This is how I should respond. That's understanding. There are some other words that kind of are synonyms with that, particularly in the book of Proverbs, discernment and discretion. Those kinds of ideas go along with understanding. But the third element of intelligence is also very important and that is wisdom. And wisdom takes knowledge and understanding even a step further. And it is the highest form of intelligence and the best description of intelligence. Wisdom is putting all those facts together and using them for good. That's wisdom. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom really is ordering your life after God's principles. A person who lives according to God's principles is described in the book of Proverbs as a wise person. Person who does not live by God's principles is the fool. Fools can gather facts. Fools can gain a lot of knowledge. But that's not all that's involved in intelligence. Intelligence means that I take the facts and then I understand what they mean. I can put them together, understand what I should do. But that's not enough either because you can have great understanding of issues and know what you should do and never do it. If you do it, if you live by it, that's wisdom. That's wisdom. According to the Bible, that's wisdom. Wisdom is much more than just being really smart or being really old. We have a tendency to think that wisdom comes with age and there is an accumulation of knowledge and experience that can produce wisdom but it doesn't come automatically just because the years add up. If a person over a period of years gains more information and understanding of that and learns how to use it, yes, they become wiser. But it doesn't happen automatically. Wisdom is the result of the proper use of knowledge and understanding. So that's all of that together is what intelligence is. Now let's look at some scriptures which support the fact that God has intelligence. He is an intelligent being. First of all, first Samuel, chapter 2 and verse 3. Remember the story of Hannah praying for a child and God gives her a son, Samuel. And this chapter 2 is her prayer after God has granted her this child. Verse 1 says, then Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord, my horn is lifted high. My mouth both so are my enemies where I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God. By the way, if you think theology or doctrine is boring, you ought to read some of these prayers. Here's a woman in the Old Testament who did not have access to the scriptures daily like we do. But yet who evidently paid close attention when she went to the tabernacle and had the scriptures taught to her by the priests and Levites living throughout the 48 cities in Israel where they lived, she paid attention because her prayer is chop full of good theology about who God is. She knows some things about God. She's already talked about the fact that he's holy. There's no one else besides him. He's unique. He is dependable. There's no rock like our God. Notice verse 3, do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance which may be a reference to her husband's other wife, Panina, who was persecuting her verbally. She basically is praying, do not keep talking so proudly, let your mouth speak such a word. Why? For the Lord is a God who knows. And by him deeds are weighed. What does God know in this passage? Are hearts and actions? Okay. What's going on in her life in Hannah's life? Yes. He knows the motives. Yes. He not only knows what's going on in Hannah's life. He knows what's going on in Panina. Her life too. That seems to be what this is direct to. Don't talk arrogantly because God knows what's going on. God knows what's in your heart and your mind and your your speech. And by him deeds are weighed that again speaks of God's judgment does it? Doesn't it? And God's judgment is always according to the facts, the proper understanding of those facts and the proper response to those facts. Knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Okay. Let's look at Isaiah 11, the next one on your outline, Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2. This is a description, a prophecy of the Messiah. Isaiah chapter 11, verse 2. Well, let's, let's read verse 1 to get the full, full of thought here. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse from his roots of branch will bear fruit. Now what the Bible is teaching here is that the Messiah would come from the tribe and family line of David. Jesse is David's father. And so the stump that has been left over, the tree has been cut down because that that line is is no longer ruling or will soon no longer be ruling in Jeremiah's time. But from that stump, like new life will come forth out of that stump. And from the roots of Jesse, David, a branch will bear fruit. That's a clear prophecy of the Messiah who the whole, the Old Testament clearly time after time says will come from the family of David. And here's the description of what he's like in verse 2. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of, now notice the spirit of wisdom and of understanding the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. Lots of words there for intelligence, right? Knowledge, wisdom, understanding, fear of God, counsel, all of those things indicate that Jesus who is God and human flesh is a God who has intelligence. Okay, flip back a few pages to Proverbs 3. Yes, sir. Well, the Messiah will act in the fear of the Lord. Okay, the Messiah is the human representation of God Christ came in a body and he lived a perfect human life while he was here on earth. A part of that perfect human life was a perfect relationship with his father. And remember the fear of God as we've talked about before the fear of God is a clear understanding of who God is and then you respond appropriately. Jesus perfectly modeled that, didn't he? He understood who his father was and he rendered perfect obedience to him. So he really modeled what the fear of God was all about. Now, it sounds a little strange and I have a feeling this where you were coming from, what because he is God and yet he fears God. But I think that's the sense in which he does. From the human standpoint, the Messiah walking on the earth was a perfect model of understanding who his father was and responding appropriately with obedience and trust and all that. Okay, great question. Proverbs 3 verses 19 and 20. By wisdom, the Lord laid the earth's foundation, by understanding he set the heavens in place, by his knowledge, the water he depths were divided and the clouds let drop the dew. Do you notice all three elements of intelligence here? Knowledge, understanding and wisdom and all three are involved in what act here? Creation, yes. So in creation, God had all the information needed to do the work of creation. That's the knowledge. He had understanding of what all those facts meant and how they should be used and then he acted on that, that's wisdom. So God's intelligence is in full view in these two verses in the wonders of creation. One other passage, Romans 11, this great statement of Paul, the end of Romans chapter 11. You almost have to read the first 11 chapters to get the full force of this statement. Promise we're not going to do that, but it would be helpful if we did because the first 11 chapters basically describe the beauty of the gospel of a righteousness from God. Which is given to us through our faith in Christ and the beauty of the gospel and what it means for us. And when Paul gets done describing that before he begins chapter 12, which is the practical application of how the gospel is to be lived out in our lives, before he begins that, he says in verse 33, he says, I've got to take a few deep breaths here and just explain the wonder of God. And so that's what he does in verse 33, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsurkable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out, who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, who has ever given to God that God should repay them for from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever. Amen. Wow, what a statement. The intelligence of God, his knowledge, his understanding, his wisdom, his counsel, all of that is far beyond what we can even imagine. Now we'll talk about this a little more when we get to the attributes of God. One of the attributes of God will talk about his omniscience, the fact that he knows all things. And we'll explore that a little bit and have some fun trying to understand that one. But just to kind of set us up for that, his knowledge, his wisdom, his judgments, his paths are far deeper than we can even imagine. We cannot trace them out. You cannot figure out everything God knows. Don't try. You can't do it. Now it's a wonderful thing to figure out as much as we can about his revelation, but we will never understand everything in the mind of God. So don't even try to do that. Okay, how do we apply the fact that God is a personal being in the sense that he has intelligence? How do you apply that to you? We want to learn. Yes. We want to learn more about him and a reflection of his images. We should expand our knowledge. Yes. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Yes. By the God who knows all things knows how to use that information. We want to be close minded and be thankful to God who is going to expand what I'm going to do. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Great, great reminder, Ray. And we have a tendency to do that. Don't we? God, you still understand what I'm feeling. Oh, really? He doesn't. Are we telling God there are some things he doesn't know and doesn't understand? Yes. It's a great reminder, whatever we're going through, to remember that God is a person of infinite intelligence, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. There's not anything that he doesn't know. We're the ones, like you said, Ray, with limited understanding. Steve? Yes. Yes. It is a great comfort, isn't it? Steve said to know that God does know all things and we can trust him. His intelligence is far beyond what we can grasp. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Right. Fear of God does have to do more with the kind of respect and response to him knowing who he is. Not a yes. Yes. Good. The intelligence of God is a double edged sword. Remember knowing that God knows all things, his knowledge, his intelligence is infinite and we will talk about that more later. But knowing that is a warning, first of all, isn't it? It's a warning that there's nothing he does not know about us. Remember that was kind of what Hannah was praying. But then it don't speak so arrogantly. God knows. God knows the heart. God knows all of our hearts and he knows what's in us. And so that's a warning. But also the other side of the infinite intelligence of God, it is a tremendous comfort and consolation to those who are living godly because we can say with Job in Job 2310, he knows the way that I take. And when I have tried, I will come forth as gold. You know, Job is being persecuted by his friends who are accusing him of all kinds of things and Job's response wasn't his only response. He had some pretty rough things to say even about God. But in his better moments, he said things like what I just quoted. He knows the way that I take. I mean, I have to rest my case with God. He knows. And when I'm tried, I will come forth as gold. I know God's purifying me through this trial. And he knows. Elephaz, so far, Bill Dad, you don't know. You don't know the truth about me. You're accusing me of all kinds of things. You don't know the truth. But he knows he knows. And that's a great consolation comfort, isn't it? God's intelligence is perfect. So God is a living being and he is an intelligent being. Any comment or question about that before we move, at least introduce the third aspect of his personality? Yes, John? Isn't it very obvious to us as we question creation, question the universe, how it all came together, all the kinds of things. As how God is intelligent, the creation of these things that we can't even figure out, we can come up with some theory. But we don't know the real answer. Yes. And you can rest in trust in what he has done beyond what we can't even figure out things. Yes. And the look that was in the intelligence design of this. Yeah, the creation does reflect. Yes, yes, general revelation. His creation does reflect his intelligence. And the more scientists uncover about the complexity of what is in the creation, even in the cell or the eye or any part of the human body, the more complexity they say. The more complexity they see, the more it blows our minds about how that came to be. Certainly. Causes us to understand that God is infinitely intelligent. Okay, very good. So, I think, you know, I think you're right. I think there's a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 25, too, that says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. The glory of kings to discover or uncover. And I think that's what you're getting at. God has had everything we're just now discovering in his creation since it started. And it's just like he's waiting for us. Come on, come on. You can, you can figure this out. You can find this. You can discover this. And I think every time we do make a new discovery, I think there's a sense in which God says, you got it. You found one. And I think there is a sense in which it's his glory to hide all these things. And he loves seeing us discover them. It's the glory of kings to discover them. And it's actually also part of what's called the dominion mandate, Genesis 1. God put us on earth to rule and subdue his creation, to have dominion over the creation, to be able to figure these things out and manage well his creation. Yeah, I think sometimes God is saying, what took you so long to find that one? Yeah, Steve? Steve? One of the points is that God is not only with the appears, but his world is in a very different way than the rest of the people. He's all created for being the barn, and he's just telling us things that are not the way to wake up. But they take steps to protect the created for being the barn and folding it. Yes. Yes. Okay, good. Very good. All right, let's at least introduce in the next two or three minutes the fact that God is also purposeive. In other words, he is a God who acts with purpose, which demonstrates the fact that he is a person. Okay, one of the characteristics of personhood is having purpose. Okay, what are we talking about? What does purpose mean? It means planning and acting with a future goal in mind. That's what having purpose means, or to describe someone as purposeive, having that characteristic means that a person plans and then acts with that future goal in mind. That's a characteristic of personhood. Animals are not characterized by this kind of purpose. Animals respond to different stimuli and act by instinct. And God's built that into them. No question about that. It's not just dumb movement. God has built a certain kind of response to stimuli and instinct in the animal kingdom. By instinct, they know to build nests or they know to migrate at certain times. And there are some amazing examples of that. I was watching some some time ago a program. I think it was Nova or one of those science programs that talk about the the migration of a group of pelicans in Australia to a place where they they have their young and they only do it every 10 years. And scientists for many many years couldn't figure out what was going on there. And even how they got there, pelicans typically live along the coast. And this is in the most barren desert in Australia, one of the most barren deserts in the world. How did they even get there? How did they know when to go? How did they know to go every 10 years? And it had to do with a certain cycle of rainy seasons, which some rivers dump into a huge lake that is only there for a couple of months. But because of that, a lot of creatures that have been lying in the ground come forth and it is the best feeding ground in all of Australia for those two months. And that's why the pelicans go there. Now God put that into them. It doesn't show personhood, but there are some amazing stories of the natural instincts of animals that God has placed in them. But no pelicans sits around with a calendar saying, okay, eight more years, just three more years now. I'm making my plans. I'm going to pack my bags. And I know when I'm going to go that there's no purpose in the sense of planning ahead and then acting out that plan. That is a uniquely human and divine characteristic because it's a unique characteristic of personhood. The idea of having purpose man acts with purpose and so does God. It's one of the ways we reflect his image and likeness is we have purpose. Okay, that's about all we can do tonight to introduce what it means that we'll look at some fascinating scriptures about the purpose of God in our next time together. Okay, let's pray and then you can rescue your children from desperate a lot of workers who are anxious to see you. They love your children. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity just to discover part of what you've given us the privilege to do is to dig into your word and discover more about you. And you've hidden such jewels in the word, not hidden them so that we can't find them, but hidden them so that we we have to expend a little effort to dig down to some of those and we thank you for that. Thank you for the opportunity you give us to discover more about who you are. May we never cease to be amazed that you've given us the opportunity to relate to you a real person to be able to pray and carry on to a communication with you. The God who is the God of all intelligence, new acts with purpose. Thank you for who you are. May we come to know you better and as we know you better respond to you more appropriately in Jesus' name. Amen.