Submitted by : Jessica L.

Detera

LLB-1

THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD

Malachi 3:6, "I, the Lord, do not change." Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today, and Forever." In God, no change is possible; in man, change is impossible to escape.

b. Application Each man appears for a little while to laugh and weep, to work, play and then die to make room for those who shall follow. Satan deceives the unsaved person at this point, convincing him that he will not really die. Some people then believe that they reincarnate endlessly, while many others just refuse to ever seriously think about their mortality. Biblical writers faced their mortality in a spiritually healthy way, realizing that change works TO THE ETERNAL ADVANTAGE OF THE SAVED. As the Apostle Paul stated so eloquently, "We all, with open face beholding, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." Once we have been transported into eternity with God, we shall be made into a being which is just like Jesus. Praise God for eternity!! However, God's unchanging nature works terribly against those who are not saved. Each unsaved person absolutely is terrified over death, and looks upon advancing age with dread. Most people, in their heart-of-hearts, can sense the impending doom as they advance in age. 2. God is Holy a. Bible Teaching (Lev 19:2; Isaiah 1:4)

God's holiness is an absolute holiness that knows only the highest degree at all times. God does not conform to a standard; He is that standard. b. Application God has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Whatever is holy is healthy; sin is a moral sickness which will end the life of God's creation. Since God's first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. TO PRESERVE HIS CREATION, GOD MUST DESTROY WHATEVER WOULD DESTROY IT. When God arises to destroy sin and save the world from moral collapse, He is said to be exercising Judgment. EVERY WRATHFUL JUDGMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD HAS BEEN A HOLY ACT OF PRESERVATION. His action in removing the sinful person or nation can be likened to a surgeon removing the cancerous tumor from the body of a beloved patient. The patient lives only because the tumor has been removed. 3. God is Infinite and Eternal a. Bible Teaching Infinity and Eternity are THE FOUNDATIONAL perfec-tions of God, ensuring that all other perfections are equally Infinite and Eternal. b. Application Since God lives in Eternity, we Christians possess this relaxing sense of the eternal in our hearts as the Holy Spirit dwells continuously. Not so with the unsaved. The know in their deepest heart the truth, but in their rebellion, they either turn to their manufactured pride, or to some false religion which Satan has so eagerly supplied. But, as God has said, the "wicked...cannot rest...There is no peace for the wicked." (Isaiah 57:20-21) 4. God is Omniscient a. Bible Teaching (Isaiah 440:13-14; 1 Cor 1:24-25) To say that God is omniscient is to say He possesses perfect knowledge. God never has to learn anything, nor does anything ever surprise Him. God knows every thought, action, and motive of every person who will ever live.

b. Application At The Great White Throne Judgment, as recorded in Revelation 20:12-15, unsaved man will be judged according to their works here on earth. Each action that man does is recorded. Such knowledge naturally throws the heart of the unsaved into deep turmoil; however, this same knowledge is very sweet to those of us who have come humbly before Jesus to acknowledge His deity, His sacrifice for our sins, and who have genuinely asked Him to cleanse us from all sin. For us, there is the sweet knowledge that God has destroyed the very record of our sin and will not remember it eternally. God's wisdom is a logical part of His Omniscience, allowing Him to devise perfect means by which to achieve perfect ends. God created our universe through His Omniscience and His Plan of Salvation through His Wisdom. Praise God for all eternity!! 5. God is Love a. Bible Teaching (1 John 4:8b; John 17) Because God is eternal, His Love had no beginning, nor will it have an end. Because God is Infinite, His love knows no boundaries. "His Love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence." (A.W. Tozer, "The Knowledge Of The Holy") b. Application Love also is an emotional identification. Love considers nothing its own, but give all freely to the object of its affection. Love is active on the part of those to whom it gives its affection, giving again and again with no thought to its own welfare. God's Love is also extended to individual people, and to those people God has provided for Mercy and Grace, infinite parts of the Divine Nature which assures that God will be actively compassionate. Wherever and whenever God deals with men, He is merciful as well as just. God has always dealt in mercy with man, and will "always deal in JUSTICE only when His MERCY IS DESPISED. John 17 -- Christian unity is not based upon feeling, but upon Truth. The only source of this Truth is Jesus Christ, in His Person and His Word.

6. God is Just a. Bible Teaching (Amos 5:21-24; Isaiah 5:16) God's attribute of Justice always goes hand in hand with His Holiness and Righteousness. God only acts in Judgment when man has consistently acted in rebellion to His commandments, and in the face of repeated warnings. God is very precise when He is finally moved to Judgment; no one will ever accidently receive punishment that he did not deserve. Remember, God's Perfections operate in conjunction with one another. His Compassion flows from His Goodness, but Goodness without Justice is not Goodness. God simply could not be good if He were not Just
Reference: http://www.cuttingedge.org/ce1005.html