under a special agreement with
Winners Series 1
under a special agreement with
Lesson 3: The Attributes of God (Part 1)
What God is Like (part 1)
Dear Friend,
We have been thinking about the end times and what will happen then. Now let us go back to the beginning and learn about the One who created all things.
- How can we know what God is like?
- Is God a "force" or a Person?
How can we know what God is like?
The only way we can know what God is like is for God to reveal Himself to us. God wants us to know Him. One way He has chosen to reveal Himself is by a special book, of which He Himself is the author.
If God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in a special book, how do we identify that book? There are some qualifications this book should have:
- It must tell us plainly that its true author is God Himself.
- It must give us a detailed description of the past and future of the earth and the universe.
- It must be understandable and available worldwide in many languages. It must be a living book through which God speaks to us today.
There is only one book which meets all of these qualifications—the Bible. In the Bible there are over 300 verses which begin with, "Thus says the Lord," and thousands of verses where God is speaking.
The Bible consists of sixty-six books, written over a period of 1,500 years. Amazingly, these books all fit together. The reason for this is that the true author of the Bible is God Himself. The Bible says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God…" (2 Timothy 3:16).
God used many men to write the books in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit of God told these men what to write. The Bible says, "For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke [wrote] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).
There is only one book which gives us a detailed description of past events and future events. This book is the Bible, which is authored by God. Only God knows everything that has happened, and only God knows everything that will happen in the future. In His Word God has told us everything we need to know.
The Bible is the most available book of all time. Each year millions of copies of God's Word are printed in many languages and distributed worldwide. There is no other book like the Bible. It is a living book through which God speaks to us today.
The Bible is the only book, of which the author is God Himself. It is the only book which was inspired by God. The Bible is God's complete written revelation of Himself to us. In the Bible we learn the attributes of God—what God is like.
God is a Person.
There is only one God—the true and living God. In His Word, God says, "…I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God…I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me…" (Isaiah 44:6, 45:5).
God is not a "force." God is a living Person who knows and loves every one of us. He is pleased when we earnestly desire to know Him. Above all, He wants us to love Him with all our heart. (See Jeremiah 9:23-24.)
God is eternal. He has always existed and He will exist forever. God had no beginning, and He will have no end. The Bible says, "…from everlasting to everlasting, You are God" (Psalm 90:2b).
God is Spirit.
We have a body which can be seen. We also have a soul and a spirit which cannot be seen. God is all Spirit. He cannot be seen. Jesus said, "God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
Because God is Spirit, He commands us not to make any image to represent Him. In the Ten Commandments, God said, "I am the Lord your God…you shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make unto yourselves any graven [carved] image…You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them…" (Exodus 20:2-5).
God is everywhere.
Because we are human beings and have bodies, we can be in only one place at a time. Because God is God and because He is Spirit, He can be everywhere at the same time. God said, "…Do not I fill heaven and earth…?" (Jeremiah 23:24).
We cannot see God because He is Spirit, but He is always with us, loving us and caring for us. The Bible says, "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…" (Deuteronomy 33:27).
God is almighty.
The word "almighty" means "having all power." God has all power! This word "almighty" occurs 56 times in the Bible, and it is never used of anyone but God. He alone is "Almighty." He told Abraham, "…I am the Almighty God: walk before Me, and be perfect" (Genesis 17:1).
All power belongs to God. God gives power to men, but all power belongs to Him. The Bible says, "God has spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongs to God" (Psalm 62:11).
We cannot imagine how great the universe is. Our solar system is part of an enormous galaxy called "the Milky Way," which contains more than a billion stars like our sun. Astronomers tell us that there are billions of galaxies like our Milky Way, each containing a billion or more stars.
This staggers our imagination; yet our almighty God brought this universe into being by His word! The Bible says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth…For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:6,9).
God is all-knowing.
God has perfect knowledge about everything—past, present and future. He knows all things perfectly. God knows everything about each one of us; He even knows how many hairs we have on our head. The Bible says, "Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).
God sees everything. God knows everything. Nothing can be hidden from Him. The Bible says, "You have set our iniquities [sins] before You, our secret sins in the light of your countenance" (Psalm 90:8).
For those who have trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior, how wonderful it is to know that all our sins—past, present and future—have been forgiven forever. God says, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:17).
God is sovereign.
This means that God is in absolute, total control of everything that happens in His universe. Jesus said that two sparrows were sold for less than a penny; yet not one of them could fall to the ground without God's knowing and willing it.
God makes no mistakes. He is infinite in His wisdom. He always knows what is best for us. God is perfect in His love. He always does what is best for us. The Bible says, "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
God is holy.
God is absolutely pure, absolutely righteous, and absolutely holy. In the Bible, sin is often referred to as "darkness." The Bible says, "…God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
The angelic beings who stand in the presence of God cover their faces before the glory and holiness of God. They cry out, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3).
The prophet Isaiah was one of the greatest prophets of God in the Old Testament. One day he saw a vision of God. He said, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up…" (Isaiah 6:1).
Immediately Isaiah fell on his face before God and cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).
What caused Isaiah to fall on his face? He saw something of God's infinite holiness and realized that he was a sinner and unfit to stand in the presence of such a holy and glorious God.
God is unchangeable.
This means that God never changes; He is always the same—perfect in every way. God is always holy, always righteous, always faithful, always good. God said, "I am the Lord, I change not…" (Malachi 3:6).
It brings great peace to our heart to know that our Heavenly Father never changes. We do not have to worry about God being in a bad mood; He is always the same. The Bible says, "As for God, His way is perfect…" (Psalm 18:30).
What God hates.
Here are some things God hates:
- God hates sin. God loves the sinner, but He hates sin because it destroys people.
- God hates pride. It was pride that caused Satan to rebel against God. God hates all lies. The Bible says, "Lying lips are abomination [utterly detestable] to the Lord…" (Proverbs 12:22).
- God hates all idols. An idol is anything that you love more than you love God.
- God hates a rebellious attitude. God says, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1 Samuel 15:23).
- God hates iniquity—lawlessness, false ways, false witnesses, those who spread discord, wicked imaginations.
What God loves.
Here are some things that God loves:
God loves righteousness. The Bible says, "For the righteous God loves righteousness…" (Psalm 11:5).
God loves those who love Him. God says, "I love them that love Me; and those who seek Me early shall find Me" (Proverbs 8:17).
God loves those who show their love for Christ by keeping His commandments. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
God loves a cheerful giver. God loves those who cheerfully give themselves to Him and serve Him with gladness.
God has a special love for those who love His Son. Jesus said, "For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God" (John 16:27).
- God has revealed Himself to us in a special book—the Bible. There is not another book in the world like God's holy Word.
- There is only one living and true God. God said, "Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22).
- God is sovereign. He controls everything. There are no "accidents" with God. He makes no mistakes. The Bible says, "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God..."
Memory Verse
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." Matthew 22:37-38
My Prayer
“Dear God, I thank You and praise You for being the God that You are—the true and living God whom we can know, trust, and love.”
God's hero—Enoch
"By faith Enoch was translated [taken directly to Heaven without dying] that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrews 11:5
Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah. He lived during a time when people lived a very long time. When he was 65 years old, Enoch had a son named Methuselah. This man, Methuselah, lived longer than any man. According to the record, Methuselah was 969 years old when he died.
People were not godly in Enoch's time, but Enoch honored God. The Bible says,
"Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years…and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not [found]; for God took him" (Genesis 5:22-24).
This means that God took him to Heaven without dying.
Evidently God revealed to Enoch much about the Savior He had promised to send into the world. Enoch prophesied concerning Christ's coming with His saints at the end of the Great Tribulation. The Bible says, "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied… saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all…" (Jude 14,15).
Evidently Enoch and God had talked about Heaven—the place which God had for him when he left this world. Somehow Enoch came to believe that it was not necessary for him to die. It must have pleased God for this man to believe that God could take him directly to Heaven.
One day, after Enoch had walked with God for three hundred years, we can imagine Enoch saying, "Lord, instead of my going to my home tonight, why don't You just take me to Your home?" That is exactly what God did! Enoch went directly to Heaven without dying because he pleased God.
Enoch is a type or "picture" of what will happen when the Lord Jesus comes to take His believers out of the world before the terrible time of the Great Tribulation. All believers who are living when the Rapture takes place will not die. Instead, they will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and to be with Him forever.
You and I have the privilege of walking with God and pleasing Him. The apostle Paul pleaded with the believers he was teaching "that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more" (1 Thessalonians 4:1).
Believers have a great salvation! The Bible says,
"Beloved, now are we the sons [children] of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
