I Believe According to the Scriptures: The True God-Romans 1:19-20

This episode explores the most vital question of all: Who is God?  Creation reveals the power of God but only the Holy Scriptures informs us about God, His true name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and His love for you. Scripture calls to move beyond vague ideas to a living faith in the true God who made us, saves us, and sustains us.

Information about The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC) can be found at www.taalc.org

Transcript

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In the cascading layers of noise in our ever-changing world, discovering a space for reflection and inspiration is increasingly rare. Welcome then to Faith Comes by Hearing, a unique podcast series that cuts through the clamor, carrying the timeless messages of the gospel into our lives with renewed relevance. Join Dr. Carrie Larson, the presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, as he ventures into the challenges of everyday life and the deep need to hear the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith, through Christ Jesus alone. Each episode is an invitation not just to listen, but to truly hear and embrace the good news of Christ Jesus for you and for all.

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Who is God? Where is God? What has God done? How do you know that God really exists? Why do you believe in God? How would you answer those questions? Let us pray. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Dear brothers, dear sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. You knew somebody who was irregular in their worship and they never found time to be in God's Word or they permitted their faith life to grow dormant. And if the subject was ever broached, and sometimes in the strangest places, you might have heard this. Oh, you don't have to worry about me. I may not be at church every Sunday, but but I know what I believe. I know the Bible. I learned it from confirmation class. And let me tell you, we had a pastor that made us memorize everything. Oh, he was a stickler. And you know, I never forgot any of it. And I say my prayers when I remember. So don't worry about me. Or especially in this time of year. I believe in God. But you know, when I go fishing or when I'm out in the links, that's where I can see God. Well, if you'll pardon my skepticism, but I only I think the only time that God's name is invoked is when that bink lunker gets away right at the boat because you didn't get the net out in time and the line snapped, and you're invoking the name of God to do something horrible to this fish. Or you whack the ball with that three wood, and it shanks off in the opposite direction of the hole. None the same. Ask this person to give a clear explanation of God, what it means to be a true, sincere believer in Him, and you will soon discover how little this one who says to be a Christian knows about God. So, what do we know about God? Well, I'm gonna start off with the bad news. There are many things about God that we do not know or can explain. As it was his goodwill and pleasure not to reveal those things to us. Now, if I had the joy of having you in confirmation, you may recall this, or you could see yourself back in the day when you were of a confirmation age, and it seems inevitable, regardless of generation, that the question comes out, Pastor, what was God doing before the whole creation of the world thing? You tell me he's eternal, and so what was he doing? Or who created God, Pastor? We'll have to take that directly to him, as he is not created and is eternal, and this world is not eternal. A lot of mystery that surrounds this one that we call God. However, there are many great things that he chooses to reveal to us, and he is a God of revelation, and as I said yesterday or last Sunday, it seemed like yesterday, is it's all revealed here. All what we need to know about this one that we call God, who strikes us with his word, who even causes our bones to be on fire, and who Jesus even says that this good news will alienate us from family. Can you imagine that? Your parent wanting you to die for the faith, your children ostracizing you because of the faith? Why would we put ourselves at such a risk? Because we know that God exists. We know there is a God of creation. I picked last summer I did the series on Romans. This summer we're in Romans by the lectionary. I picked the wrong time. But I want to go back to Romans here from the very first chapter. Paul says this for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived even since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. So, in defense of our buddy that's out in the Gulf Links or on the lake, yes, he sees the creation that God has done. She sees the wonders of his creative powers, but the problem is this outdoor cathedral does not reveal something important to us. The saving gospel. We read in Jeremiah again, 31 through 33, I will put my law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. We know there is a God because his law is written in our hearts. The law. She will see this collar and she will say, Good morning. Because she knows who I work for. Or tragically, is the man who looks at me with a how dare you look on his face. He doesn't know the gospel. He knows only God's law. The tragic, the humor part is the is the one who sees me coming and then suddenly is interested in something way over here. I will write my law in their hearts. And they will know me. Call it a hunch, call it a God-shaped hole. But we know that God exists because we see it in nature. My children have been blessed with wonderful professors when they went to River Falls or Stillwater, Oklahoma. I just praise God that in secular schools they managed to intersect their lives with professors who are actually believing, professing Christians. And I'll never forget the day when Jill came home with a story of a wonderful man, Dr. Justin Luther, who, in an anatomy class, as she had an animal, an animal of God's creation opened up as she was discovering the reproductive organs of this animal. This professor leans in and whispers in Jill's ear, it's just a wonder what God has done. How can you not believe in a creating God when you see these things? Nature reveals God a natural knowledge, a conscience, if you will. But it's not enough to have a relationship with a saving God. From Nehemiah, the ninth chapter, verse 6, you are the Lord, you alone, you have made heaven and earth, the heavens of heavens and all their hosts, the earth and all that is in on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them, and the hosts of heaven worship you. And the only way he reveals himself is something that exists throughout all people, of all people, through all lands, words. Now, like I said, a couple Sundays ago was Holy Trinity Sunday, and thankfully the sermon's online and it was mailed to you. So I would ask you to refer to that as we talk about this relationship of the triune God, but we confess it every time. We gather, we we invoke his holy name in the beginning and the end of our worship, and we say that this is the God in whom we believe, who goes by a name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That, my friends, is God's proper and revealed name. I've heard pastors openly confess that they baptize people in the name of Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Those are jobs, not names. Others in defiance have baptized in the name of mother, lover, and friend. That's when I fell off my chair. Think about the audacity of believing in a God, and you choose to name this God. If you look in the Old Testament, in my opinion, one of the biggest scoundrels of the Old Testament, and yet God loves him, is Jacob. Jacob is a weak man. He's afraid of his brother, and he puts his animals, he puts his children, he puts his wives and his servants before him and his brother. So the brother has to get through all that before he crosses the river to get to him. How's that for a man of courage? And on that night he wrestles with God. And even Jacob, in all his arrogance and all his, oh man, what a piece of work. He has the means within him that in this night wrestle off. His hip is wrenched. Please, he says politely, tell me your name. Think about it. What if I refuse to call you by your given name? And I decide you would call a name to my satisfaction, and I go around introducing you to the name that I gave you. There are only three people in this world that have had that benefit, and I have to consult with their mother before we got to that name. That's a little off-putting, isn't it? I'm going to stick with the name that he reveals himself with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Okay, let me ask you this. What makes God God? Is there a divine cosmic job description out there? Well, it seems to me that you have clicked off all the items that we're looking for, God. We'll call you God today. We have this audacity as creatures that we think that God is supposed to do things according to our plan, and then we're like a bunch of babies and we whine when God does not act to what I want. What is God? A divine vendor that's supposed to dispense all what we want? And if we don't get exactly what we want, we complain? We're dangerously creating a god in the images of the mythological gods of Scandinavia, the Germanic gods, the Roman gods, the Grecian gods, and if you read their mythology, holy cow, that would be Indian gods, I think. When all is said and done, these made-up gods look a whole lot like you. And speaking of these mythological gods, if you read their stories, if you read the creation accounts, they're beyond bizarre. Even the gods are created. The true God has always been. And He creates out of nothing. The big churchy word is ex nielio, out of nothing. When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing. There was no premortal mass that was sort of floating around, and then boom, there was this big explosion sending things flying away at at light speed. There was nothing. God spoke. If you create everything that exists, you get to be God. We teach based on scripture. And if you've been catechized in the Lutheran church, this is very familiar to you. And I should have it by memory. After all, Pastor Meyer was really a stickler in memorizing. I believe that God has made me and all creatures, that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them. That he richly and daily provides me with food and clothing, home and family, property and goods, and all that I need to support this body and life. That he protects me from all danger, keeps me from all evil. And all this out of purely out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me, for all which I am in duty bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey. A saint in Christ taught us to say, out of gratitude. God bless the memory of George Costell. We can also list God's attributes from the Holy Scriptures. From the Holy Scriptures alone, we learn what God does and how he regards us, and we know that God is good. Maybe you remember this, this is recorded in two Gospels, Mark and Matthew. Mark records that a man, and Matthew records a rich young man, runs up, kneels before Jesus, and says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And it's really interesting what Jesus' first response is: Why do you call me good? No one is good except God. This good God is also merciful and just. Not to mention he's all powerful, all-present, and the big bonuses are that God is eternal and unchanging. In other words, he is who he says he is, and he stays that way. It just drives me nuts when I hear people say, well, God is doing a new thing, counter to scripture, because his word is a saying yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'm reminded of the encounter of Moses, and I wish I could do the Cecil de Mille voice. Where out of the burning bush, God calls his servant Moses to go, go down into Egypt, land and free his people. And Moses, Moses, beautiful Moses, he pushes back, I think like nine times. He thought he had an out. Here's his out. Suppose I go to the Israelites and they say to me, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask, What is his name? God said to Moses, it's recorded in Exodus, the third chapter, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you. And it's no accident that in the Gospel of John, in the multiple places in the Gospel of John, Jesus is using that word, words, I am, over and over and over. He is identifying who he is. So before I conclude, and I could do again a month of Sundays just on this topic, but the question then comes home who are we? More importantly, who are we in relation to a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Through God's word, our identity crisis has been solved. And here's the truth we are creatures made by Him. And do not fall for a minute that we're a product of chaos or some sort of end of an evolutionary chain. The truth is you are not an accident. Because God Himself has made us. Think about this. When you read the creation account, God creates all things, and we are the final part, and what makes us different than all of creation, the Bible tells us that we are made in his image. We're unique. We're the final encore, the grand finale. And by ignoring that we've been created in his image, we receive all things. Paul says this as he writes to you across time and to the Corinthians, you do not have that you do not receive. He has provided everything that we have in this life. Amen. Those beautiful children, young and old, that call you dad. While we're to be on the pedestal, it's they. With their entry into the world, we have a title. A title that's supposed to reflect the one who's created all things. And you and I, dear men, have failed. We have not lived up to the name as Father as we ought. But we gather with our sisters, our wives, and our and all the sisters of Jesus Christ before the cross, and the God who has created us and has redeemed us through the blood of Jesus Christ has said, I'm Father enough. And I've given you the needs and the skills to do what you are to do. Lord, be merciful to me as sinner. For I'm not worthy of the three that call me father. But I sing praises to God. He saw it fit to make me one and you as well, who cares such a title. And as creatures, we are dependent upon God. We're dependent upon His gifts, the gifts of redemption and faith and eternal life. But how about the gifts of the gifts of air that we breathe, the food that we eat, the water that we must drink or we die if we don't have any of this? These are gifts, too, that we can take for granted. The beating of our heart that when suddenly you say, the doctor says we need to talk to you about your heart, we suddenly realize how important that is, don't we? So who is God? What do the scriptures say? An eternal, loving Father who loves us unconditionally and yet corrects us with love. The only begotten Son who became flesh and dwelt among us and liberates us from captivity, not just Egyptian captivity, but captivity from sin, death, and the devil, who paid for it in his blood. The eternal spirit who proceeds from Father and Son, who calls and gathers us into his word and into the divine love and in the relationship of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is your God. He has a name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is your God. And this is what he's done. He is your creator, he is your redeemer, and he keeps you in the true faith as sanctifier. This is your God, the only true God who has promised never to abandon his people, who is full of love and patience and mercy for a sinner such as you and I. This is your God.