Why Can't I See God?

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Okay, so we will begin with our lesson.
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Today we're going to ask the question, this was on one of the sheets that was given to me, I don't remember whose it was, but the question I thought was pretty profound and we could deal with it.
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And the question is, why can't I see, and the two, it was God and Heaven, so we're going to do them both together.
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Okay, so one is why can't I see God, and then you could also say why can't I see Heaven, with a question mark.
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Okay, so, because we'll deal with both.
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One sort of builds on the other one.
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But there is a little bit of an interesting, and what got me thinking about this question, what got me interested in answering this question, is because like I said, this morning I did a funeral.
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And I did a funeral for a lady who was a Christian.
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You would be very surprised probably by how many funerals I do that the people are not Christians.
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I actually work part time for a funeral home, so if they don't have a minister, the family will call me in.
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And when I come in, a lot of times it's either they're not Christians, or they're nominal Christians, or they're Christian by title only.
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I mean, they don't have a minister, so a lot of times they haven't been in church for a long time, or they don't have any association with the church, or anything like that.
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So a lot of these people, I don't know what their spiritual condition is.
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But today, the lady that I talked to, she's been sick for a while, but she was a Christian, she just didn't have a minister.
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So when the family called me, they were very excited that I was going to come and bring a Christian message for their mother's funeral.
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And I did, I brought a Christian message, and I got to talk about the subject of heaven, and to talk about what the Bible says about heaven.
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So because of that, when I saw the question written in the papers, which was, why can't I see God, why can't I see heaven? I said, you know what, today's as good a day as any for me to deal with this subject.
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But let's start with the first part of the question.
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Why can't I see God? Well, let's first of all, everybody go in their Bible to the gospel of John, the gospel of John.
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All right.
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First, chapter one, verse 18.
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I'll write that up here.
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The first verse we're going to go to is John 1 and verse 18.
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All right.
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Who would like to read John 1 18? Courtney, read to me John 1 18.
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All right.
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Very clear words here.
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No ambiguity at all.
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No one has ever seen God.
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That's very clear in the text.
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It's very specific in the text.
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There's no way to get around that phrase.
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In fact, that is what we call a universal negative.
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When I say no one has, that's universal.
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There's no way of getting around that phrase.
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Because like this, if I said no one has ever ridden a bike.
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Okay.
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If I said that, that would be a universal negative.
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But if you saw someone ride in on a bike, or if you were driving down the road and you saw someone riding on a bike, then what would your first thing be? What would you say? Keith lied.
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I was wrong.
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Keith either lied or he was ignorant.
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Right? Ignorance just means doesn't know.
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He was either ignorant or he lied to me about when he said no one has ever ridden a bike.
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Because you know what a universal negative means.
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So when this text tells us no one has ever seen God, we know that that means absolutely everybody.
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But the first thing that comes up, the first issue that comes into our mind is, isn't there places in the Bible where it seems like people have seen God? I mean, can you think of any? Okay, somebody give me an example.
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Sir? Isaiah chapter, Isaiah 6.
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Where it says, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and the train of his road filled the temple.
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And I covered my mouth and said, woe is me for I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.
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Right? Isaiah chapter 6.
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Very good.
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A good example.
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I saw the Lord sitting on his throne.
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Right? So right there.
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All right.
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Anyone else? Another example? Okay.
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We'll go forward then from where we are in Revelation.
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Saw what he saw in the Revelation.
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What he saw in heaven.
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Okay.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Saw the Lord.
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Yes, sir.
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There you go.
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Solomon.
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They had the dream.
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Also.
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Well, I don't want to give another one.
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That's good.
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Anyone else? How about this one? This one's the one.
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What about Moses? Moses is one who the Bible says talk to God face to face.
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Right? I mean, that's the term that's used.
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The actual term face to face is used.
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But yet it also says that when he had the opportunity to see God, what did God do? God put him in the cleft of the rock, covered him up, and he only saw God's passing by.
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He didn't actually see him face to face.
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The term face to face means that Moses spoke to God without a mediator.
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It doesn't mean that he actually saw his face.
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That term is a type of language.
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It's an idiom.
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It means to speak with somebody without a mediator.
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An idiom is a term that's used.
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You know what an idiom is.
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It's like an idiot, but with an M.
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So, when we come back to John 1 and we look at verse 18, it says, No one has seen God.
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Is that wrong? Well, we just gave some examples.
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Right.
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We said, well, hey, the Bible says this.
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The Bible says that.
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But it says here, no one has seen God.
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Oh, is this a contradiction in the Bible? I think Ben might have the answer.
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Go ahead, Ben.
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OK, so they haven't seen God, but they've seen an expression of God.
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OK, what about, though? I want to go back to the one that Cody mentioned.
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It's a good example.
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He says, I saw the Lord seated upon his throne.
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Go back to John 1, 18 and read this again.
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No one has ever seen God.
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The only.
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What are some of your Bible say? The only what? Only begotten God.
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You're looking at the which translation? And I be and I be begotten God.
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That's actually a very, very good translation.
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Interestingly enough, I'm not I'm not a huge fan of the NIV.
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I don't I don't dislike it, but it's not the most literal of translations.
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But that's a that's a very literal translation of the text.
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Anyone else say anything different? Begotten son.
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Yeah.
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So it says it a little differently in different translations.
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Only begotten God.
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Mine simply says the only God.
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Yours says that yours says the only begotten son.
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Well, that's a big difference, isn't it? Hers says begotten God.
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Yours says begotten son.
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Well, the word for son is going on.
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The word for God is chaos.
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That's a big difference.
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It's really not that big difference.
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Because in the Greek, it's the difference between this and that.
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It's like in our like in our language, Q and O only separated by a dash at the bottom.
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Well, the only difference between the two words here would be these two letters.
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So in some of the Greek manuscripts, we see this letter.
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In some of the Greek manuscripts, we see this letter.
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And it changes the word.
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Oh, that becomes a big issue then.
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Not really, because it's almost universally accepted.
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This is the appropriate one.
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When you're looking at the manual, you figure you have over 7000 Greek manuscripts, all of them handwritten.
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So there has to be some critical scholarly work done to decide what is in each one.
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This is almost universally accepted as the appropriate one.
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The only people who tend to accept this one are what we call King James onlyists.
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Because that is how it's written in the King James.
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It's written as only begotten son, rather than only begotten God.
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But people who stick to the King James only, their position is very, very flimsy, in my opinion.
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And I don't get into all that.
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The point is this.
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What? Yeah.
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Well, yeah, I've had conversations with KJV onlyists.
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I've never debated one.
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I'd love to debate one, an informal debate, because I don't think they have a leg to stand on.
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I really don't.
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I don't think the position is.
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Now, if you like the King James, if you're King James preferred, that's cool.
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But King James onlyist is to say that's the only translation that's appropriate.
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The arguments fall apart when they're really examined.
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Hey, I went way off topic.
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That's new for me.
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All right, let's go back.
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Because I promise I have a point.
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I'm getting somewhere.
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Because no one has ever seen God, the only God or the only son.
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I don't care how you translate it.
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But I wanted to make the point that there is a translational, what we call variant there.
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The only God or the only son.
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We're talking about the same person who is Jesus.
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Jesus is divine.
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Jesus is the son of God.
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He is also the only begotten God.
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So we understand the term.
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It's replying to Jesus.
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But it says something about him.
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It says he has made him known.
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Or as it's translated here.
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Well, that's what I said.
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He has made him known.
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Has anybody else got a different way of saying that? Pretty much the same.
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He has explained him.
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He has declared him.
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All right.
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Here's the thing.
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In every place wherein God is in contact with man in Scripture, whether it is in the Old Testament or in the New Testament.
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Because of this verse, we can translate that or interpret that to mean that this is an expression of Christ.
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When Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon his throne, who he saw was Christ.
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In fact, later in the Gospel of John, it says that.
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It says that Isaiah saw Christ.
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So we know that that is what we call a pre-incarnate vision of Christ.
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Everybody understand? What's incarnate mean? Incarnation, coming in the flesh.
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Jesus came in Bethlehem in the flesh.
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Right? That's what incarnation means.
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But Jesus existed before that.
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Right? Jesus existed in heaven.
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Jesus existed as the one who exegetes the Father or the one who represents.
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Yes, the one who we see, who explains him to us.
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He is the mediator.
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He is the one between God and man.
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So he is our high priest.
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In that, any time the Bible talks about man seeing God, what they're actually seeing is Christ.
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OK, so it brings us back to the question.
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Why can't I see God? This text tells me I can't see God.
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It also tells me that any time anyone has ever seen God, it's Jesus Christ.
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Because he's the one who exegetes God.
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He's the one who explains God.
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He's the one who declares God.
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So, when I go back to this, why can't I see God? It's very simple.
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We, because of sin, have been separated from the holiness of God.
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Because of that, while we remain in this sinful flesh, there is a divide between us and God.
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God has made himself in such a way that he is to us invisible.
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Made himself that he is to us without being able to be picked up by the five senses.
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Because there is a separation between us and God.
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And that separation is caused by sin.
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I'm going to take you to a book that you probably haven't been to just in a quaint little Bible study like this.
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Go to the book of Habakkuk.
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Yep.
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Alright, give me just a second here.
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Well, is it in Habakkuk? Let's take that.
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Yes, here it is.
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Habakkuk 1.13 You who are of pure eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? By the way, the whole book of Habakkuk is a prophet who's asking God a series of questions.
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And a lot of those questions end with the idea of why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the righteous suffer while the unrighteous prosper? That's the whole question of Habakkuk.
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But notice what he says in there.
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He says, you are of pure eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.
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Now, here's the thing.
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Some people translate that to mean that God can't see evil.
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Well, guess what? God can see everything.
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To say God can't see evil would be a silly interpretation of this verse.
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Because God sees all things.
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What it's saying is that God cannot look with approval on evil.
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God cannot look with righteousness and say that's OK.
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His eyes are too pure for that.
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He himself is too perfect for that.
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He cannot look at wrong in an approving manner.
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So, we look at ourselves, we look at our world.
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Our world is engulfed in sin.
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We, even ourselves, who are Christians.
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How many of you in this room have sinned? I'll give it to you.
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How many of you have sinned this year? OK.
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Hands down.
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How many of you have sinned this month? OK.
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Good.
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Not that it's good that you sinned.
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I'm just making sure that you're all being honest.
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How many of you have sinned this week? Not proud of it, but we have.
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How many of you have sinned today? OK.
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Don't be proud.
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Don't be proud.
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All right.
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So, even if you're a Christian, I'm very confident.
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Miss Sharon is Christian.
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You're a Christian.
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You still battle with sin every day.
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I believe in Christ.
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I'm a Christian.
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I still battle with sin every day until I am completely sanctified.
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I will not seek God.
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And guess when that happens? One of two things will have to happen before I am completely sanctified.
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What are the two things? Either I will die and I will shed the flesh that I live in, which is sinful.
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Or what's the other thing? That Christ will return.
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1 Thessalonians 4 tells us that when Christ returns, some people are going to come up out of the grave and some people will already be alive because he will come back at a time when there will be people who are alive and they will be caught up together to meet him in the clouds.
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That's what we call the rapture, the return of Christ when he draws his own unto himself.
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So, the reality is, while I'm still in this flesh, there is a divide between God and I.
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Christ has broke down that divide.
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He has justified me of my sins, but I still live in a condition where I cannot seek God.
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So, when somebody asks, why can't I see God? It is because there is a divide between God and I and that divide is sin.
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That's the simple answer.
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Some people don't like that answer.
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Some people don't like to think about their own sin.
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And some people think that it's rather convenient.
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They'll say, well, you're saying God's invisible and he's invisible because of my sin.
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That seems rather convenient.
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It doesn't matter how convenient it is or not.
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The reality is that it's true.
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The Bible says that Adam and Eve had a very close relationship with God.
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And I would say it would be Jesus Christ because no one has ever seen God.
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That would include Adam and Eve, right? But Adam and Eve spoke with God, so I would argue that that would be Jesus, but it would be that as it may.
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The point is, after the sin, what happened? There was a divide.
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And after that, the only time when God is communicating with man is when it's on God's terms.
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God speaks to us through the mediator.
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He speaks to us through Christ.
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He speaks to Moses through the burning bush.
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He speaks to various people in various ways.
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It says God in various ways and through various prophets spoke to our forefathers in the past.
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Now he speaks to us through Christ.
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So the question, why can't I see God? Well, it's because of sin.
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But the next question is, why can't I see heaven? Why can't I see heaven? This one might strike you as somewhat weird.
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The reason why you cannot see heaven.
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I hope I don't confuse you all.
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I hope I don't get the mothers sworn.
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I promise.
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I promise I'll make this make sense.
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But let me say it first.
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The reason why you can't see heaven is it's not ready yet.
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Everybody turn now.
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Let's go back.
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Let's go to John 14.
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Go to John 14 with me.
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And when I say it's not ready yet, it doesn't sound.
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It doesn't mean what it sounds like.
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John 14.
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First one.
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Jesus is talking to his disciples.
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He says, Let not your hearts be troubled.
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Believe in God.
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Believe also in me.
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In my Father's house are many rooms.
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If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself.
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So that where I am, you may be also.
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All right.
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So Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us.
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Where is that place? Revelation 21.
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Revelation 21.
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This is a future vision by none other than John the Apostle.
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He sees a vision in the future of something that is going to come.
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What does he say? John 21.
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Then I saw a new what? Heaven.
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Oh, it's a new one.
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And a new earth.
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For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
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And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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He will dwell with them and they will be his people.
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And God himself will be with them as their God.
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He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.
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Neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away.
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So this text tells us that there is coming a time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem.
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OK, right now we live with an old heaven, an old earth and an old Jerusalem.
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Does anybody disagree? But let's talk about what I mean when I say that, because when I say old heaven, you guys may not understand.
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In the Bible, the word heaven is used three different ways.
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Let's pretend this is earth.
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OK, it's little.
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Hang with me.
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I promise.
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Visualize.
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All right.
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We have around the earth something called a what layer? What's the layer around the earth? Atmosphere.
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Also known as ozone layer.
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And we say atmosphere.
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All right.
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Outside of the atmosphere, what is that? Space.
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Or you could say we live in a universe.
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All right.
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The Bible talks about three heavens.
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The Apostle Paul talks about three heavens.
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He uses the term three heavens.
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He says, I was caught up to the third heaven.
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Actually, he says there was a man who's caught up to the third heaven.
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Most scholars believe he was talking third and third person is talking to himself.
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So if we know there are three heavens because the Bible tells us, what are the three heavens? Well, the first heaven is what we call the atmospheric heaven.
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The birds fly in heaven.
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The heavens.
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The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament above His handiwork.
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That firmament, that's the atmospheric heavens.
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The clouds exist in the atmospheric heavens.
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Air exists in the atmospheric heavens.
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Birds fly in the atmospheric heavens.
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Airplanes soar in the atmospheric heavens.
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Everyone understand? That's heaven numero uno.
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That's number one.
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Outside of our atmosphere, we have what we call the stellar heavens.
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Heavens numero dos.
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I don't know why they immediately became Spanish heavens, but hey.
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All right.
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So we have the atmospheric heavens.
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We have the stellar heavens.
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But then outside of what we can see, outside of what can be measured, touched, felt, tasted, outside of what is in what we would say our dimension, we have what we call God's heaven or God's abode.
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We cannot see that.
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It is outside of the realm for us to see.
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But it is from here that the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem will come.
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The new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem will come from here.
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Because when Christ returns, this will be replaced by this.
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This earth will be burned with fire, the Bible says.
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It will be completely destroyed.
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The heavens, the earth and everything will be destroyed and God will replace it with a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem.
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So when people say, why can't I see heaven? And I say it's not ready yet.
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It's kind of a flippant way of saying, kind of a funny way of saying we are now experiencing earth and the heavens and Jerusalem.
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But God is preparing a new one for us.
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So when we die now, where do we go? Oh, that's a whole other question.
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I could spend a whole lot of time with that one.
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But because it goes with this, I want to answer that question.
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When we die now, do we go to heaven? We go to God's abode.
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But we go there and it is not yet what it will be when Christ returns.
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I believe, and I think that you can bear this out in the book of Revelation, that those who die are in the presence of God.
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I don't believe anybody dies and goes to sleep.
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I don't believe in that.
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But I do believe what we are when we die and we go to heaven is that we are spirits.
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But that when Christ returns, we will get bodies.
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The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will have bodies.
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And there will be a new heaven, a new earth for us to enjoy a new body, which guess what? Is not affected by sin.
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So there's no separation from God.
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And that's why in this text it says he will dwell with them and they will be his people.
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And God himself will be with God.
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Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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That's the beauty of the heaven which is to come.
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It's not that we're going to be like angels with wings and flying around.
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But we're going to have a new existence, a new way of living where there will be no separation between us and God.
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There will be no question as to whether or not God exists because he'll be there with us.
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And the relationship that we have will no longer be separated.
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So the question of why can't we see God when we're separated by sin? Why can't we see heaven? Because when we're there, we will be with God.
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Everybody understand? We went through a lot of text.
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I'm glad you did.
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We went through a lot of text today.
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And now let's pray.
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Father, thank you for this opportunity to have looked at your word.
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I pray that this has been encouraging for your people and for these children.
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I pray that it's helped to answer more of their questions.
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And as we continue in the weeks to come, I just pray that you'll continue to bless this time of study.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.