Firm Foundation: Core Truths We Believe 2
Notes
Transcript
God Who is He
God Who is He
This morning we are continuing our series on Firm Foundations: Core Truth We Believe.
Last week we looked at Scripture and that all Scripture is inspired, that is given to the authors of the Bible by the Holy Spirit.
Those Scripture are profitable to give us instructions in truth, to rebuke us when we do wrong, to correct us showing us what is right, and for training in righteousness that is to guide us to live the life that God has intended for life to be lived.
We seen that in order for us to do the work that God has called us to we must study, obey, and apply the Word of God.
This morning as we continue our series, we are looking at God Who is He?
If God inspired the Scriptures that we are to follow, then we need to know Who God is?
We need to know the truth about God, so that we know we are following the true God, and understand who He is?
Our theme verse for our series is Jude 3
3 appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
From that verse we need to contend earnestly for the faith.
To contend or compete, struggle, debate what we believe, and we must know what we believe.
We need to personally know what we believe and not rely on what we have always heard, but need to have a Firm Foundation.
This morning we are going to look at multiple Scriptures to discover and learn about Who God is.
We are going to start right from the beginning in Genesis 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
We see in these two verses, In the beginning God (in Hebrew it is Elohim, the Supreme One) created out of nothing.
With a mere word God made the entire universe of time, space, and matter.
Pray
God is One
God is One
4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
There is one and only one living and true God.
He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.
God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.
God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures.
To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
The fact of God’s existence is so noticeable, both through creation and through man’s conscience.
The Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God; rather, it assumes His existence from the very beginning.
What the Bible does is reveal the nature, character, and work of God.
Thinking correctly about God is of utmost importance because a false idea about God is idolatry.
A good summary definition of God is He is the Supreme Being; the Creator and Ruler of all that is; the Self-existent One who is perfect in power, goodness, and wisdom.
We know certain things to be true of God, as He has revealed some of His qualities to us.
God is spirit, by nature intangible, and He will judge the world.
God is one, but He exists as three Persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
God is Three Persons.
God is Three Persons.
God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand.
When we think of God in heaven, it is God the Father.
9 “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
We all have an earthly father, but there is only one that is the supreme Father, and that is God the Father in heaven.
We may call our earthly father, father, but we are not to think of or reference anyone or anything on earth as God the Father.
The second person of God is the Son of God.
Christ is the eternal Son of God.
In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Jesus Christ honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Jesus ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God the Father where He is the One Mediator, and He is fully God, fully human, in whose person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Jesus will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.
Jesus now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
We must understand that our identity in Christ is the most important thing about us, as believers.
Everything else is secondary, our identity as a son or daughter to our parents is secondary, our identity as husband or wife is secondary, our identity in our career is secondary, every other identity that we have in life is to be secondary to our identity in Christ.
When we place any other identity above our identity in Christ, we forget the amazing grace of God.
We then come to the third person of God, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine.
The Holy Spirit inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures.
Through illumination the Holy Spirit enables men to understand truth.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
The Holy Spirit exalts Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration.
At the moment of regeneration (the moment of salvation) the Holy Spirit baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The Holy Spirit cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church.
He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
The Holy Spirits presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
We have seen that God is one, but now we hear that there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, this is what we call the doctrine of the trinity.
There has been no other issue in Christianity that has generated as much debate as the Trinity.
The reason for so much debate is there is no way to adequately or perfectly explain the Trinity.
To the finite human mind, it is impossible to understand how God could be three distinct Persons, but only one God.
The Trinity is related to the nature of humanity - with body, soul, and spirit.
Think of it like an egg, you have the shell, the white, and the yoke, three distinct parts but all the same egg.
Can we fully understand everything about God, no our minds are not capable to do that, and so we must come to a point that we accept what the Bible says and have faith in it.
God is Relational and Personal
God is Relational and Personal
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.
God is relational in that, He comforts believers when we are going through difficult times.
God is personal as He knows the difficulties that we go through.
God is relational in that He will walk with us, carry us, in any area, in any struggle, and any thing we go through in life.
God is personal in that He knows who we are and what we need to make it through everything we face, and provide us with our every need.
I think of the poem footprints in the sand.
One night I dreamed a dream.
I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
When the last scene of my life shot before me
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
There was only one set of footprints.
I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest times of my life.
This always bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma.
"Lord, you told me when I decided to follow you,
You would walk and talk with me all the way.
But I'm aware that during the most troublesome times of my life
There is only one set of footprints.
I just don't understand why when I needed you most
You would leave me.
"He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Paul tells the Romans that because we have been adopted into the family of God, we can call God Abba Father.
Scripture gives many different names for God, and all are important, the name Abba Father is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to people.
The word Abba is an Aramaic word that means Father.
It was a common term that expressed affection, confidence, and trust.
Abba signifies the close, intimate relationship of a father and his child, as well as the childlike trust that a young child puts in his daddy.
The terms Abba and Father together doubly emphasize the fatherhood of God.
We are assured of God’s care for His children.
30 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
God is personal and knows us better than anyone else, that includes our parents, our spouse and our children.
God knows us so well, that He knows the number of hairs on our heads.
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
Here we are told that Jesus is called Immanuel which means God with us.
What does it mean that God is with us?
When I think of being with my wife, it has to do with her presence.
She is by my side, even when she is not physically with me, I know her love is with me, her support is with me, and she has my back through thick and thin.
God with us is like that but more than that.
15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
We are not slaves, or people distant from God, as believers we are known as Children of God and friends of God.
Because God desires a relationship with us, but sin caused a separation between humanity and God, He sent His only begotten Son so that we can be forgiven and washed clean of those sins.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God provided His love and desire for a relationship with humanity, that He sent His Son to die a horrible death, to make a way for us to have that personal relationship with Jesus.
The question then is do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?
Think about your closest relationship, weather that is a parent, a spouse, a child, or a friend, do you have a relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life that is closer than your closest relationship?
Next week we will be looking at Humanity - Our Identity and Problem.
