23rd March 2024

23rd March 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ecclesiastes 8v16-17)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


It doesn't matter how long you live or how many books you read - you will never be able to figure out the ways of God. Solomon applied his heart to know wisdom and even denied himself sleep (v16) but he was convinced that "finding out" God could not be done (v17). The Lord cannot be found out (v17b) and if a wise man ever pretends to have mastered God he should be rejected, for God cannot be found out (v17c).


It is a good thing for the Christian to consider that God is both knowable yet incomprehensible. He is knowable because He has revealed Himself in both nature (Romans 1v20) and the Bible. We differentiate between these by speaking of general and special revelation. The stars in the sky proclaim that a God exists and this is a message to all people everywhere - this is general revelation. However while the Word of God can be read by everyone it is opened to a much smaller number as the Holy Spirit works - this is special revelation.


Even so, despite the testimony of both nature and Scripture, God is incomprehensible or in simple terms, we can never know Him fully. The Apostle Paul once wrote "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?'" (Romans 11v33-35)


The Lord has never needed advice from anyone and He doesn't owe you or I a single thing. We can know Him but we'll never master Him. Brothers and sisters, I trust that these words will perhaps still your heart and settle your worries.  You don't need to figure everything out and you don't need to be on a fruitless quest for illegitimate religious certainty. You have come to know God by faith in Christ and your future is secure. May your restlessness be replaced by rest in Christ.


"But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." (Habakkuk 2v20)


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q101 What do we pray for in the first petition? In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name,” we pray, that God would enable us, and others, to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.