India #11 Theology Proper

India June 2024  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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INTRODUCTION
I want to begin by thanking you for coming this morning.
It is a privilege to be here and speak to you from God’s word.
My focus in this session is what we call Theology Proper.
This is the study of God, or in a more narrow sense, a study of God the Father.
It is important that we understand our purpose.
Christians have long held that Christianity is not just a religion.
We do so because we do not study religion, not really.
Traditionally, the study of religion has been found in sociology and anthropology environments.
The study of religion is the examination of worship practices of human beings in particular environments.
So religion is really man focused.
Christians study Theology.
Theology comes from two words, theos meaning God, and logos which means word or the spoken word.
Thus to be a Theologian is to speak about God, and that is really much better.
So theology is really the study of God.
We speak of God in order to know God.
We speak of God in order to communicate to others, God.
We get our English word logic from logos.
When we study theology then, we are seeking to make sense of God, to understand Him in a logical and reasonable fashion.
In that sense, we should all be theologians.
There is a big difference in studying human practices of religion and studying the character and nature of God.
To study religion is to take on a natural work.
To study theology takes on a spiritual work.
When we study God, we are dealing with realities that lie above and beyond our earthly realm.
In that way, theology takes us beyond the natural and enables us to explore truth from God’s perspective.
Theology proper then is the basis for all other disciplines.
Out of theology flows Christology, the study of Jesus.
Out of theology flows anthropology, the study of man.
It all begins with God.
How then do we practice theology?
The clearest and best way is through His word.
But immediately we run into a problem when we study God…..
GOD IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE
When is say God is incomprehensible, I am not saying we cannot know anything about God.
But I am saying we cannot know everything about God.
There are things about our God, that just do not make sense to us rationally, they are not logical.
Our knowledge of God is limited.
In fact, when I was younger and more confident, I thought I understood God fully.
But as I have grown older, and studied more, I actually realized there are many things about God I simply cannot fully understand.
I have read hundreds of explanations of the Trinity, and at the end of the day they all fall short.
Therefore there are things about God that must be believed by faith and nothing more because logic and human reason fall short.
Logic and human reason fall short because the finite creature is trying to understand an infinite Creator God.
Finite creatures like ourselves will never be able to fully grasp God in all that He is.
I share this not to startle you or discourage you, but rather to encourage you.
I want you to know that there are men in this world who all they do is study God, teach about God, preach about God, and yet they still have a limited understanding of God.
It is OK, in fact it is good.
Do you realize, that if I could understand all that there is to know about God, I would have to be His equal.
To come to a realization that our knowledge of God is limited, is a good thing.
It reminds us that our God is bigger than we are, our God is greater than we are.
Our finite minds, and finite means limited, simply lack the capacity to understand all that God is.
Our God is a complex and complicated supernatural being.
That word supernatural leads us to another problem.
God is supernatural, beyond nature, and we are not.
All that we understand in life comes to us through our natural senses.
How then can we know the supernatural God through natural senses?
GOD REVEALED
How does a limited mind understand an unlimited God?
God must reveal Himself in ways that make sense to humanity.
We see this in the opening statement of Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1 LSB
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning GOD!
God reveals Himself in scripture.
God must talk to us on our level, as a parent talks to a child as the child is being taught.
I don’t explain physics to a three year old who gets to close to the edge of a cliff and might fall.
I don’t explain gravity and how all objects fall at the rate of 32’ per second squared.
I don’t explain how only friction can slow that rate of fall.
A three year old does not yet have the capacity to understand such things.
So I tell the three year old, step back, a fall could hurt you, and that is enough.
This is exactly how God speaks to us.
God speaks to us in anthropomorphic language.
Anthropomorphic is a compound word.
Anthropos is the greek word for man.
Morphic comes from morphology, the study of forms or shapes.
We say a caterpillar morphed into a butterfly.
The caterpillar changed its shape.
Anthropomorphic simply means that God speaks to us humans, through forms or shapes that help us to understand Him.
Words do not do Him justice.
I don’t have words that adequately describe the greatness of my God.
Any and all words fall short of adequately defining God.
Language is what we know and understand, so we use words to describe God, and so did He.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
And the word became flesh.
The Word, the eternal Word took on flesh, morphed from a spirit being to become a spirit and flesh Being.
Why?
So that we could know God more fully.
Jesus was the exact image in the flesh of the invisible God.
By becoming a man, He enable men to see God more clearly.
Which is why when we study Jesus, it it theologic.
This is why Jesus could say, if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.
Jesus came to us in an anthropomorphic way, in a way we could more fully understand.
Anthropomorphic language is used everywhere to describe God.
God is spirit, and spirits don’t have physical characteristics, they are spirit.
Yet the Bible uses physical attributes all the time to help us to understand our spiritual God.
For example, the Bible says the eyes of the Lord search to and fro for a heart that is totally His. 2 Chron 16:9.
But God is Spirit, and spirits don’t have eyes.
Physical beings have eyes, spirits do not.
God is Spirit yet the Bible refers to the hand of God.
Spirits don’t have hands.
But to say that God has hands is anthropomorphic, and it helps us to understand God.
When God does something, we say things like the hand of God was involved.
So you see, language that we understand is used to help us understand things about God we otherwise might not understand.
The bottom line is this, God is described in human terms in certain instances because that is the only way man knows how to speak of and understand God.
But the Bible is also very clear, God is not a man, and is not like a man.
The purpose of anthropomorphic language is help us to understand God, not bring Him down to our level.
Now that we have laid a foundation let us begin to study God theologically.
THE ASEITY OF GOD
The primary difference between God and all other beings is that the creatures are derived and God was not.
That is called the aseity of God.
Creatures do not just exist.
They are created beings, hence we call them creatures.
They don’t just exist, originally they were created by God, and now they procreate as part of His plan.
Creatures are not independent.
As much as we would like to be independent, the truth is, we are dependent on so many things.
For example, if the earth were just a few miles closer to to the sun, we would all burn up.
But if it were just a few miles farther away, we would all freeze to death.
Do you see the point?
We are dependent upon this earth to remain a constant distance from the sun, within certain parameters in order for man to continue to exist.
Creatures are contingent.
To be contingent is to lack freedom.
All that we are and do is the result of our being subject to higher forces.
I cannot flap my arms and fly because I must deal with gravity.
So many things are necessary in order for man to survive and exist.
Our existence is contingent upon those things.
Like the existence of oxygen in our air at just the right percentage.
Again, if the oxygen content were to high, the earth would blow up, pure oxygen is highly flammable.
But is there were too little oxygen, we would all suffocate.
The bottom line, the creature finds their existence outside of themselves.
Paul would say to the Athenians, Acts 17:28
Acts 17:28 LSB
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’
God is nothing like that.
When we speak of the Aseity of God we are saying, He is independent, He has the power of being within Himself.
He does not derive anything within Himself from something else.
God simply is, was, and will forever be.
He does not need anything to exist.
All the created order could disappear today, and God would go on.
Oxygen could disappear, we would die, but God would go on.
The sun could explode and exist no more, we would die, but God would go on.
God does not need anything outside of Himself in order to exist, He simply is.
We on the other hand are just as dependent upon Him for our continued existence as we were for our created existence.
In short, we have a cause.
YHWH does not.
This is the supreme difference between God and man, He has no dependence upon anything outside of Himself.
There was a time when evolution was a very hot topic.
I debated many evolutionists, trying to show them that God is the Creator.
The argument eventually and always came to what was the first cause?
You see we know and understand, that for this computer to exist, someone made it.
For those cars out there, someone made them.
Everything in the known universe was made, except God.
God has no beginning, He simply is, and was, and will forever be.
And He has need of nothing in order to exist.
Acts 17:24–25 LSB
“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
Do you see what Paul is doing here?
He is opening our eyes to the Aseity of God.
God made the world, therefore the world is derived, created by an outside force.
The creation is dependent upon God for its very existence.
But God does not dwell in buildings as men do, He is not dependent upon human hands for anything.
Just the opposite, the Creation is dependent upon Him.
So the first great truth about God is that He is self existent.
Everything God is and needs is found within Himself.
That is the biggest difference between man and God.
But the aseity of God can only be expressed in human language.
Which is why often times it comes to us as a negative.
Finite means limited, infinite mean to not be finite, but to be unlimited.
Mutable means to change, but immutable means not to change, to be unchanging.
Human beings are mutable, we change.
Right now we are changing, we are all getting older, and if you are older than 19, your are deteriorating.
Up until 19 you are growing and improving, but after that, the changes are not so good.
But God never changes, so we say He is immutable, unchanging.
That is the best we can do to explain how God simply is, was, and will forever be.
But I don’t fully understand that because everything I can see touch, smell and taste, ages, deteriorates, goes the way of dust.
Another way we speak of God is to attribute to Him human characteristics to the ultimate degree.
I am powerful, I have strength, but my power is limited.
God on the other hand is powerful to the ultimate degree.
But we have no way to measure that power.
If I want to know how strong a horse is, I place a heavy burden on the horse and see if it can bear the burden.
I can weigh the burden and determine the strength of the horse.
But that is not true of God.
God can lift and move weights that are beyond our ability to measure.
For example, God created a star callled the Canus Majorus.
This star is so big, we could put over a trillion earths inside it, and still have room for millions of stars inside as well.
God made that, and hung it in the sky.
His strength is unlimited, immeasurable.
So we say He is omni-potent.
Omni means all, potent means strength, He is all strength or He is all powerful.
We do this with a number of His attributes because we know of no way to measure them.
For example we have intelligent tests we give to humans that measure their IQ, their intelligence quotient.
These are some in this world who are genius’, they measure very high.
Others, not so much, they measure very low.
But all human being can be measured with regard to intelligence and knowledge.
Not so of God.
His knowledge is unlimited, He knows all things.
We don’t even know the right questions to ask Him to mearure His intelligence.
Therefore we say God is omniscient, knows all things.
God is also omnipresent.
That means His presence is everywhere all the time.
That is not true of human beings.
Bill and I are here in India with you, we are not at home with our wives as they would like us to be.
We are limited by time and space and can only be in one place at one time.
God is not limited by time and space.
God is transcendent of time and space.
That means He is outside of time and space.
This is of greater importance than most people think.
God being transcendent means that He can be with my wife right now, in America, and at the same time be with me here, and at the same time be with every other believer, all over this planet, all at the same time.
That defines how God is transcendent over space.
But what about time?
God is also transcendent over time.
God does not just know the future, He is there.
The Bible makes the case that before the creation of the world, two things took place.
First, Christ was crucified. Rev 13:8.
Second, you were chosen for salvation. Eph 1:4.
The Bible also speaks of things not yet having taken place in the past tense.
For example, Romans 8:29-30
Romans 8:29–30 LSB
Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
Think about verse 30 with relation to my salvation, called, that took place in my past.
Justified, that also took place in my past.
Glorified, according to this it has already happened.
Yet we know from a careful study of God’s word that we do not get a glorified body until the rapture takes place.
So how can God talk of these things as if they have already happened, as if time does not matter?
Because for God, time does not matter, not really.
Time matters to us because we are limited.
I have a limited amount of time to be with you here in India, and then I must return home.
That is not true of God, time is irrelevant to Him.
He knows the beginning from the end, because He is there.
The third way we speak of God in an effort to understand Him is to affirm certain qualities.
The Bible says God is holy.
So we work to understand the word holy in order to understand God.
Friends, when you teach do not be afraid to spend the time explaining words, this is important if your people are to understand God.
Words have meaning, and we must grasp the meaning of key words if we are to understand God.
So you can ask Bill, I spend a lot of time explaining words to help others understand God.
So what does holy mean?
Literally it means to be set apart, but from what?
It could be anything, but when we say God is holy, we are saying He is set apart from all that is sin and sinful.
When God calls upon you and I to be holy as He is holy, He is calling us to separate ourselves from sin and all things sinful.
This concept of the sinless perfection of God is rooted in so man truths.
When we talk of becoming Christlike, the focus is on becoming like Him with regard to sin.
There are many many affirming words like holy that we use to communicate who God is.
We do this because this is how God reveals Himself to us.
Christianity is a revealed religion.
Some guy sitting under a tree smoking marajuana did not come up with Christianity.
Christianity is revealed to us truth by truth by God.
God tells us what we are to know and believe about Him.
And if someone tells you something different, don’t listen to them.
God is sovereign, another affirming word, it affirms what and who God is.
To be sovereign means that God has the power, intelligence, wisdom, and right, to do what He wants when He want and how He wants.
God does whatever He wants to do, and nothing and nobody can stop Him.
The Bible expresses God sovereignty often.
Job 42:2 LSB
“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
Psalm 115:3 LSB
But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Jeremiah 32:17 LSB
‘Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,
Proverbs 19:21 LSB
Many thoughts are in a man’s heart, But it is the counsel of Yahweh that will stand.
Colossians 1:16 LSB
For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
I could go on and on, the Lord does what He pleases and nothing can stop or change what He desires.
The sovereignty of God is a very comforting truth.
I do not have to worry about the circumstances of this world, for My God is still on the Throne, He is still sovereign, and His desires will always win out.
CONCLUSION
Just a brief recap.
God is not like us.
One of the greatest condemnations found in the OT concludes with this truth.
Psalm 50:21 LSB
“These things you have done and I kept silent; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.
We err if we think God is just like us.
He is altogether different from us, in so many ways.
We have identified just a few this morning.
He just is.
YHWH exists in and of Himself and needs nothing outside Himself in order to exist.
This is the aseity of God.
He depends on nothing and no one for His existence, He is self existent.
This is why it is the job of the preacher to preach Theology, to teach about God.
God is not easily understandable for the common people, until they are trained to search out God in His word.
All that we know of God comes to us through revelation.
Natural revelation is that which is revealed through nature about God.
But natural revelation can only take you so far.
You can learn that God is creative, that He loves beauty, that He admires diversity and much more.
But you can never learn from nature how to be saved.
To go deeper with God you must move beyond natural revelation and dig deep into God’s word where He has revealed Himself.
Christianity is a revealed religion.
God has revealed Himself to us through His word.
Therefore it is the task of the preacher to mine the depths of scripture in order to teach ones people.
One final thought on this, from the perspective of hermeneutics.
Hermenteutics is a word that describes the art and science of Biblical interpretation.
Biblical interpretation is an art because skills are accumulated that help us to interpret scripture.
But Biblical interpretation is also a science, and that means that there are rules that must be followed.
First, the work of the pastor is to understand the scripture by understanding the context from which it was given.
When God spoke then, it meant something to them then.
It still means that today.
So part of our task is to understand the context of a give passage in order to understand it.
We call this Biblical interpretation through a historical perspective.
Second, language matters.
I touched on this earlier.
Words have meaning.
It is the task of the preacher to understand what those words meant then, and to then explain them in ways we can understand now.
This is called the grammatical approach to Biblical interpretation.
Last, learn to do what is called inductive Bible study.
Inductive Bible study relies upon the Bible to interpret the Bible.
If you think the Bible says one thing here, but contradicts itself in another place, then you don’t understand one or the other passage, or both.
The Bible will never contradict itself because our God is not a God of confusion.
God speaks very clearly and plainly most of the time.
So let the plain things be the main things and interpret the difficult things.
Let me illustrate.
Over 300 times God affirms eternal security in the NT.
But some people deny eternal security, and they do so based on two or three difficult passages.
The plain truth is affirmed 300 times salvation is eternally secure.
Therefore, when we come to a difficult passage that appears to say otherwise, we must rely on the 300 statements of eternal security, and look for another answer to the difficult text.
The end result is this, God wants you to know Him deeply and intimately.
He has not hidden Himself from you.
He has revealed Himself to you in His word.
Cherish the word for what it is, the revelation of God concerning Himself and His will, and learn it.
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