to our eighth class meeting of Intermediate Biblical Counseling. And I trust that you're doing well in the Lord and that God is blessing your studies and drawing you near to him as you study his precious word. And tonight we have the opportunity to look at theology exam number eight, which is an exam focused on the attributes of God.

And I think it's just gonna be a good time for us to study God's word and to think about the truths of who God is. And I trust that this will be a encouragement and a blessing to each of you tonight. To introduce our study for tonight, I'd like to do a devotional from one of my favorite passages in scripture, which is Lamentations chapter three, verses 21 to 26.

And I hope this will be both a good devotional thought and encouragement for us. And also an introduction to how the attributes of God can be used in counseling and why this essay topic is so important for our understanding. So this is Lamentations chapter three, starting in verse 21.

And I'm gonna go ahead and put this on the screen there. Lamentations three, starting in verse 21. The prophet Jeremiah says, "But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him. To the soul who seeks him, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." And that's a wonderful passage from God's word.

But if you know the book of Lamentations, you know that this passage is found smack dab in the middle of a lot of weeping, a lot of sorrow, a lot of grieving and lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. He ministered just prior to the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC.

And his eyes witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem in the Babylonian captivity. And he writes the book of Lamentations to express his sorrow over the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of his people. And if you've read this book, you know that it's filled with really a lament over all that has happened to God's people, but it's written in a very disciplined manner.

Jeremiah uses the form of an acrostic, a Hebrew acrostic to write these laments. And so it's not just undisciplined venting of emotion, but it is a very disciplined and organized expression of Jeremiah's grief and his sorrow over all that he has seen. And then smack dab in the middle of all of this grieving and lamenting, we have this amazing passage of hope and remembrance of the truth of who God is.

And Jeremiah says in verse 21, "But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." That's an amazing statement there that Jeremiah can have hope in the middle of so much calamity, so much loss of life, so much national struggle. And here we are in the lowest point of Judah's history.

And Jeremiah says, "But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." You notice what he says in verse 21. He says, "This I call to mind." And so here we have the prophet Jeremiah making a conscious, willful decision to set his mind on certain truths of who God is.

And the therefore in verse 21 is very important. It's because Jeremiah made that choice to call to mind the truths of who God is, that he was able to have hope in the midst of these very difficult circumstances. What are the truths that Jeremiah calls to mind? Verse 22, he calls to mind the steadfast love of the Lord.

He says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases." The Hebrew term chesed, which is almost a term that is untranslatable in the English language 'cause it combines the idea of covenant faithfulness, loyalty, kindness, love, and mercy. The King James Version has the translation loving kindness, trying to capture something of the meaning of this term, combining love and kindness and faithfulness and loyalty.

That's the idea of the steadfast love of the Lord. He says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases." Then he calls to mind the mercy of God. He says, "His mercies never come to an end." You notice the plural there. It's not singular mercy, it's plural mercies, talking about the manifold nature of God's abundant mercies, mercy for every circumstance, mercy for every trial.

His mercies never come to an end. One commentator writes that the word mercy signifies a warm compassion, a compassion which is ready to forgive sin, to replace judgment with grace. And Paul Tripp has a devotional that's called "New Morning Mercies." I would highly recommend that for you. We use that in our counseling ministry to give to our counselees, just to get them thinking about the truth of who God is.

And he writes in that devotional, "God's mercies don't come in one color. "No, they come in every shade of every color "of the rainbow of his grace. "Remember God's new morning mercies "and celebrate your identity as the object of mercy." So here Jeremiah is in the most devastating season of Judah's history.

And he says, "God's mercies never come to an end. "They are new every morning." And then he calls to mind, not only the steadfast love of the Lord, not only the mercy of the Lord, but he calls to mind the faithfulness of God. And he says, "Great is your faithfulness." The term great is describing the faithfulness of God in terms of its massive size.

It's almost as if Jeremiah is comparing the circumstances of life to the massive dimensions of God's faithfulness and showing how any circumstance, no matter how intimidating, is really pales in significance to the greatness, the magnitude, the size of God's faithfulness. And he calls to mind these three attributes of God.

So there's three attributes of God in this passage, the love of the Lord, or the loving kindness of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord, and the faithfulness of the Lord. And it's Jeremiah's, again, it's his conscious, willful decision in verse 21, "This I will call to mind." So I'm not gonna get lost in only looking at the circumstances.

I'm not gonna get lost in only analyzing the situation at hand, but I will call to mind the attributes of God, and therefore I have hope. The attributes of God, if properly understood, give the believer hope in the middle of the most difficult and distressing of circumstances. So the result is, in verse 24, Jeremiah says, "The Lord is my portion," says my soul.

"Therefore, I will hope in him." The idea of a portion, it's really a simple way of Jeremiah saying, "The Lord is enough for me. "I'm satisfied in him." He goes on to say, "The Lord is good "to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him." And then verse 26, "It is good that one should wait quietly "for the salvation of the Lord." That's an amazing statement there.

The quiet waiting of the believer who places his hope in a God who is loving and faithful and merciful, he says, "I will wait quietly for the Lord to save." And I just can't help but make an observation from our day to day. We live in a world of noisy hearts.

I think you know that well. I think this season has really brought out a lot of noise in the world and in society, and people are expressing their noisy hearts through noisy words and noisy social media posts. And here you have the example of a believer who knows who his God is.

And he says that, "I will wait quietly "for the salvation of the Lord." As I've said before, the trusting heart is a quiet heart, and a quiet heart is a strong heart. And this is where Jeremiah is, "I will wait quietly." So here you have national crisis, economic devastation.

You have a divided kingdom. Northern tribes have already been taken into captivity, into Assyria in 722 BC. And then you have the Southern tribe of Judah taken captive in 586 BC by the Babylonians. You have a divided nation. You have physical devastation, death. And you have real grief and real sorrow.

So this passage doesn't take away anything from the real lament and sorrow that Jeremiah is expressing. But in the midst of all of that, Jeremiah says, "I have hope, and I have hope because I know who God is. "And I have hope because this is what I'm going to "call to mind, is I'm gonna call to mind "the steadfast love of the Lord, which never ceases." And so I think you and I need to apply this to our own hearts and our own lives tonight.

I think we see in this passage how powerful the attributes of God are. I mean, these are just three of the attributes of God. I mean, there are more attributes, but Jeremiah just calls to mind three attributes of God and the power, the effect upon his soul. It replaces despair with hope.

It replaces noise with a quiet trust and waiting in the Lord. And Jeremiah's sorrow turns to a confident expectation, which is what hope is, a confident expectation in God's future activity that will bless his people. And if Jeremiah could say that in the midst of the destruction of Jerusalem, then I think you and I as believers can apply that to our own hearts in the struggles and the trials that our nation is facing today.

So let me pray for us, and we'll get into our study for tonight. Let's pray. Well, Father, we do call this to mind that you are a God who is a God of covenant loyalty to your people. Your loving kindness endures forever. Your mercies are new every morning. Your faithfulness is from generation to generation.

And we thank you that those circumstances change and those seasons change, that your character never changes. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. You are immutable, unchanging. You do not change for the better because that is impossible. You are perfect, and perfection cannot be improved upon, and you never change for the worse because there is no way for you to lose your perfection.

You are forever loving, forever faithful, forever merciful, forever kind, forever holy. And we just rejoice in the truth that though life does bring us very difficult and devastating circumstances, that we can have hope because we know who our God is. And so we just pray that, Father, our study tonight and the writing of this essay, Theology Exam Number Eight, would have this blessed and beneficial effect upon our souls, and that we would not only write a great essay, but that we would be equipped to use the attributes of God in counseling others and also in counseling our own hearts as we seek to walk through these difficult times together.

Thank you for each student in this class who have devoted themselves to the study of your word. Bless each one, and may this time result in much fruit for your glory, and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, I hope you see from that brief devotional that the study of the attributes of God are relevant for everyday life.

This is not some ivory tower topic. This is something that needs to be applied in the everyday situations that we face. And I also hope that you see that the attributes of God are relevant for counseling. Counseling is using God's word to minister to people, and one of the great arsenals of truth that you have at your disposal as a biblical counselor is the attributes of God.

These are truths that you want to use and be well acquainted with. You want to really be able to, as we saw in Jeremiah's case, use the attributes of God to give people hope. And we'll talk through some examples of how to do that. But tonight's study is a very practical study.

Let me read the exam topic for us, and then we'll talk a little bit more about this subject. So the exam question is explain each of the following attributes of God, describing the practical implications of each attribute for life and counseling. And then there are six attributes they're asking you to write about.

Wrath, mercy, holiness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. So we have wrath, mercy, holiness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. So best of luck to you all to get all that in in a page and a half. That is probably the most challenging part of writing this essay is talking about six attributes of God and getting that in under a page and a half.

Obviously, we're asking you to be very concise. We're asking you to give really a brief definition, a little bit of scriptural support. And then the essay is asking you to describe the practical implications of each attribute for life and counseling. And so you'll want to do one or two practical implications.

I don't know how much more you can really do on that and fit within the space constraints of this essay, but that's gonna be a challenge to get all that in under a page and a half. But rest assured, it can be done by God's grace and it has been done by a number of students, but that is gonna be a challenge to get all that in under a page and a half.

If you look at your handout there, I have on page number one, some good resources that you can use to write this essay. We have Paul Enns, "The Moody Handbook of Theology," pages 193 to 203. And he's good on practically any topic, very concise and well distilled information. Then you have Wayne Grudem, "Systematic Theology." Grudem's "Systematic Theology" is excellent on the attributes of God.

I think he has two to three chapters on the attributes of God, and it's just excellent information, very well articulated and well summarized. So you'll definitely wanna take a look at Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology." Then we have Heath Lambert's, "A Theology of Biblical Counseling." Dr. Lambert's work is really helpful in showing how you would use the attributes of God in a counseling session.

I think he has some case studies in his work, "A Theology of Biblical Counseling," and he shows how you would use these different attributes of God to encourage or to give hope to a believer who is in despair or just struggling with sin. So that's a really good work.

I would recommend that you read that as well. And then I have A.W. Pink's, "The Attributes of God," and A.W. Tozer's, "The Knowledge of the Holy," and some selected chapters, which are targeted toward the six attributes that we're asking you to write about. And those two works are just phenomenal, both of them.

I'd encourage you to maybe use Tozer's work as a devotional aid and just take a chapter a day and read through that because it really is a wonderful treatment on the attributes of God and A.W. Pink's work as well. And then some favorites of mine that I just recommend to you for general reading.

There's R.C. Sproul's, "The Holiness of God." That's a fantastic read. If you haven't gotten your hands on that yet, please do so and just read that for your own soul to remind yourself of the greatness of who God is. And then obviously, J.I. Packer's, "Knowing God," is a classic.

That's just a standard work that all of us should be acquainted with. And if you really wanna go deep into this subject, pick up Stephen Charnock's, "The Existence and Attributes of God." You can get that for free online. I believe that's a public domain at this point. And that'll be, you'll get lost in that one.

You can go as deep as you wanna go, and it's just a fantastic read and encourage you to pick that up. If you don't read through that page by page, just use it as a reference for certain attributes if you wanna go deeper in your understanding. So those are just some general resources that I would recommend to you.

Now, if you move to page two of your handout, just some introductory statements on the attributes of God. I think A.W. Tozer said it really well when he said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God "is the most important thing about us." What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Now, Tozer didn't write that in a biblical counseling textbook, but he might as well have. It's a statement that is really relevant to biblical counseling. You could maybe revise that a little bit and say what comes into your counselee's mind when your counselee thinks about God is the most important thing about that person.

Really, what comes into your counselee's mind when he or she thinks about God has relevance to the counseling situation. So you'll remember my presentation of a typical counseling issue. Here you have a counselee who is expressing himself or herself in certain words, actions, and emotions. And we said that a secular psychologist under common grace can make accurate observations on this external behavior.

What is this counselee saying? What are they doing? What is the external behavior that is being expressed by this counselee? A secular psychologist and a biblical counselor will most likely make very similar observations about external behavior. But what a secular psychologist cannot do is understand the source of this type of behavior.

Where is this behavior coming from? And so we have built an understanding through year one and also year two that scripture says the source of human behavior is what is going on in the heart. It is out of the heart, the flow, the springs of life, Proverbs 4, verse 23 says.

And the heart is expressing itself in these external behaviors. But as a biblical counselor, we also see that the heart is relating always to God. The heart is always relating either wrongly or rightly to the true and the living God. The heart is always relating either in a godly manner to who God is or an ungodly manner to who God is.

And so a biblical counselor is called not only to make accurate observations about words, actions, and emotions, but also to make right interpretations of how the heart is relating either rightly or wrongly to God. That was indictment of Jesus toward the Pharisees in Matthew 15, verse eight, where he said, "This people honors me with their lips, "but their heart is far from me." And so when the heart is far from God, when the heart is not worshiping God and treasuring God, then you have aberrant words, actions, and emotions.

You have ungodly behavior that comes out of that wrong heart dynamic that the heart is relating wrongly to God. And if you want any more confirmation of that, read Romans 1, verse 18, all the way to the end of that chapter. You'll find that when the heart does not worship the true and the living God, that all sorts of aberrant behaviors come out of that heart dynamic.

So when we are deficient in our understanding of who God is, then we respond in an ungodly manner to our circumstances. So going back to Tozer's statement, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We want to help our counselees understand the attributes of God.

This is, I think, one of the most helpful, practical things in counseling ministry is whenever you're in doubt, you don't know what to do, go to the attributes of God. I mean, you just can't go wrong with this. You can't go wrong by, and by that, I don't mean pull out 20 attributes of God and make your counselee memorize all 20.

Really, in practical counseling ministry, if you pull out one attribute of God and just encourage your counselee with that attribute or two to three attributes of God and just help your counselee see the faithfulness of God or help your counselee see the sovereignty of God or help your counselee see the love of God.

I mean, any one of those attributes will have a beneficial effect upon the soul for your counselee. And you just have this arsenal of truth here to impart help and hope to your counselee. And that's sort of one of my go-tos if I don't know what to do. You never go wrong going to the attributes of God and using that in counseling ministry.

Some of these statements that theologians have made on the attributes of God just kind of explode with significance for counseling ministry. I know that C.H. Spurgeon was not teaching in a biblical counseling class, but just listen to what he said about the attributes of God. He said, "There is something exceedingly improving "to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity.

"It is a subject so vast that all of our thoughts "are lost in its immensity." This is just perfect for biblical counseling. He says, "Would you lose your sorrow? "Would you drown your cares? "Then go plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea. "Be lost in its immensity and you shall come forth "as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated." In counseling, we are working with people who are overcome with sorrow or overcome with cares who need refreshment from God's word.

And Spurgeon says, "There's no better place to go "than the attributes of God." He says, "I know nothing which can so comfort the soul, "so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief, "so speak peace to the winds of trial "as the devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead." That just has so much implications for counseling ministry because we are ministering to people who are dealing with just that, the sorrow and the grief of life.

And then Packer's statement, "A study of the nature and the character of God "is the most practical project anyone can engage in." And then watch this, he says, "The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place "and life in it is disappointing and unpleasant business "for those who do not know about God." I mean, that's the world today, isn't it?

They're just trying to interpret all of what's happening in our nation apart from an understanding of the true and the living God. And the world has become a strange, mad, painful place. But for those of us who know our God, there ought to be a different understanding of the events in our day.

Again, doesn't remove the sorrow, doesn't remove the true grief that happens in this life, but there is a different perspective that we must bring to bear upon the issues of life because we do know our God and we do know who he is. Packer continues, "Disregard the study of God "and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder "through life, blindfolded as it were, "with no sense of direction "and no understanding of what surrounds you.

"Knowing about God is crucially important "for the living of our lives." So I talked about how in counseling ministry, it's not that you take 20 attributes of God and just overload your counselee with theological information. It really is many times one or two attributes of God or even using a narrative in scripture to highlight the truth of God's faithfulness and his sovereignty.

And one example of how we do this is in Jerry Bridges' work, "Trusting God," which is I think one of the go-to counseling resources that we use in our counseling ministry. He has both the book, "Trusting God," and he also has a pamphlet, "You Can Trust God," which we have in our counseling library.

And essentially in that book, "Trusting God," Jerry Bridges takes three attributes of God and uses those three attributes to minister help and hope to people who are struggling with the issues of life. So he takes the sovereignty of God, God's complete control over all creation, including God's complete control over every circumstance in our lives.

He takes the wisdom of God, which is the idea that God ordains the best ends and then ordains the best means to achieve those ends. Every circumstance in our life is an expression of the wisdom of God that he has a goal in mind. And that goal is the best goal that is possibly conceivable.

And the circumstance that is ordained for our lives is the best means to achieve that ultimate end. And then he has the love of God, God's love for his people, that God will always ordain the best ends for his people because of his infinite love for us. And he talks about this idea that we need to warm up the doctrine of the sovereignty of God with the doctrine of the wisdom of God and the love of God, that it's not just cold sovereignty that we need to minister to people, but it's the idea of God's sovereignty coupled with his wisdom and his love that brings comfort to God's people.

If you believe that God is on his throne and he's completely ruling over this universe, that there is no maverick molecule in the entire universe, as R.C. Sproul says, that everything is under his complete control, if you believe that he is infinitely wise and everything that is happening today is part of his wise plan to glorify himself and to do good to his people, and if you believe that God loves his people with an infinite love and that everything that he has ordained is an expression of his perfect and infinite love for his people, then the result, as Bridges says, is you can trust God.

You can trust this God. You can release control, as it were, of your life to a God who is in complete control, and you can place your life in his hands. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

If this is the God that you believe in, then you can trust him. And as Jeremiah said, you can wait quietly for him to do his work in your life for your good and for his glory. Again, those are just three attributes. I mean, there are so many more that you could use to comfort and encourage people, but that's the power of just the attributes of God.

Here you have three attributes of God, and Bridges builds an entire book around this, and the power of this to minister to the heart so that the believer can trust God in the midst of very trying circumstances. If you become, as a counselor, just well-acquainted with these three attributes, the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the love of God, you can apply that to, I mean, that's like a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

You can use that in so many different settings. So many different people need to just understand God's sovereignty, wisdom, and love so that they can trust him. And as they trust him, then they will begin to bear good fruit in their lives. So let me just encourage you to learn all of the attributes of God, but in counseling ministry, don't drown your counselee in trying to get him or her to learn 20 attributes, but become skilled in using one, two, or three attributes of God to really minister to your counselee.

So on your handout there, we have the benefits of understanding the attributes of God. First of all, the attributes of God help us to understand our lives. That's going back to Packer's statement that the world becomes a strange, mad, and painful place for those who do not know about God.

But for those who do know God, the attributes of God helps us to understand our lives. I don't know why our nation is going through the trials that we are going through. I don't know why. The full explanation of all that is happening today, I do know that God is sovereign, that he is wise, that he is loving, that he is good.

And whatever his purpose is in this time, it is ultimately the best possible purpose. And if I understand those things, then I can trust him. And I know I'm in the process of that. I know many of you, you're in the process of doing that, of entrusting your lives to God during this time.

But the attributes of God help us to understand our lives. Secondly, the attributes of God help us to respond rightly to trials. I think of Joseph's statement in Genesis 50, verse 20, when he was speaking to his brothers who had sold him into slavery. And he says, "As for you, you meant evil against me, "but God meant it for good to bring it about "that many people should be kept alive as they are today." Although God is not the author of evil and does not tempt any man to evil, Joseph's statement is that God is sovereign over even the evil deeds of man and uses even the sins of men to accomplish his good and holy purposes.

So he says to his brothers, "You meant this for evil. "God meant this for good." And that enabled Joseph to respond graciously to his brothers. So the truth of who God is will help us respond rightly to trials. Thirdly, the attributes of God help us to endure through difficult seasons.

I think back to Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah couldn't have known all the details or the ins and outs of how God was going to use the Babylonian captivity for his glory. He couldn't have known all of the details of how God was gonna do that. We know from a New Testament perspective that God preserved the line of Judah and from Judah's line came the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

And this was all part of God's plan to bring about salvation for the world. But from Jeremiah's perspective, he couldn't have known all that. But he said, "I have hope "because although I don't know all that information, "I know who God is, "that he is loving, he is merciful, and he is faithful." And so the attributes of God help us endure through difficult seasons.

And then fourthly, the attributes of God equip us to minister to others. Let me give you an example of this. Let's say, for example, a counselee comes for counseling and says to me, "My child is rebellious. "My child is hard-hearted. "My child is involved with friends that I don't like.

"My child won't talk to me. "What am I gonna say to this counselee? "How am I going to bring encouragement to this counselee?" Well, one option is to say, "Well, don't worry about it "'cause things are gonna get better." And that's the old Annie musical, right? "The sun will come up tomorrow.

"Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun." One option is to give my counselee this idea that, "I guarantee you that because you're a Christian, "things will get better." Now, what have I just done there if I give my counselee that type of response? Well, possibly, I've given my counselee false hope because I don't know that.

I don't know if things are gonna get better, at least from a human temporal perspective. I don't know if the situation is going to get better. I don't know if God's plan for my counselee is that the trial is going to be removed. Now, believe me, I'm gonna pray to that end.

I'm gonna pray that this child will turn in their heart to the Lord and then the relationship will be restored. But I don't know, I can't assume that God is gonna answer that prayer in the timing that I have designated or the timing that I would prefer. If I say that to my counselee, "Don't worry about it.

"Things are gonna get better." Then I may be giving that person a false hope. I may be guaranteeing things that I can't guarantee because I don't know what God's plan is for my counselee. Let me give you a better option. What if I say to my counselee, "Dear friend, "I don't know how the situation is going to work out "and I don't know what God's plan is for your life, "but I do know that God is faithful.

"I do know that God is loving. "I do know that God is in complete control "of this situation and He will work this out "for His glory and for your good. "And I just wanna encourage you to trust Him, "to trust Him with all your heart. "Do not lean on your own understanding.

"Trust Him because He can be trusted. "He is trustworthy and no one in the history of redemption "has ever trusted the Lord in vain. "If you trust Him, you will not be an exception "to that rule. "You can trust Him today because He is faithful. "In fact, let's trust Him together.

"I'm gonna pray for you that God will help you "to trust Him, and I wanna trust the Lord "for you and for your child." And let's just see together if God will do a good work in this very difficult situation. You see, what I have done at that point is I have rooted the counselee in the true hope of who God is, in His unchanging character, and not in a false hope that the circumstances of life will work in our favor, at least from a limited temporal perspective.

I don't know how the situation is going to work out. I do know that God will be faithful to my counselee if my counselee is a believer in Christ. Now, watch this. This isn't false advertising, but this does happen, and this has happened. Let's say my counselee takes that counsel to heart and learns to trust God, and learns to say, "Whatever my situation may be, "whatever my child does or doesn't do, "I know my God is faithful.

"I know my God is merciful. "I know my God is sovereign. "I'm going to trust my God with my circumstances." And as my counselee learns to trust God, what you see in my counselee's heart is this beautiful fruit begins to grow, because that's what happens when you trust the Lord, is there is joy, and there is peace, and there is patience, and there is wonderful fruit.

There is hope that begins to grow in my counselee's heart, and just this gracious attitude. And now my counselee is coming to his or her child with this heart that is filled with hope, grace, and mercy, peace, and patience. Do you think that this parent will have a more effective ministry to that child now that the counselee's heart is trusting in the Lord?

Do you think that this relationship might actually improve if the parent is walking with the Lord in this way? I don't know God's plan. It's possibly that the child may still respond in a rebellious manner. But from a human perspective, people who are filled with hope and joy are more likely to give encouragement to that child than those who are filled with anger and with anxiety.

There is more likely gonna be a good and beneficial ministry to that child because the counselee is rooted in a strong relationship with the Lord. So that's the power of using the attributes of God in counseling ministry. Now, I'm gonna be a lot quicker here, but let me just walk you through some material.

What is an attribute? An attribute of God is simply something that is true about God, and you can look at Wayne Grudem has some good information on that just defining what an attribute is. The attributes of God are typically categorized under incommunicable attributes and communicable attributes. The communicable attributes are those attributes which are more reflected by man, at least to some substantial degree.

And the incommunicable attributes are those attributes which are less reflected by man, at least to any substantial degree. And there's this intramural debate between theologians of which attributes fall under the category of being incommunicable versus communicable. This is not an inspired table right here. This is just one way that you might categorize these, but generally speaking, theologians have categorized these attributes under the headings of communicable and incommunicable.

And the main idea here is that the communicable attributes are those that we as Christians are called to emulate or imitate. We're called to be merciful because God is merciful. We're called to be gracious because God is gracious and so forth and so on. So the six attributes that this essay is asking you to write about are wrath, mercy, holiness, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.

I put a lot of material on your handout, but for our class time and we're limited in time, but I wanna give just a brief definition of the attributes, but really I'd like to give you some starter points of what would be the practical implications of this attribute for life and counseling.

I found that really what's the hardest part about writing this essay is not giving the correct definitions of the attributes, but really thinking through how would this attribute of God relate to life and counseling. And I'm not gonna do all the work for you on this, but I do wanna give you some starting points, just some things that might jog your mind and help you to start brainstorming of how these attributes might be used in counseling.

So first of all, we have the wrath of God, which is God's holy and righteous anger against sin. Many passages speak of the wrath of God in scripture, Nahum chapter one, Luke chapter 13, and many passages on your handout there. What would be some counseling implications for the wrath of God?

Some thoughts to think through. Number one would be, I think this attribute causes us to be very motivated to know if our counselee is a true believer or not. If our counselee is not a true believer in Christ, then they have a much bigger problem than their counseling issue.

They have a much bigger problem than the fact that their marriage is under a lot of strain or that they have an anxiety issue. If the counselee is not a true believer, then they are still under the wrath of God, and that is their main counseling issue. Whatever the presenting problem is, their main counseling issue is they need to be saved and believe and understand the gospel.

This is why you wanna take pains to get a good salvation testimony, to get a right understanding of the gospel with your counselee, because we should labor to know if our counselee is a true believer. The truth of the wrath of God should produce humility in the heart of a counselee.

A husband says, "Well, I deserve to be respected by my wife "because I do all of these things for my family." Well, the truth is that you deserve the wrath of God because of your sins. And anything less than eternal hell is God's undeserved favor in your life. And if you come from that starting point, you come from a point of true humility.

Rehearsing this truth should produce humility in the life of the counselee. This truth should also produce appreciation for Christ and his saving work. The truth that Christ has drank the cup of God's wrath in full, and God's wrath has been satisfied for the believer in Christ. Romans 8, verse one, "There is therefore no condemnation "for those who are in Christ Jesus." Those are some starting points.

You can think through implications on your own. But again, we're trying to connect the attribute to how you would use this in life and in ministry. "The mercy of God is his heart of compassion "for those who are in distress." Psalm 103, verse eight, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, "slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love." How would this attribute connect with life and ministry?

Some ideas here, and this is just me getting you started on thinking through counseling implications. I think the mercy of God should really shape the counselee's prayer life. Especially, and you know this, especially when the counselee is in times of trial or difficulty. Psalm 103, verse 13, "As a father shows compassion "to his children, so the Lord shows compassion "to those who fear him." We ought to encourage our counselees who are believers to come and cry out to God.

God is your heavenly father. If even evil fathers will not turn away their children when they're in times of distress, how much more will your heavenly father hear you when you come? Come to God, he is merciful, he is full of mercy. And especially when you're in times of distress, call out to him because he will receive you if you're a believer in Christ.

You can use this attribute to help the counselee produce a heart of mercy for others in the life of, in their relationships. One of the things we see often in counseling ministry is just counselees who have a hardened heart in their relationship with others. And that heart needs to be melted by the mercy of God.

The counselee needs to be encouraged to have mercy upon others because God has had mercy upon him or her. Let me just, before I move on here, let me just encourage you also that the quality of a good biblical counselor is mercy. I hope that you will pursue being a merciful biblical counselor, that you will just have compassion on people.

I've been just noticing over and over, biblical compassion is disarming. Just real compassion, just empathy, showing sympathy for another person who is in distress is disarming. These individual expressions of compassion and mercy don't solve every issue, don't address every issue, but they do build relationships and bridges to relationships.

Moving quickly here, holiness of God is his complete separation from all creation and moral separation from sin. It's the only attribute of God emphasized three times in scripture, Isaiah six, verse three. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. "The whole earth is full of his glory." It's the one attribute that qualifies every other attribute so that when you look at the love of God, it is a holy love.

When you look at the wrath of God, it is a holy wrath. When you look at the justice of God, it is a holy justice. Some counseling implications for the holiness of God. We need to be reminded that God uses holy vessels in his ministry. Second Timothy two, verse 20 talks about those vessels, which are for honorable use.

Verse 21 says, "If anyone cleanses himself "from what is dishonorable, "he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy." We need to be reminded to pursue holiness because God uses holy vessels. And also to be reminded that sanctification is ultimately beautiful because the idea of holiness is really connected with the idea of beauty.

God is beautiful because he is set apart from all sin and what is set apart perfectly from anything that is polluting. We can expect to see God do beautiful things in the counseling ministry. And then I'll just deal with the omnis, a little more quickly, the omnipotence of God, which is the truth that God is all powerful and able to do anything consistent with his own nature.

We have the omniscience of God, which means that God possesses all knowledge, and then the omnipresence of God, which means that God is unlimited with respect to space. What are the counseling implications of these great attributes? God's omnipotence means that nothing is too difficult for the Lord. We should never lose hope for our counselees because whatever their issue is, nothing is too difficult for God.

God is infinite in power and he can do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. I think reflecting on God's omniscience, God's omniscience should lead us to be amazed at his love. It's just amazing to know that God knows everything about us. I love the song Chris Tomlin sings.

There's a line there that says, "You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same." Just an amazing truth that you can use to encourage your counselee. God knows everything about you. God knows everything about your past. He knows everything about your present. He knows everything about your future, and he loves you with an infinite love.

That's a powerful encouragement that you can give to your counselee. Then God's omnipresence should fill us with solid comfort. The truth that God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Jesus said, "Lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age." Those are some implications of those three attributes.

I'm sure you can think of some on your own as well. Some final encouragements from the attributes of God. Learn to use not only the principles, the definitions of God's attributes to give to your counselees, but also learn to use narratives to illustrate the truth of the attributes of God.

I mean, our pastor is teaching through the narrative of Ruth right now. It's one thing to tell your counselee, "God is faithful, and he will be faithful to his people." It's another to walk through the narrative of Ruth together, and to show how God has been faithful to his people.

God was faithful to Naomi, God was faithful to Ruth, God was faithful through the actions of the kinsmen redeemer, Boaz. To use that narrative to illustrate the attribute of God is a powerful thing. The narratives of Joseph's life, the narrative of David's life. I mean, so many narratives of scripture really highlight the attributes of God, and so become skilled in using narrative to teach the attributes of God to your counselee.

I have some counselors who are doing this right now, and I often say of them that if biblical counseling is learning to play piano, then sometimes I feel that some of my counselors are doing Mozart. Because when I hear what they're doing in their counseling sessions, and in many ways, much more gifted than I am in this way, they're using narrative, they're using Old Testament, New Testament, they're using promises.

They're just weaving together a lot of different scriptures, a lot of different genres of scripture to communicate the truth of God's attributes to their counselees. It's just a beautiful thing, and I just really am humbled by that, and also grateful for the counselors who use every part of scripture to teach their counselees the attributes of God.

So learn the narratives of scripture, and learn to illustrate these truths, and then learn to take your counselees to the cross. It's really at the cross of Christ and his sacrificial death at Calvary, that the attributes of God are put on full display. I mean, you can look at the cross, and you see the sovereignty of God, of his redemptive plan being fulfilled.

You see the holiness of God, you see not only the holiness of the Father, his holy wrath against sin, you see the holiness of the sacrifice of the Son that was offered up at Calvary. The holy wrath of God being perfectly fulfilled and satisfied because of the holiness of the sacrifice that was offered in the Son's redeeming work.

You see the wisdom of God that as 1 Corinthians 1 talks about, it's through the foolishness of the cross that the wisdom of God was put on display. You see the mercy of God towards sinners that he would provide the sacrifice. You see the love of God. You see the justice of God and the holy law of God being perfectly fulfilled.

I mean, you just see all of the attributes of God put on full display in the cross of Christ and his redeeming work. Learn to take the attributes of God and then go to the cross of Christ with these attributes. Spurgeon talked about how he loved to take any truth that was in God's word and make a beeline to the cross with that truth.

Just theologically, if you think through it, any of the attributes of God will make a beeline to the cross. You can be meditating on any attribute of God and you can go to the cross with that attribute because at the cross, the attributes of God are put on full display.

Just a final encouragement, it's not on the slide here, but I just encourage you to devotionally take an attribute of God, one attribute a day maybe, and just dwell on that truth of who God is and praise God, adore God for his attribute, because that is one way to just enrich your own devotional life, and then also fill up your own heart with the truth of who God is, and so that you're equipped to minister to others, reading through A.W.

Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy, and just taking one chapter a day, and just meditating on an attribute of God a day is one way to prime the pump for good solid biblical ministry. Well, I have used up all my time tonight and then some. I want to just commend to you the study of the attributes of God and pray that this was a good primer for the study that's ahead of you with essay number 8.

This is a great essay topic. I trust that you'll have a wonderful time studying these attributes, and then also writing this essay for God's glory. May the Lord bless you. I'm going to go ahead and close in prayer, and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to stick around for five minutes after and answer any questions you might have.

Otherwise, may the Lord bless your week, and have a great study this week, learning about the attributes of God. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for these truths. We pray that the study would equip us to be effective biblical counselors. Thank you for each of these beautiful attributes which express the truth of who you are.

We pray that we may learn them well, that our own hearts will be led to worship, and be filled with hope, and that we would be able to minister to those who are in need of help. We give this study to you. We pray this in Jesus' name.