Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 5)

Transcript

JRS 15
07/31/2022
Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (part 5)
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

What compelling lyrics! “No scholar of this world could grasp an inch of infinity”, I think that’s what I heard. I think we’d say Amen to that after going through the series that we’re in, on the study of the doctrine of God, or “Theology Proper”.

Well, as you know, we’re right in the middle of our “Summer in the Systematics” series. And we are studying the topic of “Theology Proper”, which is also known as the “Doctrine of God”. And in this multi-week series, which is going to take us really through the end of this summer, we now find ourselves within, as what I think of as this little two-week miniseries within the broader series of the study of the doctrine of God. And this two-week series is really taking us through the perfections of God, or the attributes of God.

You’ll recall last week that I defined the attributes of God after navigating some more complicated definitions of the attributes of God this way: the attributes of God are those qualities or characteristics which are inherent in and ascribed to God. Let’s say it again, I’ll say it again. The attributes of God are those qualities or characteristics which are inherent in and ascribed to God. Putting it another way, the attributes of God are those things which God fundamentally is inherent in, and those things which we, as mere humans, ascribe to Him. In other words, how we know Him as He has revealed Himself, of course, in His word. This is the definition of the attributes of God that we’ll be using tonight. It’s a definition of the attributes of God we used last week. So, you’ll see me refer to this definition from time to time as we work our way through tonight’s study but also through the study in subsequent weeks.

You recall that last time, we looked at some of the incommunicable attributes of God. Meaning those characteristics of God which He does not share with His creatures. In other words, what He does not share with us. Put another way, these are the attributes of God, the incommunicable attributes of God, which are unique to God. Those attributes of His that we have no true, no full way of understanding or truly relating to, because we aren’t God. For instance, the first attribute we looked at last week, was the aseity of God. The self-existence of God. We can try all we want, by reading in the word to wrap our mind around what that might be like, or what that must entail, but ultimately, we hit a wall because we’re creatures. Sure, we’re Spirit-indwelt creatures that are followers of Christ, but we’re still creatures. We’re finite. We have limitations.

Last week, we looked at seven of the incommunicable attributes of God. And it just so happened that I learned, in studying these attributes, that they can be grouped neatly under the acronym A-E-I-O-U.
So, we went through those last week. A - the aseity of God, meaning God’s self-existence or His independence. His lack of dependence or need for anything or anyone. E - is for eternity, meaning God transcends all limitations of time, and exists eternally and endlessly. Obviously, we unpacked all of these last week more at length. I – “I” stood for immutability. God does not change in His being, His attributes, His purposes, or His promises. “I, the Lord,” Malachi 3:6, “do not change.” O - was for omniscience. That was the first of “O,” which refers to God’s perfect knowledge of all things. There is also His omnipresence which we looked at, which means that God is present everywhere at all times. We saw that this means that God is, in one respect, transcendent over His creation. But in another respect, very much present with His creation. And present with His people in His creation. That was omnipresence. And then the final “O” we looked at was omnipotence meaning God is able to accomplish anything He desires. So long as it is not contrary to His nature. Omnipotence means simply all-powerful. He’s able to accomplish anything He desires. Anything He designs. So long as it is not contrary to His nature. The example we gave and the common example that’s thrown out there is, could God create a rock He cannot move? And the answer is no. Because that would result in Him having a lack of power. It would result in Him not having power over something or some aspect of His creation, so the answer is no. He can’t do something that’s contrary to His nature. And then the U – was for unity meaning God has a singular divine essence and it also means He is uniquely God. It refers to the fact that God is one. And the God of the bible is also uniquely God. He is the only God. He is the only partaker of the divine essence. Well, God, Son, and Spirit -- We’re talking about God in the triune sense right now. Only He is one. He and He alone, is God.

So, those were some of the incommunicable attributes of God that we looked at last Sunday evening. And we could have gone, surely, through many more of these incommunicable attributes. Those that are distinct to God alone. We could have looked at the immensity of God, which relates to His relationship to time and space. We could have looked at the invisibility of God, a God we do not see. We sang about that earlier. We could have looked at the impassibility of God. But we don’t have time. And we won’t have time tonight, to get through more than seven as well, as you can see in your worksheet here. We simply didn’t have time last week in the limited number of minutes we have on a Sunday evening, to devote to this topic. And not to mention, even if we had eternity to work with, not one of us, in our finite and fallen ways of human understanding, would ever be able to truly get to the bottom of any single one of these attributes that we’re going through tonight. Or that we went through last Sunday night.

Our focus in our time together tonight is going to be, not on the incommunicable attributes which we covered last week, but rather, on the communicable attributes. The shared attributes of God. Meaning those attributes of God, which God and God alone possesses perfectly, but which can be found, in some degree, in mankind as God’s creatures. Albeit in some imperfect and finite resemblance.

The communicable attributes of God that we’ll be looking at tonight are these. The holiness of God, the righteousness of God… (These are the blanks by the way, in your worksheet, if you have one of those. We have seven blanks for seven attributes that we’ll cover tonight.) The holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the truthfulness of God, the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, and the love of God.

Don’t worry, we’ll go through those more slowly, more carefully, in a more focused way. These are but seven of the shared or communicable attributes of God. We could go through so many more. We could go through the wisdom of God. We could go through the peace of God. We could go through the jealousy of God. There are infinite attributes, if you could put it that way, that God has and embodies. We’re simply going with the ones that the scriptures reveal to us and picking seven of them at that. With that, let’s jump into our study on the holiness of God.

Attribute number one, communicable attribute number one would be the holiness of God. We were singing songs about the holiness of God just now. What do we mean when we speak of the holiness of God? What do we mean when we say that God is holy? What I’d like to put before you this evening, three aspects of the holiness of God, that we all should be aware of. Number one, God is transcendentally holy. God is, number two, morally holy. And third, God is preeminently holy. He’s transcendentally holy, He’s morally holy, He’s preeminently holy. And we’ll go through each of these in some detail in just a couple of minutes.

Let’s start with the fact that God is transcendentally holy. Now to start our study of this attribute, we need to know the word “holy” in Hebrew comes from the Hebrew word “qadosh”. Qadosh, which at its root means to “cut” or to “separate.” We see this idea of separation, or cutting, or consecration linked to the concept of holiness all throughout the Old Testament. For instance, we see holy people, the priests who were required to wear holy clothes distinguishing them. They used holy utensils and holy objects that couldn’t be unclean. They ministered in a holy place. First the tabernacle and later the temple. They ministered and they worshiped, and they did their priestly duties on holy days. They did so in a holy city, Jerusalem. They were situated in a holy land as they administered God’s holy law, as revealed in a holy book.

Well, when applied to God Himself, what this word “holy”, qadosh in Hebrew, signifies, at least is the sense of Him being transcendentally holy, being distinct from His creation. He’s transcendent over it. He transcends it. Putting it more simply then, is saying He’s in a class all by Himself. There’s no one to compare Him to. We see this in places like in Exodus 15:11. I’m going to go through a few scriptures here, on this idea of God being “other than”, being transcendentally holy. And as I do so, pick up on this comparative language that we see here in the scriptures. “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” See the distinction there? Who can You be compared to, God? Or 1 Samuel 2:2, “There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.” More comparable language highlighting the transcendental nature of the holiness of God. He is “other than”, in that class by Himself. Or Isaiah 40:25, “ ‘To whom then,’ ” this is the Lord Himself speaking, “ ‘will you liken Me that I would be his equal?’ says the Holy One.” See, what these passages reveal to us, is that God and God alone is inherently and intrinsically holy. They reveal to us that God and God alone is perfectly and eternally holy. And we, though God’s image bearers, are mere creatures, and not just creatures, we’re corrupted creatures at that. Namely, we’ve been corrupted by sin and imperfection and impurity. Not God. He alone is God. And as God, and the only God, the one true God, He alone is holy.

God is not only transcendentally holy though, I mentioned earlier He is also morally holy. When we say He’s morally holy, we simply mean He is pure in every way. He is completely lacking in any form of corruption, stain, sin, or impurity. He does not sin. He cannot sin. He cannot partake in sin. He cannot take pleasure in sin. He cannot have fellowship with sin. And He cannot, and will not, tolerate the presence of sin.

These aren’t merely my observations though. This isn’t human wisdom that’s being dispensed up here. The moral dimensions of God’s holiness is inscribed forever on the pages of God’s holy word. Consider just these passages on the moral nature of God’s holiness, speaking to His purity. Job 34:10, “Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to do wrong.” Psalm 5:4, “No evil dwells with You.” Capitol “Y,” “You” referring to God. Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil.” 1 John 1:5, “God is Light, and in Him there is not darkness at all.” You know, these passages admittedly, are not using the word “holy.” We’re not seeing that Hebrew verb “qadosh” in the Old Testament passages I referenced, but these are very clearly speaking to the moral purity and holiness of God. He is light, no evil dwells with Him. His eyes are too pure to approve evil. Far be it from this God to do wickedness, and for the Almighty to do wrong. That’s speaking to His moral separateness, His moral purity. God is absolutely holy. He is perfectly holy. He is transcendentally holy in terms of His otherness, in terms of His separation from impurity and uncleanness and unholiness. But He's also as we’ve just seen, morally and ethically holy.

I appreciate what Charles Ryrie has said on this point. He says that God’s holiness… This is him picking up this distinction between transcendental holiness and moral holiness. He says God’s holiness means “not only that he is separate from all that is unclean and evil,” that would be transcendental holiness, “but also that He is positively pure and thus distinct from all others.” That’s moral holiness.

Like Ryrie, Louis Berkhof noted that God’s holiness is “that divine perfection by which He is absolutely distinct from all His creatures, and exalted above them in infinite majesty.” That would be transcendental holiness. “But it denotes in the second place that He is free from all moral impurity or sin, and is therefore morally perfect.” Moral holiness.

I mentioned three aspects to His holiness that we’re going to cover for tonight. He’s not only transcendentally holy. He’s not only morally holy, But He’s also preeminently holy. And to say that He’s preeminently holy simply means that while God possesses and embodies each of His attributes perfectly at all times, the attribute of God’s holiness is a particular point of emphasis in scripture. It’s in several ways emphasized as the chief attribute of God. For instance, the bible teaches us very plainly, that God’s very name is holy. Psalm 111:9, “Holy and awesome in His name.” Or Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy.”

This preeminence of God’s holiness though, is supported not only by His name, it’s also supported by other places in scripture, which emphasizes this very attribute. Consider Isaiah 6. That familiar great heavenly throne room scene where we see what’s described there. It’s “the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted,” it says in Isaiah 6:1, “with the train of His robe filling the temple.” We’re told that there are “seraphim,” literally the “burning ones,” who are above Him. And the seraphim are covering their feet and their face as they call out to one another “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”

This triple declaration of God’s holiness which some call the trihagion, “tri“- three, “hagion”- holy, meaning three times holy, that’s no accident. Rather, what’s happening here with this repeated use of the word “holy” here, is to put special emphasis on, to stress, the holiness of God.
You know, at the time of the Hebrew bible was written, they didn’t have highlighters. They didn’t have iPads. They didn’t have ways to underline texts. So, what they would do is use words in multiple settings. Repeat the words to emphasize something of real significance. This trihagion, the triple declaration of God’s holiness, is important. No other divine attribute is communicated in this way. There’s no other place in scripture where God is called Love, Love, Love. Or Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Or Just, Just, Just. It’s only with respect to His holiness that we see this triple repetitive language. We see it again in Revelation 4:8, as worship is being offered in the heavenly courts, and these words, it says, are being declared, offered, “day and night” “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” God is holy. He is transcendentally holy. We’ve seen He’s morally holy, And He is preeminently holy.

Not only that though, but because God is holy, everything He does necessarily is done in holiness. That’s Psalm 77:13, “Your way, O God, is holy”. His actions mirror His character. There are no imperfections in God. There are no flaws in God. We’ve already seen there is no sin in God. There’s no darkness in God. No, all of His ways are holy.

Well, I began, we began, our lesson tonight, noting that holiness is a communicable attribute. One that is shared. Why? How? In what sense? We know who we are. We know we’re not holy. So, how? And in what sense is holiness a shared attribute? Well, holiness is certainly not a shared attribute in the transcendental sense. God and God alone is transcendentally holy because God and God alone is God! But there is a sense in which moral creatures, and specifically moral creatures who have been created in the image of God -- and if we’re Christians, those who have been created in the image of God, as image-bearers of the Spirit of God now living in us -- that we are called to mirror the moral holiness of God.

And this is where the rubber meets the road. See, studying God’s holiness, and studying God’s attributes more broadly, must never be a mere academic pursuit. Rather, studying His holiness, reflecting upon His holiness, meditating upon His holiness, must impact our worship of Him, this holy God. And we see that all throughout the scriptures. Holiness is not just some dry data point that leads people to yawn and say, ho-hum, I guess God is holy. No, look at what we see in the scriptures. Psalm 30:4, “Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name.” Or Psalm 97:12, “Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, and give thanks to His holy name.” Or Psalm 99:3, “Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.”

So, studying God’s holiness ought to inflame true, pure, reverent worship of this holy God. It also ought to spark in us to desire ourselves to be more holy. Right? We’re called to be holy people, reflecting the character of the God who made us, and if we’ve trusted in Christ, the God who saved us. And since God is holy and perfectly holy and changelessly holy, immutably holy, His expectation of His people has always been, that they would be holy. Its what we see in Leviticus 11:45, to the Old Testament Israelites “thus you shall be holy,” God says, “for I am holy.” But this carries over to the New Testament. 1 Peter 1:14-15 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.” There are other places we could go but here’s one. 2 Corinthians 7:1, “let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Of course, what’s being described here, this process by which we grow in holiness, is what we all know as sanctification. And that word “sanctification”, comes from the Greek term, “hagiasmos,” which comes from the Greek word for holy, “hagio” which in turn is related to the Hebrew word for being holy. A term we’ve already gone over, qadosh. Sanctification then is all about growing in holiness. Growing in the likeness of Christ, who is the Holy One of God.

I really appreciate what Stephen Charnock said on this important link between God’s holiness and our pursuit of holiness. Pretty simple thought here. “The prime way of honoring God… is living like Him.” Amen. And again… And we have to be very clear here. And I never know everybody who’s in the room. I don’t know the audience always entirely. But I want to make clear that it’s not because holy living merits some sort of salvific [salvation] status with God. No, living, trying to better yourself, and improve yourself, and clean up what’s on the outside, will never merit favor with a holy God. Isaiah says very clearly, those types of deeds done in the flesh are ultimately filthy rags. No, instead, living holy lives is the right and reasonable and worshipful response to any unworthy sinner. And we’re all unworthy sinners, who have been shown favor and grace from a holy God, through the cross of Jesus Christ.

So that’s a bit about the holiness of God. Every time I do one of these, I think, I can’t believe we’re giving ten minutes to the holiness of God, and just moving right along. But we need to do that. We need to keep moving on so we can keep on continuing on and making some progress in our study. So, that’s the holiness of God.

Next would be the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. The word “righteousness” here come from a Hebrew word, “tsaddiq.” There, you have it there. I’m going to expect you to write that down in Hebrew, just like it is here, and I’ll grade it later as we walk out tonight. Or “dikaios” would be the Greek counterpart. And the original Hebrew term, tsaddiq, its original meaning is to be straight. It describes the straightness of a measuring stick. And applying that to the spiritual realm, the root word here, tsaddiq, or the Greek counterpart, they refer to conformity to some form of moral or ethical standard. Now, when that’s applied to God, both terms that we see here, refer to His rightness, His correctness, His moral excellence. So, when we say that God is righteous, we are saying that He is a perfectly and absolutely righteous and morally excellent Being. I’ll say it again. To say that God is righteous is to say that He is a perfectly and absolutely righteous and morally excellent Being. He is a Being who always acts consistently with His nature. Because of that, because He is righteous, He always acts in a right and righteous manner. There is nothing incorrect. Nothing wrong about God’s nature or His works. He cannot be put to the charge or accusation of wrongdoing in any way. All that He is, and all that He does, is absolutely perfect.

And God’s righteousness is connected with His holiness. And as I say that, I know that I need to elaborate on that a little bit, because not any one of these attributes is to be viewed as an island. As though it’s not related to any of God’s other attributes. They are all connected in the divine. God’s righteousness is connected with His holiness, in that each of His other attributes. I like what Berkhof, again brings out here in this connection between the righteousness of God and the holiness of God. He says “The righteousness of God is that perfection by which He maintains Himself as the Holy One over against every violation of His holiness.” We’re going to explain in just a minute what that means.
We again have Ryrie. He says “Though related to holiness, righteousness is nevertheless a distinct attribute of God. Holiness relates to God’s separateness;” that’s that transcendental holiness we looked at earlier. “Righteousness, to His justice… law… [and] morality.”

Now, as with holiness, God’s righteousness is so central to God’s character, that it’s expressed like His holiness, in God’s very name. Psalm 7:9, “O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; for the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.” As this name indicates, God is inherently and intrinsically righteous. We see it elsewhere in scripture as well. [Isaiah 45:21], “there is no other God besides Me,” says the Lord, “a righteous God and a Savior.” Or Psalm 7:11, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.” Or Psalm 11:7, “For the Lord is righteousness, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.”

And it’s from His inherent righteousness that God’s perfectly righteous actions flow. Put another way, God does right, and God acts righteously, because He is righteous, inherently righteous, fundamentally righteous. We see that in places like Deuteronomy 32:4, “A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” Psalm 89:14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne.” Psalm 119:137, “Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments.”

Now God’s righteousness is not some mere abstract concept. See, one thing we need to know about God’s righteousness is that when God’s righteous standards are violated by unrighteousness, or sin, this evokes His righteous indignation, which is what we know as His wrath. See that? His righteousness, His righteous standards, and His enforcement of His righteous decrees, compels -- when there is a violation of His righteous standards -- His righteous wrath. We see that in Romans 1:18. We think about it, I’m sure a lot in our days. We hear this passage quoted all the time. But look what it says and note the link between God’s righteousness and God’s wrath. It says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Unrighteous behavior by men provokes the righteous wrath of an eminently righteous God.

Now, thankfully, when we come to know God through trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation that wrath is abated. We won’t face that wrath. Jesus’ perfect righteousness is credited to us. That’s 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Which is the only way that fundamentally unrighteous people like us, can have fellowship with, and ultimately stand in the presence of, a perfectly righteous and holy God.

Now, the righteousness of God, in turn, which is imparted to us through Christ when He saves us, ought to then now lead us to practice righteousness. Just as we’re called to be holy we’re also called to practice righteousness. 1 John 2:29, “If you know that He is righteous,” meaning He being the Savior, “you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” Or 1 John 3:7, “the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He,” the Lord, “is righteous.” To practice righteousness is to live according to the standard of righteous behavior that God has laid out in His word. It means living in a manner that is consistent with the very character, nature, and will of the holy and righteous God who saved us. And again, its not that we practice righteousness as a way to somehow curry favor with God. That would be a futile act and if we don’t know the Lord, that would ultimately be a soul-destroying act. But what 1 John tells us, as we see here, is that if we claim to have been born again, our practice of righteousness will be one of the chief evidences that we have truly been regenerated and born from above. So that’s the righteousness of God.

The third one on your worksheet, I think we’re still on page one here, is the truthfulness of God. The truthfulness of God. Now, we’re going to go back to Berkhof here, in his “Systematic Theology,” and this is how he describes the truthfulness of God. He says “This is that perfection of God in virtue of which He is true in His inner being, in His revelation, and in His relation to His people.” See, applying this definition, which is not uncommon in the systematic theologies out there, we note that the truthfulness of God, really has these three dimensions to it.

First, it means God is true. Meaning, He is real. Meaning, He is not fabricated, or invented, or a figment of our imaginations, or an imitation. He is not like the false idols of the Israelites or the false idols that the Israelites continually found themselves relating to, and bowing down to, and ultimately worshiping. He is not like the false idols that we in our day and age create in our own minds. No, He is the true God. Here’s a few scriptures to bring this truth out. (And again, as I see the size of this font, its again a reminder to tell you, that these slides are going to be available by mid-week, on the Indian Hills website. You can find the link to this message, and right underneath, you can pull up these slides and zoom in and see what they say.) But here we go. Jeremiah 10:10, “the Lord is the true God.” John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” 1 Thessalonians 1:19, Paul commends that church for turning “to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Of course, to say that God is true, and that He is the true God, has some implications. Namely, what it implies and signifies that all other so-called gods are false. All other so-called gods are fake. They are not true. They are not true gods. We see this picked up in places like 1 Kings 8:60, this comparison between the true God and all these false gods, “the Lord is God;” that’s Yahweh, “there is no one else.” Or God Himself says in Isaiah 46:9, “For I am God, and there is no other.” You could also jot down Psalm 115:4-9, which speaks to all the different false gods that are out there, I’ll just read it out for you. Psalm 115:4-9, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them,” the idols, “will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.”

But it wasn’t only these false gods of ancient times that were false. It’s also the false gods of our time. Allah, Buddha, Waheguru (that’s the chief Sikh god), Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (those would be the primary Hindu deities), and the various other pagan and tribal deities that are worshiped all over the globe today. They are all false. So, to say that God is true then, is in one sense, to say that He is real. He’s not fabricated. He’s not invented, and He’s not an imitation. He’s not fake, He’s not false, He is the true God.

A second aspect of the truthfulness of God refers to the fact that He is truthful. He is exactly what He reveals Himself to be. He is the God of truth. Isaiah 65:16, “He who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth.” Psalm 31:5, “You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.” So, He’s the true God, but He’s also the truthful God. And to say that God is truthful means a number of things and has many implications. First, it means that He reveals truth. As the true God and the truthful God, God has revealed truth in various ways. He’s revealed truth in His word which we know is breathed out by God, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. He’s revealed truth in His Son. John 1:17, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” He reveals truth through His Spirit. John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” So, He reveals truth.

Also, His truthfulness means that He cannot lie. We talked about that last week, as some of the things that God cannot do. He cannot lie. Unlike our fellow man who lies, who fudges the facts, who misleads. God does not lie, and He is incapable of doing so, because doing so would be out of step with His very nature and character. Titus 1:2, God “cannot lie.” Hebrews 6:18, “It is impossible for God to lie.” Numbers 23:19, we looked at these last week, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it?”

God is not only true. God is not only truthful, which is what we’ve just seen. But what flows out of this truth, that God is truth and truthful, is that He also is faithful. A truthful God is a faithful God. And that’s a major theme, as we know, of Scripture. That God’s truthfulness breeds His faithfulness. Now, to say that God is faithful means to say that He is entirely dependable. It speaks to His steadfastness. His fidelity. His dependability. And of course, God is referred to as faithful at multiple places in scripture. Deuteronomy 7:9, “He is God, the faithful God.” Deuteronomy 32:4, “A God faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” 1 Peter 4:19, “Those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” To say that God is faithful is to say that God does do, and will do, always, what He has promised. (Here more small fonts.) Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Or 1 Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is He who calls you.” Or 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful.” Because God is true and because He is faithful, what this ought to do for us, sitting here this evening, is breed in us an innate and deep sense of trust in Him, trust in His promises, as those promises have been revealed in His word. That’s Psalm 56:3,4, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.” This means trusting what His word has revealed about the past. This means trusting what His word says about our present-day conditions. And this means trusting what His word tells us about the future, that it really will come to pass the way it’s been revealed in these timeless pages. God is entirely faithful. God is entirely trustworthy.

The next attribute, communicable attribute we’ll cover tonight, # 4 (you can turn your page), is the goodness of God. The goodness of God. Now the goodness of God has two different elements. It refers to what God is, in and of Himself. But it also refers to what God is, and how He interacts with us. How He interacts with His creatures, His creation. See, goodness is inherent in God’s character. But also, goodness is what He expresses, consistently and perfectly. We know from scripture, that God is inherently good. Psalm 34:8, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” To speak of God’s goodness then, speaks to this intrinsic quality. This supreme moral excellence. This inherent goodness. That we see displayed all over the pages of scripture.

You know, we see God’s goodness on display to everybody. Matthew 5:45, a familiar passage, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Psalm 145:9, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” But there also is this unique form of goodness, that God shows specially to those who belong to Him. Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Now what scripture is testifying to here, about God’s goodness on display to His creation and also to us, His people, we undoubtedly have witnessed in our lives. Through personal experience is what I’m referring to. Undoubtedly, if we took a poll here tonight, we could take testimonies of the various ways that the goodness of God has been shown to you. We see the goodness of God in the fact that we have life and breath and movement. We see the goodness of God in that we have family and friends and loved ones relatively near us. We see the goodness of God in that fact that we’ve likely eaten a meal today. We see the goodness of God in the fact that everybody here has clothing on our backs. That we’re sitting in an air-conditioned worship center. That the authorities aren’t converging and shutting us down for preaching truth. There are countless other ways and examples of ways that God has shown His goodness to us in just the time that we’ve been here this evening. Because God is a relational Being we see that it’s something He has not only intrinsically, it’s not just fundamentally, who He is as good. But it's also something He demonstrates extrinsically to us, His creation.

Now, in terms of application of these truths about the goodness of God, there really are a few points to make. I think worth making. One is that God’s goodness ought to be a great source of encouragement to all who know Him. Psalm 27:13, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” should cause great encouragement. Second, the goodness of the Lord is a great reason for giving praise to God. “Give thanks to Him,” says Psalm 100:4-5, “bless His name. For the Lord is good.” Or Psalm 135:3, “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.” Third, the goodness of God is most certainly an attribute that He shares with His creation. This is a -- just a point for meditation and thought -- is that this is an attribute that He shares with us and expects us to demonstrate and model, if we are His followers. Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,”(I know I got these in reverse order this morning, by the way, when I started the sermon), but “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness…” Or Ephesians 5:9, “for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” The goodness of God, if I can summarize, is something we ought to emulate and showcase in our lives. It’s a communicable, shared attribute of God.

Next, #5, is the mercy of God. Mercy can be described as the lovingkindness, the tenderheartedness, the compassion of God, toward the most miserable and pitiful of His creatures. The Greek word for mercy has this idea of pity, or compassion, or kindness. The Hebrew term, “chesed,” which is often translated as lovingkindness, refers to God’s compassionate, unflinching love toward His people. Exodus 34:6, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness,” or you could say mercy there, “and truth.” Isaiah 54:10, “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,” here’s God speaking, “but My lovingkindness,” My chesed, “will not be removed from you.” As with many of the other communicable attributes that we’ve described so far, mercy is in His name. God is referred to in 2 Corinthians 1:3, as “the Father of mercies.” We know from scripture, of course, that God in His very nature is merciful. That’s Psalm 57:10, “Your lovingkindness,” Your chesed, “is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds.” And mercy, by it very definition, is undeserved.

A few additional observations from scripture related to God’s mercy. God’s mercies are new every morning, are they not? Lamentations 3:22-23, “The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” God displays mercy, here’s another observation, according to His own divine choice. Romans 9:15, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” Here’s another one. God’s mercy is the basis for our salvation. Titus 3:5, God saved us it says, “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” Or 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Here’s another application. As believers, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence, and there receive mercy. Hebrews 4:16, we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

There, of course, are many more things that could be said about the mercy of God. But I’ll round out the topic with some choice words from the man I quoted this morning, Charles Spurgeon. He says: “God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space to narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.” Of course, we who trusted in Christ are recipients of this great mercy. And if that’s you, if you are a Christian here this evening, here’s your charge. Here’s the personal application. Here’s the way to live this out, so to say. (Luke 6:36), “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Pretty clear. That’s five. Let’s move onto six, the grace of God.

Communicable attribute # 6 would be the grace of God. Now, grace can be described, and I’m sure you’ve heard it defined this way in different teaching sessions, as unmerited favor, unmerited favor. Put another way, grace is God’s willingness to treat His creatures not according to their actual merit, not according to their actual worth, but according to His abundant kindness and over abundant, overflowing generosity. We see this both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that grace is associated with the person and character of God. Psalm 145:8, “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.” And in the New Testament, 1 Peter 5:10, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

Whether it is in the Old Testament or the New Testament, the idea is that God is forbearing, tenderhearted, and benevolent. And He shows His people kindness, favor, and goodwill, even though we don’t deserve it. God showed grace to His original people, Israel, when He withheld judgment from them, notwithstanding their various acts of rebellion and disobedience. And He has shown His grace to us in this age, of course, through His Son Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17 “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” Or Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And then 2 Timothy 1:9, He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” We aren’t saved by our merits. We aren’t saved by our works. We aren’t saved by our good deeds. We are saved exclusively through the grace of God demonstrated through Christ. The result is that we don’t get any credit. We don’t get to boast. He gets all the credit, and all praise and honor and glory therefore go to Him.

And importantly, a life lived in obedience to Him is what will follow. Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God had appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” See, God freely bestows His grace on us, through Christ. But the grace that we’ve received must not lead us to some sort of libertine lifestyle. Not like what we saw this morning, the Nicolaitans or the Balaamites from the letter to Pergamum. It must not lead us to what is known popularly out there, as carnal Christianity. Kind of putting the down payment or just kind of trusting in Jesus as an insurance policy. But living like you will, living like hell, out there in the world. Romans 6:1-2 would be a good place to study how that idea of carnal Christianity is just completely inconsistent with what’s revealed in scripture. There in Romans 6: 1-2, Paul there says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” And then what does he say? “May it never be!” Me genoito! No, if we are the recipients of God’s amazing grace, His unmerited favor, we’re called, as 2 Peter 3:18 puts it, to grow in grace. To pursue holiness. To strive for sanctification. As the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, conforms us increasingly into the image of our Savior.

Which brings us to the final communicable attribute that we’ll be covering tonight, the love of God. The love of God. Now, I want to make sure we get this clear. The love of God is not merely an attitude. It’s not merely a feeling. It’s not merely an emotion. It’s not merely a work He performs. The love of God -- it’s an attribute of God. It says, we’ve learned tonight, it’s a perfection of God. It’s a part of His very Being and nature. Yes, God does love. And we know that most supremely through what He accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary. But more fundamentally, He is love. He is the definition of love. He is the benchmark standard for love. He is the source of love. So, as we begin our study of this attribute, its very important that we not read back into God our preconceived notions of what we think love is or love ought to be. But instead, allow what the bible teaches about God being the very source and standard of love. To correct any lesser notions of love that we may approach Him with. With that, let’s work through some of what the scripture teaches here, about God’s love.

First, we see in 2 Corinthians 13:11, that God is the “God of love.” This is teaching us, very simply, that as in the case of the other attributes, love is an attribute of God. Love is at the core of His perfect being and character. Love is central to His very nature. This means that God could not and would not ever cease to be love because love is wrapped up in His very eternal essence and character and being. And because He is perfectly the God of love, what that means is He cannot be more loving today than He was yesterday. Or more loving tomorrow than He was today. He’s the God of love.

He is the God of love, but not only that, He is love. We see that in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” Did you catch that? Has it clicked? Is it significant to you? God is love. He is perfectly love. And He, and nothing and no one else, is the very standard by which all claims of love in this world, from eternity past and into the future, are to be judged, are to be measured. And this is very significant. And its not lost on me, that in our culture, we like to think of it the other way around. We don’t like to think, culturally that God is love. Instead, we think of it the other way, as love being God. Love being our god. It really is, out in the world, the mantra of our day. That’s why we see these slogans, popular slogans, from the past couple of decades. You know, “Love is Love”, and “Love Wins”. But love ultimately isn’t and cannot be and never will be defined by the culture. Love isn’t defined by humans who live in the culture. No, love, scripture teaches us, is sourced in, and defined by God. God is love. That in itself needs a whole sermon. Can’t do that tonight.

God’s love though is not just this abstract, bottled-up concept. No, God, as with His other attributes, manifests His love. He demonstrates His love. He has done so, and continues to do so, in various contexts and times and circumstances. You know, first, in eternity past, God manifested His love perfectly within the three Persons of the Godhead. There was this perfect intra-Personal, intra-trinitarian, love within the Godhead between God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. John 17:24, Jesus here says “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” It’s this passage that would cause Jonathan Edwards to say that “Heaven is a world of love,” speaking of the intra-trinitarian relationship in glory, in heaven.

Second, God’s manifested His love toward His creation, toward His creatures. In His various creative works, in His creation of the world, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars. God was under no obligation to create any of it. Because again, before creation, He was in this perfect state of contentedness and love and blessedness, within the Trinitarian Godhead. But as an act of love, He created all that we see. And He upholds all that we see. And He preserves all that we see.

Another one is that God has manifested His love in His benevolent care, that He has shown toward His creation and toward His creatures. Psalm 145: 9 “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” And though our natural response to God’s benevolence toward His creation ought to be worship and thanksgiving and praise -- man, in his natural state, in his natural condition, though he understands that this has all been given to him by God, he does what? He suppresses “the truth in unrighteousness,” Romans 1:18. Romans 1:21, he does “not honor Him,” meaning God, “as God or give thanks.” Now, thankfully, God’s love is able to overcome our stubborn, ungrateful obstinacy which brings us to the fourth way that God shows His love.

The supreme way, though His Son. 1 John 4:9-10 “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” This text has it all. It tells us that God is love. It tells us that God’s greatest manifestation of His love has come through His Son. And it tells us that God’s love was lavished upon us, through His Son, notwithstanding our lovelessness toward Him. See, Jesus suffered and died on the cross as a “propitiation for our sins,” because of God’s love for us. The full measure of the wrath of God was laid on the shoulder of our Savior because of God’s love for us. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, because of God’s love for us. Our sin debt was nailed to the cross, because of God’s love for us. We have been pardoned, acquitted, and forever forgiven of our sin in the courts of heaven, because of God’s love for us. And we have the hope and the promise of eternal life, because of God’s love for us. Stephen Charnock again says “There never was such love as that which led God to give us His Son. The strongest thing I ever heard of was God’s love to sinners. The more I think of it, the more I wonder at it.”

And now, being the recipients of God’s unfathomable love, what are we to do? Well, the answer is straight and simple and straightforward. As with each of these communicable attributes, we’re called to demonstrate them, to those whom we come into contact with. 1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”

Well, I hope tonight’s lesson has been an encouragement to you as we’ve studied the communicable attributes of God. As I’ve mentioned, so much more could and should be said, but this is our natural, 7:30 stopping point. Now, I’ve had several of you (and if you need to leave, its ok) I’ve had several of you ask, what are some of the resources that I’m drawing from, as we go through this study. So, I’m going to just take a couple of minutes here, to show you a few of them, up on the screen behind me, to give you a sense of some of the resources, the books that I’ve been looking at, as I’ve put these lessons together.

Here’s one, these three books are more in the category of the doctrine of God itself. So these are studying, some of these are looking into trinitarian matters. Chapters in these books are looking at the attributes of God, like we’re studying tonight. Some of them are covering a lot of the topics that we’ve already covered, like God’s existence, and the knowledge of God, some of those earlier, more ethereal topics that we covered. I’ve ranked them here in terms of academic difficulty. So, this first one, “That God May be All in All”, is a bit more accessible, it’s really more focused actually, on God the Father. Which you might be surprised to know, that there’s actually very little academic writing on God the Father. So often, there’s kind of this conflation between the triune God and God the Father, as though they’re always referring to the same person. We sort of triunize right away the Godhead, but we leave out God the Father. The nature of God the Father. The Person of God the Father. The character of God the Father. This book does a really good job of focusing on God the Father, the first person of the trinity. The next two are more academic, but highly useful devotional, if not dense reading at times.

The next group of books are some of the basic theologies, the systematic theologies I’ve looked at. These aren’t ranked in any particular order. I’ve looked at each of them for useful thoughts to present to you. We have Ryrie’s “Basic Theology”, this would probably be one of the more accessible books. Down in the right-hand corner, “Lectures in Systematic Theology” by Henry Clarence Thiessen, is really helpful. Although there are views in all of these books, that I would have certain disagreements with. But on the study of the nature and character of God, I find all of these to be helpful in different ways. So, these would be your systematic theologies.

And then last, relative to the last two studies, both tonight and last week, these are a few books on the attributes of God. Arthur W. Pink, A. W. Pink on “The Attributes of God”, A. W. Tozer, “Knowledge of the Holy.” And then this one, “The Existence and Attributes of God.” I’ve cited Steven Charnock a few times. I don’t know if that’s the right edition. This is the edition of Charnock’s book that I use and I have. You can see, even from where you’re sitting, it’s pretty dense, pretty thick. He wrote in the mid 1600’s, so it’s a little heady, and a little dated, but very, very helpful. His work is known as the gold standard in studying the attributes of God.

So, those are a few resources. Feel free to come up and ask me after if I have any more thoughts or ideas. I have to say, before I close, this topic of theology proper and the doctrine of God, especially as I’m giving all these references to these works, and these books -- I have to say, I cannot vouch for, nor do I agree with everything every single one of these theologians has ever said. In many cases, a lot of these guys are out there. I wouldn’t recommend many of these guys, and some of the things they say about end times, for instance, or Israel and the church, or the general topic of hermeneutics. But as it relates to what we’re studying about God and His existence, His attributes, His character, His person, His works, these are some of the better works that are out there.

I also want to say this. We’re committed dispensationalists here at Indian Hills. And there is a lack of sound, dispensational scholars who are writing on, and writing on matters of the Trinity, and writing on matters of theology proper, and the doctrine of God. So, I have a challenge to anyone here tonight, who might be more academically-minded, that this is a ripe opportunity, as folks who hold to a dispensational hermeneutic, to speak into these very fundamental matters of the very nature and character of God. Why would we cede this territory to scholars and folks we would disagree with about their hermeneutic, about this very fundamental and basic matter about who God is? Rather, as folks I believe who have the soundest hermeneutic, I would argue that we have the most to say about who God is, in His character, His nature, His person. What I’m trying to say is, we don’t have to reserve our field of interest and inquiry to things like the church and Israel, though that’s very important. Or hermeneutics, or end times, all things that are very important in our dispensational circles. We have much to say, based on our hermeneutics, about the nature and character of God, as revealed in the Word. Am I being clear on that? Good.

Speaking of which, please pray for me. I’m going to be presenting, writing and presenting a paper at the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics. It’s a real cool crowd, you can tell with a title like that. In September, in sunny San Diego. And I’m writing and presenting this paper called, speaking of which, “The Overlooked Importance of Dispensational Hermeneutics in Modern Trinitarian Scholarship”. That will put you to sleep. But please pray that the research, the writing, would go well. I have some people here at the church that are helping out with that project. And pray that, again as dispensational scholars, we would, I think, rightly gain a foothold into this fundamental topic of the study of the nature, the person, the character, the attributes of God. We good? I’m out of breath and out of time.

Let’s pray. God, we thank You again for this evening, and for this time in study. I thank You for these dear people, and their commitment to You and to truth and to the study of your Word. God, I pray that everything that we do today, for the rest of this day, would be viewed as, and treated as, acts of worship to You, our great God and our great King. I pray that none of us would leave this place with an unchanged and unmoved nature. I pray that, in other words, what we have learned tonight would move us to greater worship and greater praise of You, our great God. This is not mere academic study, though sometimes as we go so fast through it, it can feel like it. But ultimately, this is Your timeless Word, Your timeless truth, revealing exactly who You are. And giving us a glimpse of who You are, so that we can worship You and simply praise You. So, we want to say thank You for this evening. Thank You for the truth of Your Word. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ into the world to die for sinners like us so that we would have the eternal hope of one day being with You, the very great God that we have studied this evening. Thank You for this night. In Jesus name. Amen