Sermon: You Have a Divine Creator (Genesis 1:1)

Preached September 21, 2025

Why Genesis?

(1)  You can’t understand the rest of the Bible without understanding where it all began and the main ideas.

Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible and the unfolding of God’s purposes in history.

You go to the theatre to see The Fellowship of the Ring (the first movie in the Lord of the Rings series).

Unfortunately, you miss the first 5 minutes of the movie. How well do you think you’re going to understand what’s happening if you’ve missed the opening scene that sets the stage for understanding the rest of the story?

If we want to understand our Christian faith. If we want to understand the significance of the gospel; if we want to understand how the story ends, we have to understand how it begins. We have to understand the opening scenes.

So I want to take us back to the beginning.

(2)  The other reason I want us to spend our time in Genesis, especially the first three chapters is because it speaks to so many of the issues that we’re facing today in our culture.

The opening chapters of Genesis addresses the deepest questions of life: Who am I? Why do I exist? What is my purpose? What does it mean to be human? Are we no different than the animal kingdom or is there something uniquely distinct about humans? Where is history headed? Why is there evil in this world? More importantly, why is there good? Why is there death? Why is the world full of suffering? What does it mean to be male and female? Does God exist or did the cosmos come about by mere chance, as some claim?

I would contend that we’re uniquely living in a time where there is an identity and meaning crisis.

And I would argue that both are deeply related.

There is more confusion today on what it means to be human than probably any other time in human history.

And if we don’t know what it means to be human than how can we know what our aim or purpose is?

How can we know where we’re supposed to go if we don’t know what we are and where we came from?

We know this just from human experience and lots of data that backs it up. Orphans have deep struggles with their identity compared to children who have grown up with mom and dad because as orphans they don’t know who their parents are.

They don’t know where they’ve come from, and so they’re trying to form an identity without a key factor to shape that identity.

And I believe this to be even more true, that one of the fundamental reasons there is an identity crisis and a meaning crisis, is because we don’t know who our Creator is, and as a result we don’t know our identity, our purpose, and what it truly means to be human.

____________

And so this morning, we’re beginning the book of Genesis.

And this might surprise you, but this morning, we’re only looking at [v1].

You may be thinking, “How in the world can you preach a full sermon on this short sentence?”

I could probably preach three if I had the time.

We’re looking at arguably one of the most important sentences ever to be penned.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

I want you to imagine being a twelve-year-old Israelite growing up in Egypt. Your grandparents are slaves. Your parents are slaves, and you were born as a slave.

Your grandparents and parents told you about this God that spoke to your forefathers, but that was over 400 years ago, and there has been no evidence of this God since that time.

In fact, you’re thinking, if this God were real, why would he allow your people to suffer as slaves in Egypt for 400 years?

Either he doesn’t exist or maybe the Egyptians gods are simply more powerful.

But then one morning you wake up, and there’s this man named Moses who has gathered the Israelites and has declared that he’s been sent by the God of your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he has been sent to deliver you from slavery in Egypt and to bring you into a new land flowing with milk and honey (a promised land).

And just when you think he’s out of his mind, he begins to perform signs and wonders by this God of your forefathers, and he overcomes Egypt and the so-called Egyptian gods by his superior power. And you as a twelve-year-old witness all of the plagues.

And then the most shocking thing of all, is you witness Moses split the red sea and you and all your people walk through safely, and for the first time in your life you can say, “we’re free. We’re no longer slaves.”

But things don’t end there. This God that Moses represents leads you into the wilderness, cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

You’re led to mount Sinai, and there this God descends upon the mountain with peels of thunder and lighting and fire and smoke, and it’s here where God makes a covenant with your people.

But you actually don’t know this God very well. You’ve experienced the miraculous. You’ve seen the supernatural power of this God, but who is he? What is he truly like?

Well somewhere along the way, Moses begins to write an account to explain to the people of Israel in greater detail who they are and who this God is.

And this is what we call the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. And what the Pentateuch seeks to do is reveal to Israel who the God of the Sinai covenant is, what his plan is, and how they’re a part of it, and where their future is headed.

And so as that young twelve year old, you for the first time hear these words that Moses penned, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, and all of a sudden all these thoughts and ideas begin to swirl through your mind as you ponder those words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

You realize, possibly for the first time that the God who rescued you out of Egypt and brought you to Mount Sinai isn’t simply a powerful god amongst the other gods, but that he alone is God.

It was normal in the ancient world to believe in a multiplicity of gods who were at war with one another, but you just heard something that is utterly unique from all the other so-called narratives of the surrounding pagan culture, “God (singular) created the heavens and the earth.”

Also, you realize that this God who has delivered you from Egypt and brought you to Mount Sinai and is leading you to the promised land, is not a local deity, but is God over all of creation for he is the Creator of both heaven and earth.

Another way to say it, He is the Creator of all things, both visible and invisible.

In other words, in hearing this statement, you realize that the God who has saved you from slavery in Egypt is also the God who created all things. Your Saviour is the Sovereign Creator of the universe.

________________

This is the context in which Genesis was written. It was written to the Israelite people after they had been delivered from Egypt and had entered into the Sinai covenant.

And Genesis is explaining to these Israelites who this God is and who they are and what God is seeking to accomplish.

This statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” has a threefold purpose.

As Sailhamer says: The purpose of this statement is threefold: Identify the Creator. Explain the origin of the world and to tie the work of God in the past with the work of God in the future (Sailhamer p.82)

__________________Now, there are so many truths that come out of this one sentence, and I wish we had time to look at them all, but let me provide several for us this morning.

Genesis 1:1 makes specific claims about reality, about the nature of our world; about the nature of God.

And in making these claims it’s automatically refuting other so-called claims about the universe and the nature of reality.

Not only is Genesis 1 a historical account by Moses, it’s also a polemic, in that it’s a defense of a specific view of reality.

It’s combatting other religious or philosophical claims about the nature of the cosmos and reality.

And so this morning, I want us to see the truths that Genesis 1:1 is proclaiming and as a result, see what it’s refuting.

What this sentence affirms and refutes/opposes

So let’s begin with the first example.

Polytheism

There are other creation accounts in other ancient cultures. And what’s common to all of them is a diversity of gods who are at war with one another. Also, matter already exists and these gods war against one another and use the matter against each other and in some strange way the heavens and the earth are created as we know it today.

Genesis 1 is the only creation account that speaks of one God.

In the beginning God, not gods, created the heavens and the earth.

This would’ve shockingly stood out to the Israelites as they heard this claim.

There is only one God, and this one God is the Sovereign Creator of the heavens and the earth, the entire cosmos.

And this one God is the God who delivered you out of Egypt and established a covenant with you.

And this theme is declared throughout all the rest of the scriptures.

Deuteronomy 4:39

[39] know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. (ESV)

Isaiah 45:5

            [5] I am the LORD, and there is no other,

                        besides me there is no God;

                        I equip you, though you do not know me, (ESV)

Genesis 1:1, in affirming that one God created the heavens and the earth, is refuting polytheism, the belief in many gods, which was held by the pagan nations. It was also the common belief in the Greco-Roman world and is still believed today by those who follow Hinduism.

But this claim (One God) would’ve been utterly shocking to those living in the ancient world.

So Genesis 1:1 affirms there is one God, and in so doing, refutes the claim of polytheism.

Pantheism

Another truth that Genesis 1:1 proclaims is that there is a distinction between God and the creation.

God created the heavens and the earth.

He is the Creator, the heavens and the earth are his creation.

This is what we call the Creator/creature distinction. God is not the creation. He is distinct from the creation.

And with this claim, the philosophical idea of pantheism is rejected.

Pantheism claims that the universe is God and God is the universe. All that is, is God. You and I are a part of God and the animals are God and the plants are God.

This is a very attractive belief/idea today because what people want to emphasize is our oneness. We all share the same “godness” and so do the animals and plants, and therefore, we need to respect one another.

Often you’ll hear language like, “We need to give back to the universe because the universe has given so much to us.”

Often in pantheistic ideas, there is a focus on participating in the same energy and power of the universe.

Despite the attraction of this belief, there are many problems with this notion, of which I can’t address fully here.

But let me say a few things. This notion undermines two ideas about Christian belief. First, it undermines the transcendence of God.

Genesis 1:1 proclaims God’s transcendence over the creation because he created it.

It also undermines the personal nature of God. God is not some mere energy that we all share with the created realm. God is a personal being, a relational being as we’ll see in the unfolding pages of Genesis. He enters into relationship with his creatures, specifically his image bearers.

Not only this, pantheism undermines individuality. Pantheism basically says that Eden (my daughter) and I are the same, but Eden is her own person. She is of me, but she is not me.

Genesis 1 declares that God is distinct from the creation but not detached from creation. He is not the creation but the creation has his finger print. The Creation reveals what he is like, as he intended it to do.

Materialism

Genesis 1:1 also claims that reality is both spiritual and material.

“God created the heavens and the earth.”

God is Spirit, which means, the very first verse in the Bible is proclaiming that there is spiritual reality just as there is physical reality.

And therefore, this refutes what we philosophically call materialism.

I don’t mean by that we live in a materialistic culture, as in we’re consumed with things.

Philosophically, materialism is the idea that all that exists can be reduced to the physical, the material. (It’s closely related to atheism).

It’s a complete rejection of spiritual realities.

The human person isn’t both soul and body, but rather as Peter Kreeft says (criticizing materialism), “A fortunate arrangement of molecules, a chemical equation, an evolved slime pool, an animal which has learned to wear clothes.”

So ideas like justice and love and goodness; these are not material things and therefore they don’t actually exist. There just the projections of the human brain.

Love isn’t actually something real, it’s just a word we use to describe chemicals going off in the brain. Because the only thing we can say is real, is that which is physical.

Genesis 1:1 rejects this. Genesis 1:1 proclaims that both the physical and the spiritual are real.

And as Christians, we believe that the spiritual is superior to the physical.

Let me be clear. The Gnostics taught that only the spiritual was good and the physical was bad, and so they saw salvation as liberation from the physical.

We don’t believe that as Christians. So Gnostics rejected the physical. Materialists reject the spiritual.

Whereas, Christians don’t reject the physical. We see the physical as good, just as God declared on the days of creation, “and it was good”. But we do believe that the spiritual is superior to the physical. And here’s why, God is spirit, and God is superior in every way to creation.

And this is why, for example, as Christians we don’t neglect our physical needs, but we do prioritize our spiritual needs.

Jesus taught this in Matthew 6 when he exhorted us not to be anxious about what we will eat or about the body and what we will wear, but instead told us to focus our energy on seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness.

We don’t reject the physical body because the body is from God; this is my body. We are embodied creatures.

But we must remember that we must not fear those who can only kill the body but not the soul.

A simple way to understand this is what C.S. Lewis said: You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. 

Another way to think about this is through Plato’s cave. You may have heard of Plato’s cave, if you ever took a philosophy class.

Materialists, believe that all there is, is the cave. There’s nothing beyond the cave.

As Christians, we believe there is so much beyond the cave. There are so many things that transcend the cave.

So Genesis 1:1 affirms both spiritual and physical realities, and therefore, refutes materialism.

Atheism

Lastly, Genesis 1:1 proclaims that God exists.

I probably should’ve started with this, but I chose to put it here because I wanted to focus much of our attention on what this refutes, which is of course, atheism.

Genesis 1:1 and the rest of the scriptures proclaim that God exists! The Bible never sets out to prove God’s existence. It assumes God’s existence.

As Kevin DeYoung says:  The existence of God is not a conclusion to be reached so much as a given to be assumed… God’s existence is the starting place for human knowledge, not the end point of human deduction.

We call this in philosophy and theology a First Principle. That is, it’s something that is self-evident. It’s not derived from anything prior.

Now, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t good arguments for the existence of God. There are many good arguments for the existence of God that can strengthen one’s faith, help someone see that belief in God is a very reasonable position.

(Unfortunately, I don’t have time to put forward these arguments this morning)

But the Bible itself doesn’t set out to prove God’s existence. The Bible assumes God’s existence and it assumes that the human conscience knows that God exists even if it seeks to suppress this knowledge.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

[11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (ESV)

So the Bible affirms God’s existence, and therefore, condemns or opposes atheism; that is the belief that there is no God.

The reality is, there isn’t a lot of atheists in our world. There are definitely more atheists today than 500 years ago, but on a global scale, atheists are a very small minority. Most people believe in some kind of divine being even if it’s not the Christian understanding of God. But sometimes it feels like there’s a lot of atheists because they can often sometimes be the loudest.

Many atheists today mock the notion of God’s existence. They compare it to that of fairies and unicorns and the like. Instead of thoughtful argumentation, they want you to feel that your belief in God is utterly stupid and foolish. Despite the fact, that I’ve read somewhere that the fool says in his heart there is no God.

I think atheism is the most illogical and irrational position that a human can hold when thinking of reality.

Even the majority in the scientific community today claim there is a divine creator, though their understanding of what that is might not be inherently Christian.

Belief in God is rational. Atheism is irrational.

They want to suggest that it’s irrational to believe that a Creator created the creation, while suggesting that it’s perfectly rational to believe that nothing created everything!

Sometimes the greatest philosophers are comedians, and they sometimes have the ability to show just how irrational certain ideas are.

Pete Holmes did that in one of his acts, and he wasn’t necessarily claiming to believe in God, but he was demonstrating just how irrational atheism is. He said this:

Some people think God created the universe. Some people think nothing created the universe. Which is the funniest guess? And the nothing people make fun of the God people. They say, “God doesn’t exist.” I’m like okay, maybe. But you know what definitely doesn’t exist… nothing. That’s the defining characteristic of nothing, is that it doesn’t exist. So what are we talking about? Either you think it’s God, something you can’t see, touch, taste, photograph and science can’t prove, or you think it’s nothing. Something you can’t see, touch, taste, photograph and science can’t prove. But I think we can all agree. If nothing, if your nothing, sometimes spontaneously erupts into everything. That’s a pretty magical nothing you guys… And ask the nothing people, “What happens when you die?” They’ll tell you, “Nothing”. You go into nothing. I’m like you mean, you merge back with your Creator?

Now, I don’t agree with everything that Pete Holmes says about God, but he’s demonstrating just how irrational and crazy it is to believe that nothing somehow created everything!

G.K. Chesterton: It is absurd to complain that it is unthinkable for an unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then to pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.

The great philosopher Alvin Platinga says this: If atheists are right that we are the product of mindless unguided natural processes, then they have given us strong reason to doubt the reliability of human cognitive faculties, and therefore inevitably to doubt the validity of any belief that they produce, including their atheism.

So here’s the reality, I don’t have enough faith to believe in atheism.

I don’t remember who said this, but I think it’s accurate. Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. Which seems more plausible?

It was interesting, Joe Rogan recently said on his podcast that the claims of the resurrection of Jesus seem more reasonable than the atheistic claims that the universe came from nothing and created everything.

It was Isaac Newton who said that if all he had was the thumb, this would be sufficient evidence for the existence of God.

There are several things that atheists have to believe but they can’t explain.

One: They believe everything came from nothing.

The Christian response: Everything came from the Creator.

Second: They believe order comes from chaos.

The Christian response: Order comes from order.

Third: They believe life comes from non-life.

The Christian response: Life comes from life.

Fourth: They believe consciousness comes from mindless matter.

The Christian response: Consciousness comes from a mind.

The reason there is consciousness is because there is an eternal mind, which we call God.

_______________Common sense demonstrates that there must be a Creator to the creation.

All of us know inherently that created objects are the evidence for the mind behind the object.

The building testifies to the builder.

The watch testifies to the watchmaker.

The painting testifies to the painter.

The creation testifies to the creator.

As the Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

There is so much more that could be said, but I just want to put forward that it’s completely rational and reasonable to believe that there is a Creator who created the cosmos. And no matter how much the atheist may mock or ridicule this belief, I believe we’re standing upon much thicker ice than they.

_____________So these are the things that Genesis 1:1 affirms.

There is one God, and therefore polytheism is false.

God as the Creator is distinct from the creation, and therefore, pantheism is false.

Reality is composed of both the spiritual and the physical, and therefore, materialism is false.

God exists, and therefore, atheism is false.

______________

But I have not said a whole lot about who this God is, except that he is the Creator.

But Genesis 1:1 actually declares many truths about God.

Now, there are many truths about God that are not mentioned in Genesis 1:1.

For example, Genesis 1:1 doesn’t tell us if the Creator is good, but the rest of the scriptures do.

But what does Genesis 1:1 specifically reveal to us about God?

What this sentence communicates about God

God is the Creator

For one, he’s the sovereign Creator. He’s the Creator of all things, both visible and invisible. He has no rival.

The Eternality of God

Secondly, Genesis 1:1 testifies to God’s eternality.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

It doesn’t say that in the beginning God was created. It says, God created the heavens and the earth.

Those words, “In the beginning” are not in reference to God, but in reference to the beginning of the cosmos, when God created the heavens and the earth.

Our universe had a beginning, God did not.

God would not be God if he were not eternal.

This is something that is so beyond our human comprehension because we only know how to think in categories of time and sequence of events.

But God being eternal means he is outside of time. He has no beginning and no end. There is no sequence of events with God.

He simply is and always will be.

Psalm 90:2

            [2] Before the mountains were brought forth,

                        or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

                        from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (ESV)

The self-existence of God

This also means that Genesis 1:1 declares that God is self-existent and self-sufficient.

My favourite word for this is God’s aseity. He is self-existent and self-sufficient. 

He didn’t receive his existence. He is existence. This is why when Moses asked God when the people of Israel ask who sent me, what should I tell them?

And God said, “I am that I am.” I am being itself. All life has its being/existence in me.

We live and move and have our being in him.

He’s utterly unique as the Creator. All that is created receives its existence from another.

But the Creator is existence itself.

Which means, God didn’t create because he needed anything. He created because of his abundantly gracious and loving nature, which we’ll see next week.

God has never done anything because of need. He has never acted because he lacked something.

You and I, from the moment we’re conceived we’re in need and dependent upon another.

We need air to breathe, food and water to sustain us. Sleep to restore us. Every day we’re dependent upon other things and other people.

God has never needed anything because he lacks nothing.

Genesis 1:1 declares that God is eternal, self-existent and self-sufficient.

The omnipotence of God

It also declares that God is omnipotent. That is, he’s all-powerful. He does not merely have power, but he’s infinitely powerful.

God created the heavens and the earth ex-nihilo. That is, out of nothing!

This is one of the unique characteristics of the Genesis account verses the other ancient creation accounts.

The ancient accounts speak of the gods fighting and using some already pre-existent material to create, but Genesis and the rest of the scriptures testifies to God creating all things out of nothing. He simply spoke creation into existence.

And God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”

There are other passages in scripture that make explicit what’s implicit in Genesis 1:1.

Romans 4:17 describes God as the One who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (ESV)

Hebrews 11:3

[3] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (ESV)

Genesis 1:1 testifies that God is omnipotent, all-powerful!

________________

There are three other attributes of God that Genesis 1:1 communicates though it’s not explicit, but there is a way to come to this knowledge apart from Genesis 1:1.

Of course, we can look at the rest of the scriptures and see these other truths, but what we can also do is look at the creation itself and come to certain conclusions about God that Genesis 1:1 affirms and the rest of scripture affirms.

As Christians, we talk about general revelation and special revelation. General revelation, is revelation about God that can be known simply through observing the world. Special revelation is what can only be known through the sacred scriptures.

So for example, by general revelation you can know that God exists and that he’s powerful, but it’s only by special revelation you can know that God is triune.

Another way to articulate this is that God has written two books. The book of creation and the book of sacred scripture.

So Genesis 1:1 declares that God created the heavens and the earth, but if we look at the heavens and the earth, what are some other truths we can come to by observing the book of creation?

Let me give you three to add to the ones we’ve already articulated.

So far, we’ve seen God is the Creator, eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient and all-powerful.

The joyfulness of God

So what might the creation itself tell us about God?

When I look at the abundance of creation, from the diversity of flowers and the number of flowers, and the diversity of trees and the number of trees. From the diversity of sea creatures and land animals and birds in the air, and the overwhelming colours and designs within creation, and the rugged valleys and the mountain peaks of the Rockies and the Himalayas, and the billions of stars in the heavens, and the diversity of fruit and seeds and spices, and most importantly, the diversity of humans the abundance of humans, and we could go on and on. When I see the abundance of this creation, what it tells me is that this God in Genesis 1:1 loves to create.

He loves to create because he is full of infinite joy.

Genesis 1:1 and the creation tells me that the God who created all things is full of infinite joy, and the creation is simply the outpouring of that joy!

As 1 Timothy 6:17 says that God is the One who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

I think G.K. Chesterton captured God’s child-like joy so powerfully when he wrote these words in his book, “Orthodoxy”:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

You know, God could’ve been completely utilitarian in his creating of things. Right? Like, he could have made food tasteless if all he was concerned about was that we were sustained. (Unfortunately, the English do think God made food tasteless).

But he has given us a diversity of flavours for our enjoyment. Why? Because he is joy and he wants us to taste and see that he is good.

The God who created us is full of infinite of joy and he wants to share that joy with us.

The Generosity of God

I also think creation affirms for us that the God who created the heavens and the earth is full of generosity.

Think of all that he has given us to enjoy! And when you relate this to his self-sufficiency, you realize that his act of creating was solely because of his generosity.

This summer, I remember being at the beach with Inez, and the sun was beginning to set, and she was jumping over the waves and running through the water, and I could hear her giggling, overcome with so much happiness, and I remember being overwhelmed with God’s kindness and generosity. I didn’t deserve that moment!

The Beauty of God

There are many other things I could say about the nature of our God in light of Genesis 1:1 and creation itself, but let me give one more truth.

When we see that God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 and when we look at creation and its inherent beauty, it’s safe to conclude that God is infinitely beautiful, and all creaturely beauty finds its source in him.

All that is beautiful in creation points to the source of the beauty, God himself.

The mountains declare his immensity. The Lion captures his strength. The Lamb his gentleness. The sun his piercing holiness. The heavens declare his glory. The trees his eternality. The oceans capture his power. The singing birds his joy.

The beauty of creation declares for us every day the beauty of our Creator!

This is the God who created the heavens and the earth!

Application/Implications

To end off, I want to make just a few comments.

First, I want to address those of you who are here and maybe you believe in a God or God but that belief is merely an intellectual affirmation, but you don’t know God.

Or maybe, you’re here and you’re not confident that God exists.

I want to press upon you that which your soul knows to be true (even if you supress it) and that which creation testifies to, that God exists and he has created you in his image and likeness, and you’re accountable to him.

Don’t suppress that which is self-evident.

When people say they don’t believe in God, it’s always important to ask, “what God don’t you believe in?” Because when they begin to describe the God, they don’t believe in, the majority of the time, I can respond with, “I don’t believe in that God either.” It’s not the God of Christianity, and then dare them to actually look into the God of Christianity and what Christianity actually tells us about God.

Friend, don’t use silly intellectual arguments as a shield against the piercing truth that God exists.

Because one day you will have to face this God, and you will have no excuse.

Romans 1:18–20 tells us that the fundamental reason you reject God’s existence is not because of intellectual barriers, but because you don’t want to be accountable to God.

Romans 1:18-20:

[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (ESV)

Psalm 10:4

            [4] In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;

                        all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” (ESV)

It isn’t fundamentally because of intellectual barriers you don’t believe. It’s because your heart is proud, and in order to come to God, you must humble yourself before him, and declare, “He is God and I am not.”

Acts 14:17 tells us that God did not leave himself without witness. You will not be able to say there was not enough information or evidence for God.

As Charnock says: The notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason as any object in the world is visible; he is written in every letter.

So here’s my plea to you. Don’t suppress the reality of God’s existence. Be willing to truly seek and understand who God is.

You were made to know your Maker.

As Augustine said: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Hebrews 11:6 says that whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Friend, begin there!

__________Lastly, I want to address those of us who are professing Christians, who claim to believe in the God of Genesis 1:1 and who claim to know this God.

It was Tozer who said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Many of us believe in God, but so few us have given our minds and our souls to knowing God and loving God for who he is.

I’m convinced that one of the reasons there is such a lack of spiritual fervency amongst the people of God today, is because we don’t know the God we claim to worship.

We can articulate theologically our convictions on complementarianism. We can defend the five points of Calvinism. We can explain our political theology or our view on the millennium or our understanding of the spiritual gifts. We can keep up with all the latest conspiracies and crazy events of society, but we don’t know God!

Oh we know he exists. But we don’t know him as we ought to.

As Charnock says: The bare existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it but those qualities of it and our interest in it that render it amiable and delightful.

Is it possible that our affections for God are so weak because we have not given ourselves to pondering and contemplating the perfections of God and his infinite majesty?

Has our understanding of God become so small and so much like us that we can walk in 20 minutes late for the corporate worship of God amongst his redeemed children and think that this has no bearing upon the posture of our souls when it comes to Almighty God?

This God who created us is worthy of our admiration, devotion and reverence simply on the basis that he created us. How much more reverence is he deserving of, knowing that not only did he create us, but he has redeemed us through the blood of his most precious Son, our Lord Jesus?

Do we know this God? Do we stand in awe of this God? Our Creator and our Redeemer. The One who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.

Let’s pray