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{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
The Principles and Doctrines of Godliness are Not Fantasy
The Being and Holiness of God}
This is an indisputable truth: that there is a God and He is a holy God and a friend of holiness.138 If there is any real and evident truth in the world, this is such a truth, that there is a God. He is God, or He is nothing.139 Therefore, either there is a God, or there is nothing. When we see the sun, the moon, the stars and the motions of them; when we see the earth and the various creatures on it; when we see ourselves and men and women walking around—we may say that all this is just imagination, that our eyes deceive us, and that we ourselves and all the things we see are just phantasms and apparitions.140 Just as reasonably we may question whether there is a God. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20 NASB). And to question whether God is a holy God is effectively the same thing as to question whether there is a God. To conceive that there is a God without holiness is to imagine that there is a God that is no God. Sin is such a defect and imperfection that it is utterly inconsistent with such an infinite, perfect being. And to question whether God is a friend of holiness is to question whether he is a friend to Himself.
Atheism, whatever the foolish world says, is the greatest and most notorious fanaticism. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1 NASB). The atheist fancies that there is no God. And, the unholiness that causes people to conceive of God as being not so holy and righteous as He is—it is practical atheism. “These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes” (Psalm 50:21 NKJV). [In this passage, God is telling you:]
These things you have done: you have done wickedly. You have been a liar, a slanderer, a drunkard and a partaker with adulterers. And I kept silence. I left you alone and did not immediately testify of my dislike or displeasure against you. Thus you became conceited because you were left alone in your sin, and did not presently smart for it. You thought that I liked it well enough and was altogether like you. You had a god after your own heart, after your own soul that was nevertheless a friend to you because you were so great a friend to your lusts and wickedness. You thought this; such a foolish conceit you had in your heart. But it was imagination. I will make you know that I am another manner of God than you vainly imagined. I will have my time for you when I will reprove you for all your wickedness, convince you of your folly, and set your sins in order before you.
Sinners, you think that there is no God. Or because He keeps silence, lets you alone in your sins, and lets you flourish and prosper in your wickedness, you conclude that He is a friend, one who favors looseness and ungodliness. He will have His time for you to convince you, reprove you out of these vain conceits, and make you know that He hates and detests both you and your ways. But He loves holiness and is a friend to those holy ones that, for a time, He may allow you to despise and trample upon. “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9 NKJV). You will not now be persuaded, but God will make you know, whether you like it or not, that Precisians are those whom He has loved. Please yourselves with your own ways and bless yourselves in your own hearts while you wish. Continue your confidence that God is no such enemy to you. He is not so hard and severe against ungodliness as people say. God is a friend to ignorance, formality, and licentiousness, and counts such His best subjects. And as for those who say so much, make such a show, and keep up so much fuss about holiness and strictness—make yourselves believe that God is as much against them as against you. Believe that He does not like it that people should be so fearful of sin, as watchful against sin, and so zealous for holiness. Believe that He likes those best that will take their ease, liberty, and pleasure. Yet, know that God will have His time for you, to make you of another mind when He will come to reckon with you, reprove you, and set your sins in order before you.
138Scripturally, there is a similarity, but also a difference between God’s holiness and that of a holy person. Holiness contains in it both the idea of separation and the idea of moral purity. God is transcendent, that is, separate from His creation (though immanent to it). As proved by Christ crucified, His moral purity and goodness are indescribably excellent. God commands His people to be holy because He is holy (Leviticus 11:44–45). They are also to be not only morally pure, but also separate in the sense of being not of this world (John 15:19), but dedicated to God, devoted to God, and set apart to God as His bondslaves (Luke 16:13). Holiness apart from dedicated service and precise obedience to Christ is not real holiness.
139Either God is who He has revealed Himself to be in the Holy Bible, or there is no God, thus no creation. Since creation obviously exists, there is a Creator, the God of the Holy Bible. Only the God of the Holy Bible, with all of His attributes as revealed to us in the Holy Bible, could have created the cosmos and mankind as they now exist. The detailed proof of this is outside of the scope of this book, much more of this footnote. The doubting but open-minded reader is encouraged to study the Scriptures for himself or herself. The philosophically minded reader will observe that nearly all of the major questions of philosophy are answered in the first three chapters of Genesis and the first three chapters of the Gospel of John, under the working assumption that the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant.
140The reader may be aware that there are Eastern religions that teach this kind of thing. But such teaching is utterly without empirical evidence, contrary to reason, and contrary to everyday, sometimes painful experience. On the other hand, all of creation and knowledge of mathematics, physics, biochemistry, biology, and medicine strongly argue for the existence of a true reality designed and made by a Creator God, the God of the Holy Bible.
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