The God Whom We Know

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them,

and there is nothing hidden from its heat.”

[PSALM 19:1-6]

After Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, had returned from his journey through space, Nikita Khrushchev was quoted as saying, “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any god there.”

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Preparing the message, I found the following anecdote amusing. As Yuri Gagarin’s close friend and cosmonaut colleague, Alexei Leonov tells it, then-premier Nikita Khrushchev cornered Gagarin “So tell me, Yuri,” he asked, “did you see God up there?” After a moment's pause. Gagarin answered, “Yes sir, I did.” Khrushchev frowned, and said, “Don't tell any one.” A few minutes later the head of the Russian Orthodox Church took Gagarin aside. “So, tell me, my child,” he asked Gagarin, “did you see God up there?” Gagarin hesitated and replied, “No sir, I did not.” “Don't tell anyone.”

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Dear people, whenever an individual says he or she can’t find God, it’s because that person didn’t look! If an individual has the capacity to observe nature, enjoying the world about himself or herself, that person knows there is a God. The individual may not know God in the intimate sense, but the individual knows there is a God. You may be assured that each individual who has left this life behind knows there is a God.

Preaching to the cultured Athenians, Paul said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” [ACTS 17:22-27].

The Apostle’s statement that God determined the boundaries of mankind’s dwelling place so that people would “perhaps feel their way toward him and find him” is instructive. Then, he clinches the argument when he says, “Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” It is not an issue that God is distant and unknowable—God is always close at hand. Man shoves knowledge of God far from his mind so he will not have to confront his own evil.

WE KNOW WHAT HE SAID — The writer cites two terrifying sayings from the Living God: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” and “The Lord will judge his people.” The sayings are terrifying because they warn against presumptuous sin. Presumptuous sins are those sins motivated by the deceit of the human heart; and we know from the Word of God that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” [JEREMIAH 17:9]. The two citations the writer uses are from The Book of Deuteronomy. The first citation is from DEUTERONOMY 32:35: