Psalm 19. Think about some of the songs that we sung tonight. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. And what is the glory of God? The glory of God is the obviousness of God. When God is glorified, it means that God is made obvious. And that's something I'm going to come back to in a little bit. The heavens declare the glory of God, or they make God obvious. The firmament shows his handiwork. I was flying this weekend, Sunday and then Tuesday, and I saw the clouds in the sky. And that's what it's talking about. Day unto day, utter speech. Night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line, or their speech, is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, a dwelling place for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now the law of the Lord is perfect. converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes 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 judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleansed thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord. And here you have a couple names for God. My strength and my redeemer. Psalm 19. Much could be said, but what I want to point out here is a progression of God making himself obvious through creation, not specific, but obvious. God makes himself obvious. I'm going to ask questions tonight, so make sure you're paying attention. Also, let me also note, let's make sure, can I ask this, that we don't use our phones during the service? If I could do that, that would be great. What makes God obvious? Anyone? What makes him obvious? His handiwork, creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. They make him obvious. Does God want to be known? Does God want us to know Him? He does. Now let me ask you this question. I've been asked this question a number of times recently in different ways. Why doesn't God just show Himself to me? Why is it so hard to find God? You know, God is not hard to find. God is showing Himself to us all the time. He is obvious. It's actually us who are pushing him away. People have asked, what about somebody in the other part of the world where the gospel is not preached, where they've never heard the name of Jesus? What about that person? What are we to think of them? And I think the answer is clear in scripture. We are to realize that God is not secret and hiding and making himself difficult to find. He is obvious. He is obvious to everybody. It says there's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. I personally believe that God reveals himself to every person in the world in the most beginning, introductory way. Every single person. And because every person is made in the image of God, there is some moment along the way where they have the opportunity to take the thought of God seriously and in the right direction. Now man, most men don't take it in the right direction. but I believe that God makes himself obvious to everybody. He is not hard to find. Paul actually insinuates this when he's giving his presentation in Athens on Mars Hill. He says, God, he's very near to all of us. God makes himself obvious through creation, but then he does more than that, and he gives us specific information about him through words. And we focus on the word of God, of course, when we talk about Psalm 19. Now turn over to Romans chapter one. Now the thoughts I'm laying out tonight are introductory to a series that we're gonna do on Wednesday nights in most cases on the names of God. God tells us his names so that we can know him better, more personally, more directly. God reveals himself to us. He wants us to know him. Romans chapter 1, verses 18, and we're going to read down through verse 23. Paul says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth In unrighteousness, think about that phrase. We're talking about the pagans and the heathen people around the world who don't have the name Jesus in their vocabulary and the Bible says they hold the truth. They have it. But they have it and they hold it in an unrighteous way. They manipulate it, they twist it and they push it away. They hold the truth, but in unrighteousness. What truth? The truth that is revealed generally through this world that God has made. It says, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest unto them. What's that mean? Made obvious. It's made obvious to them. For God has showed it unto them. Who? The people who haven't heard the name Jesus. He's, again, showed it. He's revealed it. He's made it obvious to them. Verse 20, for the invisible things, the things you can't see with your eyes, of him from the creation of the world or by means of the created world are clearly seen. What is that there? Made obvious. Being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. The power and the authority and the sovereignty of God, the fact that we answer to him, as his creation is obvious. It's obvious. And we see that repeated in these verses. What's the conclusion, Paul says? So that they are without excuse. When they stand, when every single person who was born and died, every person who had that opportunity to see God through creation, When they stand before him, there will be no lawyer, there'll be no case law from past history, there'll be no argument they can make for why they didn't draw near to God, why they did not recognize and believe and embrace what is obvious. They will be without a legal argument. They won't have anything to say. God will be able to say, I made myself obvious to you. What more could I have done? You rejected it. There without excuse, verse 21, because that when they knew God, who knew God? All these people that we think never had a chance. And I know this messes, this plays with, this works on our human emotions. We have a hard time viewing the people who've never heard as people who are responsible. But they are. We have sympathies for them like we have selfish sympathies for ourself. But we have to recognize that God has made himself obvious to them, to every person. You see, to that person who runs around and sacrifices their children and walks around on fire and climbs ladders made of knives and worships demons and so forth, that person, Yes, God made himself obvious to them. And they took even the very things that he used, the artwork that he used to reveal himself to them as an authority, as a sovereign, creative God. They took those things and they twisted them. We're gonna see that here. Verse 21, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. They did not recognize, they did not notice him as God, but it's a deliberate choice. neither were thankful, but became empty, vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God." What is the glory of the incorruptible God? It's the things you can't The things about God that he reveals to us about himself, they take those things and they make them into an image made like the corruptible man, to birds and four-footed beasts creeping things. And here we have the advent of religion, taking the idolatry, the idols, fashioning idols and making up gods. figments of our imagination, that I also believe that demons use and manipulate, but these are man-made contrivances. Gods are things that man makes. People like gods. They like idols. Why? Because they allow them to avoid answering to God directly. They like to have many gods, many idols, many, if I could say it, saints. Saints are idols in the Catholic religion. It's all the same thing. They like to have these beings, these personages that they worship because it sort of diffuses a direct accountability to the God of the world. When you multiply gods and you create gods underneath God and so forth, what you end up doing is you actually end up asserting yourself over God. You end up making yourself God. Because who's making these gods? You're making the gods. How can a god be a god that you made? And it really is not much different from humanism. The humanism of Western society is no different than the idolatry of the pagan, uncivilized world. Because in both cases, we are fashioning a God that is more convenient for us and avoids the reality of God. Religion is not, make no mistake, religion is not man's best efforts to seek God. Religion is man's best attempts to push away God. And if you can get a hold of that, you are understanding Romans chapter one. Religion is not some person trying to find God in the wilderness, out in a jungle or desert somewhere, and so they start worshiping an animal or an idol, trying to get, and God, that's not religion. Religion is someone facing the obviousness of the true God and pushing it away by something else. That's what it is. God wants to reveal himself and he wants to have a real relationship. You look at Romans chapter 1 and you look at Psalm 19 and you see that he's using creation, but he's doing more than use creation, he uses his words. And one of the very significant ways that God reveals himself to us is he isn't content just to make the world. He also tells us things about himself in words. And he gives us names. And that's what we're going to be focusing on on Wednesday nights as we prepare our hearts for prayer. Names of God, things that he calls himself, that he says about himself that cause us to understand him better. God reveals himself of his own desire and choice, and he doesn't do it with just one name or two. When you look at pagan deities, sometimes you get the sense that the same deity is recycled to the different mythologies, and maybe that same deity has a couple of names. Maybe it has a Latin name, maybe it has a Greek name, and maybe it has an Egyptian name or an Assyrian name. But generally speaking, there's one or two names for any given god. But God gives us, according to one estimate, and the number, I don't know how you would totally figure this out unless you spent months to try to do it, 900 plus names and titles are given for God in the Bible. Do you think God wants us to know things about himself? He made the world stop and think about that. That's a pretty big deal, to tell us things about himself. But he also gives us names. He gives us names. God wants to be known. Well, that's the thought for tonight. By revealing as many names to us, God makes it possible to know him in a personal relationship beyond just natural creation. I've given you a slide here tonight that I found with some names. These are not 900 plus names, but just some. God is our father. That is a loaded name right there, a loaded title. I could preach a whole series on God as our Father and all that that means. Does the name Father tell you just one thing about God very specifically? It tells you a lot of things, doesn't it? And it doesn't just express definitions or descriptions. It describes his actions, his mannerisms, his tendencies, his character, his feelings, his emotions. That one name. God is our shepherd. We had a whole series on that when we looked at Psalm 23 last year. So much there. He is holy. He's the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is everlasting. He's the Lord of hosts. What does that mean? We talked about that this weekend at some point. What does it mean to be Lord of hosts? We'll go back to college here. Not someone who's already answered a question. I used to say that a lot in college. Remember that, Daniel? The Lord of hosts, it does not mean that he is in charge of all the holy bread in the Catholic churches. That's not what he's talking about. What is the host? Let me see if I can get it right in sign language. Is that, is that, as a soldier, right? Something like that. But he is the Lord of hosts, many soldiers. There are, you remember the story of Elisha in the Old Testament, and his servant, and they were stuck in a town, and the Assyrian army, thousands and thousands and thousands, probably enough people to fill several city fields, full of soldiers, surrounding that little village to get Elisha. If you were that person who was being targeted, would you feel happy about that? Well, Elisha was just totally at peace about it, and his servant was worked up, and Elisha said, Lord, open his eyes. Help him to see what really is going on. And he opened the servant of Elisha's eyes, God did, and he saw many times more thousands of angelic armies ready for battle, but they could not be seen with their eyes. When's the last time you realized that you had that on your side? When you know the title of God, Lord of hosts, you know that when you submit to his lordship, you get all the soldiers too. But when God says in James, he resists the proud, you know what the word resist means? Literally, if you look up that word in Greek, it means he sets the battle in array against. Which is why when you're proud, young people, get this, when you're proud and you resist authority, the authorities that the Lord has put in your life, your parents in particular, that is why things just don't tend to work out very well. Because you're actually pushing against all the armies of your Lord. They're actually fighting against you. It's like playing chess with God. You're never gonna win. But when you submit to him, it's like having him sit beside you and telling you all the moves. That's how it works. But he has to know that when you win, he's gonna get the credit. That's why you need to be humble. I shouldn't give away all the messages here. There's so many names. He's gracious, he's a redeemer. And this is just a small sampling. What I'd like to do tonight, before we pray about specific requests, is I'd like for us to go to prayer, and I'm gonna open up this prayer time to all of us. But I think it might be helpful if we confess to the Lord that we haven't paid attention to him, perhaps, a lot, or as much as we should have today. Maybe you have, and if you have, good job. If you've been just paying attention to him all day. if you've recognized that he's obvious and you've been talking and communicating, that's good. But sometimes it's good before we march into prayer and start asking him for things. Think about it like this. Kids, when you come home from school, If all you do when you come marching in, if you're in public school, all you do is you walk in, you say, where's supper? I want supper. Husbands, for yourself, you walk in, you start asking for things. Well, sometimes it's good to just kind of start that relationship by noticing the people that you're talking to first and kind of just taking that in. So let's take the Lord in tonight. Let's find things to thank him for. and let's tune our hearts to him. Let's notice the fact that he's obvious. You say he's not, then let's make sure we get in touch with that fact. And then we'll pray about some things. I'll pause us and we'll pray about some things. But let's pay attention to God and let's turn our hearts to him as we pray.