The One True God - Part 1

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Tonight, we come to the only true God. We come to begin our study, not even of the works of God as we began last week, but to look at the Person of God. And I really don't think there's a better way to start than to call your attention to this quote from Donald McLeod in his book, Behold your God. He says:

God is not simply a great sight, the object of speculative curiosity, the revelation of His glory, and the whole theological process which legitimately follows from it is holy ground. We cannot stand as superiors over God or His Word. We may not coldly and detachedly analyze and collate the great self-revealing deeds and utterances of Jehovah. We may not theologize without emotion and commitment.

And then he says this: "The doctrine must thrill and exhilarate. It must humble and cast down. Theology has lost its way and indeed its very soul if it cannot say, with John, 'I fell at His feet as dead.'"

We are studying the Person of God, the great and awesome God, the one true and living God, and this is the only way to begin our study of Him. Last week, with creation, we began to study theology proper. That's what this category of our Anchored series is called. We're going through in a three- to four-year period, looking at the great doctrines of the Bible. And this section that we have begun is, in theological terms, called theology proper because it is the study of God Himself. It is the study of the Person of God, of His works, of His attributes, what the Bible teaches about the Person of God. And this is not a study to take lightly.

In fact, as we are just really embarking on this journey into the character of our great God, let me chart out our course for you so that you know how you ought to be thinking. What are our objectives? What should our objectives be as we study about the Person of our God?

First of all, we ought to be studying to gain a basic understanding of the biblical teaching about the Person and work of God. This is crucial. This is important. So many Christians today live driven by their emotions. They live from one emotional high to the next emotional high. They are strung along by a kind of spiritual narcotic. In biblical terms, progress in the Christian life happens not because of what we feel, but because of what we know. It becomes crucial that we gain an understanding of who God is. And it's only as we understand who God is that we grow in our knowledge of Him. And so, this is crucial.

Many years ago, not long after I became a Christian, in fact, it was probably during my late high school years, after I came to Christ, that I read a little book by A.W. Tozer called The Knowledge of the Holy. It's a good book. It's a little mystical, and it's not as closely tied to the Scripture as I would like today, but I benefited greatly from it. It's definitely in my top twenty books that have influenced me. And in that book, in that classic, The Knowledge of the Holy, this is what Tozer wrote. Listen to this:

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology, but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple. Where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.

And then he makes this startling statement, and I think he's absolutely right. He says, "I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics" — that is, our Christian living — "that cannot be traced, finally, to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God." Every struggle in your life, every pattern of sin, every habit of sinful thinking, could genuinely be traced back to a flaw in your thinking about God.

That's what he's saying, and he's absolutely right. And so, one of our objectives, as we go through theology proper, as we study the Person of God, is to gain a correct understanding about who God is and what He does.

A second objective in this study is to be challenged to further study. We're going to just sort of sail across the high points of the truth the Bible teaches. The Bible, all of it, this book that you hold in your hands, is God's self-revelation. Now, we say that all the time, but think about that a moment. This is God's self-revelation to us. In its pages, we discover all that God, our Creator, wanted us to know. And so, therefore, in our brief study of the person of God, we're not even making a dent in that. Instead, the desire is that we would all be excited to further study.

Thirdly, a third objective, is to develop a desire for a closer fellowship with God. In the end, this isn't about just accumulating information. God is a Person, as we will discover next week. God is a Person. And as a person, we are created in the image of God. And we're made to fellowship with God. We're made to know God. I like the way the Shorter Catechism puts it: "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." To enjoy Him, to enjoy His company, to enjoy His presence, to enjoy the truth about Him, [to] fellowship with Him. So that's what we're after. This is why we're studying this. It's not about accumulating more information to file away in a file cabinet at home. It's about coming to know our God.

Now, as I mentioned last week, Rocky began this by introducing us to one of the works of God, the work of creation. Tonight, we begin to study the Person of God, and we need to begin at the very beginning, and that is with the existence of God. Now, we've encouraged you in this Anchored series to get MacArthur/Mayhue's new book, Biblical Doctrine. And so, just to encourage you along that way, I've included several quotes that I think will encourage you and help you. I want to begin as we talk about the existence of God with this quote from that book:

In the beginning, God (Genesis 1:1). The Bible does not begin with a rationalistic argument for the existence of God, but rather assumes that He exists, that He existed before the beginning of all things outside Himself, and that there is only one God. Theology proper, as with all other areas of systematic theology, is properly derived from God's own testimony in His inspired, inerrant Word, the Bible. One's concept of God does not come from below, from human reasoning about the universe, because human reason is finite in its components and operations, corrupted by indwelling sin, and therefore never able of itself to derive an accurate understanding about God, who is infinite and holy. Proof for God's existence must come first and foremost from God's testimony about Himself. He has provided irrefutable proofs for His existence in the Bible.

That's where we ultimately go. But let's start to build a case here as we move to that direction. As we look at the existence of God, some would argue, and rightly so, of man's intuitive knowledge of God. Every human being, from the beginning of the world till now and until the end of all things, has an awareness within himself of God's existence. That awareness is there, hardwired into his very nature, because man was created in the image of God and therefore has an awareness of the God in whose image He has created. This is universal. It's just universal.

The World Almanac, for example, records that of the 7 billion plus people on this planet, 6 billion of them, six in every seven, believe in the existence of a superior power or being, a divine being, six of every seven. This is a universal awareness, and we'll talk about that one in every seven in a moment. Where does that come from? But this is a universal reality, and it is also necessary. Charles Hodge writes in his systematic theology, "There is no satisfactory way of accounting for the universal belief in the existence of God, except that such belief is founded on the very constitution of our nature." We're hardwired. We're hardwired with an awareness of God. You can't get away from it. Thiessen writes,

Just as the pendulum of a clock can be pushed off center by an internal or external force, so a man can be pushed off his normal belief in the existence of God. But just as the pendulum returns to its original position when the pressure is removed, so a man returns to his normal belief in God when he is not consciously under the influence of a false philosophy.

It's exactly right. There can be an influence that moves him off of that knowledge. But once that internal or external pressure is removed, he returns to that. Why? Well, because this is a scriptural reality. The Bible tells us that God has done this. He's done it in three ways. God has planted this knowledge of Himself, of His existence, in man in three separate ways.

First of all, through the creation itself. Turn to Romans chapter 1. We've spent a lot of time here, but it's been a while. Let me remind you of what He says. He says, in 1:18, "[For] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven," is being revealed "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress," who hold down "the truth in their unrighteousness." What is this truth that they hold down? Verse 19: "Because that which is known about God is evident within them." They know certain things about God. It's evident within them. How? How did they come to that knowledge? God made it evident to them. There is a God-induced awareness of Himself. How did He do it? Verse 20: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes," and then He defines what He means by that, God's eternal power, God's eternity, clearly all around us, is sustained while we come and go. That implies a Being who is eternal, and power. Just a few of the storms we've seen over the last few weeks remind us of just a little bit of God's power. There is in the creation, clearly, power and His divine nature, that is, His deity. That's all evident. Paul says, notice verse 20: These things "have been clearly seen" by all men, "being understood through what has been made," they understand them, and therefore all men "are without excuse." There is no one on this planet to whom God, going back to verse 19, to whom God has not made Himself evident through His creation.

You say, "Well, how is it that pagans don't honor the true God? How is it that so many in our culture don't?" Verse 21: "For even though they knew God" — they knew these things about the true God — "they did not honor Him as God." They didn't glorify Him literally as God, or give thanks. "But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools," and they began to worship something other than the God that they knew from creation was there. This is Paul's explanation for paganism. God has given man an intuitive knowledge of Himself in the creation.

But there's a second way that God has manifested Himself, the Scripture teaches us, and that is through conscience. Look at chapter 2 of Romans again. We discovered this together. Romans 2:14: "For when Gentiles," the pagans, who do not have the written Law do instinctively, or by nature, the things that are consistent with God's law — For example, even pagans who don't have the written law of God, understand the importance of honoring parents; even pagans understand the importance of some degree of fidelity in relationships, of some degree of truthfulness to those around you. When they do that, Paul says — "these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves." Verse 15: So how did they learn this? "They show the work of the law written in their hearts." The substance of God's law is written in every human heart, and their conscience takes that innate awareness of the basic right and wrong that's taught in the Law of God, and their conscience either excuses them if they keep what their conscience is telling them, what that work of the Law written on their heart is telling them, or their conscience accuses them if they violate it.

Here's the big point Paul is making. There is an internal awareness in every human heart that there is a moral standard outside of my own. So again, God, as the moral lawgiver, is making Himself known through creation, His deity, His power, His eternity, through the conscience, through the work of the Law written on the heart, His moral, holy nature. And that He brings judgment, because conscience itself does that, doesn't it? I think it was Charles Hodge who said that "conscience is just a faint echo of the coming judgment of God." It's a reminder that God is a God of holiness and righteousness, and He will punish sin.

But there's a third way that God has made Himself known, and that is through providence. Turn back to Acts, chapter 14. Paul and Barnabas were at Lystra. And in verse 8 and following, they, by God's power, are able to heal a man who had been lame from birth. He never walked, verse 8 says, and Paul says, in verse 10:

'Stand upright on your feet.' [And] he leaped up [and] began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying [in the Lycaonian language,] 'The gods have become like men and have come down to us.' And they [began] calling Barnabas, Zeus and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

And they started to make sacrifice. "[But] when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes [and] rushed out into the crowd," saying, "No, no, no, we're just men" — verse 15 — we "preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them." And then Paul makes an argument. He says, let me tell you how you know about Him. You haven't had His word, but you know about Him. "In [the] generations gone by" — verse 16 — "He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness." God left a witness of Himself to pagans. What was the witness? "He did good [and] gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." God, in His providence, cares for His creation. He gives them good things. He supplies their needs. He gives them the joys of this life. Those are a testament to the existence of God.

So, it's scriptural. Again, speaking of this intuitive knowledge in the book Biblical Doctrine, we read, "Theology proper seeks to ground the knowledge of God's existence in Scripture and to relegate all other evidence of God's existence to secondary status, subordinate to Scripture's assessment. Still, God has revealed Himself by means other than Scripture" — and that's what we've been talking about — "He has revealed Himself nonverbally to all people through creation, through nature, through conscience and history or providence. This is referred to as general or natural revelation, and the Bible strongly affirms it. But," — and here's the key — "knowledge of natural revelation of God must never be considered independent of Scripture, because the Bible shows that, left to his own thinking, man will corrupt the revelation of God in nature. Even the Christian needs the guidance of Scripture to properly assess God's revelation of Himself in nature."

You can misread natural revelation, general revelation, and so the Scripture is necessary. So, this intuitive knowledge of God is universal. It's necessary. It's affirmed by Scripture. But it has also been rejected. Sigmund Freud, in his book, The Future of an Illusion, argues that man invented God, and he goes on to explain why that is. Freud wrote that man invented God because we have these deep-seated fears of living in a frightening world over which we have little control. But the Bible says Freud got it exactly backwards. Man didn't run to an idea of God, and invent God. Instead, man runs away from God. According to Romans 1, man does everything he can to deny the existence of God. That's why Romans 1:18 says that ungodly men "suppress the truth." They hold down the truth of what God is and has revealed Himself to be.

Nevertheless, man has this intuitive knowledge of the existence of God. Now that brings us, secondly to, as we talk about the existence of God, "What about the classic rational arguments for God's existence? What about those? Is there value to those arguments?" Well, I think it's important to begin by recognizing that there are two basic approaches to the proving of God's existence outside the Bible or the proving of God's existence, period.

The first is what we will call the evidentialist approach. You get the idea here, based on the world evidence, and evidence outside of Scripture. The evidentialist approaches the unbeliever, now we're talking about: You're coming to an unbeliever, and the unbeliever is saying, "I'm not sure if God exists." How do you approach him? Well, the evidentialist says, "Okay, we need to approach unbelievers on this sort of common ground. There's this common pool of facts in the world, and I'm going to use that common pool of facts, and I am also going to use a careful use of reason about those facts. And if I do that, then it will lead to agreement that Christianity is true and possibly even to the unbeliever's acceptance of the gospel." That's the evidentialist perspective.

The other is called the presuppositionalist perspective. You begin in your witness, in your discussions, with certain presuppositions. And presuppositionalism embraces the following realities: First of all, God has revealed Himself in creation, providence and conscience. God has revealed Himself, as we just saw. Man knows that revelation. Every man knows that revelation. Remember, God made it evident to them so that they all are without excuse. Man knows that revelation and knows it to be true. But man willfully chooses to deny or to disregard that revelation, to suppress it, to hold it down. In fact, man is dead to God, and he is unable to choose good even if confronted with it, even if presented with compelling arguments. Therefore, we cannot rationally argue unbelievers into saving faith. Instead, God must bring regeneration. Ephesians 2:1: "You were dead," God made you alive. And God always accomplishes — here's [the] key — God always accomplishes that regeneration by means of

what? The Spirit of God, using the Word of God. James 1:18: "He brought us forth by the word of truth." He birthed us, He gave us spiritual life by the word of truth. That's what the Spirit of God always uses. So, therefore, in light of that, the presuppositionalist, in light of all of that line of argumentation, the presuppositionalist says, "Proving the existence of God is not only impossible, it's even unnecessary."

Here's a way to think about it. Suppose that a psychiatrist has a patient who lives in a fantasy dream world. He walks around living in this sort of fantasy dream world, and he thinks the doctor is the one who is out of touch with reality. He thinks the doctor is insane. What should the doctor do to try to reach this person? Should the doctor try to enter the make-believe world of the patient to try to convince him he's wrong? Should he pretend along with the patient in order to convince the patient that he's wrong? No, of course not. The only option the doctor has is to reason with him from the real world. In [the] analogy that I'm using, that means we, in presenting the gospel, don't argue based on the insane frame of reference of the unbeliever. We argue from the world, the real world, the spiritual world that exists, the reality.

So, as we consider the classic rational arguments for God's existence, you need to understand them within that framework. But there is some value to them, as we will see. Historically, Christian apologists have set out four primary rational arguments to attempt to prove logically, without the use of the Scripture, that God exists. Let's look at them briefly. Here are the classic rational arguments for God's existence.

Number one: The cosmological argument. This doesn't have to do with hairstyles. The word cosmos means world. This is the argument from the world. This argument, by the way, has a long history. It goes back to the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. It's actually quite a complex argument. It consists of two parts, but classically, in Christian theology, just the first part is presented. Summarized, it's the argument from cause and effect. Here's essentially what it argues. It says every effect must have an adequate cause. The world around us is an effect, a huge effect. Therefore, the world must have a cause that is outside of itself, and that is large enough, great enough, adequate enough to account for its existence.

Now, this idea is contained and implied even within the Scripture. If you look, for example, at Hebrews. Look at Hebrews 3:4: "[For] every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." There's a sort of implied cosmological argument in that verse. Psalm 19:1 makes a similar point, doesn't it? The heavens declare the glory of God, and all of the greatness and the vastness of the expanse of the heavens are telling of His handiwork. You can look at it and see, look at the effect and know how great must be the One who did these things. Now, this means well, and it does make a contribution, the cosmological argument, and that is: Its supposed contribution is that there was a first cause. However, it's not quite as strong as it might appear, because it has several weaknesses. First of all, it begs the question of the need for a first cause. It doesn't prove the need for a first cause. It assumes the need for a first cause. Secondly, logically, in this argument, God must have a cause. This is where kids, who have this explained to them, always come back to, "Well, who made God?" If God made all things, and all things require to be made by someone, then who made God? In addition, this argument doesn't demand a single personal cause. By the way, Bertrand Russell, the atheist, particularly cited the second one of these weaknesses: God must have a cause if everything has a cause; so, the cosmological argument.

The second argument that's classically used is the teleological argument. This is from the Greek word telos, which means end or goal. The roots of this argument are found in Plato as well. This is the argument from order and design. Here's how it goes. Essentially, it argues this way: Intelligent design presupposes a designer. The universe clearly exhibits intelligent design. Therefore, an architect must have brought the world into existence. That's the argument. This is similar, by the way, it's not unrelated to Paul's argument in Romans 1 we just saw.

Now, we understand this, and I think there is an element of truth to this that we need to grasp. I mean, think about this. If you're walking along the beach and you see a rock lying on the beach, it wouldn't be completely illogical because of the simplicity of that rock, because of its lack of complexity, for you to look at that rock and think, "Maybe that rock has lain there forever, and nobody made it." [It] wouldn't be a right conclusion, but you might be tempted to come to that conclusion. But if you were walking along the same beach and you stumbled upon a Maserati, I don't know why you would, but let's just say you did, or let's do something more likely, you stumble upon a watch, a watch like the one I have on my wrist. If you see that watch lying on the beach, you will not assume that it is just lying there forever and was not fashioned, was not designed. Why? Because intricate, purposeful systems demand intelligent design.

That would be true even if you'd never seen a watch, if you'd never seen one before. If you came across it and you saw and understood something of its complexity, you would understand that it must have been made by someone. It would be true even if the watch didn't always function properly, even if the battery wasn't working, and you saw it there, and you looked at all the parts and it wasn't actually functioning at that moment. It would be true even if you couldn't discover exactly what all the precise parts were for. And it would be true even if you found that the watch had somehow the ability to manufacture other watches. So, there is an element of truth to this, and its supposed contribution is that the first cause is intelligent and outside the universe. However, it does have some weaknesses, because the intelligent designer in this argument may be finite like his creation. [It] doesn't lead us to conclude of an infinite creator, and it doesn't necessarily lead us to conclude of a personal god.

The third classic argument is the ontological argument. Ontos means being. It's the argument from being. This argument is also present in the writings of Plato, but it was proposed in its classic Christian form by Anselm a thousand years ago. This is the argument from the idea of God. Now, this is a bit esoteric, so you got to stay with me. Here's the way it goes. We have in our minds, we have in our world, the idea of God, that is, the idea of an absolute, perfect Being. And this idea of God is infinitely greater than man himself. Hence, it cannot have its origin in man. It can only have its origin in God Himself. As Thiessen wrote, "It is selfievident that every idea in our human culture has some cause." The idea of the God of the Bible must have some cause, and this cause must be God Himself. The supposed contribution of this argument is that the first cause must be infinite and perfect.

Here's the problem. You can't deduce real existence from abstract thought. Immanuel Kant, philosopher, critiqued this ontological argument by making this point, and I think it's a good one. He said this argument no more establishes the reality of God than a merchant's adding zeros in his ledger increases his actual wealth. Or, as one of Anselm's critics put it, "I can imagine a perfect island beyond which no more perfect can be conceived. That does not make my island a reality." So, this argument, too, has its weaknesses.

The fourth is the moral, or often called the anthropological, argument, anthropos [meaning] man, the argument from man. This is the argument from conscience. That's why it's sometimes called the moral argument. Again, this is how this argument unfolds. Man has a moral consciousness. We understand that. Every man has a sense of what is right and wrong and a sense of responsibility to do what is right. And when he commits evil, he experiences a sense of self-condemnation. When he does what is in keeping with that sense of responsibility, he has a sense of approval and congratulation. We may conclude therefore, this argument says, that since this is universally true, that there must be a permanent moral law outside of ourselves that has somehow been woven into our being to which we are accountable.

And by the way, this is biblically true, isn't it? We just saw it in Romans 2. This is the argument that C. S. Lewis uses in his book Mere Christianity, arguing for the reality of God. He says, "Look, there are differences in moral understanding, but there is a moral code written into humanity. That universal moral code speaks to a universal moral Lawgiver outside of us." It's the basic argument of Paul in Romans 2:14.

Now, the contribution of this is the first cause has a moral nature. Its weaknesses, as it stands outside of Scripture, is it doesn't prove, but assumes, that the moral law is objective, that it's not subjective, and it doesn't necessarily point to a being of absolute perfections. So those are the classic Christian arguments for the existence of God.

Now, there are several Christian perspectives on these classic proofs. First of all, there is what we'll call the classic perspective, and that is that, properly presented, these arguments successfully argue for God's existence. These proofs, they would say, are an effective tool in evangelism. They won't force someone to believe, but they will force any rational person to admit there is a God. That's the classic view of these proofs. A second, we might call the modified view. This view says they're not going to convince anyone who isn't already a believer. Instead, these proofs offer evidence to the believer that his faith is not utterly irrational. A third view we might call a worthless view: They are of no value whatsoever to believers or unbelievers. And I would suggest to you this final view, and that is the presuppositional view, and that is: That no rational argument will ever convince an unbeliever. Remember, he's spiritually dead, his mind is darkened, according to Ephesians 4.

But it is legitimate to use these proofs apologetically to remove the unbeliever's false objections to Christianity. We make them offensive weapons to demolish the ridiculous arguments put up by the unbeliever, rather than defensive in arguing that God exists. Think of it, and if this sounds offensive; I don't mean it offensively. Think of it as kicking the crutch out from under unbelievers. They're leaning on some ridiculous crutch as why they don't believe in God, why they don't accept the basic realities of the existence of God. To use these as a way to take that crutch away and let them see the reality of their position is a good thing. But here's the difference. I would argue that rather than presenting these as logical arguments separate from the Scripture, we should use biblical passages as the basis for presenting these realities, just as I've shown you in some cases.

Let me show you why. Turn to 2 Corinthians 10:3. Paul talks about this: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh," we don't battle using fleshly resources, for the weapons of our spiritual warfare are not of the flesh. They're not things most people use, but rather our weapons are "divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." Now, what are these fortresses? The word fortress describes a stronghold. Most Greek cities, like Corinth, to which Paul wrote this letter, had an acropolis, a high hill, a high fortified place near the city to which you could run in the event of an attack. It was a fortress to protect you. And he says, spiritually speaking, the people we're trying to reach are in fortresses, and we don't attack those fortresses with human weapons. What are these fortresses? Well, look at verse 5: "[We are] destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God." In other words, we're talking about false religion, we're talking about philosophy, false ideologies. We're talking about the ideas that reign in our world, promulgated by Satan himself. Those are the fortresses in which people seek to shelter themselves. But those fortresses end up being their prisons, and eventually even their tombs, these speculations, every unbiblical system of thought exalted as the truth against the knowledge of God.

What are we to do with these false philosophies that are out there and the unbelievers we interact with? Notice, we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That, by the way, is not talking about you governing your mind. That's talking about you as a Christian evangelist tearing down and destroying the speculations in which people try to hide themselves and try to make their fortresses. How? What are the weapons of our warfare? Well, what's the only thing that exposes unbiblical thought and ideologies? It's the Word of God. It's what Paul calls in Ephesians 6, "the sword of the Spirit." It's the Scripture that's our weapon. So, use the proofs, but from the Scripture, to remove legitimate objections.

Now let's hurry on, and [we'll] talk about the existence of God. You have man's intuitive knowledge. You have the classic rational arguments; we've just talked about their value. Now let's go to the biblical argument. And I put the word argument in quotation marks because the Bible doesn't really make an argument per se for the existence of God. It does, but it doesn't. So really what we're asking is this, "Why do we believe there is a God?" Well, the reason we believe there is a God biblically, we believe for only one reason, because God has revealed Himself. How has He revealed Himself? Well, He's revealed Himself generally. We've already seen this through creation and providence. Romans 1, through creation, God's made Himself known through providence, through His working in the world. Secondly, God has revealed Himself morally through the law written on the heart, Romans 2:14-15; we've already talked about this.

Now think about this for a moment. When you're sharing the gospel with someone based on what we've just seen there, you begin to share the gospel with two allies within the heart of every person you share the gospel with. What are those allies? Well, that person has an awareness through creation and providence that God exists. And if they won't admit it, it's because, Romans 1, they're suppressing that for their own benefit and purpose, for their own sin. They know there's a God. Secondly, you have another ally. You have that person's awareness through their conscience of a moral law they've violated. You don't have to prove either of those things to them. They're simply there. God has made those things evident to them.

Thirdly, God has revealed Himself personally through His Son. God has made Himself known because there was a human Being who walked this planet. You can go visit where He lived. You can walk where He walked. You can see where He lived and ministered. You can see where His body was put in the grave, a tomb that's now empty. God has revealed Himself personally through His Son. John 1:18: "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God" — that's Jesus — "the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father," who shares intimacy with the Father, He, Jesus, has explained God. And the word explained is the word exegeted. He has exegeted God. God has revealed Himself personally through His Son.

But how do we understand those first three ways God has revealed Himself? It really comes down to number four, which is crucial: God has revealed Himself propositionally, that is, in propositions, in truth statements, through His Word. Again, the book, Biblical Doctrine puts it this way: "The only reliable proof of the existence of the true God consists of statements from, and about Him, in His inspired Word. God must not be excluded from testifying about Himself." God has a right to testify for Himself. Quite the contrary [to being excluded], His testimony, given by His own inspiration, must be accepted as unique and perfectly reliable. Scripture asserts the existence of the only true God. The Bible begins with foundational presupposition that God existed in the beginning. So, every statement from the Bible about God's nature and actions is proof from Him of His existence.

In fact, the Bible requires that anyone who desires to know God must first believe that He exists. Hebrews 11:6: "[And] without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe what that He is," that he exists. God requires that. And in fact, those who refuse to acknowledge that He exists, God calls fools. In light of all that we've seen so far, God says they're fools. Psalm 14:1: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Psalm 10:4: "The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All His thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" In fact, when you look at the Word of God, the God of Scripture claims that He is the one true God who has existed eternally. Deuteronomy 33:27, He's called the "eternal God." Psalm 90:2: "Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." Isaiah 44:6: "Thus says," and He uses His personal name. We'll talk more about this in the future, the word LORD, in all caps, is Yahweh. It's "I AM." "Thus says," and when we say it, it's He that's "LORD," here in all caps, "Thus says [the LORD]," He is "the King of Israel and his Redeemer." He is of hosts of armies. And this is what God says, "I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me." I'm first, I'm last, and everything in between. There is no other God. I'm the only one.

[In] John 17:3, Jesus put it this way: "This is eternal life, that they may know You," Father, "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Our Lord affirmed this same reality. [In] John 5:44, Jesus said, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" First Corinthians 8:6: "There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." First Timothy 1:17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be [honor and glory] forever and ever. Amen."

So, God attests to the reality of His being the one living and true God in Scripture. But here's the problem. Even the self-revelation of God in Scripture is not enough to convince a person of God's existence. Let me say that again. Even the self-revelation of God Himself in the Scripture is not, in and of itself, enough to convince a person that God exists. And that brings us then to a fifth and crucial way that God reveals Himself, and that is savingly only through the work of His Spirit using the Word.

Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. The fact that an unbeliever has this book does not in and of itself lead him to be convinced of the reality of God in His existence. It takes something more. It takes the work of the Spirit in the heart. Second Corinthians 4[:1], Paul says, "Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, [but] we have renounced the things hidden because of shame." He says our ministry, we don't walk in deception and craftiness. We don't adulterate the Word of God. But instead, here's what we do with the Word of God. "[But] by the manifestation of truth, [commending] ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Even though we do that, he says, our gospel is veiled. It's veiled to those who are perishing. How did that happen? Verse 4: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so [that] they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake."

So how do people who are blind come to the Word of God and see that God exists, see that Jesus is all He claims, come to believe the gospel? How does that happen? It's not enough for them to have the truth of Scripture. Something else has to happen. It has to be a miracle of regeneration. Look at verse 6. This is the only way that a spiritually blind person understands the truth about God: "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." You know what Paul says? He says there's only one way. A spiritually blind, spiritually dead, antagonistic person who suppresses the truth about God, that's revealed in his conscience, that's revealed in creation, who refuses to admit to the truth of Scripture, there's only one way that person ever comes to embrace the truth, and it's because the Spirit of God says, "Let there be light." That's it. "Let there be light; and there was light."

It takes a miracle of God. Again, in the Biblical Doctrine book, we read, "As those whose minds have been blinded to the glory of God revealed in Christ, unbelievers do not need more evidence." Unbelievers do not need more evidence, whether logical or empirical. Rather, they need new eyes to properly evaluate the sufficient evidence they already have. They need to experience the miracle of regeneration, in which God quickens the unbelieving heart by shining into it the light of the knowledge of His glory. This happens only by the proclamation of the gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord.

To illustrate this point, by the way, John Calvin used this illustration, and some of you will especially appreciate this illustration because you can't find your way to the alarm clock without your glasses on. He said think about eyeglasses. He said imagine an old man who can barely see. If you put a beautiful, well-written book in front of him, he'll hardly be able to put two words together. He won't be able to understand it at all. But if you give him glasses, he can read distinctly. In the same way, by nature, an unbeliever is spiritually blinded. He doesn't see the revelation of God generally, or morally, or personally, or even propositionally in Scripture. The only way he can savingly comprehend even the written Word is through the work of the Spirit. Spirit is the eyeglasses. He gives him life and in that life he sees the glory of God. "Let there be light; and there was light."

I hope this gives hope to those of you who have unbelieving relatives and family members. Listen, your arguments are not going to convince them. That doesn't mean you shouldn't kick the crutches out from under people who are leaning on crutches for not believing in God, doesn't mean you shouldn't present the Gospel. You should. But understand that is what the Spirit will use. He always uses the Word of truth. He always uses the Scripture to bring light. The Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God. It simply takes belief in God for granted. And it teaches that all men believe in the existence of God.

One of my favorite book titles is a book written by John Blanchard, and it's called Does God Believe in Atheists? Let's think about that for a moment. Does God believe in atheists? And the answer is no, He doesn't. He doesn't believe in atheists because He has made it evident to them. They are suppressing the truth. Folks, the truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it, just open the cage, and let it out. It'll take care of itself. The gospel is like a gun. You don't have to convince the sinner that it is, in fact, a gun. Just pull the trigger.

Again, Biblical Doctrine writes this: "In summary, God exists. He exists as He is revealed by the Bible. The reason one must believe that He exists is because He said that He exists. His existence must not be accepted on the basis of human reason, because that is limited to time and space and has been corrupted by indwelling sin. God has sufficiently revealed Himself in the Bible." And Lord willing, in the coming weeks, we will look closely at God's self-revelation on the pages of Scripture.

Let's pray together. Father, we give You praise. We do believe that You exist. We believe because of all of those ways You have revealed Yourself. But ultimately, Father, we know that the reason we believe all of those ways is because Your Spirit, in Your grace and mercy, said, "Let there be light." And suddenly the light dawned in our darkened souls. Father, we thank You that You have shown mercy and grace to us to reveal Yourself. Father, help us to know You better, help us to pursue You. Help us to grow even through our study of this series. In our true fellowship with You, may we learn who You are. May we learn to love You and to commune with You in prayer and in the study of Your word. Father, may we learn how to think about You and how You regard us. Father, make Yourself great. In our minds, You are great. But we confess that we have weak and puny thoughts of You, and those thoughts are behind, ultimately, even our sin struggles. So, Father, as we walk through this series together, help us to see. Give us the glasses to see Your greatness. And seeing You, may we be transformed into the same image of Your moral character. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.