WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.779 Now, let's turn together to 1 Timothy. So, we're in our evening series, 10 Things That God Can't 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:17.240 Do. And the fourth of these is that God can't be seen. And we're going to think about why that's 00:00:17.240 --> 00:00:28.019 good news. Of course, for us as people, we can be seen. And also, sometimes we have problems 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:35.960 because we cannot see. We have bodies, obviously. Boys and girls, this is what makes it so difficult 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:41.759 for us to play hide-and-seek as successfully as we would like. Imagine how different things would be 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:48.560 if we had an invisibility cloak like Frodo or Harry Potter. But we don't. We are physical people. We 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:56.060 can be seen. We are fixed in one particular place because of that. But we also, as people, when we're 00:00:56.060 --> 00:01:00.719 thinking about the fact that God can't be seen, we have a problem in the physical realm with things 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:09.620 that we can't see. How many of us have ever lost our key? Sometimes because we are distracted and 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:15.439 we forget where we put them, or we're stressed out and so our brains can't think straight. Or even worse, 00:01:15.460 --> 00:01:19.340 have you had that experience where you have the sunglasses on your head? Where's my sunglasses? 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:24.980 We've all done it at least once, I'm sure. That can happen because we are too close. We don't have the 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:31.840 right perspective or vantage point. And so we struggle to see. Or when it comes to the mess 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:37.840 in our rooms, here's a time for honesty. How many times do we adopt the out-of-sight, 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:44.840 out-of-mind philosophy and try and cram the dirty clothes under our beds or maybe push them into, 00:01:44.880 --> 00:01:49.300 I can see some embarrassed people over there, push them into the back of a cupboard. Out-of-sight, 00:01:49.380 --> 00:01:54.580 out-of-mind. And actually, one of the challenges that God's people have had when it comes to worship 00:01:54.579 --> 00:02:00.140 is the God that we can't see is often a God that we forget. But when it comes to God, of course, 00:02:00.179 --> 00:02:07.640 it's very different. God can't be seen. The first man up in space was the Russian cosmonaut Yuri 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:15.419 Gagarin, and he was reported to have said, I don't see any God up here. That should be no surprise. 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:23.879 John chapter 4, Jesus said, God is spirit. John chapter 1, no one has ever seen God. Of course, 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:30.659 the Bible uses body language, physical language to speak of God. We hear about the hand of God, 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:38.560 the mouth, the eyes of God. But when the Bible speaks in that way, it is God speaking at a level 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:45.400 that we can understand. It's imagery that we can identify. In the same way, when we think about 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:53.419 the foot of the Andes, we don't go there looking to find some toes. Now, so God speaks at ways that 00:02:53.419 --> 00:03:00.319 we can understand that will be helpful for us. But God can't be seen. Why can't we see God? 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:08.079 It's nothing to do with distance. Nothing to do with vantage point. As Roddy was reading those texts 00:03:08.079 --> 00:03:17.560 from 1 Timothy, you will have noticed that Paul praises the God who is invisible. Invisible because of 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:26.620 His greatness, we worship a God who has no limits. Perhaps we could go back to King Solomon, 00:03:27.420 --> 00:03:33.460 when he was opening and dedicating the temple. He acknowledged there is no temple, indeed there 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:42.699 is no universe that can contain God. God is invisible because of His glory, His pure holiness. 00:03:42.699 --> 00:03:51.579 As God Himself said to Moses, no one may see me and live. So, Paul praises the God who is invisible, 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:58.959 and yet we notice, too, that he praised God for making Himself visible in the Lord Jesus. And we're 00:03:58.959 --> 00:04:06.299 going to think about those two realities together. So, we're going to sort of consider this text, 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:11.219 1 Timothy. And the letter of 1 Timothy is really interesting for lots of different reasons. 00:04:11.219 --> 00:04:18.879 At least one of those reasons, we find in chapter 1, verse 2, the fact that Timothy has been sent to 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:26.399 Ephesus to pastor the church there. And if Ephesus had one claim to fame in that day, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:34.540 is that it was the center of the worship of Diana or Artemis. And one of the seven wonders of the ancient 00:04:34.540 --> 00:04:43.200 world was there, the temple of Artemis, the temple of Diana. John Calvin spoke about our hearts as being 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:49.360 idol-making factories when he talked about our capacity to worship the wrong things. Well, 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:58.259 the whole city of Ephesus was built around a temple. It literally was an idol-making factory. 00:04:58.259 --> 00:05:07.519 And so, Timothy is pastoring there, encouraging a church to stay true in their faith and in their 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:14.579 worship, but they're surrounded by people who are worshiping visible idols. And that's a challenge, 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:21.740 to worship the God that can't be seen in that context. Isn't that what we see so often of the 00:05:21.740 --> 00:05:27.279 Old Testament people of God? They struggle because their God can't be seen, and so they grab after 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:36.079 idols that can. For us in our day, it's both different and the same. Because human hearts don't 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:43.339 change. Everybody is still worshiping. Most are not worshiping in a religious way, the folks around us. 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:51.179 But it's true to say that most people are choosing to worship created things rather than the Creator. 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:56.779 That's the environment in which we live in. So, we too find ourselves drawn towards 00:05:56.779 --> 00:06:03.939 that kind of worship. So, whether that's human achievement or celebrity, whether that's pursuing 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:10.819 stuff or just living for ourself, the good life looks like this, our challenge is the people of God 00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:16.479 is still the same, to have true worship that is directed towards a God who can't be seen. 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:24.679 We are made for worship. We are made for true worship. So, getting this right really matters. It 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:31.120 mattered for Timothy back in first century Ephesus. It matters for us in 21st century Edinburgh. 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:39.660 This letter to 1 Timothy is really interesting as well because of those key texts that we heard read. 00:06:39.840 --> 00:06:47.060 So, the whole letter is framed by these two texts. So, chapter 1, 12 to 17, 6, 12 to 16, 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:56.560 where praise is given to the invisible God. And God is praised for the coming of Jesus, 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:04.000 for the second coming of Jesus. And I want to suggest that those two texts create a framework 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:12.720 for our lives if we want to be true worshipers. That we live in between these two appearings of Christ. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:22.720 Christ has come the first time, born as a baby, born to be our Savior, and we live anticipating His return 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:31.660 in glory. And in between those times, we are called to worship our great but yet invisible God. 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:37.280 And so then it's so interesting that at the very center of Paul's letter to Timothy, 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:43.239 the portrait in the frame, we read it at the beginning together, chapter 3, verse 16, 00:07:43.539 --> 00:07:49.199 is that in Jesus, the invisible God was made visible. The Son of God has come, and He's put 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:57.719 the glory of God on display in a new way. And so we worship God in Him. So, that's what we're going 00:07:57.719 --> 00:08:00.319 to think about. We're going to think about the frame, we're going to think about the center, 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:05.739 we're going to think about why it matters. So, the frame focuses our attention on the invisible 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:10.480 God of greatness and glory. Perhaps you can turn to chapter 1, verses 12 to 17. 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:16.639 We've already said that Timothy here is in Ephesus, and again in verse 3, 00:08:18.280 --> 00:08:24.160 Timothy is told to fight against false teaching there. And then in verse 11, just before we get 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:30.220 to our text, he is told to hold on to everything that conforms to the gospel. So, fight against what's 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:35.240 false, hold on to the gospel that's true. And as Paul begins to think about the gospel, 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:43.240 he gets excited and he gets personal. And that leads him to thanksgiving and praise to God for 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:53.039 both saving him and sending him, for giving him this commission as an apostle. And he declares there 00:08:53.039 --> 00:09:01.779 is good news in the coming of Christ. Verse 13 and 14, he celebrates the fact that in his life, 00:09:01.779 --> 00:09:13.799 despite his past, his blasphemy, his violence, mercy and grace overflowed in his life. Imagine a stream 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:19.799 that bursts its banks. Here is the mercy and grace of God overflowing to him. And from that, 00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:30.099 faith and love towards Jesus grow in his heart. There's good news for Paul in the mercy and grace of God. 00:09:30.139 --> 00:09:37.679 And that leads him to this short gospel summary in verse 15. Here is a trustworthy saying, he said, 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:46.039 my gospel is true. My gospel is true. And remember, Paul himself met the risen Lord Jesus on the road 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:53.039 to Damascus. He says it's a message that deserves full acceptance, which is another way of saying, 00:09:53.419 --> 00:10:00.539 this is a message for everyone. Why was Paul a missionary to the nations? Because he believed 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:12.039 that Jesus was good news for everyone, for all nations. This gospel is all about Jesus. Christ Jesus 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:23.000 came into the world to save sinners. Simple recognition of God's great rescue mission for sinful people like 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:30.360 us in the sending of Jesus Christ. And that rescue mission is one that needs to be experienced, 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:37.560 personally. That's why Paul says, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason, I was shown 00:10:37.560 --> 00:10:43.600 mercy. And you see, Paul does this wonderful thing where he recognizes, here was my terrible past. He 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:50.960 doesn't try and airbrush that out at all. But he uses that to say to his listeners, listen, if God would 00:10:50.960 --> 00:11:00.340 save me, he'd save anyone. And so this personal experience of faith that testifies, yes, I am a 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:06.840 great sinner. But yes, Christ is a great Savior. And as he thinks about the gospel and the goodness of 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:13.700 the gospel and about how that has come to him, he then instinctively turns to praise. So look at verse 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:25.320 17, and you'll see his praise. Five qualities about his great God that he celebrates. God is the king. He is 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:35.400 the ruler. He is eternal. He has no beginning and he has no end. He is immortal. He will never decay. 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:43.840 He is the only God. He is utterly unique. And he's invisible. Now, I don't know about you, but that one 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:50.480 really stands out to me. I wonder if we were making a list of those attributes and qualities of God to 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:58.340 celebrate. Would his invisibility be one of those? Why does Paul include that? Well, one of the things 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:04.259 it does for us straight away is it reminds us, doesn't it, that God is not like us. We have a body. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:12.700 We are limited in time and space. God has no body, therefore he has no limits. That means God is perfectly 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:21.420 present everywhere. God is not and will never be divided or distracted. 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:35.580 He is far greater than the idols. He is all-powerful. He is ever-present. He is with us. He is within us. 00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:46.560 He is worthy of praise. So, that's one frame. That's one bookend, as it were. Now, turn to chapter 6 with me, 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:54.900 to the end of the letter, and we find here Paul's final charge to Timothy from verse 11 onwards. 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:04.720 He's really been asking and encouraging Timothy to guard himself as a man of God, to guard the church 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:13.940 from false teaching, to guard the gospel. And as he comes to this final charge, notice the active 00:13:13.940 --> 00:13:25.680 language. There's things that he wants Timothy to do. The first piece of activity is he wants Timothy to run. 00:13:26.860 --> 00:13:34.700 Verse 11, but you, man of God, flee from all this, or run from all this. What's he talking about? 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:43.680 There, verse 10, run from the love of money, which is a root of all kinds of evil. Timothy, run from evil 00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:50.820 just as you would run from danger. But it's not just run away from evil. He also wants him to run 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:59.300 towards goodness, pursue, run towards, chase after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, 00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:07.939 and gentleness. Here are the things, Timothy, to run for, like we run for a prize, run towards these things 00:14:07.939 --> 00:14:18.579 as you seek to live for God. The next active idea is fight. Verse 12, fight the good fight of the faith. 00:14:18.579 --> 00:14:28.639 Be ready to wrestle and to contend for gospel truth, so that true faith would be formed among the people of God. 00:14:29.299 --> 00:14:38.159 Next piece of activity, take hold. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. 00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:44.599 What does he mean there? Of course, Timothy already enjoys eternal life. He is already a believer in 00:14:44.599 --> 00:14:52.019 the Lord Jesus. To take hold means to really and truly enjoy and treasure what is yours in Christ Jesus. 00:14:52.019 --> 00:15:03.740 And he calls him to do this. He calls him to live this way. Verse 13, in the sight of God. 00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:10.720 He's going to charge him to keep these commands, and he reminds him, Timothy, you live every moment 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:17.980 before God's faith. Well, it's true for Timothy. It's true for us. We live every moment before the face of 00:15:17.980 --> 00:15:26.039 God. And he also calls him to pursue that obedience, to keep these commands, verse 14, 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:35.920 until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there, he's going to praise God for the fact that 00:15:35.920 --> 00:15:43.000 Christ will return. Here's a reason to persevere. Live that godly life in the hope of final salvation, 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.980 in the sure knowledge that Jesus will come back again one day, and you'll fully and finally enter 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:55.519 into salvation and eternal life. Therefore, keep the faith. And as he thinks about this great reality 00:15:55.519 --> 00:16:04.299 that Jesus is going to come back, he turns again to praise. Verse 15, this appearing of our Lord Jesus 00:16:04.299 --> 00:16:12.259 Christ, which God will bring about in his own time. He praises God for the certainty of the return of Christ. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:20.480 And then look at how he praises God. God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, 00:16:21.179 --> 00:16:32.360 who alone is immortal, and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:40.340 He praises the God who can't be seen, who can't be seen because he dwells in unapproachable light. 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:48.180 Let's think for a moment. What's the first rule when it comes to looking at the sun? 00:16:50.340 --> 00:17:01.519 You don't. It would damage our eyes. Its brightness is too much for us. For us, trying to look at the 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:09.440 glory of God is like trying to look at the sun. It's too much for us. We are spiritually unable to take in 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:19.519 that much glory. God's infinite glory, his blazing purity and holiness, which is far greater than the 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:29.720 sun, is too great for us to fully grasp or to see. And so again, here is Timothy, and he is surrounded 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:38.680 in a city where people are worshipping the idols, where there is this cult of Diana, where there is 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:45.360 this temptation to worship visible things, and where people are being tempted to walk away from the truth. 00:17:45.700 --> 00:17:52.120 What is Paul doing? Paul is saying, remember how much greater and better our God is. You can't see him, 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:58.659 and that's good news, because he's not limited like the idols. He says to him, honor and might forever 00:17:58.659 --> 00:18:08.239 belong to this God. So that's the frame there. There is God who is invisible because of his greatness 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:15.559 and because of his glory. But then in the center, there is this wonderful truth that in Jesus, 00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:24.779 the invisible is made visible. Again, to think to what we know about life in Ephesus. You can go to 00:18:24.779 --> 00:18:33.900 Acts chapter 19, and you can read about a riot in Ephesus, because Paul casts out an evil spirit, 00:18:33.900 --> 00:18:44.740 and this girl was so important to the profit-making industry around the cult of Diana. And the city is 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:54.880 an uproar, and we find a riot happening. And for two hours, defending an idol, we read of the city crying 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:03.100 out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is our false idol, Diana. 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:13.540 That's the context in which Timothy is doing ministry. Now think, chapter 3, verse 16, how different 00:19:13.540 --> 00:19:26.080 this message is. What's great, according to Paul, beyond all question, the mystery from which true 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:37.099 godliness springs is great. And what we have next is a public statement of faith, a confession of faith 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:48.079 for the Christian church, a public declaration of trust and worship of the Savior who came to save sinners. 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:56.939 And so right at the center of our letter is this confession that Jesus, the invisible God who was made 00:19:56.939 --> 00:20:07.059 visible, He is great, and no one else. This is Paul's center. Of course, it's a truth that was revealed 00:20:07.059 --> 00:20:13.899 in the coming of Jesus. We can think about John 1. No one has ever seen God, but God's Son, Jesus, 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:21.240 has made Him known. We have this wonderful truth that we see the greatness and the glory of God in Jesus. 00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:31.560 This is the glory of the gospel. Look with me at verse 16 to look at these statements of this 00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:41.560 confession of faith. It says first about Jesus, He appeared in the flesh and was vindicated by the 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:53.000 Spirit. The Son of God appeared. The Creator entered into creation, revealed in a human body, vindicated by the 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:06.619 Spirit as God made flesh. Why? Why did Jesus come? Well, didn't Paul already tell us that in chapter 1, verse 15? 00:21:06.619 --> 00:21:18.059 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The invisible God made Himself visible in His Son, 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:26.019 the Lord Jesus, made Him visible as the Savior for sinners. He is a God to be praised and worshiped. 00:21:27.159 --> 00:21:33.579 What do we have next in our statement of faith? This Lord Jesus was seen by angels, 00:21:33.579 --> 00:21:45.039 was preached among the nations. The angels directed attention to the coming of Jesus, 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:54.000 to the identity of Jesus. The apostles and then the church would go around the world bearing witness to 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:01.500 this wonderful mystery that Jesus is the invisible God made visible. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:11.880 And what about the reception that Jesus receives? Look again at the last two lines of the statement of 00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:24.680 faith. He was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. Jesus is worshiped on earth as the Son of God 00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:35.340 and the Savior, and He was welcomed, crowned enthroned as King in heaven. And when He ascended back to glory, 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:44.840 Jesus the Son who made the invisible God visible. There is good news for us here. 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:52.560 There is good news as we live between His first and second appearance, as we worship the God who can't be 00:22:52.559 --> 00:23:02.039 seen, who is so great and so glorious that our faith and hope, it has a center. And His name is Jesus. 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:10.879 Now, I want to think about three places where this truth touches our lives. 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:16.740 Everybody loves acronyms, don't they? At least some people do. I like them sometimes. 00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:23.160 This one, do you know when you're thinking about a biblical truth and you recognize, 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:28.319 man, all I can do is scratch the surface. Even if we spent the rest of our lives, 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:34.839 the truth is we're only scratching at the surface of how great our God is. There are mind-blowing 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:40.220 elements to who God is. So you might find, you probably won't, but you might find the acronym PAL 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:50.299 helpful. It's Sunday evening, let's just go with it. Okay, the P stands for presence. Because I think 00:23:50.299 --> 00:24:00.360 this is a profoundly comforting truth that God is perfectly present everywhere. See, as children 00:24:00.360 --> 00:24:07.240 know, and perhaps we all know this, there are times when children will call out, Mom, Dad, help. 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:14.160 You know, sometimes that's an emergency, sometimes it's quite mundane. But children know that sometimes 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:20.799 the response is going to be, where are you? Especially if you're in a public space, sometimes 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:26.420 it's hard to locate where the cry comes from. Or sometimes children will have the experience, 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:33.599 and parents will know this, that we'll say, I can't right now. I'm busy doing something else. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:44.879 You'll just have to wait for a little minute. We are limited as parents. When we pray help to God, 00:24:44.879 --> 00:24:53.599 it is altogether different. When we cry help to God in our sadness, in our suffering, 00:24:54.439 --> 00:25:03.039 when we experience injustice, we have the promise of God's close, personal, undivided attention. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:11.099 Because our God is absolutely fully present everywhere. That means the goodness of God, 00:25:11.159 --> 00:25:17.779 the power of God, the love and salvation of God can be known, enjoyed, experienced anywhere and 00:25:17.779 --> 00:25:29.339 everywhere. God is with us right now. But God will be with us when we drive home in our car or on the 00:25:29.339 --> 00:25:37.179 bus. God will be with us at our desk when we go to the shops, when we're lying in bed. God is everywhere. 00:25:39.500 --> 00:25:44.299 It should encourage us as the people of God. It's also good news for global mission. 00:25:45.740 --> 00:25:50.379 Thinking about the Dalfras, our friends who've just got word that in the autumn they'll be able to go 00:25:50.380 --> 00:25:58.080 back to Thailand. Thinking about the Pattersons doing ministry in Southeast Asia, cultures where they are 00:25:58.080 --> 00:26:07.680 surrounded by idol. We have good news in a God who is perfectly present, present in his power, able to 00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:15.940 break through spiritual darkness, that we can confidently declare, whether we're in Peru or wherever we are, 00:26:15.940 --> 00:26:23.900 that Jesus is good news for all people. And it's good news that there are no hidden corners from our God. 00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:34.080 We have ever-present help in our times of trouble. So, presence is good news. But I think this reality 00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:41.120 also touches our lives in a different way when we think about our obedience. So, like Paul said to 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:49.359 Timothy, we live in the sight of God. Sometimes that can be quite unsettling, can't it? Now, we probably 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:56.479 know when we reflect on ourselves that when we want to do wrong, when we find ourselves most tempted to 00:26:56.479 --> 00:27:05.279 do what is wrong, that's typically not in a public setting. Most of the time, our struggles are usually 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:12.539 in private, in secret. Sometimes when we want to do wrong, we try to find the dark places, don't we? 00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:19.319 What does this truth remind us of, that God is unlimited and he's present everywhere, that even in the dark 00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:27.500 places of our imagination, God is there? God is there. And of course, that could be a really painful thought, 00:27:27.539 --> 00:27:32.139 and that could be a really desperate thought, because we know our hearts, and then we know God knows our hearts even 00:27:32.140 --> 00:27:36.700 better than we do. So, we might think, well, there's no hope for us, except for the gospel, 00:27:38.259 --> 00:27:46.160 except for the truth that this God who truly knows us at our worst, sent Jesus to die for us, to save us, 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:55.320 to extend love and forgiveness to us. So, when we remember as Christians that God is there and God sees 00:27:55.319 --> 00:28:03.119 me, that doesn't come with that crushing weight of condemnation that it could, rather, shouldn't it be 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:13.099 for us a positive motivation to obey? That God sees me every moment means I have an opportunity to pursue 00:28:13.099 --> 00:28:22.700 His honor, even if nobody else is watching, to know that God always is, so we can respond to His love. 00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:27.120 It's really a call to make every moment holy, 00:28:30.120 --> 00:28:36.720 to live our lives in the face of God and pursuing obedience for His honor. 00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:46.480 The last, the W, is, of course, to do with worship. Paul has been stressing to Timothy that the invisible 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:52.120 God is perfectly glorious, perfectly holy. What's the significance of that? It's significant when we think of 00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:58.259 who we are worshiping. He's reminding Timothy, and he's reminding us, the God that we worship is far 00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:06.159 greater than any idol, far greater than anything in creation, far greater than any image we construct, 00:29:06.699 --> 00:29:14.219 even any mental image that we make of our God. Perhaps it might be helpful to think of it this way. 00:29:14.220 --> 00:29:21.920 Think about a photograph that you take, perhaps of a holiday or a party or some kind of event. You know, 00:29:21.980 --> 00:29:29.960 a memory is captured of, you know, a second in time, but it's just a snapshot, and we know 00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:36.360 the reality was far more. A photo doesn't tell us about the emotions, doesn't tell us about the 00:29:36.360 --> 00:29:42.680 conversations, doesn't give us a context. It captures something, but the reality is far more. 00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:53.039 With God, any attempt to capture Him in a single image, I think God is light. 00:29:54.340 --> 00:30:01.900 Fill in the blank. Any attempt to capture Him will always limit Him, will always lessen Him, 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:09.539 will always distort how wonderful He is. That's why it's really important to remember 00:30:09.539 --> 00:30:16.220 Jesus' teaching. God is Spirit. So, how should we worship? We should worship in Spirit and in truth. 00:30:16.379 --> 00:30:21.759 Our worship is led by the Spirit and is in line with the truth of God's Word. 00:30:23.399 --> 00:30:28.819 Some practical wisdom from a theologian called Stephen Charnock, who lived a long time ago. 00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:31.119 He said this. He said, 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:39.099 Consider the highest ideas of God we can imagine. Some of us are theologically trained to a high 00:30:39.099 --> 00:30:44.019 level, and we like to read high-level theological books. We'll think of the highest ideas of God 00:30:44.019 --> 00:30:49.479 we can imagine, about His power, His love, His wisdom, perfection. What do we need to do as we're 00:30:49.479 --> 00:30:56.119 thinking those thoughts? Stephen Charnock said, say to yourself, this is not God. 00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:06.739 He is so much more. We will never fully comprehend our God, and that's good news. He is infinitely 00:31:06.739 --> 00:31:14.079 glorious, and He has no limits. But yet we have this wonderful truth that the God who can't be seen 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:23.039 has graciously made Himself visible in Jesus, Jesus who acted to save sinners, to change our hearts 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:31.039 so that we would want to and be enabled to worship the true, great, and glorious God. 00:31:31.740 --> 00:31:37.619 Because that's what we were made for. Let's do that together now as we pray briefly. Let's pray. 00:31:39.220 --> 00:31:47.220 Lord, our God, we thank You that You are unlimited, and we thank You that You are infinitely glorious and 00:31:47.220 --> 00:31:55.440 holy. We thank You for Your mercy and Your grace that overflowed to us in the gospel and in the 00:31:55.440 --> 00:32:03.380 sending of Your Son, Jesus. And we thank You that He came to reveal the invisible God of glory to us, 00:32:04.120 --> 00:32:11.160 to reveal Your heart of love towards us in His dying on the cross to save sinful people like us. 00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:19.220 And Lord, we pray that You would help us to live in light of this truth, conscious of Your presence at 00:32:19.220 --> 00:32:27.519 all times and at all places. And we find comfort and hope in that. Lord, that knowing we live in the 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:35.420 sight of our God moment by moment would cause us to pursue obedience, because we want to love and 00:32:35.420 --> 00:32:43.160 honor the one who has loved us so much. And Lord, we pray that You'd keep our hearts focused on worship of 00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:53.620 You, the true and living God. Save us from the pool of idols and false worship, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:32:53.619 --> 00:33:04.919 Amen. Now, we'll close our time this evening singing the hymn, How Great Thou Art. So, let's again stand, 00:33:05.399 --> 00:33:06.679 and we can sing together. 00:33:06.679 --> 00:33:06.799 Amen.