God Speaks to the World
Notes
Transcript
WELCOME:
We had another great Bible Study Wednesday. A big THANK YOU to Jessica and Tiffany for cooking us a great meal. You have almost converted me from beef to chicken! We will do it again this Wed and I think we are going to eat pizza. So please bring a few dollars to cover the cost of the pizza.
SCRIPTURE READING:
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul. Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“The Goodness of God”
Words and Music by Hillsong’
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“What a beautiful Name”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen
SERMON
INTRODUCTION:
Much of modern controversy about God is that if He would just reveal Himself to the world, the world would turn to Him. But God chooses to remain invisible, silent, and hidden from the world that we live in.
But Psalm 19 paints a different picture. This Psalm shows us that God has indeed revealed Himself to world, clearly and undeniably, and has also given specific instructions on how the world can truly know Him. All people really need to do is open their eyes and look around them and then with God given human reasoning can see there is a God.
There are three movements in this Psalm that will take us from knowing absolutely nothing about God to knowing all we need to understand to have a relationship with God. It moves from the general to the specific and then to each of us personally.
~Pastoral Prayer~
God’s Revelation in Creation
God’s Revelation in Creation
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Explanation:
‘the heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the works of His hands”
“The heavens” refers to the skies, not the dwelling place of God. So what this is saying is that the sky that we can see from earth each and every day is telling or “speaking” to humanity. And what is the sky saying? It is declaring the glory of God.
In other words, creation is declaring to the world that there is a Creator. The sky, the stars, the sun, the ocean, the grand design of this world and how everything in this world works perfectly to sustain life is a message to the world that there is a God.
Notice, Creation does not communicate that with words, but in what we see. Anyone can look at life all around us and through simple God-given human reasoning conclude that this world is CERTAINLY no accident. There is an intelligent design standing behind this amazing creation.
Now atheists claim that there is no God and this world started from a big bang. At some point in time about 13.8 billion years ago a tiny hot point rapidly expanded creating time, space, and matter. And somehow the earth has come out of this Big Bang with its ability to sustain life.
But that’s not what the Bible teaches. This says (along with Gen 1) that God created the heavens and earth placed everything in the sky exactly where He wanted it!
Let me give you some things to consider about creation
We are the ONLY planet in existence that can sustain life that we know of. And this planet just happened to land to land in the only habitable orbit zone at 93 million miles away from the sun. One planet closer (Venus is 870*) and we would burn up and one planet further and we would freeze (Mars averages -81*).
Is it really a stroke of luck that our planet JUST HAPPENS to have the perfect amount of mass which keeps our atmosphere intact and provides the right amount of gravity to sustain life!?
Are we to believe that it was a stroke of luck that the earth landed at just the right spot, formed to just the right size, and received just the right size moon out of the 135 other moons in our solar system? If the moon was bigger or small we would have such extreme weather events that we would regularly have catastrophic loss of life, if our planet was habitable at all!
Are we to believe that by chance that the mammals would inhale oxygen and exhale out carbon dioxide who came into being at the same time that plants and trees who need CO2 to survive and expel oxygen making a perfect circle of life?
Could it be merely by chance that humans somehow hit the goldmine of the evolution taking them from mere apes swinging in the trees to building entire cities and ruling over the entire world?
I think it makes much more sense that there is an intelligent Designer who created this world and organized this world and everything in it….and He has made man in His image so that they could know Him and worship Him?!
And God made this world in such a way that man could see Creation and conclude that there must be a God!
The evidence of God is NOT THAT WE CAN SEE HIM, BUT THAT WE CAN SEE THE WORK OF HIS HANDS
A couple years ago Ashley and I took a trip to the BILTMORE estate and got to tour the house and the property. And it was the most amazing house and property we had ever seen. There was room after room designed with such great detail and unique handiwork and all of them had a specific purpose. And the whole time you are looking at all of this amazing work, you’re wondering who was this guy who built this magnificent house.
No one leaves the Biltmore, and says man I bet that house just popped up out of no where. Something happened in the laws of nature and out popped this amazing creation.
God’s creation is designed to do the same thing. It is designed so magnificently that our response should be: Who is this God who made this amazing place.
A Great design ALWAYS highlights a great designer.
And to whom is this revelation to speak to?
(v 4) “Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world.”
God’s Creation speaks to the entire human race. All people, all tribes, and all nations can understand God’s simple message in Creation through simple human reasoning and conclude there must be a God!
And it is by that general revelation that all the world becomes accountable to God.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Application:
1) Choose your miracle
Christians believe that God created everything, and sent His Son to die for the sins of the world. Atheists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos, that nothing created everything and death is simply the end.
Whichever stance you take, they are both miraculous and both require faith.
2) There will come a time in your Christian walk when you will have doubts about God. I really think those who say they have never doubted God [EVER] are either not being fully transparent or not honest with themselves.
This Christian life is not a cake walk. It’s a hard road, and many who begin down this road fall away because it’s not what they expected. And when those difficulties comes, and they will, they can cause us to question God: to question God’s goodness, to question whether or not God is who He says He is, and to question whether or not there even is a God.
My own personal experience with doubt
I really can’t remember a time that I had doubts until I started planting this church. And that is because we have had some really difficult seasons and times where things just seem to be falling apart no matter how faithful we were to God’s Word. And I have tried my best to do this thing as biblically as I can, and nothing seems to be happening, in fact things only get worse and the ridicule gets louder and louder, and sometimes it’s makes wonder, where are you God!? I begin to doubt
And the example of John the Baptist:
John the Baptist laid his eyes upon the Som of God, baptized the Son of God, saw the Spirit of God come down and remain upon Jesus and mark Him as the Christ, and when life got really hard for John, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He really was the Christ or should they be looking for someone else! And right after that Jesus said this of John, there was no one greater that had been born of a woman than John the Baptist.
Doubts do come, but doubts do not mean you are lost or you are a terrible Christian.
But what do we do when doubts come? We go back to the clear evidence of God that is written all over the world and is so clear for us to see.
The heavens are telling of the glory of God. Step outside and look at God’s handiwork. Think about all that God has made and remind yourself there is no way this created itself.
Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge.
But God does not leave us there. He doesn’t just create and then expect us to figure out all the details for ourselves. He has also given us a specific revelation in the Word of God.
God’s Revelation in His Word
God’s Revelation in His Word
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts 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; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.
Explanation:
This Psalm moves from the general revelation to the specific revelation found in the Word of God.
All the terms here are just synonyms for the Word of God: God’s Word is the Law, it is the testimony, it is His precepts and commandments and so on.
Now why does the Psalmist use all these synonyms to describe God’s Word? Because he is telling us that every part of the Scriptures are beneficial to us! It’s not just the testimony of Scripture that is good, but also the commandments that are good, and not just precepts that are good, but the judgements are good as well.
Application:
We cannot benefit from the Word of God unless we eat if it in its entirety! It is sweeter than honey when it is digested in its fullness!
We are to read the Law and obey it, we are to read the judgements and fear them, we are to read the testimony and receive wisdom from them, true nourishment will come from them all
Let me give you some advice: study the Word of God book by book. Be very cautious about cherry picking Scriptures, or getting a list of things we want to feel and look those up each day, or searching for Scriptures that make us feel good, or skipping over things that go against our way of life.
We need all of God’s Word and if you will commit yourself to read the Word of God book by book I assure you God will give you every bit of nourishment the Bible has to offer!
Look at the benefits from reading the Word of God
The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul”:
It is perfect. That means it is complete. We have all we need in God’s Word to be restored..
What is the benefit of the Law of the Lord?
It converts the soul. That word restore means to turn back, to turn around, the same idea as one repenting.
And to those who have been coming on Wednesdays: What does the Law do according to Romans? It brings about the knowledge of sin!
“The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple”:
What does God’s testimony do? It makes us wise. Wisdom is not the ability to know things, it is the ability to apply what we know. Wisdom is the ability to live life the way God designed it to be lived.
What is the opposite of wisdom? SIMPLICITY. The simple are those who lack discernment and good judgement. God’s Word brings Wisdom!
“The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart”: precepts are principles.
And what do precepts do? They cause rejoicing in the heart. That is, when God’s Word when read, meditated upon, and applied to our lives IT BRINGS US JOY!
How does God’s Word bring us joy? Because the servant who lives his life to please God IS ALSO PLEASED BY LIVING AN UPRIGHT LIFE.
Obedience to God makes one joyful! There is a return of satisfaction to those who do what is right.
Just like when a child shares a toy it makes him smile so does obedience to God make one smile
“The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”
That is, God’s Word gives us the ability to see. When we read it, and then apply it, what was dark and dim becomes very clear to us. And we can see righteousness and we can see sinfulness. And we can also begin to understand our conversion, lostness, and the greatness of God
“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever”
That is God’s Word never changes, there will never come a time when God says oh that doesn’t matter anymore. And there will never be a time when His Word does not exist.
The judgements of the Lord are true, they are righteous all together”
That is what God has said will come, will come. What He has decided in the future, are certain as the rising of the sun.
And they are righteous. What God judges is right judgement….He makes no bad calls.
Here’s the conclusion:
(v 11) “By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward”
God’s Word is a warning to mankind that what man cannot se or know has been given to him on the pages of Scripture. We are not to neglect it, we are not to cast it aside as if it does not pertain to our lives. AS IT IS WRITTEN SO SHALL IT BE!
But it is also there is great reward for those who take it seriously and make it their ambition to live it out. Our afflictions though may be difficult will all be worth it when we step into glory!
Charles Spurgeon said, “Saints may be losers for a time, but they shall be glorious gainers in the long run”
Man’s revelation of himself
Man’s revelation of himself
Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Explanation:
After the revelation of Creation, and after the Revelation of the Word of God, David then has a revelation about his own life.
God who is perfect; who is holy, who is sinless, who will judge the earth should cause man to say, “how will I ever stand before Him?
And David confesses, “who can discern his errors?”
In other words, who could ever meet this standard of perfection that God has placed before us? Who can live a perfectly righteous life?Who can perfectly obey God’s Law? Who can keep every precept? Who can stand before God with any confidence at all?
There are even things hidden that we do not even know about that are sins against God!
Application:
And that’s really the first step in anyone coming into a right relationship with God. It is realizing that we all fall short and we really have no confidence to stand on our own.
So David appeals to God’s mercy: “Acquit me of hidden faults” and again in verse 14 “and I shall be acquitted of great transgression”
The word “acquit” means to be freed from something, innocent from something, emptied of the guilt of sin.
The Revelation of man is that he realizes the depths of his sin and that even if he were to get everything right on the outside, even whats on the inside would still condemn us.
The depths of his sin are so great that the only way he could ever stand before the Creator of the earth is if somehow God were to acquit him of his guilt and let him go free.
And that brings us to the final revelation:
God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ
God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ
John 14:8–9 “Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father”
The great mercy David longs for in God is made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ.
God cannot just let people go free who have broken the Law. It would make Him an unjust God to have guilty sinners enter His courtroom and leave unpunished! And Romans says the whole world is guilty because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.
So God sent His Son to live a perfect life, born of a virgin, never broken the law neither in deed or in thought. No hidden sin in Jesus whatsoever, no transgression, no filthy stains, perfect righteous and holy. The ever man who ever walked the face of the earth who was free of any guilt.
And Jesus emptied Himself of His divine attributes so that He could give His life as a ransom for many. And they took Jesus and stood before the whole public world in a courtroom and was condemned to die as an innocent man. But as much as an injustice as this is, it was necessary for you and me and David to receive God’s mercy.
Because in that innocent death God could place on Him the inquiry of us all, and that anyone who would be willing to come to Jesus and trust Him, believe his words and do them would be acquitted of all charges and freed from their sin.
And God is saying to us in this Psalm and over and over in the pages of Scripture, come to Jesus. Look up and be convinced! Look in the Word and be convicted! Look inward and ask for God’s mercy!
Come like a beggar desperately in need of God’s grace, just like David did, and you will receive mercy.
~PRAYER~
