God's Truthfulness

Another repost of an old attributes of God post.

The Lord is the only true God. 
He is the living God and the everlasting King. 
(Jeremiah 10:10 NET)

Our God is the only true God. He is not a false god or an imaginary god, but the one real God who is everlastingly alive and ruling over all that is.

He is rock solid reality: constantly there and constantly active. Our God is so rock solidly real that his rock solid reality extends to the words he speaks. He created everything that exists by commanding it to be. Everything that exists, except for the true God himself, came to be because he called it into existence from nothingness (Hebrews 11:3). And all that continues to exist remains only because God sustains it by his continued command (Hebrews 1:3). Everything we see, smell, hear, touch, taste—everything material, everything tangible—is here for us to know because God himself and his spoken word are absolutely true.

But there’s more: What is yet to be will happen because God will speak it into being: 

For I am God, and there is no other; 
{I am} God, and there is no one like Me, 
Declaring the end from the beginning, 
And from ancient times things which have not been done, 
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, 
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; 
Calling a bird of prey from the east, 
The man of My purpose from a far country. 
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. 
(Isaiah 46:9-11)

Everything that is and everything that will be derives its existence from the true word of the true God. He is the intangible reality upholding our tangible reality. He is the One more real than what is material, for the material derives its reality from him. He is the true and real unseen being behind all that is seen. 

That God is true means that there is nothing more that he ought to be or will come to be. He is always, ever, fully and completely everything that he is and should be. He is the absolute Absolute. 

God is true, so everything he reveals about himself corresponds to what he really is. We can be certain of some things about God because we can trust what he tells us. Because God is true, he can be known by us—not completely known, but truly known.

And knowing this one true and real God is the key to everything, for knowing him is the source of eternal life itself.

Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. (John 17:3 NET)

We can know the only true God because he declares himself to us through creation, through his written word, and through his Son. 

The absolute truthfulness of God’s communication extends to the laws or commands he gives us. What they demand of us corresponds exactly to what a human being ought to be, and from them we learn the truth of what we were made to be. 

What’s more, God’s promises and warnings are completely reliable because what he says will be always comes to be. God is true, so he can be trusted; God is faithful because he is true. Our hope is a certain hope because “he who has promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).” Proverbs 30:5 tells us that “every word of God is purified”, and because of the purity of his words, “he is like a shield for those who take refuge in him.” The security that can be found in God is there because his word is true. 

Those of us who have come to know him—who are his people—need to be real and true because our heavenly Father is real and true. If we are being remade into the image of the one true God, then we need to call a spade a spade, and where better to start than with ourselves and our own lives? Hypocrisy is everywhere condemned in scripture because it is the opposite of what God is. Those who belong to him are called to be sincere and genuine.

Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. (Colossians 3:9,10 NET)

God’s people are truthful people, for they are being made into the image of the one who created them by his spoken word—by “calling them out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” 

And those who belong to him will indeed become people of the truth, because he who calls “is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this”; that is, he will make them “completely holy” and “entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:24 NET).” It’s a promise from the only true God, who declares the end from the beginning, who speaks truth and brings it to pass. It’s a promise that is rock-solid reality we can rest in.

What is prayer?

Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God,[1] in the name of Christ,[2] by the help of his Spirit;[3] with confession of our sins,[4] and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.[5]

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We Gather Together

From Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware:

…Christians gather together to worship God in communities of faith. While worship is sometimes private and silent, worship in the Bible also requires the regular gathering of God’s people to do what can only happen when they come together (Acts 2:42). Christians can grow much and encourage others to grow in Christ as they participate in different parts of the worship of God. Meeting together, Christians grow as they participate in singing hymns and songs of praise, as they pray for one another and for needs in many places, as they listen to the reading of God’s Word week by week, and as they hear the Scriptures faithfully taught and preached. God has chosen to use these gatherings of local churches as one of his main ways to encourage his people to be faithful and to teach them more about himself and his ways. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews is grieved that some have made a habit of “neglecting to meet together.” We need what God has planned to bring to his people only as they gather in local churches. The prayer, preaching, teaching, singing, fellowship, encouragement, accountability, and other parts of church worship provide us much that we need for resisting temptation and following Christ. Yes, much is at stake in our regular participation in a strong and faithful local church.

This is the first reason Ware gives for why meeting in a local church is important for the life and well-being of all Christians. I’ll post the second reason on Wednesday. Meanwhile, can you guess what it is?