Prayer Service 3-15-23

Adoration:

Incomprehensibility

What Can We Know about God? (God Incomprehensible)

Historically, the first undertaking for theologians is the study of the incomprehensibility of God.

At first glance, such an undertaking appears contradictory; how can one study something that is incomprehensible?

What Can We Know about God? (God Incomprehensible)

Theologically speaking, incomprehensible does not mean that we cannot know anything about God but rather that our knowledge of Him will always be limited.

We can have an apprehensive, meaningful knowledge of God, but we can never, not even in heaven, have an exhaustive knowledge of Him; we cannot totally comprehend all that He is.

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Incomprehensibility)

To say that God is incomprehensible is not to say that we can know nothing about God but, rather, that because God is infinite, no creature can ever come to comprehend, understand, grasp, or describe God in a manner that is worthy, adequate, or all-encompassing.

(Not on Screen)

What Can We Know about God? (God Incomprehensible)

One reason for that was articulated by John Calvin in the phrase finitum non capax infinitum, which means “the finite cannot grasp the infinite.”

Lexham Survey of Theology (God’s Incomprehensibility)

That which we do know of God he has had to reveal through his works, through human nature, through his word, and in the person of the divine Word, his Son.

1 Timothy 6:16 (ESV)

16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Job 11:7–8 (ESV)

7 “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

Exodus 3:13–14 (ESV)

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

Exodus 33:18–20 (ESV)

18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

Deuteronomy 4:10–12 (ESV)

10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

11 And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

The Divine Self-Revelation was the Moral Law:

Deuteronomy 4:13 (ESV)

13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

Psalm 145:3 (ESV)

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

John 1:18 (ESV)

18 No one has ever seen God...

John 6:46 (ESV)

46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.

Romans 11:33–34 (ESV)

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

1 Corinthians 2:11 (ESV)

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Timothy 1:17 (ESV)

17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer of Adoration

Confession

Exodus 20:4–6 (ESV)

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Here’s the issue:

Isaiah 46:5 (ESV)

5 “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?

Isaiah 40:18–25 (ESV)

18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.

20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

How do we violate this today?

Depictions of Jesus?

Both in visible portrayal, and...

…uninspired portrayal of attributes.

Creating a god in our image, after our likeness:

i.e., making him what we like

(Fallen man’s natural tendency)

Rather than embracing, believing, and submitting to who He is!

Prayer of Confession

Supplication

1 John 5:20 (ESV)

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Folks involved in the helicopter crash

Mark Hill: Liver Trouble

Lou Jones: Breast Cancer

Tom Ward, Martha Orr: Leukemia

Hope Sanders

Randy Young, Ty Benton, Tony Phillips, Allen

Andrew Herrington and children, wife.

Help for Amber with co-workers, etc.

Our Nation

Our Families

“Our” church

Thanksgiving

Psalm 19:1–4 (ESV)

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world...

Romans 1:18–20 (ESV)

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Special Revelation:

Hebrews 1:1–2 (ESV)

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...

John 1:18 (ESV)

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

John 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:4–5 (ESV)

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:9 (ESV)

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

John 1:14 (ESV)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:18 (ESV)

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Matthew 11:27 (ESV)

27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

John 14:7 (ESV)

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature...

John 14:9 (ESV)

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...