Lie #1: God Is Whoever or Whatever We Want Him To Be

 

September 27, 2020                   NOTES NOT EDITED

LIES WE TELL OURSELVES ABOUT GOD

#1: God Is Whoever or Whatever We Want Him to Be
Exodus 20:1-6

 SIS: Rather than deal with our responsibility to a Holy and Righteous God, we create safer, more manageable deities in our own image.

I’m absolutely certain our nation has problems—serious problems.  I’m ever further convinced a significant source for these problems is the American Church.  In a recent poll a few years ago (and matters are no doubt much worse today), a prestigious firm discovered that of our 50 major denominations in the United States, only slightly more than half the pastors believed the Bible to be the Word of God.  For some mainline denominations, such as United Methodists, less than 17 per cent of senior pastors had a biblical world-view. Not even 1 out of 5!

 If the church is so far from the truth as expressed in the Bible, is it any wonder our nation has now thoroughly descended into chaos and debauchery?  Same-sex marriage is legal and gender is optional. Sexual diseases are epidemic, abortion is a national shame, half of all marriages end in divorce, cities are becoming war zones with drive-by shootings, rioting, and looting.  Corporate corruption is common-place?  It is not because America has become an “atheistic state,” but because we have become a “polytheistic state” with everyone creating god in their own image.

 We consistently lie to ourselves as a nation and say, all is well, when the well has been poisoned by lie after lie.  Our biggest lie, our grose luge as it was called in Hitler’s Germany, is that “God Is Whoever or Whatever We Want Him To Be.”  Man indeed seeks to create God in our own image.  What we create, we control.  That is a basic principle in life with of course a few exceptions. But, the hierarchy of power seems logically to flow from Creator to created, and not the other way around.  So, that is why no doubt, man has made so many attempts to "created God in our own image." A god we create, we control, for it is no god at all.

I remember a man sitting on the sidewalk with a dog in a box.  On the box was a sign that said, “Talking Dog For Sale:  $5.”  A woman passed by and noticed the man and the sign.  She asked, “Can he really talk?”  The man scowled at the dog and said, “Say something to the nice lady.”  The dog said in a polite voice, “Good morning, Ma’am.”  The woman was shocked.  She said excitedly, “Why would you sell a talking dog for only $5.  The man quickly replied with a note of disgust in his voice, “Because, you can’t believe a thing he says!”  I see a parallel in our world today.  We have a bunch of “talking dogs” on T.V., but you can’t believe a word they are saying.  As Christians, we must always seek the truth, “not just an entertaining message from talking dogs.”

Our nation has feasted on lies.  Our nation has failed to count the cost for such a “grose luge,” or “Big Lie.”  The Lutheran Church of Germany believed the “Big Lie” of Hitler and we know the devastation and loss of life that brought.

 The “lie” was the Devil’s first and continues to be the Devil’s most powerful weapon in his on-going battle against Yahweh. Jesus called the Devil, “the father of lies” (Jn. 8:44).

 Yahweh’s very first commandment downloaded onto a tablet by Moses was: “You shall not have any other gods before me.”  How far we slipped from our glorious heritage of faith first delivered to Israel. But Israel rejected Yahweh and Yahweh’s Truth.  They accepted instead, a lie, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.  Believing a “lie” always brings death and destruction, and ultimately will bring the very end of this world as we know it.  The Word of God says that in the End Times, a characteristic of culture will be, “they believe a lie” (2Thess. 2:11).  We, in America, are revisiting the culture that ancient Israel found herself in when God gave the nation the Ten Commandments.   We live in a time when people will believe in anything and stand for nothing! 

 And, just watch the firestorms of chaos on the nightly news and you will see in vivid color the consequences of believing a “lie,” and especially believing a lie about Who God is.

 Jesus said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  (Jn. 8:32).  To know the Truth is to know freedom.  To believe a “Lie” is to be shackled by sin and shame.

 As Christians, we have been set free by the Truth.  We do not have the privilege of believing what is convenient; and, let me say, understanding that God is “holy” is not convenient.  In fact, knowing God is Holy has been called, the mysterium tremendom by Rudolf Otto.  Indeed, if man were ever to create a God, a God as Holy as Yahweh would never be our creation. Creating a more manageable God more suited to our sinful, rebellious hearts would be, and is, our course of action—but it is an act of other foolishness for no other God exists than the God of the Bible, the Almighty Creator.

 God, Himself, outlines what we should believe and how we should behave.  Let’s read that truth together this morning:   Ex 20:1-6

 1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.  4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 For life to be worth living, we must discover the truth and be willing to stand up for the truth, even if it means we must pay a high price for our stand.  This morning we are going to look at one of the Lies We Tell Ourselves about God.  The number one lie people believe is that God is Whoever or Whatever We Want Him to Be.  This lie causes man to create gods that are safer, and more manageable than the Holy and Righteous God of the Bible.  These false gods make no demands on those who create them.  In fact, those who make these gods control these gods.  I call them, the god’s of My. They are god’s that suit our needs and salve over our conscience.  

 We prefer the god of My Health and Wealth.  We prefer the god of My Feelings. We prefer the god of My Preferred Gender.  We prefer the god of My Favorite Pasttime.  We prefer the god of My Emotional Experience.  We prefer the god of My Childhood Religion.  We prefer the god of My “Whatever I Want or Need God to Be.”  We prefer any God but Yahweh, the Holy Creator, that demands our holy, passionate, devotion and service.  We prefer any God but the God of the Bible.

 The one common trait all these “My gods” possess is this: they are all created by man in our image.  These “My gods” are completely “opposite” from the God of the Bible.

 God, Himself, defines and reveals His character to us in the Bible largely through His decrees.  Here is what God tells us about Himself in the opening verses of Exodus 20:

 1.  My God is Sovereign and Self–Existent (v2)

 2 "I am the LORD your God,

It is amazing to me that children have no problem believing in the God Who is the Creator of everything while supposedly learned men have the pompous audacity to debate His existence.  Someone has said, “Men who are amazed that God created the earth in only six days seem to have forgotten that there were no theologians, politicians, and lawyers around to complicate the process.”  This is why the Bible says we need to come to the Lord with the faith of a little child – humble, inquisitive, innocent wanting to please. 

The foundational issue with God’s nature is that  God IS everywhere. And, He’s been there all the time.  There has never been a time when God did not exist.  It is illogical to even ask the question, ‘Where did God come from’ because God is the source of all there is.  Everything that has being, received it from God.  Because there is stuff that exists that is “not” eternal, there must be a “Creator” that exists that “IS” eternal.  Since all of human experience proves that “from nothing nothing can ever be made” then it is logically necessary that “since there is something rather than nothing” God, whomever or whatever we call Him, must exist.

 Notice verse two.  The construction is very important.  God declares that His moral law and expectations are based upon His BEING, or His Unique Status in Creation.  God does NOT say, “I became.”or “I would like to be” the Lord and God.  God declares, “I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD.”  This verb construction is called the verb of being.  It states a matter of fact. The construction is “emphatic” pointing out God’s unique place in creation as the “self-existing One.”  The personal pronoun I is added to the verb meaning “I am.”  Literally it says, “I, I am.” The fact is: He has no beginning and no end.  God simply “is.”  Unlike anything in all creation, God is “self-existent.” “I am” is the same name that God gave to Moses before Pharaoh.  It is the same name Jesus used with the Pharisees (Jn. 8:58-59). Jesus uses this same “emphatic form, ego eimi, I, I am” when He declares,

⁵⁸“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I, I am.” ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Jesus delared He was the “Self-Existent One,” which meant Jesus declared, “I am God.” The Pharisees considered this blasphemy, an offense punishable by death.  This idea of God’s Self-existence, and therefore Sovereignty, is the most important concept in philosophy and theology to understand.

Nothing IN this world can be the cause OF this world.  This would be a logical absurdity, like proposing a “square circle.” The fact that anything exists logically necessitates that something always existed (something eternal) to be cause for what came into existence. It is the axiom in philosophy, “Ex Nihilo, Nihil Fit, from nothing, nothing can be made.”

God is the Prime Cause that explains everything else.  Therefore, as Creator, God controls everything—and I mean “everything!”  This unique status of God in all creation makes Him “sovereign.”  Simply stated, sovereignty means, “God has the right and the power to do anything He pleases and anything He does is right.”  This includes the right to give life and the right to take it away.  This includes the right to bless and the right to curse.  This includes the right to reveal Himself, and the right to hide His glory from us. There is no court of appeal when God hands down a decision.  He is the Supreme Court justice of the universe.

 Now, turn the fact of God’s sovereignty upside-down.  It means, you and I have but one “right or duty” and that is to do what pleases Almighty God. You will never experience life in the fullness that God wants you to experience it, if you do not embrace the mystery of His self-existence and submit to the power of His Sovereignty.  Life’s burdens are too heavy to rest upon the flimsy foundations of god’s we create in our own image and for our own delights.  No, there is only one sure foundation for faith, it is a relationship with the self-existent, sovereign God of the universe.

So, what application does this have for us? A man is a fool who does not seek out the favor of the Self-existent Sovereign of the Universe.  It is the very height of stupidity to worship a false god created in our own image created in our own image and our own liking.

 The true God Sovereign and Self-existent.

 2.  My God is Jealous and Exclusive (v5)

 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.  4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

 We err greatly when we forget that God is a jealous God and will not share Himself with anything or anyone.  We bring down His wrath upon us when we steal time or treasures, or our affections from God and give them to the false gods such as the god of Pleasure, or Feelings, or Whatever.

 The Psalmist realized that God was a jealous God and would not tolerate any competition for His affection.  The Psalmist declares:

 “If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out?  For He knows the secrets of the heart.”  (Ps. 44:20,21)

 The word, “JEALOUSY” in the Hebrew language is related to the word, “anger.”  In some Arabic forms this word means, “to be very red,” as in “boiling red hot lava.” The worship of false gods made in our own image, causes the anger of God to boil against us like no other transgression.  Moses warns the people as they stand on the edge of the Promised Land:  Deut 4:23-24

 23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

 The man on the streets, and even the man in the pew, and certainly the men who call themselves leaders and scholars, are not very “careful” with how they speak of God, today.  Anne Lotz (Billy Graham’s daughter) recently said, “America is shaking her fist in the face of God and we must repent.”   The open rebellion we see rampant in American life today is causing God’s anger to boil.  If we do not repent, the boiling cauldron of the wrath of a jealous God is going to consume us like fire.  No doubt, Moses was recalling what happened to those ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  They were consumed completely by the fire of God’s jealous anger because they were worshiping gods that pleased them and doing what pleased them.  Sin kindles the fire beneath the boiling cauldron of wrath until the stench of our sin is more than God can tolerate.  The result is sure,  eternal, and horrible judgment!

 During the 9 1 1 crisis there was a national religious meeting in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.  The opening preacher, a woman, was commending the fact that all religions had come together to share the message of the love of God – Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the list went on.  Well, my friend, God is not well pleased when we put false gods on the pedestal He alone should occupy.  This kind of ecumenical nonsense will not bring God’s favor – My God is a jealous God and such worship will only incur further wrath – and His curse upon our nation. 

 The wrath of God is already being poured out on a nation that has incited God to anger because we are fooling around with the harlots of false gods.  We give our time, talents and treasures to every pursuit but the pursuit of holiness and we wonder why generation after generation of families experience the curse of God.  God says He will visit the “idolatrous iniquity of a father unto the third and fourth generations.”  Parents who fail to give allegiance to the one True and Living God and pursue the false gods of “me-ism” bring a curse upon their children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.  Why?  Because, children DO BECOME our parents!

 Friend, the Bible declares, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a jealous and angry God.”  Thank God, HALLELUJAH, He is not only Sovereign and Jealous, BUT

 3.  My God is Loving and Merciful (v6)

 but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 We are all slaves to sin.  We are all subject to being held in bondage and forced to do the will of another.  That is, if we have not been delivered by God.  You are either a slave in Egypt or a sojourner on the way to the Promised Land.  We do not deserve any better than to serve the tyrannical taskmaster of sin making bricks without straw.  But, God in His infinite mercy, and for a reason that escapes reason, takes mercy upon us.  He delivers us through the mighty miracle of salvation from a life of sin and to a life of bliss.  Look again at v 2:

 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery

 This is the most significant event in the life of the Jews. This is the event that they look back to when they have found themselves in great trial and persecution.  They recall that God had delivered them in His great mercy before, and will deliver them again.  Everyone needs and Exodus Experience.  Everyone needs to be able to look back to a day and time when God’s infinite love and mercy burst upon them and released them from the bondage to sin.

 We talk about “addiction” a lot in our society: addiction to drugs, addiction to drink, addiction to sex.  Psychologist like to say, “once an addict, always an addict.”  But, I say there is deliverance in the mercy of God.  We do not have to go back to Egypt.  God’s mercy delivers us from our addiction to “me-ism” that leads us to follow false gods into bondage rather than respond to the love of God that in his great mercy delivers us from the shackles that bind us to the whipping post of sin.

 I love to go back to God’s words from Paul to the young pastor, Titus.  The Apostle declared,

 “He [that is God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done but because of His mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our savior.”  (Titus 3:5-6)

 God is NOT whoever or whatever we want Him to Be. He is not the god of MY image.  No, it is exactly the opposite.  I am the image of My God.  My god is not the petty gods created by the cleverness of man.  He is the self-existent, sovereign, jealous, loving God of the Bible.  Anything less than this is a false god.

 The great Puritan preacher, Matthew Henry said generations ago: “Whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended upon, more than God, that (whatever it is) we make a god.”

 Today, you have that same choice.  You will leave here serving somebody. 

 There is a cost to serving the One True God – but there is a far greater price to pay for rejecting Him.

 We cannot get around our duty and devotion to God by creating other gods that are more manageable.  God IS Who He IS, and we err eternally when we fail to give Him the allegiance He deserves.