The Doctrine of God

Well hello everyone. Y 'all look so excited to be in class today and want to remind you of what we're doing because it's important that we understand this is an ongoing class and it is a rotating class meaning we are right now in week two.

We go to week 12. It's a 12-week course and then we start over again at week one. So it's a rotating theology course. This is the first time that we have done it so it's the first time that many of you or any of you have ever been in this class.

However, if you stay past three months you may be taking this again and it may rotate because the whole idea is you should hear these things more than once. You should be exposed to these things. You'll learn even if you take the same class a second time.

I won't be giving it the same exact way because there's always nuances and changes in that regard and for those of you who don't know, I'm Keith. I am the pastor of Sovereign Grace Family Church and I'm also the professor at Sovereign Grace Academy which is our Bible teaching ministry that we have which is a seminary at our church.

This is my son JJ. He is our mascot for the class and if he acts up then I'm going to have one of you guys take him out and give him the business. So hopefully he'll know to not act up. He'll act right throughout the class.

Ain't that right JJ? JJ's a good guy, right? Good, okay. He's going to be good. Now last week we began with the doctrine of revelation. If you were not here, the doctrine of revelation is not about the book of revelation but rather about how God has revealed himself to man.

We talked about general revelation that God has revealed himself generally to all men and we talked about special revelation where God has revealed himself in a specific way through the Bible and particularly through Jesus Christ.

Theology Proper and the Existence of God

Today we're going to be looking at something called theology proper. The word theology means the study of God. Comes from the Greek word theos and logos. Logos means a word or a study and theos means God and therefore anytime you see ology at the end of something that usually means a science or a study of that thing, anthropology, biology, all those things.

Well theology is the study of God. Well when we talk about God in his nature and we talk about God in his existence and we talk about God in regard to his attributes, then we are talking about not theology as a whole but we're talking about a specific subset of theology and we call that theology proper.

So that is what today is about. We're going to discuss why we believe that God exists. We're going to talk about what the Bible says about the God who does exist particularly in regard to his attributes.

If you would open your Bible we're going to begin in Romans chapter 1 looking at God's existence. Romans chapter 1 is I would say one of the most important passages regarding the existence of God in the entire Bible.

The Bible assumes that God exists. The very first page does not say we believe that God exists because x y and z. The very first page of the Bible says in the beginning God. It just assumes his existence.

It does not argue for his existence. It assumes that he exists. In the book of Romans chapter 1 Paul tells us why we can make that assumption. Why we can know that that is true. In Romans chapter 1 verse 18 it says this.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 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 ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. We'll end there at verse 23. Now have you ever heard someone say or maybe you have said it yourself I don't believe God exists.

You've heard people say that? You've heard that? Maybe again maybe you've said it yourself. We normally refer to a person who says God does not exist as an atheist. However there are other categories that are important to recognize.

There is the category known as agnostic and the word agnostic comes from the word gnosis which means knowledge and when you put the alpha primitive at the beginning of something you make it the opposite.

So alpha primitive is an a if you put an a at the beginning of a word you're making it the opposite. So a theist is a person who believes in God and atheist is a person who doesn't believe in God. Gnosis is knowledge right so agnostic means no knowledge.

It's ignorant and not ignorant in a way that you might call someone ignorant in a slight or you know like if I said you're so ignorant that might be ugly and mean. No ignorant in the sense they're saying I don't know if God exists.

That's the two categories. There's also a third category which is often not talked about but I like to bring it up. Misotheist. Misotheist is different than atheist and agnostic. A misotheist from the the prefix miso which means hatred and so there are those who don't believe God exists.

There are those who don't know if God exists and there are those who hate the existence of God. The idea of God. People was I hate the the idea that there's a God who's watching me. I hate the idea that I can never go anywhere where he's not looking at me.

I hate the idea that I can never have any private time right and so the idea of hatred of God is also falls within this category. Now I want to I want to very quickly make a few points about these three categories.

As we talk about these three categories of atheist agnostic and misotheist we're talking about someone who is according to Romans 1 denying something that they know in their heart is true. Romans 1 says that all men know that God exists that they suppress that truth because of their unrighteousness and they replace the God who exists with an idol of some sort whether it's the idol of self whether it's the idol of drugs alcohol whatever maybe it's the idol of maybe it's an actual idol that they've carved out of wood or they've made out of metal or gold right and so the idea of Romans 1 is all men know God exists they suppress that truth because they as as John tells us they love the darkness rather than the light so they suppress the truth and as a result they become idolaters.

But for a moment let us just consider the idea of atheism. If someone says I am an atheist because I know there is no God I would say that is an impossibility. You cannot know that there is no God because you do not have all knowledge and to make a claim that is that precise and that all-encompassing you would have to have all knowledge and since you don't the very best you can be is an agnostic the very best you can be is to say I don't know.

For instance let's say someone said there's no gold in China. Let's just say someone said that statement what would you have to know to be able to know that statement is true. What. But what would you have to know to know there's no gold in China.

You'd have to be able to see inside of every rock. You'd have to be able to see inside of every mountain inside of every stream. You'd have to be able to see inside of every Chinese person's mouth to see that there's been no gold dental work.

You'd have to know everything to be able to say there is no gold in China. So you really can't say that. In fact all it would take to prove you wrong was to show you one piece of gold in China. And then you'd be completely made an error and shown to be an error.

So when I say what I'm about to say understand what I'm saying I don't believe that atheists actually exist because I don't believe anyone can know that God doesn't exist. You understand when someone says I'm an atheist I say no you're really an agnostic.

You just don't think you know. But to say that God does not exist is to make an absolute claim that you don't have enough knowledge to make because you don't know what's in the entire universe. You can't see really very far at all into the universe.

How could you make the claim that God does not exist. So so atheism right off the bat I think should be tossed out as untenable. You can't know that. So now we get to the issue of agnostic. And this takes us back to Romans 1 because Romans 1 says you're actually not agnostic either because Romans 1 tells you there's enough information in the world around you and there's enough information in your heart within you that you know that God exists.

So your your ability to say I don't know. Look again with me very quickly. Notice what it says in verse 8. Excuse me. Rather what it says in verse 21. Verse 20 I'm sorry my numbers are really small and I'm not wearing my glasses.

So forgive me. It says for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

When you face God at judgment you're not going to be able to say to him. I didn't know you were there because he's going to say to you. I gave you all information to know that I was there. I gave you a world to look at.

I gave you a conscience within you. I gave you order and beauty and testimony to my existence. You cannot say you didn't know. So with that agnostic is out. So now we're left with the third and I think the third is actually the most common.

And people just don't want to admit it. They know God exists but they hate him. In fact that's the two things that I find most common among atheists. They don't believe in God and they hate him. They don't believe in him.

But they hate him. Yeah they they he's not there. But he sure is a jerk. And so really it's not a matter of atheism or agnosticism. It's a matter of misatheism. It's a matter of a desire to not be under the thumb of a god not be under the rule of a of a of a of a supreme being.

I don't want God to exist. Therefore I'll come up with reasons for not believing. And I'll make those reasons sound very plausible to me. Justified. Thank you. That's a better word. So this leads us to some of the classical arguments for the existence of God.

Because we've looked now at the subject of what the Bible says. The Bible says we know God exists. But over the centuries you. Okay. No I'm teaching. You have to. Yeah. I don't know what the smell is.

It's all right. It's all right. It smells like curry. Some kind of somebody cooking something. Yeah. Is that what it is curry. Okay. All right. It's you'll be all right. Did you drink your all right. So sorry about that all right.

Classical Arguments for the Existence of God

Now I want to share with you four of the classical arguments for the existence of God with this caveat I don't believe these arguments prove the existence of God. Because I don't think it has to be proven.

I think we know. But what Christian philosophers have done down through the centuries is Christian philosophers have recognized these four arguments as being helpful for believers to affirm what we know is true.

So this isn't arguing. This is affirming what we already know. Okay. And are they on your paper. Did I put them on your paper. The four arguments now. They're big words. Please please understand. I don't throw out big words just because I'm just trying to come in and be confusing or try to look you know very heady and very weighty.

I use big words because these words have meaning. And I want to share with you what this the meanings are. And I think it's good to always raise the bar of thinking as much as we can. You know if we always stay in the shallow puddles we're only going to get our feet wet.

Sometimes we got to wade into the deep water and let the water come up and and soak us you know. So so that's why we do these things. It's important. Don't get bored. I promise it's going to as we go it'll get more exciting.

I hope all right. So we have four arguments. The cosmological argument the teleological argument the anthropological argument and the moral argument. Those are the four. Do not. First is the cosmological argument.

What is the word cosmos mean. You may know space. Right. All right. So the cosmos is everything. It's the in fact the greek word for cosmos is actually the word that's translated world. John 3 16 for god so loved the world.

The greek word there is cosmos. It's where we get the word cosmos. It refers to everything. The cosmos is all things. And the distinction is between cosmos and chaos. When we look around us we see cosmos an orderly arrangement of the world.

We see an orderly arrangement of the universe. We do not see chaos. Like for instance this morning when did the sun rise somewhere 7 7 10 7 15 something like that. Right. When did it rise yesterday. About the same time.

When did it rise the day before that about the same time. Except for when. That's that that that stupid time change happens every year and we and everything gets discombobulated. But we know that we can make predictions about the world.

For instance if I was a scientist which I am not. If I was a scientist and I was doing a scientific experiment on the subject you have to use the restaurant. You were really good last week. You need to go bathroom.

It's right there. Can he go in there. Go right there quickly. So if I made a scientific experiment and I said water boils at what. 2 12 2 12 fahrenheit. Right. 212 degrees fahrenheit. I say water boils at 212 degrees fahrenheit every time.

So if I boil water today at 212 degrees fahrenheit tomorrow I can expect that if I boil water it's going to boil at 212 degrees fahrenheit. 100 years from now if I boil water it's going to boil. It's going to boil at 212 degrees fahrenheit.

Right. It's at what is it. 32 degrees fahrenheit. Right. And so I have I have expectation I have uniformity in nature and in the world around me. And that is k that is cosmos. Chaos would be today it boils at 212 tomorrow it boils at 350 and the day after that it boils at 10.

It would be different all the time. It would be chaos all the time. And so the argument the cosmological argument cosmos not only means world but it means orderly. The idea is an orderly universe rather than a chaotic universe.

And so the the cosmological argument says the cosmos an orderly cosmos exists. Therefore an orderly intelligence or an orderly creator must exist. You guys remember last week when I said if you see a building it tells you that the builder exists.

Remember we said if you see a building I don't have to see the builder. I don't have to see the architect. I don't have to see the plant. I know the architect the builder and the plans exist because the building exists.

The building is testimony to the builder. And so we talk about cosmological argument. We're saying the cosmos exists. Therefore a creator of the cosmos must exist. This is a very simple inference and we are deducing based on the existence of the cosmos that a creator exists.

That's the cosmological argument. The second argument is the teleological argument. Now I'm going to erase this because I need to add some words. The teleological argument comes from the greek word telos.

Us means purpose. You see the universe not only exists and the universe not only exists in an orderly way but the universe exists for the purpose of sustaining our existence our life. The universe not only exists but it exists for the purpose of sustaining our life.

Yeah. Is there a sink in there. Go ahead. Yes sir. Do you have a question. Oh the sink is hot. I'm so sorry guys we're working. We're working on it. This is my it's my opportunity to you know my kids are homeschooled so they're with my wife all day long every day.

This is my opportunity to try to help my boy. You know huh. Yeah. All right. So I want you to turn right now very quickly to Psalm 19. We looked at this last week I think. But I want to I want to um point out something to you in Psalm 19.

All right. Sit down and be quiet. Thank you buddy. Thank you so much all right. So Psalm 19 says. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day-to-day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the earth. And then he has set a tent for the sun which comes out like a bridegroom leaving its chamber and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the earth and its circuit to the end of them and there's nothing hidden from its heat. This passage reminds us that the world around us is put together in such a way that certain things happen for our benefit.

The sun comes out in the morning and it heats us all day long and it goes down at night. Now we understand the world's round and when it's down for us it's up for china. And when it's up for china it's down for us you know.

So we understand that this is using what's known as phenomenological language or the language of appearance. So it's telling us what we see. It comes out goes across the sky and goes back down. But it has a purpose.

Years ago I was I was canoeing and I was canoeing down the swanee river as I was going down the swanee river with some other friends and we're canoeing down the river. I look on the bank of the swanee river and I notice a park bench that someone had apparently brought and set on the beach.

You know it's a sandy river bank and they had set it there apparently to sit and look at the water. Now it hadn't been used in a while rain and water and sand had gotten onto it but you could still make the shape of the sea.

You could see the little the the parts of the bench that were certainly a parked bench. It had the slats and it had the bolts and it had all of those things. So I looked at it and I had this epiphany.

I said there is an example of the teleological argument. Now that's not what I said but in my mind what I said was that was put there for a purpose. That was put there by an intelligent person that didn't come about by wind and rain eroding rocks into a bench.

Now if I saw a rock that looked like a seat I could say that happened by accident. But that's no mistake. That's no accident. When you see a bench that has bolts with rivets and the and the finely tuned wood and cut it and all those things.

You look at that and you say that is an example of purpose. It was put there for a purpose by somebody who had a design in mind. When you look at the human body now take that example and look at the human body and look how just exquisite the architecture of the body is.

Think about how much is a part of just your makeup. And you say there's purpose in this. There's design in this. There's a goal in this. And that's the teleological argument. This this is the heart of the intelligent design movement the movement that would say you cannot say that the world came from nothing and has no direction because there's too much evidence of design.

And so the teleological argument is an important argument. The third argument is the anthropological argument. Now very quickly you may know this the word anthropos means what it's greek. It means what.

Huh. Okay all right. Anthropology is the study of man. So anthropos is the word for man. So that means man all right. So when we talk about the anthropological principle or the anthropological argument what we are saying is that man is more than just the sum of his parts.

He is more than just a biological machine. I've had a lot of discussions with unbelievers. I've had a lot of discussions with people who do not believe in the bible who do not believe in jesus. Stop stop.

In fact one man i was i was sitting i was having lunch with a christian friend and his wife and my wife it was i think it was after church on a sunday. So we just came from church. We're we're we're you know we're we're moved by what we've learned in church.

And so we're sitting at the table and we're talking about god. And we're being kind of loud because i don't know how to be any other way. I'm only loud. I don't really have a low switch. And so my buddy and he's loud too.

He's this big bodybuilder guy you know. And he's just sitting there. Yeah i love jesus and i'm talking about this whatever whatever. And this young man i forget 20 25 years old he walks over to our table and he says sirs i don't mean to bother you.

But i can hear you talking from my table. And i hear you talking about god. Can you tell me why you believe in god. Because i don't believe in god. And i want to know why you believe in god. And i said pull up a chair.

Man. I'm excited. It ain't it ain't every day fish just jump on in the boat sit down. I mean just this is why we're here. So we began to talk about the fact that the bible says that all men know that god exists that he does know in his heart that god exists.

He's suppressing that truth. And i always start there. I always start with scripture. People say what people don't believe the bible. I don't care. It doesn't. That didn't take away my authority. If i'm talking to a scientist and he believes in evolution.

He's not going to stop talking about evolution just because i don't believe in it. Why should i stop talking about the bible just because he doesn't believe it. You see i understand from the foundation.

I'm not going to let him steal my authority just because he doesn't believe in it. But that's where i began. But here's the point that really i think got his attention. I said young man. I said there's a young lady at your table who is that.

And he said that's my girlfriend. I said do you love her. And he says yes i love her. I said why. And he said well she's this or that she's a good person. Whatever i said. But if there is no god then you're really just a big sack of stardust.

And she's really just a big sack of stardust. And all of the emotions that you have all of the thoughts and desires and wishes and dreams that you have are really nothing more than the firing of synapses in your brain.

It's really nothing more than a chemical reaction happening within your body. It really has no more intrinsic value than me shaking up a can of diet soda and opening it and allowing all those chemicals to spew out.

What makes you more valuable than can of soda. What makes the chemical processes in your brain that are making you feel love and joy and happiness any more special than what happens inside of a can of pop.

You see you know god exists. God has put within you a knowledge of your own self-worth. You know you were made in his image. And there is something different between you and a can of pop. And that's the anthropo the anthropological argument that man is more than just a biological machine.

You are more than just bone and skin and electrical impulses. You are a spirit body and soul. That's the anthropological argument. The final argument is the moral argument. Now we should know what the word moral means.

The word moral refers to right and wrong. And this is the really i think one of the strongest arguments that we must put forward. And that is the idea that all men understand by nature that there are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong.

There's not. Oh they don't always agree on what they are. But i can usually get the consensus of the group if i begin to dig far enough. If i said all right everybody in this room all of your mothers are going to get beaten tonight.

Everyone would get angry and upset because you don't believe that your mother deserves to be beaten tonight. Maybe you do. And i don't want to get into it if that's the case. Okay i just said i always go to romans 1 18.

The same one we started with today. Romans 1 18 to 23 is always where i start. Anytime an unbeliever wants to talk i always start there because it reminds us that all men know that god exists and that they are without excuse.

Yep. But getting back to uh the issue of the moral argument. Getting back to the issue of the moral argument. The moral argument is not so much that men know that they're valuable but that they know that there are things that are right and things that are wrong.

In a universe that has no creator there is no standard. If god does not exist all things are permissible. Well we would not have the consciences that we do have the consciences that that that are. There is a universal understanding that there is ought and ought not.

And that would be chaos. Yeah chaos of the mind. In fact what do we. And we talked about this last week. How do i identify. How do we identify people who do not believe in right and wrong. Sociopathic or psychopathic right.

We say a person who has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong there's something wrong with him. And we identify that with the terms right and wrong we say there's something wrong. The problem with the world right now.

The biggest problem with the world right now. And you may have your own opinion as to what is the bigger sociological economical uh interpersonal problem. But the the biggest problem in the world right now is is just what the bible says.

We have flip-flopped right and wrong. We say what's right is wrong and what's wrong is right. And the bible says woe to those who call evil good and good evil. And that's what we have done all right.

Divine Incomprehensibility and the Attributes of God

So the bible assumes god exists from the very first verse man knows god exists according to what the bible teaches because god has revealed himself in such a way that no man has an excuse. So that is the first half of today's lesson on the doctrine of god is god exists.

The second half is what do we know about god. If we know god exists what can we know about him. And this brings us to the subject of god's attributes. Now i want to say this before i even begin the second half the most controversial thing to teach on today in churches are the attributes of god.

You say why is that. Because most people do not have a biblical understanding of god. And therefore when we begin to talk about the attributes of god people who have been brought up with what i call a christianity light version of god when they begin to hear what the bible says about god and all those passages that they didn't want to deal with in sunday school and all those passages that they didn't want to teach to their children we get to those passages and we say okay this god is a lot more complex than we ever could have imagined.

And when we begin to do that it can become offensive. Paul washer is one of my favorite preachers and he says this. He says i've had preachers ask me to come to their church and preach on the attributes of god.

And i said i won't. And he says why not. He said because if i come and preach on the attributes of god it will split your church. People will leave because they do not want to hear about how god truly is.

They want the god that is like santa claus who begs you to come sit on his lap. They want the jesus with the limp wrist who's always willing to bend over backwards to satisfy you. They don't want the god who demands.

They don't want the god who is filled not only with love but also wrath. They do not want the god of the bible. This takes us back to romans 1. Because what do men do. They replace the god who exists with an idol.

And the greatest factory of idols according to john calvin is the human mind. The human mind is a factory of idols. It's constantly making new gods to believe in. I've told this story but so many of y 'all are new.

You're gonna hear it again. I remember i walked into k-mart. This tells you how long ago it was. Because there ain't no k-mart. No more. But i walked into k-mart and there was a lady greeting at the door.

I handed her a gospel tract. She took it from me and i walked on to go look at some tennis shoes. Well as i was looking at the tennis shoes she walks up to me and she says i don't want this take it back.

So i took it back and i said thank you. I thanked her because most people just tear it up and throw it away. So at least i got it back and give it to somebody else. So she hands it to me. I don't want it.

I said thank you. And i turned around and started looking at the shoes again. And i noticed she hasn't left. She's standing there and tapping her foot got her hands on her hip. Don't you want to know why i don't want it.

I said i know why you don't want it. It tells you about god and about his his justice and his wrath. And i'm sure you don't want to hear about those things. And she said i'll tell you why i don't want that piece of paper.

Because my goddess would not send anyone to hell. I said you're right. I said because your goddess does not exist. You have created a god in your own mind. You are an idolater. And you worship a god that you've created because she satisfies what you want.

You've abandoned the god who exists for a god that you've made in your own mind. She was stunned. Never heard anybody say that before. And thankfully we went on to have a very nice long conversation. She took the track back.

She took my name and number. She never called me unfortunately. But by being honest with her i was able to have more of a conversation. I didn't just bow down. Oh yes. Your goddess. What. No. You're an idolater.

You're worshiping a god who doesn't exist. You've made this god up in your own mind. And you need to know that. Well hopefully by god's grace. Yes. So let's look at the issue of god's attributes. Looking first at the first line on your paper.

A prerequisite to this discussion is this. We must recognize divine and comprehensibility now. That word simply means that god is so great that we cannot fully comprehend all that he is. You can write this down psalm 145 verse 3.

Great is the lord and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. Meaning it cannot be found out completely. God's greatness is unimaginable. It's so incomprehensible. But just because it's incomprehensible does not mean it's unknowable.

It just means it can't be fully known. It's like this. I can know that the atlantic ocean is wet. But i can't know the fullness of the water in the atlantic ocean. I can't even comprehend the wall. I can and and even more.

So i couldn't take all of the atlantic ocean and put it in a bucket and take it home. So i can know things about god. But i cannot fully take those things in and pretend as if i have it all figured out.

And so that is. What we talk about is divine incomprehensibility. Now we're going to limit ourselves to 10 attributes. And i'm going to give these in sort of a rapid fire because of time. We're at 40 minutes.

Now i try to make this you know 50 minutes it. So that leaves me with only about a minute per attribute. The most important one is number one the holiness of god. Let me ask you this. And you may know this because you may have done this lesson before.

Who in here can give a definition for holiness. Sir set apart. Okay that's good. Anything else. The likeness like if we're holy we're we're reflecting god. Okay that's in our regard we're talking about god's holiness.

Now what what does holiness mean when we say god is holy perfect. You said what. Now almighty. Okay all of these are good. That quiet. We're almost done. Stop right now. I don't care what that tongue stuck out on that bother me all.

Right now listen. When we talk about the holiness of god one of the things you need to understand about that term is the holiness of god is the only attribute of god that god is described with three times in a row holy holy holy.

It's in isaiah chapter 6 the bible says that the angels who surround the throne of god are constantly saying holy holy holy is the lord. So there's something because the bible doesn't say god is love love love.

It doesn't say he's justice justice justice or mercy mercy mercy. It says he is holy holy holy. So there is something particular about his holiness that we need to understand. And while the the textbook definition and you're right it was your name exact set apart is when we make something holy we set it apart.