May 21st: The Doctrine of Revelation
Speaker: Chris Laws
The ways in which God speaks unmistakably to all people in the world, as outlined in the Baptist Confession of Faith.
THE DOCTRINE OF REVELATION (BCF chapter 1)
Paul Brand, and the head. No means of knowing what he was like.
If somebody is expressionless, and says nothing we can’t know what they are like. We can’t read a person’s mind.
Even less can man know anything about God who is invisible, if God remains silent.
Therefore God must tell us about himself and speak to us; open His mind to us.
Take revelation away and man knows nothing of God.
That is obvious because man’s ideas about God are numberless.
A religion can only be true if it has a credible revelation from God.
God must reveal Himself to man. And He has done so in four ways.
1. INNER WITNESS
The BCF calls it “the light of nature”. Something God puts within every person.
We are created in the image of God. Our minds naturally believe in God.
No such thing as a neutral, objective person concerning God. We all have an inbuilt bias.
Romans 1.19 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them.”
Here “in” is emphatic – deep within. Forceful.
Romans 2.14-15 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the [written] law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law...show the work of the law written in their hearts.”
Calvin “written”: “indelibly engraved.”
That's why man has introduced countless religions; so great is this conviction he even falls down before idols.
Reg Lovick: in WWII when his regiment went ‘over the top’, every man knew there was a God.
• In witness we may assume the hearer’s heart will acknowledge God's existence.
• No ‘neutral’ people. Either for Him or against Him.
2. CONSCIENCE
Conscience provides an awareness of right and wrong, justice and injustice.
Fearful power, to be feared more than an army.
God hammers the point home. ‘I am not only here, but you have broken my laws’.
Bunyan pictures him as Mr Recorder shouting at the top of his voice in Mansoul. Recollection of sin.
Romans 2.15 “Their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.”
Foolish ideas about it being the product of upbringing.
3. CREATION
Psalm 19.1 “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Spurgeon: creation is the “natural Bible”.
19.1 They “declare” – silent ‘preaching’.
19.2 “Day unto day uttereth speech; night unto night sheweth knowledge.” Ceaseless 24/7 preaching.
19.3-4 “There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their line [of writing] is gone out through all the earth.” A picture ‘language’ which all nationalities may read: simple/learned, old/young, all cultures, all history.
19.6 The sun – “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”
Nothing hid from this testimony. Nobody can avoid this ‘preaching service’.
In Romans 1.18-21 Paul picks up the same preaching theme.
1.18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, who hold [down] the truth in unrighteousness”. So effective that men have to suppress it.
1.19 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them.”
It is “manifest”, made clear. Notice “in them”. So forceful that men cannot escape from it.
1.20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse”.
Universal, unavoidable, will render all speechless on Judgement day. We learn:
• All are guilty, even those who have never heard the Gospel – “without excuse”.
• Atheism is a suppressing of the obvious.
• The hardness of the human heart – stifling such a clear revelation.
The Rise of Evolution: as society has got more atheistic so science has uncovered more of God's handiwork.
4. BIBLE (SPECIAL REVELATION)
Necessary – man cannot figure out the Truth about salvation unaided. Left to himself he produces countless religions.
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1.21).
In 1000s of years from Creation to Christ nobody could figure out how man could be reconciled to God.
The need for Scripture!
Paul speaks of “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his saints” (Colossians 1.26).
How precious is God's Word, how vital – it makes salvation “manifest”.
Written. Anything important is required in writing. Man corrupts the Truth, so we need a definitive document.
BCF 1.1 “The light of nature and the works of creation…are not sufficient to provide that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary for salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord…to declare His will to His church; and afterward, for the better preserving & propagating of the Truth…it pleased the Lord to commit His revealed Truth to writing. Therefore the Holy Scriptures are most necessary.”
Foundational
Ephesians 2.20 “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” The writers of God’s Word.
Hebrews 1.1 “God who at sundry times & in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”
Long ago God began speaking through prophets.
Attested by signs and wonders so men knew who were giving God's Word. Vital.
John Owen: “God has, in His mind, an eternal plan or…truth...He wishes to make known this truth to us.”
• Treasure and read your own Bible. In it are unique riches that cannot be found anywhere else.
ATHEISM
What happens when we resist God’s revelations?
A. Rom 1.21-22 “When they knew God.” Knowledge put into Creation and into their minds by God.
Will not accept it so, “their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
When people “hold down” the truth, the heart is blinded: result a convinced atheist.
B. Psalm 14.1 “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.”
Hebrew “fool” is “nabal”, meaning to fade, wither, shrivel up. Atheism is shrivelled up reasoning!
“Has said in his heart, no God.” Atheism is in the heart, not an intellectual matter.
“No God.” Elohim = personal ruler, lawgiver. He doesn't want God’s rules, just freedom from them.
Christopher Hitchens who died 2011 once said, “I will not have a God who tells me what to do.”
14.4 “Have [they] no knowledge?”
“After all I have done to teach them”, says God, “haven’t they taken anything in?”
Atheism has led to the collapse of society today as predicted.
ITS FAILINGS
No explanation of
1. the human being
2. conscience
3. where the world came from.
4. where the universe came from. The Big Bang can’t explain it.
5. our conscious life: so familiar and so mysterious. Darwin wrestled with the eye’s optics; trivial by comparison with conscious life.
No guidance for life.
No reason for our lives. Ex-atheist LRBS student said suicide only logical course.
Purposeless society – drugs, entertainment, alcohol, pleasure-mad. Nothing satisfies. Emptiness inside.
PRACTICAL ATHEISM
Psalm 14.2 says God could not find “any that did understand, and seek God.”
“None”. Not a minority position. All men are practical atheists – they live as though He were not there.
Some are outwardly against God; some believe vaguely in Him.
But all live as though He didn’t exist. Nobody is neutral.
WITNESS
• Never think that atheists have a strong, reasoned position.
Creation ‘preaches’ against them; nature is full of brilliant designs that are way ahead of our technology.
• Don't spend time trying to prove the existence of God – it's built into people.
Tell them the Gospel; of your experience, of your deliverance from sin, the removal of sin's burden.
• Remember conscience is active from time to time, even in the hardened atheist.
When Paul witnessed to governor Felix, he trembled.
• Remember they have no purpose in life, no meaning, no understanding.
Lost in life and eternity – feel for them. Let them feel your Christian concern.
• Remember they may be hardened in unbelief.
Only the Gospel can soften them.
We have the only means in this world of changing atheists – the Gospel.
Pray God will have mercy on this foolish generation before it is finally too late, and use us to the salvation of many.
