WRONG CONCLUSIONS ABOUT GOD
Hebrews 1:1-9
INTRODUCTION
When Joey Barrow was a teenager, his classmates labeled him a sissy. His mother made him take violin lessons, hoping he would “make something of himself.” While his classmates were engaged in rough, tough masculine activities, Joey was taking violin lessons. Hence, everyone thought he was a sissy.Youngsters can be cruel.His classmates openly mocked him.
They were relentless in their ridicule.Then one day Joey was called a sissy one time to many.
This time Joey smashed the boy who had taunted him, smack on the head…with his violin.
But it didn’t help the situation. when the story reached the ears of Joey’s schoolmates, it brought even more laughter and ridicule.
One of the boys, however, did not laugh or ridicule Joey. His name was Thurston McKinney. He was a big, strapping youngster. He invited 18 year old Joey to exercise with him at the gym. As always, Joey had his violin with him even when he went to the gym.Thurston McKinney was a Detroit Golden Gloves boxing champion. The very first time that Thurston invited Joey to spar with him in the ring, Joey clobbered him. Joey flattened him and, needless to say, got to like the boxing ring. Five years later, Joey Barrow turned 23 and he became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. You know him as Joe Louis. Joey dropped his last name, Barrow, so his mother would not know it was her son they were talking about in the newspapers. The world knew long before she did that Joey Barrow had become the unbeatable Joe Lewis. Indeed, Joey Barrow was anything but a sissy! (172/431)
Joey’s schoolmates thought they knew him. They thought they knew what he was like. How wrong they were!
It is so easy to reach a conclusion or make a judgment about someone and be wrong. It happens all the time. Not only do we reach wrong conclusions about each other, we often reach wrong conclusion about God.We can easily believe things about God that are not true. So many of the perceptions and beliefs that exist today concerning God are, in spite of their widespread acceptance, absolutely incorrect. These incorrect perceptions of God are usually the result of personal pain, national tragedies or even unanswered prayer. When are hearts are broken, our bodies are wracked with pain or our personal and family life is crumbling around us we are often tempted to entertain heretical thoughts. Sometimes natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes create within us ambivalent feelings toward God.
At other times the evil acts of hardened men cause us to question God’s sovereignty. The attack upon America with the senseless killing of thousands of innocent Americans has definitely made it easier for many people to reach wrong conclusion. about God. A terrorist act, a natural disaster or a personal loss often becomes the basis upon which some would conclude that God isn’t good or He isn’t all powerful or He just doesn’t care. Others would even say these things prove that God doesn’t even exist! If He was there and if he was good and all powerful, the reasoning goes, He would intervene and prevent personal loss, natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The painful and perplexing circumstances of life on this sin marred planet often give birth to many ideas, feelings and beliefs that are patently false.
If we are to avoid reaching wrong conclusions about God, we must not depend upon our feelings. Feelings change quickly and we know they are not always dependable. So why do we depend upon them to determine what God is like? Neither should we depend upon our reasoning. My reasoning powers tell me that the molecules that make up this wooden pulpit are not in motion. Yet they are in motion. My reasoning powers tell me that all of the words in this Bible cannot possibly fit on this small card, yet they do! Pascal was correct when he said, “the supreme end of reason is to show a man that there is a limit to his reason.” Our reasoning is woefully inadequate when it comes to many facts in the physical realm. It is also woefully inadequate when it comes to the spiritual realm. We cannot depend upon our reasoning powers to determine what God is like or what He expects of us.Our puny, finite minds are incapable of discerning the ways of the infinite Creator of this vast and complex universe.
Speaking of our inability to determine God’s ways, the prophet Isaiah says, “AS THE HEAVENS ARE HIGH ABOVE THE EARTH SO ARE GOD’S WAYS ABOVE OUR WAYS AND HIS THOUGHTS ABOVE OUR THOUGHTS. (55:9). With our finite human minds we are totally incapable of figuring out God.On our own we cannot figure out His often perplexing and mysterious ways. Romans 11:33 clearly states this fact of life when it declares, “OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES OF THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE
GOD! HOW UNSEARCHABLE HIS JUDGMENTS AND HIS PATHS BEYOND TRACING OUT! WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD?” On our own we cannot possibly comprehend the ways of God. Hence, if we are to avoid reaching wrong conclusions about God, we must not depend upon our reasoning or feelings but upon God’s self-disclosure. He has revealed much of himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Consequently, we can know with absolute certainty what God is like and what He expects of us.
TEXT
Our text makes it very clear that the Sovereign, Omnipotent God of the universe has revealed Himself to us in Christ. Thus, if you want to know what God is like you have to look at Jesus. Hebrews 1 declares that “GOD, IN TIMES PAST SPOKE TO OUR FOREFATHERS THROUGH THE PROPHETS AT MANY TIMES AND IN MANY WAYS, HAS IN THESE LAST DAYS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON….” Before the coming of Christ God revealed Himself through the prophets of old. These self-revelations were prepatory and piecemeal. All that changed when Christ came to earth. The divine disclosure which has been made in Jesus Christ completes what was begun in the Old Testament. The things we yearn to know about God have been revealed to us in Christ.
Hebrews 1:3 says that “CHRIST IS THE RADIANCE OF GOD’S GLORY AND THE EXACT REPRESENTATION OF HIS BEING….” Jesus is the exact expression of God’s character. If you want to know what God is like you have to look at Christ. God has revealed Himself in Jesus so we can know exactly what He is like. God didn’t want us depending upon our limited powers of reasoning, our unreliable feelings or distorted perceptions.So he sent us Jesus. We can, therefore, avoid reaching wrong conclusions. Through Christ and the written Word of God we can know with certainty just what God is like. His attributes or characteristics have been divinely revealed to us.
GOD LOVES US
In the midst of pain, heartache and tragedy many have erroneously concluded that God isn’t love or, at least, He doesn’t love them. In spite of what their feelings or reasoning powers tell them, God does love them. Jesus Christ came to earth to reveal that God is love and that he loves everyone of us with an unconditional and everlasting love. God knows us by name and he cares deeply about us. Through the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son in Luke 15, Jesus is trying to tell us how very much God loves us. Lost in sin and all messed up, God comes looking for us. Romans 5:8 says, “GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR US, IN THAT, WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.” He seeks us, yearning to redeem us from a life of emptiness and hopelessness. In Christ He offers us forgiveness and a whole new way of life. John 3:16 declares that “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.” If God didn’t love you He would not have sent Jesus to die for your sins and He would not be desirous of a personal relationship with you. Through the cross of Christ, God proves His love for you.
Affirming this truth. Peter encourages us to “CAST ALL YOU CARE UPON HIM; FOR HE CARETH FOR YOU” (2 Peter 5:7) Yet sometimes in the midst of the events and circumstances of our lives we get the opposite impression.We feel as if God isn’t there for us and maybe doesn’t even care.When we are overcome with physical pain, when our hears are breaking or when everything is going wrong it certainly doesn’t seem as if God cares. We pray and pray and pray and things seem to go from bad to worse and we wonder if God really does love us. At this point our reasoning is flawed and our feelings are inaccurate.
We must not depend upon them.God does love us and He does care about us.We must trust in God’s self-revelation through Christ the Living Word and the Scriptures, the written Word.
SINFUL WORLD
The very things that cause us to reach wrong conclusions about God, trials, tribulations and heartaches are the natural consequence of life in this sin-marred world.
- In John 16:33 Jesus said, “IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE…..” Sin has entered our world and brought with it pain, heartache, disease, suffering and death. These things were not in God’s original plan for mankind. Scripture tells us that they are the result of sin or man’s rebellion against God and His revealed ways and standards. God’s Word makes it clear that sin is the cause of all the tragedies of life from the premature death of a young child to terrorist attacks against innocent people. Sin, not God, is the culprit and all of our lives are painfully affected. We must, therefore, be on our guard lest we reach wrong conclusions.
If anyone could have reached wrong conclusions about God it was Adoniram Judson the renowned missionary to Burma. He endured untold hardship and pain trying to reach the lost for Christ. During his time there he was unjustly imprisoned for 1½ years and endured unbearable physical beatings.Suffering, heartache, illness and pain were his constant companions. His experiences could easily have caused him to doubt God’s love and care.
But they didn’t simply because He trusted in God’s self-revelation in Christ and the Word, knowing that all the terrible things that happened to him were a result of living in a sin-marred world.He knew that someday things would be different.Living in this evil, messed up world our lives are touched by pain, heartache, tragedy, disease and physical death. God has not promised to shield our earthly lives from hurt and pain.
GOD’S PLAN
This, however, is only part of the picture. If we are to reach the right conclusions about God, we must have all the facts. We must take into account the fact that God, in His love, has a wonderful plan for us. The sinfulness that prevails and brings such pain is only being temporarily tolerated by God. He has a special plan for us in Christ and through it He demonstrates His great love for us. He does care for us. He tells us in Romans 8:18 that the ‘SUFFERING OF THIS WORLD IS NOT TO BE COMPARED WITH THE GLORY THAT SHALL BE REVEALED IN US.” God has promised to some day make right all of the wrongs and injustices of this life. There will someday be a “NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS….” It is a day when God “SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS” and we will experience life in all of its fullness and richness.
God has promised, through Christ, to give us the ultimate victory over sin, suffering, sorrow, sickness and death.Through Christ God has made it known that He is mysteriously working and moving in this evil world, sovereignly bringing about His ultimate plans and purposes. Indeed, God is not absent, uncaring or powerless even though many have reached that conclusion. He has a plan for us and He is, in His time and in His way, slowly bringing it to fruition.
ETERNITY
We often reach wrong conclusions about God’s love and power because we can’t understand why God doesn’t act in the ways we think He should in order to spare us physical harm and emotional pain. Our emphasis and main concern is in this life. Thus we view everything in the light of what we have to endure in the here-and-now. God, however, is more concerned with our souls and our eternity. This life is nothing compared to eternity. Our earthly pilgrimage is not the most important or significant part of our lives. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus said, “DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THOSE WHO KILL THE BODY BU NOT THE SOUL, BE AFRAID OF THE ONE WHO CAN DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN HELL.”
Yet we tend to be more concerned with this fleeting earthly pilgrimage than our eternal state.
In Matthew 16:26 Jesus asks, “WHAT GOOD WILL IT BE FOR A MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD, YET FORFEITS HIS OWN SOUL?” Knowing what God knows He puts the emphasis on the life to come, not this earthly pilgrimage.We tend to do the opposite….. and as a result we reach wrong conclusions about God. When things go wrong in this life and God doesn’t answer our prayers or intervene we question His love and care.
Whenever that occurs, our feelings and perceptions are wrong.
The earth is spinning on its axis at a speed of over 1,000 miles per hour.Yet we have no sense of the motion. At the same time it is rotating around the sun at a speed of 66,000 miles per hour. Yet we don’t feel any movement.The earth is moving but we do not perceive it. That is movement without perception. Similarly, God is moving in our lives and in our world for good even though because of evil we do not always perceive it. To say that God is unconcerned, inactive, or powerless in the midst of pain and tragedy is to reach a wrong conclusion.God has a plan and He is bringing it to pass even though it is not always evident to us. No matter what we have to endure while journeying through sin-marred life, God does love us and care for us. In His sovereignty He is, as Romans 8:28 declares, “WORKING ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD” and someday, in eternity, it will be evident.
CONCLUSION
1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us that right now “WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY” and we, therefore only, “KNOW IN PART.” Our knowledge of things is so limited and distorted. In order to avoid reaching wrong conclusions about God, we need to continually recognize that our reasoning is often flawed, our perceptions distorted and our feelings unreliable. Then we need to look to Jesus to learn what God is like. In Christ we know that God loves us. He cares deeply for us especially during the confusing times of our lives when we hurt and suffer and often wonder where He is. He will be with us in everything and get us through. He has promised to “NEVER LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US.” He has a plan for our lives that includes eternal life with Him in heaven. He promises that some day He will make all things right. Those are the promises that He has given us in Christ.You can stake your lives on them.
