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Broadcast date: 10-10-1999 HOW WE CAN KNOW GOD The most important concept humans must wrestle with is God: Who is He? What is He like? How can we know Him? And yet the moment we finite creatures attempt to understand the infinite Creator, we find ourselves at a complete loss. For, in actuality, what we are trying to do is comprehend the incomprehensible. Fortunately, God has not left us to struggle in ignorance. He has revealed much about Himself in the pages of the Bible and also in His beautiful creation. Would you like to know more about how God has revealed Himself in His Creation and in His Word? Listen further, and I will attempt to explain it for you. The natural place to go for answers to questions about God is of course the Bible itself - for it is God's Word to us. This morning I will refer to a Psalm - Psalm 19 - which tells us about the perfect Revelation of the Lord. The first section, verses 1 - 6, speaks of His Creation. Friends, here is God telling us to go to His Creation for knowledge of God. He is telling us to open our eyes and look at the world He made, for ..."the heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament shows His handiwork; day and night reveal knowledge ... TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD. That is, to everyone in the whole world! Therefore, human beings cannot ever plead ignorance of God, since He never ceases to give a Revelation of Himself in His awesome acts of creation. God's creation, of which our world is a part, is a picture book, which if viewed through the eyes of faith tells of the greatness and majesty of our God. It tells of His justice and judgement, His perfect wisdom, His goodness. Stop for a minute to think of what God created in the six days of creation. Everything we know and see was created by God. Everything yet to be discovered by man was created, too. So much of what we see around us and that which we take for granted is, in itself, if studied, an awesome manifestation of our Almighty God. Think for a moment of the humble bee. When it locates a sweet food source it remembers its position, flies back to the hive and with a series of body movements will tell the fellow members of the hive, which direction, and how far the food source is. The bee doesn't use landmarks or a road map; no, they have an in built Geographic Positioning System. Have you noticed the absolutely perfect geometry of a beehive? That six-sided shape is the most economical for the bee's honey production...there is absolutely no wasted space. Yes, God (and I'm using human terminology) "thought" all this out! The Bible Book of Proverbs directs us to take a look at the ant. Have you ever done it? When you first get down on your knees and start observing them they appear to contently bump into each other. Yet for that split second when two ants touch they exchange directional information. It really is worth watching them for 15 minutes. As men we often pride ourselves on our achievements and indeed through God's grace they have been many and great. Yet God's creation order always triumphs. Once I saw a perfectly laid hot mix drive way with one small blemish. A solitary toadstool had pushed its way up through an inch of hot mix and sitting neatly on top of the toadstool was the bit of hot mix it had lifted clean out of the drive way in order to get to the light. An insignificant thing...yet so amazing. When we get behind a powerful microscope we get to see the intricacies of a normal household fly: it's wing system, it's tiny hooks that allow it to sit on a window without slipping. When we get behind a powerful telescope we get to see the vastness of the universe: the moon, the planets, the stars and their movement. When we consider these few examples and when we look around and learn to appreciate all there is to God's creation we get to know God all the better. However, God did not only create; He also preserves and governs His creation. God lets all that He created continue to exist. God allows reproduction among living organisms. God is not remote from anything that occurs. He is actively in control of all that happens in His creation. It is God who lets the plates below the earth shake in devastating earth quakes; it is God who makes the winds blow fierce and strong in our north west cyclones. Man cannot stir up the wind, nor can man stop it. But God preserves His world, and therein demonstrates something of who He is, and He governs the world so that nothing happens apart from Him. What a great God we have who sees to it that we know Him through His creation and its preservation and government. God's creation is for those who believe a picture book about Himself; but for the unbeliever it is a constant reminder that there is a jealous God wanting to be served. The Bible tells us that the world and all that is available for man to see is sufficient to leave everyone without any excuse for not acknowledging God and showing thankfulness to Him. Ignoring the book of creation is sufficient to convict men, and many people do resist what they see. Paul in Romans 1:18-21 writes: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God head, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Friends, I sincerely pray that your hearts are not darkened; that you do see something of the glory of God in the Creation! For you've also just heard something of the seriousness of ignoring the book of creation. Look around you and see! It is God speaking to you about who He is. But, there's more! For no one can see clearly who God is just by observing His creation. To be able to understand what nature is really about, man needs faith. Someone once said, "man must put on the glasses of Scripture" to be able to read the book of nature. For proper knowledge of the one true God, the Word of God is indispensable. Creation is surely a beautiful book, but man blinded by sin needs more in order to come to saving knowledge of the Creator. It is only through God's revelation about Himself in His word that we become familiar with the concept of salvation, the knowledge of how we are saved. Whilst creation tells us so much, it does not tell of the great sacrifice of Christ...that knowledge comes only from the Bible. Let's go back to Psalm 19 and read how God also reveals Himself through His Holy word. In fact, it is only through God's self-revelation to mankind in the Bible that we come to know how we can be saved. Let's read verse 7-11 of Psalm 19. The good news of the gospel is that the Lord sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and so gain forgiveness of sins for all those who would believe in Him. This gospel is proclaimed to you, dear friends, every Sunday through this broadcast; and it is also proclaimed every Sunday at the Free Reformed Church of Albany. I urge you to listen to this message of salvation, for you cannot attain salvation without the Word of God! Perhaps the most stunning and at the same time comforting fact about this gospel is that our understanding of it is not from ourselves. If it were, we'd be sure to misunderstand and misinterpret and consequently not come to a saving knowledge of our God at all. No, the real good news in this gospel is that God Himself sees to it that the eyes of those who believe are opened to what creation proclaims and His Word tells. Despite our sinfulness, God is bothered with you and me, friends! Thanks be to God! |
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Last modified: November 23, 1999 |