THE TRUE GOD

David Beveridge

John 17: 3; 1 Thessalonians 1: 8-10; 1 Kings 18: 21-24, 30-39

What was impressing me was the expression of the true God. I suppose we are in a time when there is tremendous progress in man's abilities to do things, in the way of science and the like, so much so that the powers within the hands of men are becoming exceedingly great, the powers of destruction, the power to proceed to other worlds, which is an amazing thing. How great these activities are, and no doubt we have all been impressed with them, even the advances in simple things that have been made over the last few years, how quickly they are happening. Then there are other religions that are trying to establish themselves in the world, persons following other persons or other gods, or other idols, as the Scripture speaks of them.

I think in the glad tidings it is vital that we realise that the One we are speaking about is the true God. It is amazing that Scripture uses that expression. You would think that the word "God" was sufficient, the God who created all things as we get in Genesis, "In the beginning God ..." You would think, 'Well, that is sufficient - God'. But then you get the word "true" added. I understand it is like an engineering term that the thing is true through and through. It is a different word from truth, but it says "the ... true God", and that is the One that everyone here, including myself, needs to know, the true God. There is so much that surrounds us; I suppose the world is filled with speaking, it is filled with vision and so-called progress, and in the midst of that, what is important is this verse, part of the Lord's prayer, and He says, "And this is the eternal life" - I do not propose to speak about that - "that they should know thee, the only true God". Now, friend, there are many things to be gained by way of knowledge in this world. The amount of study that people do in universities is immense, the knowledge that is waiting to be searched out is immense, but it is the knowledge of God, the true knowledge of this God, that counts at the end of the day. I have recently been in contact with people who have had to face death, and it does not matter what kind of goods they have, how big their house is or how much money they have in the bank, they all have to go this way, and what matters is their knowledge of the true God and, as the Scripture says, "and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". What a wonderful thing the glad tidings is! It is God Himself, the true God, speaking about Himself and about His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His desire is that the hearers of the glad tidings - that would be my audience - and the speaker as well should know that God Himself, the true God; not one of the other gods in the world - and there are many, gods many and lords many - but the God, the true God whom the Lord Jesus is addressing here. He says, "And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God ..." I ask every one, do you know the true God? I think most do, I think most in the room know the true God, and I trust everyone knows "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". The true God sent Jesus Christ into the world to accomplish redemption. The world is filled with sinners. The preacher was one; you were one, dear friend. God sent His Son into such a world as that that sinners like me and you might be saved, might come into the knowledge of God, might come to know something about eternal life. I could not say much about it, but I think it is a wonderful thing that there is such a thing as eternal life. But then the thing is, do you know the true God? And do you know Jesus Christ? You might say, 'How do I know?' A brother quoted that scripture in the reading, "He that would draw nigh to God must believe that He is". If a man tried to draw near to God and did not believe that He existed, it would not be intelligent. It would not be intelligent to try and draw near to something if you did not believe it was there. So it behoves us to believe in God. The very creation speaking of something infinitely greater than you and me. As the Lord prays here, He says, "And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee" I think it is deeper than knowing about something. You might know about a thing, but you need to know consciously that you are having to do with them, and I trust you have had that experience; I am sure I have had it. Maybe some event, some circumstance has come about in your life. No-one else knew about it, but you knew that God was having to do with you. That is a very favoured experience, to be consciously aware yourself that you are having to do with God and that you are gaining some knowledge of Him.

People had knowledge of God, but then there was the question of our sins. That is what stood between us and God. In the garden, in Genesis 1, we have Adam and Eve. There would be no need to go over that story for the company here, but sin, disobedience and deception came in through the serpent, through Eve, through Adam. By the sin of the one man, a whole race of beings, men, became sinful and sinners. Sin had been there before in angels, but it came into the human race. Oh the awfulness of that! There is then the reference to God, "the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen 3: 8). How God sought the company of men! What a God He was, He desired to be known. God, the great God I am speaking of, the true God, desired to be known by His creature, to have communion with man, the true God. I raise that question with myself, how well do I know the true God, and "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"? I do not want to say much more about that scripture, but I would like it to remain on every heart. Do you know God? You know about all the other things of life, the business of life, household affairs, asleep for perhaps eight hours, but the thing is in our lives to get a link with this God, to know this God and to know Jesus Christ. You need Jesus Christ. It would not be sufficient if God was known; it is necessary if the question of my sins and yours was to be met that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners - the apostle says, "of whom I am the first". Perhaps we could all say that. Do you know Jesus Christ, the One who is Saviour of the world? There is eternal life involved in knowing these persons. I trust we all know something of it.

I read in the epistle to the Thessalonians because there again it speaks about the true God, but it says there, "how ye turned to God from idols". What a thing it is to come to a turning-point in your life! We have some amongst us who have been brought up in households where the Lord Jesus was not loved, God was not acknowledged, they lived maybe a life of corruption and so on, and then they were converted, a turning-point comes. Like the apostle Paul who was on his own pathway, killing persons or authorising persons to be killed, dragging them off to prison and so on, and then he had an experience with the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into some living experience in his life with the Lord Jesus that caused him to tum round. It says of these persons in Thessalonica that they "turned to God from idols". Oh, there are things that can come into our lives, and the thing is to turn from them to God! It says here, "ye turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God". Oh, friend, there is not thought of death. We referred to Hezekiah today; he says "the living, the living, he shall praise thee" (Isa 38: 19). The God we are speaking about is the eternal God. There is no thought of weakness or fainting or tiring with God. He is the ever-existent One. We sang of Him this morning, the unchangeable One. Everything else that surrounds us changes. If you look around at some of the aged saints, you can see the frailty of the human vessel, in these sorts of vessel the blessed God works and convicts and brings them to Christ and to a knowledge of Himself. These people of whom we read here who were young in the truth turned to God. A point came in their lives when they turned away from other things, and turned to God. The glad tidings, as it comes in in all its power would make you turn, tum to God from idols to serve a living and true God. How wonderful that is! He is a living God! There is life connected with God that is wonderful, and I would not be able to speak about it in all its greatness. It says of Paul when he spoke about the Lord Jesus that he affirmed that He is living, Jesus is living. I could not show Him to you, but He is living in glory tonight, a glorious Saviour, a living Saviour. Everything else in this scene is bounded by death. People do not live till they are two hundred or nine hundred, as they did in the Old Testament "threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength ..." - oh, friend how brief is the life of the human vessel, appearing as a vapour and then disappearing, but in that time there is a knowledge of God that can be acquired by sinners through believing in the glad tidings. So these persons "turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God".

Do you find your links with God are living links, or do you feel that there is something dull and not alive about them? These people turned to the living and true God, "and to await his Son from the heavens". Jesus has been here, and it would not be right to call this the word of God if we did not speak about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". He was sent into the world, came in by way of Bethlehem's manger, was found there as a babe. We read about the infants, Jesus was there as a babe. God Himself, in that form, how near He came, livingly to be alongside His creature, and there was 'a life divine below' that we sometimes sing of. What a life was the life of Jesus! If we look at any day in it - you remember the day He sat by the well, He was wearied, Jesus knew what the weariness of humanity was. Some here may know something of the weariness of humanity. Jesus knew these things, how real they were to Him. There was the descent of the Spirit and the Father's voice saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight". What delight heaven found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was taken by wicked hands and crucified, the blessed Lord Jesus, the spotless Victim. If the question of your sins and mine was to be met, it needed a spotless victim. God cannot overlook sin. There is no point in thinking that because I have been brought up a certain way I will be all right, because I have never done anything terribly bad or wrong or evil everything will be all right. Man is born in sin in that sense and he cannot escape the penalty. He has a sinful nature in him; there are sinful acts that we commit, and each one would know in his own heart what these may be, and God would know, which is more important because it is God we have to do with about our sins. But the blessed God has provided the spotless Victim, that was the Lord Jesus. "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". We could have looked at any feature in His life, and all that God looked for He found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything there was just as the blessed God desired it; He found it in the Lord Jesus. What words of grace came out of His mouth. He suffered and He was crucified and He died, and His precious blood was shed. These are the facts of the gospel, and these need to be held on to in faith if you or I are to be saved. The glad tidings is preached from faith to faith, and it is with a view that those who hear might be arrested, become affected in their conscience. It has been said, 'Aim at the conscience and speak to the heart', so God through our consciences reaches us vitally in our being. God does not gloss over things. We speak to people and we sometimes gloss over things; God does not gloss over things, He addresses men as they are in all their need. We spoke of that in the reading, what a need we have if we are sinners. We need salvation, we need forgiveness, and God has these things available because He sent Jesus Christ to accomplish the work of redemption.

So, dear friend, if you have become aware under the word that you are a sinner, I can tell you tonight that you can be forgiven. You can be cleansed from your sins, not because the preacher says it, but because the precious blood of Christ has been shed. You can come under the shelter of that blood and know your sins, which perhaps trouble you and burden you, are forgiven. I wonder if many in this room have known their sins troubling them? I knew that as a boy. Things that I had done troubled me and burdened me until I got to the Lord Jesus, and there He was, because of His own work He could extend forgiveness. Oh, how wonderful a Saviour He is! Do you know Him, friend, as a Saviour? What a Person He is! He knows your history inside out. He knows more about you than the person nearest to you. He knows your very thoughts are you think them. Oh how real it is to have to do with the living God!

These people turned to God from idols, to the living and true God, the God who has no beginning and no end. That is the One we are speaking about, and we are to await His Son from the heavens. He is coming back. Jesus is coming back, and how often we mention that in our prayer meetings, the imminence of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent Him once, but He is coming again, and He is coming to take those who belong to Him, "to await his Son from the heavens, who he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our delivered from the coming wrath". What a matter was the resurrection of Jesus! Perhaps one of the cardinal points in the glad tidings is the resurrection of Jesus. That He died was a miracle. God coming into the world in the person of the Lord Jesus, going into death, who can understand that? Who could measure the distance that He went into?

Thou didst measure then sin's distance (Hymn 298)

Jesus measured it. No-one here could measure it, no-one could grasp it, no-one could measure the love of God, but we know that Jesus measured the distance and tasted the bitterness of these things. The weeds were wrapped round His head, it says prophetically, the bars of the earth closed upon Him. These words were uttered by prophets, but how they express something of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But then He rose form among the dead. How wonderful that is! He rose from among the dead! We have recently seen another beloved sister being taken to be with the Lord. How real death is! Dear young friend, death is very real to you. You might be going on enjoying life now and indulging in things that you want to follow but death is very real, and it does not touch only older people. I am not trying to terrify anyone, I just want to bring home the reality of the fact that there is such a thing as death. But here is the One who conquered death, the Lord Jesus. He annulled death and him that had the might of death; He laid its power low by rising out of the tomb, out of the grave. What mighty power was involved in the Lord Jesus rising again! It says, "whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath".

I would just like to speak about that briefly because it came up recently with us that the glad tidings always need an element of warning. It is glad tidings, certainly it is glad tidings. For sinners there is good news that the Lord Jesus has come and accomplished the work of redemption, and He has laid a basis in divine righteousness, not human righteousness but divine righteousness, whereby God can freely extend forgiveness to the sinner. What news that is, and that stands tonight, but then there is a warning, because maybe people become convicted under the sound of the word, and then they despise it, they turn away from it, they let the time pass. Friend, God will not always plead with man. It will not always be thus. A time will come when there will no longer be the glad tidings. Let us take the warning tonight and make sure for each one of us that we have this link in faith and that we are under the shelter of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there are no outstanding matters on our consciences and we can be perfectly clear in the presence of the blessed God because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why I read the scripture in Kings - and I will not go into detail on it - was that it shows in a very real and tangible way the greatness of our God. It is in a different dispensation, but there was Elijah with these prophets of Baal, who would worship what we would call a statue or a monument; the scripture speaks of them as having ears and they hear not and eyes but they see not - and people - so-called intelligent people worshipped something that was stone or devised from man's imagination, and they held that to be their god, and in the midst of that there is Elijah and he tests them as to the reality of their God. He says, "And call ye on the name of your gods" - he gave them opportunity, full opportunity, to call on the name of their gods to consume this offering, and he said, "and I will call on the name of Jehovah; and the god that answers by fire, let him be God". Now, I am not going to go into the detail of it, but these people prepared their altar with the bullock and so on, and cried to their god and nothing happened. Elijah prepared the altar, and he put all that water on it. "And he said, Do it the second time ... Do it the third time ... And the water ran round about the altar· and he filled the trench ... the prophet drew near: and said, Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant ... Answer me, Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that thou Jehovah art God!'. I stress that he wanted them to know that this was Jehovah their God. And it says, "And the fire of Jehovah fell, and consumed the burnt offering ... And all the people saw it, and they fell on their faces and said, Jehovah, he is God! Jehovah, he is God!". What a testimony, what power, undeniable power! There is undeniable power in the resurrection of Jesus. People cast doubt on it, but He was seen by above five hundred persons at once, a living, blessed Man. Oh, friend, he is living tonight, a glorious Saviour, and He can be yours if you put your faith and trust in Him.

I want to leave that impression about the true God. Remember that, that He is the true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Have you your trust in Him and in His finished work? Have you received the gift of the blessed Spirit? Jesus is not here now, He is not in this world. We could not find Him here corporeally. He might be found in the saints. There are wonderful features of Christ to be found in the saints which have been formed by the work of the Spirit of God. There is another divine Person, I am not saying in the world, but He is here in the hearts of believers, and as in the hearts of believers He changes them, so that if you are put beside someone who is not a believer, I would expect there to be some difference. In a believer there would be something different as having the Spirit of God indwelling. I ask everyone here, are you conscious of the fact that you have the Spirit of God indwelling your being, your body - it says our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit - and have you known His activities? You might say, Well we know that in the meeting, but then have you known that when you are away from the brethren because that is very important. The blessed Spirit as indwelling us is here to give us power to be here faithful and true to our absent One, but the One who is returning.

May the Lord bless His word and may we all be conscious of our link with the true God, the living God, and with Jesus Christ, the One whom He sent.

KIRKCALDY

3 August 1997