DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD
Let me ask you a question. Just one question. Do you believe in God? That question
has been asked of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Do you know what
the answer has been most of the time? “Yes, I believe in god.” But the god that a lot of
people say they believe in is not the God of creation. A lot of people say that they believe
in God, but they really believe in some false god.
Now how are we going to distinguish whether I’m going to tell you the truth, or whether
someone else is going to tell you the truth? We have to rely on what? The Holy Spirit to
lead us to the truth. We can not let anyone deceive us and let us think that we believe in
the true God, when it is really a false god. Now I’m going to tell you one sure way to tell
if that god is the true God or a false god. The best way to tell if the god that people are
trying to tell you that their god is the way to heaven is to see what the Bible has to say
about their god.
There has been literally millions of books written on religion. But this is the only book,
this Holy Bible, is the only book that remains without change. Look at a lot of these
religions and a lot of these books that people write, and you’ll find that somewhere along
the line that changes have been made. There was a man, his father was a preacher, that
read through the Bible and decided that, “This was a bunch of garbage. I don’t believe
this any more.” He sat down and wrote a book of his own and said, “This is the way to
reach God.” Literally thousands upon thousands of people a year are deceived and are
believing in a false god. He threw the Bible away! He made changes of his own! Look
at all of the great religions of this world, and go back into their history and you’ll find that
somewhere along the line they made changes. But, Christianity has not made any
changes. Now we have people that stand up and say that they are Christians, but they
want to twist the word. True Christianity is based upon the Word of God.
So, if you want to say, “Yes I believe in God.” You had better believe in the God that
the Bible presents. Now who is this God that the Bible presents? Now who is He?
In the book of John Jesus is quoted as saying, “God is a spirit, and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” God is a spirit! Our spirit then, must
worship His Spirit. That is how we worship God; with our spirit.
Now, where do these spirits come from? God is a Spirit from the very beginning.
Before anything else was, there was God. Right! No one else existed. God made
everything. When we look at the stars at night we millions of them and God made every
one of them. Just like God made you, and God made me.
Now; this is going to be a little hard to understand, but try to bear with me on this.
When a person is conceived, even before their physical birth, a spirit is born into this
world. It is a new spirit! God does not have thousands of spirits just floating around until
He decided to send this spirit to this earth and he will be Jesse Norris. He did not do that.
And in your case He did not say, “This spirit is going to go down and be you!” He did
not do that. Before your birth, while you were still in your mother’s womb, you had a
spirit. Before you were born, you existed.
Now Jesus, on the other hand, is just a little bit different. Because Jesus existed from
the beginning, He was with God. The book of John (1:1) tells us, “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus Christ was from
the beginning! “The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him;
and without Him was not any thing made that was made”(John 1:2-3). Without Him
nothing was made. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,. . .” (John 1:14).
So Jesus (the Word of God) existed from the beginning. But when Jesus existed from the
beginning, He did not exist as flesh and blood but as a Spirit. We did not exist from the
beginning, but He did. Our existence came about when we were conceived. Jesus
existed from the beginning!
Now He did not exist as a bodily form. No! What happened? If we go back a few
pages, and try to understand, Jesus was conceived of a virgin. We were not. We cannot
say that God came to this woman and had sexual relations with her. He did not. Jesus
existed from the beginning. When He came to Mary, He was an existing Spirit. When
He entered into her body, He did as a spirit and as a unborn child. He grew in her womb
and was born to he as a child. His Spirit existed before as the Creator, because He is
God. If we were to go back into the Old Testament, we will not do so this morning, and
were to look at all the places that state, “The Angel of The Lord,” we could see that this
“Angel” is really Jesus. In about 99% of these times we could say that Jesus appeared in
the form of a creature (man or angel). Jesus appeared in the Old Testament. He was
from the beginning. He is God!
How do we know this? Let’s look at a few places in the Bible. In John chapter 1 verses
29 and 30. “The next day, John,” John the baptist, “seeth Jesus coming into him, and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! This is he of
whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me; for he was before
me.” Now, let’s stop and think about this. John the baptist was born the son of a Priest
and a woman that was barren. Remember when Zechariah went into the Temple to burn
incense before God and God told him that he was going to have a son. Remember how
he asked how this could be because his wife, Elisabeth, was old. Because he doubled
God, Zechariah was made dumb and could not speak. That child that was borne to
Zechariah and Elisabeth was John the baptist.
But before that child was born, what happened? The Angle came to Mary and told her
that she was going to have a son and would call His name Jesus. She asked how this
could happen for she knew not any man. She was told that the Holy Spirit would come to
her. She then was told that Elisabeth was already with child. Mary then went to
Elisabeth when she, Elisabeth, was in her seventh month. This would mean that John
was born long before Jesus, but he now tells his disciples that Jesus was born before him.
Why? Because Jesus was from the beginning of time. He is the only man who’s Spirit
existed before He existed in the flesh. He is the only one!
Now this is not to say that God is in us and can make us as one of His prophets to make
us like Jesus. No, this is not so. God may be in us, as saved persons, and He may make
us to act and do as Jesus did, but we will never be another Jesus. Jesus is the ONLY Son
of God. He was from the beginning. We are created indivules. God created Adam and
Eve.
Now, when God created Adam and Eve, they lived in this garden and it was wonderful.
That’s right, it was a wonderful place to live. But sin came upon Adam and Eve. And
what did God do? God put them out of the garden. But before He put them out of the
garden, what did Adam and Eve do? They hid from God. They tried to hide from God.
Why were they trying to hide from God? Because they had committed a sin! Now, that
is what mankind has done from that time on. Men have been sinful and they have tried to
hide from God.
Now we cannot, as sinful people who have committed sins, hide from God. Now we as
sinners cannot come up with a religious system that will bring us back to God. It just
doesn’t work. We cannot do that because our hearts, minds, and souls are sinful and full
of sinful thoughts and deeds. We want to hide from God! We want to make a way that
looks good to get back to God to please ourselves, but that is not God’s way. What is
God’s way? We can find it in the Bible. God’s way is through sacrifice to Him.
In the wilderness, the Children of Israel were taught to make sacrifices, blood sacrifices.
This did not remove the sins from them or forgive them of their sins, but it covered their
sins and pointed to the ultimate sacrifice. And that sacrifice would be Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, on that cross.
Now, when someone tells you that they believe in god, you had better find out what god
they really believe in, because the Bible tells us that the only to reach God is through His
Son Jesus Christ. There is no other way in this world to reach God except through Jesus
Christ and His death on the cross.
We’ll go back to the Bible, we’ll read this in the Bible. When they arrested Jesus, they
took Him before Pilate. And at His trial Pilate said this, “Art thou a king then?” And Jesus
answered, “Thou saist that I am a king.” In other words Jesus said, “Yes.” He goes on to
say, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear
witness unto the truth.” What is Jesus saying here? Jesus it trying to tell us that he came
into this world for only one purpose.
Now we could say that the purpose was to die on the cross. But the purpose was more
than that. That purpose was to save people, to make a sacrifice, and to make the only way
back to God. This idea is not my idea. It’s not your idea. It’s not any man’s idea. It’s
God’s idea. And if we want to get back to God, we must do it His way. If I want to leave
this building, I have to go down that hall and out through that door. I can not go through
the wall. I have to do it in a certain way. And if we want to reach God. And we want to
get to Him. And we want to receive His grace. And His love and His kindness. We have
to do it How? HIS WAY! Not my way, not someone else’s way.
Oh, there are a lot of ways that seem good, there are a lot of ways that look good, there
are a lot of ways that many people have said that this is the way to God because God
loves everybody. Well this is true about God loving everyone. God does love everyone.
God does not want anyone to perish. Let me show you something her in the Bible. Jesus
says in John chapter 5 verses 22 and 23, “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath
sent him.” Think of that! God loves everyone, God does not want to judge anyone. So
when people tell you that God loves you and that God does not want to condom you they
are right. He does not want to!
BUT what does it say here? “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son.” Do you know what that means? It means that one of these days
I will have to stand before Jesus Christ. And if I have rejected Him upon this earth, if I
have said that I do not want to use your way. I don’t want your sacrifice. I don’t want
your payment. Do you know what He is going to say to me? I don’t want you in my
heaven. That is what He is going to say. Maybe He could say the same thing of you. No,
what we have to do is want His way. We have to do things the way He wants it done.
We have to believe on Him. We have to except His payment for our sins. He paid for it!
He died on the cross! He has washed us clean! So why do so many reject it? Why do
people want to do it their way? Because the god that they believe in is not the God of
creation.
So, when someone ask you, “Do you believe in God?” You tell them, “I believe in
Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ was God upon this earth and He paid for my sins.”
That is what you tell people! Don’t tell that you believe in God because they may
misunderstand. Tell them, “I believe in Jesus Christ the creator of the universe.”
Do you know? We have said it so many times before, and Barbara said it when she said
she wanted to sing this song, Only Trust Him. She said that God laid this on her heart.
You see, she did not know what I was going to say this morning. She wanted to sing this
song because she said that this was the song that God wanted her to sing. It says in verse
three, “Yes Jesus is the truth the way that leads you unto rest.” Think of that! God still
performs miracles. This is a small miracle. He spoke to her, He spoke to me. He told me
to tell the people this and He told her to sing this. God still performs miracles. They may
be small, but God performed the greatest miracle of all when He looked down upon me,
as sinful as I was, and said He wanted to pay for my sin debt, will you accept that? And
as humble as I could I said yes, I’ll let you pay for my sin debts. I will trust you. I will
follow you. I will do what you want me to do. Because Hell is a terrible place. And
when I stand before Him, He is going to welcome me.
Can you say that this morning? “When I stand before Jesus I’ll stand pardoned of my
sins.” Because the Bible tells us very plainly He is going to judge the world. He is going
to judge every one of us. Can you stand before Him and say, “I have trusted you now
take me to your rest.” Can you do that this morning? If you can, praise God for that. If
you can’t, before we leave here this morning, come and talk to me, Karen, Henry, or
Barbara and tell us you want to trust Jesus. We will show you how you may do so right
out of God’s Holy Word how to be saved because He is the only way. He is the truth.
Ending in prayer.
Given at McCormick County(SC)Health Center October 2001
