The Attributes of God

Three weeks ago, in youth group, we started a study on the attributes of God. Here is where we began:

Percentage of youth that leave the faith after high school: 70-75%. One of the reasons I think this happens is because people allow their heart to be taken by other things, less worthy things

If God, if Jesus Christ doesn’t grab our hearts and our minds; something else will.

What are some of those things grabbing after your hearts? (boys, girls, grades, sports, college, success, drugs, friends,) Why are they so appealing?

Simply put, our view of God directly influences what career we pursue, who we choose to marry or how we raise our children-the big decisions of life. Our desire to make the right choice leads us to choose based on who we understand God to be.

But our view of God also influences everything else -- our intentions, actions and opinions -- even if only subconsciously.

A.W. Tozer, writing in the early 1960s, acknowledged the pervasive importance of an accurate view of God. "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us," - The Knowledge of the Holy.

Evidence: When Paul wrote his New Testament letters, he never started with commands; he started with truth about God. He amazed them with God’s character and grace then he told them what they should do in light of that truth (Romans 12:1; Eph 4:1)

So what do we need to know that we don’t know already?

Let’s do this. Close your eyes. Clear your head of distractions. Think about what comes to your mind when you think about God. What do you see, or what comes to mind? Describe your thoughts if you can.

What is an attribute? To consider as a quality or characteristic of the person, thing, group, etc. By the way, how we feel about a person is normally defined by what we think their attributes are.

One of the reasons we are talking about this is because well intentioned, Bible believing Christians can develop a wrong view of who God is. Consider some of these quotes:

“It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.²The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him—and of her.” –Tozer

“The god of this century no more resembles the Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The god who is talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday school, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences, is a figment of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality. The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods of wood and stone, while millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their carnal minds.” –Pink

These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. (Psalms 50:21)

So, how do we come to a correct view of God? Nature gives us enough to know there is a God. Apart from that we don’t really know much about him, which is why people end up worshiping the sun or a rabbit. The Bible really gives us what we need to know who he really is.

Anything, outside of or contrary to this revelation is wrong. It’s our standard

So what are some practical results of understanding God’s character ?

1. The character of God is the basis and standard for all human morality.

The final verse of Judges reads: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

One might think the solution to this dilemma was a human king, but it was not. The kind of “king” Israel wanted was in effect an idol. They wanted a king whom they could see, a man who would go before them into battle. They wanted a king like all the other nations (see Deuteronomy 17:14-17). When the people approached Samuel and demanded to have a king, God indicated they really were rejecting Him as their king:

5 And they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us. “And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them (1 Samuel 8:5-7).

2. Wrong views of God lead to idolatry and sin.

Wrong thoughts about God were the root of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, the character of God is first demeaned by Satan. By Satan’s devious question and answer tactics, God is portrayed as a liar (“Has God said . . . ?” verse 1), (“You surely shall not die!” verse 4). Based upon the assumption that God was less than He first seemed to be (and was!), Eve acted independently of God, and she and her husband thus disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit.

3. Can a person enjoy God?

When you meet someone for the first time it takes a while before you can get to the point where you enjoy your relationship. The beginning is normally pretty awkward, but you share some experiences together, get some inside jokes going then you are able to enjoy the relationship.

We can grow in our relationship with him by getting a good understanding of who he is.

4. The attributes of God are foundational to our faith and our hope.

What would you think of a God who didn’t keep his word? “Hey, I know I promised you eternal life but I changed my mind”. God is not fickle and moody like the Greek gods whose worshipers lived in fear of what their gods would do next. The fact that I know God is wholly trustworthy gives me the ability to trust in him and have hope in him.

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at some of the attributes of God and delve a little deeper into the fill in the blank: God is ________________.