WE BELIEVE IN GOD (HEB 11:1-6)
SERIES: THIS WE BELIEVE, PART 1
GCEFC: JULY 4, 2010
1.
If I asked you to name the things in your
life that are important to you, you’d come up with a list quickly and easily.
a. You’d mention your relationships. Spouse, if married. Children if a
parent. Extended family. Your friends.
b. You’d probably mention your health. Almost no one has perfect
health—but good enough to function at the level we desire is important.
c. You might cite finances. Having enough money creates options for us
that are eliminated if we don’t have enough money. Borrowing only delays the inevitable and increases the pain.
2.
But what would you say is most
important in your life? That which occupies first place?
3.
You’ve probably figured out by now that
I’m talking about GOD. I would suggest that God is not just one of many
important things in your life. God is the most important thing in your life.
4.
First of all, God will not just impact
your life now and in the future—God will impact your life from now on.
And that impact will just increase with time.
a. The Bible gives perspective on the length of our earthly life. It
compares our lives to things like a breath, a vapor, and newly sprouting grass
that dies by days’ end.
b. The Psalmist prays that God would teach us to number our days—that’s
because there are so few of them.
c. Of course, this is a perspective that only comes with time. For a
9-year old, a 10-minute timeout is forever.
d. By the time we’re 30, our finite time on earth is more believable—but
just barely. To the 30-year old, life is just getting started.
e. For the 40-year old—what we used to call middle age—now the new
20. For the 40-year old, mortality seems real enough.
f.
At 50—we’re past middle age—unless we’re
expecting to live beyond 100.
g. By time we reach our 60’s, 70’s, 80’s—we wonder why we didn’t see this
earlier. In our 30’s we know our time is limited. But by the fourth
quarter—we believe it!
5.
God is most important in our lives
because his impact is not just for a season—or even for an entire lifetime—it’s
for eternity.
6.
And what we believe about God determines
everything else. The late writer/preacher A.W. Tozer said: What you think about God is the most important thing about you.
7.
What we believe about God; what we think
about God; and how we respond to God has
profound practical influence on our lives—even if we don’t know it.
8.
I’m not talking about what we say we
believe. I’m talking about what we actually believe. What we say
we believe is important. What we truly believe is crucial.
9.
The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his Son to die for our sins. And
that whoever believes in him will not die spiritually—but will have eternal
life.
10.
This is not a platitude, it’s a promise
we must believe. Think of what it implies.
a. It implies we must believe there is a God at all. If there is no
God—then there is no God who loves the world.
b. This is the premise of HEB 11—that anyone who would come to God
in faith must believe that he actually exists. Coming to a nonexistent
being is meaningless.
c. And we must believe that God has a Son who was sent into the world to
die for our sins. So we must believe God’s Son had the authority to die for our
sins.
d. That his death has the meaning the Bible claims it has. That believing
in what his death means will result in our forgiveness.
e. And—I must believe the Bible is truthful and reliable in what it tells
me about God.
f.
After all, what we believe about God is
what the Bible asserts about God. If the Bible is wrong in what it asserts—then
what I believe about God is wrong.
g. I suspect that most people don’t think much beyond the platitudes. They
don’t realize how critical it is that they not only think about God—but that
they think rightly about God—and that they know if they’re thinking rightly.
11.
What we believe about God is the most
important thing we can believe. How we think about God is the most important
thing we can think.
12.
Our relationship with God is the most
important relationship we will ever have. Our decisions about God are the most
important decisions we will ever make.
13.
You may think I’ve overstated it—but time
will prove I have not.
14.
That said, today we’re beginning a new
sermon series called This We Believe.
15.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that this
coming fall our congregation will have to vote on whether to accept the new
10-point doctrinal statement of the Evangelical Free Church.
16.
This series will take a look at each of
the 10 articles of faith. The vote in the fall is reason enough for the series.
But there are other good reasons too.
17.
So with Hebrews 11 as a backdrop, let’s
take a look at the first article of the 10.
18.
There are 10 components of this first
article. 10 truths about God:
a. There is only one God.
b. God is Creator of all things.
c. God is holy.
d. God is infinitely perfect.
e. God has existed eternally.
f.
God has existed eternally in a loving
unity.
g. God is 3 equally divine persons.
h. God has limitless knowledge
i.
God has sovereign power.
j.
God has purposed to redeem a people and
make all things new for his glory.
19.
No one should think this is an exhaustive
list. Far from it. But it’s a good sampling that narrows down our beliefs. So
let’s look at each one briefly.
II. WHAT GOD IS LIKE
A.
ONE GOD
1. First—we believe there is only ONE GOD. This is stated clearly
in DT 6:4: Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God, the Lord is one.
2. But all religions claim to have a god of one sort or another—so what
gives?
3. PSA 96:4 explains: For
great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all
gods.
4. But this just tells us that the God of the Bible is above the other
gods. That he’s kind of the chief God among many gods.
5. But we need to read the next verse: For
all the gods of the nations are idols…
6. The other so-called gods are just IDOLS. An idol is something
manmade. So how can people worship something as a god they’ve made themselves?
Beats me.
7. Here’s the clincher: For all the
gods of the nations are idols—but the Lord made the heavens.
8. Men have made idols they worship and serve. But the true God made the heavens. The true God made the men
who made and worship the idols.
9. Belief in the one true God is so foundational to true biblical faith,
that 20% of the Ten Commandments address it.
a.
The First Commandment says we are to
worship no other gods besides God.
b.
The Second Commandment forbids the making
of any idol that would take the place of the true God.
10. There is only one true God. And we are not to allow anything to
displace the one true God. Only the true God is worthy of worship.
11. I like the way Isaiah puts it: Before
me no god was formed, nor will
there be one after me. No god before…no god after…
B.
GOD IS CREATOR
1. Second—God is the Creator of all things. Some things God created
directly. Other things God creates indirectly.
2. Joyce Kilmer reminded us that only
God can make a tree. When you plant a seed and a tree grows, don’t kid
yourself into thinking that you’ve made a tree.
3. You’ve only continued what God began. It’s not creation—it’s far less.
4. And we’re not saying God is just an ingenious fabricator. The Latin
says God created everything originally ex
nihilo. That he created all
material things out of nothing.
5. Or as HEB 11 told us: By
faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what
is seen was not made out of what was visible.
6. The material universe did not exist until God called it into existence.
Even the most creative of humans must have raw materials to work with. Even
Michelangelo needed marble before he could carve his David.
7. God requires no raw materials. He simply speaks the raw materials into
existence—then makes whatever he desires from them. No other being is capable
of this.
C.
GOD IS HOLY AND INFINITELY PERFECT
1. The next quality is that God is holy and infinitely perfect. Holiness
at its root means separation. Things that are holy are separated from things
that are not.
2. The main reason God gave the law is so that his people would be
different than the nations that surrounded them—separate from them.
3. But when we think of holiness, the very idea is corrupted by our own
sinfulness. It’s hard for us to imagine a being that’s not just good, not just
pure, not just holy—but utterly and completely without any corruption
whatsoever.
4. 1 JN says: God is light;
in him there is no darkness at all. 1 TIM describes God this way: Who alone is immortal and who lives in
unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.
5. God is not just holy and sinless—God is infinitely perfect. There is
not one thing or one aspect of God that is anything less than 100% holy and
perfect.
6. This is why our sins must be atoned for. We are not fit to enter God’s
presence in our sinful state. There must be provision for our sinfulness or we
will never see God.
7. In fact, we won’t ever see God in his unveiled essence. But
without cleansing from our corrupting sin, we won’t see God at all.
D.
ETERNALLY EXISTENT
1. The next quality of God in the statement is his eternal existence. Well,
if holiness is difficult to grasp, then eternal existence is impossible to
grasp.
2. When we ponder how a being could have been in existence from eternity.
When you go back million, a billion, 100 billion years and God was already
there 100 billion years before that—our brains just kind of shut down.
3. The oldest thing I own is a 1910 penny. That’s 100 years old. About 1
lifetime. Even Abraham who lived 4,000 years ago is a mere 50 average lifetimes
ago.
4. There has never been a moment—ever—when God did not exist. God just is
and always has been.
E.
LOVING UNITY
1. And according to what we read in the Bible, God is a loving unity.
2. Which speaks of relationship. God is not just in favor of relationship.
He’s not just pleased with the concept. Relationship is intrinsic to God’s
being.
3. As much as his eternality or holiness or knowledge. God has not only
always existed—God has always existed in relationship.
4. Relationship is so much who God is, he’s gone to immeasurably great
lengths to ensure our relationship with him.
5. God made us that we might be in relationship with him. And when that
relationship was marred because of sin—God initiated the process necessary to
restore what was lost. Salvation is the restoration of relationship with God.
F.
3 EQUALLY DIVINE PERSONS
1. Which logically flows into the next aspect of who God is.
2. God exists as 3 equally divine persons. And though the Bible
never uses the word Trinity,
it clearly teaches that this is God’s nature and always has been.
3. In fact, some have argued that our belief that God is a being in
eternal relationship with the Son and the Spirit is just an accommodation to our
own values.
4. What is more likely is that our innate need for relationship is
an expression of God’s nature. The Christian life is about
relationship—first with God, then each other.
5. The way we are is best explained by the Bible’s statement that we’ve
been made in God’s Image. Being in his image we reflect aspects of who God is.
6. I cannot give you an explanation of the Trinity that will satisfy you.
No one can. This is because we are tying to use our finite minds to comprehend
what is infinite.
7. When we say God exists as a Trinity, we mean that within the nature of
the one true God, there eternally exists three equally divine persons—Father,
Son, and Spirit.
8. Not 3 gods, but three persons. Not 3 human persons, but 3 divine
persons. Persons who are by nature immortal and eternal.
9. All kinds of analogies have been offered to help our minds grasp this
truth. One of the better ones is the analogy of an equilateral triangle, a
triangle with 3 equal sides.
a.
Without each side you don’t have a
triangle. All 3 are necessary for completion.
b.
All 3 sides are equal in every way. No
one side is of greater importance than either of the other two. The 3 sides
form one triangle.
c.
It’s not that God developed into a
Trinity between the Old and New Testaments. God was a Trinity from the very
beginning.
d.
But over time God has revealed more of
his nature. God has always been One God. But God’s Trinitarian nature was
revealed over time..
e.
Kind of like the time your child first
realized you were once a child yourself. This was always true about you—but the
child didn’t know it yet.
f.
God didn’t become a Trinity—but he
had to make it known to us before we could know it. He’s made it known through
His Word.
G.
LIMITLESS KNOWLEDGE
1. And God possesses limitless knowledge—omniscience. God doesn’t
just know everything about the present. He knows everything about the past too.
2. Even more remarkable, God knows everything about the future. We ask how
anyone can know things that haven’t happened yet?
3. Well for God they’ve already happened. God isn’t bound by time
and space like you and I. For God, everything is in the eternal present.
4. You know when you go on vacation, in those first couple of days time
kind of ceases to exist? You don’t ask what time it is because you don’t care.
5. But then, as your vacation draws to a close, you start thinking about
time again. How much you have to do and how far behind you are because you went
on vacation.
6. God is always on vacation. God is eternal and has no beginning or
end—time is just not necessary. God created time for our benefit—not for his.
H.
SOVEREIGN POWER
1. And God has sovereign power. Which means God can not only do
whatever he wants—he has the power to do whatever he wants.
2. Your power and my power are derived and limited. There are all kinds of
things I may want to do. But I lack the power to do them.
3. This is why Jesus in MT 19:26 says: With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
4. God does whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases, however he
pleases—and has the power to do it.
I.
PURPOSED TO REDEEM A PEOPLE FOR
HIMSELF AND MAKE ALL THINGS NEW FOR HIS OWN GLORY
1. Lastly, God has purposed to redeem a people for himself and make all
things new for his own glory.
2. So when you put all of the qualities and characteristics of God
together. When you see what kind of being God is, and all the power that he
has.
3. It’s no surprise that God expresses both his character and his power in
bringing into relationship with himself the people he has made.
4. He won’t bring all people into relationship—just those who want it. He
will not force relationship on those who don’t want it.
5. And that day will eventually arrive. Remember, God lives outside time
so he’s in no hurry. In fact, the Bible teaches that God is WAITING to
make all things new so that more of us can be part of it.
6. I’m glad he waited for me. You must be glad he waited for you. And
there are probably others you hope he waits for too.
7. All of this is for one overarching purpose. That God would be
glorified. God is the most wonderful being in the universe. There will never be
another God and there will never be anything or anyone like God.
8. So the only right thing for God to do is to do what brings his own
glory. No other being is worthy of the glory that belongs to God alone.
III. CONCLUSION
1.
Our conclusion today is very simple and
straightforward.
2. There is only one true and living God. The true God has spoken to us
through his Word. We must believe the Word he has spoken. We must respond in
obedience.