Well, we're going to be looking at Chapter 7 today in our study of the Holy Scriptures. Quick question before we get started. This is going to require some memory. How many of you, if you think back to when you were a kid, okay, think back to when you were a kid, And tell me, what was your favorite excuse when you got caught doing something wrong? Oh, you weren't caught doing anything wrong, is that what you're telling me? Okay. When you got caught doing something wrong, what was one of your favorite excuses? You remember? No excuse. Yeah. Anybody else? Think back. The devil made me do it. Yeah. Yeah. And in a roundabout way, he was right, wasn't he? In a roundabout way, in the origination of doing wrong, Flip Wilson was certainly right. But for most situations, though, it doesn't require a whole lot of extra encouragement to blame something on somebody else, does it? Now, also think back, if you have children, what is one of their favorite excuses for doing something wrong? Yeah. Well, the question was, who did this? And what's the pat answer? They did, he did, or we got it from our two boys, I don't know. I said, if I ever get a hold to I don't know, we're going to give him a good whipping too. But we'll find out and we'll learn that as a result of the revelation of God to humankind, there are no excuses. there are no excuses. And so let's start by, last week, of course, we took, with Robbie, we took a broad look at the revelation of God. And so the author says, looking more specifically, we're going to be looking now, the next two chapters, two types of divine revelation, general revelation and special revelation. I kind of like to call the special revelation specific revelation. But general revelation, the author says, refers to what God has revealed about himself through nature, through human intuition, through the conscience, and through the general course of human history. Those are the four categories that we'll be looking at this morning, is nature or creation, human intuition, the conscience, and the general course of human history. This is called general revelation because it's given to everybody. It's given to all men. It's not given to a specific person in a specific particular situation. But there are some limitations to this general revelation. The author says it provides only a limited or general revelation of God. And like I say, we're going to be looking at four categories. of general revelation, and that is creation, intuition. How many of you are very in tune with your intuition? Depend on it a lot? Hmm. Conscience, and that is a very controversial subject, especially in philosophical. circles, and also we'll be looking at human history, how God has revealed himself throughout the history of human beings. All right, let's first look at the creation side. We certainly know that God is the creator of all things. There's nothing that exists that he did not create. He created everything that we see physically. He created everything spiritually, okay? He also created the heavens, the earth, and all the inhabitants. So it shouldn't be strange that we find God's fingerprints throughout all of his creation. Now, if you think of it, the author calls it contemplating creation. If you sit and think about creation, that's what he's talking about there, contemplating creation. If you think about it any length of time, you can certainly affirm that the existence and the power of God exists because of that creation. Now let's look first at Psalms 19, one through four, and we're gonna ask for the question, what does this teach us about the revelation of God through creation? All right, verse one says, the heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day it pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun." So how in Man can affirm the existence of God through creation. Creation more than adequately declares not only the existence of God, it declares his glory, as the scripture says, it declares his handiwork, it shows his handiwork. Interesting, it kind of looks like there's a contradiction in the passage there, but the note we should take from that Somewhat obvious contradiction, is there no speech or language that is hidden from the silent voice of God's creation? The author says there, if you read that in verse two, that day to day the creation pours forth speech. But in verse three we read that there is no speech, nor are there words. Although no real voice or even sound is heard, Creation is constantly giving testimony to the glory of God. I don't know how you can look at a beautiful sunset and not contemplate the existence of God. I don't know how you can look at the multiple species and subspecies of everything in the exact order and the way they function interactively with one another and not understand that this is God's handiwork. I come from a background where you like to cover your bases by giving odds on things, okay? You think about creation and how it all fits together and the fact that the earth is on such a sensitive axis that all it's got to do is be off one half of a degree one way or the other and nothing exists. You think about that. You think about the power of God that holds all of creation together. What are the odds of that happening accidentally? Folks, it would be astronomical. at the odds of all that happening accidentally. And we'll get into it a little further. Creation is constantly giving testimony to the glory of God, even though there is no voice, audible, and there's no words that are heard, but it's constant. Let's look in Romans 1, 19 and 20, and we'll see what Romans 1, 19 teaches us about all men. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them." So our blanks are obvious here, aren't they? Our blanks are obvious. That which is known about God is evident within them. And the author says this phrase, within them, proves that God himself has imprinted this knowledge upon the very heart of every man. Creation simply acts as a confirmation of what men already know. You don't have to be convinced by creation because the knowledge is already there. God imprinted it on the hearts of men, but the creation is just a remarkable confirmation of what men already know, that there is one true God who's worthy of worship and obedience. And the second part of that, for God made it evident. It's evident to all men that God exists because God has made it evident to all men. And in Scripture, there's two basic interpretations or meanings of the word all. And in this case, it's defined as every. Okay? In certain cases, let's say, okay, money is the root of all evil. Okay? Well, it's certainly a root of greed, you know, and that sort of thing. It can be a root of jealousy, but there's a lot of evil that exists that has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with money. That interpretation of the word all means all sorts of. Okay, all sorts of. And so that's, it says it's evident to all men, and in this interpretation, it means it's every man. And it's there because God put it there. The knowledge is not dependent upon man, just like everything else concerning the sovereignty of God. It is a work of God. Okay. We don't have this knowledge because it's something we learned. Okay. It's because God put it there. It is a knowledge that is inherited every man. And for this reason, every man is without excuse on the day of judgment. Every man is without excuse on the day of judgment. I don't know. I didn't know. It's not going to be an excuse. That's the one I was after when my kids would tell me that. Who did this? I don't know. I don't know. Well, I didn't know is not gonna be an excuse when it comes to judgment time. All right, if you look in Romans 1 20 now, let's go to the 20th verse here. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, that's creation, so that they are without excuse. Again, no excuses, no excuses. His invisible, if you look at that according to Romans 1 20, we can, it can be, what can be known about God through his creation, we can know his invisible, attributes. Now, what would you think are some of his invisible attributes? Creation, of course, is a visual, right? Well, first of all, God is spirit, correct? God is spirit, and no one has seen him in the fullness of his glory. Scripture also testifies that his attributes or characteristics can be known through what he's made. But his eternal power and divine nature are his primary invisible attributes. He says, it is evident that our universe is not eternal, but had a beginning. It's evident that our universe is not eternal, but had a beginning. What are some of the evidence of that? Well, we see falling stars, don't we? Part of the heavens, yeah, exactly. It's evident that our universe did not possess the power or wisdom to bring itself out of nothing. something from nothing. That's what God creates. You ever tried to create anything from nothing? Can't do it. Even the most talented artist in the world can paint the most beautiful picture. But what is that? Is that creating something? I consider a remarkably talented rearranger. The artist can take the paint colors, they take the canvas, they take the brush, and they rearrange all those elements to make something that's very beautiful. But God actually created everything from absolutely nothing. Now that's divine power, is what that is. All right, so there must have been, the author says, a creator who preceded creation and is not subject to his limitations. There's a God who is both eternal and all-powerful. Interesting phrase here he uses, an uncaused cause, an uncaused cause, an uncreated creator, a being who simply is without beginning or end. And we learn that, of course, in Genesis 1-1 when scripture tells us, in the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. Now, let's look in the book of Psalms. I don't know, do you have that one, Will? Psalms 90 verse 2? Okay, I'll just read it. Before the mountains were born, you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. Now, it's obvious that God has revealed himself to man through creation. This revelation ought to lead us as humans to recognize the power of God and to worship him as creator. But according to Romans 1, 21 through 23, the author says, how has man responded to God's revelation through creation? Let's look at it, 21 through 23, says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they came futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds four-footed animals and crawling creatures. They made their gods and their idols patterned after shape, a part of God's creation. And man refused to glorify Him, okay? This is how man responded to God's revelation to creation. Man refused to glorify Him, even though they were aware of who and what He was. They refused to be thankful to God, And as a result of that, their hearts became darkened. He said that man has hidden himself from God. He has purposely ignored or even denied God's revelation so that he might continue in his sinful rebellion. So we see that God reveals himself through the creation, and we see that in general, man has refused to acknowledge that. and made up all sorts of different supposed logical reasonings for everything that's made. Now let's look at the subject of man's intuition. I had seen one hand go up when I asked the question, do you depend on your intuitive nature or your intuitive ability? is there's just some things that you got figured out, man, I just, you know, there's something fishy about this deal. Everybody else kind of goes with the flow and says, oh man, that's good, that's right, that's good. But you have something inside you that says, I don't know, maybe I better take a second look at this. The intuition. You know, I had never really thought about human intuition as being a revelation from God. Learned that this week. The word intuition, and here's my definition. Here's my layman definition. The author gives a, you know, a very nice definition of what he considered it. But when it kind of got down to it, it kind of got down simple for me. Intuition is something that you know without having to learn it. is something that's inside of you that you know that you didn't have to learn. It's already given to us. The author says this refers to the ability to know or understand something without the conscience use of reason. I thought mine was a little more simple. He says it is an innate knowledge that is an endowment from God and from the scriptures and from experience. We know that man possesses an intuitive or innate knowledge of God. He says every nation, every people, and tribe has some concept of deity. Now it can be very obscure, paganistic, and things like that, but there is something within every person that understands that there is a higher being, And, but that concept of deity is planted within every human being. The author says, this demonstrates that the knowledge of the divine is firmly rooted in the heart of every human. Says even the atheist, okay, who professes to deny God, God's existence, must admit that he arrived at such a conclusion only after having first believed in God. He didn't trust God, never trusted God as his savior, but he believed in the fact that there probably was a God, and he turned atheistic and refused to profess God's existence. He says the theologian Augustine explained it this way. Augustine says, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Okay, let's look at Genesis 127, and he says, what does this confirm about the creation of man? God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. It's interesting. God created Adam and Eve in his own image. And of course, we know this separates all of mankind from all the other creatures. Should we not expect, the author says, him to possess, man, him, man, to possess an innate or intuitive knowledge of the one who made him? James 3.9 teaches us that in spite of the fall, the image of God still remains in every man. Now, in that scripture, I think it's equally divided into two thoughts there. He says, God created man in his own image. I don't think that's as much of a physical image as it is a spiritual image. Now the last part of that addresses the physical side of his creation, male and female. But Wade, I don't know. Maybe someday we will know. I would love to know. I think it'd be remarkable to reflect and think about the spiritual condition of man before the fall. I mean, how precious could that have been to walk with God, to fellowship with God, and to be totally free of anything that would keep you from having that perfect relationship? And to me, that's a remarkable thought. And when God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created in him. I think that addressed the spiritual more than it did the physical. And of course, first of all, God is spirit. God is spirit. He says, that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them. That's back in 119 again, we've already said it. Because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident. Two possibilities, the author says, with regards to the meaning of this text. He said it could possibly mean that God has made his existence known to all men throughout creation that he has made. We believe that. We believe that. But secondly, the author says, it also possibly mean that God has placed an innate or intuitive knowledge of himself in every man, which the observable creation just simply confirms. The knowledge is already there. The evidence of creation confirms it. Now let's look at Ecclesiastes 3.11. Scripture tells us, he has made everything appropriate in his time. He has also set eternity in their hearts. That's a key phrase here that we're going to be looking at. He has also set eternity in their heart so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. God has set eternity into the hearts of men. What do you think that means, he set that eternity in there? Anybody? I simply narrowed it down to a short sentence. God has placed the concept, but not just the concept of eternity, the reality of eternity into the hearts of every man, so that they are on the day of judgment without excuse again. Every one of these points comes back to that no excuse clause, okay? The author says, he has also said eternity in their hearts. And this is just a description of man as a special creation of God. God has put that knowledge of eternity in the heart of man. For this reason, even though man may gain the whole world, according to according to Matthew 16, 26, it will not satisfy the longing. In his heart for that which is beyond the temporal and the worldly. You ever seen people just struggle and work all their life to get as much as they can get? You know? And they put so much faith into that and so much dependence upon that. And it doesn't matter how much they get, they're never completely satisfied. The more they get, the more you want. I mean, it's just as simple as that. And just like Augustine said, he said, he has made us for himself, and our heart is restless until it rests in him. Okay, we know that man was created with an innate knowledge of God to which the rest of creation bears witness. However, according to Romans 118, just like the side of creation that we talked about, Just like in Romans 118, how has man responded to this knowledge? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So how has man responded to this? creation and also the intuition side of it that God's revealed himself through. In general, man has responded with rebellion, ungodliness, and unrighteousness. Men have been endowed with an innate or intuitive knowledge of God, but instead of seeking God as a result of that, They continue to rebel and suppress this knowledge in an attempt to shut God out of his mind so that he might freely indulge in sin. Now let's look at the third area that God reveals himself in general to mankind, and that's man's conscience. Everybody's got a conscience. Everybody's got a conscience. Now it may be to the point where it's completely seared, just like Brother Wade was talking about last week. And it's interesting. What do you suppose conscience means? Well, con means with, science means knowledge. So it's with knowledge. The scripture affirms that all men possess a conscience. An innate knowledge of good and evil. The author says, and also a compulsion to do good, a compulsion to do good. Does your conscience ever drive you to do something wrong? Probably not. I don't believe it does. I think it convicts you when you do do something wrong, but I don't think it drives you to that. The conscience involves more than personal desire or personal taste. The conscience is an expression of God's will. It is a moral law that God put in the heart of every man. In spite of man's fallenness, the almost infinitely variant cultures in the world, there is a general agreement regarding good and evil in every civilization. It can be a limited guide to direct men to God and His will. It can be a limited guide to direct men to God and to his will. Let's look at Romans 2, 14, 15. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves. In that way they show the work of the law written in their hearts. That's the conscience. Their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts ultimately accusing or else defending them. Two functions of the conscience. God has given a conscience. God has given a conscience to every man, Romans 2.15. Now the conscience can do two things. First of all, It enables him to measure his conformity to the law that God's already written on his heart. The conscience defends or approves man when he obeys God's law. A good conscience makes you sleep better at night. It confirms or defends when man obeys God's law. But the conscience also accuses or condemns him in every act of disobedience. You ever had trouble sleeping at night? Because what might be on your conscience? Could be. For this reason, it says, all men will be held accountable on the day of judgment. I would encourage you, we just looked at 1415, But I would encourage you to look at verse 16 in that as well, and you'll see what he's talking about, when all men will be accountable on the day of judgment. But the conscience does those two things. God has revealed himself to men through creation, through intuition, and now we see through the conscience that we have. But according to Romans 3, 9 through 12, He asked the question, how has man responded to the revelation of God through creation? Verse nine says, what then, are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and the Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God, All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one." So, what does that scripture tell us how man has responded to the revelation of God through creation? To me, mankind in general have chosen to reject the evidence of God through creation. we still wouldn't be studying in our public schools the theory of evolution if that wasn't the case. After all these years, Mr. Darwin's opinion is still theory. It's not fact and it's not a proven fact. So all mankind in general have chosen to reject the evidence of God via creation. They have denied their own conscience in relation to what's right and wrong. He says, what can happen when a person who continues to ignore or reject the conscience? Let's look back in the first chapter of Romans again, 28 through 32. So what can happen when a person who continues to ignore or reject his conscience, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a reprobate mind or a depraved mind. To do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips. Slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. That's a pretty long list, wasn't it? So what will happen? God will give them over to a reprobate mind. if they continue along those paths. He will give them over to a reprobate mind, allowing them to be what they desire to be. Now, the next scripture that confirms this is Ephesians 4, 18 and 19. Ephesians 4, 18, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them. because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." It basically says their understanding will become darkened. They will get to the point where they have no more spiritual understanding. Let's look at 1 Timothy 4.2. By means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience, as with a branding iron. The other way he talked about this last week, didn't he? Sear the conscience with a hot iron. When human flesh is cauterized or seared, it loses all feelings or sensitivity. In a similar but more horrifying fashion, A person's conscience can become so cauterized that it loses all sensitivity to evil and is given over to it without any kind of shame. All right, the last scripture to confirm this concept is Titus 115. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. The mind and the conscience become corrupted and defiled. He says the conscience is certainly and indeed a wonderful gift from God that requires proper stewardship. If a man continues to deny the voice of his confidence, the conscience will become polluted. He'll become defiled and calloused. In the history books of every culture are filled with countless examples of autocracies of men and societies without conscience where they had become defiled and seared. The Roman Empire was brought down internally because of this. Now let's look at the last way God has revealed himself. We saw creation, we saw the intuition, we saw the conscience, and now we're out of time. I don't know, what time is it? How much time we got? Okay, we're going to go real fast. But God has revealed himself through the annals of human history, and the two most prolific ways that we can see that through human history is the Jewish nation, how he's preserved the Jewish nation all through history. I will tell you, folks, those countries in the Middle East do not want to go to war with Israel. Israel whipped seven nations in 14 days a few decades back, and they still remember that. God's protecting the nation of Israel, and God has also, through human history, through the animals of human history, protected His church. Those two things are evidence of the existence of God right there. Those two are the primary evidence throughout human history Now, there is limitations of general revelation, okay? It's limited. And next week we're going to dig into the second side of it, which is that special revelation, or I'd like to call it specific revelation more than that. But one of the main things that general revelation does not address when it comes to leading people toward God, it does not address salvation. General revelation to mankind does not address salvation. And as we go through the chapters, we'll get into that. All right. I know we're pressed for time, so I appreciate y'all. The crowd got bigger as we went by. It did. We didn't have many folks to start with. Let's do our prayer request. I'm going to let you guys know that my sister-in-law, Treva Drysdale, lives up in Kansas City. She passed away this past week. Just pray for her family. She's got two daughters, some grandsons, and granddaughters. Just pray for them. Anyone else? That's right. Our niece, Lisa, starts her brain cancer treatments Monday, tomorrow. So keep her in there. Anyone else? Continue to pray for Monroe. He said he's not doing well this morning. And then Georgia is asking for continued prayers for her granddaughter, Piper. Piper. Y'all seen the email that she does not have leukemia. Okay. Amen. Yes, Fred. Yeah, our grandson, Colton, on there. He's got some tests coming up that's hopefully going to narrow down to what his primary health issue is. He's a young fellow that's gone through a lot in the last year, just 18 years old. And just keep him in your prayers. Anyone else? All right, let's go ahead and we'll close in prayer. Our Father, what a privilege it was to be at your house here this morning. I thank you for everyone here. Thank you that we have the health and the physical ability to come to your house and to learn about you, to study about you, to look into your word and to hopefully worship you through that study. The prayer of our hearts is that we, as a result of what we've said and heard today, that we'd be closer to you, Lord. we'd be more valuable to you in your kingdom. Father, we lift up all the ones on our prayer list. Father, you are indeed the great physician and the keeper of us all. Father, we depend on you. We present these to you and we just thank you in advance for the way you're going to answer prayers. As we enter our worship hour, Father, I just pray that the power of the Holy Spirit takes over hearts and minds and that only you would be worshipped here today. We ask it all in Jesus name. Amen.