Let's start with the Westminster Confession, paragraph one. So I'm gonna ask you to turn there. Chapter one, paragraph one. All right, and probably should have given you a page number. You will find that, if you're still flipping about, on what? 919, 919. Good. All right, let me pray for us. Lord, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for the blessings that you have given to us out of the word of God and out of our fellowship, and in particular, the glorious blessing of you being in the midst of your people. We pray this morning that you would continue that grace to us. We pray that you would open our eyes to understand the things, the glorious things of your truth, that they might be learned for the first time or confirmed to us as we have heard them in the past under your grace. And we pray for this in Christ's name, amen. Okay, so, in that first paragraph, which summarizes truths of the scripture that we'll unlock here, it says, it talks first of all about something called the light of nature, and then it talks about the works of creation and providence, okay? So, where it gets those two concepts are from Romans chapter one, so you're gonna need to look at Romans chapter one, And then it also gets them from Psalm 19, but we'll look at Romans 1 first since we come to the light of nature. And in Romans 1, we're going to look at verse 19. Well, I'll back up just a little bit. In the big context, in verse 16, what does Paul say? He is not ashamed of the, he's not ashamed of the gospel, okay? All right, and so then, he's not ashamed of the gospel, why not, in verse 17, because it says God's righteousness is revealed. Okay, and then in verse 18, he gives you some examples, some start on that, opening that up, right? So the righteousness of God is revealed. And how is the righteousness of God revealed? One of the starting points there is that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Okay, and if you go down later on in the chapter, it'll show you how is that wrath revealed. It's because you see sinners who are enslaved by their sins. That's just evidence to you as you look out there in the world that God's wrath has been manifested, okay? Let me just stop for just a second and get a parenthesis. David, are you the guys pushing the record button? Thank you. Okay, so, all right, now, why would that be a problem? Well, the problem comes in, as God has revealed these things, in this, that because what is known what may be known of God is manifested to these people, right? So they're in ungodliness, they're enslaved in ungodliness, but God has revealed himself to them, which leaves them unexcusable. That's why, okay, so that's a fundamental aspect of the gospel, that that has been revealed to them. Okay, and so how has it been revealed to them? It's been revealed to them in verse 20. Since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by things that were made, even His eternal power and His Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Okay, so God is revealed. How is He revealed there in verse 20? By his, right, by his, they may be clearly seen by, excuse me, his divine nature may be clearly seen, right? And how is that divine nature clearly seen? By his creations, right? So by things that were made. All right. Good. Let's see. All right, so by the things that were made, God's invisible attributes. Okay, so let's name an invisible attribute or two of God. Okay, he's omnipotent, right, okay. Omnipresent, good. Go down the omnis line, good, okay. Remember question four, that might be in your head, some of you, right? So he is infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being. Wisdom, you can see it manifest itself, but you can't see wisdom itself, right? Wisdom, power, holiness. How about justice? Yes, okay, so you can see that in the things that were made. What kind of things that are made might show you justice? Yes? Okay, the very idea of justice, and where does this very idea of justice manifest itself? Okay, it goes from God, but, okay, it's from God, but where's it, okay, if it's from God, where's it landing? On us, right, okay? Now, okay, so do you all have a sense of justice? If somebody plays Jeopardy and doesn't ask the question, but states the answer, does anybody here all of a sudden think, wait a minute, something unjust might be happening, right? Or, hey, they answered the first half, but they didn't get the second half, and now we gotta figure out whether we're gonna give them no points, or negative points, or positive points. Where does all that discussion come from? It comes from the fact that you have been created and God is manifesting to you his invisible attributes in you who have been made in his image, right? You see it in yourself, in your own heart, and you see it in one another. So that's one of the ways in which God manifests these things. Okay, so that's part of the light of nature. So your nature perceives these things and you see it in creation and then we could go to Psalm 19 many of you are familiar with Psalm 19 where the heavens declare the glories of God, right? So you could see it there as well okay, so if the if all that happens. Now we have two categories here, and I'm going to go back to chapter 1, paragraph 1, where we have the light of nature and the works of creation in providence manifest God's goodness and His wisdom and His power. All right, and that leaves men in unexcusable that is they they have no defense if they stood on the Judgment Day and said God you didn't you didn't reveal to me that you were wise You didn't reveal to me that you're good You didn't reveal to me that you have power because God has done that through those things, but they're not sufficient to for the knowledge of God and of His will necessary to salvation." Okay, oftentimes we call that light of nature and those works of creation and providence, general revelation. That comes to everybody all over the world, right? Okay, this other part that is sufficient for salvation, anybody heard a term that we might use to call that? special revelation, right? Okay, so we have two things going on. We have general revelation, which the mountains show you, which the stars show you, which people show you, which manifests itself in your heart intuitively from God, right? All those things, those are what we call general revelation. Special revelation, you get from, okay, so now remember Matthew 4.4. In Matthew 4.4, Jesus is being tempted and he says, man doesn't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So general revelation, you can see it, you can intuitively experience it, but special revelation proceeds from the mouth of God. That's the two kind of things there, right? Okay, now. Okay, so now again, how do we, let's see. If you see, how does general revelation get proven to you? How does it get, how does it get? Yes? It can be revealed by the Holy Spirit. Okay, it is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. And how is, oh yes? Okay, let me go back to this. Let me just start off with this. When I say the word revelation, revelation, what do I mean by revelation? Okay, what God has revealed to us, right? Okay, so God is doing some revealing. So when God made a mountain, is he revealing something of himself? Yes, right, okay, so now let me ask you this. When God made that mountain and it is revealing something, is that what God is revealing through that mountain, is it utterly true, is it utterly infallible, is it utterly without error? Yes, right, because God revealed it, right? Now, is it interpreted perfectly? No, it's not necessary, right? So that's still that difference between being evidenced and being interpreted, right? Or being evidenced and being persuasive, is subjectively persuading someone. So you still have those two things. Now, again, when we looked at special revelation, we said special revelation is going to be confirmed to you oftentimes by either other special revelation, or it's going to be confirmed to you by miracles, right? Okay, so if Balaam wants to get a revel, or God wants to give Balaam a revelation from God, what does he do? He sends him, not just any donkey, but a, sends him a talking donkey, right? Now, that's just amazing that you, let's go, go read this conversation, because I always find this to be very, look at Numbers 22. And go to verse 21. Okay, so in Numbers 22, 21, I'll wait for a page to quit turning there. All right, so Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and he went with the princes of Moab. Then God's anger was aroused because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. Now the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey and turned her back onto the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. So you see what's happening? So the angel of the Lord stands in the path, the donkey says, I'm not going that way, he goes over in the field. So the angel of the Lord goes further down the path and the donkey sees the angel as he's continuing down the path and he turns aside again. Now the angel of the Lord's come to a place where you can't turn aside, right? That's where he's at. And then the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and she lay down under Balaam. So Balaam's anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff. And then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you struck me these three times? Now, what's the next thing you would say to the donkey at that point? Oy vey, when did you start talking, right? You wouldn't say, oh yeah, that just happens to me every day, right? But here Balaam, he just kind of enters into this conversation with the donkey, right? He says, because you have abused me, Balaam says to the donkey, I wish there was a sword in my hand that I would kill you. Now that's ironic, isn't it? Because what's right in front of him? There's a sword that's going to kill somebody. So the donkey says to Balaam, am I not your donkey which you have ridden ever since I became yours to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you? And he said, no. Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed his head, and he fell flat on his face. So now that is an example of special revelation, right? So here's the sign that comes along with the message. So that's one of the distinctions here between those two things. And then there's other kinds of special revelation where we looked at last night. The other special revelation confirmed by a sign calls something else special revelation. So, for instance, in the New Testament talks about the scriptures, all the Old Testament scriptures, which would include Song of Solomon, where we don't have any recorded miracles for us there, right? Okay. So, let's see. Now, So then, the works of creation can tell you some things, but they can't tell you everything. So you need special revelation, and so what kinds of things will you need special revelation for? Okay, you'll need it for salvation because a mountain can't show you how God can be just and merciful at the same time, right? That has to be opened up to you in words, okay? Other things maybe. Okay, here, let me give you one. Are there things out there that are invisible to you that are part of reality? Yes, what kind of things? Pardon? The wind, good, okay? Now, if the wind is invisible, can you pick it up by general revelation that there's wind out there? Yes, how would you do that? By the effect of the wind, right? Okay, good, right? So you perceive it by your senses, okay? Other things? Invisible to you. Okay, gravity is invisible to you. Okay, how would you determine gravity exists, right? He says there's air. Pardon? Same way with the wind, right? Okay. Climb up there and let go. And you will, yes. Okay. Something like love is not, well, it's not, hmm. Good. Okay. Now, again, so, But if I talk to you about love, if I talk to you about love, do you understand what I'm saying? Do you need a sign from God to understand what I'm saying? Why not? Okay, excellent. So God's given us words to express them, and how did something happen to us so that we have to express it? It's going on where? And your heart, right, it's going on to your heart, just like when God revealed that, just like justice and those kinds of things, right? Okay, now, all right, so all those kinds of things, but general revelation is sufficient for those kinds of things. Let me pick one where it's probably not in most cases, and that is, is there demonic activity? Does demonic activity matter to you? Yes, okay. Now, it's certain, okay, somebody might say, you know, I don't know, somebody might say, something bad happened to me, it must have been a demon, right? But you can't really confirm that very well. But you can confirm through the scriptures that there is demonic activity, correct? It's very clear, those words are very clear and they're very helpful. Okay, so let's go to Ephesians chapter six, for instance. And when you get to Ephesians chapter six, just drop down to verse 10. I'm having a hard time finding it. Okay, Ephesians 6, 10. If someone would like to read that for us, please. Okay, from verse 10 until I tell you to stop, or ask you to stop. Sure. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Excellent, right there, okay. So then, verse 12 says, some people are wrestling. Who are those people? Us, right? So you're in a wrestling match, right? Or you're in a contest. Everybody gets that, right? Okay, and you're in a contest with demonic powers. Now, you might say, no, I'm not. I've never felt one, never expressed one, never been one, right? OK. What is that telling you? Your experience, you might say, in my experience, I have not been there. What is that text telling you? You are, right? OK, now, how does the devil fight? OK, how are you going to know how the devil fights? Pardon? Okay, the devil fights in sin, okay, with sin. Let me back that up, good. How are you going to know how the devil fights? The Bible tells you so, right? Okay, what do we look at this weekend about how the devil fights from Genesis chapter three? Pardon? Okay, what does he lie about? Okay, lies about the word of God. Has God really said, right? So when you're in this contest, what do you think's gonna happen to you? You're gonna walk out there in your job, you're gonna walk out there in school, you're gonna walk out there among your friends, you're gonna watch TV or Facebook or whatever, and every once in a while, somebody's going to say, has God said, right? What's behind that? What's behind that is the world or the flesh or the devil. Right, okay, so that's how the devil fights. Okay, now, how else does the devil fight from Genesis 3? Pardon me? He lies about God, so what did God say? Pardon? You may not eat, and if you eat, what is gonna happen? You're gonna die, what did the devil say? You surely will die, right? Okay, now, next, what's the devil say? Oh, God doesn't want you to eat because when you eat, you're gonna be just like Him in understanding. What's he saying about who God is, David? Yes, just come on to my side or join in with me, right? And all these things will be good, okay? So then, Genesis 3, how do you fight against the devil? What's this whole conference been about all this week, this weekend? The Word of God. So then you're reading Ephesians 6 and it says you're in a fight. What do you think that Ephesians 6 is going to unfold for you as the way in which you're going to defend yourself or even attack in that fight? The armor of God which is especially going to be centered in the the word of God and what's revealed. Yes, Rob. and we're going to fight it through prayer, absolutely. And how are you going to know you fight it through prayer? Because what tells you so? The Bible tells you so, right? Okay, good. So now, as you're looking there in Ephesians 6, as you get to verse 13, okay, so in verse 13, what does it say? I'll pick up here. Okay, so you're going to take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand. You're going to stand having girded your waist with what? Truth. And where did you get this truth? You could have gotten it from the mountains, but is that going to be sufficient? No, that's not gonna be sufficient. You're gonna have to also get it from the Word of God, okay? So you're in a fight, dear ones, and if you're in that fight, the way to protect yourself is to open up your Bibles and read them. It's to listen to people preach from the Bible or teach from the Bible. It's to come to church and hear the Word of God and to come to Sunday school, right? Okay, good. And when you open up your Bibles and you hear this truth, you're going to put on the breastplate of righteousness, right? You put on the breastplate of righteousness. Okay, why do you do that? Why would you do that in this context? Okay, it's a breastplate of righteousness going to, okay, guard your heart. Pardon? Yes? Okay, good, so it's going, remember from the context, it's gonna protect you from Satan. Why do you need to protect yourself with righteousness from Satan? He's the accuser of the brethren. He's gonna say of you, you're not okay with God, right? Okay, you remember Job. Here's God, he's looking out through all the world, and he sees this man Job. And he says, there's nobody like Job. Remember that? There's nobody like Job. He fears God and, I like the old King James, he eschews evil. He fears God and therefore he won't have anything at all to do with evil. And what does Satan say? Only because you bless him. Okay, so then God says, okay, you can go down there, and you can do some things to him, and we'll see, right? Okay, did Job worship God only because God blessed him? No, he did not. It gets worse. But what Satan is, is he's an accuser of the brethren. And he did that in the Old Testament from heaven. He's in heaven. It says he's in heaven with all the, so there's angels, of which he's a fallen variety, but he's in heaven doing that. Now I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. And I'm going to start in verse one. All right, there is a great sign that appears in heaven. And there is a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and on her head she has a garland of 12 stars. And she is with child, and she cries out in labor and in pain to give birth. There's another sign in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head. Okay, so I'm gonna stop right there for just a second, okay? Now, The clearest part of that revelation, as you're reading that, or maybe one or two of the clearest pieces of revelation to you as you're reading that, what are they? Because this is symbolic. Who's the child? Jesus, right, because the scripture tells us He has a rod of iron with which He's going to rule the nations, right? Okay, so then, and there is a dragon that opposes Him. Who's the dragon that opposes Him? Satan, right? Okay, so here's Satan opposing Jesus. And Jesus is born, and then after Jesus is born, what happens to Him? In verse... Let's see, in verse five, so she bears a male child, he's to rule over with a rod of iron, and her child is caught up to God and his throne, okay? So this child is caught up to God, and where's God? In heaven, so what happened to this child as he was caught up to the throne, or caught up to God? What happens to him? In history, what's going on there? Okay, so he rose from the dead and now he's ascended into heaven. Okay, now he's risen from the dead, he's ascended into heaven, then you keep going. So the woman flees into the wilderness, this is verse 6, where she has a place prepared by God that He should feed her there 1,260 days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was there a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, called the devil and Satan." Okay, so we didn't get it before, right? They tell you right there. He is the devil. and he deceives the whole world, and he's cast to the earth, and his angels are cast out with him." Okay, and then you get some interpretation. It's always good in the book of Revelation where you get a picture, and then later, a little bit later on, you'll get some interpretation. Oftentimes that comes through somebody speaking, right? So here's what's spoken. A loud voice in heaven says, salvation and... Oh, I'm sorry, I got... You know, yeah, salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before God day and night has been cast out, right? In the Old Testament, Satan could go into heaven. In the New Testament, Satan cannot go into heaven, right? He is the accuser of you. He cannot go there. Why can't he go there anymore, according to this text? Because the child was born, and then what'd the child do? Pardon? He rose up to heaven, okay? Now, one of the pictures in the book of Revelation is that this child is what? He is the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, right? Yes? Yes, so Jesus is there, right, to cover all, right. And how do you know, right, from the imagery of Revelation you know, because He shows up as a lamb who has been slain, right. Just His being there demonstrates that Satan's accusations have nothing they can say to you. Now again, from this weekend, right, as we're talking about, can the mountains tell you what's going on in heaven? No, can the mountains tell you what's going on with Satan? No, can the mountains, right? Can those kinds of things tell you? No, they can't. You have to get special revelation from the very mouth of God to tell you about those things. And it's absolutely critical to you, because if you don't, then what's gonna happen? Is Satan, okay, he's not accusing people in heaven, but is he stopped accusing people? No, he's still accusing people, right? And so if you, okay, you walk down the street and you commit a sin, now what are you gonna say? Guilty, right? That's how your conscience works, right? So here you are, you're being tempted, and you're starting to contemplate, you're starting to think about it, right? So you start to approach in that direction. What's your conscience saying? Don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, right? Okay, but in God's providence, you do it. Now what's your conscience saying? Shouldn't have done that, shouldn't have done that, or guilty, guilty, guilty, right? Okay, now, okay, so what are you gonna do with that? What do you do with that? Excellent, okay, so this is, okay, so where does your righteousness come from to stand before God as pleasing to Him? Excellent comes from Jesus right comes from what Jesus did now. You remember yesterday we talked that G we were looking at Jesus life and we said from the time he was born till the time he was crucified How many sins did he commit? None, right? He was perfect. And then what He is saying to you, what the Bible says to you, is Jesus is offered to you. And if you receive Jesus, then you get credit, then that record of His belongs to you. That's your righteousness as you stand there. And so you want to take that up and say, there is hope for me. There is blessing for me in Jesus. Now, as you take up Christ's righteousness with respect to that particular sin, what else do you want to do? Confess it and repent, right? But you need that breastplate of righteousness so that you don't just get discouraged or that in your sins. OK, so you want to take up the breastplate of righteousness. and because you're in this spiritual battle. Let's see, where did that stop me? Now I'm going back to Ephesians 6. Okay, so you want to having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Okay, so you're gonna put on your feet the good news of peace. And what peace are we talking about here in this context? between you and God, right? Because you are righteous in Jesus. Ok, and where did you find out about this peace of God? Where did you find out about this righteousness? The Bible tells you so, right? Exactly, good. And then you're going to take the shield of faith. So you're going to believe these things that have been revealed to you. And as you do that, you'll quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. You're going to take the helmet of salvation. Where do you find this helmet of salvation? In the Bible, right? And you're going to take up the sword of the spirit, which is what? which is the word of God, right? You're going to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Dear ones, please listen. You are in a fight with Satan. You cannot get out of that while you're here in this life, but you can win. Don't fall asleep on me here. I know it was a long night. But this, you see, the Bible is telling you you're in that fight. And the Bible is telling you how to win that fight. And that's what I want for you today. And so, and now that is I would say clear, perfect example of special revelation. You've got to come to the Bible for it. Okay, good. So you've hidden God's Word in your heart so that you would not sin against Him. Now, how does hiding God's Word in your heart keep you from sinning against Him? Yes? Okay, good, because you fight Satan with the word of God. Okay, now, let's go back to our conscience example, right? Our conscience is, you're heading this way and it says, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that. How do you know very clearly why you shouldn't do that? Because the Bible tells you so, right? Okay, you are tempted to dishonor your parents. What does the Bible tell you? Don't do that, right? Very clearly. You're tempted to steal something. What does the Bible tell you? Don't do that, right? Very clearly. You hide that word in your heart, right? And what it's going to do, it's going to help you to stay away from sin. Now, if you keep hiding that word in your heart, it's going to tell you some other things about that, right? You'll see people in the Bible who are hiding it in their heart. And they're not just saying, well, I'm hiding that word in my heart so I won't sin against you. But I love it. I love that word. That's a lot of Psalm 119, for instance. And so as you keep hiding the word in your heart, what do you do? You say, oh. Now, why do you love anything? It's good, right? It's beneficial to you. It's a blessing to you, right? Okay, so you hide the word in your heart. Why is that beneficial to you? Just from what we looked at today. Just from this little Ephesians six aspect of it. Okay, it gives you protection. Who's it give you protection from? Satan, right? Is that good? Should you love it because of that? Yes, you should love, right? You should love that word of God because of that. Good. Okay. All right. So, yes. Oh, sorry, good. Yes, good. So it provides for you, it protects you, right? So Jesus is your King, how's He going to work as your King to protect you? One of the ways He's going to do that is He's going to put that word in your heart, right? So the Bible's going to tell it to you, you're going to read Ephesians 6 today, but who's going to put that in your heart? Who gets credit for putting that in your heart? The Holy Spirit does, right? God does that for you. Good. Now does that mean you just say, well, God will do it for me someday, right? No, what do you do? You say, God is at work to will. He's at work in my heart so that I will, I want to do something, and to do things for his good pleasure. And so then I believe that, and then I act out of it, which means I'll hide that in my heart. OK, I want to, yes, Bob. Excellent. Right. Yes. And then you can keep working through that. Wonderful stuff. Right. Right. Right. Okay, I wanna pick up one more question that came from yesterday, so I'm gonna, okay, so one of the things I was trying to do today is show to you there is a distinction between what you can know in God from God out of nature, which we often call general revelation, and then what we have to have from special revelation, and those kinds of things talk about, so for instance, this demonic warfare, that's one of the things, or your salvation, how are you going to be saved, we mentioned. Okay, there was another thing that came up yesterday, we were talking about, okay, the Bible proves itself to be the word of God, right? It says, for instance, it says, God spoke, and it is written, and all those kind of things. OK, now, somebody asked the question, what if somebody else presents you a different document that says those things? So what about the Koran? Does the Koran say, well, God spoke? Or what about the Book of Mormon? So then, what do you do in that situation? You compare that book to the Bible. And you see which one of them evidences that it was written by God. Okay, so you pick up the Quran and it says, kill your enemies. And you pick up the Bible and it says, love your enemies. Okay, which one of those came from God? Okay, you pick up the Quran and it tells you what everybody else in the entire world tells you. Work hard enough and you'll make it to heaven. You pick up the Bible and it says what nobody else says, right? No other religion says. It says Jesus did everything to save you, is doing everything to save you, and will do everything to save you completely. which one of those is written by, you just compare those two things, right? You pick up the Book of Mormon, and, well, okay, I won't get into the details of that, but you get the idea, right? So all you're going to do is you're gonna pick up those two revelations, you're gonna compare them to one another, and you're going, which of these is the Word of God? Now, of course, you, okay. You do that, but you do that humbly, right? I'll say it that way. Do you get to stand in judgment over the Word of God? Is that what I'm telling you to do, right? I'm not telling you to do that, right? Okay, so if I want to study ants, okay, let's suppose I want to study ants. So I study the ant. Who's in authority here, me or the ant? Me, right? So the Bible tells me, go study the ant, right? And if I study this ant, then I'm gonna learn some things about being industrious, right? So the Bible over me says, you can learn a lesson from this ant, but it's me. Now, but the Bible is over me, right? Okay, so then, now, if I wanna look at, now, let's suppose I wanna set the Bible here, and I wanna say, okay, I'm an authority over the Bible, I'm gonna come and look at it, and I'm gonna judge it, okay? What have I got upside down there? Who's judging you, right? So what does the Bible say about itself? What does God say about the Bible? The Word of God is, shoot, now I forget. I'll read it. Thank you. Yes. The Word of God is living and active. and sharper than a two-edged sword. It is piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow. It's able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Bible is always over you. The word of God is always over you with respect to its authority. You're not in authority over it. You don't get to say, I'm keeping this part and throwing that part away. If it is breathed by God as it attests that it is, then you place yourself under it. Okay, that's what special revelation is. Okay, I got three or four minutes, questions or thoughts, last comment. Yes, David. Does natural man know God only immediately, or has there been discussions in church history about how man knows, that you have to have a mediating factor like nature to know God, or does man know God the way that I would recognize someone in the grocery store. Okay, good. So David's asking a question, and he's asking a question, how do we know God? And he uses two words there, immediately. Immediately means by something between you, right? Okay, so how do I know God according to Psalm 19? There's a mountain there. So God mediates his knowledge of me through the mountain, right? Okay, now, when I read Romans 1, if I read through the whole chapter, one of the things that I would argue is that what God has done for the human being in making him in God's image is that he immediately, that is, there isn't anything other than just your nature itself that is standing as the revelation to you in God. So I guess you could say that is immediate, but I'll say it this way. As I understand Romans 1, you're not processing that information other than just by intuitively, it's intuitively obvious to you, right? I think that's, so I, and if you said it's intuition or something like that, and you would, and I would call that, in my book, immediate rather than immediate. Yes. Yes, okay, and here's what happens, right? So then you press the unbeliever on that, and what happens to him? He has to suppress it. It's immediately obvious to him that this is true, but now he has to suppress that knowledge in order to continue to live like he thinks he wants to live. I'm trying to think of an example here. Pardon me? Sam Harris, yes, but that's gonna be an extended example, but that's, yes, that's very good. Okay, yeah, I can't think of a short one off the top of my head here, but all right. Maybe because I've been reading more Bible and reading less news lately to get ready for you all. And the point is that when the unbeliever says he doesn't know God, he's, in a sense, he's lying to you. He's lying to you, and at some level, he knows he's lying to you. and one of your jobs as a defender of that faith is to draw that out. Yes. Show that unbeliever that there's no foundation to stand on other than God's word or God's revealed revelation of itself for any knowledge whatsoever. Well, he can get it from general revel. OK, so all right, let's do this real fast. You'll remember that some guy comes up to Jesus and he wants to justify himself because he's just been told he has to love his neighbor. And so what does he ask? Who's my neighbor, right? OK, so what does Jesus do? He says, well, there was a man. He gets beset by robbers. And as he's beset by robbers, he's laying there on the road. And the priest comes by him and walks on the other side of the road. And the Levite walks by him. And now there's this Samaritan comes. And the Samaritan bandages the guy's wounds and takes him to the hotel and pays for his stay and says, if there's anything that he eats or needs or whatever, I'll pay you for it when I get back, right? And Jesus says, what? Who was the neighbor, right? Now, I think that's an example in special revelation of general revelation. That is, when Jesus gets to the end of that and he says, who's that man's neighbor? Everybody goes, well, we don't know. Why don't you work a miracle and we'll figure it out. What does everybody know right then? The Samaritan was the neighbor. Nobody argues with that, right? That's general revelation, although you receive that account of it in special revelation. I think that's just obvious. I think that's an example of that. All right, good. Okay, I'm four minutes over at this point. Let me pray for us. Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your grace to us. We ask you to have mercy upon us this day as we gather together in your presence. Be with us in power. Be with us to enlighten our eyes. Be with us to bless us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to take up the sword, to shod our feet with the gospel of truth. a gospel of peace, to take up truth as we find it in the scriptures, that we might stand and that we might stand to glorify your name. We pray for this in Christ's name. Amen.