Jubilee Bible Study

1
Jubilee Bible Study
The Attributes of God-What is God Like?

• Do your best to present yourself to God as one
  approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
  rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Tim 215)

2
What is God Like?

• Gods Existence and Knowability
• The Trinity
• Gods Attributes
• Who Is Jesus?
• What we should say about God
• Conclusion

3
A note of warning as we begin.

• Do NOT expect to understand everything in this
  talk God is infinite, we are finite and cannot
  understand him fully.
• Almost all language used about God is a metaphor
  and therefore has the whisper God is but is
  not the same as the concept used to describe him
• This is not a mere intellectual exercise but has
  a goal that we might know, worship and follow God
  more
• The secret things belong to the Lord our God,
  but the things that are revealed belong to us and
  to our children forever, that we may do all the
  words of this law. (Deuteronomy 2929)

4
Arguments for Gods Existence

• Intelligent Design of the Universe (teleological)
• God as the Ultimate Cause that which came first
  (cosmological)
• The "being which nothing greater-than can be
  conceived (ontological)
• The presence of a universal basic set of ethics
  (moral argument)
• The Spiritual Nature of Mankind the mind-body
  problem
• The God-shaped hole in all cultures
• Christianity does people good (pragmatic
  argument)
• But we cannot use our reason to prove Gods
  existence for that would make our reason above
  God!

5
The Bible assumes God exists and people know

• In the beginning, God created the heavens and
  the earth. (Gen 11)
• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
  against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
  men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the
  truth.  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. Claiming to
  be wise, they became fools (Ro 118-22)
• The fool says in his heart, There is no God
  (Ps 141)

6
The knowability of God

• God is unknowable and invisible but chooses to
  reveal himself
• Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and
  knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
  judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who
  has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been
  his counselor? (Ro 1133-34)
• As finite beings, we cannot understand God
  completely
• For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face
  to face. Now I know in part then I shall know
  fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Cor
  1312)
• God has both transcendence and immanence
• Christians often emphasise one or the other

7
Jesus the revelation of God

• Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God
  spoke to our fathers by the prophets,  but in
  these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
  whom he appointed the heir of all things, through
  whom also he created the world. He is the
  radiance of the glory of God and the exact
  imprint of his nature, and he upholds the
  universe by the word of his power.. (Heb 11-4)
• No one has ever seen God the only God, who is
  at the Father's side, he has made him known.
  (John 118)
• Isaiah said these things because he saw his
  glory and spoke of him (John 1241)
• If you had known me, you would have known my
  Father also. From now on you do know him and have
  seen himWhoever has seen me has seen the Father.
  How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not
  believe that I am in the Father and the Father is
  in me? (John 147-10)

8
Father Son and Holy Spirit

• If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my
  Father will love him, and we will come to him and
  make our home with him.(John 1423)
• You, however, are not in the flesh but in the
  Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in
  you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of
  Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is
  in you, although the body is dead because of sin,
  the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If
  the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
  dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from
  the dead will also give life to your mortal
  bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
  (Romans 89-11)
• God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
  hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Gal 46)

9
There is order in God

• The Trinity has always and will always reflect a
  chain of authority
• But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to
  you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who
  proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness
  about me. (John 1526)
• But I want you to understand that the head of
  every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her
  husband, and the head of Christ is God (1
  Corinthians 113)
• The words that I say to you I do not speak on my
  own authority, but the Father who dwells in me
  does his works. (John 1410)
• God has put all things in subjection under his
  feet.when all things are subjected to him, then
  the Son himself will also be subjected to him who
  put all things in subjection under him, that God
  may be all in all. (1 Cor 1527-28)

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Why we believe in the Trinity

• We believe in One God in Three Persons
• Let us make man in our image, after our
  likeness (Gen 126)
• baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
  the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mat 2819)
• You shall worship the Lord your God and him only
  shall you serve. (Mt 410)
• I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me
  there is no God (Is 455)
• Jesus accepts worship
• My Lord and my God! (John 2028)
• Let all God's angels worship him. (Heb 16)
• Jesus shares all the unique characteristics of
  God
• For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells
  bodily (Col 29)

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God is an independent community

• Because of his sufficiency Trinity, He doesnt
  need us!
• The God who made the world and everything in it,
  being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
  temples made by man, nor is he served by human
  hands, as though he needed anything, since he
  himself gives to all mankind life and breath and
  everything. (Acts 1724-25)
• He DIDNT make the world because he was lonely
  God existed as a Trinity in community eternally
• God is love (1 John 48)
• Jesus Fatheryou loved me before the foundation
  of the world (John 1724)

12
God is the source of everything

• God For from him and through him and to him are
  all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Ro
  1136)
• Jesus He is the image of the invisible God, the
  firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things
  were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and
  invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
  or authoritiesall things were created through
  him and for him. And he is before all things, and
  in him all things hold together (Col 115-17)
• The Spirit The earth was without form and void,
  and darkness was over the face of the deep. And
  the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of
  the waters. (Gen 12)

13
God created diversity

• There are many weird animals and sea-creatures
  that God must have had a lot of fun making!
• O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom
  have you made them all the earth is full of your
  creatures. (Psalm 10424)
• God delights in the variety in His Church
• ..so that through the church the manifold wisdom
  of God might now be made known to the rulers and
  authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians
  310)

14
God is eternal He always existed

• God Before the mountains were brought forth or
  ever you had formed the earth and the world, from
  everlasting to everlasting you are God (Ps 902)
• Jesus In the beginning was the Word, and the
  Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
  in the beginning with God.  All things were made
  through him, and without him was not any thing
  made that was made.  In him was life, and the
  life was the light of men. The light shines in
  the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
  it. (John 11-5)

15
God is Eternal the first and last

• God I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord
  God, who is and who was and who is to come, the
  Almighty. (Rev 18)
• Jesus I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first
  and the last, the beginning and the end. Rev
  (2213)
• Father, glorify me in your own presence with the
  glory that I had with you before the world
  existed (John 175)

16
God is Omniscient He Knows Everything

• God For whenever our heart condemns us, God is
  greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
  (1 John 320)
• No creature is hidden from his sight, but all
  are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom
  we must give account. (Heb 413)
• How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
  How vast is the sum of them! (Ps 13917)
• Jesus and needed no one to bear witness about
  man, for he himself knew what was in man. John
  224-25 (NIV)
• Now we know that you know all things (John
  1630)
• Spirit For the Spirit searches everything, even
  the depths of God. For who knows a person's
  thoughts except the spirit of that person, which
  is in him? So also no one comprehends the
  thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Cor
  210-11)

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Our Response to Gods Omniscience

• O Lord, you have searched me and known me!You
  know when I sit down and when I rise upyou
  discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my
  path and my lying down and are acquainted with
  all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue,
  behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem
  me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon
  me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is
  high I cannot attain it.
• Your eyes saw my unformed substancein your
  book were written, every one of them,the days
  that were formed for me, when as yet there were
  none of them. (Ps 1391-6, 16)

18
God knows the future

• God I am God, and there is no other I am God,
  and there is none like me, declaring the end from
  the beginning and from ancient times things not
  yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
  will accomplish all my purposeI have spoken, and
  I will bring it to pass I have purposed, and I
  will do it. (Is 469-11)
• Jesus I am telling you this now, before it
  takes place, that when it does take place you may
  believe that I am (John 139)

19
Therefore God is never surprised

• "God knows everything that ever was, everything
  that now is, and everything that is to be all
  that is actual and all that is possible.
  Therefore God knows in advance all the free acts
  of all free creatures" John Edgren
• Everyone who believes in God at all believes
  that He knows what you and I are going to do
  tomorrow (C. S.Lewis, Mere Christianity)
• The modern teaching Open Theism denies this.

20
God is not bound by time

• God with the Lord one day is as a thousand
  years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Pe
  38)
• For a thousand years in your sight are but as
  yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the
  night. (Ps 904)
• I am who I am. (Ex 314) or I am what I am, or
  I will be what I will be Gods name Yahweh
• Jesus Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say
  to you, before Abraham was, I am. So they picked
  up stones to throw at him (John 858-59)

21
God is Outside of Time

• God views the whole span of history as vividly
  as he would if it were a brief event that had
  just happened. But he also views a brief event as
  if it were going on forever. God sees and knows
  all events past present and future with equal
  vividness. Though he has no succession of
  moments, he still sees the progression of events
  at different points in time Wayne Grudem

22
God is unchangeable

• God For I the Lord do not change (Mal 36)
• Jesus Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
  today and forever. (Heb 138)
• God both does and doesnt have regrets!
• I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has
  turned back from following me (1 Sam 1511)
• the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret,
  for he is not a man, that he should have regret.
  (1 Sam 1529)

23
God does truly relate to us

• If at any time I declare concerning a nation or
  a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down
  and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning
  which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will
  relent of the disaster that I intended to do to
  it.
• And if at any time I declare concerning a nation
  or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and
  if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my
  voice, then I will relent of the good that I had
  intended to do to it. (Jer 187-10)

24
How God can both regret and not regret

• So the repentance over Saul means not that he
  did not know what Saul would be like, but that he
  disapproves of what Saul has become and that he
  feels sorrow at this evil in his anointed king
  and that he looks back on his making him king
  with the same sorrow that he experienced at that
  moment when he made him king, foreknowing all the
  sorrow that would come
• For God to say, "I feel sorrow that I made Saul
  king," is not the same as saying, "I would not
  make him king if I had it to do over knowing what
  I know now." God is able to feel sorrow for an
  act that he does in view of foreknown evil and
  pain, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise
  reasons. John Piper

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God is Wise

• God the only wise God (Ro 1627)
• Great is our Lord, and abundant in powerhis
  understanding is beyond measure (Ps 1475)
• Jesus Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
  God. (1 Cor 124)
• Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Lord shall rest
  upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
  the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of
  knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 112)

26
God is Truth

• God
• God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of
  man, that he should change his mind. Has he said,
  and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will
  he not fulfill it? (Nu 2319)
• God, who never lies (Tit 12)
• Jesus
• I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No
  one comes to the Father except through me.  If
  you had known me, you would have known my Father
  also. From now on you do know him and have seen
  him. (John 146)

27
God is omnipresent He is everywhere

• God Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or
  where shall I flee from your presence? If I
  ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed
  in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of
  the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of
  the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and
  your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely
  the darkness shall cover me, and the light about
  me be night, even the darkness is not dark to
  you the night is bright as the day, for darkness
  is as light with you. (Psalm 1397-10)
• "Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the
  Lord." (Je 2324)
• Jesus For where two or three are gathered in
  my name, there am I among them. (Matthew 1820)

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But, it is not wrong to speak of God coming

• Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he
  it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be
  loved by my Father, and I will love him and
  manifest myself to him.. my Father will love him,
  and we will come to him and make our home with
  him. (John 1421)
• But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to
  you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who
  proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness
  about me. (John 1526)

29
God is omnipotent he is all-powerful

• Ah, Lord God! It is you who has made the heavens
  and the earth by your great power and by your
  outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
  (Jer 3217)
• Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly
  than all that we ask or think, according to the
  power at work within us (Eph 320)
• Jesus Who then is this, that even wind and sea
  obey him? (Mark 441)

30
More of Gods Attributes

• God is uncontainable
• But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold,
  heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you
  how much less this house that I have built (1 Ki
  827)
• ..he was transfigured before them, and his face
  shone like the sun, and his clothes became white
  as light... Peter said to Jesus, .. if you wish,
  I will make three tents here... He was still
  speaking when, behold, a bright cloud
  overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud
  said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
  well pleased listen to him.  When the disciples
  heard this, they fell on their faces and were
  terrified. (Mat 172-6)

31

• God is light (1 John 15)
• Jesus - I am the light of the world. (John
  812)
• God is spirit (John 424)
• Jesus And the Word became flesh and dwelt
  among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of
  the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
  truth (John 114)

32

• God is Holy (Ps 999)
• Jesus I know who you arethe Holy One of God.
  (Lk 434)
• God is righteous and just
• No one is good except God alone (Lk 1819)
• .. your heavenly Father is perfect (Mat 548)
• Jesus For our sake he made him to be sin who
  knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
  righteousness of God (2 Cor 521)
• God is Jealous and full of wrath
• The Lord is a jealous and avenging God the Lord
  is avenging and wrathful the Lord takes
  vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for
  his enemies. (Nahum 12)
• Jesus Zeal for your house will consume me.
  (John 217)

33
God is sovereign -His will always ultimately
comes to pass

• according to the purpose of him who works all
  things according to the counsel of his will (Eph
  111)
• I know that you can do all things, and that no
  purpose of yours can be thwarted (Job 422)
• Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it
  is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
  (Prov 1921)
• Our God is in the heavens he does all that he
  pleases ( Ps 1153)
• Jesus All authority in heaven and on earth has
  been given to me. (Matthew 2818)
• But he is not responsible for sin
• God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself
  tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he
  is lured and enticed by his own desire (James
  113-14)

34
Who is Jesus?

• Jesus shares all the attributes of God he was
  eternally one of the three persons in the Trinity
• He is frequently described with the word lord
  used 6,814 times in Septuagint (Greek translation
  of OT) for Hebrew name Jehovah/Yahweh
• Jesus is also fully man and a real mans man.
• He was in the world, and the world was made
  through him, yet the world did not know himthe
  Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1)
• And making a whip of cords, he drove them all
  out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And
  he poured out the coins of the money-changers and
  overturned their tables. (John 215)

35
Jesus was really a man

• He was born of a normal human mother
• He grew and became strong (Luke 240) and
  increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour
  with God and man (Luke 252)
• He was hungry (Matthew 42) and he said I
  thirst (John 1928)
• He got wearied from a journey (John 46) and
  he slept (Luke 823)
• He was not a Clark Kent figure only pretending
  to be vulnerable
• There were things that Jesus the man did not know
  But concerning that day or that hour, no one
  knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the
  Son, but only the Father. (Mark 1332)

36
Jesus felt all our emotions

• He marvelled (Matt 810)
• Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.The
  scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of
  uprightness you have loved righteousness and
  hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has
  anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your
  companions (Ps 456-7)
• Jesus Wept (John 1135)
• My soul is very sorrowful, even to death (Mt
  2638)

37

• Jesus was fully human and fully God he was
  not God with a human veneer like a costume. He
  was a real flesh and blood man, a carpenters son
  John Piper
• Its hard to worship someone you can beat up
  Mark Driscoll
• An infinite God came to live in a finite
  world.. In Jesus God and man became one
  personFor Jesus Christ was and always will be,
  fully God and fully man in one person Wayne
  Grudem

38
Jesus remains a man forever

• Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise
  in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it
  is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does
  not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
  And when he had said this, he showed them his
  hands and his feet. And while they still
  disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said
  to them, Have you anything here to eat? They
  gave him a piece of broiled fish,  and he took it
  and ate before them. (Luke 2438-43)
• This Jesus, who was taken up from you into
  heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him
  go into heaven. (Acts 111)

39
How can Jesus be both man and God?

• Three Errors and One Solution

40
Error 1 - A human body but not a human mind or
spirit Mickey Mouse suit
41
Error 2 Two persons in One Body Circus
horse suit
42
Error 3 One New Nature neither God nor man!
Drop of ink in water
43
The Solution - Two Natures but One Person
44
Some things are True only of One Nature

• Jesus human nature ascended to heaven and is no
  longer in the world - Jn 1628 I am leaving the
  world
• But his divine nature is everywhere present-
• Matt 2820 I am with you always
• So both things are true about the person of
  Christhe has returned to heaven, and he is also
  present with us.
• Jesus felt weak and tired (Matt. 42 824 Mark
  1521 John 46), but in his divine nature he was
  omnipotent (Matt. 82627 Col. 117 Heb. 13).
• Jesus was 30 years old and existed from eternity!
• A false Objection- Omniscience and ignorance,
  omnipotence and impotence cannot coexist. The
  former swamps the latter. A.N.S. Lane

45
The Two Natures and Jesus death

• ..it is not correct to say that Jesus divine
  nature died, or could die, if die means a
  cessation of activity, a cessation of
  consciousness, or a diminution of power.
  Nevertheless, by virtue of union with Jesus
  human nature, his divine nature somehow tasted
  something of what it was like to go through
  death. The person of Christ experienced death.
  Moreover, it seems difficult to understand how
  Jesus human nature alone could have borne the
  wrath of God against the sins of millions of
  people. It seems that Jesus divine nature had
  somehow to participate in the bearing of wrath
  against sin that was due to us (though Scripture
  nowhere explicitly affirms this). Therefore, even
  though Jesus divine nature did not actually die,
  Jesus went through the experience of death as a
  whole person, and both human and divine natures
  somehow shared in that experience. Wayne Grudem
  

46
A Biblical Summary of God

• The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
  slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
  and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for
  thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
  and sin, but who will by no means clear the
  guilty... (Ex 346)
• "I am God, and there is no other    I am God,
  and there is none like me,
• declaring the end from the beginning   and from
  ancient times things not yet done,saying, 'My
  counsel shall stand,   and I will accomplish all
  my purpose I have spoken, and I will bring it
  to pass   I have purposed, and I will do it.
  (Is 469-11)

47

• Therefore God has highly exalted him and
  bestowed on him the name that is above every
  name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
  should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
  earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
  is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
  (Philippians 29-11)

48
What should we say about God?

• What do other Christians say about God?
• Together for the Gospel Statement, 2006
• What does Jubilee believe about God?
• Membership Course
• Evangelical Alliance Statement of Faith
• See also the Chalcedonian creed

49
Together for The Gospel

• We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be
  infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly
  omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and
  self-existent. We further affirm that God
  possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past,
  present, and future, including all human
  thoughts, acts, and decisions.
• We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way
  limited in terms of knowledge or power or any
  other perfection or attribute, or that God has in
  any way limited his own perfections

50
What does Jubilee believe about God?

• Life in jubilee church can be summarised
  as Loving God, Loving each other, and Loving the
  World. (Membership course)
• It is not enough to merely believe certain truths
  about God, we must love him with all our hearts
  and love the people he has made!

51

• Jubilee is a member of the Evangelical Alliance
  and so holds to its statement of faith-
• We Believe in.
• The one true God who lives eternally in three
  personsthe Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• The love, grace and sovereignty of God in
  creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and
  judging the world.

52
This God chooses to take delight in us!

• God The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty
  one who will save he will rejoice over you with
  gladness he will quiet you by his love he will
  exult over you with loud singing (Zeph 317)
• Jesus who for the joy that was set before him
  endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb
  122)
• He wants us to delight in Him!
• "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will
  say, Rejoice" (Philippians 44).
• "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give
  you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 374).
• Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in
  God believe also in me (John 141)

53
CONCLUSIONS

• IF we believe in a good, all-powerful,
  all-knowing, all-present, all-wise, all-loving
  God who is in control of every detail of the
  universe and works it all out for our good, how
  can we not trust him with our future?
• When we know God better, we become more like him
• And we all with unveiled face, beholding the
  glory of the Lord, are being changed into his
  likeness from one degree of glory to another (2
  Cor 318)
• One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I
  seek after that I may dwell in the house of the
  Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the
  beauty of the Lord (Ps 274)