What Is Theology? Revelation (Week 1)

[Music] comes from the lord [Music] uh [Music] all right as you're coming in if you can kind of make your way down to the front we're going to all keep it down down here and the closer you are the easier it is because we want this to be question and answer kind of format so we haven't officially started yet i'm just that's your public service announcement everybody good tonight though yeah yeah thank you for being here but we'll get started in less than two minutes [Music] is his name is come into his house [Music] is [Music] okay we all ready to get started great man it was a a gross day today a lot of rain so i appreciate you guys i know in albuquerque when it rains it's like not i'm just staying in today this is not going to happen so i appreciate you all making the efforts to be here for the uh the very first of our desert springs institute in this kind of rebooted form uh the the first class systematic theology so this is a big topic for you all to bite off but i am encouraged by how many people in our church have shown interest in this i always knew this about our church but it was just a reminder that you all love the word of god and you love the god that reveals himself through his word and you always want to learn more about him and so this is just one more testament to that fact so on your way in you should have gotten some handouts uh that we're going to be using so let me walk through those and kind of orient our self for this semester and for our time and then we'll actually jump into the material that we're looking at but one of the things that you should have gotten was a syllabus that has the schedule for this entire year or academic year of material so you'll see all of the different topics and the dates that those are being covered on that also includes the times that we're we're taking off from this class many of the reasons that we're taking off are because in this room on the last wednesday of every month we either have a lord's supper service or a member's meeting and so my hope is is you guys get used to coming on wednesdays for the uh dsi class that you'll just keep on coming on wednesdays when it's a lord's supper service and if you haven't been coming to those this would just be part of your weekly rhythm that you'd already have it blocked off so you'll see though that those are all of the topics that we'll be covering and the really neat things we've put this class together is it's not just going to be me teaching this class so we're going to have other elders many other elders in our church that are going to be coming in and covering different of these topics and then we're also going to have some men that i have personally heard teach and been blessed by their faithfulness to the word they're going to be teaching some of these topics as well so you're going to get a variety of different teachers as we go through this class the way that this class is going to look every evening is it's going to be lecture format which means i'm going to do a lot of talking which i have no problem doing hopefully you don't have a problem listening but because especially because we're live streaming it so that other people can watch online it's just gonna be a lot of me talking um but that doesn't mean that it's not a good time for questions so i have actually built into the schedule here into the the time every night plenty of time for questions and i have no problem with you raising your hand and asking a question mid sentence even okay and i might wait to call on you until i finish a certain thought but if you have a question as i'm saying something feel free to raise your hand and i'll call on you that's kind of why i wanted to have you up front so hopefully i can hear you and then i'll make time to take moments to come you know ask if you have any questions about what i've been saying but but that this is a good time and you know if you have a question there's a really good chance that i wasn't clear and somebody else has the exact same question and so it would benefit the whole room for you to ask that question so questions are encouraged something else that you received when you walked in was an article by dr r albert mohler jr so this is going to be another aspect of this class as we go through this semester that hopefully every week whoever's teaching will give you some supplemental reading okay so uh you don't have homework coming into the class and this reading is optional okay so you're not going to fail the class if you don't do the reading but what we're trying to do is pick out things for you that are just helpful resources that kind of build on whatever topic it was that we were teaching on that night so this is a really good article from dr mohler who's that had a really really big influence on me he's the president of the seminary that i attended and this is just kind of an article about first things how do we think about a god that reveals himself what is uh the self-disclosure of god through his word why does that matter so what do you do with this reading well if you have time this week it's not too long it's about three pages long read it read it consider it meditate on it we'll see the part of doing theology is just exposing yourself to the the thoughts of other men and women good theologians that have that have spent time reflecting and meditating on god's word and what god is like and putting it down to writing we're blessed by that so take some time to read it think about it if you really have time this is what i would encourage you to do if you want to get a gold star in this class take that extra reading and set a date with somebody else in this class to sit down and read that together or at least read it in advance and then discuss it together one of the things that we are going to talk about often in this class is that you don't do theology by yourself none of us the church god did not save an individual he saved a church and so part of this exercise of getting to know god is talking to other people about god and challenging and sharpening one another so if you have time find somebody else in this class even if it's your husband or wife that you came with or somebody that you see regularly and talk about this reading together that would be a helpful exercise lastly the way that this class is going to work is i'm going to talk for a while you're going to ask questions for a while but we're going to have a hard stop near the end of the class and we are going to break up into small groups it doesn't you don't even have to move you can just kind of turn around and be with the people that are right around you and we're going to pray for five minutes at the end of every single class and we're going to pray prayers only of adoration you know prayer of adoration is it's a prayer of praise it's it's praying your your praise to god it's worshiping god through your words through your prayer we're going to pray a prayer of adoration coming out of whatever doctrine we're studying that evening so why are we doing that because theology cannot be divorced from doxology so what that says is when we learn about god that should not be divorced from worshiping the god we just learned about and so we want to build that discipline into our study of god as it's always driving us to worship it's always driving us to prayer and it's driving us to community so we're going to pray in little groups together so i say that now at the beginning so that you can be making notes of things that you want to praise god for at the end of the class okay any questions about the class the structure and things like that before we move forward okay so let me start with this this is a reading from knowing god oh one other thing that you should have received was a handout that has quotes and definitions so i'm going to throw a lot of quotes up on the screen in different definitions and i know that you guys are such meticulous notetakers that you're going to want to write down every word and you're going to get annoyed with me because i'm going so fast so i saved you the trouble i wrote down all the quotes right there so you don't have to write those down this is not on that list because i'm going to paraphrase it a little bit but this is from knowing god which is a classic book on theology on doing the the study of god by j.i packer and at the very beginning of this book he tells a story kind of a parable about people up in a balcony and then people in that balcony looking on a road and then travelers walking on the road so the people on the balcony are stationary they're there they're looking down on this road they can see the road they consider the road but then there are people that are actually walking on the road and he says this can be equated to how we approach the discipline of theology we can either be balconiers the people up in the balcony or we can be travelers people walking on the road and so he just describes this this is the difference he says balconiers and travelers may think over the same area this road yet their problems differ thus for instance in relation to evil the balconier's problem is to find a theoretical explanation of how evil can consist with god's sovereignty and goodness but the traveler's problem is how to master evil and bring good out of it or again in relation to sin the balconier asks whether racial sinfulness and personal perversity are really credible while the traveler knowing sin from within asks what hope there is of deliverance or take the problem of the godhead while the balconier is asking how one god can conceivably be three what sort of unity three could have and how three who make one can be persons the traveler wants to know how to show proper honor love and trust toward the three persons who are now together at work to bring him out of sin to glory now theology is for travelers and it is with travelers questions that it deals let's pray lord as we enter into this class we want to be travelers we don't want to be people that just look at you and think about you and talk about you but we want to be people that know you and we want to be people let that grow in our knowledge of you as you have revealed yourself to us and lord as you help us to know you more you help us to become like you more lord that this wouldn't be abstract for us this wouldn't be intellectual for us but this would be real for us this would matter to us lord and that you would change us even with this time this morning be glorified in jesus name amen amen um so as we get started here we're going to answer this question what is theology okay this is a systematic theology class but what do we mean when we say theology this is a word that maybe not everyone is familiar with it's a word that comes from two greek words the word feos which means god and the word logos which means words or ideas and you're probably familiar with this in english we will call something an ology okay we have biology and so when we put that ology that logos it's where that's from that word the greek word for word when we say ology at the end what do we mean we mean the study of so biology is the study of bios life okay where anthropology is the study of anthropos man well theology is the study of god here's a definition from david wells it says theology is the sustained effort to know the character will and acts of the triune god as he has disclosed himself and interpreted these for his people in scripture in order that we might know him learn to think our thoughts after him live our lives in his world on his terms and by thought and action project his truth into our own time and culture so there's some big ideas that come out in that definition he says first we want to know the character will and acts of the triune god so not just about god but what god has done and what god wants what god is like and then we ask the question for what purpose he says in order that we might know him learn to think our thoughts after him live our lives in this world on his terms be travelers okay so theology is about discipleship it's about being disciples faithful disciples the more we learn about god and what he wants the more we are faithful and then he says by thought in action project his truth into our own time and culture so it's not just about discipleship it's about disciple making and then he says how we do theology it is that we study god as he has disclosed himself so we're going to talk more about that but the big idea is that god has told us everything we need to know about what he is like and so we're not doing theology as an exercise of saying i think god might be like but we are asking god how he has told us that he is like so this is a definition of theology or to put it very simply this is how charles spurgeon put it theology is to the bible what science is to nature and i thought that was really helpful for me how does a scientist study nature well they go out and they're not coming to nature saying i think this is what nature likes but they're looking looking closely at nature making observations and then trying to put those observations into some coherent meaning and spurgeon says that we study theology by studying the bible how god has disclosed himself to us in the same way that a scientist studies nature so this raises the question what's the relationship between exegesis and theology exegesis is another greek word if you're not familiar with it it means uh to bring out of something to lead out of something and when we talk about exegesis what we're talking about is how do we read the bible so whenever we come to a text of scripture what we're trying to do is we are trying to bring out of a certain passage of scripture whatever it is that that scripture is saying so the opposite of exegesis is what's called isages i e-i-s-i-g e s is that right randy i don't know ice means into so isogesis is when you come to the bible with your own preconceived thoughts your own preconceived interpretations and you're reading a passage of scripture you're not saying this is what the scripture is saying is you're coming saying i know what this passage says that's isa jesus that's that's wrong what we are doing is exegesis we want to read the bible we want to bring out of the text whatever it is saying in this historical context in this grammatical context most of all what did that author mean to say and really the dual authors of the bible which we'll talk about next week that it was the human author and the divine author but we're trying to say what did this author mean not bring into it our own meaning and so a lot of people will say well isn't that what theology is isn't theology isages isn't theology coming to the bible with preconceived and a preconceived understanding of your doctrine and what god is like and you're reading that into the bible and the answer is sometimes yes sometimes people are doing isages with their theology they have some kind of theological system some sort of dogmatic scheme that maybe they were taught in their church or they were just picked up on their own and they're holding fast too these understandings of this is what god is like and they won't let the scripture interpret itself they'll bring that doctrine to the scripture and so that is bad theology not all theology is isa jesus but theology theology that is isages that's bad theology theology comes out of the bible we let the bible tell us what our doctrine ought to be and that is how we do theology so this is a good example of this from acts chapter 17 this is how you do good theology this is about the berean jews so remember that the apostle paul came to berea which was a city in northern greece and he shared the gospel with them he told them what god is like and how god has revealed himself in his son and those bereans took that doctrinal statement that paul gave them they took that theology that statement about what god is like and what did they do they went to the bible to see if that was accurate and so they were saying we're not going to believe what you're saying until we see that it's coming out of the scripture so they committed themselves to studying the scripture but that do you see that paul is working in these are commended for that paul is bringing their theology to these people and he's saying see if it's true see if it's from the bible so all i'm trying to say is that exegesis and theology are not and opposed to each other but they are actually integral to one another that all of our theology comes out of the bible and our theology should rightly influence how we study the bible so we're going to get more into this hopefully this will become more clear as we go along so we'll start with this and asking what are the kinds of theology there's different definitions and ways that people can go about this but i'll give you three big ones that it's important for you to have in your hand there is biblical theology historical theology and then systematic theology which is what this course is about a good theologian which is you is doing all three of these or ought to be doing all three of these so biblical theology is the organization of scripture thematically by biblical chronology or by biblical author with respect to the progressive revelation of the bible so that's the big idea with biblical theology is we're saying okay we're coming to the bible like a scientist and we are seeing a certain idea or a certain doctrine or a certain concept that is explained in the bible but we are looking at it in view of the entire chronological and progressive history of the bible so a really good example of this is the idea of the presence of god okay so you can say the presence of god it's an idea that pervades through the whole bible and we're going to consider the presence of god as it moves progressively chronologically through the bible so it starts with the garden of eden okay god was present there and then that presence was lost it's restored in the tabernacle which goes into the temple and then it goes into prophecies about the temple and what the temple is actually going to be then it comes to jesus who is the presence of god emmanuel god with us and then it moves to the church which is the temple looking forward to the new jerusalem in the book of revelation where god it dwells with his people forever in a new heavens and a new earth and so that's the same idea but we're considering it in these kind of progressive milestones okay and that's very very beneficial when you're studying the bible is to understand okay where am i progressively in any one of these ideas you can really do biblical theology about any topic but what you're doing is paying attention to the progressive disclosure of that so that's biblical theology historical theology is the historical study of doctrinal developments after the apostolic era to the present time so after the apostolic era means after this was written then you're looking at how were those doctrines talked about and developed historically in the church so historical theology is church history theology and so a good example of this would be the lord's supper how did we get to the point where a roman catholic would have the understanding that the lord's supper is the transubstantiated presence of jesus's body and blood in what is no longer bread and wine okay how did they get there how did they get from what we see in the bible to that and then how did the protestants get to where we are where we disagree with that and so you're considering those developments as the church talked about them and thankfully the church was really good at writing this stuff down so there's a lot of history for us to study and that's really helpful for us to know how these different doctrines develop so that's historical theology but we are not in a historical theology class we are in a systematic theology class so what is systematic theology here's a definition that i've kind of cobbled together from lots of different places systematic theology is the orderly arrangement of the study of god as he has revealed himself in the bible into logical topical divisions so that we know what to believe and how to live okay it's the orderly arrangement into logical topical divisions that's the difference from biblical theology to systematic theology it's divided into specific topics so maybe that definition will become more clear if we ask how do we do systematic theology here's a good definition from wayne grudem or a good description systematic theology involves collecting and understanding all the relevant passages in the bible on various topics and then summarizing their teachings clearly so that we know what to believe about each topic so here's a detailed process of how we would do this built off of that understanding how do we do systematic theology we gather all the relevant texts that speak to a given topic in the bible so let's pick a topic we'll say the topic of angels and demons okay which is not something that we're i think covering in this class maybe one of the teachers will just go off on a tangent and get into that but we're not going to cover it's called angelology see an angel is a greek word so that actually works so angelology we're not going to get into that but we can kind of think about if we wanted to get into the study of angelology what would we do well we would read through the whole bible and we would make note of every single place that the bible talks about angels or demons and we would write those out somewhere maybe we'd have a word document where we just had them all up there and so we would have every single verse we would collect every single verse in the bible about a given topic thankfully there's not a whole lot about angels and demons if we had picked the topic of like sim it'd be a much longer word document okay so we're going to start with angels and demons so we grab all the relevant decks that speak to a given topic then this is key we interpret those texts faithfully in their original context so we're studying this is again exegesis and theology go together so we're going to make sure that all those verses we are understanding clearly what the bible the biblical author is saying about the angels and demons in that passage and then what we're going to try to do is we're going to take that whole word document how long is it i don't know all of these verses about angels and demons and what we're going to try to do is we're going to take everything all those verses and we're going to try and synthesize them okay we're going to try and bring them all together so that they make a coherent consistent understanding and then that synthesis we're going to try to summarize clearly accurately and with an eye to contextualization so it wouldn't do somebody if somebody came to you and said hey what are angels how does that work or if your kid comes to you and they say what's a demon well you can say well here's my word document with all of the things that the bible says about demons is that going to help them that's not synthesized that's not summarized and it's certainly not contextualized okay think you've got a little kid there and they're asking what is a demon but if you said a demon is a fallen angel an angel that rebelled against god and they say okay i got it now is there a verse anywhere in the bible that says a demon is a fallen angel that rebelled against god no that's a synthesis of everything that the bible had to say about demons now is that statement true i hope so how do i know it's true because all of those verses say that one way or another but i'm summarizing that idea and i'm contextualizing it for my daughter's five and so that's how i would explain it to her now if you had a college student ask you what a demon was you would still summarize it but you would contextualize it differently you would maybe make it a longer definition you would explain it a little bit differently but again you're not just reciting scripture to them you're making a true statement that's accurate to what the bible says that's synthesized and summarized okay so systematic theology is doing that about every topic that you can think of every topic that you would like to study every topic that you want to have a good answer to you are just picking those topics studying all the verses summarizing them and there you go so notice that we're not done with the process of systematic theology after you've synthesized and summarized then you bring it to the church you consult your church and you consult the church okay if you remember as i went through this i underscored this idea this isn't working i underscored the idea of how do we do systematic theology i underlined that how do we do systematic theology because we don't do systematic theology by ourselves okay i have met many people that are very faithful and and i admire their effort and their diligence in this but they have come to me and they said you know what i'm really itching to understand this topic and so i'm going to go and i'm going to read the bible and i'm not going to ask anybody for help i'm not going to read any books besides the bible and i'm not going to let any man-made doctrine inform how i'm going to do this i'm just going to come this is going to be me and my bible and i again i love that i love that dedication i love that belief that the bible is clear that we can come to it and we can understand it okay that's that's wonderful but that's not how god made us that's not god how god made us to know him that's not how god made us to study him he made us to study him in community together because here's the thing as great as you are and as clear as the bible is you're not infallible you don't have an infallible and a perfect understanding okay you can't come to this and look this is a big book so honestly i think it's a little arrogant to come to this and say oh yeah i can exhaustively know this such that i can come to a clear understanding about everything in the bible by myself god has given a history of the church to work together to understand this and so when we're doing our theology we're always doing it in community and i have this kind of written like it's a step-by-step thing it's really not these are all feeding on one another but when i say bring it to your church if you've come to some understanding that you've never heard before talk to somebody else in this room and ask them if that sounds right and they may say hey i think you're leaving out this bible verse here or come to one of your pastors okay that's what we're here for is to kind of help you you know i i had the freedom i was afforded the opportunity to do a lot of study in this and so maybe there's things that you just haven't had time to get to yet that i can point you in the right direction to help you see that even more than that take it to the church universal there are lots of other people writing books and writing good thoughts now and so they would have some good things that might feed into this thing that you're studying and most of all take it to the church historical okay there are lots of debates that come up right now that's really funny that people are saying well i think the trinity might be like this or i think the trinity might be like this and i you know and they're looking at things and it was all a debate that was settled 1400 years ago but nobody knows what was said in the church 1400 years ago but they were having that same argument then and they kind of solved that one you know and so if we divorce ourselves from everything that god is doing well it's kind of like an eye taking itself out and trying to be an eye by itself we should see the body as working together so we take it to the church and yet as we do that we remember that the church is the sole authority or i'm sorry the not the church i'm i'm sorry i'm trying to get this going so not the church if we were roman catholic then i would say the church is the ultimate authority but that's not what we believe we believe that the bible is the ultimate authority so even though i tell you this is the right doctrine doctrine this is the right statement about this thing you shouldn't just take my word for it and i shouldn't tell you it like that i shouldn't tell you this is what you should believe you'll see this when i'm teaching when pastor ryan is teaching any of our elders what are we trying to do this is what you should believe based on this we're trying to show our work right like you remember when you're in math class and your teacher was like you know i was like what is that it's a triangle well how do you know show your work and it's like it's a triangle i don't know what's it you know no but you have it's so annoying you have to show your work but that's what you want from a theologian that's what you want from your pastor is that we're not just telling you this is what you should believe but we're showing you why that's what you should believe because we believe that the bible is the ultimate authority this is another good good definition from grudem the study of church history including the great creeds of the church and the writings of major theologians in church history as well as the study of philosophy can often be of great benefit in helping us understand what the whole bible in fact does teach about various topics but they do not contain any authority greater than or equal to the authority of scripture and so this dynamic process of talking to other people consulting with the history of the church even bringing in philosophy good observations about the world and reason and logic and bringing those things in but none of those things have authority over scripture and so we're always trying to come to the bible to get a clear definition of what it is that we're believing here so questions about that process about how we do theology okay great so next we're going to ask why study systematic theology or why not just read the bible why is it worthwhile for you to take time to consider the doctrines of god these summarized synthesized statements about god and not just reading your bible well i've already started getting into this but here are some reasons first everyone is a theologian i've already said this you are a theologian everyone has thoughts about god even non-believers have thoughts about god it's kind of a famous story about a chaplain at a university and and he had to meet with every student in the university and so a student sits down with the chaplain and he says well chaplain you're not going to see me very much this semester because because i'm an atheist i don't believe in god and so the chaplain says okay well why don't you tell me about the god you don't believe in and then the man went on to describe i don't believe in this this long bearded man old man that lives in the clouds that judges us for everything that we do and just dictates life according to his capricious whims and the chaplain says well that's very interesting that's not the god i believe in either so even non-believers have a conception of god they're doing theology they're putting in categories about god but but christians especially as we are studying the word we are always categorizing this this is just how people work we categorize things because things are complicated we want to make things simple so we always put things into little boxes into little categories and so when we're reading the bible we'll see things and we'll say well i wonder how this relates to this and i'm trying to put these things together but like i said the bible is really big and so that's a that's a big process that's a big effort but you are doing that so really the question is not are you a theologian the question is are you a disorganized theologian or a systematic theologian i think there are many christians that are just me and my bible that are actually disorganized theologians i think there are many heretics that have arisen throughout church history that are disorganized theologians they'll let one aspect of the bible one verse of the bible lead them to all kinds of wrong thinking without letting these other things that the bible says about that same doctrine influence the positions that they have so you do theology whether or not you're intending to so let's be systematic theologians okay let's do that so we do it because everyone is a theologian and then we study systematic theology because it helps us understand the bible it helps us as we're doing our exegesis it kind of gives us those categories again so that when we see something like what the bible says about human responsibility about our choosing to believe in god well we know that the bible says other things about that same idea and so when we're reading this verse we know well that can't mean what i think it means on its face i was thinking pastor ryan did this on sunday didn't he he was saying from this parable of the rich man and the tax collector you could read this parable outside of what the rest of the bible says and you could conclude a doctrine from that parable that is rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven and you remember what pastor ryan said we know from the rest of the bible that that's not true but how do we know from the rest of the bible it's not just that he's read the rest of the bible but that he's got those categories of judgment and salvation how does this work and so i can come to the bible and especially confusing parts of the bible and theology helps me keep what's called the regular fide the rule of faith it helps me let scripture interpret scripture it builds up that muscle so we read the bible better when we read and understand the bible better then that helps us know and love god remember the aim of systematic theology is that it would lead to worship it would lead to love and that would lead to obedience so systematic theology leads to healthy churches and don't you want our church to be healthy do you ever have complaints about our church you ever think about things you wish our church did a little bit better well then you should be praying that we get better at systematic theology because it leads to healthy churches it also leads to unified churches okay we have a right understanding of what it is that we are gathering around what it is that makes our church a church what it is that makes our church different from the presbyterian church down the street what it is that makes our church different from the unitarian church across town okay which is no church and so it helps us define what we can agree on and it also helps us define what are the things that we can just have a friendly debate on right it helps us understand what are those things that matter most and what are those things that matter on a lower order and as we love god we are healthier what that's going to lead to is good evangelism okay because you can't know god and love god without knowing the will of god and what's the will of god that we would go out and that we would make disciples and so as we're obeying god we're taking his word out and as we're sharing about god with people because we've done good systematic theology it makes us better evangelists because when you're sharing the gospel you're telling people about god what kind of god are you telling them about is it the right accurate understanding of god or is it something inaccurate because when you're doing evangelism think about this you very rarely will you just read a bible verse to somebody you might be showing them some bible verses and and some of those things but your approach to evangelism is not and i've seen people do this you know just stand on the corner and only read the bible okay but no you're going to have a relationship with somebody you're going to talk to them and you might say something to them like jesus died on the cross for your sins so that if you believe in him as he was raised from the dead you will be raised from the dead and have eternal life with god it's a very good summary of the gospel that's not a bible verse okay that's a theological statement that's accurate because it's come from the bible but i've summarized and sympathized synthesized so as you're doing evangelism you're doing theology or you better be so that's an introduction to theology okay and we're going to move on so we'll stop kind of talking about theology so any ques any other questions as we have kind of covered that questions about theology i'm just that good you guys didn't have any it's all right so let's then actually get into doing theology how's that sound okay not just think about theology but let's start doing it so the question is as we jump into a course on systematic theology where do you begin where do you begin in a course that's trying to cover these major categories of the study of god as he's revealed himself in the bible because that's as part of it remember our definition that david wells had is the orderly arrangement of specific topics and ideas about god and so you ask what order do i put these things in if you look at your syllabus you'll see the very last thing that we're talking about is eschatology and i know for half of you that's the only reason you're in this class is you just want to get to the end you want to you want to find out what i think about the rapture all of that but there's a reason that's at the end it's logical to put the last things as the last thing so what is logical to begin with well it's interesting and i and i have a lot of different uh theology books and and i can show you what those are as we um go through these are these are ones that i would recommend to you and let me say there's not any one theology book that i agree with entirely and there shouldn't be okay because we're all fallible human beings we're all going to come to kind of different positions on things like that and so it's good to read a diversity hopefully as we're giving you different handouts and things to read it's not all going to be people from the southern baptist theological seminary it's going to be a diverse reading of different people because we're all trying to arrive at this in our own fallible way but but it's interesting if you read a lot of different systematic theologies where they start is kind of a statement in its own right um louis berkoff he wrote a very famous systematic theology uh man quite some time ago now but he began his theology called systematic theology with the existence of god so this idea how do we know that god exists and i think he was kind of getting that from thomas aquinas who began the summa theologica which was a 13th century i mean it's like five volumes i think it's very big it's maybe one of the most it's probably the most influential systematic theology that was ever written it's a medieval catholic understanding of theology and he begins his five volumes with how do we know that god exists that's where lewis berkoff began and that makes sense right if you're studying god well how do we know this god that we're studying exists that's a good place to begin john frame is another really really good theologian he's got some great books and different lengths he kind of famously begins his with the doctrine of god's lordship so he thinks point number one with a bullet where you begin theology is that god is lord of everything he's sovereign over everything and he makes a really good argument for that for why that is but in my opinion uh you have to actually go a step backwards from where burkhoff begins and where frame begins i think there's a step before that because you have to ask well how do we know that this god is lord how do we know that this god exists it's because remember our definition god has disclosed himself he has revealed himself so i think that is the place to begin is with the doctrine of revelation the doctrine of how we know what we know about god and i'm not alone in this this is where john calvin starts the institutes of the christian religion this is where herman bovink is one of my favorite theologians he's a dutch reformed theologian this is where he begins he has a whole book i've got it uh right here he's got a whole book in his four volume theology a whole book in four volumes it's just about revelation and how we know what we know about god uh wayne grudem begins with the doctrine of revelation the new one that came out edited by john mcarthur that begins with the doctrine of revelation charles hodges three volumes begins with the doctrine of revelation r.c sproul begins his with the doctrine of revelation and even john frame who starts with a chapter about lordship the very next thing is okay let's talk about revelation because you have to know how you know the things about god and so that's what we're going to talk about so how does god reveal himself let me do this this is i'm going to read a long quote from herman bovink as i said he's a dutch reformed theologian he's got another so he has got four volumes and then he's got a shorter volume that's called the wonderful works of god that's just beautiful one of the things that i love about herman bovink he's a little thick but he's just beautiful in the way that he writes i've quoted him in sermons before and this is a kind of longer quote about the self-disclosure of god so he says the self-disclosure of god is usually designated by the term revelation scripture uses various verbs for it such as appearing speaking commanding working making known and the like these indicate that the revelation does not always take place in the same way but that it comes in various forms as a matter of fact all of the works of god whether of word or deed are constituent parts and elements of the one great comprehensive and always continuing revelation of god so everything that is because everything that is is something that god has done everything god has done is in one way or another god revealing himself to us and this is a wonderful idea so theologians usually break this idea of god of everything revealing god we break it down into two specific terms and the first is called general revelation general revelation so here's a definition general revelation from uh just from me i guess general revelation is god's revelation of his existence and some of his attributes given to all people through the created order so the revelation of his existence and some of his attributes through the created order you can actually break general revelation down into two more parts and that is immediate revelation and immediate revelation so immediate would mean it's mediated through something it comes through something else so this would be psalm 19 verses 1 through 3 the heavens declare the glory of god and the sky above proclaims his handiwork day to day pours out speech and night tonight reveals knowledge there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard so what are the words what are the voice that he's talking about here the heavens the sky i think especially the night sky okay and remember this was written before electricity and so you could always look out and see the milky way i hope you have all had that experience of being somewhere where you're far enough out and you can see the milky way really clearly and it just what does it do man it knocks you down right it's so beautiful and what the psalmist is saying is that that is speech declaring the glory of god day and night nature is communicating something about god and so i could ask you this now okay i know you're getting sleepy so i'm going to ask you what do you know about god from seeing the milky way on a beautiful night let me just shout out some answers well creation okay that god created it right you have that thought and you say somebody had to make this where did this where did this come from we're really going to just say the big bang makes sense we're really going to say that things just come out of nothing something that big something that beautiful no i think something had to make that yeah okay so i'm gonna pick on you a little bit can just by looking at the heavens could you know that that every star has a name and that god knows what it is no yeah so general revelation that's i'm really glad that you that you said that we know that because there's a bible verse that says that okay but apart from that bible verse we would never know that okay so that's where the limits as i said it we know some of the attributes of god because looking at creation can only tell us some things not everything so what are other what are those some things that we can know from looking at a beautiful night sky well maybe we say okay somebody created this though the thing that created this must be really really big bigger than that so he must have a lot of power maybe he's really really wise wow that's beautiful maybe the the thing the being that created that is beautiful and what's that and infinite yeah yeah because if this came something had to come before that and and there has to be you know so we're getting into philosophy and aristotle a little bit there has to be something that that is unmoved that moved everything else there has to be some non-created creator okay that would make all of those other things so yeah so this is actually exactly what the apostle paul says in romans chapter one he says what can be known about god is plain to them because god has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so what can we learn from the world the creation of the world he is eternal he's powerful and he's divine he's distinct from this created thing and so what the apostle paul is going to say is everybody knows this creation declares this but now you go outside and you might find your garden variety atheist and they would say i don't know that i don't believe that and what paul would say is they actually do know that they have just suppressed that truth but everybody when they look at the creation has to think there is something bigger than this creation that made this creation so that's uh general revelation and and then again to go back to the the things that the bible itself says about creation and god is the creator christians come to general revelation differently than non-believers so we come to general revelation we see these things and we know that he has named all of those stars we know that he is before all things and that by the word of his mouth he upholds these things we know when we see something beautiful or orderly that that is expressing god and it leads us to greater and greater thoughts about god and so we come to general revelation even differently that it leads us to worship psalm 19 is a psalm about worship okay but for the non-believer the apostle paul is saying they still know that that's true so that is an immediate kind of revelation it's mediated through nature the other kind of general revelation is more direct what we would call immediate it's just directly from god to us so this is romans chapter two when gentiles who do not have the law okay so for our purposes we know the law is from god it's clearly god's word the gentiles don't have any words from god but when they by nature do what the law requires they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them so a person that doesn't have the moral code that god has given to us in the scriptures still has a moral code written on their heart where is that from it's from god directly because we are made in god's image we are moral people and so every person every culture has a conscience and they have definitions of things that are right and wrong now it's not enough and we know that because we look at different cultures and they have different definitions sometimes of what is right and wrong but everybody has a category four right and wrong and anybody that tells you that doesn't is lying and steal their computer and find out if they still don't believe that there is such a thing as right or wrong everybody has a conscience everybody has a definition of right or wrong that comes directly from god okay and this kind of leads into the bigger idea of what's called the census divinitatis the sense of the divine this is something that john calvin talked about that every single person has within themselves a sense that god is there because god has put it there god's put this understanding and this desire to know him in the heart of every single human being directly and so every single human being is trying to worship something trying to find the thing that ought to be worshipped and we're reaching out because we all have this inward sense god has revealed that he exists and that we want to worship him to every single human being and just to be clear so we're looking at this because this is a confusing verse it confused me when it says they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them that word excuse it trips people up sometimes because they think what that means is that when a gentile who doesn't have the law does what the law requires they are excused by god so that they are they are somehow forgiven by god because even though they don't know what god's law is because they're trying god will be gracious to them but we know from the rest of the bible that that's not true okay we know from the rest of the bible that the only way that you are excused before god the only way that you are justified before god is how through faith in jesus christ so what this is saying is not that they are excused by god that they have excused themselves they have excused their own conscience okay because they have a moral code they have a conscience and i'm sure you have all felt this even if some of you spent some of your adult life not being a believer you still had a sense of man i don't feel good about what i just did to that person or man i'm a really good person and i am excused i'm not gonna hold myself guilty anymore but again that all comes from god but here's the point here's here's why this general revelation idea matters so much so going back to romans chapter one this is the next slide says so so the paul says everybody knows that god exists because his his uh attributes have been revealed in nature it's everything there's not anywhere in the whole world that his voice has not heard because he made this beautiful stuff this big stuff so they are without excuse for although they knew god how did they know god just through general revelation they did not honor him as god or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened so anyone that doesn't believe in god they've become futile in their thinking they have suppressed the truth about god and because of that because they have not rightly responded to god in the worship that he desires and that he deserves they're without excuse and so this is why every single person goes to hell that doesn't believe in jesus that doesn't worship god the right way because they know they don't have an excuse nobody can plead ignorance before the mercy seat of god god will say you knew i was there you saw the milky way you saw all these things around you you even know that you didn't come out of nothing you knew there was a god and you didn't worship him the right way through jesus and so you're without excuse and this is the thing about general revelation that's the point that it comes up to you it can condemn us but it cannot save us it's not enough to say this i remember one time um i i frequented the same coffee shop over and over and over again actually i would frequent that coffee shop with this really big book called systematic theology by wayne grudem and i would just sit there every morning and i would i would read this and i'd read my bible first don't worry and then i would read systematic theology and there was a guy in there that frequented it uh just like i did he was an older gentleman really really nice and we kind of struck up a friendship in there we'd talk you know as we're waiting in line whatever and um and he knew you know he knew that i was a pastor and we we talked a lot and i said you know sir have you ever come to church you want to come to my church do you wanna and he goes oh no no i don't need that church stuff i believe in god but i don't need to i don't need to go to church i said will you ever read your bible or you're going no no no i don't i don't need to do that you see i'm a i'm a hunter and so i go out every weekend and i go to to my land and and on one of those cool autumn days when the the mist is kind of rolling in and i see a big ten point buck walk out of the out of the forest that's when that's when i worship god that's when i know that god is real that's my church and and i just said well sir that's that's beautiful that deer cannot tell you that jesus died on the cross for your sins okay they can tell you something about god he's not wrong they can tell you something about god i can tell you that that god is eternal he's powerful he's got a divine nature he's the creator he's beautiful he's wonderful it's right that we would respond in a kind of worship that's what the psalmist in psalm 19 is doing but that's that's not enough to save you it's not enough to tell you what your sin is and that's not enough to tell you that jesus died for it you need more than that or another example i like to use this when i talk college students in college ministry i would say imagine you're sitting in class and there is a pretty girl sitting at the end of the row okay and every every day you come into class and you look and you see i'm looking at you randy but you see this girl and you say wow she's beautiful look at her smile it just it lights up the whole room and you start to think more and more about her you start to notice the things that she's done across the room and how she carries herself and all these things and you start to maybe fill in some of the blanks you know i bet she likes the same music that i do and i bet she has the same interests and ambitions that i do i bet we would really really get along if we spent some time together and you start thinking those ways about this person that you're looking at from far away well would it be reasonable for you to say after all of that that that is your girlfriend would it be reasonable to say that you have a relationship with this person that you have just looked at from from very far away do you actually know anything about that girl do you even know her name no all you have is general revelation all you have is what can be plainly known by anybody in the same room that can look at that girl but what would it take for you to actually have a relationship with that girl you have to talk you have to talk to each other you have to communicate with each other really more importantly she has to talk to you she has to speak so it is with god general revelation is not enough but here's the good news here's the good news god doesn't want to leave it a general revelation god wants to talk the god that created the milky way the god that did all of this god that knows right or wrong perfectly that is the source of right and wrong he wants to tell you so much more about himself he wants to sit down and have lots and lots and lots of conversations he wants to marry you in the church and so god speaks that's good news amen y'all gotta wake up so how does god talk let's go to this next slide special revelation so we had general revelation now we have the other category special revelation we can think of the word special as as specific okay so let's see here's a definition this is from essential christian doctrine special revelation is god's disclosure of himself in a more personal and detailed manner than that provided by general revelation again think of the girl okay it is more personal and more detailed and this is what god has done in special revelation or here's another quote from him involving special revelation is that conscious and free act of god by which he in the way of a historical complex of special means that are concentrated in the person of christ makes himself known specifically in the attributes of his justice and grace and the proclamation of law and gospel to those human beings who live in the light of his special revelation in order that they may accept the grace of god by faith in christ or in case of impenitence receive a more severe judgment see i said he's a little thick but that's that's good if you think about it god speaks in such a way this is what i said to that man he speaks in such a way that you can know that you are a sinner you can know exactly what the moral code of god is and that because of your sin you stand judged and yet god has judged his son on your behalf on the cross so you can be saved so god speaks to us so that we can have that salvific relationship with him or god speaks in such a way that when someone hears that gospel and rejects it they are judged even more severely by god okay i think you know we talk about this what about the uh what about the person living on an island that they only have the milky way they never have a missionary come to them and share the special the specific the detailed personal word of god with them they only have the general revelation well they're without excuse but they don't have enough to be saved but their judgment is different from the judgment of somebody that grew up in a church home in america and decided that they didn't want to believe it and went off and completely abandoned the faith that they grew up hearing they're judged differently by god they're judged more severely in hell by god now if you want to ask what about that person that's on an island that only has the milky way how is that fair well we're going to do a dsi class and apologetics a long time from now so you can come to that one and we'll talk about that but but as we sit back and we think about that let me just say go to that island if that bugs you man that person doesn't get to hear the gospel until they're without excuse but nobody's told them how to be saved well then go go to that island and go tell them about how they can be saved but that's the idea that this is specific this is god telling us what we need to know about him so that we can be saved so how does god talk specifically bobbing says it's a complex of historical realities that are concentrated in jesus christ we can break it down into these two points here that god speaks in two big ways in direct acts in history so this would be salvation not just salvation in jesus but think of the salvation of his people in israel that god intervening to bring israel out of egypt that's a direct act in history this is god coming in to history and and that's more specific than the milky way isn't it when god comes in and says this people i've chosen i'm going to bring them out i'm going to save them that's specific god acts in history through miracles god acts in what's called a theophany theophany means an appearing of god and so especially when you read the old testament you will see these times where god himself steps in and it's and it's just god people are seeing god the angel of the lord or the burning bush of these different things that that is god acting directly and when you see god when god appears you're learning something about god aren't you god is revealing himself to you so god acts in direct acts in history and then god also speaks through the word of god he reveals himself especially through the word of god and so then we ask what is the word of god so this would be these are five categories that we can use to talk about what is the word of god and the bible decrees personal address prophetic utterances the written form and the word incarnate these are all places in the bible where we see god speaking his word so this is not just god acting this is not just god appearing this is verbal this is verbal revelation of god so we're going to go through each one of these so first is decrees so a decree is when god says something in such a way that it brings about what it is that he wants so this is the very first way that we see god acting genesis 1 3 god said let there be light and there was light or hebrews chapter one verse three it says he upholds the universe by the word of his power so god's speech god's word has power to accomplish things and when we talk about the decree of god we can actually step back further that god has in his mind his infinite mind things that he wants things that he has determined his perfect will and god always brings about his perfect will psalm 33 verses 9 to 11 says this where ephesians chapter 1 says that our own salvation was according to the counsel of god it was according to his will but how did he bring about his will through speech through decrees and even now he upholds the universe he made the universe and he holds it by his mouth by saying okay so this is the idea of somebody that's in charge has authority i say to this man and he goes and this man and he comes okay authority through speech so god speaks through decree next he speaks through personal address so we see this very early on genesis chapter 2 the lord god commanded the man saying god spoke to adam you think in matthew chapter 3 behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased so god will speak directly to human beings and this is really cool if you stop and think about it what language is god speaking right he's speaking the language of the person that's that's listening and so then we say what language does god speak you say well hold on let's think about that what language does god the father speak to god the son and speak to god's spirit what is language language is really just symbols right that we ascribe meaning to so they're just sounds or letters combinations that we have said this means this and i don't know the bible doesn't speak to this i'm doing philosophy right but i think that god is just pure meaning when he communicates with in himself that he doesn't have a language because he doesn't need a language he communicates his meaning perfectly within himself but he has made human beings and we speak languages and he made us that way and so god speaks our language i don't know what language adam spoke i know the people that were around at the time that jesus was baptized and they heard this voice they smoke spoke aramaic so i have to think because they understood what that voice said that god said it in aramaic or maybe he said it in greek so that just everybody could understand okay but i don't think god speaks greek i don't think god speaks hebrew but god accommodates his language so that we will understand it isn't that cool that god is saying i want to be really clear with you and so i'm not going to make you learn a different language to understand me i'm going to speak this to you in your language and so that helps us also understand the ways where god uses metaphors the way where god picks up human institutions and things to help us kind of understand what he's like because god is a good teacher and he's using his language he's accommodating his language to help us understand what he's like but god speaks in personal address so this is a voice from god that you can hear added to this i think there's one other subcategory and that is dreams and visions so look at genesis 15 after these things the word of the lord came to abram in a vision so it's still the word but how is abram receiving that word in a vision he falls asleep and he has a vision so this is not language symbols this is visual symbols this is some kind of visual this is in fact the visual of uh the the pot and the the the burning the smoking pot going through the carcasses when he makes the covenant so he sees this vision that's communicating that symbols visual symbols communicating something or again genesis 40 joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to god this guy had this dream but he's saying that dream has a meaning that comes from god so god will speak in dreams and visions in the bible next we have prophetic utterance so a prophet is somebody that god raises up to speak god's word on behalf of god so he's god's mouthpiece deuteronomy 18 18 is a good example of this i will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers and i will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that i command him or this is isaiah 38 then the word of the lord came to isaiah go and say to hezekiah thus says the lord the god of david your father so this is what a prophet is god comes to the prophet this man and he's saying you are going to be my mouthpiece it's like you're the speaker i'm talking into the microphone here your mouth is opening up but the what is coming out of your mouth is not your words it's my words it's god's words and so this is what prophets do and so we read the prophets knowing they are speaking the word of god and so this raises a question just right here i'll say this with the idea of personal address hearing a voice from heaven the idea of dreams and visions god revealing something to you in some visual way or this idea of prophetic utterance somebody coming and being able to say thus saith the lord this is all throughout the bible and i personally you can come and buy me coffee and we'll talk about this we can do theology together and talk about this i personally think that that doesn't happen anymore i don't think that these are the ways that we receive god's word anymore so if you've said i've just never heard an audible voice from heaven i don't think you should expect to okay and if you say i don't have dreams or visions i don't i don't think that that's normative for the church today i'm not saying that it can't happen i've heard stories where that's happening especially in muslim countries where they don't have as much access to the word of god okay but but i don't think that's normative that we should expect god to speak to us that way and i don't think that there are prophets today that can come and say this is what god says through my own mouth i don't think that happens anymore why do i think that that doesn't happen anymore because we have this next form of god's revelation which is the written form completely finished what i mean to say is we have a bible i remember this was i had a conversation with a man one time and he was just he was just beside himself because he says i've been a christian for so long and never once have i heard the voice of god i said what do you mean by that never once have you heard the voice of god you know you hear these stories where where god says to somebody you can just hear like it's he's right there in the room with you where you can just hear god telling you what to do or something i've just never had that experience and i i don't know if i'm a christian i've never heard the voice of god said when was the last time you read your bible and he said oh no it's it's been a long time and i said you know what brother i hear the voice of god every morning because that's what this is this is the word of god and so we don't need to expect the only reason that people were having dreams and visions was because this wasn't written yet they needed new information but we have all the information that we need now we're going to talk about this next week so i'll get off of that hobby horse but we have the word of god in written form so this is exodus 31 god gave to moses when he had finished speaking with him on mount sinai the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written with the finger of god so the very first piece of scripture was written by god himself and that was the ten commandments the first time scripture was ever written down in the ten commandments god wrote it on tablets with his own finger but it goes on from that when moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book so remember moses is receiving the law the torah from god moses god has instructed him to write down all of the words in a book or in a scroll all the way to the very end moses commanded the levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the lord take this book of the law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the lord your god that it may be there for a witness against you so even at the very beginning of the bible in the first five books of the bible we see this pattern of the word of god being written down and then that written form being what persists being what maintains being what continues on god is not speaking the same things audibly over and over again he gives it to a prophet has the prophet write it down and then we trust because the prophet wrote it down accurately that we don't need to hear that from god anymore and so he says hold on to this you're going to need it you're going to need to read it because this is my word that i gave to you write it down it's the same with the prophets the prophet the prophetic books okay isaiah jeremiah ezekiel on and on these men were receiving the word of god speaking the word of god usually in public but either they or their disciples wrote those words down and so what we have are those prophetic utterances written down for us still the word of god it was the word of god when it came out of their mouth and it was the word of god when it was written down and we're going to talk more about that next week about how it was written down but it even goes more than this because throughout the history of especially the old testament there was this pattern of not only writing down the words that god said but the things that god did and so you have narrative histories in the old testament where they're writing down about this is when god saved us out of egypt how he did that so they weren't specifically things where god said now write down how i did the plagues and now write down how i did this no they're just kind of writing that history but the spirit is intending that because the acts of god are revelation as well and so the record of the acts of god is revelation and so they were writing it down and that writing it down was was the the culmination that lasts through the generations of the church of the revelation of god then we come to the new testament so the apostle paul writes this all scripture is breathed out by god and profitable for teaching for a proof for correction and for training and righteousness so he's saying all scripture is referring to the old testament the whole old testament is the word of god it's breathed out by god it's what we need from god for our teaching we're proof correction and training and righteousness but then this is really interesting second peter chapter three he writes this just as our beloved brother paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters there are some things in them that is the letters of paul that are hard to understand anybody else say amen seriously there are some things in paul in his letters that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other what scriptures so peter is talking about his contemporary the apostle paul they were they knew each other and he's saying paul's letters are scripture in the same way that paul said the old testament is scripture it's the same word and why is it scripture because peter knows that paul is an apostle just like he is and so the apostles are in that role like prophets of receiving the word of god writing the word of god down and so those written words are to be received as scripture so all that to say is the old testament and the new testament are the spoken word of god they are the speech of god they are god's self-disclosure it's like you're going on a date with that girl that you want to have a relationship with okay that's why i mean we should come and we should reverence this not because it's words on a page not because it's a it's a special book in and of itself you know this is this is how muslims think about the quran like the book itself is somehow this totem it's this magical thing just by virtue of being the quran well no this is a book it's it's pages it's inc but it's who these words are from and what they are teaching us that makes this the most important book in the whole world and so we should come to it because this is god teaching us about himself it is his special revelation it's how we know more than what that deer what the milky way can tell us it's how we know that god has saved us and it culminates like braving said in this last form of the word which is the word incarnate the word incarnate is jesus jesus is really fascinatingly he's i said right there's two really two kinds of special revelation there's the history and acts the acts of god in history including theophany god appearing in person and then there is the word of god well jesus says both of those things together because he's called the word of god john 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory our hebrews 1 long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son so think about this right that again there's this person that you want to know okay it would be would mean everything to you to get to hear from them will then come to find out that that person has been dying for you to know them and they want to reveal themselves to you they want to disclose everything about themselves as perfectly and accurately as they can that's how god thinks about us i want you to know me because knowing me is your salvation and so i've given you my word through all these different ways but i'm going to make it as clear to you as possible i'm going to put my word in human form so that in seeing jesus my son you would know what i am like he is the image he is my image this is who i am this is what i'm like this is my greatest act that i'm going to come and i'm going to die so that that judgment would be paid so that you would be saved to eternal life and so this is what everything is driving to the revelation of god through jesus his son and so bring it back this is the question that we'll close with why does god reveal himself why why would god do this why is god not content to just sit back and let us let us perish without having all the information that we need to be saved you got the answer yeah yeah that you would know you would know me you know i'm the lord yeah any other thoughts why does god reveal himself yeah he wants us to glorify him yeah that's a great answer other thoughts to have a relationship yeah yeah that god is like i don't i don't want to be far away i want to be close with you i want you to know me so that we can love each other okay it's like you know i live with my wife right and if i never try to find out what her desires are what her likes are what her will is well then i can't really love her i can't love her the way that she wants to be loved for sure so that would not be a good marriage right it wouldn't be a good relationship other thoughts why does god reveal himself you say because he loves us he wants to save us he doesn't want us to perish he doesn't want anyone to perish and the only way that we can't perish is if we know him we know how he's saved us and so again to just step back and think god has revealed himself he wanted to reveal himself it was his what bobbing says it was his free act to reveal himself he didn't have to but he did that's amazing that's amazing and that's good news to the world right how many people have you met that that they are they're trying to feel their way to god like like it's a mystery like it's far away like it's hard to understand you say no no it's right here it's near you the word is near you god's decided to reveal himself accurately clearly so that we would understand but to bring it back to my brother's point right here this we'll close with this quote then we'll take some questions god reveals himself for his own sake this is from hervin hermann bobbing god reveals himself for his own sake to delight in the glorification of his own attributes but on the journey toward this final end we do after all encounter the creature particularly the human being who serves as instrument to bring to manifestation the glory of god's name before the eyes of god precisely in order to reach this final goal that is the glorification of god's name special revelation must drive to the end of recreating the whole person after god's image and likeness and thus to transform that person into a mirror of god's attributes and perfections so all that everything that we just said is the right answer but what's that driving in the self-glorification of god that god wants to be glorified because he's rightly glorified he's due all praise and so how does he get the praise that he wants he reveals himself it's like the unveiling of a beautiful work of art you take the sheet off so that you can see it you can say wow that's what god wants that's why i'm revealing myself to you that you would give me the glory that i want the glory that i deserve and part of that process of him glorifying himself is recreating us in jesus christ saving us and remaking us into that same image so that we would reflect his glory like we were always meant to do all of that is the purpose of god's revelation hallelujah amen amen okay any questions to close out i'm sure you're going to somebody's going to email me about prophecy and that's fine i do we do theology together i have been wrong about things before and i'm probably wrong about stuff tonight i just don't know what i'm wrong about so if you think i'm wrong please feel free okay i want to have a right accurate clear understanding of god as well okay so i am i always welcome welcome your input on that okay so we're gonna stop and here's what we're gonna do is we're gonna take five minutes to pray a prayer of praise and if you don't have reasons to praise god after everything that we've thought about tonight then i should just quit okay because this is amazing that god hasn't kept himself secret but that he revealed himself to us so that we can know him that's good news so here's what i want to do just kind of look around okay and get with one two three other people okay in a little group and just pray out loud okay pray out loud together you can pray the same things it's okay god doesn't mind hearing the same things from different people okay but just just pray out loud take turns it doesn't have to be long beautiful prayer but pray a prayer of praise that starts with god i praise you for the fact that i praise you that you did i praise you for these things okay and we're going to glorify god right now because that's what he wants in our prayers okay so get in a little huddle wherever you are if you need to move around if you see somebody that looks like they're not getting around good go pray with them but i'll i will close us out in prayer in five minutes

Channel: DESERT SPRINGS CHURCH

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Id: GyVe2ZxZpnI

Length: 83min 20sec (5000 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 01 2021