Trinity Baptist Church

Back to the Basics

#1:  He's God and We're Not

 

There are some basic principles that every believer needs to know in order to have a healthy relationship with God and I’m afraid a lot of Christians, both new and old, never come to know what they are.  And because they don’t know, they are destined to ride the roller coaster of emotion and response, finding themselves constantly on and off and up and down in their relationship with God and His church.

 

With that in mind, I want to begin tonight a study of some of seven basic, foundational truths that I believe are essential for successful Christian living.  These are the things that once you come to accept them, will keep you steady in the storm-tossed times of life and will cause you to be an attention-getter to the world.

 

I’m not going to give you the entire list tonight, but I am going to make a general statement or two regarding them.  These seven basics of the Christian life all begin and end with God. That is as it should be since the Bible is a book about God and “by and through Him and for Him all things consist.”

 

God was not created for us.  IN fact, He wasn’t created at all.  We were made for God. We were made to know God, to serve God, to love God, and to live forever with God. We were made to glorify God, and in the act of bringing glory to him, we will enjoy him forever. And only as we come to know and enjoy God, will we, in the truest and deepest sense, enjoy the life he has given us.

 

So if we are going to discuss the basics of the Christian life, where do we begin?  To me, it all starts with this first fundamental truth: He’s God and we’re not. Nothing is more basic than that. All spiritual reality begins with this truth, and if we skip this or ignore it or downplay it, nothing else I say in this sermon series will make much sense.

 

Now you may have noticed I didn’t list a text for this sermon.  That’s because there are a number biblical passages that I want to point to, rather than just one.  That is by design because this first basic is so important and so fundamental that the verses that reference it are scattered from cover to cover.

 

Here are just a few:

 

 

Job understands that he cannot demand anything from the Lord. In and of himself, he has no power to change his awful condition and he can’t even demand a hearing to plead his case to the Lord. God does what he wants and Job is powerless to oppose him.

 

 

This verse introduces the final chapter of Job’s saga. It comes after God has given him a theology lesson and a final exam on creation, which Job flunked miserably. He couldn’t answer a single question. Now thoroughly humbled, he confesses that God is all-powerful, he does what he wants, and no one stands against him. This confession leads him to deep repentance for his foolish questioning of God’s plan.

 

 

That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? The Lord of the universe does whatever he pleases. Whenever I read this verse, I want to stop and say, “Any questions?”  That thought is expanded in

 

 

The psalmist goes on to list various proofs that God does what he wants. He makes clouds rise in the sky (v. 7), he struck down the firstborn of Egypt (v. 8), he sent signs and wonders (v. 9), and he struck down many nations (v. 10). The conclusion of the psalm is a five-fold call for everyone to praise the Lord (vv. 19-21).

 

 

When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream he could not remember and did not understand, he eventually asked Daniel to help him. Daniel agreed, prayed to God, and the dream and its interpretation were revealed to him. These words are part of Daniel’s response of praise to God.

 

I am struck by the phrase, “he knows what lies in darkness.” He sets up kings and then dethrones them. He orders the times and seasons. He even sees the hidden things because the darkness is not dark to him.

 

When you run the story forward to Daniel 4, you discover when King Nebuchadnezzar takes credit for the greatness of his kingdom, God struck him with a kind of insanity that made him think he was a beast of the field.

For seven years he lived among the wild animals, grazing in the pasture. When he finally turned his heart to the Lord, his sanity was restored.

 

 

Here is a pagan king who discovered the hard way the truth of God’s sovereignty. To his credit, he does not hesitate to speak the truth once his sanity was restored. God does whatever he wants. Even the greatest human rulers are as nothing to him. No one can question what God does. Everything God does is right. And the Lord knows how to humble the proud. It would be hard to find a clearer statement of this first basic anywhere in the entire Bible.

 

 

This wonderful doxology comes at the end of Paul’s presentation of the gospel as God’s answer to man’s sin, and his presentation of God’s future plans for Israel. No one could have foreseen how God would respond to human rebellion. No one gives God advice. No one can trace his path across the starry skies. God is never in debt to anyone for any reason. Everything is from him, everything is through him, and everything is to him. And he alone gets the glory.

 

 

 This verse is one part of a long sentence that begins with the words “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” in verse 3. In verse 11 Paul is praising God for choosing us in Christ according to his predetermined plan.

You might translate the last part of the verse this way: “He arranged everything so that all things are working out just as he planned a long time ago.”

 

That means everything in the universe is either caused by God or allowed by God. Nothing ever “just happens” and nothing is caused by someone or something outside of God’s control. Some things he directly causes; other things he allows to happen. But all things in heaven and on the earth and even the things that happen in hell, even the very acts of Satan, are controlled by God.

 

In fact, Martin Luther said, the devil is “God’s lapdog.” He can do nothing without God’s permission which is why Paul can declare that everything is happening just as God planned from the very beginning.

 

 

When Christ returns to the earth, the whole world will clearly know what we know right now by faith: Our God reigns.

 

 

Our God reigns.  The world does not yet see it, and sometimes we have trouble believing it because we don’t always see it either. But the truth remains and will not be changed: Our God reigns.

 

Now as you stand back and ponder that, there is one fact that jumps out and will not be ignored. Every time the Bible writers speak of God’s sovereignty, it always leads them to praise.

 

He does what he pleases … Praise the Lord.

 

No one can oppose him … Shout for joy to the Lord.

 

Everything God does is right … Hallelujah.

 

How unsearchable is his wisdom … To God be the glory forever.

 

His plan is working out perfectly … Praise be to God.

 

Our God reigns … Let the people rejoice and be glad.

 

If this truth does not fill our hearts with praise, then we either don’t understand what the Bible says or we simply refuse to believe it. But the truth remains whether we believe it or not. He is in charge of all things. Even when it looks like he’s not ruling, he’s ruling. When chaos appears, he’s in charge of the chaos. When things start falling apart, he’s in charge of the falling apart of those things.

 

Theologians call this doctrine the “Sovereignty of God.” You find it on every page of the Bible. We talked about it some in our study of Joseph.

 

The word “sovereign” means king or ruler or boss. God’s sovereignty means that he is calling the shots in the universe. He’s in charge of all things.

 

As the Psalmist put it in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it”.

 

And that’s what I mean by the statement: “He’s God and we’re not.” He is the Creator and we are his creatures. This is truly the most fundamental principle of the spiritual life. Until you understand this, and submit yourself to it, nothing in life will work right.

 

Every mistake you’ve ever made has come from forgetting who’s God and who’s not. I believe the first sin in the universe happened because Lucifer, an angel created by God, forgot who was God and who was not.

 

Isaiah 14:13-14 seems to use poetic language to describe the very first act of rebellion against God: “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

 

Note the five “I wills” of Lucifer. When any created being attempts to become “like the Most High,” the only possible result can be severe judgment from God. When we decide to “play God” and run our little portion of the universe, we will not escape judgment either.

 

So with that in mind, let me give you two basic thoughts that flow from the fact that God is God and you and I aren’t.  The first on is

 

 

We talk a lot about freedom in the church, but usually we’re talking about our freedom and our liberty.  We very rarely or never think about God’s freedom.  But that is the major point of the passages just discussed. When you come to the bottom line, God’s freedom is the only true freedom in the universe. Every other “freedom” is derived from his freedom in one way or another.

 

So what do I mean by “God’s Freedom"? Think about it this way:

 

 

Because God is God, he can do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it. If he wants to create a planet, or a galaxy, or even another universe, he just says the word and it happens. He is truly “free” in the absolute sense of the term. This is why he announced himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God is eternal, self-existent, and entirely self-sufficient. He exists entirely apart from the universe he created.

 

 

That means God was under no obligation to create you or me or anyone else. And he is under no obligation to keep us alive even one more second. He is under no compulsion to save a single member of the human race. No one has a claim on God. He can do what he wants with any of us and no one can successfully second-guess him.

 

 

Many people struggle with this concept because they think that because God did something for a friend or a neighbor or a loved one, then God must be bound to do the same thing for them. We usually like to throw some mention of God being just into the discussion.

 

But it doesn’t work that way. God can deliver your neighbor from cancer and let you die. Or vice versa. Envying your neighbor because he has something you don’t have is a waste of time because God treats us as individuals, not as groups. The truth is, he might do for you exactly what he’s done for someone else, or he might do more or he might do less or he might do something entirely different. He’s God. He can deal with us the way he wants.

 

And if that stresses you out, then think about this one:

 

 

Now I want to say this carefully because God’s character never changes.  We know he is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always gracious, always loving, always holy, and always just. His ways are always perfect.

However, that doesn’t mean that what happened to me yesterday is a pattern or guarantee for what will happen today or tomorrow. God’s character and his love for me will never change. How that grace and faithfulness and love is expressed varies widely from moment to moment.

 

One day I may need a remarkable answer to prayer. The next day I may be in the valley of suffering, waiting on the Lord to deliver me. He’s always the same God but he does not display himself in my life the same way all the time.  That means

 

 

Everyone who has ever prayed very much understands this truth. One night we fish and catch nothing. The next day our nets are filled to breaking. I may be in prison one night and an angel may come to set me free. Or God may send an earthquake to deliver me. Or I may die in prison as many Christians have over the years.

 

A loved one with a dread disease may be spared by God for several years, only to die from that disease eventually. One day I may sense God’s Spirit working powerfully in my life. Another day I may plod through the doldrums. So it goes for all of God’s children. Our God is infinitely creative in the way he deals with us as he brings us to spiritual maturity. There are bright days and dark nights, and both are from the Lord.

 

 

 

 

This is one of the clearest themes of the Bible. There is only one God and he demands our exclusive worship. After reminding the Jews that he had delivered them from Egypt, God made this the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). That’s clear, isn’t it? No other gods, period. God is Number One. And there is no Number Two.

 

 

This may be the most important statement regarding God’s freedom. He doesn’t bind himself to do what we expect him to do. As a matter of fact, God continually surprised his people in the Bible. He cast Adam and Eve out of Eden and then made garments to cover their nakedness.

 

He sent a flood and gave Noah a rainbow. He parted the Red Sea, arranged for daily delivery of manna and quail, and then had the sons of Korah swallowed up by the earth.

 

Jesus rebuked Peter, allowed him to see the Transfiguration, predicted his betrayal, restored him, and then predicted the way he would die. Everything happened just as God promised, but nothing worked out the way people expected. He’s the God of great surprises.

 

And he doesn’t have to explain himself to us. There are many questions we would all like to ask. I have a handful of my own.

Almost always our questions revolve around suffering, sadness, the death of loved ones, and times of personal disappointment.

 

And I have found that the greater the sadness, the less likely we are to fully understand it. Small things we can figure out on our own. Great losses are hidden in the mind and heart of God. As Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God”.

 

He is far bigger than we imagine, his presence fills the universe, he is more powerful than we know, wiser than all the wisdom of the wisest men and women, his love is beyond human understanding, his grace has no limits, his holiness is infinite, and his ways are past finding out.

 

He is the one true God. He has no beginning and no end. He created all things and all things exist by his divine power. He has no peers. No one gives him advice. No one can fully understand him. He is perfect in all his perfections.

 

There is nothing we have, not even our praise and worship, that adds in the least to who God is. He did not create us because of any lack in himself, as if we were created because God was lonely.

 

To paraphrase A. W. Tozer, were every person on earth to become an atheist, it would not affect God in any way. The belief or disbelief of the human race cannot change the reality of who God is. To believe in him adds nothing to his perfection; to doubt him takes nothing away.

 

 

He rules all things everywhere at all times. Nothing escapes his notice. Nothing is beyond his control. He is beyond time and space yet he controls them both.

 

And as we ponder God, we are eventually led to a very humbling truth, one that is not mentioned often and is hardly believed when it is taught: God does not need us for anything.

 

If any concept flies in the face of contemporary American Christianity, this is it. Down deep inside, most of us want to feel that we are important and necessary. And we like to think that God must have needed us, or else why would he have created us?

 

But in the absolute sense, God doesn’t “need” anything or anyone. He didn’t create us because he was lonely and he didn’t save us because heaven was empty. He does not need our worship or our obedience or our missionary service or our prayers or anything else we do in order to be God.

 

He doesn’t take our loved ones home to heaven because He needs another flower in his garden or another carpenter for the mansions or another cook in the kitchen.  There is no lack of any kind with him.

 

This is a very humbling, and for some people, a very frustrating truth. But ask yourself this question: Do you really think God can’t get along without you? What if our entire congregation just disappeared, poof, just like that? What if we had never even existed? Do you think the universe depends on us for its survival?

 

 

When the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his cheering disciples as he entered Jerusalem for the final time, he replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). If he wants to, God can cause the trees to clap their hands and the mountains to sing out his praises. He can make the rocks sing his praises if he wants to.

 

That God created us is an act of his sovereign will. That we are saved is a miracle of sovereign grace. That he accepts our worship and rewards our obedience is a miracle of sovereign love.

 

And if we are to understand God and our relationship with Him, we must come to the place where we understand that there is nothing good in us. Apart from God’s kindness, there is no reason for him to use us at all. If God “needs” us to do his work, it is only because he has ordained to work through us to accomplish his will.

 

Because God is God, he could have set up the universe in some other fashion. We are blessed beyond measure that God should allow us the honor of praising him, serving him, and proclaiming his glory to the nations.

 

I recognize there is much more we need to know about who God is than what I have said here. The Bible is filled with rich truth about our Heavenly Father. As we move through this series, we will talk a great deal about his mercy and grace.

 

But for now, it is crucial that we get ourselves firmly grounded in the truth of God’s absolute, unquestioned, totally free sovereignty.

As the old black preacher said, “God do what he want to do.” That’s terrible grammar but it is excellent theology. God does exactly as he pleases, all the time, everywhere, in every situation, in all parts of the universe. Always has, always will. In a profound sense, his ultimate will is always being done. He’s God. That’s the way it has to be.

 

That’s God’s freedom.  Not let’s think about

 

 

God’s freedom, properly understood, ought to lead us to a calm confidence in God even in the midst of unspeakable tragedy. And it should make us bold in our witness and strong in our prayers. And if we believe this, we will find the strength to persevere over the long haul, knowing that even our foolish mistakes cannot cancel God’s plans for us.

 

All of that is true, but it does not seem to touch the core issue. There is a fundamental choice that each of us must make every single day. Some choose to

 

 

Unfortunately that rebellion will eventually lead to anger, bitterness, despair and finally to a hardened heart.

 

I know some folks who have chosen that path. Some end up dropping out of church altogether because they are so angry they cannot come to worship anymore. In my experience, however, most of the people who choose this path stay in church and end up as very angry Christians.

They are hard to talk to because they are secretly (or not so secretly) fighting against the Lord. Usually they have suffered an enormous personal loss and cannot find a way to reconcile what they lost with the God they have always worshiped.

 

So they come to church Sunday after Sunday, sitting in the pews, singing the hymns, praying the prayers, going through the motions, but their hearts are not in it because down deep, they are angry at what God has done. They have the “wounded spirit” spoken of in Proverbs 18:14. It is very difficult to help them unless God’s Spirit softens their heart.

 

There is another choice we can make and that is

 

 

To accept it is to submit ourselves to God, acknowledge that he is free do what he wants to do and allow that submission to lead us to praise.

 

The truth of God’s freedom ought to lead us to praise and worship. If it doesn’t, then we haven’t fully understood the biblical teaching. It is not that we will praise God directly for the pain and sadness around us or for the sinful acts of others.

 

But we will praise God that he is able to work in, with, and through everything that happens, both the good and the bad, to accomplish his will, to make us more like Christ, and to bring glory to himself. To say that is to say nothing more than what Romans 8:28 clearly teaches.

 

So these are our choices with regard to the first fundamental basic of the Christian Life:

Rejection and Anger

 

Submission and Praise

 

I want to leave you with one verse of Scripture for this week. It is

 

 

Nothing happens anywhere in the universe by accident. There is no such thing as luck or fate or chance. God is at work in all things at all times to accomplish his will in the universe. He does whatever pleases him.

 

I understand why some people rebel against a high view of God’s sovereignty. The paradox is this. People who rebel against God usually do so in the name of freedom. They want the freedom to go their own way, follow their own desires, do whatever they want, when they want, with anyone they choose to do it with.

 

Ironically, this sort of “freedom” leads only to slavery. They end up enslaved to sin, chained to addictive behaviors, and locked in the prison house of unrelenting guilt and shame. There is no freedom in rebellion against God. There is only slavery.

 

But when we submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father, when we finally say, “Lord, you are God and I am not,” when we bow before him, through our tears if necessary, then (and only then) do we discover true freedom.  And that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Those whom the Son sets free are free indeed.

Our basic problem is that we have allowed God to be everywhere but on his throne. No wonder we are unhappy and frustrated and unfulfilled. No wonder life doesn’t work right. How much better to say with the psalmist, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker!” (Psalm 95:6).

 

There is coming a day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (see Philippians 2:9-11). If that day is coming, then why not get a head start and bow your knee and confess that God is God and Jesus Christ is your Lord?

 

I want to ask you to repeat a phrase with me out loud: “The Lord is God and there is no other.”

 

Can you say those words? I challenge you to say that sentence out loud right now. Make it a public affirmation of your faith.

 

“The Lord id God and there is no other”

 

And here’s the good news. If you really mean it, then you can take a deep breath. You don’t have to be God anymore. Let God be God and all will be well. Perhaps some of us need to say, “Oh God, you win. The battle is over. I’m going to stop fighting you.”

 

If you need to say that, do it right now. There is abundant joy for those who will admit the most fundamental truth in the universe: He’s God and we’re not.

 

Let’s pray.