Westtown Church
Westtown Church
The Revelation of God
God makes Himself known—but not just through the beauty of nature. While creation points to His power and majesty, it’s through special revelation—His Word—that we come to know His grace, His righteousness, and His desire for relationship with us. Join us this Sunday for worship, as we read through Psalm 19 – We’ll see how God's revelation, both general and special, is meant to lead us not just to awe, but to repentance and the abundant life only He can give.
What's everybody doing? Oh, that song was so good I forgot I was supposed to move. Eyes of the blind will be open and all our sorrows will pass away. Praise God, it's going to be a good day. We're going to be at Psalm 19 this morning. If you have your Bibles, you can open up to that.
Speaker 1:I think Paul told me, since it's only one service, it's an hour, right. You got an hour, is that right? Let's go to the Lord before we get into it. Heavenly Father, lord, I thank you so much. Let's go to the Lord before we get into it. Heavenly Father, lord, I thank you so much for all that you've given us. Thank you especially for your son, jesus Christ, and the salvation we find in his name. We thank you for the opportunity you've given us this morning to come together and praise your name, worship you and speak about you and hear about you. Help us to grow in our faith, lord, strengthen us so that we can glorify you, for you are worthy of glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, all right. Psalm 19 is where we'll be today.
Speaker 1:There's a verse I'd like to start with out of Jeremiah, chapter 33. God says this. Jeremiah 33, 3 says Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Call to me and God will answer and he will show us great and awesome things. God has a desire to reveal himself to his people. He wants to show himself off to his people. He reveals multiple different things to his people. He reveals our purpose to his people. Right? You go back to Genesis.
Speaker 1:Genesis chapter 2, what does God do? He comes to Adam and he says Adam, here's the garden I'm putting you in the garden. He enters into covenant with Adam. Our purpose is to have a relationship with God. He also reveals Genesis, chapter 1, what's he say? He says go out and have dominion and rule over the fish of the air and the birds of the sea. I'm sorry, wow, that'd be interesting. I think it's the other way around, right? The birds of the air and the fish of the sea and the flying fish in church. Man, what do you know? He says go out and have dominion, right, then he enters into relationship with us. That's part of our purpose. A role in his kingdom, that's part of our purpose. He wants to reveal all of those things to us? Right, he wants to reveal his plan to us in certain ways. Yoda, later in Genesis, you see, god comes to Abraham before he goes down to Sodom and God says shall I not reveal what I'm about to do to Abram? And then he does. And then Abram intercedes for Sodom, yoda, amos, and God says surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals what he's doing to His servants, the prophets.
Speaker 1:God has a desire to reveal His plan to us in certain ways. Most importantly, god has a desire to reveal Himself to His people. Go to Hebrews 1, and it says that in the ages past, god showed Himself in various ways to the fathers. In His last days, he has spoken to us by His Son, various ways to the fathers. In His last days, he has spoken to us by His Son. Jesus is the fulfillment of the revelation of God's purpose. Right, it says God's person. It says he's the express image of His person. Right, he wants to reveal all of those things to us.
Speaker 1:There's a couple different ways, two general ways, two broad categories in which God reveals things to us, and we're going to look at both of those this morning. Psalm 19, verse 1, is where we'll start. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom, coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising, is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Speaker 1:The first basic way that God reveals himself to us is through what they call general revelation, or sometimes it's called natural revelation. This is the way in which God has shown himself to us in creation. You know, like a month ago I was at Outback with my daughter, anna, and we had a plate of cheese fries and she says Daddy, cheese fries are like God. I said, what, Okay? She says, well, god's the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but they're all God. She said, well, the cheese fries are cheese and bacon and fries, but they're all one appetizer. I said, wow, that's awesome, they're all one appetizer. I say wow, that's awesome. I'll never forget that one. Right there, man Praise God. God shows himself to us through cheese fries. God shows himself to us through his creation. Right, god is an artist. Creation is his masterpiece. He's an author. Creation is his great work. Right, he shows himself through these things.
Speaker 1:You know, if you read Romans, chapter 1, paul says this. In verse 20, he says for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Paul tells us the invisible attributes of God have been shown in creation. There in Romans, he specifically says God's eternal power and His Godhead, the majesty, the power of God are shown in creation. And you know, when you look at Psalm 19, two things essentially, are named here by the psalmist. The psalmist attributed David, by the way, two things are named One is the heavens and the other is the sun. And when you think of those two things, what do you get out of? Looking at the heavens or looking at the sun, the power, the majesty of God?
Speaker 1:Think about if you've ever been way out in the middle of nowhere, you know, away from the city, away from city lights and noises and distractions, way out in the woods or out in the mountains or something out in the desert, and just how impressive the sky looks, particularly at night. You look up in the sky at night and see all of these stars that you would never see if you were in here near all the commotion of the city. Or you get out way out in the middle of the desert and see the sunrise or the sunset and just how impressive those things look. I can remember being in Kuwait this is 20-something years ago now in Kuwait. I hated Kuwait, let me tell you, but the one thing about that place that was so beautiful was the sunrises and the sunsets, because you're just way out in the middle of nowhere and nothing to take away from it. You see the immensity and the power of God in those things.
Speaker 1:I was reading some on space a little bit this week and apparently Pluto. In order for it to orbit the sun, it takes approximately 240 years for Pluto to get all the way around the sun. Now, when I was a kid, pluto was a planet. I think today they say it's not. But whatever, that big piece of rock that is Pluto takes 240 years to get around the sun. Think of the size of that, and that's just our own little solar system.
Speaker 1:Go watch Louis Giglio and some of his stuff on the creation, on the magnificence of God, and you see how much bigger it is than that. The immensity of God is shown in the vastness of space and the vastness of the heavens. Then he mentions the sun. Right, you know, if we were living 3,000 years ago anywhere on earth, we'd probably all be sun worshipers to a certain degree.
Speaker 1:Almost every ancient pagan people group worship the sun. I mean, what else in creation, what else do you see every single day that so draws you to its power? I mean, take away the sun and we're all gone. Right, nobody's here. The sun is the source of life. Light and heat and life all that stuff comes from the sun. God has put that object there to show he is the source of life. It's not the Son, it's God.
Speaker 1:In fact you go back to Genesis and you read Genesis 1, moses doesn't even mention the name Son. He says there's a light in the day, a greater light, and a light in the evening, a lesser light. He doesn't mention the term Son because everybody worships it. He says no, it's not really what's keeping you alive, god's what's keeping you alive. This object, this ball of fire up in the sky, that's just his tool to do so. Right, but all of us, if we didn't apart from God, all of us would probably naturally be throwing down worship to something like that, because you can so see his power and His majesty in that A little closer to home. If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or some big, impressive part of nature like that, those things really speak to the power of God and His greatness.
Speaker 1:But it's not just His power and His majesty, you see in creation. You see his love in creation. Everybody's heard. You know, don't get between a mama bear and her cub, right, it's a bad idea. I was reading this Far Side comic the other day and it had these two boys tossing a bear cub back and forth to themselves and like in the background was the mama bear, you know, like at the edge of the woods. And the caption at the bottom said and the Smith boys were never heard from again. What is that? That's God's protective love. That is in creation. We all live in Florida, right? I read one time that a baby gator's distress call will attract any adult gator in the area. It doesn't have to be its mom or its father. Right, any adult gator anywhere around it will come attacking whatever the baby gator is crying about. Right, stay away from baby gators. God's protective love is shown in creation. God's faithfulness is shown in creation.
Speaker 1:Anybody have a dog. I got a dog. I have to say this is hard for all of you to believe. I'm sure I'm not the most sanctified individual at home all the time. I'm sure nobody could believe that my dog always wants attention, always. We got this border collar named Sadie. She's always coming up, pet me, pet me all trying to put her face in your business and sometimes I'm like get out of here, man, get out of here you mutt, you know, but she always comes back. She always comes back, no matter how nice I am to her or not. She consistently shows that faithful love to me and our family because God has sown that into her right. I've always found it kind of interesting that, you know, dog is man's best friend. That's what they say, right, but dog is just God backward, at least in the English language. God is really man's best friend, but he shows part of that through his creation. He shows. He shows honestly so much. He shows parts of his plan through creation, right.
Speaker 1:Anybody may have noticed this before. If you haven't noticed it before, you will after today probably. Somebody told me this one time about a donkey and I'd never seen it before. And now every time I see a donkey I see it. Right. But every I guess, pure-blooded donkey has a cross on its back, like it's got this black, thick black hair along its spine and then across its shoulders it has another thick black line of hair that makes like a cross over its shoulders right. Next time you see a donkey, stop and look at it, right, like wow, that's crazy. An animal that carried Christ as a baby in his mother's womb and then again into Jerusalem to be heralded as king before his crucifixion. That animal has the cross stamped on his back for God to show the world right. Not only do you see that part of God's plan, his first coming and submission on a donkey, you see his powerful return.
Speaker 1:I think in creation too, you go to Revelation and you know, you see the way he's described in Revelation. He's described as the Almighty right. He's described as speaking with a voice like a trumpet. He's described as having a sword that comes out of his mouth, right. Well, what is the biggest, strongest land animal? It's an elephant. What does an elephant? What sound does an elephant make? A trumpet? What does an elephant fight with these two big old swords, tusks, that come out of his mouth? He's shown himself and what he's doing in creation. And there's so much, so much beyond those small examples of him pouring himself into his creation.
Speaker 1:I read a guy one time. He was writing about Genesis. He was talking about Adam and Eve and he said how much they must have seen God in creation. Everything blaze of grass, bushes, trees, twigs, everything should have shouted something to Adam and Eve in their unfallen state about God, right, but we don't see all those things anymore. We don't see them the way, at least in one time we did see them and not the way that we will see them one day when the Lord returns.
Speaker 1:You know, paul says in 1 Corinthians. He says the natural man cannot perceive the things of the kingdom of God, of the spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. If you're an atheist, you don't see those things, obviously in creation. I heard John MacArthur say this earlier this week. He was talking about agnostic. There's an atheist, which means you think there's no God, and then there's an agnostic which says, well, I don't know, maybe there is, maybe there isn't. But he was saying there's some correlation between the term agnostic and the term ignoramus. It's like, see, if you're saying you're agnostic, you're saying you're an ignoramus. Right, we don't see those things in creation the way that we should.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, right after Paul says that God has shown himself in creation, he says this in Romans 121,. He says Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became foolish. We don't see God in creation the way that we should, the way that he has shown Himself, but thankfully that's not the only way that he speaks to us. Let's go back to Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. Altogether More to be desired. Are they than gold yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb? Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.
Speaker 1:There's not just general revelation God showing himself in the heavens and the sun, and all of those things. He also speaks to us through His law. Special revelation is the second category, that is, that which God speaks to us directly, that we cannot receive just from looking at creation. Go back to Genesis, right? Both of these things have been around since day one or, I guess, day six, right? Obviously, god's made creation. Adam's there. He says Adam, here's the deal. I'm going to put you in a garden you can eat from these trees, you can't eat from that tree. What's that? That's special revelation. That's God speaking to Adam. Adam could not have known well, I can't eat from this if God hadn't told him. Special revelation is his direct communication to his people.
Speaker 1:You go back into the Old Testament. You see all sorts of different ways God does this, right. God comes to Ezekiel and Daniel and Zechariah and shows these crazy visions, stuff that you read and you're like man, I don't even know what he's talking about there. He comes to Isaiah and he says thus says the Lord, he gives this dramatic, authoritative word to Him. We get to the New Testament period again.
Speaker 1:The finality of revelation comes in the person of Jesus and the testimony concerning him written in the New Testament. Special revelation is scripture. This is our special revelation. This is how we come to know who God is and what he desires of us. Right. Special revelation has four different attributes that we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:You look back at this section of Psalm 19,. It says the law of who Of the Lord. Right. The testimony of who Of the Lord. The commandment of who Of the Lord. The statutes of who Of the Lord. The statutes of who Of the Lord. The fear of the who Of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Special revelation, scripture has authority because it is spoken by the authority. Right. God is obviously creator. Everything is in submission to him in one way or the other. Everything will be in willing submission to him one day, and it's all in submission to Him now, whether it thinks it is or not, god's the creator, he's the authority. His word has authority. Just like you go to work, your boss's word has authority. In a house, a parent's word has authority. Well, all of creation is under the authority of the word of God. Right Scripture has authority.
Speaker 1:Scripture also has sufficiency. It is enough. We don't need something other than God's Word. You don't need God's Word and a self-help book. You don't need God's Word and Joel Osteen. You don't need God's Word and the Quran. You don't need God's Word and anything else. Right God's word and a vision. All we need is God's word. It is sufficient to make us wise to salvation. Good verse for that Many of you are probably familiar.
Speaker 1:Listen 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, I'm sorry. Chapter 3 says this All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. What does it say? All scripture is God-breathed, right. It's authoritative because it comes from the authority. It's also complete, which gives us all we need thoroughly equipped for every good work. All we need to be made wise unto salvation is Scripture. Scripture is authoritative, scripture is sufficient. Scripture is also necessary.
Speaker 1:General revelation does not provide what we need to know about Christ. You're not going to learn, you're not going to come to a true recognition of the atoning work of Christ on the cross and your own sinfulness through general revelation. You're not going to look at a donkey and see Jesus on a cross. You're not going to look at an elephant and see Christ returning in power. You're not going to see those things apart from the revelation that is given in Scripture. Again, you go back to Adam. What happens? How is Adam going to know not to eat from the tree unless God says don't eat from the tree? Scripture is necessary. God's Word is necessary.
Speaker 1:God's word is also clear. It has clarity. You know God is eternal, he's immense, he's deep beyond our imaginations. Probably for all of eternity we will be coming to understand more and more about him. We will never come to the end of God, I would say in eternity, and His Word is the same. You can continue to study His Word for your entire life, 80 years, and you'll never come to the end of the depth of it. There will be applications and principles found in it that will surprise you, probably every day. But what we need to know is clear. It's clear enough for a five-year-old to read and understand.
Speaker 1:Go read the book of Romans, right, go read the Romans Road. What does it say? Romans 3 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What does that mean? It means everybody's a sinner. That's what that means. That's not hard to understand.
Speaker 1:Go to Romans 6. The wages of sin is death. What's that mean? That means you're going to die because you're a sinner. That's not hard to understand either. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's clear. We can understand that. There is now no condemnation. How much condemnation? No condemnation? That's not hard to understand. And then he says whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Right, that stuff is clear. What we need to know, we know. Right, scripture has all those things Authority, sufficiency. It is necessary and it has clarity.
Speaker 1:You know, I think about Adam in the garden and I think about David. David's the one who writes this. Think about Adam right back in the garden. Adam eats from the trees not supposed to. Cain ends up killing Abel. All sorts of bad stuff happened, probably the rest of his life, that we're even unaware of. How many times did Adam think back to that moment when God said don't eat from that tree? How many times did Adam think back to that and be like man? I wish I had just not eaten from that stupid tree? Probably a lot, right? David writes this psalm, right? You go read about David.
Speaker 1:David makes a lot of mistakes too, doesn't he Right? You'll read about his sin with Bathsheba. In that whole episode, david breaks at least like four commandments. He commits coveting and covenants his neighbor's life and then he commits adultery and then he commits murder and then he lies about it. He breaks at least four commandments just in that one little story, right, and probably a lot more. And then a whole bunch of bad stuff happens through his family as well. One son rapes a daughter. Another son kills that son. That son ends up kicking him out of Jerusalem and putting him in exile and pretending to be the king, and all that stuff. All sorts of stuff goes haywire in David's life. And how many times do you think David sat there and thought, man, I wish I had just done what I was supposed to. I wish I had just done what God said to do. Why didn't I, why don't we all? How many times do we in our own lives? I think? A lot of times in my own life, I just sit there and think, man, I should have just done what God told me to do.
Speaker 1:We go back to the text in verse 12. It says we go back to the text in verse 12. It says Romans 2 says the goodness of God, the kindness of God, is supposed to lead us to repentance. Right, you know what we learn in God's special revelation His righteousness, his goodness. We learn that he's a Father that wants us to thrive. Right?
Speaker 1:You go back to Deuteronomy, deuteronomy, chapter 5, and God, moses is just given the law for the second time, right? He gives out all the Ten Commandments and then God says oh, that they would just listen to me. Just listen to me that it might go well with you in the land. He's a father crying out for his children to just obey him, because God's what he's the author of life. He probably knows what works and what doesn't, and he cries out for his children. Just listen to what I say and you'll be all right. And of course, israel doesn't, nobody else does, and we're all got ourselves in a big bind, right? But that's the heart of God and David and Adam and all of us. As we walk this life out and recognize our own failings and our own foolishness, the more we come back to His Word, the more we recognize His righteousness, his goodness, his love for us and His desire for us to be in relationship with Him and to live that life that he has called us to. God's Word is meant to call us to repentance and life with Him.
Speaker 1:If you look in the book of John, I'm going to share a verse or two with you out of John John, chapter 17,. Jesus is giving His high priestly prayer, right, and in John 17, verse 3, he says this. He says and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is eternal life. That they know God and know Jesus. That's eternal life, right, you know there's a difference between eternal life and life in eternity. Life in eternity is going to be awesome, right. Psalm 35 or Isaiah 35, we were singing about it this morning right, it's going to be perfect. There will be no bad knees, no bad backs. You won't get sick. Kids won't talk back to you, dishes will do themselves. I mean, who knows how incredible Only great things, right, who knows how incredible life in eternity will be? But that's not exactly the same thing as eternal life.
Speaker 1:Eternal life is knowing God through the person of Jesus and if you're in relationship with Christ through faith and repentance, then we have eternal life. Right now we have abundant life right now. That's what Jesus says in John 10. They would have life and have it abundantly when we turn back to God. And there's two kind of ways of repentance, right. There's big repentance. Right. There's like I'm a sinner, I need to start going to church. Lord, come and save me. That kind of thing right. Come to recognize Jesus as a Savior for the first time. That's kind of big-scale repentance, right. But then there's also daily repentance, every day, because I don't know if you guys are like me every day I got something I got to repent of. Every day there's probably multiple things I got to repent of, daily repentance, and we come back to God in His Word and he says the more you come back to me, the more of that life you will experience. You were designed for abundant eternal life with Christ.
Speaker 1:You know, this past month and a half or so was the horse races for the Triple Crown. Some of y'all probably saw those. You know the Kentucky Derby is in May and then the Preakness is a couple weeks after that and then the last one is in June. It's the Belmont. It's the last leg of the Triple Crown.
Speaker 1:You know, and you watch those things and you look at these horses and these horses are, you know, bred specifically to race, right, they're bred to run, and they're just like dying to do it. You see them as they're going out to the starting gate, you know, and you've got the jockey up there, but the jockey can't even really keep them in control not really, because to get out there they've got some other person on a horse that's holding the thing back with a halter, right, and that thing. You know, you got to have both of them or the horse is going to take off and you get them all back there and they all parade back there and they finally get in the starting gate and, like the very second they get that last horse into the starting gate, the guy pulls it right, and they all take off that very second because you can't keep those things in there, because they're jumping around and just full of energy and ready to just take off and run. Right, they were designed to run and they love it. Right, that is an abundant life for a third bread.
Speaker 1:Well, we are the same way in Christ. We are designed to run in Christ, to walk with Christ and when we are doing so through repentance and faith, we can receive that abundant life, and it's much better than being penned up in a stable right. Praise God, we come to the Lord. The Lord wants to show himself to us. He has a desire to show himself off to us in the same way that a father wants to show himself off to his kids. Right, he wants us to come to him. He has shown us about himself in creation. He's shown us about himself through his word. He has a desire that we would repent daily and come back to him time and again, come back to the well and receive that abundance of life that is in him.