One God

I. “One God” is the ultimate unifying point of believers

A. “One God” was a radical thought to the non-believers whose mythology included hundreds of gods.

1. Greek mythology had 12 Olympian gods but 100s of other gods.
2. Ephesus was the center of worship for Diana (Roman), also known as Artemis (Greek).
   • Her temple was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
   • It was a center of political, cultural, and economic power in the region, and challenging for new converts to abandon what must have been a central part of their childhood and social life.

B. The Ephesian converts would not add Jehovah to their collection of Gods to worship, even granting Him a superior status, but the call to Christ required giving up all of these false gods who were His rivals.

II. “One God” is an exclusive claim

A. To accept the one God is to reject that other beings claim to be gods.

B. Also, that His revealed will is the only true will; any competing claims are false.

C. If His path of salvation is the only way to eternal life, all other ways lead away from eternal life.

D. These are the claims of Scripture:

1. Deuteronomy 4:35 - “The Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him.”
2. Deuteronomy 4:39 – “The Lord, He is God in heaven [alone] and on the earth below; there is no other.”
3. This requires devotion and obedience
   • Deuteronomy 6:4 – “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
   • Deuteronomy 6:13 - “You shall fear only the Lord your God; you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.”
   • Deuteronomy 8:16 - “It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.”
   • To add Yaweh to a broader collection of gods to worship is to incur His wrath for He alone is God.
4. New Testament Claims
   • 1 Timothy 2:5 – One God and mediator
   • Acts 4:12 – no other path to salvation
   • John 14:6 – the ultimate claim that must be addressed: either Christ is the one way to the Father and there is no other, or Jesus was a liar or mentally unstable. We must decide.
5. All of the “one” items in this passage imply that there is only one true God, Lord, Spirit, body, faith, baptism, and hope: all of the others are fakes, pretenders, and deceivers.

III. When people turn their hearts from God, they will distort and corrupt the nature of God and multiply their gods.

A. Ephesians 4: God is the ruler over all and is high above His creation; worthy of worship and dedication.

B. Romans 1:18-23 – When people become foolish, corrupt, and earthly, they corrupt their view of God.

IV. There will be one God in our life: the one true God or ourselves.

A. Whoever we exalt as God will be the one who gets our time, money, effort, attention, and service.

B. Serving ourselves as god, we will be self-focused and ultimately dissatisfied, demanding to be served instead of being a servant, disenchanted, and finally empty and hopeless in a world that cannot ultimately satisfy us.

C. We can see through this fog of ignorance, arrogance, and deceit by learning what God has revealed about Himself through His word.

V. Knowing the One God

A. Our lives will be enriched by growing in the knowledge of God.

1. Ephesians 1:17 – “knowledge of Him”
2. Colossians 1:9-10 – knowledge of His will and of God Himself

B. Question: How do you get to know anyone? How did you get to know you’re a friend or your best friend?

1. We have conversations, we observe them, we experience things together.
2. Let’s think about how we use this analogy to get to know God.

C. We are challenged by the infinite nature of God’s being; He is beyond our comprehension.

1. Ephesians 3:14-21 – Transcends our ability to conceive His nature and even His work for us.
2. 1 Kings 8:27 (temple dedication) – “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”
3. Job 37:5 – (Elihu) “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.”
4. 1 Corinthians 2:11 – “So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
5. [Beach Ball comparison] – We cannot comprehend all of God, but we can comprehend what God has reduced to our scope of understanding: what He has revealed so we can know Him sufficiently within the limits of our comprehension and earthly limitations.
6. God revealed Himself, not just His will, to us.
   • 1 Corinthians 2:6-14 – God revealed what man could not conceive on his own. Imparted to us.
   • 2 Peter 1:3-4 – Given us all things that pertain to life and godliness and of the Father and Christ
   • Revealed His beauty, power, and mystery in His creation as well.

D. He is self-sufficient and does not need us, yet showers us with wonderful things

1. Acts 17:24-25 – “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
2. Ephesians 1:3-14
   • We often read, focusing on the abundance of God’s spiritual blessings and our eternal salvation, and we need to do that.
   • But we can read it again and focus on what God had done and His reasons for doing so:

He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Source of every spiritual blessing

Chose us in Christ before creation in order that we may be holy and blameless in His presence.

Adopted us as his children just because that is what He wanted to do (not our actions)

Gave generous and extravagant grace to us by forgiving us and buying us back with the blood of Christ in order to glorify Himself.

Revealed the mystery of His will to unify all things in Christ in order to glorify Himself and because it is just what He wanted to do.

Gave us an inheritance through His plan that we might enjoy His glory and be glorified with Him.

Sealed us with His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, until the time of our eternal redemption

Gave us wisdom and revealed His will through His Spirit so that we may know Him, the work we are to do, and a reason for the hope and joy we receive through Him.

E. He does want us to serve Him but He wants us to love Him for who He is.

1. Lots of people surround those with wealth and fame for what they can get.
2. The devil regarding Job: Job 1:9-11 “Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face’.”
3. Psalm 86:8-13 – Trust in who God is
4. He loved us first, sacrificed first, and made the way for us to be reunited with Him after sin not only because we needed it and were powerless over sin, but because He wants us to dwell with Him in His home forever.
5. The alternative is to have an empty unsatisfying relationship with God based on terror or obligation or worse, to exalt ourselves as our god and find that we always hungry and never filled or fulfilled.
6. If time: Psalm 23