We can learn about God’s existence by looking at the creation but this general revelation is not an effective way to become acquainted with the Creator. The person who says, "I can learn just as much about God by camping out in nature on Sunday as I can by sitting in church building and listening to some preacher talk about the Bible" is really just whistling in the dark. If we are going to know what God is like, we’re going to have to have more to work with than just our observations of the creation.

What picture forms in your mind when you think of God? Do you picture:

It would be interesting to sit down together sometime and compare notes.

How can we know what God is like? Theologians speak of two kinds of revelation: General revelation (also sometimes called "natural revelation") and special revelation.

General revelation is what we can learn about God by looking at nature and the cosmos. An example of general revelation is the statement of the Psalmist in Psalm 19:1: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."

General revelation can point us to the existence of God and tell us a few very broad and general things about Him but it doesn’t reveal much about His mind, His character, or His intentions in creating us.

Just as we can look at a wooden table or chair or even a house and learn that an architect or a carpenter exists, so we can look at the creation and understand from its orderliness and grandeur that it must have had a very awesome and powerful Creator. In fact, Paul said in Romans 1:20 that this general revelation is enough to take away man’s excuses about God’s existence. He wrote, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

We can learn about God’s existence by looking at the creation but this general revelation is not an effective way to become acquainted with the Creator. The person who says, "I can learn just as much about God by camping out in nature on Sunday as I can by sitting in church building and listening to some preacher talk about the Bible" is really just whistling in the dark. If we are going to know what God is like, we’re going to have to have more to work with than just our observations of the creation. This brings us to the second kind of revelation: Special revelation.

In the early times of man’s history, God occasionally spoke directly to people. This communication came sometimes in the form of a voice, sometimes in dreams, and sometimes visions. These were not normal occurrences, by the way, even then, which is an often overlooked fact among those who erroneously believe God speaks directly to everyone today.

Later in man’s history, God sent His Son to earth to reveal God’s character and intent. The Apostle John’s statement in John 1:18 is one of several passages that state this clearly: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."(KJV)

Jesus told His disciple Philip, as recorded in John 14:9: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father…."

Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God."

But Jesus is not still walking the earth today, so how are we to come to know what God is like?

Along the way in man’s history, God chose certain men He called prophets to speak and write what He revealed to them so that others could know it. These men, beginning with Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible and continuing down to the Apostle John who wrote the last book, guided by God in a special way, recorded the things God wanted us to know about Him.

Thus today, if we want to know God well, we must study what He has revealed about Himself through these prophets in His special revelation – the Bible.

So what does the Bible teach us about the nature of God? There is far too much for me to present here. I can only, as one author put it, "make a modest attempt to answer a God-sized question." In fact, a lifetime of Bible study would not totally exhaust the subject. I’m still learning and so are men who have been at it twice as long as I. But I have picked out twelve timely truths about God’s nature that are very important for all of us to know. Because of the restraints of time, we’ll limit ourselves to them.

The first truth about the nature of God is that:

The Bible doesn’t start by proving this. It begins by simply stating it. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is probably the very first verse we teach our children in the Sunday School.

The atheist often objects to this matter-of-fact presentation that is stated without proof. But the atheist needs to be reminded that there is no absolute proof of his presumptuous no-God position, either. While he may manufacture big bangs and other theories to buttress his posture, he really has no suitable explanation of the ultimate cause and origin or all we see around us. It is a far more reasonable conclusion when we look at the orderliness of the cosmos that a very wise and powerful designer must have created it. The Bible tells us clearly that this is God.

We’re talking about the nature of God and a second truth we learn about Him from the Bible is that:

Many verses in God’s special revelation, the Bible, declare this. Deuteronomy 33:27 says, "The eternal God is a dwelling place…." Romans 16:25-26 says, "…according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations…." Psalm 90:2 says, "Before the mountains were born, or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

Note that Paul separated the two characteristics, eternal and immortal. Eternal means "without beginning or end." Immortal means without death." Other beings are spoken of as immortal by the Bible. For instance, Jesus said in Luke 20:36 of those who are His in the resurrection: "…for neither can they die anymore, for they are like angels…."Apparently angels are immortal. They do not die. We can be immortal too, someday. While other beings then, can be immortal, only God is eternal, that is, without beginning or end.

Oh, and by the way, eternality is also attributed to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, the other two personages of the Godhead. Of the Son, Isaiah said in Isaiah 9:6: "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." I’ll leave you to wrestle with that one!

Of the Spirit, Hebrews 9:14 says, "…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

Thirdly, as to the nature of God:

We’ve already seen this in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." What is particularly interesting to me is the Hebrew word translated "created" in this passage. Listen to W.E. Vine’s Dictionary of Old Testament words. After stating that the Hebrew word for "created" in this verse is "bara?", Vine says, "This verb is of profound theological significance, since it has only God as its subject. Only God can "create" in the sense implied by bara'. The verb expresses creation out of nothing, an idea seen clearly in passages having to do with creation on a cosmic scale…."(1)

Only God can truly create. Thus it is right and proper for us to address God as The Creator. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:19, "Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right."

I particularly like to refer to God as The Creator when I’m conducting studies with non-believers who have been prejudiced against the God of the Bible by the many false things said about Him these days by ignorant men. By using the term "Creator" I know I’m speaking in a language that many of them can relate to since many people acknowledge the reasonability of special creation. As I move through the study, of course, I introduce the person to the Creator as God.

Fourthly, as to the nature of God:

There is no other God. Worship of anything besides the Creator is called idolatry in the Bible. Isaiah 44:6 says:

Ephesians 4:6 and 1Timothy 2:5 both say, "…there is one God…."

Of course many in this world worship other things that they hold in the place of God. This accounts for all the so-called "gods" worshipped by the contemporaries of ancient Israel. While these people who had turned away from their Creator worshipped these idols, and sometimes even Israel fell into such deception, the prophets clearly stated that they were not gods at all. Jeremiah 5:7 for instance, says, "Your sons have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods." Then again in Jeremiah 16:20: "Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!"

This propensity in man to make up gods rather than answer to the Creator is why God is referred to by the writers of the Bible as a "jealous" God. Exodus 34:14 says, "For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

"But I thought jealousy was a sin?" someone says. Jealousy is a sin in the context in which man usually holds to it. That is because man is often jealous over things that do not rightly belong to him. For instance, a girl might be "jealous" of her boyfriend spending time with some other girl. This often leads to some manifestation of immature adolescent behavior like temper tantrums or pouting. This is not the kind of "jealousy" that is a part of God’s nature.

The Hebrew word for jealous (qana?) in the Old Testament also carries the meaning of "zealous." W.E. Vine gives a functional definition as: "to be filled with righteous zeal." There is nothing wrong with being jealous or zealous for what is right or for what is rightly yours. For instance, it would not be wrong for me to be jealous (zealous) if my wife were going out with some other man. The monogamous institution of marriage cannot tolerate this. Said another way, she belongs to me! I belong to her! Such jealousy for the faithfulness that is proper in the marriage is necessary and right and good.

If you’d like some Biblical proof of that, listen to what was called "the law of jealousy" under the Old Covenant as laid out in Numbers 5:29-31:

Jealously is often a sin in the case of man because he is jealous for things not right or not rightly his. God is jealous only for what is right or rightly His.

It was because of this righteous jealousy or zeal that God commanded ancient Israel when they went into Canaan in Deuteronomy 7:5 to "tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire."

For those specially created in the image of God to turn away their affections that rightly belonged to The Creator and begin worshipping wood or stone or any other created thing as though man had another creator is so beneath man’s purpose that it invokes God’s righteous jealousy. This is not the same thing as the immature emotion of a jealous teenager or the competitive jealousy that can pop up when a peer gets something new or a special promotion that we don’t get. Don’t ever think that!

Fifthly, as to the nature of God:

By this I mean that He is not an impersonal "force" or principle of nature. Contemporary Americans are usually familiar with the popular Star Wars trilogy that portrayed a battle between good and evil. However, the good and evil of Star Wars was a battle between two impersonal sides of a supposed inanimate principle referred to as "the force." "The force be with you" was repeated numerous times in the series. Luke Skywalker was the champion for the good side of the force. Darth Vader was the champion for the dark side. The drama of the series was built around every effort to get Luke to defect to the "dark side." My point here is not to glorify a production of Hollywood. It is rather to point out a common example of a place in which there was a battle between two sides of an impersonal force that was not a being. It was just a principle of the universe. In contrast to this, God is a being. He is a person. No, not a human person, but a person or being nonetheless. For us to say "God be with you" is a far different thing than the Star Wars benediction, "the force be with you."

More times than I would want to count, the Bible shows us that God is a person. He is not human, of course, but neither is He an inanimate force. In Hebrews 1:1 we are told that God speaks. In 1 Samuel 16:7, He sees hearts. In Exodus 34:14 (which we’ve already seen) He is said to be "jealous." In the very well-known John 3:16 we read that He loves the world. In Genesis 6:6 we see that at one time God was sorry that He made man. In a number of places we read that the Lord was angry. In many other passages we read of his compassion and loving kindness. I could go on but I think with these you can see my point. The Creator is a person, not a thing, not an inanimate force. A force doesn’t love. A force doesn’t speak or see. God has emotions and expresses them. These are things that only a person can do. Understanding this part of the nature of God helps us see why God would want a personal relationship with us rather than just want us to conform to some form of good. Passages that refer to Him as "Father" suggest this. In fact, Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 both speak of those who know God calling out to Him with the words "Abba, Father!" The word "Abba" is an Aramaic term of endearment used only within the close circle of the family between a beloved child and his father.

I hope that you can see clearly how merely being a "good person" or wanting to "be on the side of good" falls far short of what God wants from us. Jesus didn’t come to earth and die so that we might become good people after some universal force of "good" in the world. He came to make it possible for us to be adopted into the family of God and become beloved children of a loving Father!

As Paul said in Romans 8:15: "…you have received a spirit of adoption as sons…."

We’re talking about the nature of God. Sixthly, and this will be all we have time for today:

All of us would do well to memorize (or at least be able to find) Isaiah 55:8-9:

One of the most common modern pitfalls when it comes to people wanting to know God comes from ignorance or misunderstanding of what these verses teach. People are ignorant of what God has revealed in His special revelation. So rather than try to correct that ignorance by increasing their knowledge of the Bible, they make the assumption that God probably thinks like they do. "If I were God, I would do such and such, therefore, that must be what God is like. He is like me."

A very common conclusion based on this kind of thinking has to do with the subjects of judgment and hell. The bible warns many times about the danger of both. Yet I often hear people say, "I cannot imagine how a God of love could put a person in such a place as hell. Certainly if I were God, I would not do such a thing!"

Newsflash! You’re not God! Furthermore, according to the verses we just read, God doesn’t think the way you do. So if you’re drawing your conclusions about God based on how you look at things, you will never have an accurate assessment of God’s nature. "My thoughts are not you thoughts, neither are my ways your ways." God doesn’t think the way we do!

This is what is so wrong with many of the manmade religions around us. Often they are based on man trying to figure out for himself based on his own experience what his Creator is like. But it is an exercise in futility. God doesn’t do things the way we do. He doesn’t think the way we do. He is so far above us and beyond us that, unless he tells us what He is like and what He wants in a special revelation, there is absolutely no way for us to know. When we try to figure Him out on our own we will get it wrong every time!

This is also what is wrong with some of the so-called "Christian" groups today who have gone far beyond the written word of God in their beliefs and practices. Jesus warned those who did this in His day in Matthew 15:9: "But in vain do they worship Me,

What is so wrong with the precepts of men? They are not God’s precepts! They come from man’s own thinking and extrapolating and concluding, based on human thinking. God doesn’t think like a human!

Folks, we need to, as Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4:6 "learn not to exceed what is written…." Why? Because the only way we can know what God wants and doesn’t want is to read what He has written to us through those He has chosen to speak to us on His behalf.

"Surely a God of love wouldn’t condemn a person to a place of eternal punishment called hell!" someone says.

Oh? Based on what? Based on what you think? Newsflash! God doesn’t think like you do, so you’d better start learning what He thinks while there is still time to make peace with Him.

"What am I supposed to do?" you ask.

Let me read you some words right out of this book. Earlier under this point I quoted Isaiah 55:8-9:

Do you know what the prophet Isaiah says in the verses immediately previous to these? He says something that is relevant to every person in this room. Here is what he says. This is Isaiah 55:6-7

Isn’t that a beautiful plea? Isn’t that a wonderful invitation? The eternal, immortal, unique, personal Creator of the Universe wants you to come to Him. He wants to give you mercy. He wants to pardon you for all of the things you have done in your ignorance of His word that have alienated you from Him. He wants a personal relationship with you where you are a beloved son or daughter. He wants you to pull out of the hell bent nose dive that so many are in today.

"Seek the Lord while He may be found." Right now you may, because you have been learning from this divine book, be closer to finding the Lord than you have ever been in your life. Don’t miss the opportunity! Seek Him while He may be found! You don’t know if such an opportunity will ever come around again.

The name of this sermon is "Twelve Timely Truths about the Nature of God." We’ve only covered six of them. Lord willing, when we meet next Sunday, if the Lord doesn’t return before then, we’ll finish up the other six. I hope you’ll make plans to be here.

1. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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