Conclusions - The Essence of God

Video/audio transcript

0:000:00 - all right guys so this lesson we are
0:020:02 - going to be summarizing much of what
0:050:05 - we’ve talked about here with reference
0:060:06 - to the essence of God going back through
0:090:09 - the various lessons that we have made so
0:120:12 - the introduction and then talking about
0:140:14 - the infinite nature of God and then
0:150:15 - talking about the perfect character of
0:170:17 - God and pulling it all together in
0:200:20 - perhaps a more digestible summary form
0:230:23 - here in this last lesson for this
0:240:24 - section on the essence of God so this is
0:280:28 - going to be the structure of what we
0:310:31 - talk about in this lesson first we’re
0:330:33 - going to go back over some of what we’ve
0:340:34 - already talked about then we’re going to
0:370:37 - kind of P all together in an overview in
0:400:40 - words almost coming out poetically here
0:420:42 - and then we’re going to have a picture
0:440:44 - form this more less a chart that kind of
0:470:47 - pulls together all of the various
0:480:48 - characteristics that we’ve been talking
0:530:53 - about so to go over what we have been
0:560:56 - talking about the last little bit we’re
0:580:58 - just going to go ahead and review the
0:590:59 - out lines for the lessons that we’ve
1:011:01 - already done in discussion of the
1:031:03 - essence of God so the very first thing
1:061:06 - that we talked about with the essence of
1:071:07 - God was we were just introducing the
1:091:09 - concept we were talking about how the
1:121:12 - essence of God is being he is The Great
1:141:14 - I Am it is in God’s very nature to exist
1:181:18 - and then we talked about the respondence
1:201:20 - of God so God is light and that light
1:241:24 - gets at the sense of his unapproachable
1:261:26 - ility uh just how you can’t stare
1:281:28 - directly at the Sun and how glory is
1:311:31 - that manifestation of his of his glory
1:341:34 - in the world um so sorry the glory is
1:361:36 - the manifestation kind of of that light
1:391:39 - in the world so God operating through
1:421:42 - christophanies that came up a bit um and
1:451:45 - how we see God’s glory manifested in the
1:471:47 - world uh very much as uh we can see
1:511:51 - sunlight um so this these as kind of
1:531:53 - metaphors to explain the resplendence of
1:561:56 - God and then we talked a little bit at
1:581:58 - the end about how there are are various
2:012:01 - philosophical positions that people
2:022:02 - debate in regards to things like Essence
2:052:05 - and nature and substance and forms and
2:082:08 - philosophers have these words and how we
2:112:11 - are going to mostly be limiting
2:122:12 - ourselves to discussing the essence of
2:142:14 - God in terms of what the Bible itself
2:162:16 - actually says and so we’re not going to
2:182:18 - necessarily get into the weeds of all
2:192:19 - that um so this was the introduction of
2:232:23 - some of the things we talked about in uh
2:252:25 - this first lesson in this particular
2:262:26 - part of the study and then next we moved
2:282:28 - on to talking about God’s infinite
2:302:30 - nature and so in this we talked about
2:332:33 - God’s abilities uh kind of what he can
2:362:36 - do and what uh his status as this unique
2:402:40 - being in the universe is so we started
2:422:42 - out uh talking about how God is
2:452:45 - spiritual God is eternal and God is
2:472:47 - immeasurable in a spatial sense and all
2:492:49 - of these things which are what we would
2:522:52 - call Essential characteristics of God
2:542:54 - independent from creation make God
2:562:56 - unique um and so this was the kind of
2:592:59 - bridging quality uh that takes us from
3:023:02 - these initial three to omnipotence
3:053:05 - omniscience and omnipresence which are
3:073:07 - how these things end up kind of
3:093:09 - manifesting in creation itself so
3:123:12 - because God is spiritual he’s omnipotent
3:143:14 - he can do whatever he pleases in the
3:163:16 - material realm because he’s Eternal God
3:193:19 - knows everything the end from the
3:213:21 - beginning and because he’s immeasurable
3:233:23 - he cannot be bound in a spatial sense he
3:253:25 - is omnipresent he is everywhere in the
3:283:28 - universe so again
3:303:30 - this uh this particular section uh this
3:333:33 - lesson in the study going over God’s
3:353:35 - infinite nature and how that kind of
3:373:37 - sheds light on his abilities and then
3:403:40 - finally we looked at God’s perfect
3:423:42 - character and how that kind of helps
3:443:44 - illuminate his motives and so for his
3:463:46 - perfect character we were looking at the
3:493:49 - essential qualities of God that God is
3:513:51 - good God is Holy and God is faithful and
3:533:53 - true and then our kind of bridge
3:563:56 - characteristic here was how God is
3:583:58 - Sovereign and so this was probably the
3:593:59 - longest section that we went over in
4:024:02 - these few lessons here talking about how
4:044:04 - God is deure a ruler of the Universe on
4:084:08 - account of being the Creator um so God
4:114:11 - possesses The Sovereign authority to
4:134:13 - demonstrate love out of his goodness to
4:164:16 - to administer Justice out of his
4:174:17 - Holiness and to give life out of his
4:204:20 - truth and faithfulness um and so we had
4:224:22 - a a handy chart um in this set of slides
4:254:25 - that kind of like pulled together um how
4:284:28 - all of this works in terms of what we
4:304:30 - might call a theological vocabulary of
4:334:33 - redemption um so these these words here
4:364:36 - Redemption justification and
4:384:38 - Reconciliation kind of describing this
4:404:40 - process of God’s saving sinful man and
4:434:43 - as we emphasize time and again
4:454:45 - absolutely everything in the plan of God
4:474:47 - for saving us hinges upon the cross in
4:494:49 - the blood of Jesus Christ um so this is
4:524:52 - what we were talking about with uh God’s
4:544:54 - perfect character and then uh we closed
4:574:57 - off talking about how these aspects
4:594:59 - manif EST in Creation in how God uh
5:025:02 - approaches sinful mankind so God’s
5:055:05 - goodness is worked out in love God’s
5:075:07 - holiness is worked out in Justice and
5:095:09 - God’s faithfulness and Truth is what
5:115:11 - gives us life in this world uh just as
5:145:14 - we have the metaphor of the water of the
5:165:16 - word in John chapter 4 um as well as
5:195:19 - Jesus saying that uh we must eat his
5:225:22 - flesh and drink his blood uh in John
5:245:24 - chapter 6 that’s what gives us life um
5:275:27 - so this is what we have been going over
5:295:29 - um the last several lessons here and all
5:325:32 - this is to help us describe God’s
5:355:35 - essence of who God is what it means for
5:385:38 - him to be God so this is what we have
5:405:40 - been talking about and now we’re going
5:425:42 - to turn to kind of pulling it all
5:445:44 - together uh maybe in a paragraph or two
5:465:46 - as well as in a chart to help us
5:485:48 - summarize everything that we have been
5:495:49 - talking
5:535:53 - about so this is the part of the study
5:565:56 - that ichus has that kind of pulls
5:585:58 - together all of these qualities of God
6:006:00 - that we have been talking about um
6:026:02 - especially this as it relates to kind of
6:046:04 - redeeming us as sinful man uh from our
6:076:07 - sins and so as I read this here you’ll
6:106:10 - notice that uh the paragraphs have kind
6:126:12 - of been set as start almost in verse
6:146:14 - form and that’s because the way that Dr
6:166:16 - lug M arranged this it sounds very much
6:186:18 - it has the parallelism uh so to speak of
6:216:21 - poetry I mean it sounds kind of like
6:246:24 - what you would slip into in some of the
6:256:25 - Psalms that sort of thing and it really
6:276:27 - is a very good description of how God
6:306:30 - has worked out our Redemption um so I’m
6:336:33 - just going to go ahead and read this um
6:356:35 - and then we’ll go look at after this
6:376:37 - we’ll go look at the chart the picture
6:406:40 - that kind of represents the same
6:416:41 - information but more in a table format
6:436:43 - but first we’re going to go ahead and
6:446:44 - read uh kind of the verbal
6:466:46 - representation of God’s Redemptive plan
6:496:49 - for us so God’s goodness overflows with
6:536:53 - love providing Grace for sinful man
6:566:56 - though evil says a loving God can’t
6:586:58 - condemn he did condemn his son that we
7:007:00 - might live redeeming Us in love with the
7:037:03 - blood of Christ God’s holiness overflows
7:067:06 - Injustice offering Mercy to sinful man
7:097:09 - though evil says a just God can’t
7:117:11 - forgive he did forgive us by condemning
7:137:13 - his own son making us righteous through
7:167:16 - the blood of Christ God’s faithfulness
7:187:18 - and Truth overflow in life producing
7:217:21 - peace with God for sinful man though
7:237:23 - evil says that a god of Integrity can’t
7:257:25 - restore us he did make peace between us
7:287:28 - through his son reconciling us to
7:307:30 - himself and granting us eternal life on
7:337:33 - the basis of the blood of Christ and so
7:357:35 - you’ll notice that just as before when
7:377:37 - we were going through uh all the
7:397:39 - mechanics of this in the character of
7:417:41 - God that absolutely everything here ties
7:447:44 - back to the blood of Christ um so his
7:477:47 - goodness overflowing in love Holiness
7:497:49 - overflows in Justice and faithfulness
7:517:51 - and Truth overflow in life and all of
7:537:53 - this happens um that Redemption the
7:557:55 - justification and the reconciliation all
7:587:58 - of that happens on the basis of the
8:008:00 - blood of Christ just as we have been
8:028:02 - talking about
8:068:06 - before all right so now that we’ve gone
8:098:09 - through the text representation of the
8:118:11 - summary here now we’re just going to go
8:138:13 - ahead and we’re going to try to pull it
8:148:14 - all together in the table here now
8:178:17 - you’ll note that this very much
8:198:19 - corresponds with how ichus has organized
8:218:21 - this initial part of the study talking
8:238:23 - about the essence of God and that this
8:258:25 - left column here uh organizes everything
8:288:28 - about God’s infinite nature and this
8:308:30 - right column organizes everything about
8:328:32 - his perfect character and you can see
8:348:34 - that the columns are split um into
8:378:37 - independent and applied and what we’re
8:398:39 - talking about here uh these are
8:418:41 - characteristics of God independent from
8:438:43 - creation and these are how those
8:458:45 - characteristics manifest within creation
8:488:48 - and even more specifically in regards to
8:518:51 - God’s relationship with Humanity uh here
8:538:53 - talking about his character um so the
8:568:56 - independent characteristics his
8:588:58 - spirituality his eternity and his
9:009:00 - immeasurability manifest as omnipotence
9:039:03 - omniscience and omnipresence and these
9:059:05 - things together make God completely
9:079:07 - unique uh there’s no one like him in the
9:109:10 - universe and his goodness and his
9:139:13 - Holiness and his truth manifest
9:149:14 - respectively as love Justice and life
9:179:17 - here in the universe and these things
9:199:19 - together make God Sovereign uh he holds
9:229:22 - the scepter of authority by existential
9:249:24 - Fiat he is the one to whom all honor and
9:279:27 - glory is due in the universe
9:299:29 - not just because he’s the biggest and
9:319:31 - the most powerful on account of his
9:339:33 - abilities but also because he is the
9:359:35 - creator he is the one who has the right
9:389:38 - to judge the Free Will decisions of his
9:419:41 - creatures and so all of these things
9:439:43 - together describe God’s Essence as we’ve
9:459:45 - been discussing it his infinite nature
9:479:47 - his perfect character which makes him
9:499:49 - unique and Sovereign and he is the one
9:519:51 - to whom all honor and glory is due uh
9:559:55 - kind of both dejur by his uniqueness by
9:589:58 - his his his power and his abilities and
10:0010:00 - also or sorry that was de facto by his
10:0310:03 - uniqueness and and his abilities and
10:0510:05 - also dejur on account of his status as
10:0810:08 - the Creator the one who has made us and
10:1010:10 - the one who has the actual authority to
10:1310:13 - rule over us as the moral Sovereign of
10:1610:16 - the universe so this is as I say a
10:1910:19 - summary of all that we have been talking
10:2110:21 - about here in this first section uh of
10:2310:23 - the study going over God’s Essence so in
10:2710:27 - closing us out aie do you have anything
10:2810:28 - else you want to say about anything
10:3010:30 - we’ve talked about any other points to
10:3210:32 - make to keep in mind uh before we move
10:3410:34 - on to the other things in the
10:3610:36 - study uh not really I think you’ve
10:3910:39 - covered everything quite
10:4110:41 - nicely yeah all right well with that we
10:4510:45 - will kind of wrap up this section and so
10:4710:47 - hopefully this this video here has just
10:4910:49 - been a bit of a review of all that’s
10:5110:51 - gone before maybe this is a good one to
10:5310:53 - come back to and review uh moving in the
10:5510:55 - future uh you know just kind of pulling
10:5710:57 - it all together but now we’re going to
10:5910:59 - turn our attention to the next section
11:0011:00 - in the study uh going over the doctrine
11:0311:03 - of the Trinity so that is where we will
11:0511:05 - pick up in our next lesson