Baptist confession of faith Article 2 PART A: One true God
Today I have the unenviable task of expounding our Triune God and as I attempt to do so, in some small way I am fully aware of my own inadequacies in comprehending our infinite God!
So today be assured we are merely paddling around the edges of a huge ocean or even just dipping our toe in.
John Wesley captured that same truth in a different way. “Give me a worm that can understand a man,” he wrote, “and I will give you a man who can understand God.” And in Psalm 145:3, David said of God, “His greatness is unsearchable.”
That doesn’t mean we cannot come to know God, because God has revealed Himself to us in a number of ways, GENERAL REVELATION and in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Jhn.1:1-14) and through the Bible (2Tim 3:16) which is known to us as God’s Word (Gods biography) . And so by studying the Bible and looking at the person and work of Christ we will begin to understand something of our great unsearchable God. (Theology).
Yet there is a cravat, we cannot know God through the scriptures unless we are willing to be changed by them (coming to know God is not just some theoretical exercise) but to actually come to know God, we must begin to know ourselves and be aware of our deep spiritual need before God and be responsive to Gods provision through the work of Christ and by the application of that Work to us by God’s Holy Spirit.
• Its only at (conversion) can we begin to grasp something of God (revelation) , as we begin a relationship with Him. For instance I could write a biography about my wife unpacking her life story and you could read all about her and be informed about her and begin to draw up a mental picture of her in your mind. But the difference between you knowing about her through the book and myself knowing her, is that I’m in a relationship. And that’s the difference between knowing something about God and really coming to know God for yourself.
Today we are oing to share three things about God that He share with no other.
1. OUR GOD IS SELF - EXISTENT.
At the very beginning of the Bible we are told, Gen 1:1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Note: This is profound first verse not that God is Creator, that’s profound enough, but go back another step, In the beginning God. Before anything was there was God. This is a profound statement for our finite minds - but we must understand that God is infinite and far beyond our understanding. From this verse we see that our God is self existent that he is the cause of all that we see around us today.#
The most profoundest questions often come from children? “Who made God?” Of course the answer to that question is no one made God for He is self existent ; if somebody had made God he would cease to be God. Our finite minds works within the remit of cause and effect - but God is outside of this process – He is self existent - Our eternal God is the uncaused cause of all things .
But let’s unpack Gods self existence some more and the best place to start is found in Exodus 3:1-15 Lets read. Here we have God’s own self revelation of Himself to Moses, here we see Moses asking God what is your name? Gods reply (EX 3:13 -14) “I AM WHO I AM..... Say this to the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you”
This term ‘I AM’ is linked to the ancient name of God ‘Yahweh’ (LORD )Bible scholars agree that this is God’s proper name and that all of the other names are simply a further description of His character and activity. But its more than a name it’s also descriptive in regard to Gods self existence, pointing to the fact that God is in Himself, it shows that He is the one who is entirely self existent, self sufficient and eternal.
NOBODY SHARES
The attributes of Gods self existence is at the very core of God they are attributes which no other person/deities share with Him. We human beings are created in His image and we may share something of Gods attributes/character for instance His wisdom, His love, His compassion, the sense of Justice and of His power albeit limited but none share in his self existence, He exists in Himself. Isaiah 42:8. I am the LORD; that is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
So our God had no origins – He has no beginning or end – as human beings we have a beginning and end and we are what we are by the grace of God and none of us share in his self existence.
Our world functions upon the cause and effect principle: Where everything we see - smell – taste and touch all have an explanation for being, we can hardly think in another way – some scientists try and destroy God in explaining our origins in this way, bringing the work of God down to natural laws. You see God for many is outside our box of thinking In reality we do live in a cause and effect principle world but the cause of the effect is the uncaused cause of all things our self existent God. Rev 1:8 The Alpha and Omega the beginning and End of all things
Important to note : Many people will readily admit it, that God exists through the cause and effect principle – (just look around there has to be a God). - they rationally infer everything comes from something - so there must be a God - Yet this God is unknowable and they indicate that God cannot be known.
Yet the wonderful truth is that our self existent God who has created all that we see, all that we are and all that will be, has made Himself known to us, God was contracted into human form in the person and work of Jesus Christ (John 1:14) and through the scriptures by the illuminating and indwelling work of God the Holy Spirit we can come to experience Him (John 15,16). We can know Him in part.
The Apostle Paul states 1Cor 13:12. But we see just a poor reflection as in a mirror : then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part ; then I shall know fully , even as I am fully known. Paul here is offering us glimpse into the future one day we shall see our self existent God face to face and we shall fully know Him as we are fully known by Him in Glory.
WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE (EX 3:5-6) CONSIDER THE HOLY REVERENCE OF MOSES.
I wonder do we spend enough time as Christians thinking about God’s person and character, are we in Awe of our self existent God who has made Himself known to us or have we confined Him into a small box. Friends our God cannot be contained, it time for You and I to stand in Awe.
2. OUR GOD IS SELF SUFFICIENT “I AM WHO I AM”
The second quality we learn about Gods name “I AM WHO I AM” is that God is not only self existent but self sufficient. If God has always existed before time and space, before any created thing or person it means our God has no needs and therefore depends upon nobody. He has always been completely self sufficient, within Himself He has all that He needs in the Triune Godhead.
Unlike us mere humans, we are not self sufficient, we need air to breath, water to drink , we need food to eat and we need gravity to keep our feet firm on terra firma. We are dependent upon these things and so we are not self sufficient in the truest sense of the word. We all have needs and depend upon each other but God runs contrary He is completely self sufficient .
• Acts 17:24 -25 re affirms this point
So God doesn’t need us in any shape or form this quite humbling thought. That God doesn’t need ...........
Our Worship: Rev 4: 1-11. After all he is incessantly worshipped in heaven.
Our Witness: Luke 3:8 “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
Our Fellowship : After all perfect fellowship within the plurality of the God head.
QUESTION: So why did this self existent and self sufficient God who has no need for us, create us in the first place?
Well although he doesn’t need us, God does love us and He wants us, why else would he save us? In so doing God demonstrates His Glory and grace through us. (Isaiah 43:7 Eph 1:11-12) So Rather than God needing us, we need Him.
Practical applications: Gods self sufficiency
a. Human beings are incomplete (insufficient) and unfulfilled apart from a personal relationship with God.
How often do we see people seeking for meaning to life, for purpose, for significance and yet are nver satisfied we see an insatiable human appetite for fulfilment and its all because human beings are incomplete until they find the God who is all sufficient.
b. If our God is self sufficient, and has come into our lives, then will not all our needs be meet in Him.
Negative : Why is it so often we fail to trust in our all sufficient God , instead we trust in ourselves, in others in our own resources and in our sufficiency which is insufficient for Gods task.
c. Trust in the all sufficient God who lives within us in all our situations, He is all that we need, We are complete in Him. Paul made this claim
Col 2:9-10.For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in Bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ
In Christ we have all our sufficiency we need, We need to trust in Him in all our situations our God has all the resources we need to be the people of God He wants us to be.
MOSES AT THE BURNING BUSH (GOD IS OUR SUFFICIENCY) v7-12
Consider the task in hand for Moses did God need Moses? Nope, He could have just rescued the people Himself, God wanted to use Moses to demonstrate His Glory and grace Ex 3: 7- 11 We read that Moses is filled with doubts in his own capabilities v 11 Who am I Humanly he sees himself as inadequate. But God said v12 I will be with You the all sufficient God was with the insufficient Moses and that same God is with us whom believe!
3. OUR GOD IS ETERNAL
The third quality in the name that God give Moses for himself I AM WHO I AM it not only conveys Gods self existence and self sufficiency but also Gods eternal nature. Simply put God has always been and always will be and that He is ever the same in His eternal nature.
• Can you grasp that which is eternal? Can you imagine putting your hand into eternity and taking a bit of eternity out you would still have an eternity left, its mind boggling.
TEMPORAL NATURE
Unlike God’s our lives upon this earth are temporal in nature we decay and we die .
• A grave stone: Name - a few words - birth and death dates 1926 – 2006 the hyphen is our temporal life
Moses lived a long life yet on Mount Nebo at the ripe old age of 120 he died (Deut 34;7) he reached the end of His temporal life. Moses was fully aware of the temporal nature of life and he held it in sharp contrast to the eternal nature of God. Yet our God is eternal and Moses new it! Psalm 90:1- 6 v2 From everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Here we see the eternal nature of God and the temporal nature of humanity .
Throughout the Bible individuals lived out their lives in the light of Gods eternal nature (Gen 21:33, Isaiah 57:15, 1Tim 1:17 ) These individuals saw the importance of not holding onto the temporal, but lived by faith in an everlasting God . (Heb 11: 1-3). They had a faith which was sure of what we hope for and certain of what they did not see and they were commended for it..They had an eternal perspective in life.
• The files in the ’temp’ folder of a computer are once important, but are not essential after its usage. They become redundant soon after they are used. Computer experts suggest that as long as the date of a file in the ’temp’ folder is not today, it is safe to delete. Accumulating too many of such files in the ’temp’ folder will take up too many disk space and will slow down the system. These files are only temporary.
There are too many things in our lives that can be classified as ’temp files’. They don’t yield eternal value. Do you have too many of such ’temp files’ in your life? They are not needed in eternity. They only give you extra burdens and slow you down in your spiritual walk with God.
ETERNAL Nature
In Revelation we have a window actually into eternity itself, The throne room of heaven (Rev 4:8) Here we have the living creatures who never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come and then in (v10) The 24 elders worship Him and acknowledge He lives forever and ever
Let’s paddle along the water edge together of the eternal nature of God.
In Rev 1:8; 21:6;22:13 describes God as the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end. It’s basically saying that God is the A to Z of all history and life. He is the author and finisher, He sees and knows all and is control of it all, he began it and he will end it as we know it. But God Himself in His eternal nature is outside of it.
Eternal/temporal
We live in the cortex of that A TO Z and we are governed by a sequence of events within it - past –present and future, yesterday today and tomorrow, we are governed by the ticking clock we cannot escape it .
On the other hand in the eternal it’s not the extension of time – The eternal supersedes time, its outside of time and space - so eternity is not an extension of these lives we live today – it completely different. God is eternal with Him there is no past present and future although He can work within the framework of time and Human History. He is over and above it with God there is always the eternal - and it is now! So God can sees our whole lives from beginning to end and He sees yesterdays, todays and tomorrows, right now!
• Imagine you’re at the Caribbean carnival in leicester and your standing in a certain location watching the colourful floats the steel drums and the dancers go by in succession one at a time, you have viewed a succession of events unknown to you what float dancers or drummers were coming next.
• But now imagine you have been taken up in the police helicopter above and from here you can see the whole festival and parade you can distinguish the floats no longer do you see a sequence of events but you see the parade from beginning to end - you no wants coming next - its all becomes part of you consciousness at once not a sequence of events - this is exactly what God sees as the Alpha and Omega, the whole our lives in fact the whole of History.
But what does this all mean for us as Christians?
a) It means we can rest in our God who knows all our tomorrows with Him our lives are mapped out, there is no surprises with God, he has planned the joys to come, he knows the tragedies we shall face, he knows the failures and success our hopes and our fears. His perfect plan.
Eph 1:11 In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.
Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.
b) It means God does not change (immutability – unchangeableness ) This means He can be trusted to remain as he has shown himself to be to us through the Scriptures. Jam:1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
All his promises in this Word can be trusted and are reliable. Whether that’s to do with the greatness of His love towards us in Christ - He cannot love us one minute and then somehow take His love away . Or whether in regard to sin, he will not change his mind, as though he is going to begin see some sins as ‘permissible’ something that was prohibited. Sin will always be a transgression to the law of God which is unchangeable. God will always be everything he reveals Himself to be.......He can be trusted
c) It means God is inescapable: In our humanity we can ignore one another we can simply walk away from situations and escape. We can do that to an extent with God to reject Him do our own thing in this lifetime. But ultimately whether you believe or not you cannot escape from God, you cannot walk away from God for eternity, he is inescapable (Psalm 139: 7- 12) People may ignore Him and reject but one day we all will stand before the One true living God who is self existent, self sufficient and eternal the great I AM WHO I AM .
The only testimony before Him worth having will be
Jhn 5:11- 12. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The only thing we can do as Moses and the people of Israel did was fall at His feet and worship Him and declare Holy is the Lord who was and is and is to come!
