Studies in Identity - God: Who is God 02-04-24

Overview: Pastor Williams is starting a series on identity, beginning with the identity of God. He will then move on to the identity of Jesus and the identity of Christians. It is important to understand who God is and to be aware of false teachings taking place on social media platforms and from many of today's pulpits. Pastor Williams urges the listener to be discerning. He focuses on Exodus 20:1-11, where God reveals Himself as the one true and living God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and then he highlights God's uniqueness and emphasizes that nothing should be placed above or equal to Him. Transcription: I encourage you to turn to Exodus 20 verses 1-11. And I will be launching this morning into a three-part series on identity. We will begin this morning looking at the identity of God. Who is God? And this topic, this thought, will extend for six weeks just on the identity of God. And then we'll take a couple of weeks off and we'll then do a series of about four or five weeks on the identity of Jesus. Who He is. Who He says He is. Who men say He is. All centered around that question that He asked His disciples. Who do men say I am? And so we will dive into that and the question of who do you say I am? Who do we believe that Jesus is? And then we'll finish this series on the identity of Christians. Those who have put their faith and trust in Christ. What does the Bible say? Or who does the Bible say that we are? And so there's a general overall theme of where we are going that will take us well into June, if not even into July, to study this concept of identity. Again, who is God? And we will begin that thought, that process of thinking. And I want to start off by saying this. I could never in a million years exhaust the identity of God. I don't have enough time in my lifetime or your lifetime, or probably a thousand lifetimes, to spend and cover all about who God is. And so I'm going to push into just a few concepts of that. But I want to share with you why I think this is important. I think it's important for several reasons. One being, who we see God as, who we identify God as, will dictate and determine the rest of our thought processes. We will call this a worldview. The lens by which we see the world is who is God? Who is He? Who do we think He is? Who does the Bible say we are? Who is God and how do we believe Him to be will dictate and determine how we see the rest of the world. And this is becoming ever increasingly important because there is a false identity. There are false teachings. There are non-truths that will claim the label of Christ, that will claim the label of Christianity, that will claim the label of biblical teaching, and it is nothing other than heresy. Coming from our pulpits each and every Sunday, the scope of technology and how it works today is a blessing and a curse. And what I mean by that is I know there's been heretics ever since Bible times. There have been people who have taught non-truth as truth since the time of the Bible. A good portion of the New Testament speaks to this, to be aware of false teaching and to warn of false teachings and to get rid of these false teachings. But the way technology is, is it really brings it to the forefront. And so, there are this app called Instagram and Facebook is owned by the same company. So they both do these same things or these little video snippets of whatever topic. And the way it works is if you watch one, then the algorithm pumps more of those same videos in front of you. So I watch a lot of woodworking videos. And so it puts before me a lot of woodworking things. Well, one of the things that I find myself watching, and Sarah sent me one, the other day, is little preachings, right? And there's one guy in particular and he goes and he's like, I've got my Bible. I'm ready to go to church and hear what God has for me. And it'll picture him sitting there in a pew and he's got his Bible open and then it'll cut to a video of somebody preaching. And what they're preaching is just complete heresy. And he goes, nope. Gets up and walks out. Which I hope if you ever find yourself in a church that preaches heresy openly and outrightly just falsifies the Word of God that you will do the same thing. That you will immediately get up and walk out right there in the middle of service. Now, I'm not saying if you get up and walk out in the middle of this service that I'm going to think that that's what you're doing. And so if you've got to go to the restroom or you've got to go take care of some business, feel free to do that. But what I'm saying is if you find yourself in a place where somebody is openly and willingly teaching garbage, that you will remove yourself from that situation. But one of the videos I saw just recently, just the other day, this woman, I don't know. I'm not going to say she was preaching because I don't know the context of when she was talking. But she gets up there and she says, reading through Corinthians, and she said, well, if you notice, we didn't read part of this Scripture out loud because it was yikes. And we just think Paul was kind of being a jerk in this moment. And we just began to say pretty much this, we're going to preach and teach the parts of the Scripture that we like. And if we don't like it, we're going to ignore it and we don't have to apply it to our lives. Well, beloved, I want to put this out front. This is the very Word of God. And here, we believe it from cover to cover. And I'm going to do my best to faithfully teach the entire council of the Word of God because this is our authority in our life for today. Now with all of that said, let's push into this thought of who is God. Because that will even determine how we view this. Now, who is God? A very familiar text this morning. Exodus 20, verses 1-11. We know this to be a portion of what we call the Ten Commandments. Moses has received these on Mount Sinai. He will bring them down and give them to the people. It will be their instruction book. It will be their way of life. It will be their commandments to live by. This is not the first time that God has spoke to Moses and given some instruction for Israel. They've already come out of the Exodus. They've crossed the Red Sea. They were given very specific instructions on how to do that. The Passover. Given instructions on all of that. And everything. They find themselves heading towards the Promised Land. But here is why we should pay attention to this section of Scripture as giving to us an identity of God. Because in this moment, God is preparing Israel to enter into the Promised Land. In this moment, God is preparing a people for Himself to receive the promise that He has already given them from generations to generations from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is the God of all of them. He made promises and covenants to them that He is preparing Israel to receive in this moment. And so He is giving them some instruction. He is preparing them to be the people that they are to be. And so He is giving them some instructions to know who He is as they enter into that Promised Land. Now here we are Southern Baptists. We are part of the local association. We are part of the state convention. And we are part of the national convention. The Baptist faith and message which we adhere to, 2010, says this, 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 eternal Triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. That's what we believe as Southern Baptists. And we're going to push into that a little bit because we have come to that conclusion based on Scripture. Exodus 20, verse 1, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Who is God? Based on Exodus 20, verses 1-11, we can first of all see that He alone is true. That He alone is true. He is the only true and living God. I, in verse 2, am the Lord your God. I alone am the Lord your God. You see, He is original. He is original. There was never a time where He didn't exist. He said, I'm the Lord God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. He is original. He is the beginning. We go to Genesis 1-1. It says, in the beginning, God. So in the beginning, God our Existence. In the beginning of what? Everything. Before there ever was God. Before there was time, God. Before there was space, God. Before there was matter, God. He is the beginning. In John 1-1, it says again, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning God. He is original. He is unique in verse 3. He says, you shall have no other gods before Me. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not put anything above who I am. You shall not put anything equal to who I am. You shall not have anything on the same playing field as I am. There is none that are like Him. Now, I don't believe, knowing those that are in here this morning, I don't think that any of us would say, well, you know what? My son is pretty close. My daughter's pretty close. If you don't believe me, man, you just need to come watch him play ball. If you don't think he's equal to God, then you just need to hear him sing. If you don't think he's close to that play, now, we would never say that. But beloved, sometimes we act like that. Sometimes we put the things in our life on the same pedestal or the same level on the same playing field that we do God. God, You're important, but you know what? Today, the lake's a little more important. God, You're important, but you know what? Them fish are really biting today. God, You're important, but let me speak to the young... That video game is really drawing my attention. God, I know You're important, but you know what? That girl's pretty cute. That boy, oh, he's handsome. We never say that we put anything on the same playing field as God, but sometimes we act like that. Adults, your spouse makes a horrible God. Your job makes a horrible God. I don't know that anybody's in here at the point of marriage, so I'm just going to speak to those who in the years to come may think about marriage. If you're relying on that other person to fulfill all of your wants and needs in your life, they will let you down miserably in the same way that you will let them down. There is no way that I could meet all the needs in Sarah's life. You know why? Because she needs a Savior. And I am sinful, and I am prideful, and I am arrogant, and sometimes, as I've told you all before, I'm a little bit of a jerk. I can't save her from anything. I can't even save her from myself. She told me the other night, you're being a little extra. Being a little extra. I said, I know, ain't I? I recognize it and realize it, right? I can't even save her from myself. And so if she's looking to me to be everything that she needs in this life, I'm going to let her down. If you're looking for someone to meet everything that you need in life, there's only one and His name is Jesus. I'm not saying that you'll have the biggest house on the block or the nicest car in the city, but He'll give you everything that you need. He alone is unique. There's none like Him. He describes Himself in this way in Exodus 3.14. God said to Moses, I am who I am. I am have sent me to you. That name, I am. He's saying that's it. I am. You are what? I'm everything. I'm all there is. I'm everything you'll need. I'm everything that ever was. I'm everything that ever will be. I am. Moses understood that. God is unique. In John 8.24-58, this made a lot of the religious crowd very angled when he said to this, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus is God. He's unique. He alone is true. He's original. He's unique. He is authoritative. In verse 3, he says, you shall have no other gods before me. He is authoritatively positioning. He's saying, I'm it. Now that word gods right there is a little g. Because you shouldn't worship anything more than me. Beloved, I want us to realize something this morning. We were created for worship. We're going to worship something. The question is what are we worshiping? Are we worshiping self? Are we worshiping job? Are we worshiping popularity or prosperity or possessions? What are we worshiping? We're going to worship something. So he says, you're not to have any other gods before me. I am the cream of the crop. I'm the tip top of the iceberg. I am as high as you can get. There is nobody above me. And Job, he asked Job this. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? In Psalms, he asked this question. Who can instruct God? Who can give God wisdom or knowledge? God is it. There's nothing even close to Him. He is authoritative in that He's authoritative positionally. This is what I have often tried to teach those that are growing up in culture, in life, right? You will always have a boss. You will always have somebody telling you what to do. And the quicker we understand that, the quicker we realize that, we can move on in life a little bit easier. Somebody's always going to tell me what to do. I want to be the boss. No matter what you become, even if you are the top man of the biggest Fortune 500 company in the world, there is somebody that is going to be able to tell you what to do, whether it's a board of directors, whether it's the shareholders, or whatever it is, there's somebody that is going to be your boss. There is no top in worldly things. But when it comes to God, nobody tells God what to do. God is the top. He is the only thing that is supreme. He is the only thing that is positionally authoritative. But below this, there's another rim of this authority. He's authoritative conditionally. Hold with me for just a second, okay? Look at verse 3 again. He says, You shall have no other gods before Me. What does that language lean itself to? It's you've got to make a decision. You've got to make a decision. Positionally, He's authoritative. He is who He is. That's the truth whether you like it or not. But He gives me the choice whether to submit to that authority or not. And so His authority in my life, practically speaking, day in and day out, is conditional on my submission. Now for the believer, for someone who has put their faith and trust in Christ, that should not be an option anymore. Because what you said when you said, God, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. And Christ is that Savior. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my life as Lord and Savior. You are entering into a relationship with God that conditionally puts Him as authority over your life. That's settled. Now, I have sold vehicles in the past. And I have told them up front, Hey, here's what's wrong. Here's some things that's going on. They agreed to buy it. I would have a major problem if 15 days down the road, somebody comes back to me and says, You know what? I decided that I really don't want this vehicle. So I'm going to need you to give me my money back. Now wait a minute. We had an agreement, right? How would you feel if you bought a car? And I regret selling it, so I'm going to need to buy that back from you. And so we just wanted to undo what we did. We would have a major problem with that, but for some reason we do that with God. God, forgive me of my sin. You are Lord and Savior of my life. But a little down the road, you're not Lord of this. You can't have this. I'll give you everything but this. And what we're saying is, you're not really any authority. I'm the authority and I'm going to give you the conditions of our relationship. I go back to His position. He's authoritative. What I submit to Him in my life is the conditional part. And so it's really not about His authority. It's about my submission. Am I submitting to Him as God? So now do you see why who He is is so important? Because if we have a realization about who He is, then of course I'm going to submit to Him. Of course I'm going to come to Him and say, God, You are I Am. Who are You that I shouldn't submit to that? Who am I to think that I can counsel You? Who am I to think that I can stand before You and say, alright, God, here's the terms of our relationship? That's how we treat God. And when we do that in that moment, what we're saying is I am on the same playing field, on the same level as God is. And beloved, let me tell you this. For the believer, be careful. Be careful of having that mindset and having that thought process and allowing it to continue in your life. Because God will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. He will not have an equal. And he thinks he's going to be able to do something. Now, I don't know what that's going to look like, right? Battle of Armageddon. I don't know what it's going to look like, but the Bible says that Jesus is going to sit down in the midst of the Kidron Valley. Here's what I see in my mind. I'm an extremist right here, right? On this side, there's Satan and all his armies. Again, modern warfare. Tanks and missiles and bombs and all that stuff all lined up on that side of the valley. Here's Jesus in the midst of the valley. Ha! Look at there. Y'all think Thanos invented that move? With my marble thing? Snap your fingers and have all this power? No, no. That's all Jesus would have to do. Snap his fingers and Satan and his demons are defeated. One word. One blink. One snap. Jesus is victorious. Why? Because He is God. And God is authoritative. Secondly, He alone is true. He alone is worthy of worship. He alone is worthy of worship. In verses 3-6, we see that He is eternal. In verses 3-5, You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. Now that's an important phrase that we have to remember. What He's saying is if I, as a parent, hate God, hate the things of God, that I despise Him and don't think about Him, don't teach Him, don't speak about Him, don't do anything, then that will affect my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren to the third and fourth generations. Why? Because that kind of attitude toward God is hard to overcome in a family lineage. He's not saying that they will be held responsible for my sin. He's saying that that kind of legacy is hard to overcome. So beloved, what kind of legacy are you leaving? If you're leaving a godly legacy, train up a child in the way that they should go so that when they're old, they will not depart from it. It's the same concept. Not that they will necessarily follow in your footsteps to the letter, but as they're old and they're doing these things, those teachings that you taught them will come to their mind. Those trainings that you gave them will always be there. I remember my daddy said this. I remember my mama said this. I remember that we were at church every time the doors were open, that we were always there. We were singing the songs of God. We were talking about Scripture. We were praying together. If that's the kind of legacy that you have, then that will not leave your family for generations. The problem that we see in the church now is lukewarm Christians who are barely teaching the things of God. Yes, they come to church on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday, there is nothing about God in that household. Their Bible sits on the shelf. They're playing secular songs. They're not praying together. They're not talking Scripture together. And so it's no wonder that those next generations don't see the importance of church. They don't see the importance of the things of God. They don't worship the one true God because they see it all as equal. Parents and grandparents, we have to leave a legacy of worship for the next generations. Because if not, then their eternal souls are in danger of not knowing God. Listen, beloved, we played this game last night. It's called how well do you know your family or do you know your family or something like that. And you draw this card, and it's either a trivia card or a challenge card. You have to do an action. Well, the trivia card came up, and here is the question that I ask my family based on this card. What do I worry most about? What do I worry most about? Here was my answer. That my loved ones would die without knowing Jesus. That's what I worry the most about. Do you care enough about your family and your friends and the next generations to leave a legacy of worship? Just leave a legacy of knowing God. He alone is worthy of worship because He is eternal. He is Creator. He created all those things listed in that Scripture. He is the Preserver of all things. Hebrews 1 through up, holding all things by the Word of His power. He is eternal. He is holy. In verse 5, He says, I, the Lord, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. See, He alone is holy. He is sinless. He is righteous. And that's why that great Scripture in the New Testament that He who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God because we have no righteousness in and of ourselves. It is only applied to us as a moment of salvation. It's not our righteousness. It's His righteousness. He is merciful. He's merciful towards us because He is loving, because He is forgiving. He alone is worthy of worship. He alone is sovereign. Verses 7 through 11, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. He made the heavens and the earth, the highest highs and the deepest depths. He created them. He alone is sovereign. He is all-knowing. He knows all the details about your life. I preached on that this past Wednesday night. A God of the details that are numbers. He is a God that is intimately involved in the details of your life to the point that He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows those thoughts that you leave unspoken. He knows all the details, the unknown and the unknown. He's all-knowing. He is all-powerful. Verse 11, it talks about He created the heavens and the seas. You see, we read in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What we see God creating, He is all-powerful over time. In the beginning. He created time. In the beginning. There was no beginning before that moment. Over space, the heavens, and over matter, the earth. One preacher put it this way. He said for anything to exist, it has to exist in all three areas at the same time. Time, space, and matter. If you have time and no space, what will you put there? If you have time and matter, but no space, where will you put it? If you have space and matter, if you have a place and a thing to put, when will you put it? And so for something to be created, all three things have to exist. Time, space, and matter. Three. Trinity. Each one of those has three. Time, past, present, future. Space, length, width, height. Matter, solid, liquid, and gas. A trinity of trinities speaking to the powerfulness of God. Speaking to the sovereignty of God. He alone is all-powerful. He is all-redeeming. I'll go back to verse 2 for just a moment as I close. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Now, the history of Israel, they were bound as slaves to Egypt. Chained. Beaten. Mistreated. Held captive. Couldn't leave. In fact, when they get ready for the exodus, several times Moses went to Pharaoh and God said to let My people go. He had to approach Pharaoh for the condition of letting Israel go. And several times Pharaoh said, no, no, no, you can't go. You need permission to be set free from their bondage. But in comes God, the great I Am, and sets them free apart from Pharaoh's instruction, apart from His power, apart from His wisdom and His knowledge. He sent the plagues and He said, look, I can overcome even the power of Pharaoh because I am all-redeeming. I am calling a people to Myself. And beloved, He has set us free as well. Not from the bondage of a slave owner of another nation. He has set us free from something more bound than that ever could be. He has set us free from the bondage of sin. Something that we can't break loose of ourselves. There's no amount of good deeds that I can do. No amount of praying that I can do. No amount of Christian t-shirt wearing. Christian music listening. No amount of praying that I can do of myself. Only God can set us free from the bondage of sin. He is all-redeeming. Listen, there is no one on the face of this earth that ever has been or ever will be that no one is outside the scope of God's redemption. I say this all the time and I hope you understand this and I hope this is the message that you preach to those you come in contact with. There is no sin that is too deep and dark and depraved that God cannot overcome. Nothing. God's love, God's mercy, God's grace redeems people back to Himself. What is the work of God in our lives today? That through Christ, He is redeeming the world back to Himself. What is our message for those who are outside of faith in Christ today? It's that they can be redeemed by the glorious love and grace and mercy of God. So as I set out on this message this morning, I began with the question, Who is God? And as we leave, hopefully we have a little more understanding that God alone is true. That He is original. He is the beginning. He is unique. He is authoritative. He alone is worthy of worship. He is eternal Creator, Preserver. He is holy, sinless, righteous. He is merciful, loving, forgiving, and sovereign. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-redeeming. He is. So then the question becomes to you and me, how will you respond to that? How will you respond to that? Will you respond in faith? Acknowledge the redeeming work that He accomplished in Christ on the cross? And you will accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Will you submit to His authority in your life afresh and anew? Will you pray for the ones that you know that don't know Him? The ones that are still held in bondage. The ones that are still in danger of going to hell. This altar is open. I'll be down front. I'd love to pray with you. I'm going to pray for you. You come as Ms. Patsy plays.