In this first lesson of our new Fundamentals of the Faith Sunday school series, Pastor Joe Babij begins with an introduction to the Bible. More specifically, Pastor Joe explains the meaning of “revelation” and its two types: general and special.
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All right, it is nine o’clock.
I do want to start on time because believe it or not, these lessons are supposed to be an hour and a half and we only have uh actually 50 minutes to do it. So, there’s something there’s some things along the way you may have to leave out, but uh you just if you do the homework and really I want to say that uh hopefully everybody has their book right now. There’s this book and then there’s one with like a maroon cover. It’s the same thing, the different font. So they this is the newest one. Uh so just make sure you have this and then just follow the instructions like on lesson one.
You’re actually this is due next week.
So do lesson one next week. Now, if you have time, you could actually go to the website and listen to one of the messages, download one of the messages from I think it’s John MacArthur. And uh you if you have time to do that, but you do the homework at least first and then if you have time to do that, you can do that. Now, this is a ministry done by Grace Community Church. Um actually, I believe it was started by a man named Jim George. Jim George was a kind of like a ground He broke the ground on a lot of things they started doing at the church uh back in California. Uh and Jim George was my uh disciplehip leader when I was at this seminary. And uh great guy, but he he started like some of the very foundational things like FOF. They had shepherd groups like you know we we call them home groups or small groups.
They started that way back in the 70s.
And then of course the ministry got more um I guess more detailed and then uh more organized. And then this is really one of the final things they did. But fundamentals of the faith is going to be the groundwork.
Uh when I first became a Christian, I started on something like this. not not this complex. But something like this because I was on an aircraft carrier uh and I had nowhere to go.
But you know what? That was very good for me because I was a brand spanking new Christian and all we did was study the Bible when he had free time and we went through like fundamentals of the faith. And I believe that time laid the foundation for building up everything you learn afterwards. Right.
And so of course when you start with good doctrine and you start really starting understanding the Bible and using the Bible as the final authority for all things then that gives you the groundwork not to move from there right but just to continue to stay within the scripture so you can grow in the Lord.
And so this book will be helpful to you.
the uh lesson one. Make sure you do that by next week.
All right? And that means you’re going to you’re going to fill in all the blanks. Uh and then next week, I’m going to kind of go over some of those things.
So, if you didn’t get something, uh you may just get it from the lesson next week, but make sure you do that. It just kind of gives you uh an introduction to the Bible.
And uh then the lessons that we’re going to have, lesson one for me and for you is actually three weeks. This is the first week. Uh the second week is like one B. This is 1 A, 1 B. And then the third week will be 1 C. Uh who will be teaching the course? I will be teaching it. Pastor Dave will be teaching it. Uh Elder Greg Ho will be teaching it. Elder Khalif Crumbley will be teaching it. And uh and I believe also Tom I mean um Mark Twley will also be uh helping us teach this. So uh and then we may have someone else teach it too. Um but right now that’s going to be us. And of course we’re all doing different things.
Sometimes uh Greg is downstairs, Khif’s downstairs, they’re in the or doing something in the back room because we also have to do the membership classes and the pre-membership classes while we do this. So we’re all over the place on Sundays. All right. So, but I’m going to start it off the first three weeks and lay kind of lay the foundation for you.
And so, today, this is what you need to bring. Bring your workbook. All right?
Bring some kind of note pad or book that you can put notes in. All right? Or some kind of tablet because you’re going to be taking notes. And the reason why I really wanted to take notes and uh be particular in taking notes is because one of the goals we have for fundamentals of the faith is that once we’re done with this year, you’ll be able to meet with people, maybe a new believer or somebody who comes to the church, doesn’t know much about the Bible, and maybe meet with them and go through FOF with them in wherever, in a restaurant, in your living room, wherever. That’s our goal because we can’t always be teaching this in a Sunday school class. So that’s the goal. So if you take good notes, all right, and and keep all your notes in one place uh then and if of course if you’re really savvy with a computer, you can actually be taking notes right now.
Uh and uh and do that. Not many people are. uh some people are but um some people like to write it out but just don’t listen most of the slides that I will put up the PowerPoint I will put up will be the some of the information you definitely need to write down. All right. Now I’m not going to be handing out notes for you to follow. I want you to take your own notes. All right. So if you’re not if you’re not good at that start today.
All right. And to start taking notes because that’s really important to write start writing things down. All right.
So, thanks for coming and uh for being here on time and thanks also for I remember my little motto is if you’re a half hour early, you’re on time. Or I can say it another way. If you’re a half hour late, what Well, anyway, if you’re half hour early, you’re on time, right? And um or if you’re well, you’re here anyway. So, everybody have a book. If you don’t have a book, see Dwayne, a donation of $5. Um if you don’t have it, we’ll give it to you. Don’t worry about it. But let’s start. Let me have a word of prayer and then we’ll get right into it today. Hopefully you have something to take notes with. You have a pen um and you can start writing. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you today for the opportunity that we have to look at your word.
And I praise you, Lord, for um all the people that have contributed to put this material together over the years so we can use it here in our church. And I pray Lord as we go through the fundamentals of the faith that we would lay a foundation that we would be able to build upon the rest of our Christian walk and that we would become strong in the faith. We would be the ones who hold up the truth because we’re the pillars uh of the truth, holding it up, allowing the light of the gospel to go out into a world and then we ourselves, no matter what comes our way, we wouldn’t be wobbling in our faith, but we would be strong because we know what it says in the Bible. And so I pray make us those kind of Christians. And then Lord, allow us to take this material in the months and years to come that we’d be able to use it and help other people be established in the faith. And I pray you would use us to do that. And I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
All right. So what’s going on today?
Today we are going to look at first of all, this is is a course on the fundamentals of the faith. But today we are going to look on the here’s the first week we will discuss revelation natural and special. So this is kind of a theology course too. That’s really what it is. Also next week we’re going to look at we will look at the Bible the general information about the Bible the structure the contents some of the themes and the third week we will look at the Bible’s claim to inspiration. All right. So these theological words revelation and inspiration are going to become very important for us because this is going to this is the first lesson on laying out what the Bible actually is all about. Why do we hold it up as God’s word? Why do we hold it up as the final rule of authority for life and godliness? Why do we do that? Right?
Uh are there other sources that we go to? You know, we have to answer those questions because when you think about religions, a lot of religions are the Bible plus something, right? Well, when you come to true Christianity, Christianity, it’s the Bible plus nothing.
Everything God has given us and God has protected his word from the beginning until now. And the word probably the word of God has probably been the most attacked book and scrutinized book of any book that was has ever been written.
And it is found to be true. All right?
And many many people who have tried to attack the book to destroy it ended up becoming Christians because they realize this is the truth. And um so today we are going to be looking at this big word called revelation. All right, revelation. What is revelation?
Now hopefully you are prepared um to write something down today. I I pray that you are and that you’re ready to do that. But let’s look at it. What is Revelation? have some questions along the way as we especially when we read a passage of scripture uh there may be a question right after that. But what is revelation? Well, generally revelation is the divine act of communicating to man what man could otherwise not know.
It is God’s disclosure of himself and his truth through some act or word.
That’s really what revelation is. So revelation isn’t really act of God whereby we he discloses to man what would otherwise be unknown.
So God is the source of revelation.
Now, do you know any passage of scripture that tells us that God is the source of revelation?
Actually, it’s your memory verse. That’s another thing I want to mention. In your book, every single time we have a lesson, there’ll be a memory verse. And the memory verse in your book is 2 Timothy 3:16, right? 2 Timothy 3:16.
Now, this becomes a very pivotal passage of scripture because what does it say there? It says all scripture is inspired of God. Now that inspired of God is the Greek word theopenetos, right? Theo god. Pinestos means breath.
And of course when you bring that together it means God breathe. And of course we get the word inspired by God.
So in other words the source of the word of God is not man. The source of the word of God is God.
Now we are going to find out in inspiration the third lesson that God used men to write but they didn’t come up with their own thoughts. They didn’t study something to come up with it. They got it from God and then they wrote and then God protected those writings right up until today. So we know that we have in our hand the word of God. And I hope also today that you do have a paper copy of the Bible. All right. Now, it’s great to do, like I said, searches on your phone or your tablet uh and look up passages, but the problem is when you do that, you don’t really get to know your Bible, right? You want to get to know your Bible. So, when you do the first lesson, you’re going to find out you’re going to put the Bible books in their proper place, right? Some are history, some are poetry, some are epistles, some are. So you’re going to put all the Bible books in its right place just to get a sense on the overall scope of the Bible.
So now another question is why is it necessary? What’s the necessity of revelation? Well, the necessity of revelation is this that it is necessary.
The nec uh necessity of revelation is that man cannot know anything about God apart from some kind of revelation.
Even before the fall of Adam, God came down and spoke to him.
So far more when man fell into sin do we need revelation from God. So God speaks to man and if God didn’t speak to man, we would not know anything about man.
All right? I mean about God. If God did not speak to man and so this revelation has to come from him. So if it comes from him, we have to find out what it says. And when we find out what it says, then we get a better understanding of who God is.
Now that leads me to there are two types of revelation.
The first type is going to be natural or general revelation. Now if you were to be taking a uh go if you would were to be taking a Bible course in a Bible college or an institute or something like that, you would go through all these these are these are theological points and courses that you would go through. You would have to know these things. Actually, these are the foundational courses. All right. So, general and natural revelation. And then the the second kind of revelation is special revelation.
All right. So, here is now let’s go let’s look at the first type of revelation which is general or natural revelation.
So this revelation, this general revelation is universal and it is for the whole human race.
It is accessible to all men, common to all men at all times from the beginning and will be forever until the Lord decides to change things when we have a new heaven and new earth and some of the things that are going on in the end. But nonetheless, this general revelation comes. Let me just let’s let’s just look at the first one and let’s take a couple passages of scripture. All right. This na nature or creation, right? Every day you walk out of the door, you’re slapped in the face with general revelation, right? Natural revelation. Now, the problem is we don’t always look up anymore. We’re looking down at our phones, right? or our our p iPads and we’re not looking up anymore. You know, sometimes we have to consciously look up at night and and look at the stars and look at creation and look at the flowers and look at the the things that are going on in the different seasons. And immediately when we do that and we see the colors, we see the structure, we see the different kinds of bugs and animals and things, we have to say, wait a minute, there’s something bigger than me, right? And then we look at the complexity of the the human body, who we are. We have to conclude this didn’t just happen because of some big bang, you know, and all, you know, all of a sudden, you know, we’re here.
There has to be intelligence. There has to be someone behind this. Now Psalm 19, if you just take your Bibles and turn there quickly, Psalm 19 verse 1 and two, as the psalmist writes here, he says, uh, this is a psalm of David.
And David, David, of course, spent a lot of evenings and nights looking at the night sky.
And this is what he said in Psalm 19 verse 1 and two. The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanses declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge. Now just those two passages of scripture is saying listen when we look outside what is it showing us? It’s showing us the glory of God. The glory of God. Another passage of scripture uh very common in the New Testament. We have the Old Testament and New Testament in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 through 20. Just take your Bibles and flip over to there very quickly.
So we we see as you’re turning there revel the revelation of God is through nature and it would involve creation and the preservation of the universe. In Romans chapter 1 verse 18-20 it says for the wrath of God is re revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Now, just thinking and hearing that passage of scripture, what does creation show us about God right here?
What does it show us?
All right. his eternal power. What else?
His divine nature. Right? So right there, God made it evident to all human beings, no matter who they are, where they’re where they have been born, what kind of culture they grew up or they were born into, no matter what, God makes it evident to us that these are the things that are created are are given to us by a creator. by someone who is who created us. So we can see his eternal power and his divine nature right in creation every single day.
All right. So a second way can’t spend a lot of time on that but because we have to keep moving. A second thing is um history that general uh a type of revelation is uh is history. Now, I kind of added this in because it’s part of it. Uh, history, I don’t want to spend time on this one, but it really involves the revelation of God through his providential dealings in history.
Scripture really confirms that God intervenes in the events of secular history. It even says in Psalm, it says, “But God is the judge. He puts down one and he exalts another. The nations are like a drop in the bucket in Isaiah. Right? So God is involved with things. He takes he takes raises up a king and he takes down a king. He can do that because he’s God and he has done it. Right? Nations rise, nations fall on God’s uh will that happens, right? We we know that throughout all history. And so it the revelation of God is is actually seen through uh history. But there’s a third one and it’s that of you can’t see it there. It’s conscience.
I need to raise that up. I don’t know why that didn’t happen. But conscience is the third one. That God has revealed some of his character through the human conscience. Imperfect though it may be.
He has done that. Now again, if you’re right there in Romans, look at Romans chapter 2 verse number Romans chapter 2 verse 14 and 15.
Now you just think of the conscience, right? Does everybody have a conscience?
Yes, they do. Right? Where is it?
Can you can they operate it on it and take it out? No, it’s there. Right? Who put it there? God put it there. All right? Right? And he put it there for a very specific reason. It’s kind of like the umpire of our soul, right? It gives us the ability to know the difference between what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong, right?
And so it’s there. God puts that there, right? So that means there’s already a standard in our soul when we’re born of what is good and bad and right and wrong because God put that there. Now look what it says in Romans chapter 2:14. It says for when the Gentiles, that would be the unbelievers who do not have the law, do distinctly dist in distinctively the things of the law.
These not having the law are a law to themselves. Verse 15 it says in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. So God has put that there.
Now, how has God revealed himself to man so far?
Through creation, through history, and also through the law written within our hearts.
Right? So, in a very real way, people cannot deny that there is a God even if they say, “I’m an atheist because it’s slapping them in the face every single day, right? Their conscience is bearing witness that there is a God every single day. So that means too that when we go out and witness to people, we actually have a smoking gun.
Two bullets already, creation and conscience.
And so that’s why many times um the way of the master uses the ten commandments because the ten commandments is the thing that will bear on the conscience whether somebody has sinned against God or has not. And so you use that and God and that’s many times we all we also come under conviction of sin because we know something’s not right, something’s wrong and we know immediately when we do something wrong, right? We feel guilty.
So sinning and guiltiness go together.
And the reason why is because God put that in our heart. There’s a standard of right and wrong that comes from a God who created the universe.
Now saying all that there is an insufficiency with general revelation.
Now let me ask you a question. How does natural or general revelation fall short of giving people enough information to lead them directly to salvation?
How does it fall short?
Okay. So, in other words, general revelation, there’s not enough information there to bring someone to salvation in Jesus Christ. They have to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ to be able to be saved. Right? So let me just say this on our the screen there.
It says although general revelation can manifest the existence of God, his creatorhood and a hint of his moral character, it is not adequate to reveal the way of salvation.
So that is how man can be saved through his sinfulness and separation from God.
That is why God has also along with generation uh general revelation given us something else. He’s given us provided to us special revelation. But before I go there, what do you think the purpose of natural or general revelation would be?
Is there a purpose in that?
Yes.
God.
Okay. Not only that man would be accountable to God, but what else would it do? Yes, Eric.
God, I need to know more about it.
That’s right. That’s right. It’s there.
Uh, and matter of fact, you probably could have been in that place, right, where you went outside or you went somewhere, you looked at creation, says, “How did that get there?” You know, how do those stars get where they’re supposed to be? How could you navigate exactly by those stars?
And I believe that it once you go into outer space, you don’t have the the the stars to be uh like a navigational system. Is that true?
Is that true?
What is it still?
All right. So, but the thing is that it’s not from uh it’s not the stars that we see. They see a lot more of them. So, all right. So it’s it’s a different thing once you go into space. But here you can actually navigate uh people who uh were captains of ship navigated because of the you know they saw the stars and they knew exactly where to go and and it’s it was it’s amazing that you know that hey the sun’s going to rise in the morning right it’s going to set in the evening. Uh, and we now know way more about what’s going on than others have, but we know that God has made these things. And he causes man through general revelations to search out a fuller revelation of God. Right. I remember sitting Yes, Dwayne.
Um, Acts chapter 17 verse 24- 26. Why don’t you read that?
God made the world of heaven and earthles himself to all people nation of the All right. So, there’s Paul using um a point of contact with unbelievers uh and he uses creation and the God who created it. Right? So um quite amazing that um we should use that when we witness that um people already know that there is a God because of creation itself.
Now there’s a value of general revelation but there’s also something that we have to think about that man’s because of man’s sin darkened mind and heart he’s not able to receive the re general revelation adequately right and and so he’s like it says in Roman he takes the truth that is evident to him and he squashes it he suppresses it He pushes it down, right? So the more a person pushes it down, the less it’s screaming in your head that there’s a god. And then what happens when people do that? They slip into making their own god. Everybody worships. They’re worshiping something. All right? They’re worshiping their own understanding who of who they think god is. And and of course that means uh now that revel general revelation cannot bring us fully to who God is. But also we know that general revelation uh also is suppressed by man because he takes it and does something other than what he ought to do with it.
So the Christ a Christian though can better appreciate general revelation uh when it is used alongside special revelation right and so that’s what the next thing is is the second type of revelation would be uh special revelation and of course that is a a huge subject and what is special revelation special revelation is that supernatural revelation by which God makes himself known at special times and to special people although it’s not necessarily limited to such.
Now ultimately it’s intended also for all mankind.
That’s why when we preach the gospel we preach the gospel to everyone because it is for everyone. God is revealing himself to man through many different means as he done in the beginning.
And so what are some of those means?
Well, before I say that, apart from special revelation, man could never come to know God since man’s heart is depraved by sin. So we do need special revelation, right? Without the Bible, how how would we know how to be saved? Without the Bible, how how would we know what to teach? Without the Bible, how would we grow in Christ? Without the Bible, how do we know what’s going to happen next in God’s program? Without the Bible, how do we know how we got here? How the world was created?
What the problem is in our whole universe, sin, right? How will we know those things if it wasn’t for the Bible?
The Bible is the only place, the only book on the planet that tells us all those things. So you have to you have to say that the Bible is something special from Genesis to Revelation. The 66 books of the Bible is something special that God has given us though that so that’s why it’s called special revelation.
God is making himself known in very specific ways. Now what is the means of special revelation?
The means. All right. That means how how does it all take place? How has God used it along the way? Well, he used it in several ways. He used it by direct communication.
For example, in audible voice.
He spoke to Adam in Genesis chapter 2.
He does it also through dreams.
He has used dreams in the past.
He has used visions. Isaiah chapter 6 when Isaiah saw God high and lifted up in Isaiah chapter 6, right? That was a vision that he saw. We also know that the Bible uses the urum and the thumin were different were stones that the high priest used to make decisions in Israel.
So there’s there’s many ways that God has directly spoken to people. In fact, God has used prophets by means of inner illumination by the Holy Spirit. So they would speak with the authority of God. When a spo when a prophet spoke in the Old Testament, he didn’t speak his he didn’t study something to speak it. He got the direct revelation directly from God. And his job was to get it to the people without messing it up, right? He he wasn’t he wasn’t to add to it or take away from it. He was just to speak it to the people. So God’s prophet was both a foreteller and a forthteller. They they dealt with things immediately in the present, but they also dealt with things that would uh happen in the future. And many times those things were came by way of warning. God was warning uh people uh not to live this way. He was he he was warning the nation of Israel don’t live like the nations around you. You’re you’re going to be different than them.
All right? And they were different than nations around them because God was living in their midst. God had given the people the ten commandments. God has given them rules and regulations that regulated life so life can be peaceful and organized so things can get done.
The other nations did not have those things. It doesn’t mean they didn’t have organiz but the thing is that they were steeped in idolatry and pagan practices and God said to them through the prophets no don’t live like those people. Don’t be like those people.
You’re to be different. Why? because you served a holy God and a holy God means that he was different and his people are to be different also. So God spoke direct communication also. The Lord spoke uh through theophony. Now that means a special manifestation of God.
A special manifestation of God. uh he spoke uh to Abraham this way. He spoke to Isaac this way, to Jacob this way. And then of course in the wilderness you had the shikina glory. Remember when the tabernacle was built, when the people were delivered out of out of Egypt, God dwelt in them.
He dwelt right in their midst by a pillar of fire by day and fire in kind of like a cloud by night. All right? And so God dwelt in their midst. So they had this manifestation of the presence of God that was visible to them on a regular basis. Uh so the Bible does even says that the Lord in Psalm 991, the Lord reigns, let the people tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. So the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle where the lord said he would dwell. And of course that’s where the high priest uh once a year brought the blood and poured over the ark of the covenant so the people’s sin sins could be forgiven for that year. Right? And so that is what uh has taken place where God is in their midst. Uh another example is the burning bush. Remember when Moses was uh confronted by God about what he was going to do? What what does it say there? Uh Moses was confronted. Well, let’s look at it. Exodus chapter uh 3 verse 2-6.
Somebody read that for me please.
Exodus 3 2-6. What does it say?
Sure. Read it. You get the next one.
behoses was told, “Take off your sandals because where you stand is holy ground.” Right?
Now, what made the ground holy?
All right. The manifestation of God’s presence made the ground holy. And so Moses began on that day to understand that God was quite different than possibly what he expected. And yet uh he humbled himself and he became a great prophet of the Lord in uh for the nation of Israel. Also we we hear many appearances of the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament.
Uh Isaiah chapter 37. Why don’t you read that? Isaiah 37:36.
And someone read Acts 5 verse 19 and 20.
So you you see the everywhere in scripture the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord the angel of the Lord.
Now we all so know that theologically the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate uh understanding of Christ. What does it say there?
I what did I say? 37 verse 36.
Isaiah 37:36,000 in the camps.
All right. So, the angel of the Lord went and killed 185,000 Assyrians, right? So we see that God made himself present by the Old Testament using this term angel of the Lord that God went and fought the battles. Now I don’t know if you’ve been reading through the Bible if you read if you’re in Joshua now uh if you’re writing reading through the Bible chronologically you may have already been past Joshua already. Uh but in that book when Joshua went in to take the land God says go take it. And all these kings from all the place got together and five kings and all their armies came against them and God says don’t worry about them.
Take care of them, right? Wip wiped them off the face of the earth. And that’s what happened. So he didn’t have to worry about these armies were too big for us because God is always bigger than them, right? And could win the battle.
And so when we look at passages of scriptures like this that God is the one who wins the battle for his people, right? He goes ahead of them. He does what they can’t do. And oftentimes it’s mentioned in the terms of the angel of the Lord. And then Acts chapter 5 19 and 20. Who’s that? Who has that one?
Yes, Chris.
All right. So again in what is the apostles get put in prison who comes and takes them out the angel of the lord right and a lot of m miraculous things happens there all right so god is showing himself through these particular manifestations that he is among his people so it’s it’s theophony uh god manifests himself in a special way uh to his people and then you have Uh thirdly, you have miracles. Now we we miracles or mighty works, signs and wonders which are performed by supernatural power as often times an at a testation of God’s messenger uh or and also a manifestation of God’s presence and power. Now in relation to nature, miracles really are are of two kinds.
uh those in which natural laws are intensified or augmented as in the flood uh the worldwide flood. God had to do um many things and augment things so the worldwide flood could take place. And of course, God superintended that. Not only the the raining uh breaking up of the springs and then flooding the world high above the highest mountains and then allowing it to recede and closing off those uh and capping off those springs and allowing the dry land to appear again. God did that and he did that to show his power and his presence. But the another way it’s used is is is those in which uh all the uh participation of nature is excluded as in the the budding of Aaron’s rod when God allowed that rod to bud uh and and bear flowers and then also the bringing of water from the rock. God had to do certain things there for that to happen, right? And uh so God is showing himself through miracles to his people. Then we have in scripture Jacob’s ladder. We have Daniel in the lion’s den. God closes the mouth of the lion. So uh you know, they didn’t eat Daniel. And then when Daniel left the lion’s cage and the king put all the other men in there, uh they got eaten up in a second, right? So God again came to the aid of his people and closed the mouth of the lions. The plagues of Egypt, those 10 plagues of Egypt, all superintended by God uh to show his power um in the world to his people. The parting of the Red Sea again God showing his power.
And so miracles is a way God specially revealed himself in uh the past and many times in the New Testament. The miracles attested the authenticity of the apostles. They were given the gifts of miracles. And believe me if you go through the miracles in the New Testament when an apostle healed somebody there was no rehab.
There was no they were healed completely.
uh they didn’t have to go to a doctor like somebody who didn’t walk for many many years takes up his pallet and is jumping with joy and you know running around. Come on. We know that um if you’re in the hospital for a long time your body starts uh getting like jelly very quickly, right? And it atrophies I guess and uh you you can’t move. So, you know, when those things like happen, that’s definitely a miracle. And God has done it. God’s raised the dead. He gave sight to the blind. Jesus is the only one ever who gave sight to the blind. Nobody ever did that. The Bible attests to that. So, we see that because of these things, um, it shows us that God is miraculous, but he’s also showing himself to mankind and especially to his people. And then of course that leads to the next one, the incarnation, right? The incarnation is special revelation. And what is the incarnation? It’s when the Lord Jesus Christ is really a a unique combination of miracle and theophony. That Christ is the center of all revelation. He is the complex. He is the the climax of progressive revelation.
Well, I do want you to take your Bibles and turn turn to Hebrews chapter 1.
Hebrews 1 kind of lays out in Hebrews 1 chapter 1 through3 what God has done.
And if you notice in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 through3 it says God after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways.
That’s what he I just told you he did.
And how did he do that? Through direct communication through theophony through miracles. And now notice what it says.
In these last days he’s spoken to us in his son.
All right. whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by his the word of his power. When he had made purification of sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, that’s an amazing passage of scripture in Hebrews uh that exalts us, exalts Jesus Christ to a place that no one’s ever been exalted before as a human. He is different. He is unique. He is he has a superlative place in humanity. And then we find out he’s the creator of the world. He’s God. He’s done his work in in satisfying the sacrifice for sin and went back to heaven. and sitting on the right hand of the father on a uh it’s as it says there he’s he sat down at the right hand of majesty on high he’s a king he’s the prophet he’s the priest he’s the king he’s everything so the incarnation the in fleshman of Jesus is one of the uh he is the eternal word of god he is the expression of the manifestation of god the incarnation is the most perfect and complete revelation of God possible.
There’s nothing like it.
And of course, the last one, you may not see that either.
Oh, there it is. The last one is what?
Scriptures, right? Scriptures is special revelation that the Bible is in its entirety a revelation from God.
It is a it really it is a most important form of revelation since it preserves the previously given revelation for succeeding generations and for transmission to other nations.
So we have the word of God from the Old Testament covenant to the New Testament.
Right? These are the covenants that God’s given us and u he gave it to us so we can have it in our hand. Now just imagine everything God wants us to know we can carry in our pocketbook the women right or we can carry in our you know briefcase we can we can carry in our pocket too because they make them small enough right of course when you get older you can’t read that anymore and uh but it’s amazing one book right and I go to Princeton theological library and there’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of books there all written about this one book.
All men searching out the truth. Men, women searching out the truth, writing books on it. There’s no other book like it.
And remember that the Bible is not merely a record of a previous revelation. It is itself the revelation.
It doesn’t merely contain revelation.
All of it is divine revelation.
That’s why many times we’ll pick out words and we’ll emphasize words. You know why? The Holy Spirit of God has given us those words. We don’t want to add to those words and we don’t want to take away from those words. All right?
That’s why in other lessons, I don’t know if I’m going to deal with it next week or the week after, but when you’re looking at scripture, the words are important because God’s given us these words so we can understand them. Are some of the things hard to understand? Yes. But it takes study and it takes growing. And as you grow and you study, you begin to understand the more difficult parts of the Bible that you didn’t understand at first. We’re not going to get everything all at once.
And even when we get to heaven, we’re not going to know everything because that would make us God, right? We’re going to be learning more about our great God and Savior for all eternity.
And it’s going to be without sin, without all the obstacles and the hurdles, right? Without all all the pain and the crying, the dying, none of that will be there.
So God, every every portion of the Bible uh has been given to us and they are inspired. They are infallible and they are all part of God’s revelation that he’s given to us. And so and since the beginning or since the completion of the canon of scripture, and you’re going to hear that word canon, too. Canon just means it means a rule to like rules on how to pick why were certain books picked to be scripture and why were other books not picked like the Apocrypha. We’re going to look at that next time. Why is it that they weren’t picked even though they were good history and uh they were good uh actually they were very good writings too. Why weren’t they picked to be scripture? because they they were lacking something. And so uh we know that since the the completion of the canon of scripture, it has been the final the complete and the sufficient revelation for us. We don’t need anything else.
And yet the scripture the scriptures do not reveal everything to the Christian.
Some things are left to the mystery of God.
Some things are left to the mystery of God. Deuteronomy chapter 29:29.
This passage of scripture is often read, but notice what it says there.
Deuteronomy 29:29.
It says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” Now, of course, that would apply to the word of God. That everything God wants us to know right now is right here in this book.
If there’s some things that God didn’t want us to know, it’s not here.
And we don’t need to know it. Right? We don’t need to know because he didn’t give it to us. And of course, when we when we look at passages like Romans 11:33, Paul is so overwhelmed by who God is that he just breaks out in this doxology and uh just praises God for not not him not understanding him, you know. And so the thing is don’t ever think that you understand God.
You don’t. But we by the revelation of God, we can understand have a fuller grasp of who God is and what he wants us to do and actually to live a holy life and to live an enjoyable life. God wants us to live a joyful life while we’re here on earth.
And even through the midst of trials and tribulations and problems and difficulties, he he gives us a peace that no one could take away and a joy beyond understanding. That’s what he does for us because we’re his children. So really for us for you to have the word of God and and begin to study it and read it, you are privileged.
You are privileged more than anybody on the face of the planet. So don’t ever take for granted of it. Don’t ever take for granted of it. It is it’s it is such a high and holy privilege to have the word of God in our hands and to study it. I I can’t even have words to say about that. It’s just that you humble yourself under God’s mighty hand and learn as much as you can and he gives you the insight. He illuminates your heart by the Holy Spirit of God. He gives you the understanding of scripture that you could actually put it into practice and then live it. And then you you know what? The more and more you you dive into scripture, the more you know God is God and there’s none like him.
And you also know that the word of God is the word of God that has been protected, given to us by God. It cannot be changed and it is God’s revelation to us so we can know who he is and what he wants us to do. Amen.
Okay, that’s it today. So, next week, do your homework. Bring your pad with you so you can take notes. Bring your Bible, paper Bible, and uh we’ll meet again next week. All right, let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, again for the word of God.
Lord, you’ve been so kind to give it to us so we’re not left in the dark. And Lord, you even tell us in scripture, you you don’t hide it in the dark. You speak it on the roof rooftops.
That’s means I’m done.
So thank you Lord for giving us the whole word of God. Thanking you to us in even in this day which we live. We could know Lord no matter what chaos craziness is going on in the world that your plan has not stopped. It’s not being thwarted. It’s not on hold. It’s going forward. And we’re part of it and your church is part of it. So we thank you Lord for that revelation you’ve given us to know that we have a hope we have a security and we have a salvation that has been given to us in Christ Jesus that cannot be taken away and that we can even live for you on this side of eternity with joy and peace. So Lord thank you for that. Thank you for your church and your people.
continue to bless us, Lord, uh that we may grow in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ so we learn how to please you in all things. And I pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen. Thank you.