Quote from Forum Archives on November 26, 2003, 10:17 am

Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

The Living God  (part 2) (part 1  : http://welovegod.org/groups/sermonsonthenet/ezmlm.cgi?mss:066:   )

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.

 

This command still applies today.

 

Part 2

 

As the one true and living God, the God of Israel and the God of Jesus is the God who acts. The concept of the "living God" includes action.

 

Psalms 86:10 For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.

 

It is these "wondrous things" that demonstrate the truth of God's claim to be the one true God. His works proclaim His deity and His Lordship.

 

1. The God Who Creates Is Truly God

The fact that the God of Israel is the Creator of heaven and earth is the first indication that He is truly God. Here, the contrast between God and idols could not be any more extreme. God is the Maker of all, but all idols are made by the hands of men. This is the foolishness of idolatry, that a person would make something with his own hands and then fall down and worship it.

 

Idols Are Frequently Scornfully Called "The Works of Men's Hands".

 Deuteronomy 4:28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. Isaiah 2:8 Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. Jeremiah 1:16 I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, because they have forsaken Me, burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

 

Hosea 8:6 ...the workman made it; therefore it is not God...

 

A. The Stupidity of Worshipping Something Made by Human Hands is Brought Out In Isaiah 44:9-20

 

Isaiah 44:11-12 The one who makes the idol is himself a mere man, one who gets hungry and weary.

 

The implication is that the idol surely cannot be any greater than its maker. In fact, it is much less. At least the man is intelligent enough to make the tools with which he shapes the wood that is to be made into an idol.

 

Isaiah 44:13 But when the idol is made, even though it has the shape of a man, it just sit and does nothing (vs 13)

 

Isaiah 44:14-17, 19 The idolater doesn't have the sense to understand the obvious truth of his false religion.

 

Isaiah 44:20 He is deceived and does not realize he is holding a lie in his hands.

 

By Way of Contrast, the True and Living God is Not the Product of Human Minds or Hands; He is the One Who Has Created All Things

2 Kings 19:15-16 ...You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Psalms 95:3-6 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalms 96:4-5 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Nehemiah 9:6 You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all... Acts 14:15 ...Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

 

B. The wisdom of serving the Creator rather than the lifeless works of human hands is brought out in Jer. 10:6-16.

10:6 There is none like God 10:8-9 Those who worship idols are stupid 10:10 Only the Lord is the true and living God 10:11-12 The gods who did not create will perish 10:14-15 Idols are worthless and idolaters are stupid 10:16 Jehovah is not like these. He is the Maker of all

 

In all these passages the point come through very clearly, that the living and true God is the one who has acted in the creation of the universe. If you are not serving the Creator of all, you are serving the wrong god.

 

2. The God Who Redeems is Truly God

The vanity of idols is seen in the inability to rescue and redeem those who trust in them. This is precisely where the God of Israel shows himself to be the true and living God, namely, in His mighty acts of redemption.

 

In a way, God's redeeming works are a more immediate evidence of His reality than His work of creation. This is true because we know His creation only after the fact, i.e., only by its effect and by His testimony.

 

The works of redemption, on the other hand have actually been witnessed by those involved. The works of redemption are also a more specific evidence that the God of Israel and the God of our Lord Jesus is the one true God, rather than the gods of Assyria, Greece or India.

 

Deut. 4:32-39 This is true because these redeeming works are performed in the context of faith in this specific God. The God worshipped by the Israelites, not the Assyrians or the Egyptians, is the God who acts on behalf of His people.

 

The God worshipped by the Israelites and by Christians, not the Greeks or Romans, is the God who raised Jesus from the dead.

 

A. One thing that gives the works of redemption a greater evidential power is that God not only performs these mighty acts but foretells what He is going to do. This shows that God not only is powerful enough to save His people but that He transcends time. Only a true God can do this.

Isaiah 40-48 compares Jehovah, the Living God to the idols of the pagans. Isaiah 42:8-9 I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Isaiah 43:10-13 "You are My witnesses," says the Lord, "And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; therefore you are My witnesses," says the Lord, "that I am God. (13) Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?" Isaiah 44:8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one. Isaiah 45:21-22 Tell and bring forth your case; yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah 46:9-11 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, `My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.

 

B. GOD'S POWER TO "DECLARE AND DO" APPLIES TO ACTS OF JUDGMENT AS WELL AS TO ACTS OF REDEMPTION. SOMETIMES AN ACT BOTH JUDGES AND REDEEMS AT THE SAME TIME.

 

GOD SOMETIMES DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE BY DESTROYING HIS ENEMIES.

 

Psalm 83 calls upon God to destroy his enemies, that: Psalms 83:18 That men may know that You, whose name alone is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth.

 

Many examples of God's mighty acts of redemption are recorded that show He is the true God.

 

1. The Deliverance of Israel from Egypt Into Canaan.

Exodus 9:14 For at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.

 

2. At Sinai, God Began the First Commandment with the Reminder:

 Exodus 20:2-3 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.

 

Just before Israel entered the promised land, Moses reminded them of their deliverance and assures them of victories during the impending conquest; and he tells them that these mighty acts show that their God alone is God.

 

Deuteronomy 4:32-35, 37-39

 

3. When Announcing the Miracles of Crossing the Flooded Jordan River:

Joshua 3:10 And Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.

 

4. David Sums up this Point About the Exodus and Conquest:

2 Samuel 7:22-23 Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name - and to do for You great and awesome deeds for Your land - before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

 

5. After God Told David that He Would Build a House For Him:

1 Chronicles 17:20-21 O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people - to make for Yourself a name by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before Your people whom You redeemed from Egypt?

 

6. Prayer for Deliverance From the Assyrian Army

 Isaiah 37:20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.

 

7. After the Deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed Nego:

 Daniel 3:29 Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.

 

8. After Daniel's Deliverance From The Den of Lions:

 Daniel 6:26-27 I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

 

In The N.T., the Greatest Act of Redemption Performed by God was the Resurrection of Jesus. In this act, God demonstrated that He, the God of Israel and the God of Jesus, is the true and living God.

 

God is known as the one who: Romans 4:17 ...God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 2 Corinthians 1:9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

 

In contrast with lifeless and impotent idols, the one true God shows himself to be God by His works of creation and redemption.

 

Only the God of Israel is the Living God

 Psalms 115:3-9 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. Habakkuk 2:18-20 What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, `Awake!' to silent stone, `Arise! It shall teach!' Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.

 

We need to be serving the Living God.

 

1. Is the God you serve the Living God?

 

2. is the God you serve the Creator?

 

 3. Can the God you serve able to save? Bring the Dead back to life?

 

4. The God who is active in our lives today? Who both blesses and curses?

 

The Foolishness of Idolatry: Whether health, Sports, $, family, etc., whatever is not the true and living God who created All.

Putting ANYTHING before serving the Lord is very foolish - it is idolatry.

 

Serve the God who is the Creator and Redeemer. Only He can raise the dead.

 

 

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