I Believe – In God the Father, Almighty

Text:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1, NIV84)

“But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” (Isaiah 63:16, NIV84)

Theme: The God of the Scriptures is infinitely powerful, intensely personal father.

The Christian faith has content to it, and it begins right here. "I believe in God" is the starting place—everything else follows and flows from that confession. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV84).

In the 19th century European theologians and philosophers began to question the very reality of God. ILLUS. Ludwig Feuerback was a German philosopher best known for his book The Essence of Christianity, which was his critique of Christianity. It strongly influenced generations of later thinkers, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche—all atheists. Feuerback claimed that God—the idea of God—is nothing more than an "outward projection of our own inward nature." God is merely an imaginary being who we hope will satisfy our hopes and wishes. God is, in Feuerbach's German, a Wunschwesen —literally a "wish-being".

By the mid-1960's we have the Death of God movement; radical Christian theologians, mainly Protestant, that arose in the United States and taught that belief in God is impossible or meaningless in the modern world and that fulfillment is to be found in secular life. The death-of-God theologians did not argue merely that Christianity's traditional "image" of the Creator is obsolete. They said that in the modern age it was simply no longer possible to think about or believe in a transcendent God who acts in human history, and that Christianity will have to survive, if at all, without him. One death of God theologian says it’s time for the Church to stop talking about God.

The words would seem shocking enough coming from a self-described atheist, but these were the words of liberal theologians teaching in some of the most prestigious seminaries and Christian colleges in America. Unfortunately, what is taught in seminary doesn’t stay in the seminary, but eventually filters out into America’s congregations.

The Book of Job warned against such men ... “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. ... 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.” (Jude 3–4, 19 NIV84).

The point is that not everyone who says they believe in God believes in the God of our Scriptures.

The God of the Bible is very particular in how he identifies himself. He is not merely a generic God good for all people at all time for all occasions. The first clause of the Apostles Creed tells us four things about God: 1) it tells us that God is ... well He’s God, 2) it tells us that God is Father, 3) it tells us that God is Almighty, 4) it tells us that God is Creator of heaven and earth. This immediately sets God of the Bible apart from any other God of any of the other world religions. We’re going to look at the first three this morning.

I. I BELIEVE IN GOD ...

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)

1. Genesis 1:1 is, of course, the first verse of the Bible, and the first place we find God mentioned

a. the Bible never attempts to prove God’s existence, but merely asserts that He is, that He is Creator and Sustainer of all that there is, and as such is Sovereign over it

2. the Bible does not need to prove God since all men are created in the Imago Dei

a. this means that every single human being ever born has an innate knowledge of God, and a desire to worship him

b. all men are essentially believers in God whether they know it or not

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:20–23, NIV84)

1) no sinner will be able to stand before God and claim, “If I’d only had some proof of your existence I would have worshiped you”

3. given Genesis 3, and the reality of sin and our fall from grace man’s view of God is horribly distorted and confused

a. the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1 that the creature (that’s us) has corrupted his knowledge of the Creator (that’s God)

A. SIN DISTORTS OUR VIEW OF GOD

1. in his conversation with the woman at the well in John’s gospel, Jesus tells her ...

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”” (John 4:23–24, NIV84)

a. here is the essence of true worship—it is done in spirit and in truth

1) to say that we must worship God “in spirit” means, among other things, that it must originate from within, from the heart; it must be sincere, motivated by our love for God and gratitude for all He is and has done

a) worship cannot be mechanical or formalistic

b) that does not necessarily rule out certain rituals or liturgy

c) but it does demand that all physical postures or symbolic actions must be infused with heartfelt commitment and faith and love and zeal

2) to say that we must worship God “in truth” means that our worship must conform to the revelation of God’s truth in Scripture

a) it must be informed by who God is and what he is like, and He is best understood in the person of Christ Jesus

“but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, ... .” (Hebrews 1:2–3, NIV84)

3) worship in spirit and in truth are both necessary for Christ-honoring, God-glorifying worship

ILLUS. John Piper, Baptist pastor and author, writes “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full ... of artificial admirers. ... On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”

2. this passage in John is a warning against false worship which is characterized by worship in the flesh and in error ... the opposite of worship in spirit and in truth

a. this is one reason why, throughout the history of the Church, creeds and confessions have been used

b. they help believers define the parameters of our faith so that we might believe correctly and thus worship correctly

3. because sin always corrupts our understanding of God, without His self-revelation in the Scriptures men will always worship incorrectly—which is idiolatry

a. Some Men Will Worship Multiple Gods

1) this is called polytheism—Abraham was a polytheist before God revealed Himself to the patriarch and called Abraham to follow him

2) Hinduism, Taoism, Shintoism, most traditional African religions, and even Mormonism are all polytheistic

b. Some Men Will Believe in One God, Who Is No God

1) Jews and Muslims believe in one God, and they identify this God as the God of Abraham—at least in name

a) but because they reject the further revelation of the New Testament, that one God whom they claim to worship is not the true God

b) both deny the Trinitarian God of the Scriptures

c) both deny the Messiahship of Jesus

2) Jesus was very clear when he said " ... he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."" (Luke 10:16, NIV84)

a) those who reject Christ, have also rejected the true God, and have instead replaced Him with a god of their vain imagination

c. Some Men Will Believe in the One True God

1) this one true God has ultimately revealed Himself through His only begotten Son ... Jesus who is the Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead

4. your acceptance of the exclusivity of Christ and his gospel is guaranteed to bring the wrath of the culture upon your head—you’ll be called a spiritual racist, you’ll be told that your God is too narrow ... believe it anyway

a. the idea that Christianity is the only saving path to God is a hard sell in a culture that increasingly celebrates religious diversity

b. liberal Christianity has dealt with the claim by moving toward inclusivism, which assumes that all world religions point to a common truth and a common God

c. to believe that, however, is to deny the clear teachings of Christ our Lord

ILLUS “If all we need is a teacher of enlightenment, the Buddha will do.” “If all we need is a collection of gods for every occasion and need and hope, Hinduism will do. If all we need is a tribal deity, then any tribal deity will do. If all we need is a lawgiver, Moses will do. If all we need is a set of rules and a way of devotion, Muhammad or Joseph Smith will do. If all we need is inspiration and insight into the sovereign self, Oprah will do. But if we need a savior, only Jesus will do.” —Dr. Albert Mohler

B. TRUTH DEEPENS OUR VIEW OF GOD

1. if sin distorts our view of God, then truth deepens our view of God

a. the Apostles Creed begins with I believe in God ...

b. the question is what do you believe about the God you believe in?

ILLUS. In his book, The Soul's Quest for God: Satisfying the Hunger for Spiritual Communion With God, R.C. Sproul recounts a conversation with a businessman. “What is the most important question that someone in today’s society needs to have answered,” asked the businessman. “That’s easy. The most important thing for modern secular people to understand is who God is,” answered Sproul. “Not whether God is?” asked the businessman. “No, the critical issue is God’s identity. God’s existence is not obscured today, but his nature and personality certainly are.” The businessman had another question, “Well, what do you think is the most important question that Christians need to have answered?” “That’s easy too,” said Sproul. “The most important thing for modern Christians to understand is who God is. There is a famine in the knowledge of God in general and the knowledge of God the Father in particular. A flea could wade in the depth of knowledge about God in the mind of the average Christian.”

c. well that’s not highly complimentary, is it?

1) it’s not meant to be

2. R.C. Sproul understands what pollsters and theologians have been warning about for decades

a. not only is the culture losing its understanding of the nature of God, but the Church is also losing its understanding of the nature of God

3. what the church believes about the nature and character of God is the most important thing about us

a. if we, the church, do not get this right will certainly get the rest wrong

b. unfortunately, many in the Church are getting God wrong

ILLUS. "Do you believe in God?" This was the initial question asked of thousands of British citizens by a team of social researchers in the late 1960s. One woman came to represent the biblical downgrade of British church life. One of her answers actually became the title of the study. During the survey a British woman was asked the simple question, “Do you believe in God?”

“Yes, of course” came the woman’s reply. Then, to clarify what that meant, the researchers, asked a series of follow-up questions: "Do you believe in a God who is personal?" Response? "No." "Do you believe in a God who does miracles, and who disclosed Himself in the son Jesus Christ?" Response? "No." "Do you believe in a god who can change the course of events on earth?" Response? "No," Finally, in frustration, the interviewer asked the woman the question "What kind of God do you believe it?" The woman answered, "Just the ordinary one." Her response became the title of their article —"Just an Ordinary God:" the paradox of religion in contemporary Britain.

b. how many people around us would be hard-pressed to talk about the God they say they believe in?

1) is their God merely an ordinary God?

c. a far more haunting question is how many people who regularly sit next to us in church, who have been raised going to church believe merely in an ordinary God, and not the God of the Bible as described to us in the opening statement of the apostles Creed?

d. when professing Christians sing the hymns of the Church, when they listen to the text of Scripture read from the Bible, as they listen to the sermon preached is their conception of God the God of the Bible?

1) if not it is not God the Father Almighty

4. the God of the Apostle Creed is the Triune God revealed by the Scriptures, and introduced to us in the very first line of the Bible

I Believe in God ...

II. I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER

“But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” (Isaiah 63:16, NIV84)

1. here is the first identification of God as Father in the Bible

a. many Christians assume that the fatherhood of God is an exclusively New Testament concept

1) not so!

b. in the Old Testament God is described as the Father of creation, as the Father of humanity, and as the Father of Israel

c. Moses speaks of God carrying Israel as a father carries a child

“and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”” (Deuteronomy 1:31, NIV84)

d. King David referred to God as a father to the fatherless (Psa. 68:5)

e. the Prophet Isaiah calls God Lord, Father, and Redeemer

2. but Israel did not worship God as Father

a. in the Old Testament God revealed his nature and character through compound names

1) He is Jehovah Shalom—the God of peace

2) He is Jehovah Jireh—God our provider

3) He is Jehovah Zidkenu—God our righteousness

b. there are so many others, but when we arrive at the New Testament God definitively describes himself as Father

3. the Apostle's Creed does not begin with the confession of a generic God, and then seek to define him

a. it begins with a self-revealed God and immediately declares him

1) it declares Him Father ... I believe in God the Father

b. this is a personal God

1) our God is not a distant God, the God of the Deists who believed God was like a watchmaker ... he created the universe, wound it up and started it ticking, and then went off to attend to other things’

2) our God is not otherworldly nor indifferent

3) our God is not "the force" at our beckon call when we need power

4) our God is not the “Great Pumpkin” to whom we sing “pumpkin carols"

A. GOD HAS REVEALED HIMSELF AS OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

1. we are entirely dependent upon God's self-revelation

a. we need to confess that we are not smart enough, we are not intelligent enough we are not perceptive enough to come to a true knowledge of who God is unless He revealed himself to us

ILLUS. The theologian Karl F. Henry talked about the "awesome disclosure" of God to humanity. He wrote "Revelation is a divinely initiated activity, God's free communication by which he alone turns his personal privacy into a deliberate disclosure of his reality."

b. God the Father of the Apostles Creed is unlike any other world-faith’s view of God

2. God has most clearly revealed Himself through the person of His Son

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." (Hebrews 1:1-3, NIV84)

a. it was Jesus who taught His disciple to pray to the Father, to seek the Father’s will, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth

b. it was Jesus who characterized God as a loving, merciful, and redemptive father when he told the story of the Prodigal Son

c. it was Jesus who referred to God as Father over sixty times

3. this Father has worked redemptively in the world so that all who call upon the name of Jesus can become sons of God

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:12, NIV84)

a. and when God adopts us into His family we have the right to cry out Abba, Father

“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”” (Galatians 4:6, NIV84)

b. by nature we are not children of God

1) as his creatures, we have nothing in common with His divine being

2) but by the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit, we have been integrated into the life of the trinity

3) it is because of this presence of the Spirit in us that we are able to approach the Father and have a relationship with him

I Believe in God the Father ...

III. I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1, NIV84)

1. it is here in Genesis 17 that God reveals himself to the Patriarch Abraham as God Almighty

a. in the Hebrew it is El-Shaddai

b. no matter how big the universe is, God is bigger

1) speaking to the Prophet Jeremiah God said, “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:24, NIV84)

2) to King Solomon he declared, ““But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27, NIV84)

2. our Heavenly Father is a God who is Almighty God

a. this is the God who can do anything

b. He is sovereign monarch over all things because He created all things

A. THE GOD WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE IS A GOD WHO CAN DEAL WITH YOUR SIN

ILLUS. If you are ever in debt and can’t pay up, you’ll find out just what trouble you are in because your creditors will pursue you until you pay up. The collection agents and then the bailiffs may be sent to track you down and extract by any means what you owe until your debt is cleared. For some people, there comes a time when what they owe is no longer manageable and they must declare bankruptcy. The debt is so high that they will never be able to pay, and just get further and further in debt.

1. our sins are to God like a bad debt

a. sin is an offense against God`s holy law

b. when we break that law, we incur a debt to the law

2. religion is the attempt to pay a debt to God

a. it is an attempt to perform work that might pay the bill owed

3. but God the Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth to be the final great sacrifice for sin

a. he lived a perfect life and He offered Himself for our debt of sin

1) that debt was the wrath of God that he paid for it with His life

4. no matter how big the universe is, God is bigger, and no matter how big your sin is, God is bigger

a. if you come today, this Almighty God will ...

1) save you completely

2) forgive you completely

3) give you complete victory

I believe in God the father Almighty. Do you? “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV84) This is the starting point of all true faith. This is a faith that saves. This is the faith of the apostles. This is the faith of the church for two millennia. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints. ILLUS. In the early church we know that the very first question asked of a baptismal candidate was "Do you believe in God the father Almighty?" To which the candidate was to answer, "Yes, this I do believe." Do you believe in the God of the Bible?