Man's Limitations
Text: Jeremiah 10:23
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State the governing principle of Jeremiah 10:23 — that man does not have the capacity to direct his own steps — and explain why humility before God is the only rational response to limitation.
- Name at least four things man cannot know, including the timing of Christ's return and the moment of his own death, and explain the urgency these unknowns produce.
- Identify the specific things man cannot do for another person: repent, be baptized, forgive, secure salvation.
- Critique six specific errors — things some people think they know but do not — including the belief that God accepts unauthorized worship, that the church is optional, and that ignorance of God's will excuses disobedience.
- Apply the posture of limitation: rely on God's revealed word for what cannot be self-determined, and act with urgency on what is still possible.
Thesis
Jeremiah's word stands over every human plan: "It is not in man who walks to direct his steps." The honest acknowledgment of limitation is not weakness — it is the first movement of wisdom.
Burden
Pride is constitutionally blind to limitation. It is the nature of pride to believe that its own resources are adequate, its own judgment sufficient, its own plans reliable. But there are things man genuinely cannot know, things he genuinely cannot do, and things he is wrong about with complete confidence. The sermon's three-part structure is a progressive stripping away of the presumptions that keep a person from depending on God — which is the only position in which a human being actually thrives.
Introduction
Jeremiah 10:23 is the governing text: "I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps." This is Jeremiah's recognition, in the middle of a lament, that human life does not self-direct. A person can make plans, set goals, and work hard — and none of that is wrong — but the capacity to determine the direction and outcome of a life is not resident in the person living it. It resides in God.
Knowing one's limitations produces three benefits identified here: it keeps a person humble, helps him plan more wisely for both time and eternity, and opens him to the guidance he cannot generate himself. The person who knows what he does not know is better positioned than the person who is ignorant of his ignorance.
This sermon surveys three categories of limitation: things man cannot know, things man cannot do, and things some people are confident about but are wrong.
I. Things Man Cannot Know
The first category is epistemic — not "what we have not yet learned" but "what is, by its nature, outside the reach of human inquiry."
How old the world is. The age of the earth is debated because no human being was present at the beginning. The tools of measurement themselves are subject to the assumptions of those using them. Scripture gives a framework; the precise numbers are not revealed. Humility here is appropriate.
How much longer it will stand. The lifespan of the earth, the timing of its dissolution — these belong to God's knowledge, not man's. Every generation has had its projections; none has been reliable. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). The certainty of the end is stated; the timing is not.
When Jesus will come. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone" (Matt. 24:36). Jesus himself, in his earthly state, placed this knowledge beyond his own access. No calculation, no prophetic calendar, no reading of current events provides what has been explicitly withheld. Every date-setter has been wrong; the pattern will hold because the text says so.
When death will come to us. James's vapor image from the previous outline applies here. The day and hour of a person's death is not a scheduled appointment he has been shown. "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow" (James 4:14). The practical implication is not morbidity but urgency: treat today as the only day available, because it may be.
Whether we will have another opportunity to accept Christ. The assumption that there will be more time — a later, more convenient moment for full response to the gospel — is precisely the assumption that neither Scripture nor experience justifies. "Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). The next opportunity is not guaranteed. The current one is.
The unrevealed things (Deut. 29:29). "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law." God has revealed everything necessary for salvation and faithful living. He has not revealed everything. The unrevealed things are his; the revealed things are our responsibility. Demanding access to what God has not revealed is not intellectual honesty — it is trespass.
II. Things Man Cannot Do
The second category is volitional — not what a person chooses not to do, but what is genuinely impossible for him.
Some people are limited by finance, broken health, feeble constitution, or heredity. These are the structural circumstances of a particular life — its equipment, as given. No person chose his native gifts, his physical constitution, or the circumstances of his birth. Recognizing these limitations is not defeat; it is accurate self-knowledge that enables realistic planning.
But more important than the circumstantial limitations are the personal and spiritual ones.
Man cannot repent for his friends. Repentance is not a transferable transaction. One person's sorrow over sin, however genuine, cannot satisfy another person's need to repent. Every person stands alone before God on this matter. This is why the urgency of personal response is non-negotiable — the believing, praying parent cannot do for the unbelieving child what only the child can do for himself.
Man cannot be baptized for another (1 Cor. 15:29). Paul's reference to "baptism for the dead" in 1 Corinthians 15:29 is offered as an argument for the reality of the resurrection — but whatever practice it references, the point is clear: personal obedience is personal. The canon does not authorize proxy baptism as a saving act on behalf of another.
Man cannot forgive for another. When someone has sinned against a third party, the injured party must do the forgiving. No amount of sympathy or intercession from a bystander substitutes for the specific act of forgiveness between the offender and the offended.
Man cannot forgive his own sins — he needs Christ. This is the most humbling limitation of all. The one resource most needed — the remission of sins — is the one resource man cannot manufacture. "Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb. 9:22). The blood shed was not man's. Man's sin against God cannot be resolved by man's effort; it requires the intervention of the one who was sinned against and who nevertheless paid the price.
Man cannot close the gates of heaven against anyone. The final judgment belongs to Christ (John 5:22). No preacher, elder, congregation, or denomination can render the verdict that bars a person from heaven. Human exclusion from a congregation for disciplinary reasons is not the same as exclusion from God's presence.
Man cannot devise a plan of salvation. The pattern of redemption was designed before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:19-20). Man's role is to receive it, obey it, and proclaim it — not to improve it, supplement it, or substitute for it.
III. Things Some Think They Know But Do Not
This section is the most pointed in the outline — the outline names specific errors that prevail in the religious world with false confidence.
That God will accept instrumental music. This is the direct application of the "cannot know" principle to a worship question. The argument from silence on instruments in New Testament worship is not arbitrary — it is the consistent application of the principle that what God has not authorized, man cannot assume permitted. The confidence of those who introduce instruments into worship is a confidence the regards as unwarranted.
That a gospel subject will be saved without obedience to the gospel. A "gospel subject" is a person who has heard the gospel and is in a position to respond. The belief that such a person is acceptable to God without full obedience to the gospel terms — faith, repentance, confession, baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) — is a belief the New Testament does not support. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned" (Mark 16:16).
That a gospel subject can be saved out of the church. The church is "the body of Christ" (Eph. 1:22-23), and Christ is the Savior of the body (Eph. 5:23). Being outside the body is not a safe alternative to being in it. The question is not whether sincere people exist outside the church — they do — but whether sincerity substitutes for the obedience that places a person in Christ.
That one church is as good as another. Jesus built one church (Matt. 16:18). The New Testament describes its organization, worship, doctrine, and terms of membership. A human institution wearing the name "church" does not become what Jesus built by adopting the label.
That God will excuse ignorance of his will. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6). Paul in Athens declared that God "is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:30-31). The era of ignorance is past; judgment is now the standard. Ignorance does not commute the sentence — it is itself a condition to be addressed.
That anyone can improve on God's ways. This is the terminal presumption — the assumption that the plan God has given can be augmented, streamlined, or updated by human wisdom. It cannot. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:9).
Application
The practical work of this sermon is a recalibration of confidence. Three movements:
Acknowledge what you do not know. The timing of Christ's return, the moment of your death, the availability of future opportunities — these are not yours to calculate. Live as if today is the only day available, because it may be.
Acknowledge what you cannot do. You cannot secure your own salvation, and you cannot secure someone else's on their behalf. Both truths produce the same response: personal, urgent, complete obedience to the gospel, and earnest witness to those who have not yet responded.
Abandon the false confidence of things you think you know but do not. Test every religious practice, every doctrine, every habit of worship against what is written. If the warrant is not there, the confidence is not warranted.
Conclusion
"It is not in man who walks to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23). Every human plan is held in hands that do not control the ultimate outcomes. Every human knowledge is bounded by a wall that marks the beginning of what God has withheld. Every human effort is limited by a constitution that cannot forgive its own sins.
This is not a discouraging word — it is a liberating one. The things man cannot know, God knows. The things man cannot do, God has done in Christ. The things man is wrong about, God has corrected in his Word. The appropriate posture is the one Jeremiah modeled: "Correct me, O LORD, but with justice" (Jer. 10:24). Not defiance. Not self-sufficiency. Humility before the one in whose hands the direction of steps actually lies.
Invitation
The central thing man cannot do — forgive his own sins — is precisely what God has done in Christ. He does not ask you to manufacture what you cannot produce. He asks you to receive what he has provided.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent of the life you have been directing on your own. Confess his name before these witnesses. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). The forgiveness man cannot produce for himself is waiting at the door of obedience that God has opened.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct his steps | kûn derek | to establish, make firm, or determine a path | the verb describes the capacity to set and maintain a course | the verb describes the capacity to set and maintain a course; Jeremiah says this capacity is not in man; God directs the steps that matter most | Jer. 10:23 |
| Secret things | nistarōt | hidden, concealed things | what God has chosen not to reveal | what God has chosen not to reveal; the boundary between the secret and the revealed is God's to set; man's responsibility is the revealed, not the secret | Deut. 29:29 |
| Acceptable time | kairos dektos | the right moment, the divinely appointed opportune time | Paul quotes Isa | Paul quotes Isa. 49:8 and applies it to the present: NOW is that moment; the urgency is not manufactured — it is the nature of the moment | 2 Cor. 6:2 |
| Revealed things | niglōt | what has been uncovered, made known | everything necessary for obedience and salvation has been revealed | everything necessary for obedience and salvation has been revealed; the responsibility for acting on it rests entirely with the one who has received it | Deut. 29:29 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "It is not in man to direct his steps" — the governing text | Intro | Jer. 10:23 |
| The unrevealed belong to God; the revealed to us and our sons | I.6 | Deut. 29:29 |
| "No one knows that day or hour" — not even the angels | I.3 | Matt. 24:36 |
| "Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation" | I.5 | 2 Cor. 6:2 |
| "He who has believed and been baptized shall be saved" | III.2 | Mark 16:16 |
| Repent and be baptized for remission of sins | III.2 | Acts 2:38 |
| The church as body of Christ; Christ the Savior of the body | III.3 | Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23 |
| God now declares all people everywhere to repent — ignorance past | III.5 | Acts 17:30-31 |
| "My ways higher than your ways" — improving on God impossible | III.6 | Isa. 55:9 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 90. Primary text: Jeremiah 10:23 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "a/ ter" corrected to "after." Doctrinal audit: Section III.1 (God will not accept instrumental music) retained as Boles's direct Restoration Movement application of the silence principle; Section III.2 retains the full plan of salvation without softening (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16); Section III.3 retains the necessity of the church without hedging; "cannot be saved by grace alone nor faith alone" (Section I) retained and developed; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
