Please turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 70, Confession of Faith, the Belgic Confession, Article 2, page 70. Continue the series we began last time of scriptural truths summarized in our Confession of Faith. Come to Article 2, by what means God is made known unto us. We know him by two means. First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, which is before our eyes as a most elegant book. wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters, leading us to see clearly the invisible things of God, even his everlasting power and divinity, as the Apostle Paul says, all which things are sufficient to convince men and leave them without excuse. Second, He makes himself more clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine word. That is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation. Let's take our Bibles and turn in them. First, to the book of Job. Job 12, beginning at verse 7. It's found on page 538 in the Pew Bibles. Job 12. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs. Job 12. People of God, hear now God's word. But ask the beasts. and they will teach you. The birds of the heavens and they will tell you. Or the bushes of the earth and they will teach you. And the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Let us turn in the New Testament to Romans 1, beginning our reading at verse 16. This is found on page 1,194, the Pew Bibles, Romans 1. Read verses 16 through 23. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. A congregation, if you were to walk into a stranger's house, if they were to invite you in there to a room within that house, and as you walk into that room, you look around and you would see a small bed with a flower print blanket or comforter on it. You see the walls painted pink or purple. You see dolls arranged on a dresser. You see dresses hanging on hooks. Children, what would you think about that room? You'd rather quickly realize this is a girl's bedroom. It's very clear, it's obvious. Now, you might not know much about that girl, her name, for instance, but you know some things already, even though you have not met her, stranger. Suppose there's a table in there and on that table is a journal written by this girl. No doubt, the journal would reveal even more about her, much more. There are many ways we find out about people who are initially strangers to us. It's similar with how God reveals himself to man. God is, in one sense, a stranger to us because we are mere creatures. He is God. We cannot see, we cannot hear, we cannot touch his essence. We cannot reach out and lay hold of God. He's God. But He has revealed Himself to us. The Bible teaches us this, which is what I proclaimed to you this evening. God reveals Himself to us. And He does so by two means. One being what we call natural revelation, and the other being special revelation. Let us look first at natural revelation, that God reveals Himself to us by the world around us. Children, we read from the book of Job, what would you do if you tried to do that? Ask the beast, they will teach you. The birds of the heavens, they will tell you. The bushes of the earth, they will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. Ask what? Who has done this? What if you would do that? Go up to your pet dog and ask your dog. Well, obviously, that dog won't respond, will it? Job doesn't intend us to actually ask them, but instead what he's getting at is something that's obvious. Obvious to all things, obvious even to brute beasts, even something like bushes of the earth. God is obvious. It's obvious in all creation that God exists and that he controls all things. It is foolish to think otherwise. The Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 1, what can be known about God is plain. Every person knows there is a God, knows God exists, and knows many things about this God. There are no atheists, not truly. There are people who claim to be atheists, that is those who claim there is no God. There are people who also claim to be agnostic, that is they claim to not know if there's a God. But we as Christians, God gives us an insight into them. They do know. The Bible makes clear that those type of people are ignoring all that is around us, even more, even worse. They're covering up, they're suppressing what they know to be true. Someone is speaking falsehood to you if he says he does not know if God exists. Someone is speaking falsehood to you if she says she does not think there's a God. Everyone knows there's a God. Even the birds, the fish, as Job said, ask them. The rocks, the grass, the trees, they all know this. Of course then humans know this. Humans, those who are made in God's image. We are just by nature too sinful to admit it. God has revealed himself to mankind. He has made it plain, plain, Scripture says, plain to man that He exists and what He is like, that He is so much beyond us. He is perfect and holy and good and just. All this is clear from the world around us. Natural revelation. Like walking into a stranger's room. Yet being able to tell certain things about that stranger, so is God's placing us in this world. It is obvious God created all things. Obvious that God is ruling all things. Now sinners don't like it. They don't find it agreeable. Sinful man does not like this knowledge because by nature we hate God. That doesn't change truth. Truth doesn't depend on whether we like it or not. Man knows this and God has made it plain. That's what we read in verse 19, Romans 1. So how foolish then our society has become when it refuses to talk or teach about God. What kind of education is it when someone refuses to connect this world, mankind's history to God? That is foolishness. The congregation realized the foolishness that is out there. They know the truth, there's a God and that He exists. God has made it plain, but they refuse to acknowledge it, to admit it. They are fools, as Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 say that. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. It's like going into a girl's room and seeing all the signs of what that room is, and then refusing to admit it. Claiming, I have no idea what this room is for. Or perhaps even worse, claiming some bachelor construction worker has this room as his garage. It's foolish. In our day and age, aren't we seeing more and more such foolishness? That's one reason why we as Christians, Reformational Christians especially, so strongly promote God-centered schooling. because it is poor education if a teacher or school system or textbook refuses to show students how all this is shows forth God and His glory. It's foolishness. And we want our children to have an honest education. And not acknowledging, not praising God, that's false, that's foolish. The Bible makes that clear. Children, as you go to school, as you learn, You know, learn 1 plus 1 equals 2, learn those, you know, square root of 3 and whatnot. But look at the big picture. God made all things. These are things your heavenly Father made, that your heavenly Father directs and controls. Science isn't just about chemicals and test tubes, clouds and water. It shows forth God's glory, His wisdom. History isn't just about names and dates, it shows forth God's control, His involvement, His plan. Literature class isn't just reading a book, it's about humans imaging God by creating their own worlds in the imagination. English grammar isn't just about prepositions and nouns or commas and semicolons, it's about how God delights. when humans order and communicate purposefully, clearly. And we could go on about natural revelation. Children, don't be bored in school. Don't be bored with homework. You might be asking a lot, but it's an opportunity to learn more about God, to praise Him. It is a great blessing. But there's more to God's revealing himself by the world around us. Look at the world, look closely at it. Pause, ponder. You see a bird flying through the air, wonder at it. The detail, the art, the wisdom, the power to make that bird, to make it fly. And that that bird traveled just that path at that particular moment that's all part of the vast plan and purpose of the Most High. Think of that with fall coming and the birds migrating, some birds migrating. Think theologically about the world around you, how it reveals God. Much of the creation of the cosmos we have no idea of. We don't know about all the worms that are in the ground, what bugs are crawling in the bean field, what fish are swimming in the deepest ocean or the pond just on the other side of the school. We don't know which raindrop, where it's falling and when. Try predicting the weather for next week, let alone the climate of this earth. We're still discovering entire galaxies of stars. We have no idea what's going on, but God created everything. He controls everything. He brings to pass exactly as He has decreed it to happen, everything. He knows, He governs, He upholds. Perhaps finish reading a book or looking at a well done film and we marvel how things tie together. It's worked out masterfully. That's nothing in comparison to what God is doing constantly in this world. But unlike a book, we won't come to the end of God's plan. It stretches on forever, even into the new heavens and the new earth. Marvel at that. Perhaps in the coming weeks you'll hold an ear of corn in your hand. Look at it. Look at the silk, children, maybe your mom wants you to husk that corn, to shuck it and you go outside, do what your mom says, do it in a timely way, but pause and just think, every strand of silk is tied to a kernel of corn. Look at the husk and how it's woven. When you taste it, savor that. Look at the kernels, they're in rows, mostly. Think of the different ways you can cook corn. You can use corn in ethanol, put in automobiles. Then think of all the millions of corn cobs and the corn stalks that, Lord willing, will be harvested this fall. Think of the rain and the sun needed for those to grow. Think of every second that went by while each one did grow. How clear it is. God exists. He is powerful, he is wise, he is orderly, he is artistic, he is good, he is generous. Look at the yield we get in the crops. Multiply all that by every housefly, every spider, every stone, every weed, every rabbit, every chicken, every tree or blade of grass. Look into the sky at night and look at the stars or what look like stars. We're told that one star might be actually a galaxy consisting of billions of stars, and there are billions of galaxies. Is there a God? What is this God like? It's obvious. Don't stop there. Remember what you learned in history class from reading history books, listening to stories your mother, your grandmother have told you. Think of God's hand directing the lives, the fortunes, the deaths of every one of your friends, your relatives, even nations and peoples. Asks the beast, look around. It's not happened by chance. It's the unfolding of a great drama that God has already decreed that he's now working out. Even what seemed to us like haphazard details that changed the course of history. That means hard times too. Again, we read from the book of Job in the midst of Job going through a very difficult time. God is not only the God of sunshine and harvest. He's the God of darkness and hailstorms. As the Men's Society group saw this past week, He is the God who creates light and darkness. He brings peace and calamity. He's the God who brings about our birth. He's the God who brings about our death. He shows mercy in sunshine and rain upon sinful man. He shows justice in famine and drought. all of history, all of creation, all of what we see in the cosmos is God's revealing to us His existence, His greatness, His governance, His perfections, His mercy, His justice. The fool says, there is no God. The fool knows there's a God. The fool doesn't want to admit there's a God. He must give account to this God. He is bested by this God. He is a fool. You and I, congregation, by God's grace, we confess this God. And we rejoice in all his revelation to us. We don't delight in hard times for their own sake, but in all things we are to praise God. How he reveals himself to us, that's something to think the next time, children, you have the stomach flu. What does that reveal to you about God? And that you get over it, hopefully, in 24 hours or less. What does that reveal about God? We praise our God, don't we? God reveals himself to us by the world around us. Open your eyes. See how God makes himself known to you. But there's more. There's more to the means by which God reveals himself to us. Then we move to that in our second point, by his word to us, by his word. And we ought to open up our eyes to the world around us, realize how we know God by His creation, His preservation, His government of the universe, as our confession of faith brings out. We call that, again, natural revelation. Some people want to stop there. They think they can know all that they ought to know, need to know. They're mistaken. What God has revealed of Himself in the world around us in history, it is enough to leave men, as we read, without excuse. Natural revelation is enough to convince man who God is, but there's a problem within men and women, boys and girls, a problem within us. Everyone knows there's a God, knows that God is awesome simply by living in his world. Not everyone acknowledges God. Not one of us knows God as we ought to know him from his creation, not even Christians, and that's because of sin. We're sinful. Even we as Christians, we have sin clinging to us, and it affects our knowledge, how we know things. It affects how we know God. Sin clouds our minds, and so we don't acknowledge as we ought God's glory displayed in the creation, the preservation, the government of the universe. Because sin clouds our minds, we think wrongly of God from what we see in the world. We live in this fallen world, in this body of death, we can't escape those effects. Even on our knowledge, our knowledge too, our minds are fallen. How horrible sin is. It blurs our knowing the source of our life, the fountain of all good, the great and mighty God. Sin within us clouds our view of natural revelation. But God, in His grace, He's not left us, His people, in sinful rebellion. He's gone further. He makes Himself more clearly, more fully known to us by His holy and divine Word, which we call the Bible. This is what we call special revelation. And over the next few weeks, God willing, we'll consider more about the written Word of God, about the Bible. But right now, let us say that by God's word, the Bible, he makes himself more clearly, more fully known. That is, while man can see and know some of God's power and might and justice and mercy in the world around us, God more clearly reveals it when he wrote in his word about his power, about his might, about his justice, about his mercy. Special revelation. So too, mankind around us, those who have never read or heard any part of the Bible, they have some work of the law in their heart, so they can judge some things wrong and some things right, so that generally people, they would admit that cold-blooded murder of their son is wrong. A sinful man does not always live according to what they say is right and wrong, but in general, even heathen nations, have some laws against murder or theft and rape, but you think about it, how can you talk about this work of the law, man's heart? How can you reason with someone about it? Ultimately, it comes down to saying something like, well, it's just wrong, it just seems wrong. But God has given us in his word a clear statement of right and wrong, of his righteous standard, of what he expects. He says clearly, You shall not kill. Now we might debate what type of killing God is forbidding, but it's very clear God forbids killing. We don't have to end our questioning about what is right and what is wrong with saying it just seems wrong, it just feels wrong to me and truth might be different for you. We end with saying it is wrong because God has said it here in the Bible. Special revelation. Think of detective stories where the sleuth is able to solve a crime by observing small details and piecing them together. Most of us need that sleuth to fill us in, because we're not as keen. Or think again, the illustration of walking into a stranger's room, and you can tell many things about her from simply looking around, but if she would hand you her journal, and she would invite you to read it, you would find out so much more. So it is with the Bible. God reveals himself more clearly to us in his word, by his word. But there's something more about God's revealing himself by his word, and that, as we read from Romans 1, while God's invisible attributes are clearly seen from what he has made, the apostle wrote that in verse 20, the righteousness of God unto salvation is not revealed in nature. But as the apostle wrote in verse 17, it's in the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. God created this world. He governs it. He entered into his work of preservation and governing after creation. God created everything very good, without sin at all. Something that general revelation won't tell us is what exactly happened next. God tells us in His Word, man sinned, Adam sinned, and then everything changed. This good creation that's broken now wasn't originally broken. Natural revelation doesn't tell us that history. God's Word does. Here's how things were in the beginning, creation. Here's what happened in the fall. Sin stained everything. And through sin, death entered into the world, not just for man, but for all creation. This broken world is the world we live in, that we're part of. And we, from God's word, then we have a way of viewing the world that the unbelieving world doesn't. Because we know that man's condition didn't come about because we're human. It's not because simply we're uneducated. Or it isn't because we have civilization or don't have civilization. all these theories and philosophies of government and man and this and that, the Christian clearly says, here's what went wrong, it's sin. And there's no message of salvation to be found in creation either. It must come from another source and it comes only from the word of God, the gospel that is proclaimed in the word of God. The gospel is the story of Jesus. God sent his son into this world who took upon himself our human nature. and in that nature fulfilled all righteousness for us, even to the point of suffering on the cross for sin, being a sin offering all the way to death. By doing so, he paid for sin. And with his resurrection on the third day, he has brought righteousness and life to us, the kingdom of heaven and power, that God forgives the sins of everyone who entrusts himself to Jesus. We don't hear that in the world around us, but we hear it page after page in the Bible. Trust Jesus. God's love, God's grace in Christ, here is where we hear it. This doesn't even come from the history books of man. Now, it's real history, real events in our world occurring about 2,000 years ago. And while unbelieving man's history might mention events related to the gospel, History itself doesn't proclaim the meaning of those events, doesn't call us to faith and repentance. It's outside natural man's ability to do so. God had to reveal it, and he has special revelation. Again, the gospel declares that Jesus is the Son of God. Man's history can't do that. The gospel declares that by his accursed death, he satisfied God's justice against the sin of his people. Man's history can't make that judgment. can't declare that truth. The gospel declares that Jesus rose on the third day, ushering in the reality of something that we have in part but will have fully. And man's history can't tell the future. But it's here in the gospel, in God's word. And so the righteousness of God unto salvation cannot be found out in God's creation, in his preservation, in his government of the universe, not even in the history books of man. It is, however, as the apostle said, it's in the gospel. This gospel recorded in the Bible, this gospel God commissioned the church to proclaim, it's the gospel I declare to you this evening, that the Son of God has come. He has brought righteousness, peace, and joy. As God's servant, I urge you to do what the natural world doesn't do. The natural world can declare you're a fool, for not admitting there's a God, for not thanking Him. But only the Gospel urges you to believe and have your foolishness forgiven. Have all your sins forgiven for the sake of Jesus. And turn from your foolishness every day of your life. It's not something only for unbelievers, but for believers as well, because our faith is weak. Our righteousness is imperfect. Each one of us must constantly go back to the gospel and to the word of God in its entirety to learn more about God's righteousness, God's goodness, God's justice, God's grace, God's doings. Brothers and sisters, turn daily to the scriptures. Spend time daily reading the Bible, meditating on the Bible, what God says in it. Learn more about God from special revelation. Spend time throughout the week meditating on the sermons you hear so that the proclamation of the gospel will always be in your mind and heart and on your tongue. Because you will not get it from the world around you. You will not find testimony to God's grace to sinners in natural revelation, but only special, only the gospel. You cannot see the kingdom of God with your earthly eyes, but only through faith in God's message, God's word. Read and believe. Are you burdened by sorrow, by sin, maybe some hardship you have, by uncertainty about the future, maybe about sickness? You won't find a clear word from God for these in the world around you. You might learn, rightly, how to do your finances or find an earthly cure for sickness, sure, but you will not find the proper perspective to deal with them, regardless of what happens. You will not find out God's intent toward you from your life circumstances. You will not find true comfort in the world, but only from the gospel. For the gospel declares God's love for you. God's love in Christ for you, believer. And being assured of God's love for you, God's love to a sinner, that is the greatest knowledge of all. That is our only comfort, that we belong, body and soul, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And we don't find out about that from the world around us. So many people, though, we hear that they, in one way or the other, they're looking for confirmation of God's love, acceptance, God's will for them, of God's presence. And they look to the things of the world. They look to experience, to some emotional high. They look to drugs, they look to alcohol, to cover over the pain. They look to work to give them meaning, to family to give them happiness. They look in gatherings, to religion, Charismatic gifts, even. They want to contact the divine directly. Maybe they can do that in some way. They want to feel God's nearness. They want to sense God's grace, God's love. Do something. That's not for us. We are to live by faith in God's word, not by sight. There's a reason our confession of faith begins with God and then jumps right into Revelation and Scripture. We are to live by faith in God's word, not by what we think or experience or feel. God has revealed himself in creation, preservation, government of the universe, and that includes our experiences, our emotions, even our thinking, natural revelation, but he makes himself more clearly and more fully known to us in his holy and divine word. We believe this. It is from that word that we are assured of His presence in Christ, His love for us in Christ, that no matter what's going on in our life, good or bad, that does not make me right with God. I am right with God because of Christ, only through faith in Him. His grace, His glory, they are ours in Christ. And so don't go to natural revelation. Don't go to experience. Don't go to the world to get a clear understanding of God's intentions toward you. Go to the Word of God. Go to the Gospel of Jesus. Trust God's Word above all. It is our authority for faith and life. It alone is clear regarding all that is necessary for us to know for faith and life. Alone. is clear regarding what we need to know for eternity now. As the Apostle Paul wrote, in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Hear the gospel, hear the word, trust him and live. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us. Creation around us, marvelous. We can't even plumb the depths of it. We'll be learning more about it our whole life long, but especially in your word, where you clearly reveal all that we need to know for life and godliness. Open our eyes. Work in us a true knowledge and a true and living faith always, and an increasing faith in You and Your grace in Christ, that we would live, that we would live by faith, faith in Your promises, faith in Your Word. And so bring glory to You. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.