I just got back from the auction at Mt. Hope. It was cold, drizzly and dreary, everything that I thought it would be. There was a lot of stuff (some may call it junk) that could fill anyone’s garage or outbuilding. It seems as though that is what some of that stuff is destined for. There were motors that may or may not run, lawnmowers that definitely needed work and those “thingies” that nobody was sure what they were or what they did. There was a stepladder that we all thought would go for around $35 but to everyone’s surprise, it went for $85! Someone thought it was worth it. It kind of reminds me of that old story of the auctioneer who tried selling an old violin. When he started he couldn’t get a bid. But then an old gentleman stepped up, took the violin and began to play it. The music that poured out into the room filled everyone’s ears with a delicious banquet of sweetened notes. The bidding began and they bid, and they bid and they bid. The violin went for top dollar; someone thought it was worth it. It’s no wonder; the old gentleman was a master violinist who showed the folks the worth of that old violin.

I recall another auction that we all were present at. In fact, we were that which were being auctioned off. And there were many who bid for our hearts. There were many who volleyed for our souls. Who would pay the price? What was the price? What was the value? But Jesus came, not with silver or gold to redeem us, but with His own precious blood. We have been bought, we have been redeemed, and we have been purchased by God. We may not have been anything before, but now we are the property of God. But more than property, for Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” Paul tells us that God has adopted us, giving us the Spirit of His Son –by which we cry out, “Abba, Father.” We may have been losers before, but now we are more than conquerors. We are no longer the tail but the head. God has given us worth. We have been touched by the Master, and we have become the fragrance of life. We have been given the Spirit of Christ and we have value, we are the apple of God’s eye and the treasure of His heart. I don’t know about you, but when I consider my life I am the first to think that it really doesn’t amount to much. The only thing that I have that is valuable is my salvation. And because I have salvation (and all that it entails) all that is in my life is valuable. That’s what Jesus does for me! I’m not going to find myself packed away in someone’s garage. I’m not going to stay broken down and unusable. I’m going let the Master lay His hand upon me and play whatever symphony He so desires.

What does it mean to know the Unknowable and what benefit does it offer? In other words, why strive to possess a knowledge of something that transcends all created possibilities? (I realize that I am speaking very philosophically here and possibly beyond my ability to speak it, but that only proves my point all the more. I believe that if you press on to understand this small bit of knowledge of God that it will help you in the long run. I know that my problems are bigger than me and therefore, I need Someone bigger than my problems to get them solved in my life. If you can grasp this knowledge of God it will help you with the problems that are in your life.) Life is good, well it was suppose to be! But we all know that life is not good. Something has thrown itself into the mix and life has been troubling ever since. That something is sin and it desires to rule over each of us (Gen.4:7 ) but we are to master over it. By doing so, our lives will be more peaceful and that will allow us to enjoy them all the more. We want our lives to be good and the only way that is possible is by knowing the Good that transcends all goods.
God is the essence of all that is good, in that, if there is any good in anything, that good came from God. He is the righteousness that I long for, the perfect attitude of mind that I seek and every right decision that I want to choose. His way is the only way, and any other way would be imperfect and thus futile to choose. God is never wrong. He never makes a mistake and there isn’t any minute bit of knowledge that is beyond His knowing. God knows all things at once. I cannot picture God as reasoning out anything in His mind. In God, things just are. God not only knows if I will be saved at death, He also knows what I’ll be doing ten billion years from now. He knows it now and that is without thinking about it as you and I would think about it. God is both terrible in glory and intimate in love, two things I cannot perceive as compatible within the same being. How His holiness condemns me and yet, His love receives me without contradicting Himself is more than I can logically rationalize. How He is nowhere, and yet, everywhere, inside me, and yet, on the Throne outside of this created universe, takes my breath away. Isn’t it amazing that He can reveal Himself as One and Three at the same time?! Even though He has chosen to reveal Himself in this way I can think of it as perfectly possible –even though I cannot comprehend it. How can He give life and take it away? When I perceive life to be so powerful and precious, He dispenses it as if it were a tool. How did He create all things out of nothing while He is omnipresent (everywhere at all times)? How can time be nothing to Him? How is it that He is not accountable to time? For, I know, that He always was, He is now and He always will be. These thoughts are precious to me. They give me motivation when my life wears me down. I need to see Perfection that has no limits!

While Paul was waiting for his friends in Athens, he was walking around looking at all the objects of worship. He found an altar with the inscription: To an Unknown God. Paul informed those in Athens that this Unknown God was the God who made heaven and earth and that He didn’t live in temples built by human hands. Further more, he told them that He wasn’t served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He gives all men life and breath and everything else. God is unknowable if you try to know Him with your mind only. Your mind will never be able to comprehend God, simply because your mind is finite and God is infinite. You and I are limited, but God is without limit. The only knowledge of God that one possesses can only be possessed because God has graciously given it to them. John the Baptist said that a man only receives what he has been given from heaven. Jesus said, “No man knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Therefore, when you and I say that we know God, we must understand that it is God who gives us the knowledge and the capability to know Him. This is the grace of God. It is faith and it is the faith that pleases God. Do you see what a privilege it is to be able to know God? Think about it.
You have found favor with God! The Holy One has considered you and He has chosen to reveal Himself to you. What an honor! The Eternal God and Creator of all was mindful enough of you to let you know the Unknowable. Can you know the furthest star in outer space? Can you understand how the memory of your brain works? What do you know about the depths of the oceans or the number of grains of sand in the Sahara? Can you direct the winds, count the clouds, or find the ends of the rainbow? Can you add one single hour to your life, or one inch to your stature? Can you simply comprehend your ability to read this written page and understand what you have read? Tell me, what is it that we really know? What is it that we fully understand and comprehend to the fullest? No, Brethren, it is an awesome gift to know that we know God. Though this may sound redundant, I am confident that: The Unknowable has allowed me to know the Unknowable.

Picture yourself in a long line at the amusement park, waiting for a ride on the newest roller coaster. This roller coaster is the highest and fastest in the world! Everyone is raving about the thrill that you can expect to experience. The only trouble is that when you get closer to where you will be seated in the coaster, you begin to have second thoughts. “What if it’s not safe? What if it comes off the track? What if…? What if…?” The fact that you get on to the coaster shows that you really think that the ride is safe and that you expect to get your money’s worth.
Throughout the world, there are plenty of people who think that God does exist, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for their sins and that He came back to life. They think that He ascended into Heaven and that He is coming back to judge the living and the dead. While they may think that way (and those thoughts are absolutely correct), during the “long line” of life, many begin to have second thoughts. Throughout life, every one of us is subjected to all kinds of trials and tribulations, not to mention the scores of temptations that attack from the very pits of hell. These things often show what we really think about God and His Son, Jesus. If, while we are being tempted by sin, we succumb to it, we must really think that Jesus will not judge that particular sin as we partake of its pleasure. We really think that we will be able to get away with it. I wonder if we really think that God treats us special, different from everyone else? After all, He knows that we really love Him. You must admit that we’re quick to think that God will frown on the sin in others lives but not in ours. A.W. Tozer said it well, “To do a wrong act, a man must, for the moment, think wrong; he must exercise bad judgment…Sin, I repeat, in addition to anything else it may be, is always an act of wrong judgment. To commit a sin, a man must for the moment, believe that things are different from what they really are; he must confound values; he must see the moral universe out of focus; he must accept a lie as truth and see truth as a lie; he must ignore the signs on the highway and drive with his eyes shut. He must act as if he had no soul and is not accountable for his moral choices.”
At any given moment, I could tell you what I think about life, death and Jesus Christ. But I will show you what I really think by the way I live my life. I think that Jesus was resurrected and ascended into Heaven where He is right now watching over me. I think that He fulfilled His promise to give me His Spirit and that Spirit abides in me. I think that He is coming back again to hold the world (including myself) accountable. I hope by His grace my life will show the same!

If you were in the crowd on the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the donkey, do you think that you would have been praising Him? Where would you think you might have been, in the midst of the crowd or on its outskirts? Would you have been there because of Jesus or because of the excitement of the crowd? Do you think you would have laid your garment down for the donkey to tread upon? There was once a Pharisee who invited Jesus to his house. While there, Jesus reminded him that he had failed to greet Jesus with a kiss, wash His feet or anoint His head with oil when He arrived. And yet there was a “sinful” woman who barged her way into the house that day and washed His feet with her tears while she kissed them with her lips, dried them with her hair and anointed them with perfume!
One of the least practical things to do in this “real” world is the very thing that Jesus said was the most important; “To love God with all your heart, strength and mind.” If we each were asked if we did this, undoubtedly we would give a resounding, “Yes.” But if we each took an honest assessment of our daily lives, we might come up with an altogether different conclusion. When I say that loving God isn’t practical in this “real” world, I am speaking from a worldly premise and worldly philosophy. I must! Because so many Christians these days are under the false idea that while we are in the world we might as well live like the world. Now, I know that I’m going to catch a lot of flack for that one, but hear me out. Living like the world doesn’t just entail drinking, smoking, cussing and “fooling” around. Living like the world means to accept and apply worldly philosophies to our daily lives. Which could include anything from work ethics, raising our children and entertaining ourselves to retirement, final burial and everything in between. I was speaking to someone the other day and they told me they were so sleepy in church that they didn’t get much out of it. After inquiring about their sleep habits I found out that they hadn’t gotten to sleep on Saturday until really, really early on Sunday morning! They had been busy (with entertainment) all day on Saturday. Now, if you excuse the sleepiness on Sunday thinking that going to bed late isn’t wrong, then you have missed the importance of going to bed earlier so that you are more prepared on Sunday. (After all, God understands if I don’t get a lot out of service because I got to bed so late.) If I plan a Saturday excursion that is a completely legitimate pleasure, but fail to set it as a lower priority than the events that God wants to take place in my life on Sunday, then I have failed to love God with all my heart, strength and mind. Just because God doesn’t begrudge us legitimate pleasures, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t prioritize them correctly. This not only includes entertainment like sports, dining out, movies and cards, but it also includes areas like employment, schooling and careers. We have to be careful that we do not accept the “practical” ways of the world that hinder our love (action) toward God. Believe me: If you were in that crowd on that day and you only had one garment to throw underneath the feet of that donkey –the One who was atop that beast of burden would certainly expect you to throw it!