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God: His Character and Attributes · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  What I really like about this verse in 1 Chronicles 29, it talks about God's greatness, His power, His glory, His victory, His majesty, and everything that He is in the heavens and the earth, in your dominion. And it just basically sums it all up by saying God is Lord over all. He's Lord of everything. He is. I am. He is God. And even just talking about it excites me.
• 0:32
  As I was studying for this, as I listened to our weekly sermon. How many of you listened to the weekly sermon? I know I did. I loved it. I actually listened to it on Monday. That's when I listened to most of it. And then I re-heard some of it yesterday. But it came at a time in my week when I really needed to hear it. When I really needed to hear that God knows all. That God is loving, compassionate. But above all, that God is holy.
• 1:01
  because no matter what happens in our lives, if we give it to God, He's going to take care of it. I was watching God's Not Dead 3 the other day. I don't know how many of you have seen that movie. I loved it. But one thing that he talked about in the movie, that the pastor in the movie and his assistant pastor talked about, was letting God give you the desire, He shows you the way, and you just let God take care of the details.
• 1:29
  And that's kind of what this lesson brought for me. It's okay to let God take care of the details because of who He is. So could I have someone read for me the introduction? I think it's on page 25 in your book. Someone just read it out loud. In the religions of today's world, there are many so-called gods and just as many opinions about what God or God is like. The Bible, on the other hand, claims to be the revelation of one true God.
• 2:06
  The Bible never tries to prove that God exists. It simply states, in the beginning, God. Okay. So, in the beginning, God. We know that God's existence is assumed. If you read Genesis 1-1, it talks about, in the beginning was God. In the beginning, God was there. God had no beginning, just as He'll have no end. Fortunately, those of us that know Him will have no end with Him now.
• 2:41
  But He had no beginning. He was and is and always was. The significance of His title, the I Am title, I Am, implies self-existence. And that's found in Exodus 3, verse 14. His title, where He says, I Am, implies that He always was. And He says, I Am the great I Am. In Isaiah 43, verse 13, we can find that God existed since eternity.
• 3:18
  God existed since eternity. And the note that I wrote here was before the day. He was always there before the day. He was there before the day was there. He created the day. So why do we as people question the existence of God? Why do we question the existence of God and how? This is a two-part question. How has God revealed himself to us? Any ideas? First of all, why do we question the existence of God?
• 4:13
  Okay. That's a good reason why people question the existence of God. Right. That's good. And the second part of that question is,
• 4:37
  How has God revealed Himself to men? How has He revealed Himself to us? We're going to look this up in a minute. If someone wants to look up Romans 1, chapter 1, verses 18-22, and I'll have someone look up Romans 2, verses 14-16. And this will kind of answer how God's revealed Himself. And I don't have room for my Bible, so I'm going to kind of use my electronic Bible here.
• 5:19
  Romans chapter 1, started with verse 18 through 22. And we use the ESV, right? That is the nice thing about the electronic Bible. I can switch versions. Does someone have that up? Anyone want to read that? I'm one of those participatory teachers. Go ahead, Lance.
• 6:05
  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• 6:34
  Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Indeed, when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves. Even though they do not have the law, they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciousness, also bearing witness.
• 7:10
  and their thoughts sometimes accusing them, and other times even defending them. This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ. That's what that gospel declares. Okay. So how has God, or how God has made Himself evident with men? We can find that in Romans 1.19, and I'll read that real quick, if I can grab it. 1.19, and it says, I need to get better glasses.
• 7:51
  It says, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Okay? So God, and this is going to lead into something here in a minute, but God has shown men who He is. He's done that through His creation. If you look at Romans 1 verse 20, it says, For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature,
• 8:21
  have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. The mere fact that we can go outside and see the sun in the daytime, the moon, the stars, the mere fact that we can see the mountains to the west or if we're on the coast we can see the ocean. When I look out at the ocean, think about this, because of the curvature of the earth, it almost looks like the water rises above the land and how that water does not cover the land that you're standing on.
• 8:50
  It still amazes me because it looks like it should. And yet, by that mere creation, God has shown Himself to us. The fact that His power is so strong that this world just holds together, the atmosphere doesn't fly off into space. He's created this world to protect us from the UV rays of the sun. The mere fact that the human body is so complicated that it's...
• 9:20
  got to be through creation. We are made of trillions and trillions of cells all put together physically. And yet, it was Him who designed and created that. That's how we see God. And I think men question that because they don't want to see it. Like His Word says, people become foolish. If you think about all these people who aren't saved in society trying to teach evolution and teach all these false teachings about nature and science.
• 9:53
  They try to explain away God. It takes so much faith to not believe in God. I think it takes more faith to think of some of these crazy things they come up with. In Romans 2.15, it shows us how God has revealed Himself to men or to us through our conscience. We could look at that real quick. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness.
• 10:30
  in their conflicting thoughts, accuse or even excuse them. You see, I think part of the reason why men question God is because in our hearts, God has written it upon our hearts that He exists. If you think about civilizations that have never heard the gospel, you think about stories of missionaries from the past where they went to civilizations, there are stories out there of European missionaries who came over to...
• 10:58
  the New World here where the United States is. And they've had times where they've witnessed to Native American Indians who believed in a Savior that came from the heavens who died to save them from their sin. Well, in their language it was save them from their sin. And it was stories that they knew and they heard that came down from generations and migrated with them over to this land. They didn't have Bibles.
• 11:29
  but they had their sense of knowing who God was. And God writes that upon our hearts. So what is the result when men ignore God, when they ignore God's creative power, ignore their conscience and turn from God? What is the result of that? It's right there. They become foolish. It's a foolhardy thing. Their foolish hearts are darkened and they look like fools.
• 12:08
  And when they stand before Christ one day, they're going to be embarrassed before they get sent to the lake of fire. So we know that there's only one God. Let's see, I know in... Sorry, I'm kind of going off two books. But in section 1B of your book, if you did your homework, why don't somebody read off their answer for me? Let's talk about why there's only one God. And we could also find it in Isaiah.
• 12:48
  45, 22, and also 44, 6 through 8. It's plain and simple, right? Plain and simple. God Himself said there was no one before Him and there's no other God after Him. I think that's why it makes it so plain and easy when we see that God wrote in the Ten Commandments, you won't worship any other gods but Him. He's a jealous God. And I know that we're going to talk about the Trinity in lessons coming up. I want to say it's lesson 7, I believe.
• 13:31
  We're going to go in depth on the Trinity. So don't let that confuse you because our God is one God and three persons or three people, three parts. But we're going to have an in-depth discussion and study on exactly how one God can be one in three. Because the math does not compute, I get that. But He is God and it works.
• 13:57
  So we will have an in-depth discussion on that. So don't fret on that. It's coming. That's coming up. So the Father is in heaven. Okay? So we're going to learn about the Father being in heaven, and that's seen in Matthew 6, namely verse 9 and 17. Christ is in heaven at the right hand of God, at the right hand of the Father. Hebrews 10, 12 talks about that. We also know that when...
• 14:29
  Stephen was being stoned. He looked into heaven and he saw Jesus stand up at the right hand of God. I believe in judgment of Israel for stoning him and for rejecting Christ. The Holy Spirit is ministering within believers. Romans 8, 11, 1 Corinthians 3, 16, and John 14, 26 talk about this. We all know that if we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us. And he is ministering to us here on earth. God is an invisible spirit.
• 15:01
  That's seen in John 4, 24 and Colossians 1, 15. And God's glory can be seen. And Exodus 24, 16 through 17 talks about that. Moses saw God's glory. So knowing God, can we know God? Yes, we can know God. It's simple. Can we know God? If someone did their homework, someone read your answer, it'll be in section 2, letter B.
• 15:37
  And can we know God? And it should come from Jeremiah 9.24. Amen. So we know God's incomprehensible. Romans 11.33 talks about that. God has no boundaries. We see that in Job. I preached a sermon on Job not too long ago. And the beautiful thing about Job is,
• 16:11
  is Job acknowledged God's attributes. He acknowledged God's greatness. I mean, when Job was losing his family and all his belongings and his livestock and his house, Job lost everything. And yet he acknowledged who God was. He knew God had no boundaries. And he just jumped down and worshipped God no matter what and said, Take me now, Lord, if you're going to take me. I came to this earth with nothing. I'll leave with nothing. And yet God restored him. God can only be divinely perceived.
• 16:44
  Through the Holy Spirit and through Jesus Christ. We see that in 1 Corinthians 29 and also Matthew 11, 27. So why does knowing Christ equate to knowing God? Why does knowing Christ equate to knowing God? If you did your work, you would find that answer in John 14, 9 and 10. That's right.
• 17:35
  Christ himself proclaimed it. We know that he even said he is God. And to know the Father is also to know Christ. In Colossians, it says Christ is God as Colossians states, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So all of God's fullness in his deity dwells in bodily form. And that's in Jesus Christ. So it's been proclaimed by God and by Christ.
• 18:18
  Also, in lesson number four, so next week, I believe Nathan's teaching, and he is going to go in depth on the deity of Christ. So we'll get more of a lesson on that. So we're just kind of skimming over it. So next week we'll definitely go deeper into that. So what is the difference between knowing God and knowing about God? Anyone? I say, this is coming from my life, I believe I know God.
• 18:54
  I mean, I don't know Him. Like you said, I'll probably never fully understand or know until I'm worshiping Him at His feet personally in heaven. But I know that I know God. And I have people in my life, friends that I work with, that know about God. You know, something bad happens. Every time I hear of a police officer get shot in the line of duty like we did this week or something, I have a bunch of friends who will not acknowledge Christ or acknowledge God in their life.
• 19:23
  But all of a sudden, a cop gets shot, and they're like, oh, we're going to pray, and we're praying for them. It's like all of a sudden they know, okay, I need to go to God, or they'll come to me because the chaplain's not always around. And they'll be like, can you pray for us in this situation? Or, you know, we had this happen. Can you pray about that? Yeah, have you accepted Christ yet? Well, I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that yet. Okay, I'll have faith for you then.
• 19:51
  Because they know I know God. They see that in my life. And I think the difference that I've seen is that people who know about God, they know He's all of this, but they choose not to have that relationship with Him. So they don't get to know Him the way we do. Those of us that know Him. Those of us that have accepted Christ. And I think that makes such a big difference. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to pursue Him. He wants us to take the time to study Him. To study His Word.
• 20:22
  have a personal relationship with Him. And I think that's so important. As Christians, our minds should seek a desire to know God. We should desire God. You know, when I met Olivia and I was dating her, I started to desire her. That's why I ended up marrying her. And I think God wants us to pursue Him in a sense like that, to desire to have an intimate relationship with Him. He wants us to fill our mind with His words. He wants us to obey Him.
• 20:54
  And He wants us to learn to fear Him. Learning to fear God is the beginning of wisdom. That's found in Proverbs 9, verse 10. Now some people have asked me in the past, does that mean fearing God should we be afraid of Him? Like He's a big scary monster or anything? Fearing God, a healthy fear of God is understanding and knowing how powerful He is and knowing that He can just wipe us off, disseminate us, get rid of us. But also knowing that
• 21:28
  He loves us and accepts us. So, learning to obey God. We shouldn't obey God because we have to, and the Bible says. But because of how powerful He is and how much we should fear Him, we should also learn to love Him so much we want to obey Him. So that we are humble, knowing that where He stands in His holiness compared to us. So that we seek humility and we constantly pray. Fearing God helps us know Him. And it helps us...
• 22:03
  to have more of an intimate relationship, and keeps us from having a casual relationship, like the people I talked about. Yeah, I pray once in a while. We should be doing more than praying once in a while. So knowing God means that we also need to know His attributes. So we're going to talk about His attributes, and I know that they're listed. What page are those attributes listed? 26. So I know this was a lot of work, because it was a lot of work for me to study this week.
• 22:43
  But we're going to talk about His holiness, His righteousness and justice, His sovereignty, His eternality, immutability, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, love, truth, and mercy. These are just a few of God's attributes. If you heard the sermon by Pastor John MacArthur, he explains that there's so many attributes we probably couldn't even list them all. But these are the main ones that we see, especially through the Bible, the ones that He's revealed to us.
• 23:17
  And it's good to get to know what all of these mean and to try to understand them. And sometimes you're not going to totally understand them. The one thing that I got out of the message, especially about God's holiness, is that His holiness is so holy that there's... Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that His love was so loving, He would just destroy us. Because His holiness is so holy that...
• 23:44
  In His holiness, we all deserve death and hell. Period. Because of our sin. And when I think about that, that causes me to fear God. Our attributes are different from ours. I mean, some of the attributes of God we cannot possess. For instance, we can't possess eternality, right? Because we had a beginning. We started. We started somewhere. God is all-powerful. We can never be all-powerful. Look at Satan.
• 24:22
  Lucifer tried to say he was going to be all powerful, and God cast him out of heaven. And I know Satan knows his future, and God set it for him. And Satan's going to be put in his place one day. We can't have sovereignty because God is the highest of the high. He is the chief of all. None of us are ever going to be omniscient. As much as science tries to make us more knowledgeable, we'll never have all the knowledge that God has. We can never have that.
• 24:54
  And of course, we cannot be omnipresent because we are here right now. We can't be everywhere at once. Moms are the closest to omnipresence. I would agree with that. There are days I'm sitting at work and I hear my wife and my mom talking to me. I'm like... Then I realized it was my phone. But we can possess some of God's attributes.
• 25:24
  Not to the perfection that God has possessed them, but we can strive to be that. We can strive to be holy. We'll never have His holiness, at least not until we are transformed after the resurrection of us through the coming of Christ. We can have righteousness and justice. I totally believe that. I deal with that every day in my line of work. I have to be righteous and I have to execute justice in my job.
• 25:54
  I have to use discretion on when to be just and how hard for that justice to be. And on when to show grace and when to show mercy. If I pull you over for speeding, you better hope I'm filling a mercy day, right? I did pull over a youth pastor for a church one time. That was a side note.
• 26:25
  And I was feeling some grace and mercy initially, but when I walked up to the van the second time, he had about eight youth group kids with him, and he was doing about 20 over the speed limit. And he started telling me that I shouldn't have pulled him over, and he's running late for church, and he kind of went off on me in front of his youth group. And I looked at him, and I said, you know what? I was going to show some grace and mercy, but this is a situation where I think God is telling me I need to show you some righteous judgment here.
• 26:55
  And he goes, excuse me. And I go, I was going to give you a warning, but I'll be right back. I went back to the patrol car and I wrote him a ticket. And I came back and I said, if you're going to be disrespectful to the authority that God has bestowed upon me, as Romans chapter 13 talks about, as a servant and a minister of his, then you're being disrespectful to God. And let me tell you, that disrespect you showed me just now set a bad example for your youth group. And it showed them that you can disrespect authority and police officers.
• 27:23
  So I'm going to teach your youth group here a practical lesson. You are now going to go to court so that they can understand that there's consequences for your actions. And I handed him a ticket. He actually humbled himself in that moment, apologized to me, and said he just learned a valuable lesson. And he told his youth group, don't ever learn this lesson the way I just did. I did walk away laughing. I was like, thank you, Lord.
• 27:59
  Righteousness and justice, right? But there's also love. We can strive to be loving. And in my line of work as a police officer, I try to show that as much as I can towards people. I've had people come to know Christ in the back of my patrol car many times because I've been able to show love, even when I'm taking them to jail. So we can strive to show God's love. There's harmony in God's attributes. God's attributes, they all do work together.
• 28:31
  God is love and yet He's also just. How does His justice and His love harmonize together? How do you guys think God's justice and love would harmonize together? Great. He loves... He does. He loved us so much He sent Jesus to die for us. If we choose to accept Jesus, we'll be in heaven because our sins are washed away and our holiness...
• 29:11
  One day we'll be as His. But His justice is that if we choose to reject Christ, He wants nothing to do with us. We are put to shame and we are wiped out. We will end up in the lake of fire with Satan and all the demons. Whoever rejects Christ gets to suffer the same punishment for eternity. That's a crazy thought. I'm still going. I'm not going there.
• 29:37
  The rhetorical question that I would ask is, would our society be just if we did not punish murderers? And would God be just if he did not punish sin or sinners? Think about it. If we didn't punish murderers, and it seems like nowadays we're starting to get there, it wouldn't be just. And if God didn't punish sinners, that wouldn't be just. So let's look at some of his attributes. And as we do, let us dwell on the attributes that we can apply to our lives.
• 30:09
  And let's look at God's holiness. This is where I wrote some notes down. Actually, I think I used all my notes there. So the holiness of God. God is absolutely pure and perfect. His holiness is repeated oftentimes in Scripture. It's the most repeated attribute actually in Scripture. The Bible talks a lot about God's holiness. Revelation 4.8. Holy, holy, holy.
• 31:11
  They're talking in Revelations, I believe it's all the living creatures in heaven, the cherubim, the seraphim. They are constantly praising God in heaven and calling out how holy He is. Psalms 89.35, God swears by His holiness. So when you dwell in God's holiness, what is your response? When I dwell in God's holiness, I fear. I fear for my sin. I fear for how I live my life. I can't even...
• 31:48
  Even when I think I'm being so good and so amazing and so godly and wonderful, I think of God's holiness. I'm like, oof, I am not worthy. How does God's holiness affect us? Well, it shows us where we are in our life. I think it's going to come up here in a minute too because we're going to talk about the law a little bit. But we know where we stand in Christ or with God because of His holiness. And how does His holiness affect us?
• 32:23
  Your worship for God. Think about that. How does knowing how holy is affect how you worship Him? For me, it makes me more humble. But it also excites me because I know that by His grace, I will attain His holiness one day. And I can't wait. I can't wait to be holy. It causes me to just praise Him even more all the time. Holiness to me is probably, out of all the attributes we're going to talk about,
• 33:01
  I think it should have been listed last in our lesson, honestly. Because I think it is like the culmination of all His attributes all into one. To me, it's the thing of God that everything just kind of goes into. If you think of holiness as a big bin and all His attributes going into it, that would be holiness. So what is the difference between righteousness and justice? Does anyone know?
• 33:35
  This is something I've never really thought about a lot. The difference between righteousness and justice. Because I always think of them kind of as synonyms. But there's a little bit of a difference. In righteousness, God does what is right. He does not do anything wrong. So he does what is right. It's basically doing the right thing. Doing what is right. Not doing what is wrong. But justice is God's legislation.
• 34:05
  And it's Him legislating His righteous standards on us. So we bring that into, say, just typical law. Doing what's right. We know it's right to not assault somebody, not hit somebody. So justice would be if we assault somebody or we hit them, you can get arrested. So that's a good way to equate it. So righteousness is doing what is right. Justice is being held accountable when you violate that righteousness.
• 34:38
  So how does God's righteousness affect us? Some of these questions are going to be the same. But how does God's righteousness affect us? Anyone got an example? How His righteousness would affect us? Okay. Right? But we'll never attain that in this life. So it drives us to need our Savior. It drives us to Jesus Christ. His righteousness drives us to Christ.
• 35:17
  It's kind of a cool thought when you think of it like that. In your prayer life, how does God's righteousness affect your prayer life? For me, it causes me to seek God more when I think about His righteousness. God's righteousness on the unbeliever causes me, and this was in my notes here, but I agree with it, it causes me to want to witness to them because His judgment on them is eternal. It's final.
• 35:52
  I know that I'm going to miss out on that, thank God. But I also ache for people who don't know Christ. The people I work with who don't know Christ, the police officers I work with, I don't know how they do that job. Because if they come to a sudden end, tomorrow at work, tonight while they're working or whatever, and they don't know Christ, that's it. That's it. All the good they did as a police officer. They'll be called a hero. You'll see it on the news, whatever. None of that matters.
• 36:22
  Because they knew not God. His righteousness causes me to be thankful that I have Christ. And it drives me to my knees in humility. And it really does drive me to my knees. When I humble myself before the Lord, it's because of how righteous He is. And the fact that I get to miss out on that justice. I'm going to have to kind of speed up a little bit. I've got 15 minutes. God is a sovereign God. He's subject to no one else. He does as He pleases.
• 37:00
  Romans 8.28 says all things work together. It actually says for the good of those who work according to His purpose. But God orchestrates that. His sovereignty affects us by knowing that nothing is out of control. I know that He's there for us. He comforts us. Now it's not like He's got puppet strings, but He's there. And no matter what happens, He takes care of us.
• 37:36
  It affects our worship. This is going to be one of the questions. It affects worship because it helps us to know that we have security in Him. And it helps us to stop worrying. Okay? This week was a big living example for me. I've had something at work that I'm stressing out over. And I was worried on Tuesday, in fact. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was Tuesday, I think. I was working myself up into a frenzy over this issue I'm dealing with.
• 38:05
  I went to one of my sergeants who thankfully is a believer and a Christian. And I'm like, Sarge, we need to pray. He's like, why? I said, I'm getting myself worked up over this. And usually, and this is a guy who came to know Christ through another officer and my example. And usually it's been I who's been ministering to him. But I'm like, I'm working myself up over this issue. And he goes, let's pray. So we shut his office door and we prayed about it. And I haven't worried about it since.
• 38:32
  That's the good thing about God's sovereignty is that it helps us realize we have no need to worry. And we know we can praise Him for His power. God is eternal. His eternality. That's very important. God has had no beginning and no end. How many of you know John 3.16? Raise your hand. Anyone who was raised in church probably knows John 3.16. You learn that when you're like five years old. Right? But what does John 3.16 say? It says,
• 39:07
  You know, for God, soul of the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. So if God's going to offer us everlasting life through Christ, we know that He's eternal to the end. But we also know that He was eternal from the beginning. Genesis 1, 1 talks about that. What does that eternality mean for our salvation? It means we're with Christ, we're with God, we're in heaven with Him forever. And for the unbeliever, what does it mean for them?
• 39:46
  Separation from God. I think that's the worst part about going to hell. I think to me the heat is going to be the second worst part of that whole mess because they're truly going to understand separation from God, cut off from Him, not have any connection to God like we do today with Him, writing Him in our hearts.
• 40:14
  I truly believe that. A lot of people think, well, there will be fire in houses, probably be orange flames and glowing light. Actually, the hottest part of a fire is the dark part, the blue part, the blue flame. The part you really don't see is the hottest part. That's what's scary. The immutability of God. What is the immutability of God? He never changes. He doesn't change His purpose and He doesn't change His nature. People are like, does God change?
• 40:46
  I don't think He's changed since the day He created the heaven, the earth, the sea, humanity. Because God's always been God. He's always been holy. If you want to go back and look up James 1.17, James talks about how God does not vary. And what does the fact that He doesn't change mean for our salvation? What does it mean for us? We can't lose it. And what effect does that have on the unbeliever? That's right.
• 41:22
  That's right. So God will not change His mind about our salvation. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 talk about this. It basically says in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. We're sealed with God's Holy Spirit. That's a cool thing to think about. But for the unbeliever, it also, like Nathan, Pastor Nathan just said, he will not change his mind about the judgment of sin.
• 41:51
  And he said what that judgment is going to be for the unbeliever. And he is not going to change. He's not going to go to heaven and be like, Oh Jesus, I believe you now. I was a good person. He's telling me because he's going to say, Even at your best, you're not good enough for me. And you didn't accept my son. And you didn't accept his blood. So that's one of the other favorite, for me, one of the other favorite attributes of God is his immutability. Because it reassures me.
• 42:21
  To know that He's forgiven me. It doesn't mean that I have a right to live a sinful life. I guess then I would need to check if I truly accepted Him. Because I truly desire to please God and make Him happy. Because I know Him. So I know that my salvation is with me forever. And that's what I love about God's immutability. God's omniscience. Side note on God's immutability. That is something that I've taught in the past. Especially about how we're secure in our salvation.
• 42:55
  It's just something that if you haven't studied, study Ephesians chapter 1 and really look at how God has filled us and saved us. And it'll excite you. It really will excite you. It'll make you want to serve God even more. The omniscience of God. What is God's omniscience? He is all-knowing. God knows everything about every single one of us. What we do in dark, what we do in light. What we do behind closed doors.
• 43:26
  or what we do out in the open. When I train new police officers, one of the things I talk to them about is making sure you're doing the right thing for the right reasons all the time. When you're driving your police car and you're alone, act like you're on camera. And some of them will be like, why is that? Well, for me, because I know if God's watching, He sees what I do. That's what I tell them. I say, if you don't believe in God, people have cell phone cameras and there's cameras everywhere now, but always do what's right for the right reasons.
• 44:03
  For us, it's because God knows all. He sees all. He knows all. He knows all our sin. None of us can hide any sin from God. We might think we are. We might think we're pulling a fast one on Him, but we're not. He knows what we think about in our private thoughts. What we think, how we think. How many of you would fear if everyone found out what God knows about your thoughts? I have to be honest with you. I'm guilty of that. I don't want anyone to know some of my private thoughts.
• 44:37
  Olivia, would you want anyone to know our private thoughts about people in your life? I don't know. Olivia was mad at someone one day and she's like, oh, if only. And I go, oh, God's going to hear that thought. We always laugh. God can be the perfect judge because of how He knows everything. That's what makes Him a perfect judge of us. Because He knows. He knows what's best for us. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
• 45:13
  That's so true. Even when we think we know ourselves, sometimes God surprises me with me. But the amazing thing about that attribute of God is that even though He knows all our sins, all our thoughts, everything bad about us, He loves us so much He sent Jesus to die for us. And that's the best thing. To me, it's amazing that God would love me because I'm not worthy. God's omnipresence. He's present everywhere.
• 45:43
  He's everywhere. Jeremiah 23, 23, and 24 talks about how God is always near. The Bible says that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in the midst. God is in our midst right now because we're more than two or three and we're here in His name. So He's present. And how does that affect us that He's near? Well, we can't hide from God. We're always in His presence. We can always pray.
• 46:16
  And we know that the Holy Spirit is all over the world because He's indwelling every believer in this world. Every believer in this world. Can you imagine? That's a big job for the Holy Spirit if you think about it. It's a good thing He can be everywhere. Right? God is omnipotent. That means He's all-powerful. Genesis 1.27 talks about God being the Creator. Hebrews 1.3 says God upholds all things.
• 46:50
  Psalms 37, 23, and 24, God controls our lives. In Isaiah 41, 10, God will uphold us. God is all-powerful. He has the power to bring His promises to fruition. No problem is too big for God. I tell my kids all the time, God is bigger than the boogeyman. Quoted in the famous words of Bob the Tomato. He has the power to provide for all of our needs and the power to save us and to resurrect us.
• 47:27
  God is love. Romans 5.8 How does God demonstrate His love towards us? That while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us, right? God's love talks about the patience and kindness. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Read the whole chapter. Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5 talks about God's great love and being demonstrated towards us with His mercy. 1 John 4.19 We love because He loved us.
• 48:02
  God's love is so great and so amazing and it affects us because He died for us and because of that we are going to be with Him for eternity. That's the best way to sum up God's love. God's truth. He is truthful. Absolute truth. How many of you think of absolute truth? You listen to all the stuff on the news and we have all this fighting in our Congress and this is true, no that's true and all this stuff going on but God's truth is so true that
• 48:34
  man's truth is going to look like a bunch of lies next to it. It's almost like comparing our holiness to His. God's truth is something that we need to study because it should be the foundation of our life and it needs to permeate our life. The ultimate truth of God is that He created us to love Him and to serve Him. He sent Christ to die for us so that we could be.
• 49:06
  Born again so that we could be raised to live with Him. That's ultimately what His truth is. That's the opposite of Satan's lie. Satan's lie to Adam and Eve was, eat the fruit of the tree so that you will be knowledgeable. Yet that fruit is what brought forth death. God's truth is opposite of that. God brings forth life. God's mercy is compassion. That's attribute number 11. Mercy is God's compassion or His forbearance upon those of us
• 49:36
  Who have opposed his will. God is being rich in mercy. And he saved us because of his great love. Ephesians 2, 4 and 5. How does God's mercy affect our life? We know that we are sinful. And we have violated his holiness. We need his mercy. We need his forgiveness. We need to be thankful for his mercy. Because he saves us. But we also need to know that because of God's mercy. Through Christ. Because of what he has done for us.
• 50:13
  That we can be thankful because we know He saved us. We know that we are not worthy, but with God's mercy we are worthy. He washed us white as snow. We are worthy through His mercy. And because He showed us mercy, we should have mercy towards others. We should have mercy towards others. How many of you go throughout your week being angry and mad at people? We all do, right? I can tell you right now, I drive a police car for a living and when I'm in traffic and I'm trying to get to a call,
• 50:43
  You know, someone's having a heart attack or someone's fighting or whatever. And somebody cuts me off and I got the lights and the siren going. That's the moment I don't want to show mercy. And God has convicted me in a police car in certain situations where he's like, you know, you can put the hammer down on this guy. You can give them justice. But this is a moment when you need to show mercy towards this person. And God used those situations. And sometimes we may not realize it.
• 51:13
  Because we're so caught up in ourselves and our selfishness, that God might be telling us to show a little bit of mercy. And you might actually change the way an event goes. So I'm going to close with this because it's 8 o'clock. We should fear God. Proverbs 9 and 10 talk about this. Revelation 15, 4. To fear God is to revere and worship Him. We should desire to know God. Psalms 27, 8 talks about this.
• 51:46
  And we should proclaim God. 1 Peter 2.9 talks about this. So we should fear God. We should desire to know God. And we should proclaim God. We should tell everybody about God. We should be willing to share Him with people. I risk getting fired at my job sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ because the state says that I, as a police officer who worked for the state, am not to share my religious faith with people. But Jesus Christ hung on a cross. He had nails.
• 52:17
  put into his hands, crowned the thorns on his head, nails in his feet, and he died on the cross. Who am I to be ashamed of him because I'm a police officer? Who am I to not share my faith for him with other people because I'm a police officer and the state says not to? God is bigger than the state. And if my chief were to fire me for sharing my faith, God will take care of me and bless me greater, I believe. Actually, I think...
• 52:44
  God will probably put me in ministry so I can reach more people for Him. And that's where I see that going. But I share my faith because I fear Him, because I desire Him, and I want to proclaim Him. And I will share my faith at work all the time. And sometimes you've got to do right and risk the consequences. So think about that. All the attributes of God will help you live out your Christian life. You will feel not worthy at times. You will feel...
• 53:14
  But then you also know God's mercy and grace. And you will be thankful. And it causes you to worship Him. So let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you Lord for this lesson Lord. For a chance for us to have a lesson that teaches us about your attributes. To cause us to desire to get to know you even more Lord God. Even in our lives. Even when we think we're...
• 53:42
  doing just fine and we're reading and studying Your Word, yet when we start thinking about it, we can never do enough. Because until we attain that perfection in You through the resurrection, until we're actually there worshiping You at Your feet with our crown of glory, Lord, we always want to strive to do better. Sometimes in our lives we do get caught up in ourselves and we fail to read Your Word like we should.
• 54:11
  Have a prayer life. But God, you're so amazing because your mercy is so awesome and great. And your love for us is so amazing that you forgive us. And you keep giving us that opportunity to love you because you loved us so much. And I thank you for that, Lord. Because you're an awesome and a mighty and a holy God. But you're also loving and graceful and righteous and just. Lord God, we just ask that you'll bless everyone here and everyone in the building tonight. Bless the rest of our week.
• 54:41
  Help us to think about you and to meditate on the things that you'd have us meditate on and then bring us all back together safely on Sunday, Lord God, so we can learn more about you. And we love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.