Who is God and who are you?

Preach at Good News Mission on 1/08/2024

To begin, I wanted to ask two questions, and then try to answer them as best as I can. One…Who is God? And Second…Who are we? The reason I’m asking those two questions is because how we see God and how we see ourselves can, and does, have a very profound impact on the choices we make, and the lives we live. Which then leads to the ultimate choice that will determine our eternal fate.

I’m asking those two questions because we can lie to ourselves as the day is long. We can either build ourselves up so much that we have to look down to see heaven, or we can destroy ourselves so badly that we have to look up to see hell. And not only do we do this to ourselves, but we also do this to each other, and even to God.

God however would never destroy his own character and nature. For one, he cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and secondly, He does not change (James 1:17). But we, even in the most subtle of ways, if we’re not careful, can destroy God’s nature, if not in the eyes of others, then at least in our own eyes.

To illustrate this, let me give you an example of someone assassinating God’s character. Richard Dawkins, who is a well known atheist, said this in his book: The God Delusion; “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Dawkins, and others like him, have for years been assassinating the character God. They have caused people to ask the question: Why would anyone believe in the God of the Bible? By mocking and questioning the character of God, Dawkins and others have even caused many to doubt God completely.

And to be honest, if God was as Dawkins describes, I don’t think any reasonable person would want to worship that kind of God.

So…How do you see God? I’m sure that some of you would not be swayed by Dawkins comments, but what if you believed just one of those characteristics that Dawkins stated about God. Not all of them, AND not as harsh as he describes God.

But what if you believed just a smidgen of what he said? How would that change the way you see God, and also the way you see yourself? For example: Maybe you don’t see God as an “unforgiving control-freak” but what if you see Him as someone that doesn’t care about your problems.

Maybe you don’t see God as a megalomaniac, but what if you see him as slightly arrogant or pompous. Maybe you don’t see God as a malevolent bully, but what if you see him as uncaring, or cold to your situation. You can still have faith in God, but you can also hold a view that is not quite right.

For example, I knew a Christian family that went through a terrible financial situation. The husband lost his job, the family lost their home in foreclosure, they had to move into a smaller place. They had to humbly reach out to family and friends for help.

After that terrible ordeal, the husband said to me one day, “Jeff, we did everything right. Why did God let this happen?”

In other words, He thought that if he did the right stuff, then he deserved the good stuff. Not long after that, the husband fell into a deep depression. He stopped attending church regularly. The wife had to return to work to carry the family financially.

I know some of you could tell me incredible stories of the trials you have endured. But hopefully, you can see that it’s very important that we get these two questions right:

Who is God?
And Who are we?

How many of you have ever taken the Good Test by Evangelist Ray Comfort? Ray will ask a person if they consider themselves to be a good person. With very few exceptions, everyone says, “Yes, I’m a good person.” As he talks with them, you can see a pattern emerge in the way they CHARACTERIZE THEMSELVES and the way they CHARACTERIZE GOD.

Because most of the people he talks to believe they are a good person, they believe that they don’t deserve the punishment that hell brings. Therefore, if God would send good people to hell, then that God, in their minds, isn’t good. Therefore to them, either the God of the Bible doesn’t exist, or he is a different god with different ideas.

Now…They may believe in a god, or no God at all, but many don’t believe the God of the Bible to be good, because, in their minds, How can a good God put good people in hell.
You can watch his videos online. But after seeing how those on the street characterize themselves, you can see how an incorrect assumption of God and an incorrect assumption of themselves leads to an incorrect conclusion. Inevitably, they invert the truth. They make God bad, and man good.

A well known 19th century preacher: Charles Spurgeon, who was known as the “Prince of Preachers” said this about our so-called “goodness”: “The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my riches but my need.”
So again, we have the two questions: Who is God? Or another way to say that is, “How do I see God?” The second: Who am I? Or, “How do I see myself?”

Because, the way in which you see God, and the way in which you see yourself will ultimately determine how you respond to Jesus Christ.

To further illustrate this, I’ll give you an equation I learned in college; A + B = C. I’m sure you didn’t want to do math at chapel today, but this is a simple equation. I took a class at Liberty University through correspondence and the professor put up on the board:

A + B = C | Activating Event + Belief = Emotional Consequence.

When something happens to you (The Activating Event), when it’s coupled with your beliefs, it will determine how you respond to that event (Your emotional consequence). Whether it’s cancer, a death of a family member, job loss, divorce, or any other tragedy, how you see God and how you see yourself, which are your beliefs, will ultimately determine how you will respond to those events.

Some of us might say that we have a good working understanding of who God is. I don’t think any of us would say that we know everything about God, but some of us might say that we have a good understanding of God.

BUT…many of our misunderstandings of God, or our BELIEFS in God, are revealed (or exposed) to us during a time of trouble. For example, you might find yourself saying:

I lost my home. God, why did you let this happen?
My child has rebelled against me. God, haven’t I been faithful to you?
My wife left me. God, why did you warn me about her?
My health is gone. God, why have you cursed me in this way?

So often we see God in a light that is not exactly who He is. And when we don’t see him properly then we won’t respond properly.

This is not uncommon. Even when Christ walked among the people, his disciples didn’t fully understand who he was and what he came to do until after his resurrection.

Not because they didn’t have a reliable source, which is the Scriptures, but because they wanted to see him the way they wanted to see him. They did what we do today, We make God into what we want him to be, and not see Him for who he truly is. They wanted a savior of their own making. For example:

They wanted him to restore Israel at that time, but he was there to set up a different kingdom, a spiritual one: Luke 24:19-21

They wanted to make him an earthly king, but his kingdom was not of this earth: John 6:15
They wanted him to continue healing and feeding them, but the miracles were there to bear witness that his word was true. John 6:25-26

They wanted him to be a mere man, be he was God manifest in the flesh. John 6:42
Some saw him as just a good man, but he was the embodiment of the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. John 7:12

They thought they knew the Scriptures. They said when Christ comes, nobody will know, but this man we know, (John 7:27) while others said he was only a prophet (John 7:40-42)

Some however, didn’t want what he had to offer. They wanted to make him out to be a liar and a devil. (John 7:12) The Pharisees said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. They saw him as a threat to their power, and wanted him eliminated. Pontius Pilot just wanted him to go away, and not be a nuisance for him anymore.

The people thought they knew Christ. They thought they understood God, but they didn’t. The question is: WHY?

They knew some aspects of God. They knew some things about the coming Messiah, but they completely mischaracterized him. They made Him into what they wanted him to be, rather than knowing Who He was. Not only did they mischaracterize God, but they mischaracterized themselves as well just like those taking Ray Comfort’s “Good Test.”

In John 8, Jesus made it abundantly clear to the Jewish leadership that the God they thought they followed and worshiped was not the God of Abraham. He said, “Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (John 8:41-47)

Jesus made it clear to them. For one, they didn’t know the true God. They completely changed God in their own mind to what they wanted him to be. And secondly, they thought they were followers of God, but they were not. Basically, They mischaracterized God and themselves.
They mischaracterized Jesus so badly that when he cast our demons they said he was using the power of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And they had so deceived themselves into thinking that they were doing God’s service, that they couldn’t see that their true father was the Devil and not God. So they turned Jesus into a devil and themselves into the Sons of God. They completely flipped it.

And because their beliefs were wrong, their response to Jesus was wrong. Rather than worshiping Him, they sought to destroy him. They lied to themselves about who God was, even though they had the Scriptures that testified of Jesus’ coming. And they lied to themselves as to who they were, even though they had the Scriptures that testified of their sins.

So the question is: how do we not mischaracterize God and ourselves like they did? In Luke chapter 24, this is after the resurrection. Two men were walking on the Road to Emmaus. As they were walking, Jesus came alongside them, but they didn’t know who he was. Jesus asked what they were talking about. They, of course, were talking about the events that just happened.
Once it was clear that they didn’t understand what Christ had done, Jesus said this in verse 25, “…O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”

And here’s the key verse: 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Notice where Jesus pointed to: He pointed to The WORD OF GOD. And not just a part of it, but all of it.

And later, in that same chapter of Luke, when Jesus appeared to his disciples he said, starting at verse 44, “…These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

The Jews have three divisions to the Old Testament; The Law, The Prophets, And the Writings. When Jesus said, the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, he was making reference to the whole of Scripture, and not just part.

Everytime, when Jesus wanted to make it clear to others who he was or what he had come to do, He always pointed back to Scripture. In John 5:45-47, Jesus said; “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

Therefore, The way to know God is not by listening to Richard Dawkins, clearly. It’s not by listening to anyone’s opinions, and that includes mine. It’s not through your experiences, because your experiences can mislead you. It’s not through your emotions or feelings, because those things will also mislead you.

The only way to truly know the Lord, to see his true character and nature, is to learn of him through His Word. When you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, but he will do so using the Word of God. He will not speak against this Word, ever.

That is how we can avoid assassinating God’s character. His Word is like a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. His Word not only tells us who He is, but it also tells us who we are.
Romans 3:9-12 says, “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Again, in Romans 3:23, Paul said; “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Not a pretty picture, is it? But this is how we come into the world. This is who we ALL are without Christ. We are sinners in need of a savior.

Not only are we sinners and not only are our deeds and works evil, but, according to Scripture, we deserve death.The first part of Romans 6:23 says; “For the wages of sin is death;” Wages are something we have earned. I go to work, I earn wages. I sin, therefore I have EARNED death.
So the Word of God is clear: God is Good, and we are not. Unfortunately, This is who we are. We are sinners that do evil works deserving of death. THAT…is our true nature. That is who we are.
However, We can be pardoned through Jesus Christ.

We deserve the death penalty, but Jesus Christ paid our fine. Through him we can be set free.
The first part of Romans 6:23 says; “For the wages of sin is death;” But the second part says; “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

It wasn’t our choice to come into this world as a sinner, but we can choose to leave as a child of God. We can be made sons and daughters of the Most High God through Jesus Christ.
So, back to the two questions: Who is God? And who are we?

The answer to those two questions is the difference between life and death.
Who is God to you?

Is he always Good, even when life is bad?
Is he always Love, even when you feel alone and lost?
Is he always Just, even when life is unfair and cruel?
Is he always gracious, merciful, righteous, holy, even when the world says He’s not?
If you think he is not Good, then you still have too much of the world in you, and not enough of him.
Like John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

And what about us; who are you and who am I?

Do we deceive ourselves?
Do we embellish our own character, whether outwardly or inwardly?
Do we make ourselves out to be something that we are not?
Or do we see ourselves the way God sees us. The way his Word sees us.
We are sinners in need of a savior.

Let’s Pray