God's Personality (3)

We are talking about the character of God on Wednesday nights. We're looking at his personality and the characteristics that describe personhood basically is what we're going over on Wednesday nights. That which distinguishes a true person from an object or an idea or a force or even an animal. We're looking at the characteristics that describe God's personality, the fact that he is a real person. When we finish these, we'll get into what we call the attributes of God, which are other characteristics that describe his nature, his essence, who he is. Right now we're looking at those which describe his personality. Already we have seen two, the fact that he is living and the fact that he is intelligent. Tonight we hope to cover three more and we'll be taking a look at what the scriptures teach about the fact that God is a God of purpose, he is purposeive, he is free and he is self conscious. Last week we introduced the idea that God is a God of purpose, he is purposeive. Do you remember what we said about what that means? What does it mean that God is purposeive or he has purpose? Speak up just a little bit. He acts with purpose. Steve, planning and acting with a goal in mind? Yes. The idea is that God, everything he does is pursuing a particular plan and purpose, a goal that he has in mind, some theologians call it his decree, that which he has purpose to do. He is pursuing that plan, everything he does is in line with that plan. We're going to look at three passages, a scripture that teach that and we're going to see what it means that God acts with purpose. First of all, look at Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah 14, we're going to look at verses 24 to 27. This is a prophecy of the prophet Isaiah about the nation of Assyria and what God has planned for that nation in Isaiah 14, beginning in verse 24. The Lord Almighty has sworn, surely, now notice all these words here, surely as I have planned, so it will be and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land. On my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people and his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the plan determined for the whole world. This is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him. His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back. These four verses are just chock full of powerful statements about the fact that God acts with a future goal in mind. He has purpose and plan and nothing and no one can thwart that plan or hinder him from accomplishing his purpose. It is interesting the purpose that he describes here is the purpose concerning the nation of Assyria. Isaiah had an interesting interaction with the nation of Assyria. The Assyrians had already taken the northern kingdom captive, Kingdom of Israel, and they were also invading Judah. In fact they had taken many of the southern cities of Judah, many of the fortified cities, and their army surrounded Jerusalem. Do you remember the king who prayed earnestly that God would deliver the nation of Judah from the Assyrian army? Remember what his name was? He was a caya. That is right. Some people think there is a book in the Bible named after him, but there is not. He was the king that prayed to God and God answered that prayer. He was the king. Isaiah was the prophet. Isaiah is prophesying here. God is going to deal with Assyria. He actually is going to trample him down on my mountains. Do you remember how that happened? The Assyrian army was the most fierce and cruel army in the world at this time. Nobody had stood up to them. No other nation had stood up to them. Do you remember what happened? He was sent an angel to kill 185,000 soldiers. That is described later in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 36, 37, somewhere around there, that event was also described in the historic books. God actually took care of that army and Sannakarib, the Assyrian general, and king, had to find his way back home where he was then killed by his two sons in the temple in Assyria because of his failure. God wiped out that army to where they could no longer pose a threat. This was God's purpose. Even though that army had never been defeated by any other power, God said it is my purpose and my plan. I am going to take him down. God acts with a goal in mind, with a purpose and a plan, and nothing the Bible says here can fort that. When God decides to do something, it is going to be done. Nobody can stop it. Nothing can stop it. God acts according to purpose and plan. Any comment or question there on that passage? Let's look at Romans 8, the second passage of Scripture. One of the greatest passages in all of the Bible on the purpose and plan of God is it relates to salvation. The verse that is so familiar to all of us is verse 28. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. God works for the good of those who are His according to a purpose and plan which He has designed. It is for those who have been called according to His purpose. If you stop reading at verse 28, we can quote verse 28 and stop there, we really miss the thrust of what Paul is saying. He goes on to describe what that purpose is. What is the purpose of God? It is an amazing purpose. It is something that God has determined will be done and no one can thwart it, no one can change it. The amazing thing about this purpose in salvation is that it starts an eternity past and it ends an eternity future. It is anchored, it is bookends or an eternity. It is that solid of purpose. Here is his purpose. Verse 29, for those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters and those he predestined. He also called and those he called, he also justified those he justified, he also glorified. There are five sequential steps here in the great purpose and plan of God that encompasses our salvation and it starts an eternity past, it ends an eternity future. It is God's purpose. It cannot be changed. It starts with four knowledge. We have been through this before. It is good ground to cover again. God's four knowledge is not just that God knows ahead what is going to happen. He can look ahead and see what we are going to do. He adjusts his plan accordingly. That kind of puts us in charge. God has to respond to what we do. In the Bible, God's four knowledge, in the Old Testament and New Testament both, have to do with God choosing to set his love on ahead of time. God four knows and it comes out of the Hebrew concept of knowing someone which is an intimate knowledge and choosing that person. God's four knowledge is much more than, oh, I can look ahead and see what is going to happen. It actually is a divine action of God to choose to move toward us, to choose to set his love on us. Those whom he foreknew, those whom he chose to set his love on, he also predestined. Now a lot of people are afraid of that word but it simply means to mark out ahead of time. It is clear the purpose for which he predestined. Those he chooses to set his love on, those he chooses to be in his family, he predestined or marks out ahead of time to be conformed to the image of his son. That is what we are marked out ahead of time. That is what his purpose ultimately is for us to look like Christ and to be like Christ, to be made in his image. So we are marked out ahead of time for that purpose. And then those whom he foreknew, he also predestined and those whom he predestined to be like Christ, then the verse 30 says, he called. And the calling is that work of the Spirit that draws us to the Savior. It is that conviction of the Holy Spirit that brings us to salvation. That is the calling of God. By the way, there are a couple of different kinds of callings in the Bible. One of them can be resisted. It is a general call that goes out to all the world. But this particular word and the calling here is God's specific working in the heart of those that he is drawing to himself, that he is bringing to himself. People who are going to be saved. So he calls them and those he called, forthly, he justified. Now that is the point at which you actually get saved. See, the other three things happen before salvation. Justification is the point where you trust Christ as your Savior and you are declared righteous in God's courtroom in heaven. But it doesn't end there. It says those whom he justified, he also glorified. And when does glorification take place? At the rapture? When we get taken home to heaven, right? Glorification takes place in heaven. But doesn't it seem like that would be in the future tense then? Those whom he justified, he will glorify? Or will be glorified? Doesn't seem like that hasn't happened yet, has it? Or has it? In the mind of God it has. In the mind of God it is that certain which is one of the greatest proofs of eternal security in all the Bible. Because if you are saved in God's mind, you are already glorified. That is already a done deal. It is settled. It is just as certain as your salvation, the moment you trusted Christ, that you will be in heaven someday. It is already past tense in God's mind. You see the whole process from eternity past to eternity future is accomplished in the purpose of God. This is his purpose and nothing can change that. Nothing can alter that. Nothing can fork that. It is his purpose. So that is what his purpose is. God acts with a goal in mind. It is a clear and definite purpose. There is a lot in those verses. I really want to move on to Ephesians 3 but I will open it up for any questions you might have on that. Those great words of salvation. Good. I really didn't want to get involved in any further discussion on predestination either. Let's move on. We just take what the scriptures say and believe it. If we can't explain it all or fit it all together. By the way, let me just say this. I said last week I am not a five point Calvinist. I believe that Jesus died for everybody because there are four scriptures that clearly state that and cannot be argued against it. Some people take verses like this and say well it has to be logical that Christ could only die for the elect. I don't care about logic. I care about the Bible. Whatever the Bible teaches is what we believe. Theology is not logical reasoning. Theology is biblical reasoning. I believe that in some sense the provision of salvation was made for all men. Only those who come to Christ will be in heaven. This passage describes quite clearly the purpose of God in getting us to heaven which started an eternity past. I can't deny that either. I can't deny truths like predestination and foreknowledge and election. Those are clearly taught in the Bible. Does it all fit together logically? No. It doesn't. But does it need to? No. If we can logically figure out everything about the purpose of God. What is there left between us and God? It makes us God, doesn't it? We'll never know fully the mind of God, this side of heaven. Don't worry if things don't make logical sense. The Trinity doesn't make logical sense. The deity and humanity of Christ in one person doesn't make logical sense. Some things about the plan of salvation don't make logical sense either. But I don't believe what I believe because it makes logical sense. I believe what I believe because the Bible says it. Even if it appears to be a contradiction, still believe it. The Bible says it. The Bible says, certainly there are things in this passage. In every part of the step of salvation, we do know that what the Scriptures teach clearly about glorification is that that takes place when we get to heaven. That's not here. That takes place in heaven and that everybody who is justified ultimately will be glorified. I would fully agree that there are going to be a lot of people in heaven that we didn't expect to be there. And if we are biblically honest, we will be amazed at being there ourselves. We will be amazed at God's grace because none of us deserves to be there, right? None of us deserves to be there. We are not going to look around at other people and say, how did you get here? I didn't think you would be here. I think we ought to be looking around saying, I wouldn't be here except for your grace, God. There is much about this whole process, yes, Byron, that we do not comprehend fully grasp. But it is God's purpose. That's what verse 28 says. And then he lays out what the purpose is step by step. And a lot of it we can't grasp fully. And we just have to leave in the mind of God. One other passage deals with God's purpose that I want to point out is Ephesians 3 verses 10 and 11. I like this passage because of what it says about what God is showing in heaven. Paul is talking in the context about him being a servant of the gospel and preaching the gospel of God's grace to the Gentiles in verse 8 and verse 9 to make plain to everyone, the administration of this mystery, verse 10. His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. In the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, who are rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms? Who's that? Yes, angels, angels. There are several passages that use these kind of terms and some of them are very clear that he's talking about angels. And he mentions here they're in the heavenly realms. The amazing thing about this passage is that it shows God is going to use the church as an object lesson to the angels throughout eternity of his purpose. There are some things that we get to teach angels that they've never experienced. I love this song by Stephen Curtis Chapman. I love it. It's called the name of it now, but I love this song. It's about what the angels have on me that I don't have, but I've got something on them. He talks about the fact that there are lots of questions I'd like to ask the angels. Did God smile when he made man? Was God angry when he brought about the flood? What does God's voice sound like? You know, things that angels witness all the time that we don't know, we don't see. And it raises all those kind of interesting things. And then it says, but there's one thing the angels long to see about us. And that is the story of grace and the story of redemption. And the fact that sinners can find salvation in Christ and the forgiveness of sin, angels have not experienced that. And so they long to look into those things. A couple other passages to talk about this one in first Peter, but God is going to put us on display throughout eternity for the angels to show his purpose in salvation. Great, great passage. Okay, God's purpose. He acts with a future goal in mind. What does that mean to you, by way of application? What does it mean to your life? The fact that God acts with a future goal in mind. He acts with purpose. It's comforting. No matter what God's in control. If God is for me, who can be against me? Yes. Steve? Yes. He saved us for a purpose here and also in eternity to display his grace. In eternity, his kindness, Ephesians 1 talks about that, Ephesians 2 talks about that. He will display his kindness and mercy throughout eternity through us. But also for a purpose here. Something else that is a blessing to me is that God who acts with a purpose and goal in mind already knows what we will be. And God acts toward us in light of what we will be. Not in light of where we are now. If God acted toward us only in light of where we are now, I think he'd give up on most of us. For example, Case in Point, God calls the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1 saints. And then you read the first six chapters and you think, man, if this is what a saint looks like, I don't want to be a saint. This is a horrible group of people. They had all kinds of problems. But a saint is one who is set apart to God and set apart through Christ to be his own possession. And God treats us and acts toward us in His love and grace as though we were already glorified already with Him in heaven. And He continues to work with us to shape us and mold us and make us into the image of Christ. But He treats us as though we were already glorified. And that's the only way He can look at us with the kind of grace and mercy that He does. So God acts with purpose in mind. His plan is always before Him. But you know, I don't know what it means. I don't know what it means. I can't even read the book. I can't even read the book. Yeah. Well, that's about a 30 minute answer. And I don't know that much. So I can't take that long on it. There are two or three things I would want to say there. I would prefer to say God gives us will. The whole concept of free will, although I understand what's meant by that. We are not entirely free as we will see in just a moment when we talk about God being free. We are not entirely free because we're bound by our sin nature. So our will always will take a certain direction apart from God's grace. It will always go a certain direction. So we are not entirely free. So I understand what we mean by that. When we say free will, we're talking about the fact that God gives us choice. And yes, he does. We do have choice. We have a will. We can choose. And by God's grace and the power of his spirit, we can even choose good. We can even choose to please him and obey him. But all of that does fit in the purpose of God in this way. In God's purpose, and here's where when you begin to think about God, it expands your heart and your mind to the point that you feel like this is going to explode. I can't really grasp this. You start seeing smoke come out the ears. That kind of thing. There's some burning up of circuits in there. God's purpose and plan. We often think of as only meaning the ends. In other words, what is headed toward. But God's purpose and plan not only includes the end result. It also includes all the means to getting there. So God's purpose not only means this is where we're going to end up. God's purpose and his amazing sovereignty includes all of the means that he uses to get us there, part of which is our choices. And all of that is included in his overall purpose and plan. Now, how those two work together, how God can be in control and sovereignly accomplishing his plan. But I have choice in that and human responsibility. That's one of those things that you can't fully grasp and put together. It's one of those things again that does not make logical sense. How can God be in control of everything that's happening, but I have freedom, I have choice. Again, the Bible teaches both. And so I believe in both. And I simply have to rest in the fact that in God's bigness and greatness, his purpose not only includes the ends, but also the means. And that includes my choice. Somehow he includes that in his purpose. That's about the best. I think we can do to put those two together. In our minds, logically, they sound contradictory. You know, it's got to be one or the other, but in God's mind, it can include both. And I'll let him figure out how all that works. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The one that begins a good work in us, he will perform it till the day of Christ. So yeah, he is doing that. And even when you get to chapter two in Philippians, it says for he works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. Philippians 2.13. So God works in us to will. That's our will, our ability to choose God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. So that verse kind of combines the two where God is working in us as we will and choose to do something. It's still God working in us to will and to choose to do how it all fits together and works. I can't adequately describe, but I know it does. Chris. Yeah, it's all for our good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know, the big living, you tell us, I don't know, yeah. Yeah. And that kind of thing. The whole spirit. Yes. That's an interesting thought, a great thought. The fact that God's purpose, according to Romans 8, is always for our good. And so that that also gives us the confidence and the hope that we can trust him. You know, sometimes when we when we start talking about these kind of things, people get kind of scared like I don't want to lose control. I don't want God to have control of everything. And me lose my freedom to choose everything. I don't want. Well, wait a second. God's purpose and plan is always for our good. And so we don't need to fear that. The very thought that we as mortal humans could do a better job than God could. I don't want to give up my sovereignty to him is ludicrous. That's a great contrast between what demons would do and what God's spirit would do for people. Being able to tell the difference because of what's good or what's bad for people. Yeah. Okay. All right. We've probably run about as much out of that as we can get. So let's move on to the fact that God is free. What does freedom mean? God is free. What it means basically is this that God's actions are determined solely by his own nature and pleasure. Not by anything outside himself. In other words, God is not bound by anything, not obligated to anything or anyone outside himself. His actions are completely free. His actions and what he purposes are only by his own nature and his own pleasure, his own desire. In other words, God is independent of his creation. He's not bound by the laws of nature. Okay. And he's independent of his creatures in the sense that he's not bound or obligated by his creatures. What he does, he chooses to do. And that's what freedom means. Now the old question arises here. Can God do anything then? If God is free, can God do anything? Can he? Pardon me? He can't lie. Okay. All right. Can God do anything? Yes. Okay. It's a little bit of a trick question. Sorry. Can God do anything? Certainly he has the power to do anything. But as Nancy said, God cannot lie. The Bible clearly states that. So that's why those who deal with these kind of scriptures are going to look at in just a moment. Understand that what's being talked about here is the fact that God's actions, he is free to act. His actions are determined solely by his own choice and pleasure and his nature. God cannot lie. God cannot be unfaithful. So in that sense, there are things he cannot do. And when we get to the omnipotence of God, we're talking about his attributes. We'll talk about some of that more. I don't want to go too far into that. But God cannot do anything morally contrary to his nature. But certainly God has all power. He is free in that sense that his actions are only determined by his own nature and his own pleasure. He's not obligated to anything or anyone. Animals are not free in that sense. And that's why this is a characteristic of personality, of a person and not of just a force of nature or an idea or even an animal. As we were talking about this a little bit ago, man is not even totally free. We do have freedom. We have choice. We have a will to choose. But that will is not completely free because of our sin nature. Our sin nature causes our will to always gravitate that direction. It is only intercepted by the grace of God and his mercy and redemption, which gives us the Bible says a new nature. Regeneration is the fact that God gives us a new nature, which is a new set of desires, a new set of inclinations and ability to go a different direction. That's all because of God's grace. Typically our will will always be in bondage to sin except for God's grace and salvation. So is man free? Yeah, kind of, but not like God is free. Not like God is free. Okay, I do want to look at a few verses that describe the freedom of God. The fact that his actions are determined by his own pleasure and his own nature. Look at Job 23, 13, first statement made by Job. Job had a lot of great things to say about God and this was one of them. But he stands alone and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. And Job was exactly right about that. He stands alone. Literally, he is unique. The Hebrew basically is literally he is one. And the NIV translated he is he stands alone. But literally he is one. He is unique. There's nobody like him. In the sense that you cannot oppose him. He does whatever he pleases. If God chooses to do something, it's going to get done. Now again, when we get into God's omnipotence, I don't want to get too far into the questions that naturally arise because we're going to deal with this a little bit more later. When we get into God's omnipotence, we're going to see some passages of scripture that describe where Christ could not perform miracles in a certain place because of people's unbelief and that kind of thing. So we'll deal with that when we get there. Just hang on to those thoughts for a little bit. But God is free in the sense that he does whatever he chooses to do. Okay, look at the next passage. Isaiah, chapter 40. Isaiah 40, verses 13 and 14. Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Who did the Lord consult to enlighten him? And who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Now this has to do more with the mind of God and the knowledge of God. But it also includes the fact that God is not limited by anyone or anything. Nobody can teach him anything. Nope. He does not need anyone to instruct him or counsel him. He is totally free in the sense that he knows exactly what he's doing. Okay, look at the next one. Daniel four, Daniel chapter four, in verse 35. King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was really something. He's marveling over his great Babylonian kingdom and God decides to bring him down and humbling. And remember God calls him to go out into the fields like oxen and eat grass like oxen for seven years until he was humbled in his heart. And then God brought him back out of that. And when he came out of that, he makes this declaration. Verse 34, at the end of this time, I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the most high. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. Now look at verse 35. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? Now it can look like from our limited perspective that man does oppose God successfully and can do whatever he wants to do from our limited perspective. But it's like a dog being on a long chain. Okay. Ultimately God's purpose is going to prevail. Ultimately God is going to accomplish exactly what he has in mind to accomplish and nobody can hold back his hand or rebuke him. Say, what have you done? Stop that, God. Nobody can do that. Okay. Now we could Nebuchadnezzar found that out the hard way. A couple of New Testament passages and then we'll draw a little bit of application. 1 Corinthians 12-18. This has to do with God placing us in the body, in the body of Christ according to gifts. 1 Corinthians 12-18. But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. Do I get to choose my spiritual gifts? Do you get to choose your spiritual gifts? No. That is part of the purpose and plan of God. He chooses what our gifts will be. He chooses how we should function best in his body. And so he places us where he chooses, where he wants us, what he wants us to do. One other passage and then we'll stop for any questions you may have. Ephesians 1-11. Ephesians 1-11. In him we also were chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Now those are strong words, their deep words, their powerful words, God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. What he chooses to do, he will do. So God is entirely free in that sense. What does that mean to you? How does that apply to your life and mind? Accept it. Yes, accept it and rejoice in it. I am so thankful that there's nothing above God that can bind him. You know, I serve a God who is accomplishing his purpose and his plan and there's no power over him whether in nature or another being that can stop him or thwart his plan. I am so thankful that God is not limited but that he's entirely free. There are no limitations on him. Other than those from his own nature and again that is only for our good. That is only for our good. If he's free he can do whatever he chooses. He can answer prayer. He can work in our lives. He can perform miracles. He can do whatever he chooses. This view of God that the Scriptures are teaching us here, do away with some of the false ideas of God that we saw in the very beginning of this study. Pantheism that God is in all things or dualism that there's this eternal battle between good and evil and they're kind of going back and forth. You know, so that there's this equal power of evil? No, there is no such equal power of evil. There's nothing above God or equal to him that can stop him or thwart him in any way. But there's something else very humbling about this and that is that God is not obligated in any way to us except what he chooses to do. We do not hold the strings and we're not running the universe. He has chosen to initiate an obligation to us and that is he said he will save us forever and he's obligated to take us to heaven. But that's not an obligation that I place on God. It's an obligation he has chosen to graciously grant us. So he's not obligated us. He doesn't need us in the sense of he's incomplete without us. He's entirely free. We are not over him. He's over us. Again, too often our thoughts have got too small and our God thus is too small. Too limited, not powerful enough. Steve? Yeah. And it should. It should blow all of our minds. You know, the fact that God has chosen to be the only God in the world. And it should blow all of our minds. You know, the fact that God has chosen to be the only God in the world. And it should. It should blow all of our minds. You know, the fact that God has chosen to do what he's doing with us. He's not obligated to. There's nothing in us that obligates him in any way. He has of his own will and pleasure. Again, he works out all things according to his own will of his own pleasure of his own desire of his own love. He has done what he's doing for us and will continue to do it. And he has obligated himself to it. Nobody else obligated him to it. We don't obligate him to it. He's obligated himself to save us. And once he saves us, he's obligated himself to take us to heaven. It's an amazing, amazing truth that should humble us, really. Okay, we're not going to get to the fact that God is self-conscious, but that's one of the greatest distinctions between animals and persons. So it is one of the characteristics of personality that we'll take a look at a little ways down the road next time we do this study. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful to You for who You are. And the more we bump up against who You are in Your Word, seeking to discover what Your Word teaches, the more odd We are, the more amazed We are. We thank You that we can know You, but we can never know everything about You. We can know You in a personal way, but we can always discover more about You. We thank You, Father, for that which You have obligated yourself to do by Your promises on our behalf. And we know it is totally of Your grace, because of Your love, and we thank You for it. In Jesus' name, amen.