Our Scripture reading tonight comes from Psalm number 19, and we will also cover the Belgic Confession, Article 2. So, you can find the Belgic Confession in our Forms and Prayers book, page 153. We will start reading the Article 2, and then we will go through Psalm 19. I will start the reading, and I invite you to read with me Article 2, the means by which we know God. Let's read. We know Him by two means. First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that the universe is before our eyes, like a beautiful book. in which all creatures, great and small, are its letters to make us honor the invisible things of God, His eternal power and His divinity, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1. All these things are enough to convict man 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. Thank you. This article of Belgian Confession will speak about the means that we can know God, and here He is dividing these ways in two. First, through creation, and secondly, through the Scripture. We will see the same organization in Psalm 19, which is the text that we will cover tonight. So, I invite you to open your Scripture in Psalm 19. I will read, and then we will meditate in the Scripture. This is what God says to His Word, and He says this, the heavens declare the glory of God. and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom, leaving his chamber and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving 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 rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward. who can discern his errors, declare me innocent from hidden faults, keep back your servants also from presumption sins, let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent 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." Amen. Let's pray to our God and meditate in the Scripture. Once again, thank You for the Word of God. Thank You for this deep knowledge about who You are. Thank You for this revelation of Your being. And help us, Lord, through the works of the Holy Spirit, to understand a small portion of who You are. Work on us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. We are in the second article of Belgic Confession. The first one we covered last week speaks about the only God. And knowing that there is only one God, there is another necessity for the Christian to know how can we know about this one God. Article 2 of Belgian Confession will explore this through two ways, and also Psalm number 19 will show us this in two ways. This is these kinds of sermons that foreigners will not be very glad because there are two points in this sermon. The first one is the revelation of God in the world, and the second is the revelation of God in the word. For me, it's the same word, but I'm sure that you will understand what I'm trying to say. The first one speaks about the revelation of God in creation in the in everything that we can see and in everything that we can observe through our eyes. The Psalter here, which is David, he used these verses, these six first verses to explore the greatness of the revelation of God to humankind. He starts, obviously, looking to heavens. The idea of looking to heavens is because heaven is the highest part of God's creation. We cannot see far from heaven. We cannot see without, of course, machines or things that we can build. We cannot see more than what our eyes can see. And when we look to heavens, we are able to see only a small fraction of the creation of God. We know that there are many things that God made on heavens. The celestial body is huge. We can see through telescopes many pictures of many planets, we can see pictures of stars, we can see pictures of other galaxies, but we cannot see those things through our eyes. But even so, David here is saying that those things, those that we can see and those that we cannot see without help, they are declaring the glory of God. What is David trying to show us here? He's trying to show to every Christian that the universe is proclaiming something, is declaring something every day during the time that there exists something in the creation. Since the first day, the attributes of God, they are being revealed through His creation. So a few weeks ago, I remember that we saw a rainbow outside of church. And it was very interesting to see a lot of people before coming to the service, stopping by that window in the back and admiring the rainbow. They were like, wow, that's amazing. So beautiful. It's not something that happens every day. Right? And we were looking to it and the rainbow, the rain, the sun, they were declaring something. They were speaking loudly about something. And they were saying that God is forever God and God is the creator of everything. This is what the creation will proclaim. Verse 2 will show that this is happening since the beginning. Day to day, night to night, the idea is continuing, is about a continuing communication of something. Creation is telling to everyone that there is a God. There is only one God who creates everything. And this is what David is trying to explore here to show that there is someone, there is something in creation that is pointing to God and that is talking about the greatness of our God. The Belgic Confession will interpret these verses and the other verses from this Scripture exactly like that, when it says that, 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. Here we are seeing the confession pointing exactly to what David said and was trying to show us. There is something in creation that wants to reveal much more than its beauty. It wants to reveal the greatness of the Creator. And this is what many people in this world, they are trying to avoid to see. They look to creation, they look to the greatness and perfection of creation, and they cannot admit in their hearts, in their minds, that God is the only One who can show, who can make and made these things. They are lost because they are trying to avoid this voice which is speaking everywhere in every part of the world. Verse 3 and 4, they will speak this showing more deeply that this is something that will bring a result by the end. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." And then we will see the last part in the next session, but here what David is saying The creation is showing and it's speaking something. We cannot listen the voice, but we still can identify the message. God is revealing Himself through creation. God is showing Himself through creation, and every human being every person alive will be able to identify that God is the Creator of everything. So, here, what they cannot understand is what the Scriptures help us to understand. It's like a beautiful creation that was organized and perfectly made to reveal something more. It's not by chance that we have the universe working perfectly like we have. It's only by the grace and the power of the God Almighty. This is being told every day in every part of the world. And the more wise man and the more simple man, they will be able to understand and identify this greatness. But David wants to show us that with an example, and he brings the Son as the example to show us how creation reveals itself and reveals the glory of God to His people. The son, well, like a bridegroom, he leaves his chamber, and like a strong man, he runs its course with joy. Every day we have something guaranteed and that is at one moment of the day the sun will arise. There is no chance of that doesn't happen for us because God made those things happen like this. So every day will start once the sun arises and shows the first light of the day. Of course, for some that comes earlier, for others it will not come during many hours of the day. Graciously, for us here, we still can see the sun every day. We don't have the problem of this reality of not seeing the sun for many days, like it happens in specific places in the globe. But here, We have guaranteed that the sun will arise. And once the sun arises, the sun is telling us a story. It's speaking about the story of our galaxy. It's showing that God organized this ball full of fire and explosions to heat all the other planets and to bring the the organization of these planets perfectly in a way that it will be able to have life in this planet by the same time that it's revealing the greatness of a Creator who organized that perfectly. If God created the sun a little bit far away from distance of the earth, probably we would not be here because it would be too cold and we would not survive in those circumstances. If the sun were closer to the earth, we would probably burn and there would not be life here. But perfectly, the sun is in the exact spot that God chose for Him, and the earth is in the exact spot that God chose for the earth. And besides a lot of premonitions about the end of the earth, about these kinds of things, nothing is happening. We are still here, and we will probably still here until the day that an end will come, and this end is not an accident of explosions or these kinds of things. No, the end will come when Jesus Christ comes at a second time to judge the nations. This is much bigger than an accident, intergalactic accident, or something like this. Because Jesus is the real light of the universe. He's the one who organizes and controls everything. But the Son is an example, and this organization shows something perfect. Perfection that points exclusively to God. God is the only one who creates everything. God is the one who made this perfection. God is the one to organize all those things. He is responsible for providing continuity to everything that exists. Providence also comes from God. And what Heidelberg...what the Belgic Confession adds to that is that...is what Romans 1.20 speaks about these same truths. And I will quote here for you so we can apply that to our hearts. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clear perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. What Paul is saying is looking to what David is telling us and others in the Old Testament will also tell us, is saying, well, for every human being that lives in this world and see the signs of creation, if they deny the existence of God, they have no excuse in the day of the judgment. Psalm 14 will go even deeper because Psalm 14 will say that the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And what the psalmist is saying is only foolish people can see the creation and say, well, there is no God. It's not God that create all those things. maybe an accident, an explosion, or whatever they are inventing today, if they say there is no God, they are being fool, foolish people, lost people, denying the greatness of a God who created everything. Well, we need to understand, though, that this first revelation, the revelation of God in the Word, is a revelation that doesn't contemplate everything. It's enough to condemn, but it's not enough to reveal salvation through the Son of God. So, that's why David will speak about the second part of his Psalter, and also the Belgic Confession will go further. We need something else besides creation to understand and to comprehend God better. We need a revelation that goes deeper in the knowledge of God than creation can offer. And that's why God spoke through His prophets to the people of God. And then we will have in verses 7 through 11. six statements that will show the greatness of the Word of God. Here we will see the word being expressed by six different names, the law, verse 7, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, rules. These six are speaking about the same thing. They are speaking about revelation, the revelation of God, especially in the Scripture. This revelation receives six adjectives for it. It's perfect, it's sure, it's right, it's pure, it's clean, it's true. All of this will guarantee that the revelation is something that comes from God and will bring assurance for the people of God that God is revealing through His Bible, through His Book, through His Word. And then we'll also bring six blessings that comes through the people of God when they listen and they understand the voice of God, the reviving the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, and righteous altogether. Those six expressions of grace, they come for those who accept the Scripture and show us deeper the greatness of the revelation of God to His people. But what David is telling us here is exactly what the Belgic Confession is saying in the first part of the second paragraph. He makes himself known to us more openly by His holy and divine Word as much as we need in this life. The idea is God, the Father, God, the Creator, God, the one who rules the universe, He is speaking and revealing Himself to His people. He's making Himself known through the revelation to His people. And we have then something greater than any other revelation or any other book that we have in this world. This revelation, it's not mere organization of stories. It's not just a book that they made it very well or a book that many men organized with a brilliant mind. No, no man that already lived or that will live is able to do something like this. This book was written not by man, but it was written by God. God is talking with His people. That's something deeper, that's something that should show the greatness of the book that we have in our hands. God is talking with His people. It's interesting to see people today seeking the revelation of God in so many ways. In many churches today, people are going seeking for prophets who can reveal the voice of God to them. They need to know what they must do, considering the situations in their lives, so they are seeking prophets. These prophets, they apparently they would bring the voice of God, the answers of God to the people. Well, they are going in something very dangerous and, of course, they are not listening to the voice of God. People today are seeking visions, they are seeking angels, they are willing to have deeper experiences in these kinds of things. Well, I remember one of my professors and he told that once in class, if you want to listen the voice of God, read the Scripture. And if you want to listen loudly, just read it loudly and you will listen the voice of God in a way that you will also listen through your ears. There is no other way. There is no other matter that God is talking and revealing Himself to His people. He wrote a book for you. a whole book for you and He's trying to communicate Himself to us. Can you understand the greatness of this? Can you identify what exactly means to have this book in our hands, a book that came from God, that's speaking the voice and the thoughts and the teaching of God to the people of God? This is precious. I'm not speaking about the paper or about the book itself. I'm talking about the words written in this book. Here we have a light to our path. Here we have a letter to the people of God that reveals everything that we need to know about our salvation. That's exactly what Paul said to Timothy when he said, all creature is breaded out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. that a man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." It's complete. Everything we need from God, everything that we need to know from God, it's being revealed by the Scripture. This is God speaking with us. Well, David goes even deeper in this interpretation. He says that the Scripture is more desirable than gold. Even much fine gold is sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honey come. Moreover, by them is your servant warmed. In keeping them there is great reward." David is saying there's nothing more precious than God speaking with His people. He's using the sweetness of honey and the gold because it's something rare in creation and it's something very expensive until today. And he's showing the richness of the Scripture by this. Do you want something sweet? The Scripture is sweeter than honey. Do you want something valuable? The Scripture values more than gold. So if the Scripture is more expensive than gold and sweeter than honey, why are we seeking honey and gold and not seeking the Scripture? That's a very good question. Why are we seeking wisdom? Why are we seeking the things of this world more than we are seeking God revealing Himself to His people? Do you know something? If we listen to the voice of God, we will realize that honey and gold, they actually doesn't mean anything. What is gold in the presence of God? It's interesting because Revelation will speak about gold again, but it speaks about gold when it talks about the streets of the new city. The new city, apparently, we don't know if this is figural or actual, but the idea is the streets of the city will be made by gold. So we will have gold there to stand in this gold, to kick the gold, to run upon the gold, because gold doesn't mean anything there. It cannot buy anything. It's not important for anything. It's nothing because there we have a treasure and this treasure is being revealed by the Word of God and it's Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ. So why do we need gold? We don't. Why do we need something sweet? Or why do we need good food? Or why do we need those things that we appreciate in this world? Well, because we are not understanding the greatness of Jesus Christ for our lives. Because if we comprehend who He is and what He's doing for us, we will leave our anxiety and we will stop to eat much more than we need and we start to be glad with everything that God is giving to us. That's something that the Scriptures talks about. Instead of working hard to have one house or two houses or to guarantee our retirement or to give possessions to our children, we will work hard to serve the Lord We will work hard to bring them to God. We will work hard to fulfill the missions of the church. We will work hard to worship Him well. We will dedicate ourselves to Him because this is important. This is the better thing that we have in this world. But sometimes we don't see those things clearly because instead of looking to the Scripture, we are looking to the creation. Well, I will say again, the creation is limited in revealing God. It cannot teach us everything we need about God. But the Scripture can. The Scripture is teaching us that there is nothing better than being His presence and living for Him day by day for all our life. And this is what David will say in the last verse. Pay attention, he was talking about the revelation of God in the world. the revelation of God in the world, and now he says in verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. What kind of response is that, David? What is happening? He's talking about the knowledge of God, and by the end he's saying about the meditation of his heart, the words of his mouth, the offerings that he can bring to God, his heart being acceptable to God. Why? Which kind of connection there are here? Well, the connection is exactly what I'm trying to show you here. When we know God, when we understand who God is, when we have intimacy with God through the scripture, when we see the greatness of God, we will not be able to live our lives as we lived before. It's impossible. It's impossible. We have so many examples in the scripture. People who were completely against God, and once they found God, they gave their whole lives to Christ. Take all the apostles as examples. All of them, they had a great life before many of them, Some of them, they were living in peace, they could have a peaceful life for their whole life, but no, they stand for Jesus Christ, they preach His gospel, they confess His resurrection, and they were murdered because of this. Even so, the doors of heaven were open to them. Do you remember about Stephan? Do you remember when he was being stoned? Well, this is literally what I'm talking about. His life was being lost here, but his eyes, they were seeing Jesus Christ in heaven, stand before the throne, waiting for his saint. Can you see? Well, why did Stephen give his life? Because he knew that there is much more richness, glory, and power when we follow God than when we follow the things of this world. There is nothing here that can bring more joy to your heart. There is no food who can bring more relief to your mind. There is nothing in this world that can bring more happiness to your soul. Only God is the answer for ourselves. He's God and we must follow Him forever. Let's pray and confess His name once again. Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for these revelations of Yourself for us. We are so thankful for creation, God, for everything that you made, giving us assurance that you made everything that exists. We know that perfection is an attribute of God and only for God. We cannot create those things, chance cannot create those things, but we believe that you can create everything that exists. And we believe that we are part of your creation. And we are part of Your revelation. We are part of the work of the Holy Spirit in this world. And that's why we are here to bring glory, to glorify Your name and to praise the name of the Lord of the creation. But we are also glad, God, that You gave us the Scripture Through so many years, You send many prophets to speak the truths of God for us. And here we are, God, having them translated for our language, and we have access to Your Word, and we can know You much better than those who reject Your revelation. And we pray, God, that may You help us to love the Scripture, May You help us to love, have this relationship with You. May You help us to go to You before we go to anything else in this world. Help us to try and to follow You in every commandment. Help us to, like David, say that our words, the words of our mouths and the meditation of our heart, they should be acceptable to you. Help us to live this and help us to stand for this. And may you will be glorified through our lives. And may we will find your grace and mercy day by day. And may we will be filled with your Holy Spirit. And we will confess and say to everyone that there is only one God, which is calling His people to repent and to follow Him until the last day. Help us, God, we pray.