Sermon Central
-
Who Is The Lord?
Contributed by Joel Preston on Nov 13, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Life’s greatest and most probing question is the same question that Pharaoh asked Moses and Aaron almost 3,500 years ago – “Who is God?”
WHO IS THE LORD
INTRODUCTION:
1. Life’s greatest and most probing question is the same question that Pharaoh asked Moses and Aaron almost 3,500 years ago – “Who is God?”
2. One’s view of God will determine the way he will think, the way he will act, the way he will respond to difficult situations, the path his earthly life will take, and ultimately it will determine the eternal destiny of his soul.
3. ILL: Keith Pierce Years ago, at the age of 19 when I was a new believer in Christ, I set out to tell all of my old friends about the change that God had wrought in my life. One night, I went to a 24-hour Kinko’s to witness to my friend Keith Pierce. He and I had known each other for years and played guitar together in a couple of bands. To my surprise Keith knew more of the Bible than I did! However, the knowledge he possessed was for the sole purpose of trying to disprove it. He did not believe that the Bible was the Word of God. I remember distinctly he said to me, “The God of the Old Testament was an absolute tyrant; the God of the New Testament is a God of love; the two are not even the same!”
4. Could this be true? Does the Bible represent two different God’s? The answer, of course, is a resounding “No!”
5. First, the Bible declares that there is only one God
6. This is the doctrine of monotheism.
7. I Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
8. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.”
9. Interestingly, the statement in this verse is the basic confession of faith in Judaism. The verse means that the Lord (Yahweh) is totally unique. He alone is God.
10. Second, the Bible declares that God never changes
11. This is the doctrine of immutability.
12. Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
13. Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever.”
14. James Montgomery Boice, who for many years was the pastor of the great 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, wrote, “The unchangeableness of God (immutability) means that God is always the same in His eternal being. His will is invariable. His purposes are sure. God is the fixed point in a churning and decaying universe.”
15. Psalm 86:15 “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.”
16. Does this God of Whom David speaks sound like a tyrant? “No,” God has always been good, merciful, gracious, and loving!
17. THEREFORE, EVERY PERSON MUST BELIEVE IN THE ONE GOD OF THE BIBLE
WHY?
I. BECAUSE OF GOD’S GOODNESS PS. 33:5
1. Psalm 33:5
2. God’s goodness is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men.
3. A.W. Tozer, in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy,” wrote, “That God is good is taught or implied on every page of the Bible and must be received as an article of faith as impregnable as the throne of God. It is a foundation stone for all sound thought about God and is necessary to moral sanity. To allow that God could be other than good is to deny the validity of all thought and to end in the negation of every moral judgment. If God is not good, then there can be no distinction between kindness and cruelty, and heaven can be hell and hell, heaven.”
4. God is intrinsically good. His goodness originates within Himself. Therefore, by His nature, He is inclined to bestow goodness toward His creation. It is impossible for Him to be anything but good!
5. Mark 10:18 “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God.”
6. Interestingly, to the Jews of Jesus’ day the term “Good” was a designation reserved, in the most absolute sense, for God alone. One would never think to say, as we so often do today, “He is a good man.” Only God is good. People are extrinsically good. Any goodness we possess comes as a gift from God’s loving hand!
7. Song: Steven Curtis Chapman If the truth were known, and a light were shown, On every hidden part of my soul, Most would turn away, shake their heads and say, He’s still got such a long way to go. If the truth were known you would see That the only good in me – is Jesus, O, it’s Jesus.
8. First, the Old Testament reveals God’s goodness
