Bible Fundamentals - God Is

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I hesitate somewhat to begin this message for fear that it will be an injustice to my God. And when it comes to talking about God, God himself, I don't know where to begin. [00:00:37] I don't know where to go. Because God is God and I'm just a finite man. Nevertheless, the scripture says that we can't come to God unless we believe that he is. So, it is ours to contemplate on God. We heard this morning as an introduction in our devotional, the idea of knowing God. May I say at the outset that I'm not going to describe God adequately to you. [00:01:13] I'm not even going to try. Yet there are things about the scriptures that tell us about our God That fit well with a common term that we hear in our day The things that are awesome And when we get a vision of God I think it happens to us like it does to Isaiah When he fell prostrate before God Because he saw God as he was [00:01:44] And so, you pray that the Lord will give revelation to all of us about himself, that we may know him more than just intellectually, because that is, at best, a very limited concept of God, our intellectual ability to understand him. Let's read from Hebrews 11, 1 to 6. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. [00:02:17] For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. [00:02:50] For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Maybe the whole message could be summarized in two short words, and that is, God is. God is. Now that's nothing new to any of us that are present here this morning, I don't believe. [00:03:25] We have since childhood had a mentality that God is. For some of us he was called the good man. The idea that there is a God is not new to us, but the question is, like we were asked earlier this morning, that God that is, what kind of a God is he? How real is he to us? That phrase, God is, has the idea in it that he exists. [00:03:59] He really is. Not only that he is, but God is real. He is a reality. God is not just an impersonal influence. It would be interesting to get a response from the audience today to hear this God that we all know is. How do you visualize him? What kind of a God is he? How does he look? How does he behave? God is what? [00:04:34] Could be the question. God is how? God is what? And the other side of that two-word phrase simply is, what is who? Someone is. Something is. Who is? God is. What do we mean when we read this and we believe it and we take it the next step further when he says [00:05:07] not only do we believe that he is, but that he is a rewarder. God is a rewarder. God imparts. God is one that not only is, but he is active. God is responsive. He's not just an impersonal influence. Neither is God just a giant man. God is just God. He is not one of many gods. [00:05:39] There is only one capital G God. Beside him, the scripture says, there is none other. What evidence do we have this morning that what we believe and say that we believe is really true? That is a big question in our world today. Some people are infidels. They don't believe. Some people simply do not believe there is a God. Other people are agnostics. They say there may be, but who knows what evidence is there. [00:06:14] So, when we come to this situation, this point, where we are going to consider what we are going to give our life to, what we are going to embrace as our belief, this is fundamental, this is foundation. Because without faith, we cannot know God. He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder. So what are some of these evidences? [00:06:47] How do we know that what we believe is really true? We tend to think that that's not a real issue amongst people like us. We've always believed that God is. But I know that there are people that have gone through this experience of struggling with the question. How do we know that we are not just believing something that we have been told, but there is no real security or assurance in our hearts that God is? [00:07:22] People struggle with that. Many people struggle with that, even amongst our people. One reason I know is because I've been there. I've struggled with that question. There is only one way to really, truly, fully answer that question, and that is that we cannot prove God scientifically. We're not even going to try. [00:07:54] Because the scripture says without faith it's impossible to please God. But let me say quickly that the person that doesn't believe in God also has a faith issue to deal with. And the Bible says that he that says there is no God is a fool. It's foolish to believe anything else. Because though I cannot explain God, though I cannot do a test in a laboratory to prove that there is a God, [00:08:29] although sometimes I wonder if you couldn't almost, The reality is that I come to this conclusion because I have chosen to believe this instead of that by faith. We say in our statement of faith, by the way, no, this is not the Bible, but there's a lot of Bible in here. And I'd like to encourage us that when we read the statement of faith [00:09:00] That we don't go back right away to about page 10 or so But that we start in the front Right up here in the front it says We believe that there is but one God We're saying that's what we believe We stake our life on it It's our faith Eternal Infinite Without limitation Perfect and unchangeable Who reveals himself in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [00:09:31] And that these three are one in essence and substance Again, I cannot explain all that to you either But I don't need to God has said it and that takes care of it Let's look a little bit at the existence Of the evidence of his existence If we say it correctly Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. John 1.1-3 says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [00:10:07] The same was in the beginning with God. By Him all things are created, and without Him was not anything made that is made. And what does it say further? In Him was the light of men. And it goes on there. I can't finish the rest of it. But the evidence of his existence that we accept by faith is first of all found in the testimony of the scripture. A few weeks ago we talked about the fact that one of the fundamentals is [00:10:38] the word of God. That's the foundation. That's where it all starts. This revelation of God about himself is found in this book. So, talking with a man that is struggling with these very questions we talked about, we just reminded him again that you need to read the Word of God. Because the scripture says, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. [00:11:10] It builds up our faith. It is the foundation. And it is the revelation of the existence of God. as there are many scriptures that refer to this but even without going into detailed explanation and saying this is how you conclude that God is God it is assumed in scripture the very scriptures throughout all assume that there is God [00:11:42] it is written as though everybody should know there is a God It is simply, along with the testimony of the scripture, there is a second indication, the second evidence of God, and that is a law that is written in man's heart. There is a consciousness. You can go from age to age, throughout the entire age of this earth. You can go over the entire globe and you will find people who are like those in Ephesus, I guess. [00:12:18] Some of them, they made an extra little idol there to worship the unknown God. But there is consciousness within man that there is a higher being. You go to the Aborigines in any land, the pagans, the heathen, there is a concept about God. There is a recognition that man is not the end, man is not the beginning. There is something greater than we are. It is something God-given. In the image of God, man was created. And something of that awareness has remained with us. [00:12:53] But we can look at the origin of things. When you go outside and you begin to gaze over this universe, gaze up into the sky at night, look at the stars. Look at the Milky Way. You see kind of a glow of light. But as you contemplate and look at that, you begin to see individual stars. And then, scientifically, it has been evidenced that those stars are so far apart that you and I have no concept of the space that's out there. [00:13:28] And then somebody says, it all just happened. Now that takes faith, to believe that that just happened. But when you look back out there and you see all that vast universe in outer space, and you begin to think, not only of its greatness, Not only where it came from, but look at its order. [00:14:02] Everything revolves, just as the scripture says in the 19th Psalms. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utter speech. Night unto night show of knowledge. There is no voice nor language where their speech is not heard. It goes throughout the entire world. [00:14:34] People even worship the stars and the moon and the sun because of that consciousness within of something greater. Just to see that it's there is an evidence. Something had to begin somewhere. You look at the origin of all things then. And as you see these things, that origin, that idea that something this complex, this vast, this orderly, had to have beginning somewhere. And you begin to regress in your mind. [00:15:08] You think back. At least I do. And I think back. And I get back to some point. and finally you get to the end of as far as you can think so let's suppose that it just there was a big explosion sometime and these things began to form there's still one problem that is [00:15:38] what was there to explode to begin with the very first little thing and you're right where you started you're going to have to somehow acknowledge that there had to be a beginning and so people do that also with God himself now one of the things that happens in our day to counteract the belief that God is [00:16:11] This is what they call infinite regression. You go back to the beginning of things then. And let's suppose then that God did make the first thing, or all things. But the question is, who made God? That's where I stop. But some people don't. Let's supposing that God was not the original God. That almost sounds like heresy. It is, but it sounds sacrilegious to even say it out loud. [00:16:49] But let's suppose that God was made by another deity. We're still right where we were. Who made that deity? And who made that deity? I like what Walter Martin said that I've heard him say numerous times in years gone by. When he said, let's give them their God made God, their created God, he said, really, it's irrelevant. Because if somebody did make God, and somebody else made who made God, and somebody else made who made who made God, [00:17:26] and you infinitely regress, you'll keep on going forever. It's irrelevant because if somebody else made God, I'm not accountable to who made God. I'm accountable to the God of my era. And that's all that matters. But forget all of that. God is. And He's the only one. But I still don't understand all about God. But this morning, the creation being there, the origin of things, has to have an explanation. [00:18:05] Another explanation is foolishness, the scriptures say. So we believe this morning in the existence of God by the very fact that we're here. That the world exists. And that the order of things is as it is. So perfectly ordered. We talked about the vastness of the universe and it would be very interesting, if you like science at all, it would be very interesting if somebody much more able than I would sit with us and just expound for an hour or two on the complexity of life and the orderliness of this complexity. [00:18:41] You take your own body. Just think of your own body. How does a brain function? How do your fingers move the way they do? That doesn't originate in the fingers. It originates in the human computer. but you don't even think about it and it all works and how the white corpuscles come to the defense of an infection in your body [00:19:12] why did the eyes come here instead of one on top and one on the feet there was perfect design in everything and you can talk about the DNA the way that things transmit over and over was it ten times I believe in the creation account where the Bible says that the different things brought forth after their kind and they still do. One day somewhere, I don't know if I was in a zoo or where I was, I was looking at a monkey or an ape or a baboon or something. [00:19:43] And as I was looking at that thing, all at once the question popped into my mind. What's that thing doing here? If we believe in evolution, If some back there in the unknown past There was something crawled out of some pool of slime And converted into something else and kept on expanding and improving And finally the ape man evolved into a human [00:20:16] How's coming still with us if he changed to a human? Well you see the foolishness of it The evidence is here today that God exists. God is. Not only does He exist, God is active in our world today. The Bible says, if we don't believe that, we can't come to Him. Maybe that's why there's a lot of shallowness in Christianity in our day. [00:20:51] We added too much exterior additional baggage. One more argument or evidence that God is, and that is what we heard earlier this morning, a personal relationship with Him. It would have been next to impossible to convince me the night I was converted that there is no God. because of the absolute change that took place in my life that I could not accomplish before. [00:21:27] And all at once, there was a power there that never was before. There was a connection between the living eternal God and myself. It would have been very much like it was for the lady that was confronted with the denial of a God. And as somebody was trying to refute the existence of God, this lady said, Well, that's strange. I just talked with him this morning. [00:22:00] You know, when you have a relationship with God, that's an inner witness that God is. Perhaps that's why so many people struggle with the idea of evolution today. They haven't had that personal contact yet. Well, I'm not here to try to prove that God is, because we all know that already. Yet I wonder if sometimes our awareness of God's existence hasn't kind of been put on a back burner. [00:22:31] And we don't live out in daily experience the reality that God is. Remember years ago hearing a preacher say if there's anything worse than denying the existence of God it is to confess that we believe in God but live as though we didn't believe it. That's even worse than atheism. What kind of a God is this that we're talking about this morning? [00:23:03] Now I'm having a dilemma again. I don't know if it's worth starting or not. But when we talk about the personality of God, the character of God, the attributes of God, I thought of just taking scripture and reading scripture after scripture after scripture that tells us about God. Maybe the best we can do is just quickly pass over it and ask God to interpret it into our hearts. Jesus said to the woman at the well, God is a spirit. [00:23:36] Now how do you describe a spirit? So is God a person? God is not, we say again, a giant man. He's not a person in that sense that he has flesh and blood. Though we read about his face, we read about his arms, we read about his back parts, The eyes, the ears, we read about many parts of God that we are acquainted with in the corporal body. [00:24:07] But Jesus still said, God is a spirit. I think those other terms are used to help us to understand something about what God sees, what God does, what God feels. When you think about the characteristics of God or the attributes of God again we want to emphasize that though God is a spirit does not mean that God is an impersonal influence He's just something out there [00:24:39] He is real and we find at least 15 and I'm sure there are more than what I've got here with me this morning, attributes of God. We find yet that God is real in the sense that he's active in this way, that he deals with mankind. He rules over the nations, the Bible says. If you want to do anything for our nation today politically, just get down before God, be salt to the earth, [00:25:11] and implore our God that he would take his right to rule over the nations. We'll do much more good in the election that way than we will if one Christian counteracts the other Christian's vote at the polls. We get this thing into the hands of God. We leave it where it is, where it belongs. The scripture says in the book of Daniel that he sets up and he puts down as he will. He is the God of the universe. [00:25:42] Though this world has been usurped by Satan, there is one that is over him still and controls all things. He is active as he was seen to be in creation. God is still active in the preservation of this creation. The book of Peter, 2 Peter 3, he says, The fact that God hasn't come yet is not that God is forgetting. But it says, he is not willing that any should perish. [00:26:15] The same word that brought this world into existence is now kept in store, it says, by the same word. The reason this world is not disintegrating is not because someone hasn't exploded a certain bomb. Did you read a week or two ago that there was some real concern that some people that were trying to do some tests or did some tests, There was fear that if they carry those out, they might destroy the world. [00:26:47] Well, it hasn't happened. They did their test. If I remember, no right. The world hasn't been destroyed. You see, man isn't going to do that. The reason this world hangs together is by the same word that when God said, Let there be light, there was light. That same word holds this thing in store. and he has withheld he keeps on doing that because he's giving yet opportunity not willing that any should perish [00:27:17] but that all should come to repentance well, that's a note of that the attributes of God there are infinite attributes and there are moral attributes the scripture says that speaks about the eternal God the scripture talks about Jesus Christ being the same yesterday, today and forever The scripture again talks about thy word oh God forever settled in heaven is thy word. He is the eternal God. God isn't going to have to change because he did it all right the first time. It was an adequate plan for all ages for all time. He is immutable. [00:28:00] I am the Lord, I change not, he says in the book of Malachi. Why doesn't he change? There's no need. How would you improve the perfect? He is the eternal God. There are other scriptures. God is the omnipotent God, the all-powerful God. Nothing is too hard for thee, the scripture says. The prophet in the Old Testament, I believe in Jeremiah, said that. Nothing is too hard for God. We have limits. [00:28:33] God can go on and on. God is the omniscient God. If we go to the book of Psalm 139, He knows our thoughts afar off. Before we were born, He knew what we were going to think. He knows the thoughts of all men in all places at all times. How can you know that? How can God create a world disorderly? Do you think he ran his trigonometry problems and his geometry problems [00:29:04] and he came up with the conclusion that this is the way you do things? No. He invented trigonometry and all the rest of the calculus that people can do. It is all original with him. He knows all things. He knows not only the thoughts that we're going to think, he knows the intents of our heart. According to Hebrews, the 12th chapter, 4th chapter, verse 12, where he says that the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing ascent of soul and spirits and joints in the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [00:29:50] The motive is behind it. God is an omnipresent God. Where would you go to get away from God? The psalmist contemplated that and he said, If I fly away to the east, I'm going to find Him there. If I go into the grave, He's going to be there. If I go into the night, surely the darkness will hide me. But for God, it's like broad noonday. God is everywhere. [00:30:22] That's the kind of God that we have. God is faithful. 1 John 1.9 The scripture says, We confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Herein we find confidence today. Do we know God as the one that's faithful? You have the assurance today that if God says it, it's true and if God said he'll do it he'll do it you cannot find a promise in scripture [00:30:54] anywhere that God failed to keep if he made it he is faithful he as well tells us that there is no temptation that's going to take us except common temptations to other people God is faithful we can just plain count on God because he's faithful. As well, God is incomprehensible. Job said, Canst thou by searching find out God? No, that's a little what we're doing this morning. [00:31:27] We're kind of searching. But we're just scratching the surface and barely that. By searching we cannot find out God. I cannot understand how God can be perfect in love and perfect in hatred. But he is. The scriptures assure us. He is incomprehensible. But by the same token, the scripture also says he's not far from any one of us. God has a characteristic of simplicity. No man can understand all about God. [00:32:01] All men can understand enough about God to be saved. The plan of salvation is so simple that many people overlook it because they're trying to earn something that's already paid for. And to take it by faith is very simple. All you have to do is repent and believe. And of course, that's another subject. One man described it well when he said, [00:32:34] when someone said, when I came to the Lord, it cost me everything that I had. No, I'm saying it backwards. A man said, I'd give everything I have if I could know the peace that you do. The other man said, that's what it costs me, too. Repentance means just plain giving it over. Turning it over to God, recognizing my need. Repentance is not walking the aisle. Repentance is not raising a hand. [00:33:05] You may do that at that time, but unless your heart God gives it all to God. That's what we mean when we say every man can do it. Who can't say I'm a sinner? Who can't acknowledge that? Only the proud man. God is as well a God of goodness. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance as Romans says. God is righteous. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. [00:33:37] Righteous. You can never find one wrong thing in God's character. God is merciful from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art merciful, the scripture says. But let us not presume on that mercy. God is just as well as merciful. See, how does the scripture say righteousness and peace have kissed each other? mercy and truth are met together God can deal with man [00:34:08] and extend to him mercy the vilest of sinners and at the same time when that mercy is rejected deal justly with that man perfect, he makes the right conclusion every time God is the God of love And we don't want to minimize that. We're not putting these things in order of importance because I suppose they are all equally important because they are all equally part of God. [00:34:41] But the scripture does say God commends His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Can you comprehend this morning that love? While we were sinners means while we were against Him. While we were doing things differently from what He told us, taught us, and what He made provision for. We rejected Him, despised Him, went our own way, and He loved us. [00:35:14] Can you understand that as a mortal? People cross our paths. You know the emotions we feel on the inside. How many times when somebody crosses our path or rejects us or whatever, do our hearts well up in love? But our Lord said, Father, forgive them. They don't understand what they're doing. He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son. I can think of making sacrifices. [00:35:45] I can even think of returning good for evil or putting, especially if it has this connotation, if it's like putting coals of fire on somebody. But you know how that works sometimes. Do you find satisfaction that doing good for evil is like a coal of fire? It's kind of counterproductive when we get to that place. But our Lord, God the Father, gave His Son I don't think that was a satisfaction to Him in the sense that it made them smart for what they did [00:36:25] But it burned in His heart because He loved us so There is as well hatred These six things the Bible says does the Lord hate Let me just read them to you Yea, even seven are an abomination unto him. Now we know God hates adultery. We know God hates murder. We know God hates stealing and a lot of those bad things. But the Bible says our God, who is a God of love, also hates a proud look. [00:37:01] A proud look. God hates. God hates a lying tongue. God hates hands that shed innocent blood God hates a heart that devises wicked imaginations feet that are swift in running to mischief hateful to God feet that run into mischief what all does that mean? a false witness that speaks lies in German, I think in Spanish also [00:37:35] So it says, and the seventh is an abomination to him. He that soweth discord among the brethren. You know, just in ejecting a word that kind of stimulates wrong feelings. Gets people together. God is a jealous God. He is a God that has made mankind for His glory. And when that glory goes elsewhere, God is jealous. [00:38:08] And this is just my concept. I don't really, I can't turn to a scripture this morning. In a sense, it seems like that's kind of selfish. But I wonder if God's jealousy is not more for our sake than for His. He deserves all the glory, all the obedience, all the service. But I believe our God is jealous for our own sake as well In that he knows if we don't serve him We are ruining ourselves [00:38:41] He's jealous for our good, for our sake as well Well, I suppose both I cannot comprehend a perfect God That's why it seems selfish to me if he wants to get the glory He certainly deserves the glory I'm just exposing my human reasoning when I say that I think He justly, rightly can expect can desire [00:39:11] for His glory but also for ours and the last one maybe if there is an outstanding characteristic of God I would wonder if it's not this the holiness of God Our God is a holy God The Bible says His eyes are too pure to behold evil To look on evil God cannot endure evil That's why I wonder if that was not the chief suffering of our Lord at Calvary [00:39:46] When He took the sin of the world on Himself Surely His hands hurt His feet hurt His emotions hurt The crown of His head All that suffered pain. Martyrs suffered similar things and sang, but our Lord wasn't singing. I wonder if it doesn't reveal His holiness in a degree that I cannot fully comprehend. in this that he took the sin of the world on himself [00:40:16] and he had never touched sin before. And our Lord died of a broken heart for our redemption. When the angels were in the presence of God, both in the book of Isaiah and Revelation, their heartfelt utterance was, Holy, Holy, Holy. Everything was pure, without sin, without a touch of sin. [00:40:52] I'd like to read yet a few verses in Isaiah chapter 40, just as kind of a summary about our God. As you can contemplate the fact that God is, and that God is a rewarder. Isaiah chapter 40 beginning to read at verse 25 To whom then will you liken me or shall I be equal says the Holy One Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number [00:41:23] He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might For that he is strong in power and not one faileth Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. [00:41:55] He giveth power to the faint, to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings as eagles They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not faint There you have it The picture of our God The best we can understand it God wants us to come to Him as God [00:42:28] To be aware that we are accountable to God to be aware that we are in the presence of God that does not mean that our God is a cruel God a vindictive God it can mean just exactly the opposite that our God is there so that no one can accuse us like it says in Romans 8th chapter whatever could come against us if our belief, our faith is in God [00:43:00] We come to him as the rewarder in our life. And he's active in our life because we have been born into his family and into his kingdom. And he's active in our life because when we pray, we see God responding. Then we have a protection. When we are weak, as he is saying here, we'll do better than young men who have all that vitality. He will raise us up like the eagle that soars to heights beyond. [00:43:31] But if not, then may we know that our God beholds the good and the evil.