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God is Creator
RV90-01© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)
We are studying worship in the throne room in Revelations 4:6-11. This is segment number 21. We have seen in the last verses of this chapter,
verses 9-11, that the four living creatures, which are surrounding God the Father's throne in heaven, periodically burst forth in an expression
of praise to Him. In the process of describing praise to the Father, they ascribe glory to Him, which is praise for the brilliance displayed by
His perfect essence; they ascribe honor to the Father, which is praising the infinite value of God to the human race; and, they ascribe thanks to
the Father, by which they express gratitude and joy for the Father's works – what He has done, and what He will do in the future. The Father
is described in this passage as the eternal one who is being praised – the one who is the true living eternal God.
God is a Living Person
He is again thus emphasized as not an inanimate force, as in Eastern mysticism, but as a person who lives. The Father exists independent of time
because He is unchangeable (He is immutable). God the Father is unchanged in His essence and in His knowledge. The creation is not eternal, so
the Father is separate from the material universe because the Father is eternal.
These are very important pictures that John is portraying to us here. The meaning is enormous in these few verses relative to the nature of God,
and it is particularly important to us today, when we are on the last lap of the realm of the human existence preceding the rapture, when Satan
is moving into high gear with his counter view of the nature of God and of the program of God.
So, the praise of the four living creatures is telling us something very significant about the real God. What these living creatures say causes
the 24 elders, who are surrounding the throne of God, to respond in worship. These 24 elders represent the church in heaven after the rapture.
So, they fall down, and they prostrate themselves before God's throne in homage. They recognize the right of
God the Father, as Creator, to receive the homage of His creatures. He is the eternal living God, separate from the creation which He made. He
is above all creation, and His Supreme worth is what is joyfully acknowledged by them.
In the process of their joy, the elders take their golden crowns (their crowns of reward for service), and they cast them at the Father's feet.
These rewards were made possible by the grace of God the Father in the first place, and it is fitting that they express their subjection to Him
by placing those crowns at His feet. It is all from Him.
So, here again is an indication of the quality of personal character that eventually we will all come to, and hopefully, in the process now,
we should come to recognizing how supremely exalted God the Father is above everything that we have to deal with, and how totally indebted we
are to Him for everything. It is easy to forget that you have one second of life at a time. You take one breath after another, and it is easy to
forget that the whole capacity for the functioning of your mental processes is one moment at a time, as God gives you opportunity. All you have to
do is have the experience of fainting sometime, to realize how quickly all the mental processes collapse and come to an end, and everything
terminates. It is the grace of this God, who these living creatures praise, and who the elders respond to in worship and praise, that makes it
possible for you even to think about Bible doctrine; to take it into the mentality of your soul; and, give you a capacity to at least know how
you should live – to know how you should function.
It is a marvelous thing to be able to join these elders, who represent us as the church, in praising of God. There are a lot of shallow, ridiculous,
fake, nonsensical expressions of praise to God. But once you get hold of the fact of what these living creatures know, and what these elders have
seen – how totally indebted we are to God the Father for everything we are and everything we have (and indeed we live and move and have our
being in Him), then you get a picture that enables a quality of gratitude to well up from deep within your soul, and the capacity to worship God
by turning to His words and saying, "I want to know you, and I want to do it your way."
Revelation 4:11
So, Revelation 4:11 begins with the expression of the praise of the elders: "You are worthy, O Lord." The expression "You are" is this Greek
word "eimi." This is a word to describe the Father's status, and the way it is placed in the Greek language, it indicates that this is constantly
the status of the Father, and that it is personally the status of the Father. This is a statement of fact concerning the nature of God the Father.
What is constantly true concerning the father is that He is "worthy." This is the Greek word "axios." This is an adjective, and it connotes the idea
of deserving. God the Father alone is deserving of man's worship.
Of course, this is the whole crux of the problem within the human race. Who is it that you worship? Satan is out there, and has for centuries
been trying to seduce people to worship him. He did it even to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Matthew 4:9, we have this approach
to the Lord Jesus Christ by Satan for the object of worship: "And Satan said onto Him (Jesus Christ), 'All these things I will give You if you
will fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said unto him, 'Be gone, Satan, for or it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord God, and Him alone
you shall serve.'' Then the devil left Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."
It is not uncommon for people to come and ask me, "Is Satan really as smart as the Bible portrays him to be?" It seems like He does some terribly
dumb things, and this is one of them – that he would approach Christ in this way. When Satan earlier said to Him, "If you are the Son of God,"
the beautiful Greek language informs us that that "if" is one of those first class conditions of "if." So, He was saying, "If you are the Son of God,
and you are;" or, "Since you are the Son of God." So, the very language indicates that Satan knew that Jesus Christ really was the Son of God.
It does seem kind of dumb to think that the second Person of the Trinity, incarnate (in human form), is being invited to fall down and worship the
very creature that this person, Jesus Christ, was the agent of the Father to create in the first place. The creature is asking the Creator to
worship him. I don't know exactly what the reason for that is. It certainly shows an arrogance on the part of Satan. It must be an enormous
arrogance on the part of Satan that he believes that he can come through as such a con artist to deceive even the God-man, Jesus Christ. But this
is what Satan has been doing throughout the centuries, and people have been flocking to respond to the worship of Satan. And that's why one of the
things that is stressed here in heaven has got to be made very clear – that there's only one "axios" person in the universe. There is only
one person who is worthy of the worship of man, and that is the Person of the Creator. Unregenerate man always chooses to worship some element of
creation rather than the Creator Himself.
You and I as Christians are not exempt from this. If we're not careful, there will be something that we worship – something that has our
ultimate devotion above anything else. It's easy to substitute some idol god for the real God. That's why the Bible says that covetousness is
idolatry, because the Bible makes it clear that it is possible to so want something that that becomes the focus of your devotion, and that
becomes your worship. And sometimes, it is something that is very precious, and something that is a legitimate area of your affection. But take
care, and take a cue here from this heavenly picture of this heavenly host that worship is directed to the Father because He alone is worthy of
it. Otherwise, you may find that God will help you learn the lesson the hard way by removing the object of your worship that is substituting for
the real object of your worship, or what the real object of worship should be – the living God Himself. He has a way of removing these
secondary things that you want to worship.
John sees the ultimate vindication of the Father as the only true objects of mankind. Worship of the Father begins with recognizing that He is
worthy of that worship. Most people don't think that God the Father is that worthy of their total and complete devotion.
It says, "You are worthy." Then he addresses the Father with the word "Lord," which is this word: "kurios." "Kurios" is a noun which connotes deity.
It's the New Testament word for the Old Testament word "YHWH." That is the Hebrew word which is made up of four Hebrew letters, which is called the
Sacred Tetragrammaton, and which is pronounced "Yahweh" in the Hebrew. "Yahweh" is the most sacred name of God in the Old Testament. In the New
Testament, a comparable name of God is the word "Lord" ("kurios"). The Greek language here has the Lord, which stresses the uniqueness of
the Father as the Supreme Being. It is the Lord because, again, Satan approaches us to worship him as the Supreme Being. However, John hears
these elders saying that: "The God who sits upon that throne is the Lord. He is the Supreme Being.
Then in the Greek Bible, there is added another word which is not in the King James translation. That is the word "theos," which you recognize
is the word for "God." Again, it is with the word "the." It says the God, indicating that here is the real God. Satan is described in
the Bible as a god: "the god of this age; or, "the god of the air," because he is the god of this world system (with a small letter "g:" "god").
But here is the God. Actually, then, what the Greek is saying here is that the one who is worthy is described and is addressed here as
"our Lord and God: You are worthy, our Lord and God." To the church-age believer, God the Father is, in a distinctive way, His Lord and his God.
Whatever the wonderful relationship Israel of old had with God, it is nothing compared to what you people have.
The Jew is way below you in his relationship to the living God. The Jewish people are going to be very important in just a few years down the
line. All of the world picture is now rapidly forming in order to put the Jew into his final moment of terror and suffering. Russia has a new
leader. Wonder of wonders, the leader of Russia now is the one who is the most expert on covert operation; on deceit; and, on intrigue, because
he was the head of the secret police. He is a man who is enamored with the concept of Russian domination, and imposing a Russian peace upon all
the world. One of the objects of his irritation is the nation of Israel. One of the first things that one of the leading commentators observed was
that the new leader of Russia would not have stood idly by when Israel invaded Lebanon, as did the leader who has just died. ... Here is the man
who is an open enemy of Israel. Now the picture changes for the nation of Israel. It will be even more difficult for her to do things without
the power in the North beginning to rumble and to move against her. Israel is a powerful nation. But she will not be able to stand up against
that kind of force.
But you and I have a relationship to God that is infinitely superior in His care than anything that He is going to exercise over Israel. When
that Russian bear comes down, the Bible tells us that God is going to destroy the Russian military force in its very tracks as it moves down,
so that only one-sixth of that army will be left to straggle back to Russia. That is a God who cares for Israel.
Yet, this expression, "our
lord and our God" connotes a relationship between you and God the Father on that throne that thrills the heart of John such that he recognized
that it was infinitely superior to anything that any group of human beings ever had on the face of the earth. Consider yourself fortunate and
elect to have been born in the age of grace.
This God (this One, who is our Lord and our God) is worthy for the specific reason of receiving something. The word "received" is the Greek word
"lambano." "Lombano" means to come into the possession of something. Here it refers to coming into the possession of worship. In the Greek, it is
in the aorist sense, which means that, at any point in time that worship is extended, God is worthy to receive it. It is active. The Father
personally receives this worship and accepts it. It's in the mood of the infinitive, which means that it is the purpose of God to receive worship.
This that He receives is expressed as "glory." That's "doxa," and we've already touched upon that. This is the brilliance of the Father's essence.
This is His perfect character which deserves exaltation. Again, the Greek word has "the glory," referring back to the glory that the living
creature spoke about in verse 9. He is worthy to receive glory. He is worthy to receive honor. That is the same word that we had in verse 9. Again,
it's "the honor" – the infinite value of the Father to mankind, deserving of His homage. He is worthy of honor.
Power
Then there is a little different word than what the living creature is used: "He is worthy of power." The Greek word is "dunamis." "Dunamis" is
the word for inherent ability to do things. We get our English word "dynamite" from this word. The Greek again has "the power," because
it is stressing this as the real supreme power. God's powers, of course, is omnipotent power. The Father will not use His power for sinful
purposes (as does Satan): to abuse power; and, to be unworthy of it. Because the Father is worthy of this power, He will use it in a worthy
manner. The Father's inherent power is demonstrated in the creation of the universe. No created being can do that.
This is one of the things
that bugs Satan to no end. Whatever else Satan can do (and he has tremendous powers) he does not have the inherent ability to call something into
existence (that does not exist now) by the simple statement of his word. That is power – to be able to stand and to command something to
happen, and that thing comes into existence. That's the power that's being spoken of here. Well, when you think about that, it is exciting to
realize that you are personally related to the family of such a Father. The inherent power of God the Father is demonstrated in the creation of
the universe. No one else could do that.
So, the elders confirm this and say, "You are worthy (You who are so precious to us as our Lord and our God) to receive glory. Your essence is to
be exalted. You are to receive honor. Your preciousness is to be recognized. In Your power, you have the inherent omnipotent ability to do that
which is Your will."
The Reason for the Worship of God
What was the reason for this worship? Why is there this expression on the part of the elders? They introduce it with the word "for." The word
"for" looks like this in the Greek: "hoti." It's a conjunction, and it means "because." It introduces the reason why the Father is uniquely
worthy of worship. It says the reason is that: "You have created." In the Greek language, sometimes these personal pronouns like the word "You"
are part of the verb. But when you want to really stress that you're talking about that person, then the writer puts in the personal pronoun
separately. That's what happens here. The Greek Bible uses this word "su," which is the second singular personal pronoun referring to God the
Father. It is added separately. It's put in there because it is stressing that this is true only of this One.
Creator
What is true only of this One?
It is that this is the One that did this: "created" ("ktizo"): "You have created." This word in the New Testament, is used always of an act of
God. What it refers to is the divine method for bringing into existence the material universe and its life forms. It is aorist tense, which
refers to that point in time when God performed the work of creation. It is an act of God the Father in using the Son as the agency of creation.
God the Father did the creating. He used God the Son as the agent of that creation.
We have this indicated, for example, in John 1:3, that says, "All things were made by Him (that is, by Jesus Christ), and without Him was not
anything made that was made. The Father is the one who did the creating through the agency of the Son.
Again, in Ephesians 3:9, this is indicated to us: "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of
the ages have been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." There it is put in very specific language. God the Father did the
creating through the agency of God the Son.
Then there is Colossians 1:16-17: "For by Him (that is Jesus Christ) were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is
before all things, and by Him, all things consist." So, this first tells us not only that Jesus Christ was the agent by whom God the Father
created the universe, but that the Son is the one who holds it together. The Son is the one who now keeps the created universe functioning.
Hebrews 1:2 says, "Has in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things by Whom also He made the ages."
So, the word "created" indicates to us why these elders are so excited, and why they rise up off their thrones, and bow down before the Father,
and express praise to Him as one who is worthy because He is the One who created. What he created is described as "all things." That is this word
"pas," which means "every." Here, it is in the neuter. It means "everything." It refers to all the material universe in its life forms. So, now we
have a very definite statement here in the Bible that everything that you and I see in the form of the universe, and everything we see in the form
of life, was something that God the Father created.
Hebrews 11:3 tells us that He did that by speaking it into existence: "Through faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God,
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." God the Father spoke it into existence. The word "create" means that God
used His omnipotent power to call into being, out of nothing, the material universe.
Worship
So, true worship begins by recognizing the Father as the Creator. That puts man and his thinking in perspective. That is the point where you
begin worshiping God – by recognizing Him as Creator. That's why the learning of doctrine is important. How would you be able to start
worshiping God if it wasn't for the Bible that explained to you that He is the Creator? And that's how it goes continually. Worship is always
hinged to what doctrine tells us. Without doctrine, you cannot worship God. A person who never learns a bit of doctrine beyond salvation is
incapable of worshiping God. He can go through certain emotional experiences and ceremonies, but he cannot worship God. The realization that
He is the Creator puts everything into perspective, and enables us to worship Him. As long as fallen man has a high estimation of himself, he
will have a low estimation of the Creator.
The Owner
If God is the Creator, that also tells us He's the owner of all things, and man is the steward. That puts everything in perspective. God is
the owner of everything you have. You are His steward. When you grasp that, then you will have entered a realm of dignity. A great personal
nobility will descend upon you when you realize that every material possession you have is because God the Creator, who owns it, has placed
it at your disposal and care as His steward. And if you act that way with your money, it will put you on a position of elevation such that
the more money you have, the more noble you will be. The more money you have (the more treasure you have), the more dignity and the more
personal nobility you will have, because you will be increasingly handling that which belongs to the Creator on a larger scale. If you run a
business, and you have an employee, you demonstrate your trust in that employee by giving them larger and larger supervision and responsibilities
over your business. You entrust more and more into their hands as you esteem them. As God esteems you, He entrusts more and more into your hands.
It is true that the devil will entrust his people, and those who follow him, for the same reason. The devil will also entrust great personal
possessions to those who are his servants, and those who serve his cause. But there's a distinct difference as to what you do with your money,
and what you do with your possessions, as to whom you are serving – whether it is God or Satan. When you no longer honor Satan, he will
remove it.
Evolution
So, man, in no way deserving of the blessings of God, receives those blessings from the Creator. The pseudo-scientist today, of course, denies
all of this – that God is the Creator. Instead, the pseudo-scientist worships creation more than the Creator. He gives the credit for what
he sees to chance. Evolution of eternal matter by chance, over eons of time, into the present forms that we see, is really dumb, once you stand
in God's throne room. Anybody, even among us as Christians (the so-called theistic evolutionists), is going to really feel stupid when you stand
where John stands, and you catch hold of the dramatic glory of this Creator God who has placed His creation at our disposal for our dominion and
for our blessing, and then suggest that it was through the evolutionary process.
God's Will
The elders say, "You are deserving, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor, and power, for You have created all things." Why did he do it?
Here comes the word "for." This is the Greek word "dia." This indicates "because of," or "on account of." It introduces the reason that creation
exists. It says, "Because of Your (referring to the Father personally)." The King James says "pleasure," but that's not a good translation. The
Greek word is "thelema," which means "will." Why did You do it, Father? "Because of His will." The idea of creation was entirely the decision of
God the Father. It was His choice. Creation is the plan of God which is governed by His omniscience. God's will is absolute. It is not governed
by anyone or anything else. It is God who decided to bring you into existence. Isn't that something? It is God the Father, who, out of His own
personal will, decided to bring you into existence. That makes you a super individual. You really are something special.
You may say to yourself repeatedly that you are something really special, because God, by His Own will, decided to bring you into existence. If
it had been left to some of the rest of us, we wouldn't have looked at you twice, and we'd have done just as well without you. But God says. "You
are special. I have chosen you. I have brought you, specifically, into existence." It was because of His will.
So, all of this (all of the material universe, and all of the life that existed), He brought forward because of His will. "They are" is the Greek
word "eimi," the word for the status quo. By the will of the Father, the universe attained a status of existence in contrast to previous
nonexistence. It is because of His will that the universe, including you and I, exist. This is imperfect tense. It's repeatedly the past
condition. It is because of God's will that we are out of nonexistence. It's the actual status of existence that we have.
Then he adds more words. Not only "they are" (existence out of nonexistence), but he adds again that word for create ("ktizo"). They were created.
This is the word for the work of the Father in creating out of nothing, by His spoken word. God's omnipotence, then, gave the material expression
to His will to bring the universe into existence. This word "they were created" is aorist tense – at the point when God created. There is a
point when He created, and a point when He stopped creating. It is passive. The universe did not create itself by an evolutionary process of
chance plus time. That's interesting, isn't it? Here, John hears the elders saying that they were (aorist tense) created. They were (passive voice)
created. At some point in time, God created. At some point in time, God did the creating because the universe could not create itself. Evolution
says it made itself. It's in indicative mood. It's a statement of fact about the origin of the universe in life. The Father was not obligated to
create, but He chose to bring us all into existence. God the Father, who created by His will, therefore, has also made the rules which govern His
creation. He is worthy to be praised for what He has done.
This theme runs throughout the Bible – the worthiness of God the Father to be praised because of what He has done as Creator. That is one
of the things that we often don't praise Him for. When we come to our Thanksgiving Day service, where we have opportunities for praise, this might
be a line for us to consider; praise to God because He is the Creator; and, praise to God for the things He has made, and for the lives He has
given.
We had one of our church officials one time at a Thanksgiving Day service who decided to put into effect really what John heard the elders
doing here – to thank God for creation. Everybody else was getting up and saying, "I certainly do thank God for my pink Mary Kay
Cadillac. I really love it, and I enjoy having it. It has a heater and the air conditioning is really nice." Somebody else got up and said,
"I just really love this nice boat I have. It enables me to water ski and to slalom, and to keep in such good condition. I just couldn't
live if it wasn't for God's kindness in giving me my boat." And somebody else said something else. Then he got up and said, "There's something
else to God's creation." And then he spent a period of time, and he went all around that circle and named all the human beings, and said, "Now
there's so-and-so. I thank God for having created so-and-so, because of this and this." And pretty soon, everybody really was looking forward
to having him get around to them, and it suddenly became an interesting service in a very unique way, waiting to get your turn to see why anybody
would be grateful that you had been created. But that was a very significant thought, because part of our appreciation to God is not only for
things, but for the life forms, not the least of which is you.
Throughout the Scriptures, thanking God for creation was important, because, as Romans 1 tells us, when people stop being appreciative,
then God takes it away, and that's what causes the human race to descend into an animal level of existence. One expression of this in the Old
Testament is 1 Chronicles 16:8 that puts it so effectively: "Give thanks unto the Lord." Here, the word "Lord" is that Hebrew word "YHWH," that
is the sacred Tetragrammaton: "Gives thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him. Sing
songs unto Him. Talk of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His
strength. Seek His face continually. Remember His marvelous works that He has done: His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth."
Then moving over to 1 Chronicles 16:23: "Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Show forth from day to day His salvation. Declare His glory among
the nations; His marvelous works among all peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all Gods,
for all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." This is stressing the fact that He is Creator, and stressing these
same elements as the elders who are in heaven: glory; and, honor.
1 Chronicles 16:27: "Glory and honor are in His presence. Strength and gladness are in His place. Give unto the Lord, you kindreds of the
people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. The world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the
heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. And let men see among the nations, 'The Lord reigns.' Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.
Let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the Lord because He comes to
judge the earth. O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. And say, 'Save us, O God of our salvation, and
gather us together and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, and glory in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel forever and ever.' And all the people said 'Amen,' and praised the Lord."
That is a beautiful Old Testament description of the very thing that is being expressed here by the elders here in Heaven, in John's presence.
This is God the Father, who is now blasphemed as the Creator, and who is rebelled against by most of mankind. The rules of God the Father are
violated and held in contempt. He will one day be exalted above all His creatures, and His creation is going to be restored to its position of
sinless perfection.
In 1 Corinthians 15:28, we read, "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him, that put
all things under Him, that God the Father may be all in all." That's the picture that John sees. John is in heaven. The Father is on the throne.
All is in subjection now. The Father is all supreme, because He is the Creator. The time will come when all the rebels in the human realm are
going to finally be subject to this God, and they will be subject to Him through His Son.
That beautiful passage in Philippians 2:9 puts it this way: "Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him (Jesus the son), and given Him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things that in the earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
Think how many people have gone out into a Christless eternity who are going to learn the hard way that they must bow the needy to this Jesus.
Menachem Begin's wife died yesterday. As a Jewess, she rejected Jesus Christ as anything but a sincere rabbi and a pathetic martyr. She has
rejected Him as the Messiah Savior. Now she knows better. Now she realizes that she, too, will someday bow the knee and confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. You know what "Lord" means. She will confess that Jesus Christ is God. Those words stuck in her throat. She could never utter
them while she was alive, as is the case with all faithful Jews. But now it will have to be said: The time will come with the Great White Throne
judgment when she is cast with all other unbelievers into the lake of fire, and she will have to confess (she'll have to admit) that Jesus Christ
is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So, the scene that we have here in Revelation 4, as we close this chapter, is a scene of the exaltation that is going to come upon the Son of God,
and reflect it to the glory of the Father who sits upon that throne. He is the Creator. It was all made by His will. It was all made by His
pleasure. It was all made for His purposes.
Man's Limitations
This question of creation requires that we stop for some consideration of the fact that, increasingly in our day, we have Christians who are
playing with the idea that God used the method of evolution for creating. That very concept is a degrading concept to Him. The problem is this:
that we begin with the recognition that, first of all, that we are limited. We as human beings have limitations upon us that keep us from being
able to deal with this problem. I'll just mention these in introduction. We will go into this more next time.
Physical Limitations
First of all, we have physical limitations. Man has enormous physical limitations. That's why we have to spend money for microscopes. That's
why we have to create telescopes. That's why we have to go through electronic devices of various kinds. We are enormously limited within our
physical senses. How much information we can get is so little that it is pathetic. It is really pathetic how much, on the physical side, we
are capable of securing.
Spiritual Limitations
Furthermore, we have spiritual limitations. The spiritual limitations are very clear to us. Everybody has a conscience, and the conscience
tells us that some things are right and some things are wrong. Everybody believes that he ought to do certain things, and yet nobody does what
he ought to do, even by his own standards. Everywhere it is evident that we have spiritual limitations. Why don't I do right? Why don't I live
up to my own standards of what I ought to be? No matter how I make my promises to myself in my determination that I'm going to do better, I
don't do it.
Our knowledge of God is practically nil. All I know is that somebody certainly must have made all this creation, and He must have had an
enormous capacity and power. I know that He must have made me, and I know that I'm different from the animals, because I can think. I have
conceptual thought, and I can speak. I can talk. I have language. Animals can't talk. They cannot speak. They cannot think. They cannot put
thoughts together. They cannot improve their situation in life. They just roam on instincts. There must be someone that had the capacity to
make me, and have everything that I have, and much more. The limitations are terrible.
Mental Limitations
Then there are the mental limitations. The mental limitations on man are also enormous – the limited range of what we have in terms of
knowledge. Our experience is so limited – the mechanical devices to extend our experience. And, and the time we have – your life
span is so limited. That's all you know. What do you know about the past? You have to check it on historical records of observers at the time,
or you have to make assumptions about what happened in the past. What about the future? You don't know anything about the future. We have
tremendous limitations upon us in our thinking. Yet, we're proud of our reasoning capacity, and we can't even prove many of the things that we
reason and conclude are so. We can't prove that we really know what we think we know.
The philosophers have been struggling for centuries with
that problem – trying to prove that we really know what we think we know. So, the philosophers are constantly changing what we really
think we know. So, any human attempt to arrive at the answer to the origin of the universe, and to the origin of life, must cope with these
limitations of man in securing knowledge. And this is the place to begin. We have physical limitations. We have spiritual limitations. We have
mental limitations. Yet, because we have the old sin nature arrogance, in spite of these limitations, we think that we can come up with the
answer of origins, apart from what God has said. Where that leads to, in terms of how we look at the world, is what we shall look at next time.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1982
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