American Idols!

Intro

If you were asked by someone who God is what would you say? How would you describe him? How would you introduce him? Do you know who God is?

Many of us have never grown up. What I mean by this is many Christians still cling to the things of their faith that they learned years ago without truly understanding them in their mind nor in their heart.

Illus: White Horse Inn - go out on the street and ask people simple questions of the faith. People miss the simple answers.

John Calvin - French Reformer - spent much of his time writing on the doctrines of faith and says that the Christian life is “experimental” Joel Beeke in his book calls this “experiential.” They mean the same.

They mean that a Christian should reason God in his head and in his heart. That the intellect and the emotion are connected.

R.C Sproul puts it this way in a sermon on - “it is connecting the head (knowledge) and the heart (belief).

Many Christians are confused as to who God is. The God that I believe in may be different from the God you believe in. And neither may be the God of the Bible.

Church: We stopped catechizing our children. Many of us grew up in youth groups where everything in Scripture was changed into how to survive our teen years with cool little biblical phrases. Or, with a Jesus who was our best friend. And, the grandeur that is God.

We need to be able to reason with a Christian World view, and it must start with God.

Paul reasoned from Scripture so that He could know who God is and proclaim who God is from God’s own Word.

Paul is giving a defense for his faith to the Epicureans and Stoics in Athens. And this is what he shows us:

God reveals to us truths about Himself.

Attributes - communicable and incommunicable

Incommunicable (absolute distinction between God and the creature.” Berkhoff ST p. 34

“no traces within the creature.

(24 -26) Sovereign- His authority or power

In this is his Sovereign will (secret) to man, and his power (revealed) to man

(25) Independence (Self-existence) - (Incommunicable)

(29) Simplicity - not made up of various parts. Trinity is One - Father, Son and HS

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Shorter Catechism

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Commands and Expectations

(30) We learn that God commands repentance from sin

Realities of the World that is and is to come

Because of Original sin () men will be held accountable for their wickedness

What is this original sin? disobedience and not worshipping him as He is to be worshipped

Turning to idols

App: how many of us who claim to be Christinas do the same thing today? What do we turn to or hold more value in than God/

God reveals to us truths about ourselves.

Why we were created

(24) as creatures to worship God

does not live in temples - refers to our innate desire to worship something

Fallen in the garden, but restored through the work fo Christ

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Shorter Catechism

Quest. 1. What is the chief end of man?

Answ. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.b

Called to repent and believe in Jesus

How we were to live

(26-27) As his creatures in relationship with him

that are days are limited and there are seasons of our life governed by Him

This is known as Providence -

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Shorter Catechism

Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?

A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise,w and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.y

How we should live

(27) seeking God

All men are seeking God. Some clamour like blind men.

God Reveals to us truths about Salvation

Repentance

(30) God commands repentance in the judgment for sin

Turn away from the rebellion against worshipping God

Martin Luther says :all of life should be a life of repentance

Judgment

(31) A fixed day of judgment awaits all men (Jesus)

Everyone will face a day of judgment - found guilty of rebellion against God or righteous

Repentance

Righteous through faith in Jesus

(30)

Belief

Assurance comes to those who through faith belief that Jesus Christ is their savior. He accomplished what we could not and his obedience and righteousness has been imputed to us, so that on that day of judgment we stand innocent.

Resurrection

(31) We belief and trust in what has happened - the resurrection of Jesus that accomplished all of the requirements to appease God’s wrath so that we may live.

This is why Paul can say that God is “not far from each of us . . .” (27)

Now, why is it important to understand and believe all of this which Paul is laying out?

. . . So that we may turn to Him alone in Worship

If we do not worship the true God as he reveals himself to us then we end up worshipping something or someone else

We create a God in our own heart and mind that is our god, and not the God of the Bible

App: When we do this and things happen in or life rather than experiencing who God is as He says he is, we crack and crumble. The god we created doesn’t seem to come through how we wanted him to do. We are no different than the Athenians as we create our own little god in our hearts and minds.

Illus: Josh Harris - was a pastor of a megachurch called Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg Maryland and the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye. He just made a major claim and drew attention with a letter and Instagram post just yesterday:

First, He announced he is separating from his wife and that they will remain “friends” as they raise their children together.

Secondly, he apologized to the LGBTQ community for not including them in the church.

Most importantly, he claims

The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. https://www.christianpost.com/news/josh-harris-falling-away-from-faith-i-am-not-a-christian.html

How does this happen?

I am not here t make a judgment statement on Harris, he has done that himself. What I do want to illustrate however is if our view and experience of God (Head and heart) are not on the God of the Bible, then when we face things in this life that cause us strife or conflict, we will make bad decisions and will have faulty reasoning.

Our God, both by reason and by faith working together, must be who God says He is from His Word. This will keep us from turning to our own gods, our own idols, and toward worshipping Him.

Let us pray that God always keep our eyes on Him, the true God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.