Sermon Tone Analysis
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Over the next few weeks, we will be considering the greatest gifts God has given to us.
Surely God has blessed all of us with good gifts.
James 1:17 tells us that if we have a good gift it came from God.
Your family is a gift from God.
Your home is a gift from God.
Your abilities are gifts from God.
God has loaded us down with gifts.
Psalm 68:19 says:
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.
All of God’s gifts are great but some of them are greater.
That’s what we will be exploring during the Christmas season.
This morning we begin with the gift of Scripture.
1. Creation Reveals God Exists (1-6).
A. God’s first revelation of Himself was written on heavenly scrolls.
“The heavens declare the glory of God”
The Psalmist tells us that God has put Himself on display.
He has proven His existence through His creation.
Creation declares that God exists every day.
Look at verse 2. “Day unto day” “night unto night”.
Creation is shouting to the world “God is glorious!”
Creation speaks to every language.
We see that in verse 3.
There is no language or speech where their voice is not heard.
Creation speaks to every person (4).
The message of creation reaches to every person.
Even if that person is separated from a city or even a nation.
It could be a small tribe or an isolated group or a single individual.
The Psalmist explains in verses 4-6 that just as the sun comes out everyday and shows itself to the world, creation reminds the world that God exists.
Every single day, from one side of the globe to the other God shows Himself to the same degree that the sun does.
Everyone can see there is a sun in the sky, and everyone can see there is a God.
This is called general revelation.
Paul says in Romans 1:20 that the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the visible things.
In other words, you know there is a Creator because there is a creation.
Paul goes further than that.
He tells us there is more to general revelation than creation.
He says the conscience is proof God exists.
In Romans 2:14-15 he says that the Gentiles who had never read the Law of God did by nature the things contained in the Law because the moral law of God is written on their hearts.
Not only has God revealed Himself on heavenly scrolls He has also revealed Himself on human hearts.
B. We can determine some things about God through general revelation.
1.
There is a God.
All societies and cultures begin with a belief in God.
Their belief may be wrong, but there is still a belief in God.
Atheism must be taught.
It contradicts what we can clearly see around us and within us.
2. God is at times good to us.
I’m speaking from the point of view of a person who doesn’t know the Bible.
They can look and see that God sends the rains to water their crops.
God gives them children
God protects them from death and disease.
That can be determined without a Bible.
3. God is at times not pleased with us.
They see drought.
They see death and disease.
They experience loss.
It’s then determined God is upset and some religion is invented to try and atone for sins and please God.
4. Some things are morally wrong.
That’s why each society has a list of rules.
Most often they are very similar to the laws we see in the Bible.
God has given every person a conscience and they can determine what is tight and what is wrong.
If God stopped with general revelation these are the things we could know about Him:
He exists.
He at times blesses people.
He at times disciplines people.
He expects righteous behavior.
C. General revelation is not enough for us to be saved.
The most we could know about God is that He exists and that we are sinners.
Why do so many religions exist?
Why do so many people have different ideas about how a person is reconciled to God?
It’s because the world knows God exists, but they don’t know much more.
Every idol come from man’s ideas about God.
Every false religion comes from a flawed understanding of who God is.
God could have left us right there.
He could have left us with nothing but general revelation.
Thank God He didn’t!
He gave us a Bible!
2. Scripture Reveals the God Who Exists (7-9).
A. The Bible is a precious gift to the world.
It can be trusted.
Peter spoke about this in 2 Peter 1:16-21.
He said we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
The Bible is not a collection of mythological tales.
Then Peter spoke about an experience he had.
He was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
He was an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus being transformed in all His glory.
He saw Jesus in the way Jesu will appear when He return.
Not only was he an eyewitness.
He said he was an ear witness as well.
He heard the voice of God say, “This is My beloved Son”.
But hold on.
Peter said he had something more sure than his experience.
He didn’t want them to trust him.
He said:
“We have a more sure word of prophecy.”
He was talking about the Bible.
He said “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Peter said he would trust the Word more than he would trust his own experience.
The Bible is precious because we can trust it more than we can trust ourselves.
One thing I have learned in my life is I will lead myself down the wrong path.
I can’t trust myself.
When I was lost I had what I thought were “spiritual experiences”.
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