Two Different Kinds of Gods

I. Introduction
A. March sermon series: Ruth
B. Psalm 135:5–7 For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. 6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
C. Psalm 135:15–18 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 16 They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; 17 they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. 18 Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
D. This title might be taken to imply that there is more than one God.
1. Of course, I don’t mean that. But there are false gods.
2. And the Bible uses god in the plural sense: “our Lord is above all gods.” v.5
3. So, there is nothing wrong with saying that there are two kinds of gods: true gods (of which there is only One, of course), and false gods.
4. That’s sort of the distinction I’m making this morning, but that is not the point.
E. Secular thinkers are doing everything they can to try to replace the “old way of thinking,” which includes religion, and a standard of right & wrong, and distinctions between the holy & the profane, and between humans & animals, and who believe man has a soul which will live after death.
1. They want to replace all this with the idea that we are just here by accident, that there is no soul and no god and no life after death, there is no ultimate right and wrong, there is no purpose for everything, no one watching over us, and that there is no accountability or ultimate justice.
2. This is reflected in a question I was asked this week, “When did religion first start?” The person who asked this is thinking of religion as purely a human phenomenon which got invented at some point in history, that there was a time when primitive man didn’t think about things like why am I here, and then at some point in the process of evolution, he began to wonder about these things and one of them invented religion as an explanation of how we got there and why.
3. And modern secular scholars have come up with a way to explain religion, and to make it seem false and empty and ridiculous.
a. They do this by claiming that man imagined the concept of God by taking human attributes and extending them out to an infinite degree by our imagination.
b. Some people know a lot more than others, so we imagine someone knowing so much that he knows everything.
c. Some people are more wise than others.
d. Some are smarter.
e. Some are stronger.
f. Some control a lot of other people.
g. Some are more loving.
h. Some people are more beautiful.
i. Some are more skilled.
j. In essence, they claim that God is a result of human imagination. At some point in the past, people took all the qualities we admire in ourselves or in other people, and raise them to the Nth degree, and came up with the concept of God. They claim man invented God, by extending ourselves to an infinite degree.
F. Bible-believing Christians, of course, believe that the opposite is true. We believe that God invented man, and that all the similarities between God and man are because we were made in His image (Gen.1:26-27).
G. Modern secular scholars use a similar technique to explain other things.
1. For instance, all over the world, in ancient writings which have been found by archeologists, one of the common things found in the stories of early man is a great flood.
2. Amazingly around 270 ancient stories of a great flood have been found, in Asia, Africa, in North & South American, in Oceania, in Europe, the near east, middle east, even in the Arctic regions.
3. Here’s what Wikipedia says, “Flood myths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes global in scale, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution.”
4. So, the question is, how should we interpret this strange fact?
5. Christians look at this and they see evidence for the reality of Noah’s flood, that as the descendants of Noah spread throughout the earth, the carried the memory of the flood with them.
6. But secular scholars actually use this to try to disprove the Bible’s account. They say that the story of Noah’s flood must have come from myths in other cultures. The ancient Israelites heard about these other myths and incorporated a flood story into their own historical tradition and eventually into their Scripture. So, Noah’s flood is not real; it’s a copycat.
7. Again, they claim that instead of Noah’s flood giving birth to all these other flood narratives, the other flood narratives gave birth to the myth of Noah’s flood.
H. They do the same thing with sacrifice. The practice of animal sacrifice was common among ancient religions, again all over the world. Christians believe from the Scriptures that God introduced the ritual of sacrifice in the days of Adam and Eve, for we see it being practiced with divine supervision in Gen.4:3-5.
1. Christian scholars assume that the sacrifices in these other religions are just mutations of the original religion which Adam and Eve practiced. As it was passed down from person to person and generation to generation, it got twisted and distorted to varying degrees as man’s sin was manifested even in the way he worshiped.
2. But modern secular scholars claim that widespread use of animal sacrifice is evidence that there was nothing special or true about the ancient religion of Israel. They were just going along with what everyone else was doing. They say it proves that Israel wasn’t getting any special instructions from some “god,” they were just going along with what the other peoples were doing.
3. Again, instead of the sacrifices in the Bible’s story of God’s people being the origin of the use of sacrifices in other religions, the sacrifices of other religions are the origin of Israel’s sacrifices, proving that Judaism was just another middle eastern religion.
I. Sacrifices, Noah’s ark, God Himself: in all three cases, modern secular scholars have come up with a way to flip the script and make the evidence work against the Bible instead of for it.
II. Well, that’s what modern secular scholars are saying. Now let’s look at what the Bible says.
A. Psalm 135:5–7 I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. 6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
1. The Lord is not the same as other gods. The Lord is above all gods. He is distinct from the others.
2. And He is the One who is in control of everything else. He is not being controlled by man or by anything else in the universe. “6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.”
B. The Bible tells us that God is not an adaptation of human imagination.
1. This was how He revealed Himself to Moses: He said, “I am who I am.” (Exod.3:14)
a. He is who He is, not who someone else made Him to be.
2. He is not us. He is Other. He is not like us. He is self-existent. He is independent.
3. He doesn’t need us (Acts 17:25). He doesn’t need anything.
4. Anyone who reads the Bible knows that God is not who people would like Him to be.
5. And Jesus was not the product of human imagination. Jesus was not who they wanted Him to be.
6. We would love for God to be the way we’d like Him to be. But alas He is not.
7. According to the Bible, we don’t get to be God, we don't get to design God, we don’t get to manipulate Him or adjust who He is. He is who He is.
C. How do we know all this? How do we know that there is a God and what He is like?
1. We know these things the only way we could know these things: He told us; He revealed Himself to us. God has graciously chosen for man to have understanding about Him.
2. He could have kept Himself hidden from man, and we all would have been left in the dark.
3. But He chose to speak to us and tell us about Himself, and tell us about ourselves.
4. How did He do this? “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” – Hebrews 1:1–3
5. Jesus is the ultimate proof because Jesus is the ultimate communication/manifestation of God.
III. But perhaps those who claim that God is a human invention created in our own image are not entirely wrong. Perhaps the atheists are right to a large extent.
A. Isn’t it true that many more people worship false gods than worship the true God?
B. And aren’t those false gods largely a product of human imagination?
C. 15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 16 They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; 17 they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.
D. The idols of the nations are the work of human hands! And they are made after the likeness of human beings: they have mouths, they have eyes, they have ears, they breathe. They have no self-existence, they are an extension of mankind – just like the secular scholars have been saying.
E. We can’t agree on everything. But it seems to me that Christians & atheists can agree that in most religion, ‘God’ is a construct of the human imagination.
F. So many religions teach things about God which are really just an extension of themselves. They say that God is a racist, that He favors one people group over another, or one nation over another, or one language over another. Or that God favors men over women, or the rich over the poor.
G. We can agree with the atheists that these ideas are extensions of mere human thinking, and therefore to be repudiated.
H. The same is true with the idea that God hates homosexuals.
1. God so loved the world that He gave His Son (John 3:16). Didn’t that world include homosexuals? Of course it did!
2. And we read in 1Corinthians 6:11 where Paul is talking about homosexuals, he says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” God certainly didn’t hate those homosexuals! He loved them so much that He forgave their sin and welcomed them into kingdom and family!
I. All those notions about God are certainly the result of human imagination and not the way God truly is as He’s revealed Himself in the Scriptures. Therefore Christians have every reason to reject them.
J. But let me ask this: What basis do secular people have for rejecting things like racism or sexism?
K. But, of course, Bible-believers must also reject all kinds of claims which the Bible rejects, like that:
1. The key to human happiness is finding oneself.
2. All religions/non-religions are in essence the same, and that each one is a piece of the same pie.
IV. Let me suggest an even more radical proposal. I think atheists are somewhat correct in what they say about the ‘God’ of Christians. Is it not true that even the ‘God’ of many so-called Christians is at least partly a product of human imagination.
A. Aren’t there many forms of Christianity which are really based on cultural tradition?
B. I am not judging any individual or group, but it seems to me that the vast majority of what goes by the name Christian in our world is not really Christian at all, but built on formalism and tradition and political power. Just as there are Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and animists, and practitioners of other religions who just do what their people do and go along with what they’ve been taught, so it is with many, many Christians.
C. This is why we must live in the fear of constructing God according to our own desires or according to the way we are.
D. This is why we must want to believe in the God who is – more than we want to believe in the God we prefer.
1. They are many earthly advantages of believing in an adjusted God. It allows us to enjoy many advantages of being Christians but also many of the benefits of being a non-Christian.
2. But there are two big problems with this:
a. You can’t walk with a God who doesn’t actually exist. He can’t actually help you.
b. The second problem with believing in a God we have adjusted is that one day we will come face to face with the real God, and what happens on that day is the thing which really matters.
E. Some folks say, “Well, God has given us His Spirit as well as His word, so we have to listen to both.” In one sense I don’t disagree with that, but it’s important to recognize that what God tells us in writing is more objective and less subjective than what might seem like God speaking to us in our hearts. The best tool we have to judge whether our thoughts and impressions are from God is to evaluate them according to Scripture. It doesn’t make sense to judge Scripture according to our own thoughts, because we know Scripture is God’s word, but we can’t have the same confidence that God about our thoughts and ideas.
1. It is correct that we can be wrong in our interpretation of God’s word. I shudder to think about the times it has been used to justify evil things in history. We are all susceptible to importing our own preferences and ideas into God’s word. This is why it’s so important to be careful and humble in the way we handle God’s word. After all, there is one who whispers lies in our ears and tries to coax us to believe things contrary to Christ.
2. And whether that voice whispering in my ear is telling me that God can’t forgive me for what I’ve done or that the Bible must be wrong about something, I must repudiate the lies and embrace God’s truth.
F. Even Christian groups that we think have correct theology – it still doesn’t mean they have Christ.
1. And without Him, we have nothing.
V. Conclusion
A. What do the secularists have to offer? Nothing but eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die (1Cor.15:32).
1. If it’s just us, there is only emptiness, hopelessness, purposelessness.
2. There is no guidance, no justice, no right and wrong, no truth, no happy endings.
3. 18 Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
a. Every person becomes like the one he/she worships.
b. If we worship God, more and more we become like God.
c. But, if we worship idols, more & more we become empty & dead, deaf & blind, powerless & senseless like them.
d. Idols may look impressive now, but in the end they will perish. And so it shall be with those who worship them.
B. The most important thing in life is to come to grips with true God through Christ.
1. He offers us hope and life and love and purpose and meaning and peace and joy. But the greatest thing of all He offers us is Himself. He is the Treasure beyond all treasures.
2. The blessedness of our situation is not that we are God, but that we are loved by God through His Son Jesus, who reconciled us to Him.
3. And when we become His, amazingly He becomes ours.