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-16-
The God Who Is
God—What Kind?
What kind of God do we serve? Contrary to the thinking of most people, the most important verse in the Bible is not John 3:16, but is the verse with which the Bible begins: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
In Genesis chapter 1, God is declared to be the Creator. In chapter 2, He is declared to be the Lawgiver. In Genesis chapter 3, He is the Judge, as well as the Saviour. If God is the Creator, then He has the right to be the Lawgiver. If He has made the heaven and earth, and all things in them; if He gives life to all, then He has the right to govern all.
If He is the Lawgiver, then He has the right to be the Judge or the Saviour. The reason men are quick to accept the teaching of evolution is because if they can repudiate the fact that God is their Creator, then they can dispense with God's right to be their Lawmaker and Judge. Men choose to believe in evolution because by nature they are at war with God. If men can prove God is not their Creator, then they have no obligation to obey Him.
An Illustration
From Mount Sinai, God directed Israel how to worship. He instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, a portable tent, that would be taken down and moved from encampment to encampment. It was to be made so as to weather the storms of the wilderness and of the desert for 40 years. The tabernacle was not held together with a single screw, nail, or rivet; yet it was the only architecturally perfect building in history, for it served the needs of an estimated 3 million people and never needed an addition or an alteration.
Each of the 12 tribes of Israel had a specific area of the campsite reserved for their families. The people could not set up their tents just anywhere, but 3 tribes set up their tents to the north of the tabernacle, 3 tribes camped toward the south, 3 to the east, and 3 to the west. God is a God of order.
The tabernacle was situated in the center of the encampment. The tent door of each family opened facing it because the worship of God was to be the focal point of life in Israel. It is interesting to note that in this country the Puritans set up the New England townships after this fashion. The church, which also served as a meeting hall and a school, was built in the center of the town. Homes were built around the church, and the peoples' fields were on the outskirts of the town. In this generation we are being "re-educated" by those who would claim this has never been a Christian nation; but it is a lie, and one that is often ignorantly repeated even in evangelical churches; and it is repeated all the more frequently as we descend into apostasy.
If an Israelite awoke any morning, and went to his tent door, he could see the smoke and smell the stench of the burning flesh of the morning sacrifice. It was offered each day for the sins of the nation of Israel. At 3 o'clock each afternoon, the evening sacrifice was made for the sins of the nation.
If he purposed to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, the first thing he would see about the tabernacle was a white linen fence that stood seven feet high. It represented the holiness of God, which bars unholy men from His presence. The first thing that a sinner must know about God is not that God loves him, but that God is holy.
A Definition
What is God like? In English a phrase that describes something is called an attributive phrase. For instance, if I said, "The house on the hill, the red one, is mine," the phrase "the red one" is an attributive phrase because it describes which house on the hill. In theology, when we speak of the attributes of God, we are speaking of the traits or characteristics that describe the Lord. There are divine attributes and moral attributes.