God's Personality (4)

Okay, we have been looking at the doctrine of God or what the Bible teaches about God and I've missed the last two Wednesday evenings and so actually we were driving back into town as you were having church last Wednesday evening So I want to kind of catch you up on what we've been looking at and where we are tonight We have been looking at the fact after introducing the this topic and kind of giving you a road map as to where we go in this study We looked at some false views of God and then we Just dove into the section of this study which has to do with God's personality now I want to remind you that when we talk about God's personality We're not talking about whether or not he has a pleasing personality or he's Introverted or extroverted or that kind of thing. That's that's the way we normally think of personality And that's not at all what we're talking about We're talking about the fact that God is a real person You see many of the false views of God see God just as a force or an influence or even an idea Many new age ideas most far Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism see God as a force or an idea or some kind of power But the Bible portrays God as a real person He is a real person just like us that you can relate to and So what we are doing in this section is we're taking seven key characteristics of Personhood what defines a person what sets a person aside apart From an idea or a force or even an animal what makes a person a person what distinguishes a person from those other things and We're looking at the Bible to see that all of those characteristics of Personhood are described of God in the Bible So kind of coming through the back door We're seeing that God really is a person. He is not just an idea He is not just a power or force or an influence. He is a real person Now we looked at several already we've looked at four Characteristics of personhood or personality first of all the fact that God is living He is active he can actually do things and then we saw that God is Intelligent one of the characteristics of personhood is intelligence and we saw that there are three Parts to that knowledge understanding and wisdom now Animals have a certain amount of intelligence in the sense that they have some knowledge But understanding and wisdom is more characteristic of a person and so God we saw in the scriptures Certainly fits that as well then we saw that God is Purpose of in other words he acts and Plans with a future goal in mind He acts and does everything with purpose and that is not true of an idea and influence even an animal Necessarily animals operate more by instinct and what God has built into them that way and then the last one we looked at is that God is free In essence what we're talking about there is his actions are determined solely by his own nature and pleasure what he wants to do and What he does by nature he is able to do so those are the ones we've looked at that That brings us up to the fifth one we're going to look at tonight and that is that God is Self-conscious God is self-conscious now. What do you think we mean by that? What is meant by self-conscious? I Thought this one might be a little tricky. Well Okay care about what others think about us Okay, it it does include that it's it's it's a certain kind of awareness of Our selves and our surroundings that would include that Yes, okay What else would you think of there? Let me define it this way and it includes the characteristic that Walthus mentioned Self-consciousness basically means to be conscious of who you are To have an awareness of who you are You can see this developing even in a baby at a certain stage a baby becomes aware of the fact that that object out there in front of them Belongs to them. It's their hand and they're actually moving it and you can see them start to smile with that sense of recognition or a little bit later maybe that baby begins to recognize that what they're seeing in the mirror is them You know one of the one of the fun games I used to play with our girls when they were real little Was I would pick them up and carry them around and kind of Run that was back in the day when I could run I would kind of run between rooms and wherever we had a mirror I'd get them up and show them themselves in the mirror Who is that and and they would just break out laughing and and you know that's that's self-consciousness That's self-awareness now an animal does not necessarily have that I will never forget being at Roger Cox's Car lot one day. It was having something done on my car and he said come out here John I want to show you something and some of you some of the others of you may have seen this He had a bird that would perch on the mirror of his truck And that bird would look down at the mirror and see his reflection and think it was another bird He just Trying to get that bird away and it was him all up dumb bird You know the bird has no self-consciousness has no idea that what's in the mirror is really me It's a threat to him Well, that's the difference in an animal and a person It's the difference in a person and an object or an influence or some kind of power Does God have self-consciousness of course he does He is perfectly aware of who he is Of what he knows Of what he wills what he chooses to do And what he's doing and why he is perfectly aware of everything about himself And that's what we're going to look at In the scriptures and there are four of them that we're going to look at tonight the scriptures that teach The self-consciousness of God the scriptures which support this what you'd look first of all at Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14 And let's let's open our bibles and turn to this passage Exodus 3 14 we're going to look at this passage again when we talk about the self-existence of God Self-consciousness and self-existence are very similar But this is the passage where God is challenging Moses telling him I've chosen you to go deliver my people from Egypt And Moses is starting to give his excuses Uh, he starts by saying Lord who will I tell sent me I mean they're going to ask for some credentials Who do I say sent me and this is God's response in verse 14 God said to Moses I am Who I am this is what you are to say to the Israelites I am Has sent me to you now that very name I am Indicates a level of self-consciousness I am God knows Who he is he is fully aware of his own personhood of who he is I am he knows who he is Look at John chapter 6 and verse 6 if you have any question about any of these verses as we go along or anything You'd like to add just shoot your hand up otherwise we'll move on through them John chapter 6 and verse 6 this is the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and you remember in this story That Jesus challenges his disciples About feeding the people who've gathered Um in verse 5 when Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him He said to Philip where shall we buy bread for these people to eat Now notice verse 6 he asked this only to test him to test Philip For he already had in mind what he was going to do That's self-consciousness he was fully aware of his own thought process He knew exactly what he was going to do you say well, that's Jesus. We are Jesus is fully God though right? So whatever is true of Jesus is also true of the Father true of the Spirit So yes, God is self-conscious. He is fully aware of who he is Of what he thinks Jesus was fully aware even planning knowing ahead of time exactly what he was going to do First Corinthians chapter 2 is the next passage first Corinthians 2 verses 10 and 11. This is a very interesting reference First Corinthians 2 verses 10 and 11 These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit um Paul in this passage is speaking of divine revelation of what God reveals to us actually it's recorded in his word because he goes on to talk about That later in the passage These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit now notice the next statement in verse 10 the spirit searches all things even the deep things of God For who knows a person's thoughts Accept their own spirit. That's a very good statement of self-consciousness We know our own thoughts and we are aware that they are our thoughts, but then notice what Paul said Paul says next In the same way No one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God So what he's talking about here is that among the Trinity God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit There is a perfect oneness in self-consciousness they know each other's minds and thoughts There's perfect unity in the Godhead In the three persons and we'll get to that later when we talk about the Trinity But there's a perfect unity in in the fact that the Holy Spirit knows every thought that God the Father thinks And God the Son is the same way So that the self-awareness extends beyond just knowing The Father knowing his own heart, mind, thoughts, plan, purposes the Son also knows them the spirit also knows them And so it's an amazing oneness and equality among the Trinity which is spoken of here So that kind of expands the whole idea of self-consciousness to the Trinity knowing each other in that same way And then one other passage first John one five First John chapter one And verse five John says this is the message we have heard from him and declared to you God is light In him there is no darkness at all now obviously that is speaking primarily of moral light and moral darkness Because he goes on in the context to talk about in us There's some darkness there's sin if we say we're without sin We lie do not the truth we call God a liar so in the context he's talking about the fact that in God There's no darkness no sin no moral darkness But the same thing is true of God in the sense of mental darkness there is no Area of which God is not fully aware of everything He is does thinks says there's no No Blind spots no blank spots no darkness at all in God even mentally And so God is fully perfectly Self-conscious aware of who he is what he is thinking what he's planning to do and so forth Okay, any questions about those scriptures and the fact that they do show God is a self-conscious being Demonstrating one of the the effects of one of the elements of personality Okay, if that is true of God and it is Then what does that mean to you? What about the application of this truth? What does that mean to you God is self-conscious. What does that what does that do for me? What does that do for you? Makes God very special doesn't it? Yes Yes, it does Anything else Yes Being created in God's image we have some of the same traits and that's an important thought I want to come back to what Audra said in just a moment but an important thought that Walt has as mentioned There's a sense in which it looks like we're going at this backwards. We're taking the traits of Personality that we observe in humans and looking back to see whether or not they're true of God And it's almost as though we're making God in our image But we're just doing that for sake of argument actually the reverse is true right God is not like us We are like him right we are created in his image But for sake of argument we understand just from observing ourselves and others We understand what the marks of personality are and the marks of self-consciousness are and so We can go back and say yes, that's true of God too We can argue from the One created back to the creator, but that's a good point Walt seeing seeing God's nature like this It's good to remember that we are made in the same image we are made in his image and we reflect those characteristics because He made us I want to get back to what what Audrey said I think that's really the essence of what At least for me self-consciousness means It make it should make us aware of the fact that we're dealing with not a mere force Not an idea or an influence. We're dealing with a real person a personal God Who knows everything about himself and thus knows everything about us right and we can relate to him Because of that So it is a very special truth. Okay any any comment or question about the fact that God is self-conscious Okay, the next sixth element of personality or description of personality is God is emotional Now it's easy to think of emotional in a negative context You know somebody gets Emotional and we say come on don't get so emotional It's easy for us to think of the extremes And and think that emotion does is a bad thing, but it's not and so we're not talking about Extremes or emotion out of control when we talk about God when we talk about God We're talking about the fact and here's here's what emotional means It means that God has genuine feelings God has genuine feelings Just like we do But they are not mixed with human imperfections and weaknesses Our emotions are tainted by our sin nature and so We get angry God gets angry doesn't he Got we'll see in a moment God gets angry But because of our sin nature our anger has a tendency to take wrong turns and And go in wrong directions and become bitterness or resentment or rage and fly off at somebody and hurt and harm somebody that's what our anger tends to do God's emotions whether it be anger or joy or whatever it may be love or whatever Never takes a turn toward evil. It is always perfect And so when we talk about God being emotional we're simply talking about fact God does have feelings He is not an idea and influence a force and object He has real feelings And we're going to look at a number of those several of those in the scriptures His his emotions are always pure always righteous and they're always balanced Always balanced perfectly none of his emotions are out of balance Okay, any any question or comment about the concept itself before we look at Which scriptures support this Okay, we're going to begin in judges the book of judges chapter 10 Judges 10 and we're going to primarily look at verse 16, but I do want to read the verses leading up to that which really Highlight the importance of what's happening in verse 16 You Book of judges we're talking about another one of those times Where this cycle that is repeated over and over again in judges takes place cycle where israel begins to worship other gods and God sends a nation a surrounding nation or group of people to Invade his people and uses them to punish his people And the people have enough of that and they cry out the god and god sends a deliverer a judge To deliver them and that cycle is repeated over and over again in the book of judges This is one of those cycles and god is going to raise up this time jeffa As the judge who will deliver his people, but let's begin back in verse six of judges chapter 10 Excuse me verse. Let's let's do verse 10 The The Israelites had had done evil in verse 10 the Israelites cried out to the Lord we have sinned against you for shaking our god and serving the bale's That's not a southern way of saying bells Bale was a false god, you know Okay, verse 11 the Lord replied When the Egyptians the Amorites the Ammonites and the Philistines the Sardonians the Amalekites and the Mayonites oppressed you and you cried to me for help did I not save you from their hands But you have forsaken me and served other gods So I will no longer save you Go and cry out to the gods You have chosen Let them save you when you're in trouble But the Israelites said to the Lord we have sinned do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and serve the Lord and here's the point the end of verse 16 And he could bear Israel's misery no longer Now what emotion is that Compassion yes What What else what what else might be involved in that emotion he could bear Israel's misery no more Heartbroken yeah grief fact I think Does anybody have a King James? Does it say grieved His soul was grieved okay, yeah How does god have a soul God is a soul god is a spirit The word soul and here we're getting into really the doctrine of man But we'll take a little detour here the word soul basically has to do with self awareness or self-consciousness Spirit has to do with consciousness and relationship to god our soul has to do with our self-consciousness The fact that we are aware of this is my body that I'm inhabiting this body. There's something inside my body That's my soul and that's when it speaks of god as a soul it's just speaking simply of his self-awareness Not the fact that he has something inside a body Good question So God was literally grieved he could bear Israel's misery no more so god has the emotion of grief or Compassion let's look at the second passage One of my favorites one of my favorite Psalms Psalm 103 Psalm 103 we're gonna look at verse 13 And what god does here is he uses Actually the emotion of a parent to compare to his own emotion Psalm 103 verse 13 as a father has compassion on his children So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him and he talks he goes on to talk about he knows how we are formed he remembers that we are dust and so He feels for us He knows that it's difficult for us He knows we're weak And so he feels with us. He has compassion Even as a father has compassion on his children and it's talking about the kind of compassion that recognizes a child is small and weak and cannot do Everything for themselves and your heart goes out to them and as a parent you you want to help them Well, that's the kind of compassion god has for us He sees us in the same light. We are his children. We are weak. We are incapable We cannot do life on our own and he he hurts for us and he has compassion And he wants to reach down and help us and so God's compassion obviously is the emotion that is indicated here Psalm 145 and verse 8 is our next passage 145 8 145 8 the Lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love what emotions does God have here compassion anger love patience Yeah, he is slow to anger he does have anger He is slow to anger He doesn't have a quick boiling point in other words God doesn't flare up Rashedly he's slow to anger he God God will be angered But he he is not Quickly angered irritated if you might say it that way So he is he's merciful. He's compassionate. He's rich in love That's a great verse to describe God as an emotional being Let's look at a couple of verses in Isaiah first of all Isaiah 62 verse 5 Isaiah 62 5 This is a passage where Israel will be restored In the millennium in God's kingdom Israel will be restored to her favored position And notice how that's described. Let's lead up to verse 5 beginning in verse 1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent for Jerusalem's sake. I will not remain quiet till her vindication shines out like the dawn Her salvation like a blazing torch the nations will see your vindication and all kings your glory You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand a royal diadem in the hand of your God no longer will they call you Deserted or your name or name your land desolate But you will be called hepsiva which means my delight is in her Your land Bula which means married That's what Israel will be called in the millennium Bula land technically is not heaven although I love the song Technically, it's the land of Israel and the millennium is what it is For the Lord will take delight in you and your land will be married now look at verse 5 as a young man Marries a young woman so will your builder marry you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride So will your God rejoice over you what emotion is very obvious of God here Maybe it wouldn't that obvious Joy yeah joy God rejoices like a bridegroom over his bride that Exhilaration and when you read the whole description of what God's going to do for his people You can kind of see it building up to that God is so excited about how he's going to restore his people in the millennium and their land And their reputation among the nations You know israel is the most hated nation on earth And has been For hundreds of years In the millennium israel will be the favored nation on earth She will be vindicated as this passage talks about and God's excited about that He can't wait for that and it's like he's going to get married and he's so excited and rejoicing in his bride God rejoices over you God has emotion And he rejoices over what's going to happen with his people israel next chapter chapter 63 verse 9 Now this passage is talking about israel's Suffering in Egypt and in the wilderness and it describes God's reaction to that verse 9 says in all their distress He too was distressed And the angel of his presence saved them in his love and mercy he redeemed them He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old I think of verse 10 yet they grieved yet they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit So he turned him became their enemy and he fought himself fought against them. What's the emotion though in verse 9 I think Sadness yes sadness empathy yeah empathy really felt with them In their distress he too was distressed So that sadness was empathetic he felt what they were feeling God Suffers when his people suffer now that is an incredible thought But God's heart is touched As he brews says he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities That's a really emotional response And that is a wonderful thing to know by the way well That's a beautiful example of it In John 11 where Jesus wept at the graveside of Lazarus And remember it describes why he wept When when he saw Mary and Martha come out and they were distressed and weeping And the Jews that came with them it says he was troubled in spirit And it says Jesus wept Okay, the amazing thing about that is that Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do in just a few minutes He was going to restore Lazarus to life But it did not cause him To not feel what they were feeling he still felt what they were feeling It's a beautiful example of this kind of Emotion this empathy that what when God's people are hurting God weeps with us He feels with us when when his people were distressed it distressed him Now not in the sense that God feels hopeless Not in the sense that God feels like oh what am I going to do now and rings his hands in anguish Not not in that way, but he does feel with us What we're feeling it's an amazing thought One other that I would like to point out and then we'll talk about how this applies to us It's in Romans chapter one Romans 118 This is when we haven't talked a lot about but is very true And is one of those balancing emotions that we need to be aware of in God Romans 1 verse 18 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness And you go on read the rest of this passage in Romans 1 and it reads like the headlines of our culture It really does the kind of sin and degradation and persistence and arrogance in that sin And three times in this passage it will say God gave them over to their own Simple ways In other words, he said I'm taking my hand off of it. That's the way you choose to live There comes a point where God says I'm taking my hands off and a culture once God takes his hands off a culture rushes had long Into degradation and self-destruction and I believe that's where we're headed I think we're very close if not already in Romans 1 Because the three times it said this the issue being talked about is homosexuality And when a society chooses that that is the way that they're going to live God says my hands are off You've chosen that way go ahead You're going to reap the consequences of that And I think that's where we are as a culture we're very close to it if we're not already a long ways down that slippery slope Rath of God Now God's wrath Here's a here's a good distinction to remember the word for wrath Greek word is thumas Which basically means a slow building kind of like you heat up a furnace a Slow building but very certain building up of anger and one day it will be unleashed It's not a quick flashpoint kind of You know knee jerk response kind of anger. It's not that at all It is like water building up behind the dam And finally it gets Too full And what causes the water to build up behind the dam is man sin And at some point The dam breaks and God unleashes his wrath And we know that he will literally do that in the tribulation time Which is a time of God's wrath where he pours out remember the 21 judgments the The seal judgments and trumpet judgments and bowl judgments a series of literally pouring out on this earth his wrath And that will be the time when the dam breaks But there are instances of it and evidences of it even in periodic times throughout human history And I think we are Close if not already in one of those times now God's wrath that's an emotion of God that we dare not toy with John Yeah I I think that may be that really describes what happens in Romans 1 When when a culture a nation a society gets to a certain point where One falls and then another and then another and it just has that domino effect And God says I'll take my hands off you've chosen your course I'm you're going to reap the consequences of the course you've chosen And I really that's what Romans 1 describes and I really think it describes our culture Okay, we've looked at a number of different emotions that God has Uh quite a few actually the range of human emotions without sin obviously But the rain the full range of human emotions from extreme joy to extreme wrath And everything in between are representative God. What does that mean to you? What's the application of this truth for your life that that God is a God of emotion? I How he cares for us Very verse that was in my mind when you said that was first Peter 5.7 casting all your care upon him why For he careeth for you he cares for you So What a great comfort it is to know that when we bring our cares and concerns to God is not like uh You showed up again. Can't you get over this? No, it's not God's response at all God cares for you He hurts for you. We saw in one of these passages when his people were distressed he was distressed he felt it Mary and Martha weeping he weeps and so it's a great comfort to know that God does care about us What else do you see in in the emotion of God that's That is application to you Hmm. Yes Yes Yes Yeah, it's a great point Ben and that is that that In case you weren't able to hear maybe in the back We're gonna saying it's a great example for us as to how we ought to seek to control our emotions Because God has the full range of emotions, but they're all wholly pure and perfectly balanced They're not tainted or shift to extremes because of sin You know the Bible even talks about the fact that God is jealous and normally we think of that as a terrible emotion But jealousy can be a good emotion Jealousy is the desire to protect what needs to be protected and needs to be preserved For instance in love, you know song as Solomon says love is jealous And there's a good a good sense of that But so God is jealous for his people James 4.4 says that the Holy Spirit is jealous for us And he's jealous for us in the sense that he doesn't want us to gravitate toward the world But God's jealousy is perfect. That's a great point that Ben has made That all of the emotions the emotions are not wrong in themselves anger is not wrong in itself Jealousy is not wrong in itself if it's pure right kind of jealousy but God demonstrates the way those emotions are exhibited perfectly And thus he becomes our example and our model as to how we ought to express our emotions Yeah Exactly It's where we allow those emotions to take us Ben says and isn't that true? I mean Ephesians 4 verse 26 be angry And sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath and verse 27 says and do not give the devil a foothold Okay, so be angry or it's actually not it it's in the indicative mood which basically means You will be angry come on. It's a given you're going to be angry anger is a normal human emotion, but don't sin Okay, it's where anger takes us like Ben said that's wrong and where anger takes us is What Paul addresses in the next verse don't let the sun go down on your wrath In other words if you let anger um settle into your spirit It does nasty things it becomes bitterness and vengeful and And all kinds of nasty things happen down there um I remember hearing Bill Hywell's one time to scribe about And it's an image in my mind that has never left He was describing emotions that you stuff down inside and just let them build up And he says you think they're just lying down there on lawn chairs taking it easy But he said one of these days they're going to come flying out in ways that you don't want them to and that's what always happens if we let anger turn into resentment or bitterness It's Seathing and boiling down there and turning into something we don't want And it gets nasty so yeah, that's exactly the problem is where our emotions take us Well Well, it is wonderful to know that we we have a god who is our god our father Who is touched by what touches us He is affected by what affects us when you hurt he hurts His heart is moved he cares That's an amazing thought god really does feel He is not some worrying computer making clicking noises up in heaven He is a person who feels with us And he feels very deeply what you're going through he is intimately involved in at a feeling level In a perfect way, but at a feeling level And that's an amazing amazing thought It's one of those things that you know every every one of these descriptions of god Our mind blowing when you really begin to think about them and this one Really is I mean just When you think about how god is really moved by what moves us It's so comforting isn't it so comforting there's so many images of this in the Bible You know in the book of Malachi where it says he puts all of our tears in a book of remembrance in heaven Amazing picture There's another passage struggling to remember where it is right now that he catches them in a bottle stores them up God it those are those are images which communicate to us that god is really concerned about what touches us and hurts us and moves us god is really concerned by that Again, he is not just a worrying clicking computer that just you know respond Coldly to situations. He's very involved in what moves us God is emotional Not in a sinful or extreme sense god is emotional though he feels with us. We're gonna have to stop there You're gonna have to go downstairs and rescue the parents and grandparents tonight probably from a lot of it Uh, we'll get back to this and finish up with god is a spirit next time. Let's pray Father, thank you for the kind of god you are Thank you that you are a real person that we can relate to we can talk to we can Unburden our hearts to we can cry out to we can laugh with and rejoice with Thank you that all of your emotions are perfectly in balance pure and untainted by sin and i pray that we would strive to Be emotional in the sense that you are and not in the sense of where sinful nature takes us Thank you for who you are what that means to us In Jesus name a man you you