Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: Even what we can imagine about God, the fact that we can even imagine it is because we've been created in his image, and he's revealed a glimpse of who he is. What we even can speak about God with accuracy, we can speak about him because he's made himself known.

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 five of The God We Worship.

JP Jones: You know, um when I'm very honest with myself and when I am reflecting on my conversations with people in their struggles, I come to the realization that I think the biggest issue for all of us is the issue of control. We want to be in control. We want to control God. We want a God that we can control, and we do it in various ways, some subtle and some overt. Some of us want to understand all the information about God so that he makes sense to us, and we can define him and explain him, and in an intellectual way, we control him.

Some of us just through sheer force of our will want to stand up against him and assert our will over his will, and we try to control him. And some of us have somehow learned inappropriately through our religious experience that if we just try to play by the rules or check off all the boxes or follow the formulas, then we can leverage God to give us what we really want. And the reason we're doing it is not to glorify him, but to get what we want. And so we try to be good Christians to control God.

And God will never be controlled. To loosely quote C. S. Lewis in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, God is not safe, but he's good. We don't have a tame God. God is not one who is easily explained and therefore controlled. God is not one who is so predictable that we can manage him. God is not one who will conform to our boxes, our definitions, our expectations. God's dangerous, but he's good. God is the one who is in control. And if we don't fully grasp that, then we'll never really be worshipers, you see.

To really be biblical worshipers, we've got to worship the God who is, not just the God that we make up. Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, has an encounter with God and comes face to face with the God who is. And as a result, he became a worshiper. This is what it says in Isaiah 6 verses 1 to 8. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above him were seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces.

With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. And at the sound of their voices, the door posts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried. I'm ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. And then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And with it, he touched my mouth, and he said, See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I. Send me. This is a passage that reveals to us the the nature of God, the perfections of God. It It tells us who the true God really is. And until we see who the true God really is, we will never worship him in a way that brings him glory and fills our life with joy.

Here's some observations about the true God. First of all, God's a king. He's the king. Isaiah says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted. In verse 5, he says, My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. God is in charge. He's sovereign. He's a God of providence. He's in control. He rules. And in fact, the rule of God is absolute. No creature can fully challenge the absolute rule of the Creator. And what's interesting is this experience of Isaiah was in many respects for Isaiah's sake.

God wanted to do something in Isaiah's life. God wanted to transform Isaiah. God wanted to reveal who he was to Isaiah. Then God wanted to use Isaiah for God's kingdom purposes. So God, think with me on this, God could have revealed himself in any way that was true of him to Isaiah. God can't be inconsistent with himself. He is always true to himself. That's part of what we call the immutability of God. By the way, just on that side note, you know, there are some things God can't do. God can't lie. He can't sin. He can't do evil.

He can't be inconsistent with himself. So he could have revealed himself in a whole variety of ways, but he revealed himself in this way because of his purposes and his holy nature. And how did he reveal himself? As the king. God's the king. God is not sitting around twiddling his thumbs doing nothing, and nor is God sitting around wringing his hands going, Oh, it got out of control. How did it happen? Oh my gosh. He's in charge. He's ruling, and he is working out his sovereignty. In the Psalms, the the book of worship, it reminds us how understanding that God is the king strengthens our faith and purifies our worship.

The psalmist writes this, Psalm 10, The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations will perish from his land. Psalm 24, Who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Psalm 29, The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord is enthroned as king. Psalm 44, You are my king and my God. You decree victory for Jacob. Psalm 45, Your throne, oh God, will last forever and ever. Your scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. Psalm 47, How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great king over all the earth.

Also in Psalm 47, Sing praises to God. Sing praises to our king, for God is the king of all the earth. Sing praises to him. Psalm 74, But you, oh Lord, are my king from of old. You bring salvation upon the earth. Psalm 89, Indeed, our shield belongs to the Lord. He is our king. He is the holy one of Israel. Psalm 95, The Lord is the great God, the great king over all gods. Psalm 103, The Lord has established his throne in heaven. His kingdom rules forever. Psalm 145, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

Your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises. God's in charge. And there's there's great comfort in that. I was talking to a student of mine just this past week who was wrestling with some issues that we've been talking about. I teach a course in theology, as many of you know at Biola, and we've been talking about the sovereignty of God. And she was doing some reading in her textbook, and she waited till the class was over, and she came up to me and just just just a sweet sweet girl, and she just said, You know, I read some of this stuff, and it it makes me just feel like Well, how come God does these things this way?

And And what about people who've never heard about him? And And what about these terrible things that have happened? And And she started kind of expressing kind of some of her fears. And I And I walked up to her cuz she was standing like this, and I walked up to her and almost kind of fatherly, and I said, Oh, sweetheart, don't ever let the sovereignty of God make you feel bad. In fact, it should create the exact opposite response. Things are not out of control. Things are under his control. You see, the fact that God is king should give us hope and confidence and security.

And even over those things that we don't have the answer to, guess who does has the answer? God. But you see, if he wasn't sovereign, even he wouldn't have the answer. Now the sovereignty of God, the rulership of God, the kingship of God is one of the great truths of the Bible that causes us to understand we're creatures, he's the creator. And oh my gosh, he's God and we're not. In a scene from one of my favorite movies, Chariots of Fire, the main character Eric Liddell in the beginning of the movie, you most of you know the story, he went on historical figure, won in the Olympics, made a strong stand for his faith.

But in the movie version of it, there's a scene where he's coming out of church with his father, who is a minister and a missionary in China, and the promoter who's trying to get Eric Liddell to leave the mission field and actually enter into the area of athletics. And they're having this conversation based on the sermon. And Eric Liddell's father says to this promoter, Sandy, the kingdom of God is not a democracy. The Lord never seeks reelection. There's no discussion, no deliberation, no referenda as to which road to take. There's one right, one wrong, one absolute ruler.

And Sandy, the promoter, says, He's a dictator, you mean. And Reverend Liddell says, Yes, but a loving dictator. Don't Because we live in America and we value democracy, think there's anything wrong with the fact that God is in charge and he's a dictator, and he didn't get a vote. He didn't get elected. He's in charge. He's the king. Isaiah needed to understand that. We need to understand that. Isaiah sees the Lord, and the first thing that he notices, God is on the throne. When we start to doubt that God is on the throne, everything falls apart in our lives, everything falls apart in our marriages, everything falls apart in our families.

We think, Oh my gosh, what's happening in the world? What's happening in America? What about this? What about that? The economy, we just go into panic palace cuz there's a lot to worry about if God wasn't in charge. Do you agree with that? Yeah, there is a lot to worry about if God's not in charge. But God is in charge. Isaiah says, I saw the Lord seated on the throne. God's the king. Here's a second observation. God is transcendent. Transcendent. It's one of those words that I've I've kind of shared in this series that it's not just a theological word that we should toss away.

It's a great word that we should kind of include in our vocabulary. It means that God is bigger and better than we can imagine. That God is above and beyond because Isaiah said this, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high, exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah 55 8 and 9 says this, For my thoughts are your thoughts, declares the Lord. My ways are not your ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

You see, God is exalted. And again, I appeal to the book of worship, the book of Psalms, where we read, The Lord lives. Praise be to my rock. Exalted is God my savior. Psalm 10 The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted. Psalm 30, Psalm 57, Be exalted, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Psalm 92, But you, oh Lord, are exalted forever. Psalm 97, For you, oh Lord of the Most High, over all the earth, you are exalted above all gods.

Psalm 99, Great is the Lord in Zion. He's exalted, exalted over all the nations. Psalm 113, The Lord is exalted over all the nations. His glory above the heavens. Psalm 148, Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. And then this is the way Paul describes it in First Timothy, First Timothy 6 15 and 16. At the right time, Christ has been revealed from heaven. Blessed be the only and almighty God, the king of all kings, the Lord of all lords.

He alone can never die. He lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power belong to him forever. Amen. God's transcendent. He uh He He is outside of our categories. He's outside of the realm of our explanations. He's bigger than we can imagine. He's better than we can imagine. He's more holy than we can imagine. In fact, even what we can imagine about God, the fact that we can even imagine it is because we've been created in his image, and he's revealed a glimpse of who he is.

What we even can speak about God with accuracy, we can speak about him because he's made himself known. You see. God is transcendent. And the power of a transcendent vision is the power of faith. We We studied this past week in our men's study. Joshua, we were talking about Joshua, and we looked back at numbers 13 and 14 where under the leadership of Moses, 12 spies are sent out into the land to spy it out. They came back and gave a report. 10 said, There are giants in the land. We looked like grasshoppers in their sight.

If we go and try to fight them, they'll just crush us like a man steps on grasshoppers. The two, Joshua and Caleb, said, There were giants in the land, but our God will give us the victory. The battle belongs to the Lord. Let's go in and fight, and God will give us victory. They both saw the same giants, but they had completely different interpretations because Joshua and Caleb had a transcendent view of God, and the other 10 were just looking from human perspectives. You see, a transcendent vision of God gives us faith in the face of obstacles and challenges and trials and temptations and heartaches and disappointments and unanswered prayer and downsized economy and everything else that happens in our world.

A transcendent vision of God leads us to be worshipers. A small view of God just leads us to be warriors. And that's it. We're either worshipers or warriors. And it all comes down to our view of God. And God reveals himself as transcendent. Do we believe it or not? Here's a third observation. God is holy. God is holy. Isaiah says in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was high, exalted. He seated it on a throne, and the train of his robe, it just filled the whole temple. And he heard the angelic creatures crying out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Now what I find interesting about this is this is the scene that Isaiah sees that is taking place. This passage is alluded to in the book of Revelation when John the Apostle sees a vision of heaven that Jesus reveals to him. And he also in this vision, John sees these angelic creatures crying out to one another and saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. So on both occasions, God is giving us a glimpse of this heavenly scene, and what is being proclaimed about him, and in both occasions, it's holy, holy, holy. Now God, because he's infinite and he's limitless, has limitless perfections.

So those angelic creatures could have been saying, Wise, wise, wise is the Lord God Almighty. And that would have been true. They could have been saying, Good, good, good is the Lord God Almighty. And that would have been true. They could have been saying, Loving, loving, loving is the Lord God Almighty. And that would have been true. Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign is the Lord God Almighty. That would have been true. We could just go on and on, and I could name one attribute or one perfection of God after another, and they would be true because that's what's true about God.

But what actually was happening and what will be happening as you fast forward the book of Revelation is this angelic antiphonal response because one's crying out and the other's crying back, Holy, holy, holy. God wants us to know that he's holy. There's something about the holiness of God that is identifying as to his nature even above other perfections. The holiness of God reveals his absolute uniqueness because the root word in both the Hebrew and the Greek of holiness is to be set apart. God is set apart. He's different. He is absolutely unique. The moment we think we've figured God out, we haven't.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. It not only refers to his moral perfection, and we see some of that as Isaiah encounters the holiness of God and immediately becomes convicted of his sin, but it's more than just the sense of God's moral perfection. It has to do with his absolute uniqueness in in every category that we would even try to evaluate or measure him. He's beyond our sense of understanding and explanation. The holiness of God is like this this light that is so brilliant and blinding that we actually have to turn away from it.

We're attracted to it because of its absolute brilliance, but as we look at it, we can't because it would cause us to go blind. So we have to turn away from it. The holiness of God is like that. There's something about the holiness of God that is so compelling and attractive that it draws us, but as we clearly see it, it blinds us at the same time. Holiness is the expression of God's nature. And it's an absolute prerequisite to biblical worship. Again, I appeal to the book of worship, the book of Psalms. Psalm 29, Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Sing to the Lord. That's Psalm 29. Psalm 30, Sing to the Lord, you saints of his. Praise his holy name. Psalm 33, In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Psalm 96, Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Psalm 97, Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name. Psalm 99, Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is holy. Psalm 99 5, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool.

He is holy. Psalm 99 9, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. Psalm 105, Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Psalm 106, Save us, oh Lord our God, and gather us from the nations that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Psalm 111, He provided redemption for his people. He ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. Psalm 145, My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever.

See, here in the Psalms, the holiness of God is inseparably related to the posture and attitude and expression of worship. So until we really understand that God's holy, we won't really worship him in a biblical way. Our worship will be defective and inadequate. It requires us to see God as holy to offer him holy worship. But you see, this comes back to the heart of of our struggle. We entertain such low view of God. We are tempted to think higher of ourselves and smaller of God. We struggle with the God that we've dreamed up in our minds, the God who doesn't meet our expectations, the God who doesn't answer all our prayers, the God who just doesn't perform the way we think God should.

And we more easily think there's something wrong with God than realize there's something wrong with our view of God. You know what I'm talking about? We tend to think the problem's with God. He's not being who he should be, rather than humbly saying, The problem's with me. I got a wrong view of God. And at the heart of that is that we're missing his holiness. We're missing his holiness. You see, an understanding of the holiness of God not only is appropriate and proper and gives him the glory that he deserves, but it frees us to worship him with reckless abandon.

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're in a study on the knowledge of God, the person of God, the worship of God, who is the God that we worship. And the Bible says that there's one true God. The writer A. W. Tozer has stated that the most important thing about a person is what they think of when they think of God. Let me ask you the question. What do you think of when you think of God? The Bible reveals God to be in control, the king, the one who is absolutely holy and absolutely sovereign. Our God is a God of might and power, of holiness and strength.

When we worship God, we worship the God who created all things, the God who rules all things, the God who is in control, the God who is absolutely holy. Is this your view of God? If it is, then would you worship him and acknowledge his lordship in your life? I invite you to pray with me. God, thank you that you are the Lord, that you're the only savior, that you are the king and that you are holy. We worship you 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.