Pastor says Theology is WRONG about God

I'm in the process of writing a a theology book and I've been working on a chapter. It's about theology proper. It's who is God? What is the nature of God? And all of that's been on my mind this week. And I thought, you know, what better thing to talk about than who is God? And what's interesting have how many of you have actually ever attended a theology uh like a systematic theology class in college? Raise your hand. How many of you have attended a philosophy class in college? Raise your hand. Okay, I'm about to read something you guys might understand. Nobody else in the room probably will. This is the kind of thing that you will learn at a theology or a philosophy class when talking about God. And I I just want to read it to you so you can hear how this sounds and then we're going to compare it to what the Bible says about God. Okay. The onlogical argument is an a priority philosophical argument for God's existence. Defining God as the greatest conceivable being. It posits that because existence in reality is greater than existence merely in the mind, the greatest conceivable being must exist in reality to satisfy its own definition. How many of you understood any of that? Two or three? Yeah, it's really wordy and it it's it's kind of it's really philosophical, right? The idea is if you can conceive it in your mind, it must actually exist. That's the the basis of this argument. And so if you can conceive it, there's got to be something greater that exists that must really be God. Whatever you can imagine God to be, it's not even compared to what the real God would be. So the real God must be greater than what you could even come up with in your own mind. That's the argument. Okay. Uh the aspects of this argument are that uh God is the thing which nothing is greater which nothing greater can be conceived. So nothing there's nothing you can conceive that would be greater than God. Right? So that's one of the foundations of it. It is based on pure reason and definition rather than observation of the physical world. God is defined as the greatest conceivable being. God exists as an idea in the mind is existing in reality is greater than existing in the mind only. If God exists in only in the mind, then a greater being can be conceived. One that exists in reality. Therefore, God must exist in reality. Okay, that's the logic that follows this argument. Make sense? Where's that in the Bible? Right? This is this is philosophy. This is people just sitting around thinking and coming up with arguments. They're not looking at scripture. They're just trying to rationalize and come up with arguments and definitions. Okay, I want you to read uh five classical arguments for the existence of God. Okay, these are uh formalized by Thomas Aquinus. How many of you guys have heard of Thomas Aquinus? He's famous. Yep. Okay. The first argument is the argument of the unmoved mover. Okay, everything in the universe is in motion or changing and everything in motion is moved by something else. This chain of mo movement cannot go back to infinity otherwise there would be no initial movement. Therefore, there must be a first mover that is the that is not moved by anything else which is understood to be God. Okay. So in in other words for everything to exist there had to be something to cause it to exist. everything to be a motion, there must be something that caused the motion and that thing could not have been caused by something else. So, it has to be God, right? That's that's the rational argument behind it. It's it's the argument, well, if there's creation, there must be a creator. It's kind of the argument. Okay. Second one, the argument of the first cause. Okay, so we have the unmoved mover. Then we have the first cause. Similar to motion, nothing in the known world can cause itself to exist. Everything is created by a prior cause. An infinite chain of causes is impossible, requiring the first efficient cause that initiated the existence of all things which is recognized as God. You guys are getting a lot out of this, right? Everybody's really inspired by these words, aren't you? You feel so much closer to God by this definition. This is the kind of stuff you learn in theology and philosophy. It it it's it's frustrating to me. The third argument is the argument from contingency, possibly possibility and necessity. Objects in the world are contingent, meaning they come into existence and eventually cease to exist. If everything were merely contingent, then at one point nothing would have existed. Therefore, there must be a necessary being, a being that must exist to bring existence to all other contingent things, which is God. You guys are ready to come to the altar and repent for your sins because of these definitions I'm reading to you, right? because it is so compelling that you you just have to worship this god. Right? Now the fourth argument the argument from degree we observe that things in this world are more or less good or noble. Comparing objects to a standard requires an absolute maxim or a most perfect standard against which these degrees of perfection are measured. This maxim of perfection is God. So that means that if there are levels of good that means that there's something to compare it to. How do we how do we determine what is good? Well, that's based on something else, something that is greater. So, that must be God. Okay? The the arguments are they're reasonable. They're logical. They make sense, but they're not spiritual. They're not scriptural. They're not founded in God's word. And that's the problem I have with them. It's philosophy. The fifth argument is the final cause or design. The teological argument. Natural objects without intelligence, such as plants or planets, act towards a specific goal or purpose functioning in an orderly way. Since they lack intelligence, they must be directed toward that goal by an intelligent being. Just as an arrow is shot by an archer, this intelligent designer is God. Okay? So basically, they're saying that things act as if they were put there by something intelligent. Even things that don't have a brain, you know, the the way that trees and the plants and the bugs and everything interacts, the way everything functions, the way everything works, the way that the the the days and the seasons and the months and everything function, it all has order, which means there must have been something to give it that order. Therefore, there's God. That's the argument. Okay? Again, these are logical arguments. They they make sense and they're they're well reasoned. They're not inspirational. They're not they're not spiritual. And they don't tell us who this God is. All they do is tell us that there must be a God. So by these arguments, all you can conclude is, okay, yeah, maybe there's something out there that put us here, right? That's about all you get out of it. You don't know who this God is. You don't have any inter interaction with him. There's no there's no personality to this God. We don't know if he's good or bad. We don't know if he's friendly. Nothing. You don't know anything about this God other than well there there's got to be a God here somewhere, right? Well, now I want to look at what the Bible says about God and and look at the way God is introduced to us in scripture. Would you turn to Exodus chapter 3? This is this is when Moses is introduced to God. And I want you to listen to the language that's used here. This is really this is really cool when you think about it. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire from the midst of the bush. So he looked, and behold, the the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, 'Do not draw near this place. Take off your sandal, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Wherever he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, 'I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their task masters, for I know their sorrows. So I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from the land uh to a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore before uh behold the cry of the children of Israel has come to me and I have also seen the oppression in which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses said, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" So he said, 'I will uh I will certainly be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people of Egypt, uh when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you." And they say to me, "What is his name? What shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "Yay a who I am." And he said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you." Moreover, God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." Isn't that different than the onlogical argument, right? What what what did you get out of this? Who is God from these verses right here? Raise your hand. What? Personal. Okay. What else? What? Love. Okay. What else? Compassionate. Okay. What else? Deliverer. Okay. What else? Keeps promises. Generational. Good answers. Omnipresent. Okay. Controls fire. Now, I want you to think about what Moses did here. Moses asked God, "Who are you? What is your name?" He didn't say, "What is your nature? Tell me about your existence, how you are, who you are. Explain to me what a God is. He said, "Who are you? What's your name?" And when we look through the scriptures, we see that that is how God is portrayed. It's personal. It's intimate. It's not about knowing about God. It's about knowing who he is, about having that relationship with him. And that he wants relationship with us. Did you notice the way he introduced himself is I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This relationship, his name is tied to relationship with his people. That's the kind of God the Bible describes. Isn't that interesting? Is a God of covenant, a God who interacts with people, a God who wants to know his people, and he wants his people to know him. When you think about Jeremiah 31 where he talks about the new covenant, he says, "No more will everyone teach his neighbor and everyone his brother saying know the Lord because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them." The God of the Bible wants to be known. Do you see that? And that's why he gave us the Bible is because it is the revelation of God to mankind because he wants us to know him. And so he gave us his word so that we will know him so that we can know him. Ain't this cool? So Moses asked God, "What is your name?" And the answer that God gave is probably the most important theological statement that's ever been said. And most people don't even see the significance of it. He said, "I am who I am or I will be what I will be." It could be translated either of those ways. I am who I am or I will be who I will be. This is a de declaration of divine freedom and self-sufficiency that no created being can limit or define. I wanted to be careful how to say that we cannot limit or define God. He is what he is and has nothing to do with what we conceive about him. We can't put him in a box and define him and categorize him like they try to do with philosophy. He is what he is. He will be what he will be. That's a big God. This God is not dependent on the categories that mankind can produce to define or explain his existence. He is the one who is, who was, and who will always be. The God who was and who is, and who is yet to come. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. We see these phrases throughout the scripture, right? But then after he says, "I will be what I will be." He follows it up with something even more interesting. He says, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, Yahweh, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you." And he says, "This is my this is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." So he says, "Tell them, Yahweh sent me, and tell them Yahweh is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And tell them that this is my name that I'm to be remembered by for all generations. So he he he went from saying I am what I am to I have a name and I have a people and I want them to know me. The name he gives is one of relational history. I'm the God of Abraham. I have a history with Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac. I have a history with Isaac. I'm the God of Jacob. I have a history with Jacob. His name is it it tells a story of his interaction with humanity. The one who cannot be contained by a name gives himself a name. And the name he chooses is one of relationship with his creation. Isn't that unique? You I think it's also interesting that he didn't come to Moses and say, "Moses, I'm your creator. Do what I say because I say so." He didn't even say, "I'm your creator." He didn't say, "I put you here. I didn't I I made all this stuff. Everything you see, I made that. I did that." That wasn't God's argument. He said, 'I'm the God of Abraham. I think that's interesting. Why did he go there? Why didn't he introduce himself as the creator first? Why did he introduce himself as the God of Abraham? He said, "This is what I'm supposed to be known by." He is the creator. That's not what he wants to be known by. He wants to be known by being the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He wants to be known by the covenant he makes with mankind, the relationship he has with us. That's what he wants to be known by. What an intimate God. He says, "I'm the God of the people I have committed myself to. Remember me that way. This isn't just a philosophical idea. This is an intimate being." When God says, "I am who I am or I will be what I will be." He's making a promise in the form of a name. I will be whatever I need to be. He's declaring, "I will be present with you." He's declaring, "I will be your healer. I will be your deliverer. I will be your salvation. I will be your rock. I'll be your strong arm. I'll be the wings. They carry you through the wilderness. I'll be a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. I'll be the one that parts the water so you can cross over. I'll be the one who slays your enemies. You will be what I will be. What a declaration. In a sense, he's saying, "Don't worry about what my name means. Watch what I do and you'll know who I am." So God's name is a promise. I am who I am. What's interesting is when God said his name, he said, "Yayah, aah." When when he told Moses, "Tell them my name." He says, "Tell them Yahweh." And every time when when the Bible when somebody talks about the God of Abraham, he's called Yahweh. But they don't call, you know, Moses didn't say a sent me. He didn't say, "I am who I am sent me." He said, "Yahweh sent me." What's interesting is the word Yahweh is a form of the word haya. It's related to the aah and it's it's it's the expression he is. When God says his name, he says I am. And we when we say his name, we say he is. We're we're making a declaration of his existence just by calling his name. It's a it's a declaration of faith. We're declaring that God exists when we speak his name. We're proclaiming he is. I think that's really cool. The name of God functions as both a declaration and a guarantee. His name is a promise, right? To act in the name of God is to act with his authority and his presence. To act in accordance with his name is to act with his authority. Okay? And to profane the name of God is to contradict his name by your life and your character. You're defaming what his character represents. To call on the name of the Lord is to invoke the covenant relationship and the faithfulness that it carries. To call on his name is to say, "I am calling to the God of covenant. The God who is faithful, the God who has held covenant from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all the way up to today. The God who keeps his promises. The God who interacts with his people. The God who delivers. That's the God I'm calling on. You're invoking that covenant relationship by calling on his name. Isn't that cool? To sanctify the name is to live in such a way that God's covenant character is made known. You're living your life in a way that he is proclaimed. He is glorified. He is exalted. You are sanctifying his name. It changes how we look at morality, sin, duty, obedience. When he says, 'Don't profane the name of the Lord your God, that could be a standalone command that covers everything. Because anytime we do something that violates his character, we're profaining his name. This also means that the knowledge of God is inseparable from the history of God's covenant faithfulness. Okay? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. That means to know him is to know the covenant faithfulness he has with people. You have to know the history. You have to know what he has done to know him. And to know him is to know the people he has been a part of, the history he has with them. You know him by learning what he has done in creation, in the fall, in the call of Abraham, in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, in the giving of the Torah, when sending the prophets, when sending the people to exile, and the promise of return, most of all, in the coming of the Son Yeshua, the Messiah, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. All of those things reveal who God is. All of those things are meant to show us, to teach us who he is, to help us to know him, to understand his name. John chapter 1 says, "In the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness to the light, that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming in the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But [clears throat] as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Powerful statement, beautiful words. What is that telling you about God? Your hand. What What does that tell you about God? Buddy, he's faithful. What else? Glorious. Loves us. H. He's nice. Yep. Reverses universe. Traverses. Traverses universes. Yeah. Yeah. It's about all we do he's willing to sacrifice for us. You what it also tells me? He wants intimacy so much that he took on flesh to walk among us. He wants intimacy so much that he put that flesh on a cross and suffered so that we could have relationship with him. That's an amazing thing. What kind of God is this? What kind of a God would do that? Not the gods of the pagans. The gods of the pagans want you to sacrifice. The god of the Bible sacrifices for you. That's a different kind of god. John opens up this his gospel with the words in the beginning was the word. Now I I think it's a very important way for him to do this. What he's doing is he's telling he's telling us go back to Genesis the very opening words of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And how did he do so? by speaking a word said let there be light and there was light. It was through his speaking the words that things came into existence. And here John says in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He's saying the word has its own identity. It is God but it's somehow distinct from God, separate from God. And that that word has taken on flesh and became human. And the word tabernacled dwelt. He dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us. The very specific word as well because it reminds us of the tabernacle in the wilderness when God dwelt with his people, camping with them along the way, leading them through the wilderness. His presence right there. Mobile presence. That's what a tabernacle is. It's a mobile presence of God. They can move around with you. That's what the word did when he became incarnate is he became a mobile tabernacle. The mobile presence of God on earth. What is this telling us about God? Who is this God? This is not something you learn from a philosophy class. This is way bigger, more than they could even imagine. That that argument that well, whatever you can imagine your mind, God has got to be greater than that. Well, this he is. Because what they imagine in their mind is nowhere near what the Bible tells us about God. The incarnation of Yeshua is the ultimate dwelling of the divine name in human flesh. I am what I am. I will be what I will be took on flesh. The God who promised presence through the covenant is now present in the most intimate way. He isn't distant. He isn't somewhere off in the clouds. When when Yeshua resurrected and ascended to heaven, he said, "I'm going to send somebody else, too. The Holy Spirit, and he's going to be with you, and he's going to be in you. I'm not going to leave you orphans. I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm not going to abandon you. I'm going to be right here with you in the Holy Spirit. He's a God who wants to be present in our life. A God who wants intimacy with us. A God who wants to walk with us, talk with us, wants to dwell with us. What an amazing God. We don't deserve that kind of a God. John chapter 8, start verse 56. Yeshua said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day." And he saw it and was glad. Connecting us back to Abraham, the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He said, "Abraham knew me." That's what Yeshua is saying. Abraham knew me. And he rejoiced. And the Jews said to him, "You are not yet 50 years old, and you've seen Abraham." And Jesus said to them,"Most assurely I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." There's a very specific wording he chose there, and it doesn't make sense in any language. You would not say before that I am. Before he was, I am. It's not how it works. Even in Greek, he chose that way to say it on purpose. He's pointing us back to Exodus 3 when God said, "I am. I am who I am. Yeshua is saying before Abraham was, I am. He's telling us who he is. I'm the God of Abraham. Abraham knew me. That's the That's the claim Yeshua is making here. What an amazing thing for him to say. And the Jews understood what he was saying because look what they did. Then they took up stones to throw at him. Why' they do that? Because he was claiming to be God. And they thought it was blasphemy. We're going to stone him for blasphemy. They understood the claim he was making. They said, "I'm the God of Abraham." And they didn't like hearing it. They didn't believe him. John 14:5-10 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. and from now on you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him,"Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philillip? Show me the Father." And he says, "Don't you know me? Been here with you all along, standing right in front of you. Don't you know me?" Again, he's claiming deity. He's claiming to be the God of Abraham. He who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say to how can you say show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells with me does the works. Notice he points to his works the things he does. He's saying look at me. Look at my love. Look at my compassion. Helping the poor. Helping the sick. Healing the wounded, healing the lepers. The blind see the deaf hear. The lame walk. Look at me. Don't you see who I am? Don't you see my covenant faithfulness? I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't you see that? When you look at my works, when you look at what I've done, that's what he's saying. You remember when I walked on water, calmed the storm, multiplied the loaves and the fishes, fed 5,000? Don't you see who I am? That's what he's saying. Everything you've seen in me. That's who God is. It's why Paul comes and he says that Jesus is the express image of God. When you look at him, you see God. He is the image of the invisible. How's that even possible? The image of the invisible. Because it's not about his appearance. It's about his nature, his character, what he does, his covenant faithfulness. That he was willing to die on the cross to restore covenant with his people. The ones who broke the covenant. He didn't break the covenant. We did. We are the ones who were supposed to die for breaking the covenant. But instead, he he died for us. What a God. What an amazing God. Romans 10 6-13. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, "Whoever believes on him shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is rich uh for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. Says if you call on the name of Yeshua, you will be saved. Because the scripture promises, whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. You see what Paul is saying? When you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, you are acknowledging that Jesus is Yahweh. Yeshua is Yahweh. The claim of deity. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved is the same as whoever calls on the name of Yeshua will be saved. It's the same as whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. These three statements are saying the exact same thing. They're identical statements. What is this telling us about our God? He's so intimate that he wants to dwell with us. He's so intimate that he took on flesh to walk among us. He's so intimate that he wants that relationship with us. All we have to do is cry out to him because he hears us. Because he is an intimate God. He's a personal God who listens for our cry. He hears the cry of the afflicted. Back in in Exodus when what was it said? He said he was speaking to Moses in the burning bush. He says, "I've heard the cry of my people and I've come to deliver them." It's the same thing that Paul is talking about here. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He hears the cry for salvation. Lord, I need your help. Forgive me. I need your salvation. I'm lost. He hears that cry and he delivers. You see, it's the same God. It's the same story. The the imagery we have in Exodus is the same imagery we have in the Gospels. It's not a different picture. It's not a different God. He didn't change his mind or do something new. He didn't start over and scrap his original plan. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. Philippians 2 5-11 says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondervant, and coming in the likeness of men. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua, the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth. that is the name uh that and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What an what an amazing statement. He's saying everything in heaven is going to bow to Yeshua. All the angels, all the heavenly host, they're all going to bow down and worship him. And everything on earth, every human, every plant, every animal is going to bow down and worship him. Bible believe it says that the rocks would cry out and under the earth even those who are in prison in Hades, Shiel, Tardus, Gehenna, whatever you want to call it, the place of the dead, those who have rejected him, the fallen angels, the demons, the unclean spirits, the people who hate him, the atheists that don't even believe he exists. They're going to bow at the name of Yeshua. One day they will all bow every knee. What a statement. Whether you want to bow or not, you're bowing. That's what he's saying. Whether you want to worship him or not, you will worship him. That's what he's saying. What a God. Paul's claiming that the covenant name of Israel's God has been given to Yeshua. Yeshua is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush. He's the God who gave the Ten Commandments on the mountain. He's the God who walked through the wilderness with him. As you read through Paul's writings, you see he's the rock that Moses struck and the water come out of. You see that he's the cloud. He's the fire. He's he's with them all the way. The Bible says that they they they didn't believe and many of them fell. They got lost in the wilderness. It's the same story. They were saved by grace through faith in the blood of the lamb in Egypt at Passover. That's the same way we're saved is by grace through faith in the blood of the lamb at Passover on Calvary when Yeshua hung on that tree. They wandered through the wilderness for 40 years. We're wandering through the wilderness right now trying to follow him. They had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. We have the Holy Spirit. How much we listen and follow is a different story. They're looking forward to getting to the promised land. So are we. You know who lead them led them into the promised land? Yeshua. You know who's leading us into the promised land? Yeshua. It's the same story. Don't you see that? The people in Egypt who walked out of Egypt into the wilderness, that's us. The people wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years, that's that's us. The people who broke the commandments, that's that's us. The people who were sent into exile, well, there we are again. When you read those stories, do you see yourself? Cuz that's that's us. We're those people. It's our story. That's our God. When Paul talks about Gentiles being grafted into the cultivated olive tree, he says that the wild branch was grafted into the cultivated olive tree. That's what he's talking about. This is our story. This is our God. We're part of it. We're part of God's covenant faithfulness with Abraham. We're part of the history God has with Abraham. We are ch We're called sons and daughters of Abraham, children of Israel. Why? because we're tied to the story. We're tied to the God of the story. And when we read the Bible, it's not complete. It's not finished. Don't read it as if it's ancient history that happened a long time ago. It's happening right now. And it's still yet to happen. The end of the book hasn't happened yet, right? Have we got to the promised land yet? No, we haven't. Book's not done. It's still alive. It's still active. It's still going on right now. the beautiful amazing God we serve. Now let's look at the character of God. Exodus 34. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord in in Hebrew is Yahweh Yahweh. merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. That's what God describes himself. You're not going to get that from a philosophy or theology book. This is how God described himself. If you want to know who God is, he's telling us what did he describe? He described his covenant faithfulness. He described his character. Let's look at let's look at some of these things that he says here. Hebrew word said, you guys familiar with that word? It is probably one of the richest words in this passage to describe God. And the English translation is really inadequate. Most translations say loving kindness, steadfast love, mercy, grace, loyalty, faithfulness, things like that, right? That's typically how this word is translated. And these words, I mean, they're doing a good job of getting part of the picture anyway. They just can't encompass the entire picture. They're not good enough to to cover what this word really is saying is speaking about a covenant partner who is fully committed. It's a covenant partner who will not abandon the relationship regardless of the cost. No matter what it costs, he's not going to abandon this relationship. That's how much he has committed to this covenant. That's what this word is describing. is describing someone who pursues the wayward with inexhaustible patience. So that God is he will pursue us till he finds us. He's not going to give up. He will not stop pursuing us. That's that's what this word entails. It also describes one who remembers the covenant even when the other party has forgotten it. He's going to continue to remember this covenant even when you don't because he is faithful to it even when we are not. It describes someone who keeps the promise even when there's no obligation to do so. We have broken that promise. We have broken that covenant and yet he is faithful to keep it anyway. He doesn't have to. We broke it already. He doesn't have to be faithful, but yet he is faithful even when we are not. That's amazing. It's describing a love of a father running down the road towards a prodigal son before the son has a chance to even apologize. That's what this word is describing. Isn't that amazing? It's describing the commitment of one who has bound himself to someone else and will not let go. That's what this word is describing. This is what God is saying of himself. I am faithful to this covenant. No matter what you do, no matter how you treat me, I'm still faithful. He's saying, I'm a faithful God. I will keep my promises no matter what. This is describing the love of a shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes after the one lost sheep. Isaiah 49:15 says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they might forget, yet I will not forget you." He's saying, "It's more likely for a mother who is nursing a child to forget they have a child than for me to forget you." How likely is it that a mom nursing a baby is going to forget she has a baby? He says, "It's more likely that she's going to forget her child than it is that I'm going to forget you." That's the kind of God Bible is describing. Now I want to read a text from Lamentations. Lamentations is an interesting book. Have you guys how many of you guys have read Lamentations? It's kind of depressing, right? Jerusalem is fallen. The temple is destroyed and the covenant people have been carried off to exile. They are lamenting. Woe is me is basically what this book is, right? And yet in this book there's something very interesting said about God. Even in the midst of exile, in the midst of destruction, listen to what is said. Lamentations 3 22 and 23. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. What a confession. Even in the midst of absolute chaos and catastrophe. Again, Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is destroyed, the people are in exile, and this is the confession that God is faithful and his mercies never end. Do we have that kind of a confession? Do we understand who God is? that we can say even in the midst of chaos, even in the midst of catastrophe, even in the midst of our world falling apart around us, we say God is faithful and his mercies are new every day. What an amazing God we have. I want you to consider the context of Exodus 34. Moses had just received the Ten Commandments and he came down the mountain and Israel was worshiping a golden calf. Moses curious at what he sees, the idolatry of the people, he smashes the Ten Commandments on the ground. He has them burn this idol, melt it to ash, burn it to ash, and then put it in water, make some people drink it. Then the Levites grab swords and go around killing people, thousands, because of the idolatry. That's the context of what happened right before Exodus 33 and 34. Moses is now going back to God. Exodus 33:18. And I want you to with that context in mind, listen to what's happening here. And he said, "Please show me your glory." Moses asked God, "Please show me your glory." Remember Moses in Exodus 3, he says, "What's your name?" Now he's saying, "I want to see your glory. Show me your glory." All Moses wants to do is get to know God. He just wants to pursue him. I think that's amazing. Even in the midst of the chaos that just happened, the idolatry that he just had to deal with, he turns to God and he says, "I want to see your glory. I want to know you more." But he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you." This is what God said to him. "I will make all of my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." That kind of sounds like I will be what I will be. I am what I am. I will be what I will be. You see the interesting language that's used here. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face for I for no man shall see me and live. And the Lord said, here is a place by me and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cliff to the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back. but my face shall not be seen. So again, this golden calf innocent happens and Moses says, "Show me your glory." And God says, "I'm going to walk in front of you. I'm going to pass beside you and I'm going to proclaim my name as I pass by you." That's the context. And so then we get to Exodus 34 when the actual event happens that God says was going to happen, right? He he said, "Here's what's going to happen." Now we have Moses on the cliff of the rock. And here is what God proclaims when he walks in front of Moses. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "Yahweh, Yahweh, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generations." We see he comes in, he says, "I am gracious. I am merciful. I am forgiving. But I won't let the guiltless. I I I won't clear the guilty. I won't clear the guilty. He says, "I'm I'm merciful, forgiving, and loving, gracious, but also have justice." Justice tempers everything else. And everything else tempers his justice. His love and compassion and mercy and grace temper his justice. But his justice tempers his love and compassion and mercy and grace. They're held in balance perfectly. It begins by saying Yahweh Yahweh repeating his name twice in in Hebrew thought. This is it shows intensification in Hebrew literary functions. You know when things are repeated twice is to it's to show emphasis. The double name announces something. The God who who speaks now is the same God who spoke to Abraham. Same God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush and who led the people through the Red Sea. Hey, making sure we understand who he's talking to. Who who who's talking here? This is Yahweh. Same God of Abraham. The same God of the burning bush. Same God of the Red Sea. This is Yahweh. Was who he's talking. This is who is who is talking who's telling us who he is. He says he's merciful and gracious. the uh the word merciful here ra it comes from the root ram and it means a womb like a woman with child it's the womb and so you think about the kind of mercy the kind of compassion the kind of love that a woman has for a child that's what he's describing here is that he cares for his people as he would his own child as an infant that couldn't care for itself that's the kind of mercy he has on It's about an intimate love of a mother for the child she carried inside of her. That's that's the kind of love he's describing here. That's the love he has for us. The grace the grace and mercy. The next word here is canon and it is translated gracious. And this is the kind of grace that gives what is not owed, what is not deserved, is not earned. He gives what we don't deserve. He gives what we haven't earned. He does good to us even when we deserve bad. That's that's what this kind of grace is. Next description is he's slow to anger. He's not quick to wrath. He doesn't lose his temper quickly. He's patient, long-suffering, giving us opportunity to change, to repent. And so when we see him angry, we should know it's for very good reason. And when you look through the Bible and the times when you see that God is angry, you know it's for very good reason. Think [clears throat] of the times when he got angry. just mentioned one, the golden calf, right? It's another time that God got angry. Yes. I mean, you could you could look throughout the pages of of the wilderness journey. He got mad whenever they grumbled and complained about the food, the water. He got angry when when Kora led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. The desert swallowed him up. He got he got angry at Moses when Moses struck the rock the second time instead of speaking to it. First time he struck the rock. Second time he was supposed to speak to the rock. He didn't speak to the rock. He struck the rock. God got angry at Moses because of that. Bible says he's patient. He's long-suffering and he's not quick to wrath. He's abounding in met. He's abounding in faithfulness and truth. Those two words are paired together. We already talked about. It's that covenant faithfulness, right? It won't let go. that won't break the covenant. He's faithful no matter what. It meditates faithfulness, reliability, and it adds a dimension of consistency across time. So, he is faithful consistently throughout time. That's what that combination of those two words is. What he says he does, what he promises he keeps. And his covenant is not subject to revision because his truth is not subject to change. is the same yesterday, today and forever. God does not change. He is solid. He is stable. No wavering with him. We don't have to worry about him changing his mind. That's, you know, that's the biggest problem with dispensationalism because they've they've invented a god who changed his mind. He dealt with one people one way and then later he decided to change things and do something different with different people. That's not the god the Bible describes. That's a fake god. That's not that's not a cassette. That's not a God who is faithful no matter what. That's the biggest problem with dispensationalism in my opinion is that they make God unfaithful. And who can trust a God like that? If he changed his mind once before, how's how are we going to know he's not going to change his mind again? He told them they had to keep the commandments, but now he's telling us we don't have to. Well, what happens if he changed his mind again and we now all of a sudden we have to keep them again? Like that's that's the kind of weird stuff you see with dispensationalism. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. He's faithful. We see this same two words connected again in John chapter 1, right? Hased and emtt, right? Faithful and true. John 1:14. Listen to how it's phrased here. And God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. This is the the way Yeshua is described. He became flesh and dwelt among us. Full of grace and truth. He's full of the attributes of God. Cassed and immet faithfulness, grace, truth. He's abounding in grace and truth. The description of the incarnate word is the same description that Yahweh gave to Moses on the mountain. What a God. What an amazing God we have. Then we get to the part where he says, "By no means clearing the guilty." This is the part people like to forget. We want to overlook that one. We we like to focus on the grace. We like to focus on the the faithfulness and the love and the the compassion, the mercy. But it says he's not going to clear the guilty. What does that mean? He visits the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generations. It says, what does that mean? Means that sin has consequences. Means that what you do is has consequences. You're not going to get away with it. He has a record. He knows what you've done. There are penalties. So then we get to the New Testament when Paul says the handwriting that was against us has been abolished. He said that we are no longer under under what? No longer under the punishment. No longer under the curse. That's the word. No longer under the curse of the law. What is the curse of the law? If you obey my commandments, you'll be blessed. But if you disobey my commandments, you'll be cursed. So when we disobey, there's a curse. And the curse brings guilt. He says, "The handwriting that was against us has been wiped away and we're no longer under the curse. That punishment that was meant for us is taken. The cross, what an amazing God. He doesn't clear the guilty." But he loves us so much that he takes our punishment for us. He didn't say, "Oh, never mind. We'll just wipe that one away. We'll just forget about that." He says it still needs to be punished. He has such a sense of righteousness and justice that he says sin cannot go unpunished. But he he says, "I can't bear punishing you. So I'll punish me in your place." What an amazing God. And yet people still refuse to worship him. People still reject his salvation, reject his love, reject his compassion. It makes no sense. Can anybody explain to me why somebody would reject a God like this? I have no explanation. Who is God? Do you have a better idea now than you did when you got here this morning? I hope so. That's what that's what I was hoping this message would do is help you have a better idea of who God