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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Only God |
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Isaiah
43:10-12 First
Sunday after Easter April
19, 2005 For the next few weeks I want to talk about some of the “onlys” of the Bible. You are probably familiar with some of them, for they come to us through our heritage of the Reformation. We often hear them expressed in Latin using the word, “sola,” meaning “only” or “alone.” So we hear “sola Scriptura,” which means “only Scripture,” or, “the Bible alone.” Or we hear, “sola fide,” meaning “only faith,” or “faith alone.” These are probably the two best known, for when the Church had strayed from the teachings and doctrines of the Bible, the Reformers rose up with one voice calling her back to the Bible, saying the Bible is the only authority for doctrine and practice. “Sola Scriptura.” When the Church added ceremonies and pilgrimages and relics and indulgences to the Bible’s teaching of the forgiveness of sins, the Reformers rose up with one voice calling her back to the Bible, saying it is by faith alone that we receive the forgiveness of sins. “Sola fide.” But there are more “onlys” than these two. There is, Only God, Only Christ, and Only Grace. Today let us look at the first one, the proper beginning point, Only God. When we say, “Only God” we are saying quite clearly, only God is God. Every Sunday, after the readings from the Bible, we affirm the truth of Scripture saying either, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty,” or “I believe in one God the Father Almighty,” as we recite either the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. As we recite the creed we are declaring our faith in the Bible as the Word of God, and the Bible clearly teaches that only God is God. “The Lord he is God; there is none else beside him,” declares Deuteronomy 4:35. “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else,” echoes Deuteronomy 4:39. He alone is the Creator, for “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). To say only God is God, is to also say the other ‘gods” are not. Here I mean not just that the other gods are not gods. I mean that the other gods do not even exist. They are figments of the human imagination. Perhaps I should express this by saying the other gods are nought, rather than not, for “nought” means “nothing,” and that is what they are. The Bible says, “For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens” (Ps. 96:5). The Old Testament words for idols carry two basic meanings. First is “image” which carries something of the meaning of a likeness of the god it is supposed to represent. Second, is “emptiness,” or “nothingness. When we combine the two meanings we see the Biblical teaching on idols; they are images of nothing. The gods they are claimed to represent or to be do not exist. They are nothing. Ps. 115:4-7 shows this very well. Idols are the works of men’s hands. People create them. They are silver and gold. They are inanimate objects, having no life or existence. They have mouths that cannot speak, eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, noses that cannot smell and feet that cannot walk. In other words, they are completely powerless to do anything for us. No matter how much we may value them, worship them, or sacrifice to them, they cannot help us. When we are sick they cannot heal us. When we are distressed they cannot cheer us. In the hour of death they cannot take our souls to Heaven. There is no hope in idols. There is no hope in nothing. In fact, look back at Psalm 115 again, but this time look at verse 8, “They that make them are like unto them; and so are all such as put their trust in them.” Those who hope in nothing get nothing. I am aware that many people believe it doesn’t matter what or whom or how one worships because all “gods” are just different ways of seeing the God. But such belief is totally against Scripture. Such views are called in Scripture, “idolatry” and one of the most obvious teachings in all the Bible is that God hates idolatry. “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” He said in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:5. Note that this was said in connection with the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is ranked with hatred in Galatians 5:20. In Ephesians 5:3-7 it is listed with fornication, whoremongering and covetousness, saying that for these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven. These verses should strike a holy fear into our hearts, for they are fearful words. Most fearful of all, however, are the words of Revelation 21:8; “But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable,
and murderers and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death.” So to say “only God” is to affirm that only God is God. But what good is that unless we also affirm that only God is our God? It does no good to say “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty” if we do not also say with Thomas, who, seeing the resurrected Lord, fell at His feet and cried, “My Lord and my God.” Returning to Exodus 20:3, God says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Or as our Prayer Book reads, “Thou shalt have none other gods but me.” Jesus said; “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” What does this mean if not that we can have nothing before God in our lives? God is first. We love and serve Him above all things, even our very lives. To do less is idolatry. If we love another person more than we love God we are unworthy of Christ (Mt. 10:37). We have made that person our god. If we cherish our own views and ideas rather than subjecting them to the teachings of the Bible, we have made them our gods (Rom 1:21). If we love our comforts, our happiness, our lives more than we love God, we have made them our gods (Lk. 14:26). We are to figuratively crucify ourselves if necessary to follow Christ. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt. 16:24). To have even ourselves first is idolatry. To desire anything more than we desire God is covetousness, and, as Colossians 3:5 tells us, covetousness is idolatry. Every other sin flows out of the sin of idolatry. Every other sin is the consequence of enthroning something else in God’s place and desiring it more than we desire God. The heart of the first sin was Eve’s putting her own will above the will of God, thus, making herself, as God. Likewise, every time we sin, we cast God down from His Throne and make ourselves gods in His place. No wonder God hates idolatry. I close today with this thought; the throne of heaven has room for only one God, and our hearts have room for only one God. I exhort you, in the words of Joshua, “put away … the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.” May you answer as the people answered on that day, “The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey” (Josh. 24:23-24). Let us pray. Almighty and only God, we have often placed other things in Thy place. Especially have we placed our own selves upon Thy Throne, and served our wills and pleasures rather than living by Thy Word and Commandments. Forgive us, Father of all Mercies. And grant that, by the grace and power of Thy Spirit, we may ever serve Thee in holiness and truth, through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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