MEMORY VERSE: ‘To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? ’ Isaiah 40:18.
LESSON AIM: To study the “I am”s of God.
‘God has made no revelation of Himself, as to His exact or even relative form or size or shape. Yet He has revealed Himself. Wherein, then? In character. He began it by revealing Himself, as “I AM.” That is existence. But existence only is not enough. Therefore, He extended His revelation to “I AM THAT I AM,” I am that which I am; I am what I am. This is a revelation of both existence and character. Next He enlarged this revelation by proclaiming His name. And His name is the expression of what He is. And in that He said that His name is “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” That is again existence and character, and that only.’ A. T. Jones: The Medical Missionary, March 1903.
1. What does God say about Himself? Isaiah 45:5-6.
NOTE: ‘Good and evil, truth and error, lie side by side. Where one leaves off, the other begins. If a person is not good, he is bad. He may not be so bad as others; but he is certainly bad if he is not good. There is no such thing as “perfection to a certain degree.” Perfection is absolute, or else there is imperfection. This need not discourage anybody, for it is connected with, and grows out of the truth that God is absolutely good; and goodness comes only from Him. There can be no half-way perfection, even as there is no half God. There is one God, and besides Him nothing. “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me.” Isaiah 45:5. And He is our God; ours in the fullest sense of the word. He is our portion, our inheritance, our reward. He lives for His people, and all His perfections are for every one who will receive them. What reproof, and at the same time encouragement, this truth contains!’ E. J. Waggoner: Present Truth, February 19, 1903.
2. What benefit does putting other things in the place of God bring to people? Think about what can constitute an idol today. Habakkuk 2:18-19.
NOTE: ‘It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. . . . With many, a philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the living God, as He is revealed in His word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature while they deny the God of nature. Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, the god of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions, is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia.’ Darkness Before Dawn, page 29.