What we Teach and What we Believe about God

Turn to Genesis chapter 1. Turn to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. And then I also want you to turn to Psalm chapter 2. Mark Psalm 2 will come to Psalm 2 a little bit later. I think it should be easy for you to find Genesis 1. It's easy for us to find the beginning. Isn't that right? It's those little books in between. If I ask you to turn to Haggai you might have some books. But tonight we're going to be in Genesis 1.1 and like I said we're going to go to Psalm 2 a little bit later on. And like always I'm going to refer to quite a few other scriptures. I would encourage you to write them down.

And you know with a study like this where we're really going all over the place with scripture if you need my notes I'll be glad to share them with you. I use a manuscript. Obviously I have been to it after I have printed that document. And if you ever need any of that information I'll be glad to give that to you. I do want you to take notes but yet I also want you to follow me because it's more than just information Bible study with information. There is some teaching that you do need to hear with your mind and your heart. Now I believe everyone here knows that we're in the process of adopting a church confession.

You know I'm really excited about how spiritually healthy this is going to be for us as a church as a whole and also for us as individuals. I think about the benefit for us spiritually is individuals on a personal level. Think about it on a personal level with me. We're going to tackle some very difficult doctrines throughout this study. And of course we're dealing with some easier doctrines as well. And we're going to not just work on how we understand these things. We've got to try to understand these difficult doctrines but I'm trying to show you how these things will flesh out in our lives.

It's not just information we're going to practically use it. So that's going to benefit you personally. But you know this study this exercise if I can use that word this is going to help us as a church with evangelism and outreach with a healthy church confession we'll be able to clearly articulate to others what we believe and why and who we are. You know when moving I have said this we're really in the public arena. Are we not. And we have the opportunity to minister to people and this is a good good exercise.

A couple of weeks ago one of the ladies here was talking about someone asking her about our church and she was asking me some questions so that she could be able to answer her friend. I give you one that some of you are going to run into. You know with our church name Grace Life Church of Brookhaven it doesn't have the word Baptist in it. I've had people say well are y'all not a Baptist church. Yes we are. We are Baptist in our doctrine. Just because you remove the name doesn't mean you don't believe in baptism by immersion. We are a Baptistic church.

So this document this exercise will be able to help us in many ways as a church without reaching evangelism things like that. Now last week we covered what I titled what we teach and what we believe you're going to hear that term those terms all the way through the study what we teach and what we believe about the scriptures. Practically we saw that if we move away from and these two words are key the sufficiency of the scriptures and the authority of the scriptures we really lose it all. Remember I stated that if we move away from the scriptures we lose the gospel and if we lose the gospel we lose salvation.

Now let me show you practically how this works. In a church if we lose the gospel and we lose salvation we lose your children. That gets personal. Also I shared with you that if we move away from the scriptures we lose our personal spiritual lives. Think about this if we move away from teaching the scriptures in this church you may lose your personal spiritual life. Think about Solomon when he moved away from God's commandments what happened to his personal spiritual life. And then if we move away from the scripture remember I shared that we lose the church.

Now listen folks there have been countless denominations that have moved away from the scriptures and they are no more. There are denominations in our land and in the world that are moving away from the scripture and they are dying by the day they are dying. So I bring that up to show you why it is important this doctrinal position about the scriptures. Now before we move into the second section which is on the doctrine of God I do want us to look back at our first section which is dealing with the scriptures. That is what we covered last week. I want you to see that we clarified a little and we expounded a little in two areas.

Now let me explain something. This is a working document. This is not the scripture. We don't alter the scripture it's a declaration a statement our series of statements on what we believe about a particular subject. Well here we have the scriptures. I put it in blue what we altered what we added. Let me show you what I mean. At the beginning it says we believe that the Holy Bible and here is our revision from last week comprised of the 66 books contained in the Old Testament and New Testament. Now why do we need to add that? We live in a day where we can't take for granted that everyone knows what the Bible is. That hit us this week.

You know I know what the Bible is. You probably were raised in an environment where you know but we will encounter people that don't know what the Bible is nor what it contains. You know there are other books that are not part of the canon and I have literally had friends call me and say what about these books that the Catholic Church accepts. Do we accept them. See that helps us there. And then I want you to go back to the revised version. I want you to notice something. Look at it. It starts in blue. Notice it says that it stands above all worldly philosophies human wisdom and traditions of men.

This is the addition that it is not subject to man the word institutions of man or earthly systems that it is sufficient at all matters pertaining to life and godliness. Now what's the point here. What's happening here. That's a rather large statement. Some of you might not know this but there is a large and new assault on the sufficiency and the authority of scriptures in our culture in our church and in our time. It's very new and it's in a very new and big way.

There are many worldly philosophies such as critical race theory teachings on social justice and more and they are infiltrating churches in seminaries and even the teachings of respected men. And it does not matter who that man is. It doesn't matter what leader they may be or what institution it might be. Their use of worldly philosophies in the wisdom of men it will not assist or enhance or supersede or replace the scriptures. Simply all teaching and philosophies must be subject to the scriptures. The teachings of all men and institutions must be subject to the scriptures. So I want you to see we're working hard to try to cover everything.

And if we reach back like this it's just our efforts to make sure we touch all the bases. All right. Now we can move on to the second section. Roman numeral to the one true God. Let's go to this handout that I gave you. You're going to see a couple of revisions since last week and they're very minor but they are important. Let's look at it together. We believe that there is only one living and true God and he is the eternal infinite intelligent and personal spirit being that he is the designer creator and we inserted Redeemer.

He is the designer creator Redeemer sustainer and sovereign supreme ruler of the universe consisting of the heavens and earth and the seas and all that are in them. And he is an expressibly glorious and holiness is revealed in the scriptures and is worthy of all honor confidence and love and that he is all powerful all knowing unchanging and his perfect knowledge extends to all things past present and future that the eternal triune God reveals himself through the personal and relative distinctions of the father the son and the Holy Spirit equal in divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

Now question really to help me with these if you would by just engaging in your mind first how can we explain God how can we explain God and then we need to see that if we are left to ourselves we can't there is absolutely no way and listen even with God's help we can only go so far see finite man can only explain infinite God to a certain degree.

Now a second question where do we start if finite man is going to try to explain the infinite God where where do we start I think it's important to start with the Bible starts specifically where Moses starts scholars agree that Moses penned the first five books of the Old Testament sometimes it's called the Pentateuch and of course it all started in the book of Genesis with the creation account notice what the Bible scholar back from the Reformation John Calvin said about Moses notice what John Calvin said and I'm quoting the intention of Moses in the beginning of his book that's the Genesis account Moses wrote it the intention of Moses in the beginning of his book with the creation of the world is to render God visible to us in his works you hear that the intention of Moses in the beginning of his book with the creation of the world is to render God visible to us in his works in other words God is made known to us right away in his creative work so I want us to read that verse we're familiar with this verse Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth now this is right where we start with number one number one in our outline and that is God the one true God right here out of Genesis 1 1 God the one true God now notice right here in the verse that the Bible does not begin with a statement or an argument for the existence of God Moses nor God starts off right here with a statement or an argument for the existence of God if we pay attention we notice that the Bible assumes that God exists not just here in Genesis 1 1 but all throughout the Bible here in this very verse we see other assumptions think about this with me and I think you'll see what I mean first there is the assumption that the readers know that God exists also there is the assumption that God existed before the creation and also if you really ponder what we have here there is the assumption that God existed before time began and he is well beyond all of the creation there is this assumption and understanding of the other worldliness of God so in Genesis 1 1 we see the assumption that God exists but as we think as we begin to think about God we must not approach this exercise from man to God we need to get that we don't approach this exercise of thinking about God by starting with man and working to God we do not start with man we start with God and if we're going to start with God we must examine how God revealed Himself to man two ways first creation first in the creation you know you could say something like this God started with the Scriptures when he gave us the creation account Genesis 1 1 well the Scriptures do tell us of the creation and who created it all but that is not where we start with the exercise of coming to know the one true God follow me Paul tells us that God is known to exist by the creation and in the creation all men know that God exists by the creation and in the creation simply creation loudly declares the existence of God apart from the written word of God Romans 1 19 and 20 for what can be known about God is plain to them plain to them because God has shown it to them the them is men for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly perceived see how clear it is ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they that's men are without excuse John MacArthur says it very simply he states it like this the creation delivers a clear unmistakable message about God's person listen to that the creation delivers a clear unmistakable message about God's person we see the message that creation delivers a clear message about God's person or existence and numerous other passages as well in Psalm 19 verses 1 to 8 in Psalm 94 verse 9 in Acts 14 verses 15 to 17 in Acts 17 verse 23 to 28 and listen folks this is what theologians called general revelation you need to know that term general revelation general revelation is God's revelation of himself or God's witness of himself through creation to all men and that might surprise you that I started there but it's a must but the second way we see God is through the scripture you could say pastor you've already used scripture to speak of God's existence yes we have but we must see that the scriptures themselves they reveal God's existence beyond the creation beyond general revelation and that's very important to see now within scripture we have what theologians call special revelation it's different than general revelation and within the scriptures we have God revealing himself in a whole host of ways I'm going to give you a few first of all we have direct acts of God and then also we have the dreams and visions and then we have the incarnation of God who is Jesus Christ then we have the written scriptures themselves now let me quickly zoom through that kind of explain it flesh it out Hebrews 1 1 says long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets the writer of Hebrews is hearkening back to how God revealed himself in days of old this speaks to the fact that God revealed himself through direct acts throughout the history of his redemptive plan Genesis 2 and 3 it tells us that God spoke directly to Adam and Eve there in the garden God spoke directly Deuteronomy chapter 5 says that he spoke to the nation of Israel there at Mount Sinai God revealed himself through the miracles at certain times in his redemptive plan I think about all of the miracles through which he revealed himself when he delivered Israel out of Egypt in captivity we're familiar with those miracles God revealed himself through dreams and visions to men like Isaiah and Daniel and even the Apostle John all the way into the New Testament but God ultimately reveals himself through his son John 1 verses 1 to 4 theologians will tell you the classic verses for the incarnation or in John chapter 1 and then verse 14 as well it tells us that God became a man and he lived among men notice what Hebrews 1 2 says but in these last days he that's God has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom all also he created the world and we have all of this notice direct acts by which God revealed himself to man dreams and visions were God revealed himself to man God's incarnation of himself through his son this is all in the scripture the 66 books old in New Testament so through the creation outside of the written account of God's word we have the revelation of the one true God listen to Romans 1 19 to 20 again this is outside of the written word for what can be known about God is playing to them that's mankind because God has shown it to them mankind for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world let me pause there Paul is saying since the creation men have known about God by the creation all around them in the things that have been made so they are without excuse no man is with no man has an excuse no man can say I don't know who God is and through his written scriptures we have the record of the revelation of the one true God as well so what we see here is general revelation and special revelation Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and we go on through you see what I'm trying to show you it's rather lengthy is this we have God the one true God and we see him in the creation and in the scriptures well a practical question how do we apply all this to our life you know I kind of have a phrase in my study time and in my preaching time I always say so what so what does it mean to me and you what does it mean to you what does it mean to me first of all we must realize a fresh in the new that the world denies the existence of the one true God the world will state that they can accept someone who believes in many gods but the world will reject you if you say you believe in the one true God in his name is Jesus see the world they'll tell you that Christians have their God and the world will tell you oh the Muslims they have their God oh they'll tell you that the Hindus have their thousands of gods and so on but to say there is one true God the world will hate you you must know that the message of the one true God is not a friendly message but I must add one more layer here to this practical application the one true God he's in complete control folks listen this one true God is in complete control the entire world just seems to be going straight to hell in a handbag I know that and our country and culture seems to be going down the drain of hell fast it is the world's going to hell fast and so is our country and culture it is it's inevitable God said it would but listen God is in control here's where Psalm 2 comes into play study Psalm 2 I'm not going to turn there we're not going to read it because of time tonight study Psalm 2 you know what you'll come away with with Psalm 2 you'll read that and you'll ponder over it and you'll say brother Chris was right God's in control the nations can rage all day long God scoffs at the nations God is in control so we see that he is the one true God okay but here's one more question is general revelation enough to save a man no men cannot be saved by general revelation the message of the Savior the Redeemer is found in his word the message of Christ is found in his word salvation is only found in Jesus and we must get that because there are some people that struggle with the people who have never heard of Jesus but the teaching in Romans 1 is clear let's move on number 2 I want us to see God the one true God revealed in 3 we're just holding God the one true God he is revealed in 3 now I said earlier that we us as finite sinful men we can't fully explain or understand holy God simply God is incomprehensible now we can't comprehend certain things about God is revealed in the testimony of creation we can't comprehend certain things about God is revealed in creation in that loud testimony but more specifically we can comprehend more about God in and through his word so we can know and understand God but only to a point we can comprehend God to a degree as revealed in the scriptures but only to a degree because finite sinful man can't comprehend the incomprehensible God and also God has revealed all of himself in the scriptures he just has it but we have quickly and clearly seen that there is one true God the one true God has revealed himself in creation the one true God has revealed himself through his word and that revelation in his word is clear and definite and through the scriptures we see that the one true God is one remember our Deuteronomy 6 passage from last week the Shema Deuteronomy 6 4 here over Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one we see this truth stated by Jesus in Mark 12 29 he says it again in John 17 3 surprisingly we even see this stated and restated in James chapter 1 verse 19 so the one true God is one or the one true God is the one and only God but we must see that God exists eternally in three distinct persons eternally meaning that God has always existed as three distinct persons that is this is what is commonly called the Trinity you've heard that term the good theological definition of the word Trinity the doctrine of the Trinity is given by the Bible commentator theologian Wayne Grudem I've used this for years you've heard me use it notice what grain Wayne Grudem says God eternally exists as three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit and each person is fully God and there is one God now with that in our mind I want to go back and read our statement section 2 we believe that there is only one living and true God he is the eternal infinite intelligent and personal spirit being and that he is the designer creator redeemer sustainer and sovereign supreme ruler of the universe consisting of the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that is in them and he is inexpressibly glorious and holiness as revealed in the Scriptures and is worthy of all honor confidence and love that he is all powerful all knowing unchanging and his perfect knowledge extends to all things past present and future that the eternal triune God reveals himself through the personal and relative distinctions of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption now I'm going to put your mind at ease here do not look for the word Trinity in the Bible what I mean by putting your mind at ease you're not going to find it the word is it there but the revelation of God as this triune God is all through the scripture and I'm going to show you real quickly first in the Old Testament this will surprise you in the Old Testament we have a partial revelation of God as the triune God you know this verse Genesis 126 when God was creating man what did God say God said let us make man or create man in our image after our likeness in the original Hebrew language the let us hear it is a plural verb and this word our it is a plural pronoun that's not a typo listen to it again God said let us make man in our image after our likeness but notice we are not told how many persons are here at the creation and we do not have a complete explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity here but it is definitely implied and it's nothing wrong with saying it is implied and when you read Genesis 126 in light of other scriptures you do understand who is here so who is here God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit of course the original readers of Genesis 126 would not have understood this is God the Father Son and Holy Spirit because we have the full revelation of God in scriptures we know who this is we read this in light of the other scriptures now we do not have time to chase down all of the Old Testament references that pertain to the Trinity our God is the Triune God I'm going to quickly name a few in Genesis 322 we have the same pluralistic language after man sins God says behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil in Genesis 1117 when God is dealing with the sin of man at the Tower of Bible he says come let us go down and they are confused their language we see pluralistic language like this in reference to God in references to different persons of the Godhead in Psalm 45 verse 6 and 7 Psalm 101 verse 1 Isaiah 63 verse 10 and there really are many others so first in the Old Testament we see a partial revelation of God as the Triune God and then second in the New Testament in the New Testament we have a full revelation of God as the Triune God as we start there in the New Testament we simply have the story of God the Son coming to earth this is the incarnation of God we studied the incarnation thoroughly at Christmas God becoming a man God the Son Jesus again I referenced it earlier John 1 verses 1 to 4 and verse 14 are key verses in understanding the incarnation interestingly we have God the Father testifying to the reality that Jesus was in fact God the Son you remember when Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3 we have the very voice of God from heaven and what does God say this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased so we have God the Father testifying from heaven that Jesus was in fact God the Son then we fast forward to the end of Jesus earthly ministry Jesus speaks of all three persons of the Godhead in Matthew 28 verse 19 in the Great Commission we know this verse Jesus is preparing his disciples and what does he say go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit so we have Jesus clearly speaking of the three distinct persons of the Godhead we see the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit but this is one you need to remember later on in the New Testament we see Paul use what scholars call a Trinitarian expression in 2 Corinthians 13-14 please write that verse down Paul I'm telling you he covers a lot of ground notice what Paul saying here the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all notice what Paul saying really it's a lot and because it's so much I want to list it out so you can clearly hear it first this was a prayer to God at the end of the book but he's praying but second Paul clearly and purposefully mentions each person of the Godhead third the Holy Spirit is seen as a person not as an attribute of God or some divine influence fourth the Lord Jesus is not presented as inferior to God the Father but as equal to God the Father and then fifth Paul is giving clear hard proof of the doctrine of the Trinity he is clearly presenting God as the triune God in that prayer God the Father God the Son he calls him Lord and then God the Holy Spirit so when you need to know what verse teaches the Trinity you go right to that one as well as the Great Commission and others so we have the one true God presented as three distinct persons throughout the Scriptures starting from Genesis on and this is what theologians call you read it before you've heard it through for years the Trinity God is partially and vaguely seen as the triune God in the old but God is more fully and clearly seen as the triune God in the new again Wayne Grudem's definition it's really easy God eternally exists as three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit and each person is fully God and there is one God now in practical application what do we need to see here this is far more needed than you know now first as I move into some application I want to give you three simple statements this came out of Wayne Grudem's systematic theology I have used it for years this is extremely simple but I promise this will help you the first statement God is three persons God is three persons the second statement each person is fully God each person is fully God the third statement there is one God there is one God and stop right there listen you can't try to rectify the seeming contradictions there you can't this is all a great mystery remember God is incomprehensible he is infinite we are finite we are sinful we just accept the mystery here we declared the mystery of it all and if we try to go any further I promise you we will just make a mess of things I ran across something else that I think might help you if you're taking notes I'd like you to do this this is a graph it came out of John MacArthur systematic theology and that is a very good work if you're a good note taker maybe take a circle make a circle in your notes and put God there in the middle and then up to the top left do another circle and right God the father and then at the top right do another circle God the son and then below the middle circle God put another circle God the Holy Spirit form a triangle God in the middle top left the father top right the son and below God the Holy Spirit then the lines connecting the circles the father go left to right is not God the son then go back the son is not God the father then connect the other circle the son is not the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is not the son and then go back up to the other circle the Holy Spirit is not the father and the father is not the Holy Spirit see the triangle now go to the middle God now go from the middle the middle circle God back up to the left God is the father and then go back up to the right God is the son and then go back down below God is the Holy Spirit you see the great mystery there and you can run across all kinds of ways to explain the great mystery of the triune God but just remember he is incomprehensible we are finite and sinful and God is only revealed so much now I want to continue with application here there's a lot more we've learned a lot theologically but I want you to see that there are groups that we encounter that alter the Godhead what I've taught you is the theology of God the Godhead there are groups that alter the theology of God first our Jehovah's Witness friends see now it's starting to get personal now it's starting to get real now they alter the Godhead simply the Jehovah's Witnesses they believe and teach that God was a created being they do not believe that God was the eternal word of God God you see and I'm going to show you the ramifications in a minute and then second our oneness Pentecostal friends now listen there are some Pentecostals and there are some Church of God groups that identify as Pentecostals that are Trinitarian in their doctrine we are Trinitarian in our doctrine I've taught you a Trinitarian view of God but the oneness Pentecostals and there are tons of them around here the oneness Pentecostals believe there is one God who reveals himself in one of three modes theologians call this modalism it's important to see now not all of them believe this basically the modalists are the oneness Pentecostals they deny the coexistence of the persons of the Godhead in their theology sometimes God is God the Father while at other times God is God the Son and then sometimes God is the Holy Spirit but to the oneness folks God is not God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all at the same time and we know that Jehovah's Witnesses and oneness Pentecostals are all around us so when we're witnessing to them and loving them we need to understand our doctrine of God folks that's a lot I gave you but you need to know these things and listen to what is at stake if we alter the doctrine of the Trinity two things there more these are just the top two first the Atonement if Jesus was simply a created being and not fully God then we lose what's called the substitutionary Atonement a created being could not bear the wrath of God for sin you see so when you alter this you can lose the Atonement the second thing is you can lose justification if we deny the full deity of Jesus the Son then justification by faith and faith alone is destroyed that's why the cults have systems of works you see so we see God the one true God is revealed in three again I want to go back and I want to read our doctrinal statement go back with me we believe that there is only one living and true God and he is an eternal infinite intelligent and personal being in it personal he revealed himself in the Scriptures to man that he is the designer and creator in redeemer sustainer and sovereign ruler you're going to see he's the sovereign ruler when you read Psalm two that's your homework remember the supreme ruler of the universe consisting of the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that is in them and he is inexpressibly glorious and holiness as revealed in the Scriptures see folks when someone starts talking to you about how wonderful and glorious God is outside of the Scriptures it's called hogwash and is worthy of all honor confidence and love that he is all powerful all knowing unchanging his perfect knowledge extends to all things past present and future remember he's outside of time in Genesis one one he's otherworldly that the eternal triune God reveals himself through the personal and relative distinctions of the Father son and the Holy Spirit they are equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption later on in this study we're going to see how they work in the great work of redemption so what do we see God the one true God is revealed as three now I know we're probably short on time and I want to move real quick to close I want us to see that this doctrine is a must in another way I think I've shown you that already we must believe and teach the doctrine of God biblically we can't alter it in any way and if we miss it here I want you to see how much we shipwreck now in all of my study I went back through lots of my resources and I picked up a little book that really I used in seminary and it was the first theology book that I ever dealt with and it was called thinking about God by an author called Fisher Humphries thinking about God that's what theology is we're pondering God and he lists he gives a list of truths that are essential to what's called Orthodox Christianity Orthodox meaning conservative traditional correct okay I don't want to zoom through the list this list of Orthodox Christianity essential truths first the first one is there is one and only one true living God second God created the world out of nothing third the world has fallen in the sea and fourth in some wonderful and mysterious way the one God is Father Son and Holy Spirit fifth the father loves the world and sent his son into the world to rescue man from sin six the son Jesus was truly God and truly human was born of a virgin name Mary lived the perfect life and gave us matchless teaching then lay down his life for our sins and rose again on a third day seventh the father and the son poured out the spirit on the followers of Jesus there on the day of Pentecost eighth the spirit guides and empowers the church his people on mission throughout the world ninth the church preached the gospel and observes the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper tenth God will complete this wonderful work in the future and then eleventh the last the Bible tells us this wonderful story so if we lose the Bible going back to next week we lose it all and if we lose that there is one and only the one true God revealed in three we lose it all all of that you shipwreck the faith see so if you tamper with the doctrine of God it's all gone our neighbors who are Jehovah's witnesses it's all gone our one is Pentecostal friends that's a cult it's all gone see it's why it's important for you to know proper doctrine theology of God I want to pray and I want to close this section of the teaching and we're going to finish out two things I want us to do let's pray real quick