THE TRIUNE GOD IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD
Deuteronomy 4:32-35, 39, 40 - June 6, 2004 - Pentecost 1
DEUTERONOMY 4:32-35, 39,40
32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.…
39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
How many false gods are there in this world? We could make quite a list, couldn’t we? The list might go on page after page of those false gods that people worship. Sometimes those false gods are very obvious and are given names--Confucius, Allah, Buddha and the list goes on. Sometimes those false gods are not so obvious. They still can certainly distract us from time to time--our family, our own pride, our own wisdom and that list goes on. Today, you and I as believers realize there is only one true God. Even though people around us might say that living a good life or just believing in something will get you to heaven. This is just not the case. The Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the only true God and the only way to heaven.
God blessed Solomon, the son of David, abundantly. God gave Solomon wisdom beyond his years, and God gave Solomon blessings beyond the wealth of any nation that lived at that time and any nation or person today. We are told in Scripture that when it came to his wealth, the gold was weighed out not in ounces or pounds, but in tons of gold. Solomon and his people were so wealthy at that time that silver had no value at all. Yet Solomon realized that it was not his doing. It wasn’t his glory or his wealth. All these blessings only came from the Lord, the only true God. Solomon was blessed as David’s son to rule and to also build a temple for the Lord. When it came for the dedication, "Solomon said: ’O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below--you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way’" (1 KINGS 8:23). Solomon stated there was only one true God and this is what we will study today. Moses reminds us in these words of Deuteronomy that
THE TRIUNE GOD IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD
There is only one true God, I. our Triune God, who has done mighty deeds.
There is only one true God, II. our Triune God, who desires our devotion.
I. OUR TRIUNE GOD HAS DONE MIGHTY DEEDS
In the book of Deuteronomy Moses is ready to send the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Before he does that, he speaks to them a number of times about their faith and about their God. Today Moses wants them to remember back when they wandered in the wilderness, and he wants them to remember back even farther than that. Verse 32 says: 32Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Moses says the people should look back in their history even to beyond their own history to the history of ancestors and beyond to the creation of the world. Moses says they should ask all around and ask anyone they want about creation and what took place. The answer will be the same. Moses asks the question: Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? There wasn’t. The creation of the world began because of the Word and the Triune God. There was darkness and the Lord said, "Let there be light." The earth was empty and formless. There was a great void and the Lord said, "Let there be the sun, the moon, the stars," and there was. "Let there be land, the oceans, animals" and there was. Nothing like creation had ever happened. That is the mighty deed that God had done. He created the heavens and the earth.
Moses goes on in the next verse that this Triune God is not just a personal God who sits way off in heaven by himself not caring. This God, especially for the children of Israel, was very personal. Verse 33: 33Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? The people had seen the glory of the Lord in the pillar of fire and in the cloud of smoke during 40 years of wandering. The children of Israel had heard the voice of God speaking to Moses, and they were not consumed by that voice of God. Instead, they lived; because God cared for them. He goes on to remind these children of Israel what they had just come through in their lives just before they are to go into the Promised Land. This is key. Moses continues: 34Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? Moses wanted them to remember that, yes, before they wandered in the wilderness, they were slaves in Egypt. Yet, God chose them as one nation, the nation of Israel, the children of Jacob, Abraham, and Isaac. God took them from the midst of the nation of Egypt and brought them out with testings and miracles, strength and signs and wonders. Moses reminds them, "Has any nation ever been like that?" And there wasn’t. The Lord had done mighty things for them. It was the Lord God, not the god of the Egyptians that saved them. It wasn’t the golden calf that was able to provide for them and protect them. It was the Triune God who had done mighty things for them.
It is still the same Triune God who does mighty things for us. We started today with that list of false gods. Now we could add another list—a list of all the mighty things that God has done. We look back and we see all the mighty things God did for His believers in the Old Testament, the New Testament. Today, after 2,000 years, there are many more mighty things that God has done in the history of this world. This list would go on for pages and pages and volumes and volumes. Today, we want to remind ourselves of just a few of those mighty things the Lord has done.
One of the mightiest things God has done, of course, is that he sent his Son to be our Savior. This is a mighty thing. It was Adam and Eve who sinned in a perfect world. The Lord in his judgment and justice didn’t destroy Adam and Eve and didn’t get angry with them and destroy the earth right then and there. Instead, the Lord God Almighty promised them a Savior. The Lord demanded justice for this sin and then for the sins of the world. The Lord demanded payment and retribution. The mighty thing the Lord did was to demand that payment and retribution from himself through his Son. In the Gospel of John, in the first chapter, he describes the Savior who comes here in the flesh. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (JOHN 1:14). That is a mighty deed that God himself who could have stayed in heaven sent his Son to live here on earth among us. We have seen his glory. There is no other god like him, is there?
God continue his mighty deeds. You and I do not deserve salvation. You and I do not deserve eternity; and yet, the Lord God provides it. All of the other false gods in this world demand righteous payment from their followers. They treat their followers as an angry judge, someone who is always going to get even. If he doesn’t get even with them, he will get even with someone else. But the Triune God who made the heavens and the earth cares for us beyond all of that. He knows that we cannot save ourselves, because we are full of sin. So another mighty deed, God’s own Son, dies in our place. 2 Corinthians tells us: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 CORINTHIANS 5:21). Any other god would wipe their followers off the face of the earth or make them tremble in their boots. Our God says, "I will forgive your sin." That sets our Triune God apart from all the false gods of this world. This is something that we have grown up with and have known by God’s grace. God loves us with an everlasting love.
After all, it was the Lord God who made us. The Father was there to make sure that the world was perfect. When sin came into the world, God sent his Son to make sure that those who were sinners, all mankind, would be saved. Unless anyone would be lost, then the Holy Spirit comes and gives and works faith by the power of God’s word in the hearts of mankind, in our hearts. That is a mighty thing, an awesome deed as we sang in our Psalm (150) this morning. If anybody with a reasonable mind sat down and contemplated the mysteries and wonders of God, they would see the Triune God is the only true God.
So it is the Prophet Micah whom we have heard before asks the question: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy" (MICAH 7:18). This is our God who does mighty things from generation to generation, ever since the creation of the world; and our Triune God will continue to do mighty deeds until the very end of time. This mighty deed is that our Lord God delights to show us mercy.
There is no other god. There is only the Triune God who does mighty things for the world, who does mighty things for each of us as believers. Therefore our reaction is devotion to our Triune God.
II. OUR TRIUNE GOD DESIRES OUR DEVOTION
This was another key thought that Moses wanted to instill upon the people of Israel. There was going to be a great change in their life. They were not going to have to go out each morning and collect manna to eat. They were going be in the land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord was going to provide for them abundantly day after day after day. Also, Moses knew that their hearts might become distracted in all the plenty the Lord would give them. Moses knew that when they went into the Promised Land and if they did not drive out their enemies, their hearts would be distracted by the false gods. We know that is what happened. The children of Israel mingled with the children of the world, and they began to worship false gods in a very short time. Moses tried to remind them as they looked back: 35You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. Yet, they would worship Baal, Ashterah, Moloch and that list in that day went on.
Even though Moses says, "Remember there is no other god;" and he says it again: 39Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Moses wanted them to remember that there is only one true God. Yet, how hard that would be for them to do. You may remember how, when they came through the Red Sea, they crossed on dry ground. Pharaoh pursued them and his army almost caught up with them to put them to death. But the sea collapses and all of Pharaoh’s army are destroyed. Moses and the people rejoice and sing and dance. Moses went up on the mount to get the Ten Commandments. In three days the people formed a golden calf from their gold and worship the golden calf. Moses says, "Remember. Do not forget the Lord your God. Remain devoted to him for all of the things he has done, for all of the things that he does, and for all the things that he will continue to do."
Moses says to them: 40Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. After this in chapter 5, Moses repeats the Ten Commandments trying to remind them that the Lord has given them a path, a direction in their life that they can follow so that they may enjoy the blessings of God and enjoy the prosperity of the land for a long time. Yet, we know they gave up. They forgot to devote themselves to the Lord. The Lord in his judgment caused them to be taken from the Promised Land a number of times. Today, they still fight over that inheritance which the Lord had promised them, but which they gave up; because they desired to serve other gods.
We could say today that was then and this is now. Certainly, we remember the Lord every day. Well, that was then and this is now. We live in a very promised land. If there were distractions during the time of the children of Israel in the Old Testament, there certainly are just as many destructive distractions today. There are distractions that divert our devotion away from the Lord to other things. We live in a world that strives for our devotion, and the things of this world that strive for our devotion. The Lord reminds us: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (MATTHEW 6:33). Jesus speaks these words after he talks about Solomon--whom we heard about at the beginning of our sermon. Jesus said that Solomon in all of his wealth, glory, and honor still did not have as much glory and honor as the flowers of the field that the Lord had created. Jesus reminds us to seek first God’s kingdom. There is a lot of meaning there. We know how easy that sounds. Yet how hard it can be to put our trust and love and confidence in God above all things---which is the first commandment.
There are a lot of worries in this life. There is a lot of wondering what will happen. There are a lot of pressures that we put upon ourselves. Our loving Lord says, "Bring me your burdens. Remember my kingdom first and I will take care of the rest." We look at all of the mighty things that God has done for the children of Israel. We look back at all the mighty things that God has done for us, and he will continue to do and know he will do, even mightier things for us. It reminds us that we can be devoted to him, because the Lord has been devoted to us. It is easy to look at the children of Israel and say that we are not going to be like that. But it is also easy to look at our lives and say, "Well, we have been like that. We have been distracted running off here and there away from the path of God and in an opposite direction. From Joshua who was the next leader following Moses who also knew that they would sit in the lap of luxury and forget God: "But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul" (JOSHUA 22:5). How hard that is for us to do this because we have a sinful flesh. The devil tempts us. The world tempts us. Our gracious God reminds us to walk in his path to love him with all of our hearts, soul and mind.
The Lord tells us why. We are reminded first of all to follow the Lord because of all the things he has done. We are also reminded to follow, secondly, because of his great love for us. Paul writes in Romans: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (ROMANS 5:8). We celebrate God’s love by the power of God’s Word. We celebrate Jesus’ love today in the blessings of Holy Communion where the Lord says to us: "You as sinners come. I give my body and blood as a sure sign and seal for your forgiveness. I give you my body and blood as the visible means for you to see God’s great love." That is what motivates us. We are motivated to live this life devoted to God, because he has loved us. Simply put there is no other god like our Triune God. Just look at the creation of the world. Just look at the sacrifice of his Son. Just look at the gift of forgiveness. Just look at eternity. This list also goes on--God’s gifts to us.
The Triune God is the only true God no matter what the world says. People who don’t believe in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, simply believe in a different god, a false god. It is only the Triune God who created the heavens and the earth. It is only the Triune God who has done mighty things for us, that he has saved us for time and for eternity. Our reaction is to respond to Christ’s love with love of our own, a devoted life of love: of praise and glory and honor to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The prophet Isaiah reminds us of God’s desire: "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols" (ISAIAH 42:8). Neither should we. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
