Theology - Special Revelation
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Revelation is God’s disclosing to man things about Himself that man could not know otherwise. In other words, God desires that we know Him!
We see this truth throughout the book of Ezekiel. Over 50 times throughout the book of Ezekiel, while God is announcing His judgement upon Judah and the countries around her, you see the phrases, “ye shall know that I am the Lord” or “they shall know that I am the Lord.”
And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.
So please do not allow the messages on Wednesday night to become simply academic in nature. God wants us to know Him! God wants our world to know Him!
Now, as I said last Wednesday evening, the revelation of God to mankind is divided into two sections: General Revelation & Special Revelation
General revelation is God’s revelation of Himself in creation, through history, and in man’s conscience.
General revelation is God’s revelation of Himself in creation, through history, and in man’s conscience.
O Lord our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
“I the book of Psalms, you meet the God of creation and learn spiritual truths from birds and beasts, mountains and deserts, sunshine and storms, wheat and chaff, trees and flowers.” - Warren Wiersbe
Special revelation is God’s revelation in His Word and through His Son Jesus Christ.
Special revelation is God’s revelation in His Word and through His Son Jesus Christ.
“Primarily, the Psalms are about God and His relationship to His creation...
“He is seen as a powerful God as well as a tenderhearted Father, a God who keeps His promises and lovingly cares for His people.” - Warren Wiersbe
Without revelation we would know nothing about God. Tonight, we will look at special revelation.
Special Revelation
Special Revelation
Special revelation is the act of God whereby He reveals Himself and His truth to specific people at specific times and places.
Turn to and read Exodus 3:1-6. In this passage of Scripture we see that God revealed Himself to a specific person - Moses - at a specific time - while the Israelites were in bondage - at a specific place - the burning bush.
And yet, this revelation was not just for Moses. Turn to and read Exodus 3:7-15. While God revealed Himself to Moses, God then expected - commanded - him to declare this revelation to the Israelites in Egypt.
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
I’ll wrap things up with this in just a bit but I believe that is the whole point that we should come away with: God desires to reveal Himself to each of us. He then desires to use us so that others, whose hearts have been opened by general revelation, may know Him also.
God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
“We know practically nothing about God as Father except what we learn from the revelation of God as Father in Jesus Christ.” - Robert Speer, “The Fundamentals”
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Turn to and read Colossians 2:6-10.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Exploring Colossians & Philemon: An Expository Commentary (1) It Ignores the Meaning of Christ’s Birth (2:9)
Deity was clothed in humanity. God came down to “pitch His tent” among us, to dwell among us bodily filled with all of the fulness of God. That can be said of no one but Jesus.
Exploring Colossians & Philemon: An Expository Commentary (1) It Ignores the Meaning of Christ’s Birth (2:9)
The word speaks of all of the glorious totality of what God is in His nature, person, and personality and in His character, attributes, and essence.
Jesus Christ is the complete revelation of God to mankind. That is why there is such an attack - orchestrated by Satan - on the deity of Jesus Christ.
Turn to and read John 14:1-9.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Do you realize what Jesus was saying? “Philip, you have spent the last three years with me and yet you still don’t know me!?” I wonder if there wasn’t a little bit of exasperation in Christ’s voice when He spoke these words to Philip.
And yet, the same could be asked of us. How long have we been saved; been going to church; been reading and studying the Bible and still we know - have experienced - very little, in a personal way, who God is!
2 Peter 3:18 should provide a huge challenge to each of us.
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
“Now life is simply an enigma on the merely theistic hypothesis. We get absolutely no comfort, no light, no illumination upon what we know to be the great problem of life from a simply belief in God. It only becomes intelligible to us as we understand God to be our Father in the sense in which Jesus Christ revealed Him.”
“Dr. Babcock used to put it in the simple phrase: ‘You have got to take one of two interpretations of it. You have got to read your life in the terms of fate, or you have got to read it in the terms of fatherhood.’”
God has revealed Himself through Scripture.
God has revealed Himself through Scripture.
I will not spend long on this point. Turn to and read John 5:39-47.
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
The Bible isn’t simple an academic exercise so that we can have a list of “Do’s and Don’t’s.” The Bible has been given to us that we might know God.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
“One of the primary purposes of special revelation is to tell us how to be reconciled with God despite our moral failures.” - Shaun Doyle
Shaun has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science with first class honours, specializing in Soil Science, and a Graduate Diploma in Natural Resource Studies—both from the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
He currently serves with Creation Ministries International. What I find encouraging is that he became a creationist before he became a Christian.
In other words, his study of creation pointed him in the direction of Jesus Christ!
Just as I pointed out earlier, God revealed Himself to Moses so that Moses could then reveal God to the Israelites, who were in bondage, and lead them to the Promised Land.
The Word of God contains the gospel, which is all that is necessary for a person to be saved. The great concern is that so many have not heard the gospel story. Even if a person has accepted general revelation, he must be presented with the claims of the gospel before he can be saved.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
This is why we need to be involved in sharing the gospel. There are individuals whose hearts have been opened and who now need to hear the “gospel of peace.”
This is why projects such as our Scripture Assembly Projects and BIMI’s PNG Bible Project are so important
605,000 – Bibles in country at this time
550,000 – Bibles that have been distributed
165,000 – Bibles ordered and on the way to PNG
770,000 – Bibles in country by June 2019
344 – Secondary schools completed (all done that can be done at this time)
3,700 – Total primary schools in country
240 – Primary schools completed (more being done every day)
(+ 16 Universities/Colleges receiving Bibles)
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.