attributes of god - fixed numbers

Copyright © 2010 by Campus Outreach Birmingham Publications.

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Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations throughout the study guide portion of this publication are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations throughout the commentary portion of this publication are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Cover design by Pete Collins and Ben Gallant

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction 6

Week 1: Knowability 14

Week 2: Worthiness and Glory 16

Week 3: Ability and Power 18

Week 4: All-Knowing 22

Week 5: Love and Compassion 26

Week 6: Faithfulness and Dependability 30

Week 7: Goodness 34

Week 8: Omnipresence 38

Week 9: Sovereignty 42

Week 10: Holiness and Moral Perfection 46

Week 11: Spirit 50

Week 12: Justice and Wrath 54

Week 13: Father 56

The God You Can Know Study Guide 68

Chapter 1: God: I Want to Know You 70

Chapter 2: The Glory of God 76

Chapter 3: The Perfection of God (Part 1) 80

Chapter 4: The Perfections of God (Part II) 86

Chapter 5: God’s Heart Exposed to the World 90

Chapter 6: What Motivates God? 94

Chapter 7: God: I Want to Worship You 98

Chapter 8: God’s Testimony of Us 102

Chapter 9: Ordinary Me with an Extraordinary Love 106

Introduction

The goal of this workbook is to help you know and

experience God on a deeper level. The scriptures and

questions are designed to help you not only gain a

deeper mental understanding of who God is, but to also

help you meditate on these truths until they practically

affect how you live.

The topic each week revolves around a different attribute

of God. You have the freedom to adapt this study

however you choose, but each day should consist of the

following major parts in some fashion.

Center and focus on God

Show God you are hungry to connect with him today;

beg him to speak to you personally. Do not let your time

with God become merely a routine.

7

Introduction

Pray through the IOUS:

1. I – Incline my heart to thy testimonies and not

towards dishonest gain (Ps. 119:36)

2. O – Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from thy law (Ps. 119:18)

3. U – Unite my heart to fear thy name (Ps. 86:11b)

4. S – Satisfy me in the morning with thy loving-kindness that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days (Ps. 90:14)

Keep a to-do list nearby to write down distractions that

pop in your mind, then focus on fi ghting against those

distractions.

Meditate on the word

A. Read through the verses.

B. Choose a favorite verse or two, rarely more; may-

be just choose a phrase.

C. Read over the verse again slowly, emphasizing

8

The Attributes of God

each word, draining each thought. Muse and

ponder on it.

D. Try to memorize the verse just for that day, so that

you may keep meditation going all day.

E. Write the verse in your own words. Do not try to

get an exact translation, just the main focus.

F. Ask four questions to every text (but do not just

write the “correct” answers. Think specifi cally

for today.) Write down all your answers to these

questions:

a. What does this tell me about God?

b. What does this tell me about me? What specif-ic sins did you commit yesterday that this text convicts of? What are you repenting of today?

c. What does this tell me about Jesus? How does he save or how is he my example?

d. What does this tell me about what my response should be?

9

Introduction

G. Pray

Pray through your answers to the above questions. This

is one of the best ways to preach the gospel to yourself.

Keep this as a principle: “Pray until you pray, until you

are conscious that you connect.” Do not leave worship

until your heart is touched.

A. Start by worshipping and thanking God for the

truth he has revealed.

B. Then confess sins that came up, trace them back to

their root, work to see how evil they are and how

it hurts the great God you just worshipped. Make

yourself feel low and desperately needy for Christ.

C. Then run to Jesus Christ on the cross, preach the

gospel to yourself and have great delight.

Glance and grieve at sin; gaze and glory at and in

Jesus Christ.

D. Pray through your response. Pray that your

affections would be changed. Prayerfully take

10


your affections off of sin and place them on Jesus.

Wrestle here with God; beg and demand that he

do it. Hold his promises up to him, and expect

satisfaction from him. Detach yourself from world

and attach yourself to God.

E. Pray in light of all these same things for those on

your prayer list. Certainly pray for normal re-

quests and desires as well, but fl avor your prayers

with the truth you learned that morning.

Get up and go live differently.

Like anything else in life, as you go through this study

you will reap what you sow. There is nothing magical

about this combination of scriptures and questions that

will mystically bring you closer to God. You could easily

read all the verses and fi ll in all the blanks with a cold

heart and really not benefi t at all from this study. Or,

you could focus the gaze of your soul on your Savior and

11

Introduction

believe the numerous truths throughout God’s word that

promise us when we seek the Lord…we will fi nd him.

12


The Valley of Vision

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox

that the way down is the way up,

that to be low is to be high,

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime starts can be seen from the deepest wells,

and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me fi nd thy light in my darkness,

13

Introduction

thy life in my death,

thy joy in my sorrow,

thy grace in my sin,

thy riches in my poverty,

thy glory in my valley.

- unknown

From The Valley of Vision

Week 1:Knowability

Monday Jeremiah 9:23-24

Tuesday Philippians 3:7-11

Wednesday Isaiah 55:6-11

Thursday Isaiah 43:10-12

Friday Jeremiah 29:11-14

Saturday 1 Corinthians 2:11-16

Sunday 1 John 5:13, 20

“but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands

and knows me, that I am the Lord...”

– Jeremiah 9:24

“The highest distinction, the greatest advantage, the

crown of our lives is the honor of knowing this exalted,

supreme Creator – knowing Him personally and

intimately. There is none like Him…”

15

Knowability

– Jerry Bridges

“Only to sit and think of God,

Oh, what a joy it is,

To think the thought,

To breathe the name.

Earth has no higher bliss,

Father of Jesus,

Love’s reward,

What rapture it will be:

Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,

And gaze and gaze on Thee.”

- Frederick W. Faber

Week 2:Worthiness and Glory

Monday I Corinthians 10:31

Tuesday I Chronicles 29:10-13

Wednesday I Chronicles 16:23-27

Thursday Colossians 1:27-29

Friday John 17:20-24

Saturday Psalms 8

Sunday Revelation 5:1-14

“God’s glory is the total manifestation of all His

attributes”

– Dan DeHaan

“Though God sincerely seeks to promote the happiness

of his creatures and to perfect the saints in holiness,

neither of these is the highest possible end. That end is

his own glory.”

17

Worthiness and Glory

– Henry C. Thiessen

“We are modern people, and modern people, though

they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule

small thoughts of God. When the person in the church,

let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the

thought is rarely of divine majesty.”

– J.I. Packer

“Men are never duly touched and impressed with

a conviction of their insignifi cance, until they have

contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”

– John Calvin

“Is God’s glory so special that we will pay the price, or

is His glory ‘cheap?’. . .Until we allow God to put His

fi nger on what is clearly not giving Him glory, we are in

no position to expect Him to be strong on our behalf.”

– Dan DeHaan

Week 3:Ability and Power

Monday Jeremiah 32:17

Tuesday Ephesians 1:18-23

Wednesday Isaiah 14:24, 26-27

Thursday Romans 11:33-36

Friday Isaiah 40:21-31

Saturday Matthew 9:27-21

Sunday Psalm 145

“God is the ever-present and all-pervading energy,

guiding and directing everything.”

– Lewis Sperry Chafer

“Vast indeed is the universe of God…The more we

know, the further back we push the frontiers of the

known, the more elusive seem the mysteries in the

unknown to which they point. Every blade of grass is

19

Ability and Power

an insolved miracle of God. Every atom is an ocean into

which, if you take three steps, you are lost…The majesty

of God! Our minds are lost in the thought of it.”

– J. Wallace Hamilton

“All human pride, pretense and achievement is reduced

and evacuated by God, because he is that sort of God.”

– R.P.C. Hanson

“No difference exists between what God wills and what

he can do.”

– Emil Brunner

“The earth is the Lord’s.” That is not good advice; it is

the great truth, to which we must adjust, and without

which nothing else will come right.


“He is our Creator, our Lord, our Sustainer. He has an

20


unlimited right to us and claim over us which in any

other person would be intolerable tyranny, but is right

and justifi ed in God alone, because God is God. In the

case of God alone it is wrong and sinful for us to criticize,

to be objective or neutral, to stand outside; we must

submit and surrender.”

– R.P.C. Hanson

“Only God is free.”

– A.W. Tozer

“Men are never duly touched and impressed with

a conviction of their insignifi cance, until they have

contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”

– John Calvin

“As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so

power is that which gives life and action to all the

perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the

21

Ability and Power

eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them.

Without power His mercy would be but feeble pity,

His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a mere

scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infi nite, eternal,

incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained,

nor frustrated by the creature.”

– Stephen Charnock

Week 4:All-Knowing

Monday Psalm 139:1-4

Tuesday Hebrews 4:12-13

Wednesday Proverbs 15:3


Friday I John 3:19-21

Saturday Psalm 33:13-15

Sunday Jeremiah 17:9-10

“If he [God] should wish to tell us the number of grains

of sand on the seashore or the number of stars in the sky,

he would not have to count them all quickly like some

kind of giant computer, nor would he have to call the

number to mind because it was something he had not

thought about for a time. Rather, he knows all things at

once. All of these facts and all other things that he knows

are always fully present in his consciousness”

23

All-Knowing

– Wayne Grudem

“Divine omniscience means that God holds no false be-

liefs. Not only are all of God’s beliefs true, the range of

his knowledge is total; He knows all true propositions.”

– Ronald Nash

“Though my thought be invisible to the sight, though

as yet I be not myself cognizant of the shape it is assum-

ing, yet thou hast it under thy consideration, and thou

perceivest its nature, its source, its drift, its result. Never

dost thou misjudge or wrongly interpret me; my inmost

thought is perfectly understood by thine impartial mind.

Though thou shouldest give but a glance at my heart,

and see me as one sees a passing meteor moving afar, yet

thou wouldst by that glimpse sum up all the meanings

of my soul, so transparent is everything to thy piercing

glance.”

– Charles Spurgeon

24


“Consider how great it is to know the thoughts and in-

tentions, and works of one man from the beginning to

the end of his life; to foreknow all these before the being

of this man, when he was lodged afar off in the loins of

his ancestors, yea, of Adam. How much greater is it to

foreknow and know the thoughts and works of three

or four men, of a whole village or neighbourhood! It is

greater still to know the imaginations and actions of such

a multitude of men as are contained in London, Paris, or

Constantinople; how much greater still to know the in-

tentions and practices, the clandestine contrivances of so

many millions, that have, do, or shall swarm in all quar-

ters of the world, every person of them having millions

of thoughts, desires, designs, affections, and actions! Let

this attribute, then, make the blessed God honourable in

our eyes and adorable in all our affections. . . Adore God

for this wonderful perfection!”

- Stephen Charnock

Week 5:Love and Compassion

Monday Romans 5:8

Tuesday I John 4:7-12

Wednesday John 15:9-17


Friday Ephesians 3:14-19

Saturday Ephesians 5:1-2

Sunday Psalm 40

“To some of us, the most incredible verse in the Bible is

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock…” The angels

must have been breathless with the sheer restraint of it:

this God who could wither us by his power, coming to

men not with might, but with mercy, with enormous

respect for our frailty and freedom, standing at the

heart’s door to seek admission there.”


27

Love and Compassion

“If the oceans were like ink and the sky were the scroll,

the heavens would be too small to contain the infi nite

mysteries of God’s love.”

- unknown

“It is staggering that God should love sinners; yet it is

true. God loves creatures who have become unlovely

and (one would have thought) unlovable…God loves

people because He has chosen to love them – and

no reason for His love can be given except His own

sovereign, good pleasure.”

– J.I. Packer

“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the

Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain?

For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love!

How can it be? That Thou, my God, should die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be that Thou my God, should

die for me!”

28


- Charles Wesley

“Calvary is the supreme demonstration of Divine love.

Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, go

back to Calvary.”

– Arthur W. Pink

“Behold the amazing gift of love

The Father hath bestowed,

On us the sinful sons of men,

To call us sons of God!”

- Isaac Watts

Week 6:Faithfulness and Dependability

Monday Lamentations 3:22-23

Tuesday II Timothy 2:11-13

Wednesday Deuteronomy 7:6-9

Thursday I Thessalonians 5:23-24

Friday Hebrews 10:22-25

Saturday Numbers 23:19

Sunday Psalm 89:1-37

“It is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a

Divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it. God has

given us many “exceeding great and precious promises,”

but are we really counting on His fulfi llment of them?

Are we actually expecting Him to do for us all that He

has said?”

– A.W. Pink

31

Faithfulness and Dependability

“The faithfulness of God is the unfailing source of

comfort and assurance to those who are right with him,

or partakers of his covenants of promise. It was a word

of great meaning when Christ said, “I am…the truth.”

(John 14:6).”

– Lewis Sperry Chafer

“The biblical language about the faithfulness of God

is…everywhere the expression of a great and joyful

amazement.”

– Emil Brunner

“Great is Thy faithfulness O God my Father! There is

no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not,

Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been Thou

forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is They

faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see; All

I have needed Thy hand hath provided – Great is they

faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

32


– Thomas Chisholm

“For a moral being to change, it would be necessary

to change in one of two directions. Either the change

is from something worse to something better, or else

it is from something better to something worse. It

should be evident that God can move in neither of these

directions.”

– James Montgomery Boice

“Upon God’s faithfulness rests our whole hope of future

blessedness. Only as He is faithful will His covenants

stand and His promises be honored. Only as we have

complete assurance that He is faithful may we live in

peace and look forward with assurance to the life to

come.”

– A. W. Tozer

Week 7:Goodness

Monday Exodus 33:17-19

Tuesday 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Wednesday Psalm 107:1

Thursday Psalm 34:8-11

Friday Psalm 31:19-24

Saturday James 1:16-18

Sunday Matthew 5:43-48

“The goodness of God is a character trait which applies

to every other attribute. God’s wrath is good. God’s ho-

liness is good. God’s righteousness is good. God is good

in His entirety. There is nothing about God that is not

good. There is nothing God purposes for His children

that is not good. God gives to His children only that

which is good. And He withholds nothing good from

us. God is good, and He is at work in our lives for good.

35

Goodness

Nothing which God creates, nothing which God accom-

plishes, is not good.”

– Bob Deffi nbaugh

“He is originally good, good of Himself, which nothing

else is; for all creatures are good only by participation

and communication from God. He is essentially good;

not only good, but goodness itself: the creature’s good

is a super-added quality, in God it is His essence. He is

infi nitely good; the creature’s good is but a drop, but in

God there is an infi nite ocean or gathering together of

good. He is eternally and immutably good, for He cannot

be less good than He is; as there can be no addition made

to Him, so no subtraction from Him”

– Thomas Manton

“When others behave badly to us, it should only

stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the

Lord, because He is good; and when we ourselves are

36


conscious that we are far from being good, we should

only the more reverently bless Him that He is good.

We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the

goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned,

this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His

dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the

same.”- Charles Spurgeon

Week 8Omnipresence

Monday Psalm 139:7-12

Tuesday Jeremiah 23:23-24

Wednesday Colossians 1:15-17

Thursday I Kings 8:27;

2 Chronicles 2:6;

Isaiah 66:1

Friday Isaiah 57:15

Saturday Psalms 121

Sunday Matthew 28:18-20

“God is everywhere: He is with us in temptation...w/

us in need...w/ us in loneliness...w/ us thru diffi cult

service... w/ us in danger... w/ us in death...Begin to

cultivate a consciousness of God’s presence. Greet Him

39

Omnipresence

at the beginning of each new day. Remember often

through the day that He is right there with you. At

bedtime, rehearse the events of the day and think about

how you could have allowed Him to be more a part of

them, and what difference it would have made if you

had. Say “goodnight” to Him before you drop off to

sleep, remembering that He will be with you all night

long.”– Richard Strauss

“Perhaps the most serious, sobering thing my mind has

ever contemplated is the fact that I am always in the

presence of God. God cannot be shut out anywhere.

Even in the most secret recesses of my mind and the

deepest, most secluded imaginations of my heart, God

is there. Everything I think, say, and do is done in the

immediate presence of God. This fact should cause me to

be fi lled with reverence and godly fear and with great joy

too. God is present everywhere to save, preserve, and

40


comfort his elect.” -Don Fortner

“How terrible should the thoughts of this attribute be to

sinners! How foolish is it to imagine any hiding-place

from the incomprehensible God, who fi lls and contains

all things, and is present in every point of the world.

When men have shut the door, and made all darkness

within, to meditate or commit a crime, they cannot in the

most intricate recesses be sheltered from the presence

of God. If they could separate themselves from their

own shadows, they could not avoid his company, or be

obscured from his sight: Ps. cxxxix. 12, ‘The darkness

and light are both alike to him.’ Hypocrites cannot

disguise their sentiments from him; he is in the most

secret nook of their hearts. No thought is hid, no lust is

secret, but the eye of God beholds this, and that, and the

other. He is present with our heart when we imagine,

with our hands when we act. We may exclude the sun

41

Omnipresence

from peeping into our solitudes, but not the eyes of God

from beholding our actions”


Week 9:Sovereignty

Monday Philippians 2:9-11

Tuesday Matthew 7:21-23

Wednesday Isaiah 45:5-7

Thursday Luke 9:23-25

Friday James 4:13-15

Saturday Romans 10:8-13

Sunday Psalm 104

“Christ is either Lord of all or is not Lord at all.”

-J. Hudson Taylor

“The lordship of Christ, in reality, is something that is not

discovered and yielded to once, but thousands of times.

It is yieldedness to his lordship that is at stake every time

we are tempted to sin – every day.”

– John Piper

43

Sovereignty

“For God to rule the angry sea seems nothing to me

compared with the power which he exercises upon

himself when he endures the provocations of ungodly

men, the hardness of their hearts, their rejection of Christ,

and oftentimes their blasphemous speeches and their

unclean deeds. O sinner, when you are sinning with

a high hand and with an outstretched arm, is it not a

wonder of wonders that God does not cut you down, and

end your insolence?”

– C.H. Spurgeon

“You may know Christ as Lord in your head, but is this

refl ected in your hearts?”

– Unknown

“What a strange kind of salvation do they desire that care

not for holiness…They would have their sins forgiven,

not that they may walk with God in love, in time to

come, but that they may practice enmity against Him

44


without any fear of punishment.”

“If you don’t do what the doctor says, you don’t trust

him.”

– John Piper

“Jesus Christ has today almost no authority at all among

that groups that call themselves by His name. The

present position of Christ in the gospel churches may

be likened to that of a king in a limited, constitutional

monarchy. The king is, in such a country, no more than

a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity

and loyalty much like a fl ag or a national anthem. He

is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is

small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis

someone else makes the decisions.”

– A.W. Tozer

Week 10:Holiness and Moral Perfection

Monday Isaiah 66:1-2

(Isaiah 57:15)

Tuesday I Peter 1:15-16

Wednesday Revelation 4:8-11

Thursday I Thessalonians 4:3-7

Friday Titus 2:11-14

Saturday Isaiah 6:1-8

Sunday Exodus 15:11

“In its original and most fundamental sense, holy is not

an ethical concept at all. Rather, it means that which is of

the very nature of God and which therefore distinguishes

him from everything else. It is what sets God apart from

his creation. It has to do with his transcendence.”

– James Montgomery Boice

47

Holiness and Moral Perfection

“God – alone – is God; the creature is – only – a

creature. Hence the holiness of God evokes from

man an incomparable sense of distance from him.

God in his nature is inaccessible. He dwells “in light

unapproachable” (I Timothy 6:16).”

– Emil Brunner

“He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and

in all his commands. To him is due from angels and

men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship,

service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them.”

– Westminster Confession of Faith

“We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands

apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible,

and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He

may fear God’s power and admire his wisdom, but his

holiness he cannot even imagine…Holy is the way God

is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He

48


is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infi nite,

incomprehensible fullness of purity.”

– A.W. Tozer

“Holy, Holy, Holy! Tho’ the darkness hide Thee, Tho’

the eye of sinful man They glory may not see; Only Thou

are holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in pow’r, in

love, and purity.”

– Reginald Heber

“Power is God’s hand or arm, omniscience His eye,

mercy his bowels, eternity his duration, but holiness is

His beauty.”


“We are so accustomed to equating holiness with purity

or ethical perfection that we look for the idea when the

word holy appears. When things are made holy, when

they are consecrated, they are set apart unto purity. They

49

Holiness and Moral Perfection

are to be used in a pure way. They are to refl ect purity as

well as simply apartness. Purity is not excluded from the

idea of the holy; it is contained within it. But the point

we must remember is that the idea of the holy is never

exhausted by the idea of purity. It includes purity but is

much more than that. It is purity and transcendence. It

is a transcendent purity”

– R.C. Sproul

“Man is never suffi ciently touched and affected by the

awareness of his lowly state, until he has compared

himself with God’s majesty.”

– John Calvin

Week 11:Spirit

Monday John 14:26

Tuesday Ephesians 1:13-14



Friday Galatians 5:16-18

Saturday Psalm 139

Sunday I Corinthians 2:10-14

In my sober judgment the relation of the Spirit to the

believer is the most vital question the church faces today.

Satan has opposed the doctrine of the Spirit-fi lled life

about as bitterly as any other doctrine there is. He has

confused it, opposed it, surrounded it with false notions

and fears…The Spirit-fi lled life is not a special, deluxe

edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total

plan of God for His people. There is nothing about the

51

Spirit

Holy Spirit queer or strange or eerie.

– A.W. Tozer

We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity,

without either confusing the persons or dividing the

substance. For the Father’s person is one, the Son’s

another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, their glory

is equal, their majesty co-eternal.

– The Athanasian Creed

It is not as we strain after feelings and experiences but

as we seek God Himself, looking to Him as our Father,

prizing His fellowship, and fi nding in ourselves an

increasing concern to know and please Him, that the

reality of the Spirit’s ministry becomes visible in our

lives.

– J.I. Packer

52


To be fi lled with the Spirit means to be totally under His

infl uence.

– John McArthur

The Spirit teaches the mind of God, and glorifi es the

Son of God…He is the agent of a new birth, giving us an

understanding so that we know God and a new heart

to obey Him…He indwells, sanctifi es, and energizes

Christians for their daily pilgrimage…and assurance joy,

peace, and power are His special gifts.

– J.I. Packer

The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the

lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the

washing of regeneration. Gifts and power for service the

Spirit surely desires to impart, but holiness and spiritual

worship come fi rst.

– A.W. Tozer

Week 12:Justice and Wrath

Monday Romans 2:5-8

Tuesday Zephaniah 1:14-18

Wednesday Hebrews 12:3-11

Thursday Mark 15:16-39

Friday 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

Saturday Nahum 1:2-8

Sunday Psalm 2

“Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as He

did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not

react adversely to evil in His world be morally perfect?

Surely not. But it is precisely this adverse reaction to

evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that

the Bible has in view when it speaks of God’s wrath”

– J.I. Packer

55

Justice and Wrath

“Then, too, unless we give a real content to the wrath

of God, unless we hold that men really deserve to have

God visit upon them the painful consequences of their

wrongdoing, we empty God’s forgiveness of its meaning.

For if there is no ill desert, God ought to overlook sin.

We can think of forgiveness as something real only when

we hold that sin has betrayed us into a situation where

we deserve to have God infl ict upon us the most seri-

ous consequences, and that is upon such a situation that

God’s grace supervenes. When the logic of the situation

demands that He should take action against the sinner,

and He yet takes action for him, then and then alone can

we speak of grace. But there is no room for grace if there

is no suggestion of dire consequences merited by sin”

– Leon Morris

Week 13:Father

Monday 1 John 3:1

Tuesday John 1:11-13

Wednesday Romans 8:14-17

Thursday Galatians 4:1-7

Friday Matthew 7:7-11

Saturday Psalm 103

Sunday Isaiah 63:15-16

“What is a Christian? The question can be answered

in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a

Christian is one who has God as Father.”

– J.I. Packer

“There is one attribute of God through which we are

able to see all the other facets of Him. It serves as the

viewpoint or table from which we are able to view all the

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Father

other facets of His personality. God is fi rst and foremost,

above and beyond anything else, a father.”

– Peter Lord

“Jesus came to tell us that there is nothing on the heart

of God more than that we know Him as our Father.

One the basis of the counseling I do, I would say that

the two greatest problems among Christians are a lack

of understanding their position in Christ and a lack of

knowing God as their Father.”

– Dan DeHann

“You sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching

in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the

Fatherhood of the holy Creator…If you want to judge

how well a person understands Christianity, fi nd out

how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child,

and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought

that prompts and controls his worship and prayers

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and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not

understand Christianity very well at all. For everything

that Christ taught, everything that makes the New

Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that

is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish,

is summered up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of

God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.”

– J.I. Packer

“We are to persist in asking for God’s grace as though

we are beggars (for spiritually we always remain so).

And we shall never really understand the wonder of his

grace until, seeking mercy like beggars before a judge; we

discover that he wants us to be his sons and daughters.”

– Sinclair Ferguson

Week 14:Humble

Monday Philippians 2:5-8

Tuesday Luke 2:4-7


Thursday Matthew 20:26-28

Friday Luke 23:26-47

Saturday John 1:14-18

Sunday Isaiah 53

“That one who has suffered defeat in the service of

God, whose enemies crucifi ed and mocked him, one

who out of the depths of dereliction cried aloud to God,

could reveal the almighty power of God – what human

understanding, or what human imagination, would have

conceived such an idea?”

– Emil Brunner

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Humble

“Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut His

glories in, when Christ the Mighty Maker died for man,

the creature’s sin…Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and

did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred

head for sinners such as I?”

– Issac Watts

“When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince

of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour

contempt on all my pride.”

– Isaac Watts

“Is it not obvious that the reason why we have to be

humble in order to walk with God is not merely because

God is so big and we are so little, that humility befi ts

such little creatures – but because God is so humble?”

– Roy Hession

62


“He humbled Himself to the manger,

And even to Calvary’s tree,

But I am so proud and unwilling,

His humble disciple to be.

He yielded His will to the Father,

And chose to abide in the Light;

But I prefer wrestling to resting,

And try by myself to do right.

Lord, break me, then cleanse me and fi ll me

And keep me abiding in Thee;

That fellowship may be unbroken,

And Thy Name be hallowed in me.”

-Roy Hession (Calvary Road)

Week 15:

Heart for the Nations

Monday Genesis 12:1-3

Tuesday Matthew 24:14

Wednesday Daniel 6:19-27


Friday Luke 24:46-47

Saturday Acts 1:7-11

Sunday Revelation 7:9-12

“A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep

mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile,

millions who have never heard it once fall into the fl ames

of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story.”- K.P. Yohannan

“Answering a student’s question, ‘Will the heathen who

65

Heart for the Nations

have not heard the Gospel be saved?’ thus, ‘It is more a

question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and

fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.’”

- C.H. Spurgeon

“As long as there are millions destitute of the word

of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be

impossible for me to devote my time and energy to those

who have both.”

- J.L. Ewen

“You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,

cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their

life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals

whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit

— immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

– C.S. Lewis

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over

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our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with

our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If

hell must be fi lled, at least let it be fi lled in the teeth of

our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and

unprayed for.”

- Charles Spurgeon

The God You Can Know Study Guide

Chapter 1God: I Want to Know You

Study Questions

1. Why is it important to focus on knowing God rather than just serving him? (Luke 10:38-42)

2. What will be the results of a life of knowing God?

3. What does the word “passion” mean?

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The God You Can Know Chapter 1

4. Do you have a passion to know God? Why or why not?

5. Take a few moments to think about Philippians 3:7-10. How does your passion compare with Paul’s?

6. Look up the following verses about God’s char-acter as revealed in the Old Testament. How do these verses point to what God has shown of him-self on the cross?

a. Exodus 42:6-7:

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b. Hosea 9:11:

c. Isaiah 6:3.

7. Why is it important what you think about?

8. What kinds of things most often occupy your mind?

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9. What kings of things should occupy your mind? (Philippians 4:8-9)

10. According to this book, what are some results of knowing God intimately? List each of them and ask yourself how each of these are refl ected in your life. In which areas are you weak?

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11. What should the overall goal of your life be? Why?

12. What steps can you take to move you toward the goal of knowing God intimately?

Chapter 2The Glory of God

1. How does the book defi ne glory?

2. How do the following verses help us understand what God’s glory is like?

a. Psalm 145:

b. Exodus 40:34-35:

c. I Kings 8:10:

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d. Ezekiel 10:4-5:

3. What is the root of man’s sin? Genesis 3:5

4. According to the Westminister Catechism, what is the chief end of man?

5. How did seeing God’s glory affect Moses? (Exo-dus 34:29)

6. What are the fi rst two commandments God gives to his people? (Exodus 20)

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7. How do these commandments reveal God’s desire that man give him glory?

8. What are some modern-day idols or ways in which we violate these two commandments?

9. How can you live out obedience to these com-mandments? (I Corinthians 10:31)

10. Meditate on Jeremiah 13:15-17 and ask God to show you specifi c ways you have been proud or unwilling to glorify God. Ask God to show you way in which your life (attitudes, actions, motives) can bring glory to him.

Chapter 3The Perfection of God (Part 1)

1. What does God’s immutability mean? Look up Psalm 102:26-27 and James 1:17.

2. Does God’s love or forgiveness for you ever change? What if you sin “big?”

3. In what other ways do you think God does not change?

4. What does “omnipotence” mean? Look up Psalm 115:3 and Jeremiah 32:17, 27.

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5. Is there any area or problem in your life that has caused you to feel overwhelmed? How should a right understanding of God’s omnipotence affect you?

6. Write out a defi nition for God’s omniscience.

7. How should a proper understanding of God’s om-niscience affect our daily thoughts and actions?

8. God’s omniscience means that he knows every-thing about you…even the things that no one else knows. Is there anything you have been trying to keep hidden?

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9. How does this book defi ne the sovereignty of God?

10. What do the following verses tell us about God’s sovereignty?

a. Genesis 50:20

b. Daniel 4:35

c. Acts 17:24-26

11. How does knowing about God’s sovereignty affect your seemingly impossible situations, your un-certainty about the future, your past failures and mess-ups, or your fears?

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12. List the ways you see the goodness of God in your life. Take some time to thank God for each one of these.

13. “How sad to see a Christian complaining when it is because of the goodness of God that he has anything. The ability to see God’s goodness was an amazing characteristic of Paul’s life.”

a. Read Psalm 139:1-12.

b. How can you make yourself more aware of God’s constant presence (omnipresence)?

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14. Spend time meditating on Exodus 15:11.

a. How can you apply this verse to your life in a practical way?

15. What are one or two steps can you be taking right now to know God more?

Chapter 4The Perfections of God (Part II)

1. What were the one or two steps you committed to do in chapter three in order to know God more? (Do you remember without looking back?) Pray through those steps right now; ask God to teach you about himself and to show you the things that are keeping you from knowing him.

2. How does the book defi ne God’s foreknowledge?

3. Does God’s foreknowledge refer to events or people? (Look up Acts 2:23, Romans 8:29-30, I Peter 1:2)?

4. What do these verses say about God’s view of you?

87


5. Read Psalm 63:3 and list 5 specifi c ways God has shown His lovingkindness to you in your life.

6. What does it mean for us to be motivated by God’s lovingkindness?

7. How does this play out in your life?

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8. Can you think of ways that God specifi cally re-veals his patience toward you?

9. Read the parable in Matthew 18:23-35.

a. Who does the master represent?

b. Who does the servant who was forgiven but demanded the servant under him to “pay up” represent?

c. How are we like this wicked servant in the way we treat people who offend us, etc.?

d. What does this parable tell us about the pa-tience of God?

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10. “God’s patience should astound every one of us. We should be amazed that we suffer so little for the consequences of sin.”

a. What is a defi nition of God’s grace? What do you receive as a result of the grace he has given you?

11. Read Ephesians 2:4-9. What was the price God the Father paid in order to offer us grace?

12. Look up Hebrews 12:28-29, Exodus 34:6-7, and Romans 1:18-32. In light of God’s holiness and perfection, why is the wrath of God a necessary part of his character?

Chapter 5 God’s Heart Exposed to the World

1. What do the following verses say about the deity of Jesus Christ?

a. John 14:9

b. John 8:58

c. Philippians 2:6

d. Colossians 1:15

e. Hebrews 1:3

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2. With what did God redeem you? (I Peter 1:18-21)

3. Why is a right understanding of our sin and God’s holiness necessary for us to appreciate redemp-tion? (page 67)

4. Read Mark 1:11 and Mark 15:34.

a. How much does God hate sin?

b. Do you hate it?

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5. Take a few moments to read and think about Isa-iah 53. Put your name in each verse to personalize the message.

“But he was wounded for _______

transgressions; he was crushed for _________

iniquities…”

6. What did Jesus do so you could be righteous? (II Corinthians 5:21)

Chapter 6What Motivates God?

1. Why is it important for us to know what motivates God?

2. What are some ways God reveals himself to us?

3. Write out the meaning of each of the following names of God and look up the corresponding verse with each name. Meditate on these names and think about how God shows himself in your life through his names.

a. Elohim (Genesis 1:1)

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b. El Shaddai (Genesis 28:3)

c. Jehovah-Jireh (Genesis 22:8)

d. Jehovah (Isaiah 42:8)

e. Jehovah-Rapha (Exodus 15:26)

f. Jehovah-Nissi (Exodus 17:15)

g. Jehovah-Shalom (Judges 6:23-24)

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h. Jehovah-Horhi (Psalm 23)

i. Jehovah-Shammah (Ezekiel 48:35)

4. How will our primary concept of God affect what we do?

5. What is at the very center of God’s being? (see pp. 77-78)

Read II Corinthians 6:18 and Romans 8:15-16.

6. How did Jesus usually address and speak about God?

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7. How is God’s fatherhood refl ected in what he de-sires of his children?

a. James 1:27

b. John 13:35

8. How do you primarily view God?

9. How is that affecting your relationships with him and with others?

Chapter 7God: I Want to Worship You

1. Read Jeremiah 9:23-24 and Hosea 6:6. What does God delight in?

2. Why do you think God delights in this?

3. Remembering the story in Luke 10 about Mary and Martha, in what ways are you similar to Mar-tha? Write down some things that keep you from really focusing on the “one thing” that Jesus talked about.

4. Read Psalm 46:10. Is your focus on doing things for God rather than knowing him?

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5. Write down areas of pride or crowns in your life. Ask God to show you things that could exalt you: looks, intellectual ability, sports, background, etc.

6. Take some time right now to confess any uncon-fessed sins that come to mind. Cast all things that might exalt you before God, to humble yourself before him.

7. Look up Bible verses that address each of these idols. Ask someone for help if you cannot fi nd any. Write them here and begin memorizing them so that you may have them to fi ght these idols when they arise.

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I Corinthians 4:7 – “What do you have that you did not

receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did

not receive it?”

8. Read the following verses out loud to God and proclaim to him his worth.

a. Psalm 145:1-13

b. Revelation 5:11-14

9. According to this chapter, what are the three basic activities of worship?

10. What are some steps you can take to practice these activities throughout the day today?

Chapter 8God’s Testimony of Us

1. What were the steps you committed to in Chapter 7 to worship God throughout the day?

2. How can you be more effective in this?

3. What are you learning through worshipping God more?

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4. Read 2 Corinthians 7:9-11. What’s the difference between remorse/sorrow over sin and true repen-tance?

5. Answer the following questions from the given verses.

a. What were you like before Christ saved you? (Colossians 1:21, Ephesians 2:1-3)

b. How does God view you now? (I Peter 2:9-10, Colossians 1:22)

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6. If God has already forgiven us of all our sins, why do we still need to ask forgiveness?

7. This chapter used the four following terms to describe our position before God. What do they mean?

a. Completeness

b. Circumcised

c. Created anew

d. Cleansed

8. Read Romans 8:31-35, 38-39 and thank the Father for his goodness, kindness, love, redemption, death and payment for your sins, mercy, grace, etc.

Chapter 9Ordinary Me with an Extraordinary Love

1. Why does teaching on our duty as Christians always need to follow teaching about doctrine and all we have in Christ?

2. To what are we indebted as Christians?

3. Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and make a list of words that describe your condition before Christ and a list of words that describe your new position in Christ now. What a remarkable difference!

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4. Think about the parable about Sally in the book. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. How would you respond to a person who had given you so much?

5. How do the gifts that Sally’s husband gave her compare with the gift that God has given us in Christ?

6. According to Ephesians 1:13-14, what is our seal or guarantee of all we have in Christ?

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7. Take a few minutes to honestly refl ect on the fol-lowing questions.

a. Are you in love with the Lord?

b. Could you say that the reason you do what you do is because you are in love with the Lord?

c. Do you thirst for him?

d. Would those closest to you say that you have a thankful heart or a love for the Lord?

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8. Read the following verses. Ask the Lord to give you a heart more like the psalmists.

a. Psalm 27:4

b. Psalm 42:1-2

c. Psalm 63:1-2

d. Psalm 84:10-11

For more information or for a list of additional resources contact:

Campus Outreach Birmingham

phone: 205-776-5500

email: [email protected]

website: http://www.cobirmingham.org

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