Systematic Theology (part 10)

Before we start looking at the attributes themselves I want to ask a question how how was your week. Maybe for some of you it was great. Maybe for some of you there were some mixed you know challenges.

Maybe for some of you it was exhilarating and for others it was you know discouraging. While we have life and breath we are going to face on this side of eternity with our frail with our with the world that we live in.

We're going to be facing events that can draw us down. But there is one sure way to have our hearts lifted up and our spirits rejoicing. And what might that be. Amen reflecting upon the great work of Jesus Christ and what he has done in our life.

You know when you look at the circumstances in life when we look at our own inabilities to do things you know we like. Okay you know why all this what must I be doing. You know the challenge is too great for me.

And then we lift our eyes up we look at who Christ is what he has done for me. And then all these just sink into the background and our hearts rejoice and say you know I here is who I am undeserving of anything that God would shower upon me and yet God has blessed me in the heavenly places.

And so when we look to God we can see the many blessings that we should be thankful for. So this morning we're going to be looking at a couple of attributes of God that I hope will encourage you in your walk.

And but before we begin so all of you or most of you have the sand out. I think Sunita is making more copies. So this is a table of the attributes. And we were looking if you remember at the three persons of the Trinity and we were not doing it in an academic sense we were looking at it in a devotional sense how the Father is fully God how the Son is fully God and how the Spirit is fully God and how they share these divine attributes as three distinct persons.

And yet we worship one true God. So we've seen these attributes in your handouts. We've seen eternality we've seen power we've seen omniscience we've seen omnipresence. And today we are going to continue on holiness.

But any thoughts on what we've seen so far in terms of who God is as the eternal God the the omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent God. Anything that comes to mind you want to share as you have reflected upon these verses you remember for example in eternality from everlasting to everlasting you are God and that has a tremendous significance for our lives today.

Does anyone remember here why God being eternal has any significance to our day-to-day time-bound existence. In Psalm 90 verse 2 Moses talks about how God is the everlasting God. And before the mountains were put in place before you know the places that we are we are nomads here.

We don't know where we are going to rest our heads the next day. And when we look to the objects of our rest and our comfort and our support when we look at the land that you're going to live in all of these things will come and go.

But there is one person who never ever passes with time and this is God from eternity to eternity he is God. And there is great comfort in knowing that this is the God whom we worship we are going to pass through time but our God is everlasting to everlasting.

And the same thing with power we looked at how God's omnipotence has a significance for our spiritual walk. In first Peter 1 we see how God's power keeps us and guards us for salvation. It's not our confidence in our own living but in God's almighty power that every single one of you here who believes can count on God's power for reaching your destination in heaven with God.

We also saw omniscience. And in Jeremiah 17 you know God knows everything. We actually connected that with omnipresence he am I a God who is a far-off and not a God who is near. He is with us he knows everything.

And that's a great deal of comfort when you go through trials because God knows what you're going through. And it is also a double-edged sword in the sense that it is a strong warning it keeps us guards us from sin knowing that the almighty God of heaven and earth is with us and knows everything that we do.

And so with that let's come to holiness. And last week we touched upon last time we touched upon this when we looked at the attribute of God the Father as being holy. So once again I hope all of you have this handout if not we have more copies of this.

Where do we have the copies. Thank you Eric. So the attribute of holiness we defined last time as this was s Lewis Johnson he said God is separated from all evil and sin. That's one side of the definition and then on the other side as to be healthy is more than not being sick.

So holiness is more than the absence of sin. It is a positive healthy state of being right and pure. Last time I think Brian Bartlett was here he had a question and I found the answer in this wonderful book the existence and attributes of God by Chanak.

So you know there's tons of good books and I actually noticed a few books outside on the table that I think are for free. Let me just read what he has to say on holiness. He says the holiness of God negatively speaking is a perfect and unpolluted freedom from all evil as we call gold pure that is not embassed by any dross and that garment clean that is free from any spot.

So the nature of God is estranged from all shadow of evil all imaginable contagion. Can you see the picture that this presence in our mind about the nature of God free from evil and sin. Now on the other side just as Lewis Johnson said on positively it is the rectitude or integrity of the divine nature.

It is the integrity of the divine nature or that conformity of it in affection and action to the divine will as to his eternal law whereby he works with a becoming this to his own excellency and whereby he had the delight and complacency in everything agreeable to his will and an abhorrency to everything contrary there unto.

How do you like that language. It just gives you that sense of okay there's something weighty being spoken but I have to read it a few times to get it. But the question that Brian asked and which is where I'm getting to is there is a connection between holiness and righteousness.

It kind of seems very similar. So in what way. Maybe distinguish the two attributes. So let me read this for you. He says we may indeed distinguish the holiness of God from his righteousness in our conceptions.

So holiness holiness is a perfection absolutely considered in the nature of God so in his character in his essence who God is and righteousness a perfection as referred to others in his actions toward them and upon them.

So the way Charnock helps us distinguish it is here is his essence his character who God is in his in his character. So he actually goes on to say holiness is an essential and necessary perfection. He is essentially and necessarily holy.

It is the essential glory of his nature. His holiness is as necessary as his being as necessary as his omniscience and so on. So hopefully that just gives you a little bit of theological mooring upon which we can start looking at the text that we are going to be seeing today.

Any questions or comments before we look at the text. Okay so if you see in your handouts you should see the text that we have for the holiness of God the Father. We did not look at that text. We looked at a couple of other texts.

And the one that we looked at was from first Peter 115 where it says as he who called you as holy so you so you also be holy in all your conduct. And then it goes on to describe how the nature of God being holy has a direct bearing upon our holiness.

We were not holy to begin with we were sinners lost in our trespasses and sin. We were destined for for hell. And God places his affection upon us and transforms us. So what are Christians called today in the Bible.

If you have another term for Christians what would that be in the Bible. Yes someone said it Saints and Saints means holy. Yes that's the same root word haggios. Here we're talking about the same. So God calls us to be holy.

He gives us the position of being holy in Christ. And now in sanctification we work by the power of God unto holiness. And we live out this life of holiness in God. So God being holy has a direct bearing upon our life on earth today.

So this is all review. So now we are looking at new material. We let's move on to the text in acts 314. If someone can read for me acts 3 let's read 13 to 15. Who can read that mark 13 to 15 and verse 15.

And so here you have Peter speaking. You know this is after the healing of the lame man. Here he is talking to the people and and then soon the leaders you can see how he describes God the Father. You know God of Abraham God of Isaac God of Jacob.

And this is the God whom you worship as Jews. And he now brings the connection of Jesus with God the Father as a servant. Jesus came doing God's will. He served God with his whole being while he was here on earth.

And then he describes the attributes of Jesus and the relationships of the people with them. You delivered over and denied in the presence of pilot and pilot when he says he decided to release him. That has a direct bearing on the second attribute of righteousness.

Why did pilot decide to release Jesus. He found no fault in him. He was righteous. The word for righteousness is Dikaios. Just you know there was really no law that he had broken. He had perfectly kept the law.

Even pilot an unbeliever could clearly see that. And and here in verse 14 Peter brings those two attributes holiness and righteousness. The you denied the holy and righteous one. The one in whom is all holiness is all righteousness.

Now again when you look at you had to stand back and see the attribute of God Jesus in his nature as God is perfectly holy in his essence he is perfectly righteous in his character and in his actions.

And as a man he was the perfect man who lived this life perfectly within righteousness which none of us could live. And so he brings both of these attributes. And then he contrasts this with the murderer.

You asked a murderer to be granted to you instead. And you kill the author of life. And if Peter just brings all these contrasts between righteousness and murder life and killing or dead which God raised from the dead.

So let's take a few moments to reflect upon the holiness of Jesus Christ. What bearing does acts 314. The holy and righteous one Jesus Christ have upon your life today. Why is Jesus being holy and righteous important to us.

Imputation. If Jesus was not righteous we cannot have his righteousness. Because he has none to give us. So our righteousness is fully and completely anchored in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and in the holiness of Christ.

What other ways might there be that we can think about the attribute of the Sun being holy and righteous. And how. Okay. So he in. And actually this is the part of the substitute where he gives us our righteous his righteousness.

And he takes arson upon himself as the substitute lamb in our place. Excellent. Does this have any bearing in our sanctification. Excellent. You know you know we have people who would elevate the example of Christ and and diminish the atoning sacrifice the central work of atonement and substitution that Christ did.

And we also ought not to forget that Christ is the perfect man. He showed us what none of us could do. And as Paul would say imitate me as I imitate Christ there is a sense in which we want to pray like Jesus did.

We want to be dependent upon God as Jesus was. We want to walk by the Spirit as Christ did. And so there are many ways in which we can look and see. You know here is the man who was tempted in all ways as we are yet without sin none of us is going to be without sin.

But we have a great high priest who intercedes on our behalf and we have a great model that we can follow as our captain. All right. Any other thoughts on the holiness of Jesus Christ. Yes. When you know the character of a person and we saw this this term integrity that was used.

We're going to see that in the next attribute as well. When you know who he is that he is holy he is righteous. You can trust him. You have great confidence no matter what circumstances of life you go through.

Because you know that he never makes a mistake when he deals with his people. Excellent. All right. Let's look at the last one. Here it is the attribute of the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit.

So acts 1 8 if someone can just read from verse 4 to 8 and then we'll just talk about. Well I will. Yes. Well you're turning there. Jesus actually asked which of you can convict me of sin when they were all trying to condemn him.

And no one could because he was perfectly righteous. All right acts for acts 1 4 to 8. Who wants to read it. Thanks. So the two times the third person of this Trinity is spoken of here. What. What is this name that is given Holy Spirit.

And that's the part of his name that we call him by. Here is the Spirit of God. Here is a third person of the Trinity fully God and holy is part of his name. Now many of you know this was where we talk about the Holy Spirit being a person and he's personal and he's grieved by our sin.

Why is he grieved by our sin. Because he is holy and our sinfulness is grieves him when as believers we would continue in sin. Now let's take a moment to talk about you remember we talked about holiness is being both pure as well as being set apart or different and distinct from.

In what ways are. Let's look at the distinction between for example us and the world. We looked at this last time in terms of how Israel was different. I was called to be holy or separate or different from the world.

And in what ways are we as people who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit to be distinct or different from the world in the aspect of holiness. Are we different than the world or not. I think there are two things that come out of what you said.

One of them is our living. Our life are what we. What we stand for is distinct and different from worldly thinking in terms of whether it is a standard that is morally lacking or a life that is just not characterized by righteousness.

That's one and the second one and I think that's a more central one from which the second the one the moral aspect flows is the fact that we belong to God. We are not people who are living for ourselves.

We we represent Christ. I think that was the term that we you were using. We stand as distinct from others and that we belong to a holy person and we represent his holiness to the world that does not know him.

And the way in which we can both live our life that reflects the righteousness of Christ as well as shows that we are children of God is by this Holy Spirit. Third person of the Trinity who actually indwells us.

Now let's take a moment to talk about what happened in Acts 2. You have the institution of the church so that this is Acts 1 where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to come and so he's going to do something in the lives of the people in the lives of the church as it begins and and spreads out from here.

Can you think of some of the things that happened in the book of Acts. Maybe the first few chapters when the Holy Spirit came upon the people of God. What were some of the things that you can think about God's attributes as the people were transformed by the Holy Spirit.

So what happened in Acts 2. Wait Frank let's give others a turn. Okay. So they could testify about who Christ was with boldness and power. Here were these cowering cowards if you will I mean we you and I would have done no different if you know Jesus lost his head and there's a price on our own and yet when the Spirit of God came upon them they had a boldness and a courage to speak out about who God was.

And this was an effect of the Spirit of God indwelling them and empowering them. So there's a power that comes from from the Spirit of God indwelling. What else. That's right. So they had supernatural gifts that were given to them in order to communicate with the people coming from all parts of the Roman Empire.

So the early church has this manifestations of the supernatural gifts of God that demonstrates that there was something more happening than just ordinary men making up their stories. And of course this is before in scripturation so they actually have testimony that these are men attested by God as they will eventually write the scriptures.

Now if you look at the pattern of Acts you see this testimony about Jesus Christ and once again you remember the two things we talked about here are people that are distinct separate different than the world.

Here were a people that Jerusalem look looks at these people and these guys are different. They are not like us. They are representing a holy God in the way in which they live the love that they had for one another.

You can just see the second aspect of the moral living that comes here are people who care for one another and demonstrate the holiness and righteousness of God and they live differently and they reflect the God whom they worship.

And so they the Jewish authorities would say they're turning Jerusalem upside down. You know these are people that are different. The world is changing because because these guys were like super human or anything like that they had the Holy Spirit indwelling them.

This is the character of God who comes and dwells within us and then empowers us and who transforms us and changes us for his glory. So when we think of our life as Saints our lives as reflecting the character of God we want to be mindful of the Spirit of God who indwells us.

I mean I don't know how often we just take a moment and just thank God for the life that he has enabled us to live. You know many a time I can look at my failures and just say oh you know how could I.

I think it is helpful for us to say you know the times the Lord has helped us to withstand temptation. The times that the Lord has enabled us to stand up for his glory. The times the Lord has enabled us to consider his holiness and value it and live for it.

You know he all this is possible only because we have the Spirit of God indwelling us and empowering us and giving us the desire to want to seek after righteousness. All right. Any any other thoughts on holiness.

So we've seen God the Father as holy. What was the text we used first Peter 1 as he who called you is holy. So you remember in our calling the one who called us calls us to holiness. We've seen the Son as holy text again from Acts 3 the Holy and Righteous One.

This is Jesus Christ both in his divinity and humanity perfectly holy. It is his holiness that gives us a access before God. And then we see the Holy Spirit who indwells us and grants us practical holiness in our living.

So when we think of ourselves as Saints the triune God the triune God who is thrice holy is actively involved in taking us and transforming us so that we would reflect his holiness before the world. All right.

With that let's move on to the next attribute which is the one of truth. No truth is one of those attributes that's interesting. You know I have been trying to read the definitions for it and I let me let me give you what s loose.

Johnson says he says God is consistent with himself and thus everything he does is true. God is consistent with himself and thus everything he does is true. Does anybody want to take a gander at how God being true and God being God being truthful or actually the cognate.

There is faithfulness. God is faithful and truthful in all that he communicates with us. How. How does. Can can you think of what this might mean. You know what I just gave in a definition. I have a few more words but I want to see if someone can fill the meaning of this word God is true or truth exists in God.

Excellent. Actually that is one of the key terms of when we talk about God being true. For those of you couldn't hear it Becky said he is authentic. Another word for that would be genuine. He is. You know if you want to use vernacular the real deal he is everything that is true.

In Greek the word is a late tenors a late late. Here's this few versions of this word. And and when John especially uses that he uses some of the text talking about he's the genuine. Now let's maybe just step back for a moment to think about why is God being authentic or genuine important for us today especially in the world we live in.

Why is knowing the truth of knowing that God is genuine and real or authentic important. I like the example you gave of real and counterfeit. You need a standard on the basis of which you can evaluate everything else.

And I believe is as believers we need to know the true God. And for unbelievers you know they are looking for something they think is true. But how do you know what true really is. When you don't have a standard you could be floundering in these oceans of opinions.

And and with a sinful heart you can make up as many gods as you want. But how do you know the you want to know the one true God the real God who has revealed himself to us. The standard and the basis of which we can then examine and evaluate everything else whether it is false religions or for even among believers misunderstandings of the attributes and character of God.

John did you want to add something excellent. Actually those are the two two key points I want us to keep in mind as we start looking at the text. One of them is in his character. He is true. You know he's the he's genuine.

He's the ultimate. You know for us and in relation to us the summum bonum the sum of all good that we are looking for because he exemplifies all that is true and genuine. And when we talk about his dealings with us so let me give you a definition here you know the truth of God talks about his veracity his faithfulness or his revealed will.

So you know what God communicates us to us. So when you look at the Word of God you can be assured that it is it is the truth because it comes from the God who is true and has revealed will to us is true.

And so and and not just his will especially in the Word of God but also in the way he relates to us. And I think you use the word faithfulness there. And those two words are very closely used because of who he is as the true and genuine one.

His promises to us are always yay and amen. He will never go back on his promises. He's always with us. So those two attributes of the ones that you want to be keeping in mind as we go through these texts.

Any any other thoughts. Yeah right. And that's the significance to us because of who he is and how he has revealed himself to us he enables us to reflect that truth to the world all. Right. So let's now with that get into our text.

Let's pick with John 728 if someone can read that. Thank you. So here Jesus is testifying about his work and then about the one who sent him. And essentially this is Christ in his humanity standing before these people and testifying about you know that he is the way and the basis that they need to remember is the father who has sent him.

And he's going to be talking John 7 John 8 about the relationship between the father and him. It is because they know the father as being true. And the true one has sent me Jesus. You can trust in what I am doing.

So Jesus establishes a relationship between him and the father. And then in 8 and 10 he would continue to build on this. But they're here we just get to see the attribute just simply laid out. He who sent me is true.

You know I think Becky was talking about the political season where people come and say all these different things. Now where is that standard. And that standard is in the character in the truthfulness and in the genuineness of God himself.

And so he brings that out to the for those that the people should understand and that we ought to understand. When we think of God the father he is the true one. And we want to remember those two aspects of that truth.

So let's move on to the next one. Here I want to take a little more time as we talk about Jesus as being true we look at a few different verses. First I want to use a different verse than the one in Revelation.

The verses that I'd like to read. If someone can read this John 18 verses 37 and 38 someone can read John 18 verses 37 and 38. So here you have the word truth used three times. Jesus says I was born to bear witness to the truth.

Testify speak to the truth. And then that is Jesus role. And then everyone who is off the truth listens to my voice. So again once again going back to the standard those who belong to God are able to understand who what Jesus is speaking they can resonate with the truth that comes from him.

And then we have the classic question of pilot the third time truth is used where he just says what is truth. Now I want to take a few moments just talk about those two attributes of God being true and what he says being truthful.

Keep that in the back of your mind as you look at it now from from our perspective what is truth. I'm going to step back only because I think all of us at some point of them maybe a few of you didn't go through this.

Maybe you were born in a Christian home and were saved very early and you may not have struggled with the question of this what is true about who God is and what is it that we are here for. But for most of us I think you know if you just step back to the point when you were before you were saved to when you were saved when you face the challenges of you know here is life on my own here are all the competing small G gods.

And here is what I want to commit my life to and what is truth. And now that you are saved you can look back and see this is where the world is. You know without their eyes open they have no understanding of the true one.

And the question with pilot is what is true. What are some of the questions that you see around you today that reflect the same hard attitude of what is true when it comes to God. I love it. I love go ahead.

Excellent. Actually you've taken this in a slightly different direction but I think a very important one. And I think this is probably the team of first John where you have a God who is true and a people who want to know if they are aligned with the truth of God and am I a believer.

I mean that's the purpose of first John. I think 513 these things are written so that you may know that you have eternal life. And how do you know you have eternal life only when you see the truth of God reflected in your own life.

So if you say I believe in him and yet you hate your brother you have no regard for the word of God you you claim to have this one. Thank you. So you know here are ways and that's actually a clear falsehood that is contrary to the truth.

So here is a simple way in which believers can examine themselves to see whether they are in the truth on the basis of whether their life produces the fruit of the spirit that God has worked in them so that they reflect the character and the truthfulness of God.

That's excellent. I wasn't thinking that but it's a very good point. What are the ways in which the people around you the world is looking for truth or claiming to have truth. When they say this attitude of pilot when he says what is true do you think.

But go ahead buddy that's right. It's relative. You know there's really no absolute standard. You know do I really care about the one absolute truth that is true for all and irrelevant of everyone's opinions.

Or is it just whatever I want to be true for myself is good for me. And what is good for you is good for you. We live in a radically relativistic world where simple things as this is good and right has now gone into.

You know we like this and you like this and we can do whatever we want. So that's really the spirit of this age where this understanding of the one true God and the one true way in which we are to follow him has been lost.

Go ahead again. Frank. And actually the earlier part of your sentence says something very very dangerous in that's what I was before I became a believer. You said truth is what I hold for myself or something like that.

And end of the day when the person says you know God's Word declares the truth but I decide what is true. I am essentially replacing God on the throne and saying I am the God at least of my life and I will do whatever I want.

And my standard goes. And when you go back to the attribute of holiness and also with this attribute of truth if you are honest with ourselves you know the heart is deceitful so it is dishonest with ourselves.

Which is why we can project ourselves as holding the truth. We will know very quickly that we are not men and women of integrity. We don't have all the things aligned together we may value one thing one day.

And I think someone else said that's going to change the next day. God alone is immutable and his truth holds forever. We can very quickly see that the standards we put up are really to fulfill our own sinful pleasures rather than seek the righteousness of God.

And only when God gets replaced on our throne as the one true God we now have that standard by which we can examine our lives by which we can live a way that pleases God. I I thought you were joking when you gave that example.

You know you know it used to be that there were moral issues that people would you know will dilly-dally on. Then there were psychological issues. You know when you were talking I was thinking of transgender.

That's become a big hot topic today people can't figure out who they are which is okay. But now they want the standards changed because what they feel needs to be the new standard. And now it has even come into the physical world where something that could be empirically verifiable is no longer the standard.

Make it quick. I want to finish the words go ahead without God as the absolute. And when you make God as the absolute it offends and amen. We need to be conscious of the cultural loss of the knowledge of God and that much more sensitive as well to the desperate need of the world around us that we would be faithful ambassadors of the truth.

Yes I think it's just a reminder of the nature. And I do just a minute. Frank I have to point out what pastor Bob Bowman said. He said truth is the correspondence with reality. That's a technical definition of truth.

And I actually got caught in my PhD dissertation because I didn't have that definition. So one of the professors asked me what is truth. And I was I was literally thinking John 18 when he was asking me that and he said no I want to know the philosophical definition.

I'm just standing there. I've read it does so many times but at that moment it just went blank. There's a correspondence theory of truth. There's a coherence theory of truth. And really coherence is becomes more of a relativistic way when you look at it as an objective standard correspondence of truth with reality.

Is there a correspondence between what you say and what you see. So thank you for that definition. Yes let me maybe just take that. I don't think we'll go to the rest of the verses for today. But I want to emphasize something important based on what you said.

I think what we were talking about in some of the cases had to do with evidence for the truth. So I think you gave a few examples. You know here are some evidences that either people look at it and disregard or are unwilling to even look at.

I think you see use their term ignorance. He's like I don't care. You know I'm just going to make my mind anyway on the basis of what I already know. And when we look at things like the Holocaust is just terrible in terms of the kind of the level of sin and the level of disagreement with people.

But when we transfer that to God does God have enough evidence for himself in the world. Today we talk about truth. Of course Romans 1 psalm 19 we have plenty of evidence. God has given sufficient evidence to know that he exists and that he deserves to be worshiped.