Americans are not identifying as Christians, but rather they are identifying as none, as a none of the above. They're called the nones. Not with a U, I know. That sounds funny. Now 65% of those polled identify as Christians, down 12% from a decade ago. while those who are atheists, agnostic, or nothing in particular, rose from 17 to 26%. And of that 26% of the American population, 17% are the nons, or nothing in particular, for religious affiliations. Clearly, atheists and agnostics and the like have little knowledge of Christianity, in my experience. I've given you a few stories up here as I've talked to professors down at the campus who are ignorant about what we believe, but they're gonna tell other people that I'm wrong. But unfortunately, many Christians are ignorant as well. A Pew study found among Protestants, less than 20% know that Protestants taught faith alone as a distinctive of salvation, that you are saved by faith alone and Christ alone. Among Protestants who attend worship weekly or more, it was 26%. So it's a little higher. Barna has dismal numbers as well. 65% of Mosaics, they're called, and Busters, that was the old names they used, age 18 to 41, about 10 years ago, quote, have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important. 65% of age 18 to 41, about 10 years ago, so now they're 28 to 51. have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important. 29% of that group is, quote, absolutely committed to the Christian faith, in their own words. 3% of that same group have a nominal Christian worldview, if you want to call it that. This is from their book they wrote called Un-Christian. They gathered all their data together to show how abysmal it is in the American churches. 3% have a nominal Christian worldview that Barna defines as Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator of the universe and still rules today. Salvation is a free gift of God. Satan is real. Christians should witness the Bible is accurate and the source of moral absolute truth. That's it. No Holy Spirit. Nothing else. That's why I said nominal at best. Only 3%. Have that. The 2008 Pew Forum on Religious Studies, with a random sample of 30,000 Americans, that's huge, discovered that 57% of self-described evangelicals, how would you describe yourself? Atheist, Roman Catholic, evangelical, evangelical, okay. 57% of them, someone you probably have worked with, maybe your neighbor, believe that there are other ways to heaven than Jesus Christ. 57% of evangelicals in America deny that Christ alone saves. So I'd like to take this opportunity to help you help others. And maybe it'll help you as well. Our church has been greatly blessed with solid instruction, not just our church here at Providence, as I've been here for 25 years, if you can believe it. Not as a pastor, but 25 years. the OPC, the Reformed Tradition in particular. We can take that instruction to others who need to learn more about God, about sin, and about salvation, which are the three major themes I'm going to cover in this short series. Going over some of this basic doctrine will help all of us grow anew, because it's always good to go over the basics, in appreciation of the greatness that is Jesus Christ, but also to further equip you again, because you are busy, to perhaps help your fellow evangelical. God is not a man. You'd think I wouldn't have to start out that, but I think with most of you, that's true. But still, it's important. for all of us to remember this fact. Numbers 23, 19, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Many, many Americans think God is just a big man, like a Superman. That's how the unbelieving Pagans of the Roman era, the time of Christ, viewed their gods, Zeus, Hermes, Mercury, I forget the two, one's Greek and one's Roman. The messenger god, and they just squabble and they fight amongst each other, they can die. They're just like superheroes. We have that, we have the whole Marvel Universe thing and DC stuff, and they're kinda like the gods we have for some people. Now here in the text, in Numbers in particular, it's about truth-telling in Numbers 23. God is not a man that He should lie. Men lie. Men change. Men do not always keep their word, intentional or not for that matter, but God does. His word shall not return to Him void. What He says, He will accomplish. It may not be in your time. may not be the way you want it, but it shall be done." We see here both similarity and dissimilarity with respect to man and God. Sameness and difference between the two in this text. There's a similarity of attributes, although particular there in Numbers 29, there's a contrast of God is not a man that he should lie, but it's not denying that men never tell the truth. It believes that. The author believes he's telling the truth right there when he's speaking to you. They can even be good, and men and women can be loving. But it's a relative goodness, and it's a relative loving, and it's inconsistent, it's dependent, it's finite, it's changeable, isn't it? So whatever truth man has, he's inconsistent with it. Whatever goodness that he has, it's mutable and changes to badness. Whatever love he may have is dependent upon how well you love him. So there is similarity. Men have some truth. Men can do some formal good and even love. But there's more to it than that with God. There's a difference here as we see. God does not lie because God cannot lie because he is not a man. He is quantitatively different than you and I. He's not a big Santa Claus. He's not Superman. He's something else entirely that we can barely comprehend. A creator who spoke and we came into existence. Can you comprehend that? who existed, as we see here in Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God. And that's where we're stopping. God, this God, already existed before heaven and earth, before you came into being. He was there an eternity past. I remember a mathematics class in high school taking geometry, which was really fun. And you have the line, the segment. It stops here, stops there. You have the ray. Remember the ray? Starts here and has no end. That I can kind of get my mind wrapped around. OK, I start here, and I can live forever. That'd be great. But to be the line, remember the line? It goes eternally both directions. God always existed. He's not two-dimensional, three-dimensional. He's beyond space. He's beyond time. He created space. He created time. Put your head around that. He is not a man. And so in this text, as we see, in particular here, you won't know this in the English. I don't typically go into the foreign languages. It can be distracting, but I think it may be helpful here. The word for God here is Elohim. You've probably heard that. When indicating the true God, Elohim functions as the subject of all divine activity, revealed to man, and as the object of all true reverence and fear from men. Something's happening. God's doing it. It's Elohim. God has different names, as you recall, to describe different characteristics of Him with respect to us, who are finite. He's an eternal prism of light. And so Genesis 1-1 necessarily implies that God is independent from creation because He made creation. He wasn't waiting for him to make itself, it didn't exist at the time. And if he's independent from creation, he's therefore infinite as well. And if he's infinite, he's also immutable, that is, unchangeable. So I've given you a convenient three I's. Independent, infinite, and immutable. Men love, but their love is mutable, it changes, it is inconsistent even. Men know things, but they don't know everything. God, however, His love, His knowledge is what? Independent of us, His love, His knowledge, His goodness is infinite and unchangeable or immutable. All of it. Any way you can describe God as the Bible describes Him, you can use each one of these, independent, infinite, and immutable, to describe that characteristic. That's what makes Him unique. Those are uniquely His. What looks like eternity to us is not really eternity. God is eternity. God is infinite, God is independent, and God is immutable. Who is like our Lord? Exodus 15, 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Glorious and holiness, fearful and praises, doing wonders and miracles and signs. Who is like our God? The God of the many American Christians, as I just gave you a number of random samples, is a God that depends upon man's will. What are you going to do before God moves and makes a decision? They deny his independency. The pagan gods are finite and powerless, as we know. They even admit it themselves. And the so-called gods of science change with the winds of the season. But our God is not a man. He does not change. He does not lie. What we need instead of these dependent, finite, and changeable deities is a God independent from creation, infinite in all that He is, and immutable with whatever He does. We need the God of the Bible, the God that is not a man. God is God. And I've unpacked a little bit of that. In the beginning, God is independent, infinite, and immutable. This is our God with whom we have to deal with. And it's a wonderful thing to behold. He's independent. His ground of being, as they say, is in himself. He's not dependent upon anybody else. He doesn't need your praise. He doesn't need your honor. Now, he certainly demands it, but he does not need it, as though he would suffer anxiety attacks. Just like in the Old Testament where he mocked them, you think I really am a starving God who needs to eat these sacrifices? Really? Look at the kind of God I am. I gave you the sacrifices because you're weak, not because I'm weak. He needs nothing outside of himself. He does not need air, food, water, advice, or you. And as such, nothing can affect or change him. And so as I'm unpacking these, you'll see that the independency of God, the infinity of God, and the immutability of God are mutually reinforcing concepts, as they say. John 5.26, we read, for as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. Because the contrast is, we don't have life in ourselves. We need water. We need food. We need one another to a lesser degree. But God, God has life in himself, not from others, not from anything else. God's independence means that he does not need or require anything from this creation, neither man's decisions, desires, or doings will or ever can make God dependent upon them. The flip side of this means that creation is what? Totally dependent upon God. If we don't have this God, then we're not totally dependent upon Him and we live in a weird, wacky universe in which we are seeing in America where everyone is running around saying, I can make reality whatever I want it to be. And we see the consequences of that. God is infinite, not only independent. That God is God. Without limits, obviously that's what that word means. In knowledge, without limit in power, without limit in existence. It's testified by all of creation because all of creation came from where? Nothing. So the best that man can do is create something out of something. We don't create something out of nothing. We never have and we never will. They used to believe that in the Middle Ages, at least among the superstitious, they thought life came out of corpses. You know what I mean? What comes out of a corpse? Undesirable things that crawl. Of course you know later on that it's because they were put there, they were planted there. So it looked like something came out of nothing. Every time we discover that, we find out, oh, it's just not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. And so what you have then, what you're used to traditionally is that, well, God is omnipresent. God is omnipotent. Well, those are actually his attribute of infinity applied to, in our language, those particular functions. So he has infinite knowledge. He's omniscient, all-knowing. He has infinite power. He is omnipotent, all-powerful. So the characteristics that we have in similar with God, right? You have some kind of power. I know you may feel powerless. You have some kind of knowledge, although you may feel stupid. But God's knowledge and God's power has what? No limit. It's infinite. And that's where we get those particular characteristics. Psalm 139.7, where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? I'm going on the depths of hell and God is there. Hell isn't the absence of God. Hell is God always there in His wrath. Psalm 92, before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You exist outside of time and space. God's infinitude means that all His attributes—knowledge, His holiness, His truth, His power, His goodness—are without measure. He knows all things. He can do all things. He is everywhere, omnipresent. He is without end, as 1 Timothy 1.17 tells us. And, of course, on the flip side, that means all of creation is finite and limited. He is also immutable or unchangeable. God is independent. God is infinite and immutable. God never changes. Sin does not catch him off guard. Satan does not change his mind. When he promises salvation, he means it. He will not renege. Matthew 3.6, for I am the Lord. I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Malachi, excuse me. Out of the mouth of babes. preached on that Sunday night. God's immutability means that He does not change. His truth, His justice, His goodness, His power, His mercy, and all that is God's will stand the test of time. His mercy is everlasting, we read. His word stands true. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever. The flip side means, of course, We are immutable. All creation changes over time. We are unreliable. God's independence, God's infinitude, God's immutability, the Godness of God. are not abstractions that we contemplate. Rather, they are realities that created this world and sustains this world and gives you redemption. And hence the third point. God and creation and redemption. In the beginning, God created. The two major acts of God in time and space are creation and providence. Creation is obvious. All things visible and invisible. The laws of physics. The laws of mathematics. The laws of biology. all come from God creating all things in the beginning. I go through some of that in my sermon series on Genesis 1, 1. And of course, sustains all things, that is his providence. Creation, most Christians get. Yeah, okay, God created all things. Evolution's a crazy nut job theory. That interestingly enough, some of the pagans believe like the Egyptians so long ago. Now it's just redressed in scientific language. Psalm 104.24. Psalm 104.24 is a great, beautiful poetry explaining and showing in marvelous form that God sustains and holds and guides all things. That's providence. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works. and wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions, this great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things, both small and great. There are the ships' sailabouts. There is that Leviathan which you have made to play there. These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. What you give them, they gather in. You open your hand, and they are filled with good. Yes, you see animals eat. And you like to watch the Nature Channel, maybe. and the Arctic fox. How does it find its food? Well, the way the world looks at it, it just randomly finds it. It's just blind chance. He tries his hardest to chase things down. Usually, as you know, most predators don't get most of their prey. It takes one to feed them, but they miss a lot more. It could die. Death is always at the door. But you know, it's God that feeds them. God feeds them. God feeds you. Yeah, but I worked. I know you worked. You worked because God had a plan. And that plan would be that you worked, got a job, and you were able to feed yourself. That's why. So that brings us not just to God creating all things and God sustaining all things, that particularly in His providence He directs all things because of His plan. He has an independent, infinite, and immutable Plan executed through providence. God being infinite, independent means his plans are established in eternity past. They shall come to pass. This is why cause and effect works. This is why you eat and you live. Because God so deigns it in his eternal plans. Cause and effect makes sense because God's in charge. Psalm 3311, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Why? Because he doesn't depend upon man. He's not waiting for you to make a decision for him. He's already made that decision. And if random events are part of God's plans, and certainly all other kinds of events are as well, Proverbs 16.33, Proverbs 16 is a good chapter on the sovereignty of God, the omnipotence of God. over men and things. And here's the thing, Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap. That was their dice back then. But it's every decision is from the Lord. It looks random. You throw it out there. We play dice. We like to play dice games. And everyone that rolls out there is part of God's plan. Randomness is relative to us. We see randomness. But God, it's all part of his plan. Ephesians 1.11, "...and him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will." His creation of all things, sustaining of all things, directing of all things, now is focused here in particular of the direction sustaining and the creation of your own redemption. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance." What inheritance? Obviously he's talking about the inheritance of heaven, of being saved, being predestined according to what? The purpose of Him, God Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, the Godness of God, who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Not some things, not most things, not 99% of things. Like one famous American evangelist said, God does 99.9% and the rest is you. I don't know what Bible he was reading. I'm sorry. You have that kind of view of God? I can't take you seriously. Not as a leader. As a fellow Christian, I feel sorry for you. I want to instruct you, inform you, don't you? That's not the God of the Bible. just as He chose us in Him, verses 4-6 of Ephesians 1, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. to your good works, according to your decision, according to your finite, mutable, dependent ways, according to the good pleasure of His will, and not yours, to the praise of His glorious grace. Since we are nothing in God's sight, if you can imagine less than nothing, we are sinners deserving hell. It is only God's love, His independent, infinite, immutable love that sustains our salvation. This is the God with whom we have to deal with, brothers and sisters. He is not a man. His providence, His promises are independent, infinite, and immutable for His people and for everything else. But for you in particular, His promises have been given, and they will not change. The promise of redemption. This means His love and promises to you are independent of your sins, infinite in power and effectiveness in your life, and immediately set in stones as it is carved upon His hands. It means we should worship, praise, and serve Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, brothers and sisters, and fear not man. Let us end with this praise of Psalm 100, verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. Presbyterians can smile, it's okay. Come before his presence with singing. It's what we did today, isn't it? Know that the Lord, he is God. That's the godness of God. It is he who has made us. and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Let's pray. With this amazing word, the psalm, God, that echoes in our hearts, may we be encouraged to know that you are not a man. You are king of kings and Lord of lords. You are God, independent, infinite, and immutable, and the promises of redemption you have given to us Help us, we pray, may we be encouraged to continue to worship and praise and serve you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Amen. Let us stand.