Nature Of God – 7

1. God Is Spirit

On the nature of God, and we did not finish completely lesson number eight or lesson number seven as we move into lesson number eight tonight. Remember, I lost my slides last week, so I’ve recovered a few of them. I didn’t get them all, but yes, we’re going to review very quickly because we only got halfway through the lesson anyway. Went a different route with some of these. But we talked about God in his nature being spirit, and we looked at John 4 and verse 24. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And looking at that now, I wish I hadn’t wish it wasn’t capitalized on every word, because the terms spirit are not a reference to the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so that’s not, don’t think Holy Spirit when you see that. Or worship in spirit. That’s has to do with worshiping God with our inner man, with our inner person, with our hearts.

And nobody dictates anything to him. For from him, through him, and to him are all things. Romans 11, verse 36. No one has become his counselor or instructed him. Thus God is incorruptible. Incorruptible morally, incorruptible. That cannot happen to him. He is not perceptible to that. He is without flesh and bones. And yet the scriptures use what we call anthropomorphism, anthropos being man, of course. Manlike characteristics are attributed to God. And we talked about why that is done in Scripture last week. The hands of God, his feet, eyes, ears, arms, back, maybe some other body parts of men that are used to describe God, figuratively ascribed to him, of course, because again he is a spirit being. But going too far would be to actually believe God has those material features for forming God in our image.

Acts 17, 29, remember when Paul is talking to those who believed in different gods, and he spoke to them about the unknown God. And he says in verse 29, being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. And so God is spirit, and what that tells us about him is, first of all, that he is invisible. He is eternal, immortal, invisible. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 17. We noted that no man has seen God at any time. No man has seen God at any time. No man can see my face and live, he told his people in the Old Testament. That means God will not grow old, and that in our conception of God, we should not see him as old or antiquated in any way.

He’s just as fresh and youthful as he’s always been, because he’s eternal in nature. He does not age because of time. That’s a concept we understand, and it’s a part of our existence, but not but not God. Not confined to space and time as we are very confined to such. And that points to the previous lesson as you talked about the omnipresence and omniscience of God. Not that God is literally everywhere all the time, but there’s nothing that escapes his awareness or his notice. There’s not any act that takes place in his universe that escapes his knowledge or his eyesight. He is omniscient. He is all knowing. There is no fact that has escaped him.

I mean, you go to class every day and there’s just no end to the information. I mean, there’s just information. You go to school for years, and then you might go to some higher level graduate school, and there’s information. There’s no end to the information. And you could you could go to school your whole life and never come close, not even remotely close, to amassing all the knowledge that is there to amass. And the thing about it is, as you went to amass all that knowledge, is that you’d start forgetting it. As I do. And so what good is it really doing you to amass all this information that you’re going to forget? But God doesn’t forget anything. Everything that is true of our world.

2. The Holiness of God

I mean, he knows everything that is factual, every equation in the realm of math, everything in the realm of science that is truly true. He knows all of those things. He knows everything about the universe and everything that happens in every square inch of the universe. And that incorporates a very large territory. So we need to be impressed with his omnipresence, his omniscience, and all of that pertains to him being spirit in nature, unbound by fleshly limitations. Well, the second part of the study we didn’t get to. And that is the holiness of God, what he chooses to be and to do with his spirit, and pertains really, as a good introduction to what we will talk about in lesson eight. So I want you to go to Isaiah 6.

This is the picture that Isaiah sees of the throne of God. I suggested to you last week that this scene and the scene of Revelation chapter 4 help us to draw, and even Revelation 7. Help us to draw a mental image of God’s throne as we worship him. These thoughts come to my mind. But again, these are physically representing what is spiritual and invisible. And we always need to keep that in mind as we talked about the conception of God that we have, and we debated the point in lesson eight. We disagreed with it, I did anyway, that it says on page 63, since we do not know what pure spirit looks like, we cannot have a mental image of God. It is unnecessary for us to form a mental picture of God.

If it had been necessary, God would have made it possible for us to do so. I just disagree with that quote entirely. I believe we worship God. We have to conceptualize him in our minds in some way. And people like Isaiah were given material glimpses of the majesty and glory of God, as John was in the book of Revelation. And I think they were preserved for us that we would have the same, that we could draw the same images in our minds. But like I said last week, the only real danger is to have those images and conceptions of God and be limited by them. And what I mean by that is that God being spirit in his essence is greater than those images that we have.

And that’s why I like to think in terms of, and no wonder when God had his people worship, what direction did he have them look? Lifting up holy hands, 1 Timothy 2 and verse 8, they looked up into the heavens. And we talk, it talks about the heavens and then heaven above the heavens, but is it really? Is heaven really above the heavens? Is that too hard for a Wednesday night?

Is heaven really above the heavens? Where we’re imagination to. Where we’re imagination. Well, you know, we’ve understood some things about we live on a globe. And when we look in one direction, the Chinese look in the other direction. Right? Because we’re on opposite sides of the globe. And we look out into the universe, in which direction does the universe go from us? Every direction. So is heaven in every direction at the limits of our universe? Are there limits to our universe? You know, we can’t see the end of it. Really, the location of heaven is it’s where God is. But where that is, where how does the spirit world intersect the physical world? But I think one of the reasons why God has us look up is that we look into the vastness of the sky, the night sky in particular, and we are impressed with how grand and large everything is that God made.

Often. And you say, what does that have to do with anything? When I do fly, and I look out the window at the clouds that we’re flying through, and then we’re flying above the clouds, and then we’re looking down, and you can’t see people anymore. And I always feel a lot better when we get low enough when we’re descending and you can see vehicles. And I can make out golf courses and such. I thought that’s really good. But you get a feeling. Every time I fly and look out the window, I cannot help but think of God as He has created this universe that we’re in. So this conception of God that we have, I think is important. And Isaiah 6 is one of these passages.

And the seraphim, and I’m sure what Isaiah saw was extremely impressive. What are seraphim?

Angels with wings. And with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet. Oh, what’s that? What’s that? Anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism, you’re right. His face, his feet, and again, he’s seeing this vision. God is representing himself in this way. But again, the reality transcends what Isaiah is seeing. It’s greater than what Isaiah is seeing because God is spirit and invisible. And what did they call out? Holy, and holy of the war on my.

I have a sermon that I preached years ago about when God repeats himself. And when he says the name of somebody twice, it’s sort of interesting, like Martha. You knew that was coming, did you? That’s, you know, when God repeats himself. You need to pay attention. Something’s being emphasized here. But three times the intensity of this. Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now, what is Isaiah’s personal response to this scene? Well it’s me. Why? Because he realized he’s unclean. Because he is not holy. As he whom he sees is holy. I am undone, he says. I’m a dead man. For my eyes have seen the king. He knows the reference about no man can see me and live.

And so he’s getting a glimpse. Though it is not God in his essence, he is getting a glimpse of glory that is put into a material picture for him. And he is so overwhelmed by that. This is not God in his essence. This is a picture. He is so overwhelmed by what he sees that he thinks he’s done. I’m not holy, God is holy. What does this term holy really mean?

Sanctified or set apart. There are two distinct senses. If you look on page 64. The more general sense is of separation from all that is human and earthy. So you have Isaiah here, human and earthy, who realizes there is a great disparity between him and God who is in heaven. This spirit being of perfection. It thus denotes the absolute majesty and awfulness of the Creator.

But just creating reverence and all. In his distinction from the creature. But extending from that, because of his separateness from what is tainted or less than in the material world, is the idea of his perfection, his goodness, and his purity. Ed? And I was going to say, I mean, the foundations of the temple shook. And Isaiah was there just from the seraphim calling out for the whole world. That wasn’t God speaking to him. That was just somebody with God, with that kind of power. And you kind of get an idea of why the Israelites were so terrified when they went out to the mountain. And they told Moses, you go up there, but don’t let him talk to us anymore. It was terrified because there’s just so much power that’s hard to see.

Yeah, and we already talked about last week how that, again, Moses’ face was shining with the glory of God, and it scared the people after he had been speaking with God, or a representative of God, which would be tantamount to speaking with God, like the angel in the bush of Exodus chapter 3. But his face would shine with this glory. That’s how God manifested himself to Moses. And so he would come back, and it was like a really bad sunburn. I mean, really bad. Because his face was shining with the glory of God, and that so terrified them. They were. And why would they be afraid of God? That’s Ed talked about. They’ve never seen anything like that. It was someone wondering. You know, we picture these things so many times in our minds, it’s sort of hard for us to be perhaps overwhelmed by it.

But if you had seen the ten plagues, you know, you’re you’re you’re pretty much afraid of a God who can do this. And if you had seen the Red Sea deliverance, you would be a little bit concerned about making this God upset, which they had done on more than one occasion, and we’ll do again. And so, and the fact that when he comes to the mountain, it shakes, as Ed pointed out. I mean, that’s that’s impressive. That’s powerful and scary. And so that’s why they responded that way, even to the shining of Moses’ face. I’ve never seen anything like that. I mean, I’ve imagined it in my mind, but I’ve never seen it, Ed. And you think about this concept of their shouting holy.

And where God is with that, and where we are, in his presence. I would think you would have to feel that. I mean, there is no darkness in him at all. He is not found either. It’s hard to get your head around, really. But you’ve got to know there’s a gulli of difference between God and you.

And this presentation that’s made to you. That’s gotta be a certain spirit thing, and Isaiah’s like, whoa, I’m on me.

I am undone. You know, this is going to be something to anticipate, too, when we come into the presence of God. Questions are raised, like, what are we going to be doing for all eternity? It’s not going to matter. Because we will be in the presence of God. And that alone will be enough forever. And that’s how awesome God is. And that’s why on the day of judgment, there’s not going to be any back talk from anyone who is wicked, who the sentence is pronounced, depart from me into everlasting fire. There’s not going to be, oh, but wait a minute, I object. There’s not going to be any objective. It’s going to be God. You know, it’s not going to be like a human judge or a human court.

This is your creator. And there will be no objection. Because he is God. So that’s we’re to be impressed with this picture. He is completely separate. Pure, good, and right. And therefore, God’s name is holy. And that’s referenced several times in our lesson. And rightfully so. What point do we make about that? Well, I’m trying to find the lesson again. I might book flipped away.

3. God's Name Is Holy

Okay, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. Now, what do we learn about that Sunday? Whose name is holy? What is name represent? What do you mean? All the God is. All that God is. His name is everything about God. Every attribute. How is it summed up? Holy. God is holy. His omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, his spirit essence, his moral goodness, everything about God. Holy.

It’s his everything that he is. I am the Lord, your holy one. And so that relates to the fact that we should not take God’s name in vain. Which is one of the Ten Commandments. Because God needs to be regarded as high and holy because he is good. We should cringe. You know, I don’t like profanity of any kind, and it always disturbs me. I never get used to it. But when I hear people take God’s name in vain, there is even a greater twinge in me that happens. Because people don’t realize how they have just trivialized the name of their creator. This awesome and holy God. And so everything that is related to him needs to be regarded with special care. And then when you go back into the Old Testament, why was God so concerned about the touching of a material object?

Because of what that represented. It had to be treated special, and I speak of the Ark of the Covenant. It had to be treated special because it was associated with Him. It had to do with His covenant with Israel, his presence among them. And so the way they transported it, the rings and the poles that went through the rings so that they did not touch the object, all of that was teaching them about the holiness of God. And that’s why it had to be kept sacred. And that’s why when Uzzah is struck down, we thought, well, that’s that’s pretty severe. Well, it’s no more severe than Ananias and Sapphire in the New Testament. But oh, but that’s pretty severe. I mean, he struck him dead in the 2 Samuel 6 account, not in the 1 Chronicles account, but in the 2 Samuel 6 account, it says that when Uzzah did this, it was because of something.

Anybody know what it says? Samuel 6, 2 Samuel 6. Because of his irreverence, it says.

Better to let it fall than to touch what is not to be touched.

Well, yeah, it was part of the problem there.

But that goes to show, again, how he regarded the temple. And when the high priest went in on the day of atonement to the most holy place, you know what was the concern?

Well, there was preparations that had to be done. I mean, and it was only done once a year. But does anybody know what they did? Why’d they do that? Because in case he was struck dead, they didn’t want to have to go in there after him. So they tied a rope to him so that they could drag him out. Well, how could they drag him out? Wasn’t there a door? The veil of the temple, which was a very thick veil. Which while we’re having this discussion, what strikes me or impresses me is that this temple, you know, now, that the separation that God had, these holy things and the temple worship, the ark, the priests going into the holy place. We have access to those things now in the church.

Or through Christ’s blood. And how irreverent are we towards those things on a daily basis? That’s a good point. And that is the very thing, maybe the tabernacle of God now dwells among men. Yeah, our access.

4. The Temple of God Is Holy

Well, and that really gets to the second part of this that the other side of the screen is going to show in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, when it talks about us being the temple of God, it speaks of our holiness. It says, For the temple of God is holy, and this is what you are. We have to regard our separateness from sin. As he would say in 2 Corinthians 6. Do not, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Come out from their midst and be separate. Do not touch what is unclean. And so we’re going to get to that in a minute. But Jesus is holy, and I love this passage that is quoted from the Psalms. And I was just looking at it.

He will not allow his holy one to suffer decay at the bottom of page 65. Because you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. In anticipation, quoted in Acts chapter 2, in anticipation of Jesus’ death and his being raised from the dead, not just in his spirit, but his body. Remember when they went into the tomb? He was completely gone. Not just, I mean, the body was gone. Because he had lived completely holy in his life. He would not allow his holy one to undergo decay. And so that’s where we come in, as Sean was pointing out, that we are called saints in the New Testament. That term is used, I think roughly 40 times in the New Testament to describe Christians.

It is not used to describe only those who had died who were Christians. As Catholicism has their saints, and those who have already passed are given, I guess, sainthood. But saints in the New Testament were living believers. I believe one that comes to mind is Romans 16, 22. And I hadn’t thought about that before class, so let’s hope I’m right about that. No, that’s not it. The saints are in Caesar’s household. Extra credit if you find that. Anyway, they were living, they were not dead. They were saints living in Caesar’s household. Sanctified, made holy. That’s the idea of being saints. And sanctify speaks of what God has done, and that has happened by the blood of Christ. I mean, you think about our sin being cleansed by the blood of Christ.

We’re redeemed by the precious blood of a lamb without spot and without blemish. 1 Peter 1 and verse 19. And what that does is prepares us, cleanses us for association with a holy God. As Sean talked about us being the temple. And thus, because of this union with God and association, that which was unholy has been made holy by the blood of Christ. God did that for us. And I don’t think we can ever appreciate fully the propitiation for our sins. That God satisfied his anger towards sin in the giving of his own son. He did not spare his own son. And we’ll talk about that under the point of love in the next lesson. And so what does that mean for us practically? What should that motivate us or compel us to do?

5. Be Holy as God Is Holy

That God is holy and that we have been made holy. Well, how does God feel about evil? He hates it. Proverbs 6 talks about six things that God hates. What are some of those things?

Very good, Mark.

One two lies and witnesses. Utter lies. False witness who utter lies. Very good. Feet that run rapidly to evil, a heart that devises wicked plans, hands that shed innocent blood. Those things are things that God hates. And if you look in Psalms, Psalm 119. Verse 128, therefore I esteem right all thy precepts concerning everything. I hate every false way.

That’s the business of Christians. Hebrews 12 and verse 14 stands out to me. It says, without holiness, or some versions say sanctification, same thing. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And then immediately an example is given of somebody who did not regard holy things as holy. And who was that? What old Testament example is given immediately following that? Esau. Esau. He did not regard the birthright that was his as a holy thing. And it had spiritual promises attached. Jacob regarded it. Jacob desired it. Esau trivialized it. Didn’t care for it. Would sell it for a bowl of stew. And so we are admonished to pursue holiness. And so when we look at the principles that the New Testament is teaching in regard to morality and goodness, that is our mission because God is holy.

And if God is telling us this is right behavior, then we have to trust that. Because He is holy. He is the standard of what is holy. His new covenant with us. The New Testament is His description of what holiness is for us and how we are to be holy temples to the Lord. And so all of this, I mean, that is just a very brief explanation of what it means that God is holy, and everything that pertains to Him or is associated with Him is holy. And that involves, therefore, us as we live our lives. We have committed ourselves to holy pursuit. And that’s what the New Testament is telling us. As it gives us all the specific details of that we need to be people of prayer and service and kindness and those who pursue love.

That’s about being holy as God is holy. And I give you one passage here in the New Testament, 1 Peter 1. It’s actually a quotation of the Old Testament. 1 Peter 1. It first identifies us as obedient children, not to be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance. You know, that’s when you didn’t know any better. You didn’t perceive the end of such behavior or the implications of such behavior. The former lusts, which are the antithesis of the holiness of God. They are not consistent with the holiness of God. The former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, he says, do not be conformed to those, but like the holy one who called you. Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I’m holy.

6. God Is Light

We have all these Bible classes so that we can further acquaint ourselves with what it means to be holy as God is holy. Alright, now we’re going to move on to lesson number nine. And the aspect, and this relates to holiness, and that’s why I’m doing light first, even though the lesson does love first. God is love, light, and truth. And I want to start with light for a couple of reasons. If you go over to page 75, I like this quotation in the middle of the paragraph. The word light sums up the divine character on the intellectual side. As God is love, similarly describes the fullness of his moral nature. Okay, so we talk about light and the light of God. God is light. There’s the passage in Exodus 34 where Moses’ face was shining with the glory of God.

So you think of light. What does light do for us?

It makes the darkness go away. Really, the benefit of darkness, if you think about it, is it’s easier to sleep. That’s the benefit of darkness in the middle of the night. You know, I like it when it’s dark. We got these really heavy curtains, so we can block out as much light as possible. So you could sleep. Those people that work the night shift know all about this, as they try to make their rooms as dark as possible during the day so that they can sleep. But light, and the problem with darkness in the middle of the night is if you have to get up out of your bed for some reason, and your partner is sleeping, so you don’t want to turn your light on, so then you’re stumbling through the house in the dark.

Thankfully, we can remember the path to here or there, but a little light does what? Sheds clarity of vision, doesn’t it? Somebody had their hand up over here, John. In the rightly screen, why use light. Yeah, and we’re going to get to that in John chapter 1, as that connection is made for it. Yeah, light. Even in creation. God said, let there be light. He needed light for all the aspects of his creation to flourish. And we need the light of the sun. Light is valuable. Light helps us to see clearly. And so does God being light. He dwells in unapproachable light. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 16. And we saw this in 1 John in our study on Sunday mornings, right?

The very beginning. And of course, he’s talking about the moral purity that coincides with this concept. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. And so figuratively, how are light and darkness used throughout the entire Bible? The contrast between goodness and wickedness. The deeds of men that are evil, I guess perhaps more so in times prior to now. Now I don’t know that it matters a whole lot. But in previous generations, a lot of evil was committed in the dark. In the cover of darkness, where you could not be seen. I’m not sure that’s as much the case anymore. But if somebody breaks into your home, still they’re more likely to do it at night, but sometimes today they do it broad daylight.

Such is the brazen nature of things in our world today. But the deeds of darkness, I mean, all of that goes with a concept that they understood that bad things happened in the night in the cover of darkness, and behavior was better during the day when it was light.

See?

Yeah, they think people are away.

Yeah, so FYI. Keep things locked down while you’re gone during the day. Psalm 119, 105. What does that say? Your word lamp unto my feet. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so when you come to Ephesians chapter 5, we are called as we are in 1 John chapter 1, as we’re admonished to walk into light. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. As he’s talking to them about the influence of those who would have them commit immoral or impure acts. He says, Let no one deceive you. And then he says, Don’t be partakers with them. And he says, For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. In case you’re not getting the metaphor, he spells it out in verse 9.

For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. What God has declared is good, where to love what is good, Romans chapter 12 and verse 10, all that is good, all that is right, all that is consistent with truth. So we’re talking about the New Testament, the New Covenant. Those things consist, that’s where the light is. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, and do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. And finally, in Acts 26, when Paul is talking about his vision of the Lord on the road to Damascus and the implications of that vision, he is instructed by the Lord. These are red letters in my Bible. The Lord says to him that he would be sent to the Gentiles to open their eyes, verse 18, Acts 26, 18, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified.

Sanctified by faith in me. And so when Jesus comes, he says, Look, I am the light of the world. In him was life, as John pointed out, John 1. In him was life, and his life was the light of men, because his life was only good. Everything in his life was consistent with what God had taught and commanded. In the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. So God is complete, Jesus is completely good, and so in him was life, and his life was the light of men. Therefore, he is an example that we should follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2 and verse 21. It also says, and this is the last verse for tonight, John 9, and we’ll finish this up next week. We will not go into the next lesson.

John 9 and verse 5. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He says that twice. And next week we’re going to start with the occasion that he said that in John 9. Okay? That’s two weeks from now. Next week, John last from here.