130915 The God Who is

The Bible begins with the statement, “In the beginning, God…” assuming the existence of God before anything else existed. All persons everywhere have a deep, inner sense that God exists, that they are his creatures, and that he is their Creator. Paul says that even unbelievers “knew God” but did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. He says that wicked unbelievers have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie”, implying that they actively or willfully rejected some truth about God’s existence and character that they knew. Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain to them,” and adds that this is “because God has shown it to them”. Some people deny this inner sense of God and some even deny God exists. The psalmist tell us that “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Our text for today is: Exodus 3:13-15, the people of Israel had gone down to Egypt as a family and lived there for hundreds of years. During that time they changed from free farmers to slaves of the Egyptian Empire. After four hundred years of slavery God raised up a rescuer named Moses. In fact, Moses was raised in the house of the Pharaoh as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

Moses recognized that he was an Israeli not an Egyptian and he began to take action to free his people. Because of that he was driven out of Egypt into the wilderness where he spent forty years as a simple shepherd. Then one day he saw something he had never seen before. It was a bush filled with fire that did not burn up. God spoke to him out of that bush assuring Moses that he saw the suffering of his people in Egypt. And now he was ready to send Moses to rescue his people. This caused Moses to ask some questions. Listen while I read…

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Rather than simply responding to Moses with a name, God responded with a discussion of his name. The God we serve (the same one Moses served) is not one among many “gods”. God exists by virtue of his very nature. He was not created and he never came into being. He always was! Or, I suspect the grammar is wrong, he always is! In fact…

God absolutely is!

There were many “gods” in Egypt. Cherlyn and I went to Egypt as part of a trip to the holy land. During our tour we went to the national Museum in Cairo. There, everywhere we looked, we saw idols and images of gods. I have no idea how many hundred, or even thousand, “gods” there were in ancient Egypt. I do know what God did to them as recorded in, Exodus 12:12-13, For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

“I will pass through the land of Egypt” speaks of God’s personal presence in the delivery of his people. He said he would do two things: he would take the life of all the firstborn in the land of Egypt and, He would execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt. In the process of the Exodus God proved that he was alive and all-powerful and that the gods of Egypt were dead and impotent.

Apparently, man would rather have a pretend god then serve the real God of heaven because…

There are many “gods” today.

People worship many different things. In recent years technology seems to be the god of most people. Not just in our highly developed civilization in America but also around the world. Technology has invaded everywhere. Computers and cell phones are literally everywhere.

There may not have been computers in the first century but the same basic rejection of God was there. Listen while I read, Romans 1:24-27, Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Generation after generation mankind consistently exchanges the truth about God for a lie. People worship the creation rather than the creator. This is seen everywhere we look. In the first century God gave mankind up to impurity. In the twenty-first century God apparently has given mankind up to the same impurity but it is enhanced by technology. John, in his first little letter, warns us —Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ^{1 John 2:15-17} all of these things, driven by desire, become “gods” in competition with the only God that really exists. The Bible teaches…

There is only one true God! Listen while I read what Paul had to say.

1 Corinthians 8:5-6, For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

There are many spiritual beings but all of them were created by the one true God. Throughout the Bible we are told that there is only one God. There are many examples let me read to you one from Isaiah.

Isaiah 46:8-11, “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, ⁹ remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, ¹⁰   declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ ¹¹ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

When God says to Moses, “I am who I am”, it could be translated, “I will be what I will be”. In either case the implication is that God’s existence and character are determined by himself alone and are not dependent on anyone or anything else. God’s being is and always has been the same. He exists now, has existed eternally in the past and will exist eternally in the future.

There is one true God and…

God sends people! God has consistently worked with and through men to accomplish his purposes on earth. There are many examples and we will look at four of them. The first is…
Noah was sent. This is not a myth it is part of the infallible word of God. Listen while I read Hebrews 11:7, By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Many generations after the creation God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intent of his heart was only evil continually. Of all those in that generation one family stood out as being righteous. That was the family of Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives.

God warned Noah that he was going to destroy mankind because of the wickedness of their hearts. God gave Noah instruction to build an ark to preserve all the land-based creatures and the human race. God had every right to destroy his creatures along with this creation because of the rebelliousness of their hearts. He did not choose to do that. He sent a man named Noah to maintain a godly line on the earth. A few generations later…

Abraham was sent. Abraham is a key link in the chain of salvation beginning with Adam and ending with the last person to trust Jesus. Listen while I read Genesis 12:1-3, Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram, later called Abraham, was chosen by God to begin a faith lineage reaching down through history. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was not righteous in and of himself. Only the grace of God gave him righteousness. The same is true today. We have no righteousness of our own that will allow us to be God’s people.

Abraham was not chosen because of his faith, he was chosen because of the faithfulness of God. Abraham was sent by God to become the father of the faithful. So that he is not just the father of Semitic people he is the father of everyone who comes to God by faith. He was sent to establish a godly line and part of that lineage was Jesus, the Christ.

When it was time for God to destroy the world because of unrighteousness he sent a man named Noah to save the human race. When it was time for God to begin a lineage of the faithful he sent a man named Abraham. When it was time for God to deliver his people and establish a nation…

Moses was sent. Moses must’ve surely given up any idea of delivering his people from Egypt. He was forty years old when he left Egypt and was highly qualified to lead the people of Israel out of bondage. He was driven out of Egypt and found himself living as a shepherd in the wilderness until he was eighty years old. Then God confronted him in the desert and sent him back to Egypt. Obviously, any victory had to be God’s victory not his. He would no longer be known in the court of Egypt. When God called him and sent him he could only go by faith. Listen while I read, Hebrews 11:24-28, By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Moses was raised in a palace and adopted into the family of the Pharaoh. Once he realized who he was he considered it a greater privilege to be persecuted with the people of Israel than to be a Prince of Egypt! He did not fear the King because he could see, by faith, the invisible God who created and rules the universe. Moses was sent by God to deliver his people and set the scene for God to destroy the “gods” of Egypt.

Paul wrote to the Galatians and said that in the fullness of time God sent forth his Son born of a woman. This was not plan “B”, or any other secondary plan. From the very beginning of time God planned to send his Son and at the right time…

Jesus was sent. Listen to the familiar words of John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God sent his Son out of a heart of love to allow his enemies a path of citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. God did not send his Son to condemn man because man is condemned already. We are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve and have inherited their guilt and deserve the punishment of eternal separation from God. But he had another purpose that Paul called a mystery. Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote a song about it and it goes like this:

God sent His Son, they called him Jesus, He came to love, heal, and forgive;

He lived and died to buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because He lives I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone; because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives.

Noah was sent; Abraham was sent; Moses was sent; Jesus was sent, and…

We are sent. Let’s look at two passages of Scripture. First, John 20:21, Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Then,

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The first of these two passages is really remarkable. Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” We could add to it John 14:12, which says in part, “… whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…”. Greater works than Jesus! How can he possibly say that? The answer is found in John 20:21. “As”— “even so” is the key. Further, in John chapter 5, verses nineteen and thirty, Jesus states that he could do nothing on his own. He could only do what the Father did through him. In the same way, we can do the works that he did, and even greater, simply because we can’t do the work — he does the work through us.

The second passage is what we usually call the “Great Commission” we have been sent, under Jesus’ authority, to make disciples wherever we go; baptizing them and teaching them. We can do this because all authority has been given to Jesus and His Spirit has come to live in us. He does his work through us.

Moses was right in asking for God’s name. The people of Israel were familiar with many, many “gods” by name. The sad truth is they did not know the name of the living God. God has a name!…

That grows out of his existence.  Let’s return to Exodus 3:15, God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

In most translations of the English Bible the Hebrew word that is God’s name appears over six thousand times and it is almost always translated as “Lord” with a capital L. It is the word, “Jehovah” or “Yahweh”. The name comes from the verb “to be” and indicates that God’s existence and character are not dependent on anything or anyone outside himself. God is self-existence personified. He has a name…

That remains the same. Listen to how God describes himself in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. God describes himself as the beginning and the ending of understanding and communication. He is present, he is past, and he is future — all at the same time! Jesus identified himself as the “I AM” when he said to the Jews that he was before Abraham. Father, Son and Spirit existed before anything else. Before matter existed, before time existed God was and he remains eternally the same. This knowledge should work together…

To give us confidence. There are many things we need in our spiritual life. And if the creator of all things has invited us into his family we should trust that he is capable of taking care of us. Listen while I read 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Paul’s desire for the Thessalonian Christians should be our desire for ourselves. We need to be made completely holy and are totally unable to do it for ourselves. When Christ returns, or we go to be with him in death, we need to be blameless in spirit and soul and body. We never will be blameless in our own strength. All our righteousness is only filthy rags in the sight of God. We should be very grateful for the fact that he, God, is faithful. He began the work in us and he will complete it. The fact that he exists eternally and created the entire universe by speaking words should give us confidence that he can do whatever needs to be done in our life. Our salvation is his work and he is capable of completing it. He is the God who is.

God never had a beginning and will never have an end! He is the basis of all reality and is utterly independent of any outside force. Everything exists because of him. He is the same yesterday today and forever. He is the truth that all things are measured by. He alone is worthy of our attention and admiration. He is the only one worthy of our enjoyment. In him we live and move and have our being.

Please don’t be one of those who deny the truth and reject that which is clearly seen and understood and consequently deny God. Instead, be one of those who honor him as God and give thanks to him.

All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.