Q9. ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE?


ANSWER: There is but one only, the living and true God. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10)

My aim is to give you three points of instruction and seven points of application concerning God being the only God—the living and true God.

INSTRUCTION

I. THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD

“There is but one only.”

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

II. THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD 

“the living and true God.”

Jeremiah 10:10 “But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King.”

Psalm 71:19 “Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?”

III. THERE ARE MANY SO-CALLED GODS THAT ARE FALSE

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 “For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

I) There are traditionally named false gods. 

In the Scriptures: Amon (the chief god of Egypt), Asherah (a Canaanite goddess), Ashtoreth (a goddess of war and fertility), Baal (a Canaanite and Phoenician god of fertility and rain), Baal-Zebub (a popular deity of the Philistines), Bel (the chief deity of Babylon), Chemosh (the chief god of Moab), Dagon (worshipped in Babylonia and Philistia), Molech (the chief deity of Ammon), Tammuz (a Babylonian fertility god) Zeus and Hermes (Zeus was the patron god of the city of Lystra and his temple was there. Hermes was Zeus’ attendant and spokesman). Artemis (Artemis was the Greek name for the Roman goddess, Diana). Castor and Pollux (the two “sons of Zeus”, regarded as the guardian deities of sailors). 

II) There are created things that are trusted and bowed down to as false gods

Power, entertainment, popularity, beauty, comfort, substances, family, religion, science, sex, money, self.

III) There are perversions of the one true God in the theological cults.

Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New Apostolic Reformation (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).

IV) There are perversions of the one true God in the minds of men.

In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to return the favor ever since.

APPLICATION

I. IF YOU TRUST IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN JESUS, YOU ARE TRUSTING IN SOMETHING WORTHLESS

Jeremiah 2:5 “Thus says the Lord: ‘What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?’”

II. IF YOU TRUST IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN JESUS, YOU ARE TRUSTING IN SOMETHING THAT CANNOT PROFIT

Jeremiah 2:11 “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.”

Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

III. IF YOU TRUST IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN JESUS, YOU ARE DOING GREAT EVIL

Jeremiah 2:13 “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

IV. YOU MUST TURN FROM IDOLS TO SERVE THE LIVING AND TRUE GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST

1 Timothy 2:5-6 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

1 Thessalonians 1:9 “[Christians have] turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Acts 14:15 “we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”

V. IN CHRIST, GOD MUST BE THE CENTER OF YOUR AFFECTIONS, LOVE, FEAR, AND JOY

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord 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.”

VI. IN CHRIST, YOU MUST BE THANKFUL THAT JESUS HAS SAVED YOU BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER GOD THAT CAN SAVE

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.”

VII. IN CHRIST, YOU MUST TELL OTHERS THAT THERE IS ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, JESUS CHRIST

John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Ekklesia Muskogee is a reformed baptist church that gathers for worship in Muskogee, Oklahoma. We confess the 1689 second London baptist confession of faith. We affirm the five solas of the Reformation as well as the doctrines of grace (otherwise known as the five points of Calvinism), and each of our pastors would not be ashamed to be called a Calvinist. We are a church led by elders, of which there is a plurality (also called pastors and overseers in the Scriptures). Our mission is to make disciples, love cities, and plant churches.