Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

As the Holy Scripture is the rule which we must follow, and carefully heed in thought, word and conduct, and these scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, then we must now ask what the scriptures say concerning who God is.
There could be no more important question regarding religion than who God is, for His character and being must by necessity determine all the major questions of religion: how He speaks to us, how we are brought into communion with Him, what we must do to please Him, and what must we do to be saved? These are all answered in some way or another by God’s attributes expressly revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The reason why the questions on the Holy Scriptures come first is so that we know assuredly that God can only be known or discovered through the testimony of Holy Scripture, and apart from the Holy Spirit working in our hearts by that testimony, we cannot know God.
Every attempt to understand the nature of Deity without the Holy Scriptures is blasphemy, and is so far from finding the true nature of God, as the difference between heaven and hell. Therefore when Israel rebels, and worships idols, God rebukes them furiously. He says in Jeremiah 4:22, “For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
And again, “Let him who glories glory in this,
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.” [Jer. 9:24]
So we see the monumental importance of knowing God’s character through the scriptures, and in knowing Him to love and obey Him. Without the knowledge of God we are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge. My aim therefore in this discourse is to briefly explain these attributes mentioned in the Shorter Catechism,
that we may be the more enlivened and encouraged to adore and worship the true and living God, and that we might the better conduct our lives in His service to His glory alone.

These are broken into three parts. First we will discuss His nature, and being, secondly His incommunicable attributes (what we cannot comprehend), and finally His communicable attributes (what we can comprehend, and what is engrafted into our nature upon regeneration.)

1. God is.
We may know that there is a God by many proofs, every one being clear enough to sufficiently persuade the most stubborn atheist. The problem with atheism is not that they do not believe in God, but rather because they have sinful minds, and sinful hearts, they hate who God is, because they do know verily that there is a God. It is profound madness to try to reason with a fool who hates to see reason. Long arguments and extended discourse with atheists in the attempt to prove the reality of God is a waste of energy and effort. “The devils believe [that there is one God], and tremble.” [Jam. 2:19]
Our goal should be to show what the Bible says about God, and sin and salvation, because these are what they are ignorant of. But of the reality and existence of God they are already fully aware. Their sinful nature suppresses the truth, but they know.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
But God says to him, “There is no atheist.”
However there is a point to be made here about the proofs of God’s being.
We may know that there is a God by three things in particular.
a) We may know there is a God by creation.
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.” [Ps. 19:1-4]
God has created all things in the world and demonstrated His wisdom by it. There is no flower that blooms, nor star that shines but that it was created for the glory of God, to show forth God’s perfect being. Every rising sun that men wake to, every breath of air, every tree, and every flower of the field is a witness against atheism. The creation of the world is a sufficient witness against them, and leaves them without excuse. They know that there is a God by everything that He has made.
b) We may know there is a God by the conscience.
Everyone has in his own mind what is sufficient for the affirmation of God’s being.
The atheist must admit that he has heard of God, that God is served and worshiped by many, and that the great majority of the world no matter how far into the wilderness worships a god in some way or another. They have in their minds that there is a God, but both the atheist and pagan are plagued by the prevailing influence of sin. One suppresses the notion of Deity, and conjures up some other way that the world came into being, and the other worships false images, demons and whatever he has conjured up in his mind as his god. Every man’s conscience is a witness against him, and declares to him daily that there is a God.
c) We may know there is a God by the scriptures.
The Holy Scriptures do fully declare the nature and being of God and leave men without excuse for His existence. If the heavens were not enough for them, He has also revealed His mind and will in a book, and given it to mankind, for their salvation and condemnation. Those who refuse to heed these perfect words do so to their own destruction. This is the book that men will be judged by. The testimony of Genesis 1 is clear enough, and easy enough to understand that all men might fully know that God is, and that God created the world. He who says, “There is no God” defies God, and rejects God’s word. He has made himself god in His place, and has made himself lord and judge. The atheist’s mind is the devil’s throne. There the devil sways him with his scepter of malice, and turns him every which way. He is a slave to sin, and in bondage to the devil’s will. Only the sword of the Spirit can break these chains, and we should pray that it is God’s will that it be so.
Application.
Seeing that there is a God, and that He will judge the world by the things written in the Bible, how foolish and mad are those who deny it! If Christ rebuked His own beloved disciples calling them fools and slow of heart not to understand the scripture, what furious rebukes, and judgments are in store for them that reject it! Those that deny the truth of God, and reject the counsel of scripture reject life and salvation. How like devils men are when they are given life by God, and do not seek their life in Him. He has formed us, fashioned us, breathed life into us, and we ought to give Him the glory.
Cursed is the man that denies there is a God. He is like a worm who curses the sun though he has no power at all against it. At once he will be burned up, and all his raging will be silenced. Oh, if this is your case, how foolish you are. You wager eternity for a moment of pleasure. You give up a mountain of treasure for a scoop of mud. You refuse eternal life, and buy sin with death. The devil has tricked you. Your pleasures and status is not worth eternal damnation, but that will be your just reward. As Thomas Watson said, “What fools art thou who for a drop of pleasure drink a sea of wrath.”
“The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
The wicked shall be turned into hell,
And all the nations that forget God.” [Ps. 14:1, 9:17]

2. God is a Spirit.
God is a Spirit. He is not material, or visible. “No one has seen God at any time.” [John 1:18] We cannot see the wind, or know from whence it cometh, but see its power and activity by the moving of the trees and the swaying of the flowers. Even so we cannot see the Spirit of God, but we know Him because we are moved to know and obey God, and our hearts are swayed to love Him. He is neither seen nor felt, but apprehended by faith.
Though we may see God’s will in the scripture, we cannot see His essence. He is a pure and perfect Spirit. Man is material, and his mind is bent on what he can see, taste, and feel. His desires and goals are material. God is unlike man in every way. Men are drawn to and fueled by lust, power, fame, wealth, to be acknowledged by the world, or to make a mark on history. He cannot see another end except his own material end, and so is far from knowing God. God however is a Spirit, and He delights in things not seen. God is pleased by the love and obedience of His people, and their apprehension and willingness to conform to His word. God’s ends and purposed are spiritual and perfect. He afflicts man outwardly that he might repent and turn his heart inward. Man would close his eyes to the spiritual world so that he might prosper in this life. God’s designs are not only grander than man’s, but they are opposite to his.
Man by nature does not serve the true God. He serves himself and whatever he can comprehend. God’s being is revealed by creation, and nature but His essence is hidden from men.
“Natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” [1 Cor. 2:14] God reveals Himself in His glorious Personage only to His elect, and He does this by the invisible power of His Spirit. When God works upon a heart by His Spirit, and enables the before darkened soul to love and obey Him, He reveals to Him His Spiritual nature. Man is freed from the bondage of his fleshly pursuits, and made free to serve God’s ends: spiritual ends. These are the more expedient ends. These are the pursuits that prosper and flourish. These are the end which blossom and bloom. Carnal pursuits end in misery, death, and eternal punishment. They are not of God, but of the world which is corrupted by sin. “For all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:16-17)
God is a Spirit and dwells in inapproachable light invisible to the eyes of men, that we might be the more inclined to live by faith and not by sight. [2 Cor. 5:7]
If God should reveal Himself to us by revelations and dreams, our faith could not be perfect, but now God persuades us of truth by invisible forces, and grants us the ability to believe in Him and trust in the sufficiency of His word. This faith is perfected in that we do not see our hope, but eagerly wait for it. Man sees Christ with His soul, according to the will of His Spirit which enables Him to view His glory. Yet man cannot and will not see Christ until faith is perfected, and His nature purified from sin. Only in heaven will we fully behold the glory of Christ, and it is this sight that we long for.  “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.  For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” [Rom. 8:20, 24-25]
But may it be said that we partake of God’s essence because we are born of the Spirit?
No. We partake of His virtue (His communicable attributes), as when Peter says, “being made partakers of the Divine nature” and then explaining that we are to build our lives on virtue and godliness. We are restored into the image of God. We are not made infinite, eternal or unchangeable.
Thomas Watson says, “The essence of God is incommunicable. When it is said the soul is a spirit, it means that God has made it intelligible, and stamped upon it his likeness, not his essence. We are made partakers of the divine nature, not by identity or union with the divine essence, but by a transformation into the divine likeness.”
We are made like God by righteousness and holiness as Paul says in Eph.4:24, “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
This is why we are born again by the Spirit of God, to serve Him in righteousness, but pertaining to His infinity, eternality, immutability and Divine essence He is incomprehensible and incommunicable.
Application.
Seeing that God is a Spirit, let us worship Him in spirit, and not make for ourselves idols of wood, straw, and stubble. We dishonor God as Spirit when we contrive of images or worship things that can be seen. This rebukes all such as make worship into a carnal show. This is the majority of American evangelicalism. They do not worship God in spirit but their own ways. They make worship out to be a show to be entertained by.
But God does not receive the sacrifice of fools. Nadab and Abihu thought to add their own prescription to worship in Lev. 10 and God prescribed them death and judgment for their blasphemy and irreverence. They did not consider the worship of God holy, and God killed them for it.
“Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron,
“This is what the Lord spoke, saying:
‘By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.” (Lev. 10:1-3)
This rebukes such as worship God in any way by images. “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female…” (Deut. 4:15-16) Take careful heed, brethren. Pictures of Christ and pictures of God are blasphemous and idolatrous. The Lord is not worshiped by carnal means but spiritual. Images are not a support to faith but a hindrance. Idolatry is the great poison that modern evangelicalism has drank down like a drunkard with his wine. He will not be satisfied worshiping God in sincerity but will add his own ways of worship (modern music, drama, entertainment), and his own objects of worship, (sports, entertainment, culture), and drink down its dregs until he is swallowed up in the sins of the world. Modern evangelicalism is near to complete rebellion and apostasy because they do not worship God in Spirit, but in the flesh. [See also the prophets for additional rebukes against idolatry]
And as it is written, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” [Rom. 8:8]
Thomas Watson said, “How then shall we conceive of God as a Spirit, if we may make no image or resemblance of him? A. We must conceive of him spiritually. In his attributes; his holiness, justice, and goodness, which are the beams by which his divine nature shines forth. We must conceive of him as he is in Christ. ‘Christ is the image of the invisible God.’ Col 1:15. Set the eyes of your faith on Christ as God-man. In Christ we see some sparklings of the divine glory; in him there is the exact resemblance of all his Father’s excellencies. The wisdom, love, and holiness of God the Father, shine forth in Christ. John 14:4. ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father.’
Finally, this rebukes such as worship a false God. There is no excuse for them, for they have chosen a god for themselves and they continue to delight in their sinful ways. Every god of this world is an idol. God says in the Psalms, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god.” [Ps. 16:4] He who does not worship the true God worships an idol, whether it be Baal, Dagon, Moloch, Ashtoreth, Allah, Buddha, or a false Christ. He that worships these gods worships an idol, and he who worships an idol will be cast into hell.
The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Adventists, and such cults will be condemned with the wicked, because they serve and worship a false god which they have conjured in their own books, and they did not submit to the authority of the scriptures. All these who added or took away from God’s word will be condemned.
Therefore, let us beware and take heed that we worship God not by carnal means but in the sincerity of truth. We are given the Lord’s day as the day for worship, and we gather together to worship God in spirit. We sing according to the scriptures, hear sermons according to the scriptures, and pray according to the scriptures that in all things we might worship in truth. For no other worship is acceptable to God.
“The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)