Who Are You God?
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
“God” v. “god”
“God” v. “god”
Virtually all civilizations have some concept of a supernatural being, some have many
Systems of worship/petition/appeasement exist for them
The God we worship and proclaim is unique PS 113 5
Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,
Simple answer is NO ONE
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
The first creed is known in Hebrew as the Shemah Deut 6 4
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
She-ma yisrael, adonai eloheinu, adonai echad
From this alone, we come up with three components
We have His name LORD being Yahweh—Jehovah
He is a personal God, a relational God—our God
He revealed Himself to a specific people, over an extended period of time
Now, all who call upon Him can be saved
He is both a singular God and a unified, though complex, God
We are commanded to have no other Gods before him Deut 5 7
“ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
The Trinity
The Trinity
We can prove his complexity by examining the components of the Trinity
Father, Son, Spirit; individual persons, yet all one
Chrysostom's quote from Commentary on 2 Cor 13 14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Read the quotation
After having united them to one other by the salutations and the kisses, he again closes his speech with prayer, with much carefulness uniting them unto God also. Where now are they who say that because the Holy Spirit is not inserted in the beginnings of the Epistles, He is not of the same substance? For, behold, he hath now enumerated Him with the Father and Son. And besides this, one may remark, that when writing to the Colossians and saying, "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father," he was silent of the Son, and added not, as in all his Epistles, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.[1] Is then the Son not of the same substance either, because of this? Nay, these reasonings are of extreme folly. For this very thing especially shows Him to be of the same substance, that Paul useth the expression [or not] indifferently. And that what is here said is no conjecture, hear how he mentions Son and Spirit, and is quite silent of the Father. For, writing to the Corinthians, he says, "But ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor. vi. 11.) What then, tell me? were these not baptized into the Father? Then assuredly they were neither washed nor sanctified. But did they baptize them? doubtless then just as also they did baptize. How then did he not say, 'Ye are washed in the name of the Father?' Because it was indifferent in his view, at one time to make mention of this, at another of that Person; and you may observe this custom in many places of the Epistles. For writing to the Romans he says, "I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God," (Rom. xii. 1.) although those mercies are of the Son; and, "I beseech you by the love of the Spirit," (Rom. xv. 30.) although love is of the Father. Wherefore then mentioned he not the Son in "the mercies," nor the Father in "the love?" Because as being things plain and admitted, he was silent about them. Moreover, he will be found again, to put the gifts also themselves transposedly.[2] For having said here, "The grace of Christ, and the love of God and the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost;" he in another place speaks of "the communion of the Son," and of "the love of the Spirit." For, "I beseech you," he says, "by the love of the Spirit." (Rom. xv. 30.) And in his Epistle to the Corinthians, "God is faithful, by Whom ye were called into the communion of His Son." (1 Cor. i. 9.) Thus the things of the Trinity are undivided: and whereas the communion is of the Spirit, it hath been found of the Son; and whereas the grace is of the Son, it is also of the Father and of the Holy Spirit; for [we read], "Grace be to you from God the Father." And in another place, having enumerated many forms of it, he added, "But all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as He will." (1 Cor. xii. 11.) And I say these things, not confounding[3] the Persons, (away with the thought!)but knowing both the individuality and distinctness[4] of These, and the Unity of the Substance.
Proofs for God
Proofs for God
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Second Edition) C. Traditional “Proofs” for the Existence of God
1. The cosmological argument considers the fact that every known thing in the universe has a cause. Therefore, it reasons, the universe itself must also have a cause, and the cause of such a great universe can only be God.
2. The teleological argument is really a subcategory of the cosmological argument. It focuses on the evidence of harmony, order, and design in the universe, and argues that its design gives evidence of an intelligent purpose (the Greek word telos means “end” or “goal” or “purpose”). Since the universe appears to be designed with a purpose, there must be an intelligent and purposeful God who created it to function this way.
3. The ontological argument begins with the idea of God, who is defined as a being “greater than which nothing can be imagined.” It then argues that the characteristic of existence must belong to such a being, since it is greater to exist than not to exist.
4. The moral argument begins from man’s sense of right and wrong, and of the need for justice to be done, and argues that there must be a God who is the source of right and wrong and who will someday mete out justice to all people.
Knowability of God
Knowability of God
It is necessary for God to reveal Himself
Looking at Rom 1 19
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Yet, Matt 11 27
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
We can’t make it happen of ourselves
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
We need God’s Word to properly know God and understand Him
Otherwise, we get false ideas, never know the true God
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
NIV and KJV add earnestly or diligently; seek may not be strong enough
God’s Character
God’s Character
Communicable attributes
Those He shares with His creation
Incommunicable attributes
Those He does NOT share with His creation
We must be careful here
It’s not that He is a collection of these components—He is perfect in each of these components
He can not be diminished in any one of them
The listing is partial, Grudem’s diagram
Other scholars may use different terminology
Important to note that some of these attributes appear differently in different places
He may be present to bless, punish, sustain...