Seeing God as He Really Is

A. The Bible tells us that God is good.

You cannot get closer to God than what your concept of Him is. If you believe that He is loving, you will draw near to Him without fear.   

Psalms 86:5 NKJV

5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Psalms 31:19 NKJV

19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,Which You have laid up for those who fear You,Which You have prepared for those who trust in You In the presence of the sons of men!

Psalms 33:5 NKJV

5 He loves righteousness and justice;The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

B. Not only does the Bible tell us that God is good, it tells us that we are not good and even we are evil in comparison to God.

People can be good as compared to other people; however, as compared to God, we are all evil apart from Him.  

Matthew 19:16-17 NKJV

16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Romans 3:12 NKJV

12 They have all turned aside;They have together become unprofitable;There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Matthew 7:11 NKJV

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

We get our concept of God from our parents; however, our parents are all evil as compared to God. 

Our parents display a distorted image of God to us.

  

Parents should introduced us to God, so God can reveal an distorted picture of Himself to us.   

The Four Stages of Moses’s Revelation of God.

Stage 1: We See God Through the Eyes of the Past.

Exodus 33:1-5 NKJV

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 

2 And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 

3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 

4 And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 

5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. 

I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ”

We resist God because we don't see His heart (motives). 

Stage 2: We must Ask God for New Eyes.

Exodus 33:18-19 NKJV

18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 

19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. 

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Stage 3: We must Ask God for A Divine Revelation of His Goodness.

Exodus 34:5-7 NKJV

5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 

6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

What does good (God) look like?  Who is He?

1. God is Merciful.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NKJV

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 

15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 

16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

2. God is Gracious.

II Corinthians 9:8 NKJV

8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Ephesians 2:4-9 NKJV

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 

5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 

6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

God identifies with us most of all as being our parent. 

3. God is Longsuffering.

God knows you are a long project.  He is not surprised by how difficult you are.   

4. God is Abounding in Goodness.

God is good when you are good.  He is good when you are bad.  

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

5. God is Abounding in Truth.

God will always tell you the truth. 

6. God is Forgiving.

Psalm 103:12-14  (ESV)

12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust.

7. God is Just.

God is just, but that's just one of His seven attributes. 

God is merciful, gracious, long suffering, good, truthful, forgiving, and... just.  

Hebrews 12:7-13 NKJV

7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 

8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 

9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 

10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 

11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Stage 4: Moses becomes a different man, after he sees God as He really is, and three things changed.

Exodus 34:8  (ESV)

⁸ And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

A. Moses's worship changes.

B. Moses's self-worth changes.

Exodus 34:9 NKJV

9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

C. Moses's witness changes!

Moses had already been in God's presence;however, His face had never shone until He came to know God for who He is.  

Exodus 34:29 NKJV

29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to me through this message?

Jimmy Evans, Gateway Church