"Who Is The Lord God, How Do We Define Him, What Is His Nature?" By: Dr. Shuffel P. Hepburn

Who is the Lord God? How do we define Him? And what is His nature? That's our message. Prior to Moses meeting the Lord God at the place of the burning bush on the backside of Mount Horeb, he did not know the one true God, according to Exodus 3. Perhaps he had some idea about Him having been nursed on the breasts of his biological mother who was a Jewish woman. I am sure he had heard her sing the songs of Zion and heard her talk about the God of Abraham. Perhaps he knew less than that because when the child started to grow he became the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and she would have seen to it that he

would be taught in the way of their gods,

the gods of the Egyptian people. Apparently the Egyptians had a pantheon of gods which included gods of creation, gods of the sun, gods of the

afterlife, and gods of wisdom and various

aspects of nature. She would have

arranged tutors to teach him the

Egyptian language, its culture, science

and whatever else Egyptian children were

taught in those days. And even so the law had not yet

been given to the Israelites and the

most concrete doctrine was perhaps the

doctrine of circumcision which the Lord

had given to Abraham who believed in the

one true God who possesses power and

knowledge. Moses would have been

circumcised on the eighth day, but

perhaps he had no idea why he was

circumcised or even that he had been. And

Father we thank you for this message

that it may give the listener a good

understanding of who you are. We thank

you and praise you that you will reveal

yourself to the listener in this message

Father in Jesus name we pray,

amen. At their first encounter the Lord

identified Himself to Moses as God

Almighty, El Shaddai. He said He was the God of his

fathers. He said to him "I am the God of your

father, the God of Abraham, the God of

Isaac and the God of Jacob." And Moses

hid his face for he was afraid to look

upon God. So the Lord referred to Himself in

this way because He knew that Moses knew

his biological father and would

understand. You see the Lord had given His covenant

to Abraham, reaffirmed it with Isaac and

reaffirmed it again with Jacob. He

promised them and their descendants the

same blessings and the same land. He also

promised them vast numbers of

descendants like the stars in the sky,

and He told them to be faithful and

trust in His promises. And He knew that they would

pass His promises on to their

children. And this covenant was sealed in

blood on the penis of every male child

born in the Jewish household. Then in verse 14, the Lord said to Moses that He was going to send him

to Pharaoh so that he may bring God's

people, the children of Israel out of

Egypt. And Moses asked the Lord what is the

name that he would give the Israelites

when they asked him who sent

him. At this point the Lord said

something incredibly difficult to grasp.

He said I Am who I Am. Some translations say it this way I Am that I Am. Others say I Am what I Am

and then there are a few that say I Am

the being. This phrase I Am who I am recognizes the

divine nature of God, His forever

existence and His unchanging ways. In

some translations it is I will be what I

will be, and there are many other

variations of this phrase, as many have

taken a crack at it trying to interpret

what this really means, what God was

really saying to us. So here are two more

examples; I will become what I choose to

become and another says I Am the

existing one. To sum them all up the Lord

was simply saying just tell them I Am

has sent you. According to Exodus 6 and 3 Abraham

Isaac and Jacob did not know the Father

as Lord. Moses was the first person privileged to

know our God as Yahweh, which means

Lord. The King James version uses the

Latinized version which is Jehovah, however at the end of the book of Revelation there's a term that we are

all very familiar with. In this place the

Lord says "I am Alpha and Omega the

beginning and the end, the first and the

last." And this puts a nice wrap on this

discussion about the definition of God

and His name. Now what about the nature of our

God, the nature of our Father, the nature

of Yahweh. The Lord has described His nature

in several places in the Old Testament

carefully crafted. When He spoke to the

children of Israel from Mount Si. He told

them, "I the Lord your God am a jealous

God visiting the iniquity of the fathers

upon the children to the third and

fourth generation of those who hate me,

but showing mercy to thousands, to those

who love me and keep my commandments,"

Exodus 20 verses 5 and 6. He was telling them

this is who I Am. Sometime later Moses was called

back up to the mountain by the Lord to

carry the second tablets of stone upon

which God would write the ten

commandments with His

finger, because Moses had broken the

first set. For when he came down from the

mount and saw the people were worshiping

the golden calf that they had forced

Aaron to make for them. He broke the

commandments, dashing them to the ground.

So when he went up on this occasion the

Lord said that He would be gracious to

whom He will be gracious and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion.

In other words do not question Him about

whom He bestows His grace and His mercy

upon. On this visit He described His

nature in more detail to to Moses. He

made all his goodness pass before Moses

and showed Him His glory. This is the

manner in which He announced Himself as

He passed by His faithful servant.

The Lord, the Lord God merciful and

gracious long-suffering and abounding in

goodness and truth 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 fourth generation, Exodus 34:6 and 7.

The Lord describes His nature in a

similar manner in two other places in

scripture namely Deuteronomy 5:9 and 10

and Numbers 14:18. So there should be no doubt about

who God is and He does not change. Our

God is not a chameleon like

Satan who changes every day.

Let's take a look at these descriptions

of God's nature to see what they really

mean and we will look at them line by

line. The first is I will have compassion

on whom I will and be gracious to whom I

will. The Lord is saying here that He

reserves the right and has the sovereign

authority to extend grace and compassion

upon whomever He wants to and this is not

necessarily based on merits or actions

of the individual. And therefore we

should be happy when someone is blessed

by God and praise Him for them. For He

indeed does all things well. He is just,

he is fair. Has He not blessed us beyond

measure, so why should we be jealous

about any blessing that He bestows on

anyone else. Next in line He says I the

Lord your God am a jealous

God. Now when the Lord describes Himself

in this way this should not be compared

to the petty jealousies of we human

beings which arises from our

insecurities caused by low self-esteem.

But rather this is a Godly jealousy

described by one source as a zealousness

for maintaining the covenant

relationship with His creations and Has every right to be

jealous over us. He made us to worship

Him in spirit and in truth and any other

worship my friend is unnatural for His

creations and will exclude them from His

eternal presence. The next line that we'll look

at says "The Lord is merciful and

gracious. He will not keep His anger

forever." According to Psalm 103 it says

"The Lord is merciful and gracious slow

to anger and abounding in mercy. He will

not always strive with us nor will He

keep His anger forever. He has not dealt

with us according to our sins nor

punished us according to our iniquities.

Glory to God! The mercy of the Lord is

from everlasting to everlasting friend

upon those who fear Him and His

righteousness to our grandchildren and

beyond. And this applies to all who keep

His covenant and those who remember to

keep His commandments, is what the word

of God tells us. The next line says "The

Lord is long-suffering, He goes beyond the limits

in His patience with us even when He's

faced with our sins and our repeated

transgressions. His hand is ever extended

to us still, otherwise who among us would

possibly be saved?" And then there's a line that says "Our God abounds in goodness and

truth, there's no end to His

goodness." And the word of God says

"Taste and see that the Lord is good,

blessed is the man who trusts in Him,"

Psalm 34. There's a never ending stream of

goodness in our God, something that is in

such short supply on the earth today.

Likewise there's no end to His truth but

there seem to be a shortage of it in the

world today. Jesus Christ told His apostles,

"When the Spirit of truth has come He

will guide you into all truth for He

will not speak on His own authority but

whatever He hears He will speak and He

will tell you things that are to come,"

John 16:13. Then a line says keeping mercy for

thousands. And this speaks of the length

and breadth of God's mercy to many

generations. And the word of God says

through the Lord's mercy we're not

consumed because His compassions fail

not, Lamentation 3 and 22. The Lord's great mercy my friend prevents us from being devoured by the

one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

The next line says, "Forgiving iniquity

and transgression and sin." My friend the Lord has promised to remove our transgressions, our law breaking from us, and He promises to place it as far as

the east is from the west. This is how far our breaking of His laws will be removed from us, we'll be

totally forgiven. In other words we will be totally

separated from these sins. This also

applies to our iniquity which is our

wickedness, our injustices and moral

wrong doings. According to first John 1:9,

if we confess our sins He is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Therefore He's willing to forgive us all

our wrongdoing, God is faithful. An interesting line says "By no means clearing the guilty, visiting the

iniquity of the fathers upon the

children." It should be clear to us that

the Lord will by no means leave the

guilty unpunished. All sin has

consequences my friend and sometimes the

same sins we commit follow the

generation behind us, namely our

children. I repeat the fact that our

blessings fall upon our children,

therefore it is only natural that our

curses should do the same.

While God is merciful and gracious when

a sinner repents, He will not allow that

sinner to get away without

consequences, even while offering

forgiveness and mercy to all who repent

with a sincere heart. The sin is forgiven

but painful consequences still may remain.

Now if our children walk in obedience to

God these consequences of our sins will

not fall on them and they're able to

break the cycle of sin in their family,

break the curse from over their family

and live righteously bringing forth a

righteous generation. And fortunately according to

Ezekiel 18 the child will not die the

second death for the sin of the

parents. Yet be admonished that the

consequences of our parents sin are

waiting in the wings to fall upon us

when we step away from under the

umbrella of Jesus Christ who provides

protection for us, and we may be

inflicted by or visited by some of these

consequences. And this is why we are

admonished to be sober, to be vigilant

because your adversary the devil walks

about like a roaring lion seeking whom

he may devour, 1 Peter

5:8. Fortunately the Lord merely visits

the iniquity of the parents upon the

children to the third and the fourth

generation and does not cast it upon

them like a net from which they are unable to escape.

Because humans are generational with one

generation coming forth from the

previous one it is only natural that

both good and bad consequences be passed

from one generation to another. Because of this, sin has

generational consequences which we refer

to as generational curses. If it suits

you not to call it curses then you may

refer to it as generational consequences

or whatever you wish, however be certain,

be sure, be mindful that it is certainly

not a generational blessing. If one generation is blessed

for instance by the previous generation,

then it goes to reason that one

generation can also be cursed by the

previous one. However the Father has placed limits on

this phenomenon according to Ezekiel 18

where He says that the son will not die

for the father's sin, nor will the father

die for the son's sin. And so the main

message of Ezekiel 18 is that the soul

who sins is the one that will die. The

Lord tells us in Malachi 3:6, "For I am

the Lord I do not change." In addition

to this Hebrews 13:8 tells us Jesus

Christ is the same yesterday, today and

forever. And so we end this

message that defines God by declaring

the unchanging nature of Christ

consistent with the steady and reliable

doctrines of the Christian faith. May God

bless and keep you, and may you have a

good understanding of His nature and who

He is. You've been listening to this message,

perhaps you do not know this God,

this Yahweh, this Jehovah, as your

personal savior. Well we want to give you an

opportunity to make that commitment

today. Please engage your heart and say

this prayer after me. Father I am a

sinner. I'm sorry for all my sins. I crave your

forgiveness. I need your

forgiveness. Thank you Lord for being

merciful unto me. Today I welcome Jesus Christ into my

heart. Dear Lord Jesus make my heart your

home. I give you the key to my heart because I

now belong to you forever. Please give me the Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth. Thank you Lord for saving my soul, amen. Welcome friend to the body of

believers in Christ. There are so many, so

so many of us here awaiting the return

of the good master. In the meantime we want to encourage you to become water baptized as quickly as

possible. Let your pastor know that

you've committed your life to Jesus

Christ and you want to be baptized the

way Christ was baptized. Begin reading the word of God

every day. Begin in the book of John then

go to Matthew Mark and Luke. Pray daily,

attend at your local church and one glad

morning the Savior will come and receive

us all unto Himself and we shall forever

be with the Lord. God bless and keep you

in Jesus mighty name, amen.