17.12.08
The Doctrine of God (SC:5&6) - II - The Living and True God
Jeremiah 10:10
Imagine the shock the poor motorists traveling on the A96 near Nairn a few Saturdays ago must have felt. Traffic was being held up because two men were having a fight in the middle of the road. The surprising thing, however, was that one of them was dressed up as a cow, complete with a brown hat; and the other one was dressed up as a horse, complete with a straw hat. If I was a passing motorist, I’m not sure if I would have laughed or cried, but I know I would have been surprised.
I want to begin tonight by shocking and surprising you by saying something you will never have heard from a Free Church Pulpit before. I am an atheist – a convinced, card-carrying atheist. I’m not just an unsure agnostic, I am positively atheist. But before you pack up and walk out, let me explain myself – regarding the supposed existence of any other God other than the One True and Living God of the Bible, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I am an atheist. I am utterly convinced that no other God, other than the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, exists. I believe that our God is the True and Living God.
Last week, from Deuteronomy 6:1-6 we looked at what the Shorter Catechism Question and Answer 5 mean when it says, “Are there more gods than one? There is but only.” Using theology, philosophy and science, we saw why this must be true. But this week, using Jeremiah 10:1-16, I want to move on to review what the Shorter Catechism means when it says, “There is but one only, the living and true God.”
As far as I understand it, to say that God is the living and true God is to say three things: first, God is living and true; secondly, Other gods do not exist; third, I must live for the Living and True God.
[A] God is Living and True
As opposed to all the fantasies and mockeries which the peoples of the world, and regrettably, the people of God, were worshipping, vs. 10 strikes us with reassuring confidence and light – “But Yahweh is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, the Apostle Paul, reflecting the language of Jeremiah 10:10, talks of “how you turned from idols to serve the living and true God.” In both situations, God is asserted to be living and true in contrast to idols and foreign gods which are dead and false. We are therefore to understand the language of God as ‘the true and living God’ as being primarily confrontational – Yahweh is the Only God there is – the others are false and do not exist.
We hear people talking of this or of that god, but they do not exist save as figments of the human imagination – they have no objective reality. By contrast, the very name of our God “Yahweh”, or “Jehovah”, literally is “the being one”. From His being emanates all other being – including ourselves. The famous philosopher Descartes, struggling with skeptical doubt regarding his own existence, famously said, “I think therefore I am”. Our God is the living and true God – the being God who is Himself the fountain of all true life. And therefore we say “The living and true God is, therefore I am”. It would not matter if you should take a wooden idol and burn it in the fire; but if you should destroy God, then all would cease to be, for He is the centre of all being. Even the ungodly exist because God is the living and true God and there is no other besides Him.
[B] Other Gods Do Not Exist
The chief purpose of God being called ‘the living and true God’ is to distinguish Him from all other gods – gods which are false and do not exist. With respect to these gods, we are to be atheists – we do not believe they exist. Jeremiah lived in days of religious laxity among God’s people. Not only were the people worshipping Yahweh, they were also worshipping a plethora of other gods – the gods of the nations. But God will not be mocked and insulted like this. In Jeremiah 10:1-16 He reveals the farce and irony of such idolatry. He says three things regarding these idols which God’s people are bowing down to worship:
1. Their Creation (vs. 2-4, 9) – no wonder in vs. 15, God calls these idols, “objects of mockery”, for if the people had realized how ridiculous they were being, they may even have laughed at themselves. Here we find literary irony and sarcasm – “they cut a tree out of the forest and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move … beaten silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple – all made by skilled workers.” The wood from which the idol is made is hewn by the hands of men, and as Jeremiah says at the end of vs. 8 – “it is wood”. It came from a forest. It was beautified with silver and gold brought from afar and dressed in blue and purple. Such a thing should be given to a child as a doll and a plaything, not worshipped as though it were a god. Such irrationality and a complete lack of reason! By contrast, the true and living God is, according to vs. 15, the fashioner of all things – more skilled than even the most skilled human craftsman. And God needs no-one to beautify Him for He is dangerously awesome.
2. Their Sensitivity (vs. 5a) – good old Colin Montgomerie! The Scottish professional golfer was left out of the European Ryder Cup team earlier this year, only for some of his fans to take a life-size cardboard cut-out of him across to Kentucky, and to carry it around the Ryder cup golf course with them. Monty, as he is affectionately known, got there in the end. But it wasn’t really Monty – for if you had spoken to the cardboard cut out, it would not have spoken back; and if Monty’s fans had not carried it around with them, it wouldn’t have moved an inch. Just like the idols of Jeremiah’s day – they are like scarecrows in a field of cucumbers or melons and not even the kind which have no brain. Unlike the One True and Living God, who, according to vs. 1, speaks to His people, these idols cannot say a word. Everything must be done for them – they must even be fastened to the ground so that no one makes them totter if they should brush against them in passing. Some gods those – that a man can destroy with a matchstick! They cannot hear; they cannot speak; they cannot move. God, the being one, is everything they are not, for He is sensitive, responsive and alive.
3. Their Morality (vs. 5b) – according to this verse, the idols which the nations worship are incapable of making moral decisions – they are incapable of doing what is right or doing what is wrong. They are not responsible, animate beings. They cannot punish the wrong and reward the right. Supposing someone should pick up one of these idols and smash it to the ground, it cannot right that wrong. Why then do we fear objects of superstition – for these things are but wood and metal? They shouldn’t ‘spook’ us in any way. Unlike the true and living God, who is responsible and moral – who rewards good and punishes evil.
Human beings will plumb the lowest depths of reason and logic in order to get away from worshipping God – they will even worship a tree branch dressed up to look like a child’s doll. They will believe and they will do anything to get away from the One true and living God.
[C] I Must Live For the Living and True God
What difference does it make that our God is the true and living God, and that besides Him, there is no other god in existence? There are four very brief applications of this monumentally important doctrine:
1. Trust in Jesus (vs. 16) – there is only one God and He is, according to vs. 16, “the portion of Jacob … and … Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.” He is the God of His people – theirs to feed on, to find their satisfaction in, and to enjoy for ever. He is the God who keeps covenant with His people and who protects His people for ever. So how then do I become one of His people? How then do I become one of the tribe of His inheritance? I do it by trusting in the work of His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ there is access from the Kingdom of Death and Darkness into the Kingdom of Light and Life. By His death, He has given us eternal life with Him. He is our portion – He is everything we need; and we are His people. The Puritan John Flavel writes, “we have great cause to be thankful for the Gospel which discovers the only true God to us, and that we are not as the heathens, worshipping false gods.” I must trust in Jesus, and keep on trusting in Jesus, for in Him is access to God.
2. Worship God (vs. 6, 7) – these verses record the awe-filled response of the man of God, struck with the sheer majesty of the One and Only True and Living God. As he reflects upon the worthlessness and vanity of the idols of the nations, he is not only personally persuaded to bow before the feet of the King of the Nations, he is also persuaded that his God is due the worship and loyalty of the whole earth. When you see God as He is – in all the radiance of His glory and in all the intensity of His Love – you too will want to worship Him. As the hymwriter says, “the things of this world, will go strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Just be careful, however, that it is the one and only true God who you are worshipping – and not a figment of your imagination. Worship the God who really is – not the God who you want Him to be. Worship Him with voice and heart – on the Lord’s Day and everyday – for He alone is worth it.
3. Do not Follow the World (vs. 2) – Australian surfer John Morgan had a terrifying experience earlier this year when a 10ft shark became entangled in his leg rope and towed him 50m out to sea. At the time Jeremiah was writing, all kinds of religious sharks were trying to drag the people of Israel away from the true worship of God. And so, in vs. 2 God says to His people, “do not learn the ways of the nations”. The nations are terrified by astronomical phenomena – signs in the sky – but the people of God are not to fear such. After all, according to vs. 12, their God – the living and true – He created the heavens. They are not to worship and fear the idols made of molten metal – after all, what penalty can these dead idols impose – they are neither capable of sense or movement? Our idols may not be figurines cast in silver or gold, dressed in blue and purple before which we bow; but we all have idols nonetheless. Our idol may be money – literal silver or gold; our idol may be career; our idol may be personal security and comfort; our idol may be carnal pleasure or company; our idol may be ourselves – the moment we give even one ounce of glory to that idol as opposed to God, then we have followed the world and bowed down to worship an idol. As John Calvin writes, “if we would have one God, let us remember that we can never ‘keep for ourselves’ the minutest portion of His glory without stealing what is His due.”
4. Wait for God (vs. 10b, 15b) – Jeremiah was so zealous for the reputation and the glory of God that he longed for an end to the worship of vain idols – He longed for the vindication of the true and living God. And God says, “when their judgement comes, they will perish.” The gods of this age which are no gods at all will be shown as the vain emptiness which they are; the nations which worshipped them will not be able to endure the indignation of God. Jesus Christ will appear in the glory of His Father at the head of the armies of heaven and every knee will bow before Him – not before an idol, but before God Himself. And so wait patiently for Him – He has not yet come but He is coming again soon to put an end to all idolatry. There will be no pluralism or multi-faith in the new heavens and the new earth because our God will fill it from horizon to horizon.
I would encourage you to live out consistent atheistic lives when it comes to the existence of gods other than the one true and living God of the Bible. Don’t follow them or give them glory – save it only for Christ Jesus; and we, along with Jeremiah, will be awestruck at the glory and the love we will one day see. AMEN