What is God? - Catechism II
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Last week Simon introduced our new sermon series with question 1 of what will be, over time, a Catechism of 52 questions and answers.
Why?
Because we believe understanding what the bible says about God and God’s plans and purposes for His people, for His world, lies at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus; of what it means to be a Christian.
It was this understanding of God that was at the heart of Jesus’ mission.
It is this understanding of God that underpins the truth and teaching to which Jesus commanded His disciples to proclaim as they continued His ministry following His ascension;
“Go therefore and make disciples, baptising and teaching them to obey all that Jesus taught them”.
You see, the teaching of Jesus is not simply limited to how we live our lives, but remains grounded in the vision He gave of the Creator God, of God’s kingdom and of the world to come.
And so our first question last week was:
Question 1
What is our only hope in life and death?
and the answer from scripture is
That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and in death, to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
or
That we are not our own, but belong to God.
So far, so good...
But really the answer to question 1 begs another question…doesn’t it...
WHICH GOD?
WHICH GOD?
Because if belonging to God IS our only hope in life and death. That we are not our own, but belong to Him - it’s important to know
Who is God? or What is God?
What is it about Him that would make anyone trust Him with my life and death?
One Christian commentator in is book Soul Searching says that many in the contemporary church belive in what could be best described as
“moral, therapeutic deism”
Moral - He just wants us to be “nice”
Therapeutic - He just wants us to be “happy”
Deism - He is distant and may get invovled occasionally, but on the whole he is just an idea and not a personal being actively present in our world.
But friends, that’s not the God of the bible - that’s Father Christmas.
In many ways, God’s people today live in similar circumstances to God’s people Israel.
We live in a land and a culture that acknowledges many gods.
That was certainly the context in which King David lived.
It wasn’t long before the nation of Israel wasn’t just surrounded by other cultures who worshipped foreign gods - they also invited those gods in and started to worship them also.
The reading set for this morning, helps us to get a sense for how King David lived in the tension of his own immediate circumstances and the reality of God in his life.
Did you notice the heading of this Psalm? Psalm 86 is a prayer?
Let’s take a quick look at how it flows. It has 5 sections the 1st and 5th sections are 4 verses long and sections 2, 3 and 4 have 3 verses each.
You might recall that many times in the bible the way something is written also helps to convey the importance of certain things.
The bookends of Sections 1 and 5 draw us into the centre and the three verses of 8 to 10.
So
1 Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2 Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
David acknowledges who he is in relation to the God He worships and has come to know.
in verses 5 to 7
David indicates why he is confident to approach God
5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.
6 Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for mercy.
7 In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.
Verses 8 to 10 are the key verses in the Psalm:
There is only one true God and he is unlike any other god.
8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.
9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name.
10 For you are great and do marvellous deeds; you alone are God.
David wants to acknowledge that the totality of what God has done is incomparable and unique and for this reason all the nations WILL…notice not should or may - but WILL come and worship before you.
Such is this vision of God that David has come to realise his need for God. Did you notice... it’s almost as if he has temporarily forgotten what he set out initially to pray for...
11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name for ever.
13 For great is your love towards me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
Reflecting on God’s attributes he now looks beyong the present and asks for help and strength for the whole of his life.
Such is his confidence in God he uses what is called the imperative mood - Hear, guard, teach, give, bring....there’s no - would you, could you, might you...
And then finally
14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life— men without regard for you.
15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.
17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
Do you see how ‘What’ David knows about God and His deeds, shapes ‘Who’ God is to Him and impacts David’s confidence in prayer…?
I wonder if those taking notes - picked out some of those attributes of God listed in this short passage of Scripture?
[Check in with Children]
Merciful
Forgiving
Abounding in Love
Deliverer
Compassionate
Gracious
Slow to Anger
Faithful
Others you may have thought about may include:
Sovereign - Rules over/in control of all things
Eternal - No beginning and end
Righteous - Right in everything (says, does, thinks)
Holy - God is perfect and separate from sin
Infinite - God knows no bounds
Omnipotent - All powerful
Omnipresent - Everywhere, all the time
Omniscient - All knowing
In the beginning - God.
From Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
the God of the bible is a creating and a communicating God.
He reveals His identity, not just as the Spirit led people to write down the scriptures, but at times audibly - so that people heard Him speak. He does it in Exodus 20:2
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
And in the first four books of the bible God sets out to show that His plan and purpose for His world and His people is to re-create a faithful people and for them to look to Him to faithfully provide for and sustain them.
Really - the entire bible goes on to show ‘What God does’ and ‘What God is’ as this plan unfolds.
And in one form or another we see God’s people, brought to God’s place, under His rule and blessing. A plan that, in and through faith in Jesus Christ, now includes us.
And here’s the thing:
What’s really important for us to see and understand, as God reveals Himself through His unfolding word the bible, is that we are not given license to take just one attribute of God and make everything of it.
We cannot take His Sovereignty and forget His goodness. Neither can we take His goodness and forget His holiness.
We cannot take His judgement (and He is Judge, but not in the way we might Judge) - we cannot take his judgement and forget that He’s the God of love.
That He is the God who has so much loved even those who rebel against him, that ultimately he sent his Son to bear their sin in his own body.
In other words friends, to get to the heart of who God is, it’s important to think through what the Bible says, again and again, and to integrate the whole nature of God with the same balance and proportion that the bible itself gives.
Otherwise how can we possibly hope to worship Him in Spirit and Truth?
How can our ‘hope’ find its confidence and assurance?
And so back to our Question for this week:
What is God?
The Answer?
God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in His power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice and truth. Nothing happens except through Him and by His will.
or, as our young disciples have it in a slightly more concise way:
God is the creator of everyone and everything.
Personally, if my only hope in life and death is that I am not my own, but belong to God, I want to make sure that my hope is placed in something that is more than an ‘idea’ that I have conjured up in my own mind.
I wonder how God’s revealed truth about ‘Who He is’ and ‘What He has done’ and ‘has promised to do’, might shape our prayers and the hope to which we cling?