Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: You see, we are worshipers. Every person is a worshiper. We're going to worship something. And it takes work to worship the true God and to worship him in a true way that brings him glory and brings him honor.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled First Things First. Let's listen as JP gives us part one of the God we worship.

JP Jones: And if you have your Bibles, would you open to the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. We're going to do a survey of these first four chapters of Genesis as we begin a new series talking about first things first. This fall, we're going to be focusing on the character and nature of God and the appropriate response to the character and nature of God, which is worship. We're going to be looking at who is the true God and how is the true God to be worshiped. The Bible has a lot to say about worship.

I sent out a an email to the body yesterday saying that when you look up this term worship in the Bible and every time it's used and how it's used, what's interesting is, especially in the Hebrew scriptures, it is used primarily in the negative. In other words, how not to worship or what is inappropriate worship or what's the warning against false worship? You see, we are worshipers. Every person is a worshiper. We're going to worship something. And it takes work to worship the true God and to worship him in a true way that brings him glory and brings him honor.

All of us have a propensity because we live in a fallen world and because of our own self-centeredness to express our worship inappropriately. We need to be reminded, we need to be instructed, we need to be guided, we need to be coachable to worship the true God in a true way. This is by the way came to me while I was picking out crab grass yesterday from my lawn. This great spiritual insight that I'm sharing with you right now. God speaks in interesting ways. I was actually thinking about this cuz I was talking to my neighbor.

I don't know where you live and how it's like this, but it's like crab grass has just infected our neighborhood. It's everybody is is dealing with this. And my neighbor has just given up and about half of his lawn is just taken over. So you see, you know, nice green grass and then you see that different colored crab grass there. Well, I took the approach which maybe many of you have taken. January, February, March, you you you put out this this fertilizer that has weed killer and it has crab grass killer and its design is to stop the crab grass before it ever gets started, right?

But even when you do that, it still pops up. It just doesn't, you know, totally dominate your lawn, but it still comes up. So you have to first put out the stuff that kills it before it gets started and then even when it starts coming up, now you have to individually either spray it with something or put something on it or actually come and weed it and pull out crab grass. It's like I've been doing this for the last 3 weeks, you know, and it seems like it grows faster than I can pull it out.

And I'm spraying it with the crab grass killer and I'm coming and and pulling it out and I'm sitting there thinking about this yesterday and I'm realizing, you know, thoughts, false thoughts, untrue thoughts, lies are like crab grass. They just fill us and we've got to do something extremely preventative to stop ourselves from just being overrun and ruled by them. That's like laying out this stuff on March, February and January. That's like just totally immersing yourself in God's word so that you have a true understanding of truth, a true understanding of God and what his will is for your life.

But then even after you do that, weeds grow up all the time. You You start thinking things about God that aren't true and then you start responding to those thoughts with emotions and actions and they're not true because the original thought isn't true and you got to root that stuff out. That's renewing your mind. That's spiritual transformation. You see, if we don't do that, we will worship God falsely and sometimes not even know that's what we're doing it. We will think false things about God and then we will respond to those false thoughts with emotions that are unnecessary or are destructive and then we will act on those motions with actions that we may actually think are totally appropriate, but they are false because they are rooted in a false understanding of God.

We need to see who the true God is and when you see who the true God is, we will worship him in spirit and truth. In fact, Jesus in Mark's Gospel, the way it's recorded for us, was asked what's the greatest commandment and he he quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and he says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. This is called the Shema in Jewish religion and Judaism because the command to hear is from the Hebrew verb Shema. Hear. And what is the word hear? The Lord our God is one. And then Jesus says, that truth doesn't just exist in a vacuum by itself.

That truth demands some kind of response. And what's the response? And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. You see, truth is always transformational. The truth about who God is always leads to a worship that glorifies him and rejuvenates our own souls and transforms us to be agents of change in the world. We need to know who the true God is and as we do, we become the kind of worshipers that have joy and bring him glory. Back to the book of Genesis.

Genesis, the book of beginnings. Here it lays itself out for us, the beginning of the story. And we learn some things about God. First thing we learn is that God is the infinite creator. Genesis 1 1 and 2. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The first thing that God tells us about himself is that he is the creator. In fact, he's the infinite creator because he's got to be greater than his creation to create it.

And the word that that is used here to describe God in his creative work is the Hebrew word bara, means to create out of nothing. God didn't take something that was pre-existing and then build upon it. Wasn't like he was a contractor who comes and remodels your home. No, he built it out of nothing. He's the infinite creator. I don't remember much from the year of Hebrew that I took in seminary, but I remember Genesis 1 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In what beginning? In the beginning of whatever began.

Did you know that God eternally existed complete in himself before he created because God is infinite. And God out of the free council of his own will chose to create and he created out of nothing everything that we see. God is the creator and we're the creatures. And there is a incomprehensible chasm between the two. Now God makes himself known and he's personal and we can relate to him and he even describes himself in anthropomorphic terms. That's just a big word that means he uses language like we use so that we can understand something of who we are because if we used languages related to him, we wouldn't know because there's this incomprehensible chasm between us and him.

He's infinite, we're finite. He's holy, we're sinful. God is the infinite creator. That's important to realize as we as we have those conversations with God like I had the other day. Maybe you have those conversations of time where you really feel like you need to tell God something that maybe he didn't know. And you get it all out and and then you realize, you know, I think I need to come back to just, you know, humble myself under my hand of God so he can consult me at the proper time cuz he's the creator and I'm the creature.

God's the infinite creator. Here's a second thing we see just by looking at the text in Genesis. God speaks and it becomes reality. The flow of Genesis 1 and God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God said, Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it and it was so. And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let the dry ground appear and it was so.

Then God said, Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it according to their various kinds and it was so. And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth and it was so. And God said, Let the water team with living creatures and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky and so God created the great creatures of the sea.

Every living and moving thing with which the water teams according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind and God saw that it was good and God said, Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creatures that move along the ground and wild animals each according to its kind and it was so. Notice the pattern. God said and it was so. God said and it was so. God said and it was so. God speaks and whatever he speaks instantly becomes reality. God has sovereign, almighty, reality-creating power. Think about that.

Sovereign, absolute rule. Almighty, omnipotent, can do anything. Reality-creating power. God speaks and it is so. Do you know there's no struggle, no temptation, no barrier, no spiritual obstacle that you're facing, that I'm facing, that this church is facing, that God couldn't just speak and it would be overcome. That's the kind of God that we are in relationship with. He has reality-creating power. He merely speaks and it is so. God is not just um a better version of us. He He's not like one of the the Greek or Roman gods. He's the infinite creator. He speaks and it becomes reality.

Here's a third observation from the book of Genesis. God is a Trinity in a unity. God is a Trinity in a unity. You think, where's that in Genesis? Well, it's not completely revealed, but it's certainly there. Look at Genesis 1 26 and 27. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air over the livestock over all the earth and over the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them. Well, think about the possibilities here. God is creating. Now we don't know what he may or may not have created before this. So let's just assume, well, what could be the possibilities? Maybe it's God talking to the angels. So God is saying to the angels, Let us create man in our image. Now before you think, well, that that's plausible, is there anyone in the Bible where it says that human beings are created in the image of the angels? No. Is there anyone in the Bible that says God cooperated with the angels in creation?

No. So who's God talking to? When God says, Let us make man in our image. Don't say I'm saying that God's schizophrenic, but God's talking to himself, the father and the son and the spirit. There is in this passage in Genesis 1 26 and 27 the reality of a plural existence of the one God. It's found by the way in the very name that God reveals himself in Genesis. God reveals himself through the Hebrew name Elohim. Now the Hebrew name L is found all over the uh the Hebrew scriptures. The form Elohim is the plural form of L.

There is a reality in Hebrew grammar known as the royal plural. So it is describing intensity or majesty. So most Hebrew scholars, Bible scholars in looking at the name of God as Elohim don't see Gods plural, but God in his majesty. And they appeal to the Hebrew grammatical construction of the royal plural. Well, in Deuteronomy 6 4, the passage by the way that Jesus quotes in Mark when he says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In Deuteronomy 6 4, it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Two names for God there. The Lord Yahweh, our Elohim is one. And the word one there is the Hebrew word echad. And echad in Hebrew isn't trying to describe one as in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 emphasizing there's only one God even though there's many other places in the Bible that clearly make that the case. There's only one God, but that's not the emphasis of echad. It's one in the sense of a fully constituted complete unit indivisible with liberty and justice for all. No, I just do that in there. It's it you can't break it apart.

It's not composed of parts. The point of of Deuteronomy 6 4 is that God is not a composite of his attributes nor a composite of parts. So when we think of the Trinity, it's not there's three parts of God. There's one God indivisible, one echad. But the one echad Yahweh is Elohim. Elohim is plural. Now if I have you somewhat confused, good. That's what I'm trying to get you to realize. The doctrine of God is always confusing cuz God is infinite. But even way back here in Genesis chapter 1, God reveals a clue to his eternal essential nature.

There is a plurality in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, but one God. Jesus said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The testimony of the entire Bible is that there is one God eternally exists as three coequal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One in essence distinct in existence. Not three parts, three persons who mysteriously, incomprehensibly, yet definitely exist eternally as one God. Let us make man in our image in the image and likeness of God.

We have been created male and female we've been created. It is both maleness and fem femaleness that fully represents the nature of God. Wow, man. Genesis kind of heavy book. Well, you know what else we learn? We learn that God communicates his will. This incomprehensible God who is the infinite creator who just speaks and it becomes reality, he would who eternally exists as a Trinity in a unity makes himself known, makes his purposes known, makes his will known, communicates with us. Genesis 1 28 to 30. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and every living creature that moves on the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it and they will be yours for food and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground. Everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food and it was so. Genesis chapter 2 15 to 17. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it and the Lord God commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it, you will surely die.

God reveals himself. God speaks to us. God makes his will known to us. And the whole Bible is filled with that reality. In fact, the Bible itself is God speaking to us. God reveals himself in a variety of ways. Hebrews chapter 1 says that in the past he spoke to the prophets in many portions in many ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his son whom he's appointed the heir of all things, who upholds all things by the word of his power, who is the exact representation of the father's nature.

God speaks through miracles, through saving acts, through dreams, through visions. God has spoken us through the incarnation of his son. God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. God speaks through the prophets and the apostles. God has inspired scripture so that we have the 66 books of the Bible which is the word of God. It speaks, you see. God communicates. God makes himself known. God reveals himself. So we don't have to, you know, be in some kind of philosophical abyss where we just, oh gosh, is there a God? I don't know if there's a God and if if he does exist, what is he like and who knows?

If God had not spoken and revealed himself, that's what we would be left with. But God has spoken. God has revealed himself. God's made his will known, his purposes, his nature. God wants us to know him. In fact, Jesus said in John 17 this great prayer between God the Son and God the Father, he says, This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. God wants us to know him. So he's revealed himself. He's communicated with us. Here's a fifth observation about the true God. God is the self-existent life-giver.

The self-existent life-giver. Genesis 2 7 says, The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. I want you to picture and and even kind of imagine what's going on here. In creation, God took the dust that he had created and breathed into it the breath of life. And because God breathed into what he created, the breath of life, human beings came into existence. We have contingent, derived, dependent life. God has non-contingent, non-derived, independent life. In fact, this this next week in the lecture I'm given for one of the classes I'm teaching at Biola is on the incommunicable attributes of God.

What that means is those things that are unique to God, that that aren't part of us in being created image of God. They're They're things that are unique to his own divine nature. And one of the first attributes in theology that we talk about when we talk about the incommunicable attributes of God is the attribute of independence. Some of you may think, well, I've read the Bible. I don't I don't know where it ever says God is independent. Well, it's a term to describe what I'm talking to you about right now that God has life in himself that is independent from anything else.

That makes him unique. That's why it's an incommunicable attribute. We have life, but we have life because God gave it to us.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives 233 31 Molten Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653 or give us a call at 949 916 0250. That's 949 916 0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book Facing Goliath.

Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m. at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 233 31 Molten Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We are talking about God. We're talking about the nature of God, the attributes of God. Uh this is a study about what the Bible teaches about God and because of what the Bible teaches about God, how should we worship him and respond to him? You know, Jesus said that God is spirit and those who worship him are to worship in spirit and truth. And then Jesus says, God is looking for those kind of worshipers. God's looking for people who will worship him in spirit and truth. So we need to worship the true God and worship him the true way.

Well, who is the true God? Well, the first verse of the Bible says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The first thing that God reveals to us about himself is that he is the creator. And when we understand what that means, we also understand that he's the infinite omnipotent creator. In other words, God has infinite power, infinite resources. He He has infinite creativity, infinite majesty, infinite beauty, and the creation is a reflection of that. when we think about God, the first thing that God wants us to be aware of about who he is is that he's the creator.

God brought everything into being. God spoke and the world came into being. God is bigger than any of our categories. God is outside any of our puny definitions of who he is. He's infinite, he's powerful, he's creative, he's majestic. And so when we worship God, we need to worship the God who is. We need to worship the God who's the creator, the God who's infinite, the God who's limitless, the God who is powerful. What's your view of God? Do you have a small view of God or do you have a view of God according to what the Bible says that he is the infinite creator?

Let me pray for us. God, I pray that you would expand our vision of who you are. Give us a God-sized vision. Give us a view of you according to what the Bible says that you are the infinite creator. In Jesus' name, amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives 233 31 Molten Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653 or call us at 949 916 0250. On the internet, you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.