We'll continue our study of the Belgic Confession looking together at Article 2 this afternoon. And in connection with that, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 19, and then to Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans 1. So first then, Psalm 19. In Belgic Confession, Article 1, we began by confessing that we believe in God. And then we explored some of the attributes of the God that we believe in. Here now in Article 2, we face the question of, well, how do we know this God? How do we know this God? And that's what we find taught to us here in God's Word in Psalm 19, and then also in Romans 1. So here now, God's Word from Psalm 19. for the director of music, a psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. And now I invite you to turn with me to the New Testament, to Paul's epistle to the Romans, Romans chapter one. Romans one, Paul continues with this theme of God revealing himself to us through creation. but in a slightly different tone than Psalm 19. Hear now God's word from Romans 1.18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. And although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised Amen. I invite you to turn with me to Belgic Confession Article 2. You'll find that in the back of your Psalter hymnal or in your Forms and Prayers book. In your Psalter hymnal, it's on page 855. Article two is entitled, The Means By Which We Know God. And since this is our common confession, we'll recite it in unison together. We know him by two means. First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God, his eternal power and his divinity, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1, verse 20. All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse. Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine word, as much as we need in this life for his glory and for the salvation of his own. dear congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The story is told that after Helen Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God to Helen and tapped out the symbols for the name God. Much to Miss Sullivan's surprise, Helen spelled back, Thank you for telling me God's name, teacher, for he has touched me many times before. How could Helen Keller have known about God? It was because although she was blind, deaf, and mute, Helen Keller knew God for God had shown himself to her. That is revelation, God revealing himself to his people. As we consider Belgic Confession, Article 2, God's revelation is our main focus this afternoon. Last week, we looked at how our confession shows us that we believe in God, that He is one, and then reflects on many of His wonderful characteristics or attributes that we know about Him. But if you look at the first two articles of our confession, you can see a logical connection. If, as Article 1 says, we believe in God who is one, but who is among other attributes also invisible, we might ask, well, how then do we know this God who we cannot see? Further, how can we describe this God with any confidence? These are the questions that Article 2 answers. I think you'll discover as we work through the Belgic Confession that its theology follows a logical path. It builds on itself. It's not just an information dump as you might feel if you just randomly open it. And neither is it a bunch of facts thrown together. But it is rather a document with flow and direction and even a sense of beauty. And so Article 2 teaches us that the true God reveals himself by two means. First, by his creation which reveals his reality. And second, by his word which reveals his redemption. And so we'll begin by looking first at God's revelation by his creation which reveals his reality. Even in our Canadian culture which in many ways is atheistic, it must be admitted that the idea of God is nothing new. And inseparable to the idea of God is the question of knowing God. In most religions, the knowledge of things divine has been regarded as dependent upon the divine beings revealing themselves. Other religions have different ways of discovering these so-called revelations. Think of ancient peoples and their ways of trying to know their God. They would turn to the reading of signs. They might look at things like tea leaves, or the entrails of animals, or constellations. And all of these are thought to include coded messages from the divine. Among the Greeks, this view was exchanged for the idea that man could know things, even divine things, the things of God, through man's rationality, through man's reason and reflection. Socrates and Plato were influential in furthering this particular idea. Here the emphasis shifted from God's activity in revealing himself to humanity, to man's activity in climbing himself up to the things of divine. But here in our confession, and indeed throughout the Bible, we find how God teaches us that he reveals himself. And we find it taught clearly that it is only through God revealing himself to us that we can know him. And one of the ways which God's word tells us he reveals himself to us is through his creation. And if we're going to consider God's revelation through creation, what better place to look than Psalm 19 and those familiar and beautiful words. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth. Their words to the end of the world. It isn't hard to agree with David's words here, is it? No doubt most of us, if not all of us, have experienced the conviction as we look out on some wonderful view that this is creation, that there is a creator. Think of the last time you stood outside on a dark night and looked at the stars. Or think of the last sunset or sunrise you watched and the beauty that you saw there. Just like Helen Keller could testify to a sense of God, we too can know the sense of God as we see the beauty of his creation. The intricacies of the natural world testify to a God of order and beauty. Well, our confession adds to creation, preservation, and governance of the universe as further things that reveal God's existence to us. And when we make this confession that God also reveals himself not only in creation, but also in preservation and the governance of all things, we're making a further statement about our God. We're making it clear that the God that we believe in is no unmoved mover. He's no God who doesn't care. So we deny here the teaching of deism. Deism is a belief that you might find even among your co-workers or classmates at school. Although they might not even know what it means. Deism is simply the recognition that there is a God somewhere. Perhaps even that God is sovereign. He is the ruler of all things. The creator even. But they say that this God is far removed from the world that he has created. That he's quite indifferent to his creation. I'm sure you've seen that in culture around us, this idea of a God who doesn't care. Deism believes in a God, but it believes Him to be uncaring, unconcerned about what happens here in creation. But that's not our God. We see in our confession that not only is our God our creator, He also preserves and He governs the world that He has created. But isn't it easy to forget that? It's easy to go along day after day and look at the pattern of weeks and days and months and seasons and see simply natural forces at work, the cycle of nature. We see how summer flows into fall and fall into winter, and we think, there go the seasons again. Of course, that's true, isn't it? But on a deeper level, there is more to be seen there. Because we believe that it is our God who upholds all of these things, who keeps things together. That without His express intention in keeping the world moving as it is, it would cease to be the moment that He ceased to uphold it. That's quite something to think about, isn't it? But that's what we believe about our God. He is that essential to our world. And God also governs all things. He rules the world, as that well-known hymn says. We believe that our God is in control of all human powers and governments on earth as well. But His governance is more than simply that. God is also working and guiding through all of the things that occur here on this world so that they will serve His will. Think about how many things are happening even every second in the world around us. Think about combining an episode of National Geographic with a page from your high school biology textbook, and thinking of all the things that are happening with sociology and the people of this earth, and recognize that God is working all of that together to his plan. That's immense. It's hard to wrap our minds around. And yet, that is the God that we worship. He governs all things to serve His will. And we believe that God alone gives meaning to history. That when we look back on peoples that have come before us, on people and places and the rise and fall of empires, all of that is a testimony to God's work. God gives meaning to history because He controls the destinies of peoples and nations. and that these too proclaim His story. Most of all, in the story of His covenant people. But if we hold that God's general revelation, His revealing Himself in creation, preservation and governance of all things, is available to all people, Even as the Psalm declares, to all the ends of the world, there is no place where creation does not proclaim the glories of God. There's no language that it does not speak. Then we face a question. Well, how then does some not know this God? How is it that some can look at the wonders of creation and remain convinced that there is no God? Or remain devout worshipers of some other God? Our understanding of revelation is that it exists. There is general revelation. That God does reveal himself in creation, preservation, and governance of all things. But it's not as simple as that. Because we also recognize that humanity, blinded by sin, can only know the Holy God if God opens their eyes. Yes, as our Confession says, creation serves even as a book in which every letter of the book is a character or a person or an animal in this world that shows God's glory, that testifies to God's identity. But even as we affirm that the heavens declare the glory of God, we maintain that man cannot know this Creator unless God opens his blind eyes because sin has blinded us to the identity of God. We cannot know God as our creator and sovereign in the world by means of strictly scientific investigation of nature, history, or human experience. But this doesn't mean that God fails to speak to man's head and heart through general revelation. God is speaking, even through creation. But rather what we would say is that God's revelation is impaired, it is stopped by man's sin. Shows us again just how much sin affects humanity. It more than brings our death, it blinds us to God. It changes the way that we even look at the world around us, unless the Spirit opens our eyes. And that's why general revelation is not enough. It's not enough to bring humanity into a full knowledge of God. When we think of general revelation, we need Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. But the full story of general revelation also includes Romans 1, 18 to 25. Yes, God's creation, his provision and his governance, or his preservation and governance, declare the glory of God. This is our Father's world. But we can only see this when the blindness of sin is lifted from us. Otherwise, we're like the people that Paul describes in Romans 1, where he says that since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, his divine nature, they've been clearly seen, being understood from what he has made. So that man is without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. This is why we stand in need of a further revelation. Yes, God's creation reveals his reality. But we see in his special revelation, in his word, his revelation of redemption. As our confession states, general revelation is enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse. It's not that God hasn't shown himself to all people on earth. God speaks to all creation day after day through creation. It's not that God doesn't speak, but that we will not hear unless He gives us His grace. Just as the children are right now learning in Sunday school, they're studying Genesis and the fall into sin with Adam and Eve. Well, Adam and Eve fell into sin in the garden, and through Adam's fall, all of humanity fell. Adam was our representative. And therefore, all of us, as represented by Adam, as affected by Adam's fall, are blind to God's message. We're deaf to his words. Our hearts will not acknowledge him unless he first begins to work in us out of mercy and grace, and opens our eyes and ears by His Spirit. But then we ask, well, what of those who have not heard of the Bible, who do not know of Jesus Christ as God's Son, and yet they believe devoutly in a God? What do we make of their faith? Have they somehow caught a glimpse of God through His general revelation? One theologian explains that to condemn their confessions as mere hypocrisy is at first unjust. Those who make them may not be dismissed as liars and imposters, but we must ask, who is the God that they worship? Hermann Bavink, a brilliant and faithful theologian of the late 1800s said this in response. He said, I do not believe that there is any other way to test the intrinsic value of the religious songs of the Gentiles than by revealing to them the name of our savior and king. And he continues, if upon hearing the story of his incarnation, of his work of salvation, They who have never heard of Christ respond spontaneously and immediately with recognizing him and begin to believe in him. It may be taken for granted that it was really God whom their hearts were seeking. In this way, Bavinck allows that it is possible for the human heart to see the true God through God speaking to them through general revelation. But he maintains that it is only through special revelation, through Christ, that they will be saved. There is no other way. They need the fullness of God's gospel to rest in him. And that's why the mandate to bring the gospel to all nations is so important. Although God has revealed himself in the creation and preservation and governance of all things, he has more clearly and more fully revealed himself to us in his word. And it is in God's word, the Bible, that we can truly and fully, insofar as we need to, know our God. And it is in this written word that God confronts us with his message of grace. He takes this Word and He makes it effective in our thought and in our lives. This is no dead book. Rather, this is a living Word. The Bible is a living Word, a Word which the Spirit uses to give life. It's not merely a narrative, a history book of what happened thousands of years ago. It is God's perennial speech to man. It is God speaking to us from generation to generation. God has spoken and he will speak to humanity through the Bible. Our confession is clear. We need God's word to truly know him and the salvation that he reveals to us, both for his glory and for our salvation. But then we might ask, well, what is the message of this special revelation, of this word of God? Look with me again at Psalm 19. We see there in verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. Hebrew poetry is different than our English poetry in some ways. And where we would often rhyme things in English poetry, Hebrew poetry makes its impression with repetition. And the psalmist here is really repeating a key thought. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. David moves from delighting in the creation and the way God reveals himself in the wonders of creation to delighting in the law of God. And that might seem like a strange thing to you and I to delight in. Because if we read our New Testament, if we read the books of Paul especially, we find Paul writing about how the law brings wrath. The law, the letter of the law kills. But the psalmist here, David here says, yes, but the law of the Lord revives the soul. It also brings life. How is that? David delights in God's law. Well, it would help us, first of all, to understand that the Hebrew word for law is broader than our word for law. It includes not only what we might crystallize the law as, such as the 10 Commandments, but it also includes all the ways which God reveals himself to us. Law in the Old Testament includes all that God wants us to know about him. Isn't it true that our sin-bent minds are quick to associate God's law with rules? Rules that hold us back from true freedom. But such a way of thinking is evidence of sin's blindness. Because as David says, the law of the Lord is a rule, but it is the rule of life. It doesn't restrain us from truly expressing ourselves. It doesn't hold us back from having fun. David says the law of the Lord revives the soul. It makes the simple wise. It gives joy to the heart. It gives light to the eyes. in God's revelation to us. He shows us the truth of how he has made us to live. He shows us the guide. And his law, we can think of it like a guardrail along the edge of a drop into the ocean. And this guardrail keeps us both close to God and prevents us into falling into the icy depths of sin. As David says in verse 11, the law is more than a warning. Keeping the law brings great reward. And that confronts us with a question, doesn't it? It asks, can you testify to that in your life? Have you experienced the satisfaction that comes with ordering your life according to God's law, according to all that God has revealed about himself and his word? Is that something that you can understand, can grasp? Have you experienced the emptiness that comes with sin, of how it leaves you dead inside? When the temptation comes, it seems like that's the only thing that matters to sin. But when you sin, what happens? You're left despairing, empty. Have you experienced that? Well, David says the law of the Lord brings life. Living according to God's law doesn't leave you empty and hopeless. It gives you happiness. It gives you life. And God's word is more than just his law book. Even in verse 12, David hints that we need more than just this law. Paul is not wrong to talk about the law as bringing death in the New Testament. Because as David says here, who can discern his errors? He says, forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. This is the psalmist David talking. the man after God's own heart, and he knows the struggle with sin. David knew what it was like to be a child of God and yet not to be free from sin. He could wax eloquent about the glories of God and creation, about the delight of keeping God's law, and yet he could turn then from saying that to praying that God would guard him from sin, to lamenting his sin. So we see here in God's Word that we don't just need God's law for salvation. We need something more than that. The law points the way, it's true, but it cannot rescue us when we fall into sin. I think the law is like a GPS. It shows us the route to life. But as you're following the track of the GPS and you make one small wrong turn, All of a sudden it breaks and it just repeats, sinner, lost, hopeless. It's not a very useful GPS if you've broken the law because it shows you again and again your sin. It just tells you you're lost. And so even here in Psalm 19, we're confronted with the fact that we also need a law keeper. David himself could not keep this law perfectly, and neither can we. But God's revelation is not done with only His law, because we find further in God's Word the account of man's sin and Genesis, and then there also the promise of God's hope for the world to save His creation. And we find, as we continue reading in God's Word, that in the fullness of time, God came to His creation. Born of a woman, taking to himself a human nature like us in all things but sin. And he lived a life of perfection. God's word shows us how Jesus kept the law for us in every way. How he became the perfect sacrifice for us. Truly God, able to bear the punishment of sin, and yet truly man. so that he could stand with us as a new covenant head, a second Adam, bearing the sins of all of his people in his death, but then bringing the dead to life by his resurrection. And God's revelation shows that now Jesus rules at God's right hand and that he guards his people that He brings them by His Spirit at work in them to Himself. And then God's Word closes with presenting us in Revelation a picture of the end times, of the return of our King. And it shows us the joy that awaits all who come to Christ for forgiveness, the joy of eternity with our Creator. the joy of the new heavens and the new earth. The law of the Lord, the revelation of the Lord brings life. We see as we read God's word that in it is as much as we need to know of God in this life, both for God's glory and for our salvation. But as we close, We should also note that even this great revelation in the Bible, this special revelation as we call it, discerning from God's general revelation and creation, even this special revelation is of little use to us if it's just sitting on our shelves. If we're not reading it. If we're not seeking to live our lives according to it. If we're not letting its Word confront us as the Spirit works in our hearts with our sin and bring us to the cross and bring us once again into a life of grace, serving our Savior, taking up our cross and following Him, looking forward to the day of resurrection. And so we must know this God. We must read it. We must see Him in creation. For in this word, we know God and our God is worth knowing. And he calls even you, even I to join him. To join in his praise and together with the heavens and the earth to declare his glory. What a wonderful call to each one of us. Amen.