The Undeniable Existence Of God In The Life Changing Word - part 2

It's such a blessing to be in the house of the Lord, to worship Him together, and to be blessed by one another and what each one brings to the table.

! Please turn to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, if you're not already there, if you know me, then I know you are already there. So this morning we're going to continue our exegesis of Psalm 19, where we find ourselves continuing to expose the undeniable existence of God through the words of the shepherd king, David.

As I've mentioned, and as you undoubtedly are aware, the attack on God has been a long-standing reality since really the fall of man.

And there's no sense of it slowing down. In fact, my expectation and your expectation should also be that it will continue to pick up and get worse.

In fact, if you have read the back of the book, you know two things for sure. One is that we win, and two is that things will continue to get worse until our Savior returns.

And so this attack on God and His existence has been a long-standing thing. Psalm 14, verse 1, written many hundreds of years ago, a couple thousand, few thousand years actually, by David himself.

He says, So we know even at the time of David, roughly around 1000 BC, the fool was saying there is no God.

And we know through history there have been many, many fools throughout history. I'm just sharing some quotes from a few of them. One, Diagoras of Milos.

You know him quite well, right? As the guy who's known as the world's first atheist. I'm sure it's not true, but he has earned that title for himself.

He lived in the 5th century BC. And he had been, this quote comes from a time in his life where he had been the victim of injustice.

And at a time when people believed that the gods would enact justice in areas where there was injustice. And he says, They tell me that the gods avenge all crimes.

Yet I see the wicked prospering and the good suffering. So there are no gods. I think many people today would probably echo that statement themselves.

They see wickedness abounding. And so the question of, is there a God? And I would love to just dive into that today. But that is not the focus point of the sermon.

Karl Marx, who is having a significant impact in our culture today, died out well over 100 years ago. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.

It is the opium of the people. And so he is acknowledging religion as being, or he is stating that religion basically is a temporary reprieve for the suffering individual in the world of suffering.

And that there is no other reality. Friedrich Nietzsche, known for saying, God is dead. God remains dead. God remains dead.

And we have killed him. So, again, a guy who does not acknowledge the existence of God, but acknowledging him as a concept in mind only.

And that philosophy, that idea is dead. But much to his dismay now, this, again, statement made over 100 years ago, God remains alive and well and is not dead at all.

And then our modern example today, Richard Dawkins. I don't know if you know of this man or not. Don't bother looking him up. It's not worth your time. But he wrote a book 20 years ago now called The God Delusion.

And in it, he just makes the case for atheism and the, quote, fact that there is no God. And he says in his book, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in.

Some of us just go one God further. So, really sad, disheartening to hear these statements made by individuals throughout history.

But it is true. There have been many fools throughout history who have stood on the premise that there is no God. And all these ones here, with the exception of Mr. Dawkins himself, have learned that they were wrong and are paying the consequences for such unbelief even now.

Romans 1, verses 21 through 23, which I alluded to and read for you the last couple weeks, few weeks that we've been in the text in Psalm 19.

Paul writes in Romans 1, 21 through 23, For although they knew God, 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.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

So, Paul writing to the church in Rome, indicating that these individuals, these unrighteous men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness, they are futile in their thinking, they have foolish hearts because they are denying the very existence of the undeniable creator.

And so we dug into Psalm 19. We opened it up a couple weeks ago to the first six verses. And we see that verses 1 through 6 in Psalm 19 shows the undeniable existence of God in the natural order.

The creation itself attests to his existence. The heavens declare the glory of God. This natural revelation, as we dug into it and studied a bit, is enough to render all men without excuse at the judgment seat of God.

The reality is that all people know there is a God. Without excuse. Because of what is in the natural order.

In Psalm 19, David uses the sun as the example in creation of how it affects all people. It touches all people.

The warmth of the sun is felt by all of creation. And it points to the glory of God. This natural revelation or this general revelation, this is general revelation, what we refer to it in theological circles.

And it's general revelation because it's experienced by all people in all contexts throughout all time. Everybody in history experiences the general revelation of God because they experience his creation.

And it's the reason why there are so many religious expressions in the world. If there was no God or he had not chosen to reveal himself to his creation, there would be no religion.

English Puritan Stephen Charnock stated back in the 1600s, he said, The existence of God is the foundation of all religion. Why are there hundreds, if not thousands, of expressions of religious thought and belief in the world throughout all of history?

Because all mankind has known that there is a God. And that is made clear in the natural order. That is made clear through what he has created.

His invisible attributes. His eternal powers on display through his creation. And that is why through time man has sought to understand this God.

He has sought to explain this God. He has sought to appease this God. And that's why we have so many religious expressions. Because man, through the general revelation, understands there is God.

And through his sinful fallen efforts, seeks to explain him. Last week, we turned our attention to the undeniable existence of God in the life-changing word.

In this section of the Psalm, which is verses 7 through 11, we're going to pick up on here in a minute. This introduces us to special revelation. So, Psalm 19 verses 1 through 6 shows us general revelation how all people know there is a God.

And verses 7 through 11 show a special revelation. And a special revelation is God's self-revelation to particular people at particular times and in particular places.

So, it is not given to all people at all times in every context. But it is a particular revelation given by God.

And we only know about special revelation because of the word of God. So, some examples of special revelation as you read from Genesis chapter 1 through Revelation 22.

You have theophanies. A theophany is an appearance by God before Bethlehem, before Jesus is born in Bethlehem and takes on human form.

A theophany, we see it happen when God appears to Abraham in Genesis 18. Before sending his angels down to Sodom and Gomorrah to judge it for its sin that had risen, the attention of its sin arisen to God.

So, God appears to Abraham in Genesis 18. He appears to Moses. There are several examples of him appearing to individuals in the Old Testament. That is referred to as a theophany or a Christophany might be another term.

But God's appearance. It is a special revelation because, you know, that happened in Genesis 18 to Abraham and to Sarah and maybe the servants who there saw him.

But it wasn't for everybody to see. Audible communication. When God speaks directly to someone in Scripture. Moses, Abraham. You know, you see these examples where he is speaking and they are speaking to him.

He is not there physically present. But this audible communication, that is a special revelation. Dreams and visions in Scripture. Angels are a type of special revelation.

The prophets themselves are a special revelation. And the preeminent or the ultimate special revelation of God is Jesus Christ himself.

Because not all people have experienced Jesus Christ in the flesh. But he is God in the flesh who has revealed God and made him known and has made his will known to a particular people in a particular place at a particular time.

So that's why it is special revelation. And so the kind of special revelation alluded to in Psalm 19 is the word of God.

Which reveals particulars about God and about us. I say the word of God is a special revelation because not everybody on earth has it. It's not in every language. Not everybody has access to it.

That's why you have organizations like Wycliffe Translators who have missionaries who go into countries where the word of God is not in written form. Maybe the country itself doesn't even have a written language.

And so they start with that. They put their language into a written form. And then at that point when it's written, then you can start translating the word of God into that language. And Wycliffe Translators do an amazing, amazing work.

Daniel Bryant's brother, Joseph, and his wife, Kelly, are serving with Wycliffe and doing just great work. I appreciate men and women whom God has gifted with the ability to work with in linguistics in that way.

So that the word of God can be brought to the people in their language. But not all people have it. That's why the word of God is a form of special revelation. So please pick up with me in Psalm 19 verses 7 through 11.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Father, I thank you for your word.

Lord, I pray your spirit would give guidance to us today. Give us wisdom and discernment. In understanding what is revealed through the words of your servant David.

In Jesus' name, amen. Ideally, I'd like to say we're going to finish these verses today, but you know that's not true. So, this section that I was going to do in one part last week became two parts and is now broken into a third part.

So, we will return to this section of scripture next week as well. But what we see here is these verses 7 through 11 are particularly focused on the word of God in his revelation that way.

And what's given to us in his word is life changing. It is life changing. It is life changing. It's not life changing because of the good morality that it promotes.

It's not life changing because you see good people doing good things and that's what we should be doing too. No, because for all except for Jesus, those good people are bad people.

They are sinners. They fall short of the glory of God. David himself, referred to by God as a man after his own heart, is a murderer and an adulterer, among many other things.

Right? So, you see people doing good things, but does it really promote what people want it to promote? And we have this, there's this push in our, we're seeing in the United States in certain areas to get, you know, the Ten Commandments back in schools and posted, and Bible reading in schools and posted.

And the belief is that, well, if we put this here, if we're reading the Bible to kids to start the day, and they have the Ten Commandments posted, then the idea is that it's going to promote a morality.

It's going to make our society better. I would like to commend a movie to you. Okay? It's not a blockbuster. It's a B movie.

Maybe a C movie. Okay? So, the quality itself may be lacking, but the message is spot on. It is called the Time Changer.

It's called Time Changer. I think it came out maybe in the 90s. But the premise is that it focuses on a seminary, a religious institution in the 1800s, and the concept of this idea that, well, we just need to teach the morality of Scripture in our society, and what is that going to look like?

And it's really a fascinating movie. And I highly recommend it to you because the message, I'm going to give you the ending here. Ready? The ending and the point is this, is that when you have the morality apart from the moral law giver, it will not last.

And it does not do the change that man desires it to do. The reason why the Word of God is life-changing is because of the very existence of the God who gave it and who uses it to work in our lives.

So, consider what we're told here. This is what we covered last week, verses 7 and 8. That the Word of God, the law of the Lord, is perfect, reviving the soul.

The Word of God is so perfectly complete and comprehensive that it is sufficient to totally transform the whole inner person. We're told that the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The Word of God takes the ignorant person and makes them informed to the things of eternal value. And we're told that the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The Word of God sets you on a straight path that finds joy through obedience to the Creator. But here's the thing.

That change, the perfect, reviving Word of God, can only work in the life of an individual who is truly born again in Christ and has a new nature.

Because as I said, any other expression or attempt to keep the moral nature of the law will fall short. Because we're trying to do it in our own strength, in our own effort.

And if we were able to keep the law of God perfectly and obey it perfectly, then we would not need the sacrifice of Jesus and the forgiveness offered through Christ.

Because we will be able to perfectly do it ourselves. But we don't. So these life-changing functions of the Word of God only take place because of the life-changing work of God in us.

So as I've said, in and of themselves, the words, they're powerless. They really, the words themselves do nothing. But in the hands of our mighty Creator and Redeemer, they are life-changing.

John 14, 26 tells us Jesus' disciples, He's revealed to them He's going to leave. He's going. He's going back to the Father. Right? And He says in verse 26, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The work of the Holy Spirit, one job, if I can, of the Holy Spirit is to teach you all things. That's not anything I can do.

It is what the Holy Spirit does through His Word in your life. I am merely an instrument. I'm a tool. I'm a tool in God's toolbox. I don't know if I'm at the top or if I'm at the bottom.

I think He has to dig pretty long and hard to find it. Me. But the point is, I am a tool used by God to share His Word and to teach you the truth of the Word of God.

But it is the Spirit of God that works through that in your life. We have roughly 40 people here. Maybe a little more than that. I don't know. Forty-three.

So, I was close. Not bad for an eyeball. All right. Forty-three people here. You all are hearing the same words from me. I am giving the same message to all of you.

There is nothing different. The only difference is the way God is working in your life through His Word. You all have different contexts.

You all have different, you're at different points in life, different experiences in life, different needs where you're at. He knows perfectly what that is and He's going to apply it and use it in your life for His glory and for your good.

But it's His work. John 6, 44. John 6, 44. Just, again, focusing on the work of God in our lives for salvation and sanctification. John 6, 44. No one can come to me, Jesus is saying, unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I'll raise him up on the last day. The fact that we need to come to Christ. And that is the work of God to bring us to Him. Philippians 1, 6. Paul writing to the church at Philippi.

Again, come out Wednesday morning. We're finishing it up in, like, a few months. Philippians 1, 6. And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

God works in you through His Word. It's not His Word passively working in you, but it's the Spirit of God working actively through His Word.

So now that we've established the basis for the existence of God being seen in the life-changing Word, let's finish what we started last week with these six statements about this life-changing Word.

We covered the first three. It's perfect, it's sure, it's right, it's pure. Sorry, that's four. I jumped ahead to the next one.

So it's perfect, sure, right. It revives the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart. Now, number four, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The commandment, as you know, is an authoritative directive. So the Word of God, it's not a book of suggestions. It's not a book of good thoughts and nice ideas.

It's not even, it's not a book just full of, you know, good encouraging stories, because there are a lot of stories that are not as encouraging. In fact, we should learn in that not to do those things.

But the Word of God is a book full of commands given to us by our Creator. God is the sovereign King of the universe and who has total authority over every life.

And as I've already mentioned, even salvation is not a passive invitation to all people. God is commanding all people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.

In Mark 1, verse 15, it says, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. What was the message that Jesus brought to the world?

You ask, you go out on the street, go into Sanford, you go to Walmart, you ask people, what's the message that Jesus had for the world? They're going to give you a wide variety of answers, but I bet a majority of them are going to say, oh, love.

It's a message of love. Love, people. Love, love, love, love, right? Like, that's what people hold on to. Oh, God is love. And God is love, right? And that's what they hold on to.

Mark 1, 15 is the message straight from the lips of Jesus himself. Repent and believe in the gospel. At the very beginning of his ministry and throughout, he is calling people to repentance.

Repentance is the turn. Like, so we are naturally inclined and given to living our lives of self-pleasure, self-satisfaction, and sin.

And that's the life that we live. That's the path we're on. That is by, we are by nature enemies of God. We are by nature children of wrath. We are by nature people who seek to live out our desires.

The mantra in the world, do what makes you happy. And God says, no. That's leading you. Like, you follow that path.

That's the broad way to eternal condemnation. Separation from God. He says, repent. Repent from that. Turn to God.

Believe in Jesus. He says, believe in the gospel. He is that core of the message of the gospel. Is that Jesus is loving. He is kind.

He is compassionate. Yes, he is all those things. But repent and believe. Right? Acts 17.30, God commands all people everywhere to repent. Acts 16.31, they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

So God, in the gospel itself, God is commanding all people to repent and believe in his son. Because his son lived the perfect life.

His son went from birth to death without sinning. Without disobeying the commands of God. He is the perfect fulfillment of the law of God.

And it was his death on the cross. That death. Where his blood was shed. That blood being shed is. It is efficient.

It is sufficient. To satisfy the wrath of God. And while he was on the cross. He took the penalty that every one of the 43. In this room.

44 if you count me. He took all of us. He took our penalty on that cross. While he was hanging there. He was. The wrath of God was being poured out on him.

Because of his great love for us. He took the punishment we are deserving. And so God calls everywhere. All men everywhere to repent. And believe in that sacrifice.

Sacrifice as being sufficient. To pay the penalty. The cost. That is due. For offending our creator. And disobeying his word.

And we know from Psalm 19. That the commandment of the Lord is pure. That Hebrew word can be translated as clear. It is clear.

And it is without darkness. The word of God is transparent. It's translucent. And that's why it enlightens the eyes. Hear what Jesus says in the sermon.

Matthew 6. 22 and 23. He says the eye. Is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy. Your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad. Your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light. In you is darkness. How great is that darkness? But the word of God. It enlightens the eyes.

It fixes that dark eye. It is what brings clarity. In allowing the word of God. To then come in. And do the rest of the functions.

We're going to get to. It's amazing. The commandments of God. They're clear. They're clear. There's no. It's not a.

No. It's certainly not arbitrary. It's not abstract. It's not like. Hmm. I wonder what God's getting at here. No. No. They're clear. Or else they're pointless.

How can God hold us responsible. To obey what we can't understand. Right. To say that the Bible isn't clear. Is to then indict God. As having set up an impossible situation.

Where he's commanding us to do. What isn't clear. But in every word that I've read in scripture. It's clear. What God is saying. Especially when it comes to the gospel.

Repent. And believe. What's clearer than that? Repent. Turn from your sinful wicked way. Turn to God. Believe in Jesus for salvation. Believe that his sacrifice is enough to appease his father.

And seek to live in obedience. How hard is that to understand? Friend. It's only hard. When you don't want to do it. You tell your kids.

Don't eat cookies before dinner. What do you mean? Like this half? It's only a crumb. No, no. Yeah.

Eat dessert first. Right. Isn't that the truth though? Like no. Don't eat cookies. They're right there. Freshly made. Warm. We got milk in the fridge.

Let's do it. No, no. It's only hard to obey. When it's not what you want to do. We don't like being told what to do.

Matthew Henry says about the word of God. The commandment of the Lord being pure and enlightening the eyes. He says it brings us to a sight and sense of our sin and misery. And direct us in the day of duty.

The commandment of the Lord is pure. Enlightening the eyes. Verse 9a. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The word fear, it means what it means. Fear. Be afraid. Oftentimes we want to default to reverence.

What is the fear of the Lord? Oh, it means reverence. And that's where we want to fall. That's where we want to go. Right. Because why should we be afraid?

God loves us. There's nothing to be afraid of. It can't mean. That can't be the basic meaning of it. It's got to mean just reverence. And no, no. No.

This means to be afraid. When you talk about fear of the Lord, it means to be afraid of him. And while there's an innate sense of reverence for the Lord, that's true.

I'm not saying that's completely out of there. But that reverence is born out of a genuine fear of what he is capable of doing. Matthew 10, 28 says, Jesus says, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What do you think Jesus meant? Just, you know, be reverent to him?

No. It means to be afraid. Back to the cookie illustration. I'm bad with illustrations. I always come up with them off the top of my head, but I think this is working.

Go back to the cookies before dinner. No cookies before dinner. All right? Mom leaves the room. Because I wouldn't say that. Mom leaves the room.

Kids are now, hmm. Well, just one. This one looks a little burned. We can have that. All right? And so they go ahead. Okay, we're going to go ahead. Let's take a bite.

And then she comes back in the room. What are they feeling at that point? Fear. Is it out of reverence? So, mother, I'm glad you're here. No.

It's fear because that's the person who said, don't do that, and you just did. And what is she capable of doing? A punishment?

Or a, hey, daddy, we have an issue. And bring in another authority, right? So there's a genuine fear there. That is what we're getting at here, is that we have offended a holy God.

We have disobeyed our creator. And so we should be fearful of what he's capable of doing, because Jesus says he's capable of killing both body and soul in hell.

And the Lord's intention with his people has always been to establish fear of him, so that we walk in his ways.

Deuteronomy 4.10. It says, And then you go on from there and go into Deuteronomy 6.

They're to teach the law of the Lord to their children. What's the purpose of the law? The purpose of the law isn't so you can keep it in perfection and be saved and go to heaven. The purpose of the law is to show you that you can't.

To show you that you need a savior. To show you that you need something greater than yourself to appease the righteous standard of it. Because once you start reading the law, you realize, oh, I'm in trouble.

And there's a genuine fear that brings about a reverence for and hopefully a right response to the Lord. So due to the sinfulness of man to suppress the truth about God, they manifest their fear of the Lord by inventing false religions.

They know there's a God and they're choosing how do you approach him. And in their attempts to make God in the image that they've chosen, they're provoking his wrath. It's not a good thing.

But when we rightly walk in the way of the Lord, we recognize that his commandment, I'm sorry, the fear of the Lord is clean.

When we're walking in his way and we're fearing the Lord and we are, you know, the fear of the Lord is also a synonym for the word of God. And we recognize that his word is clean.

They are ceremonially clean themselves. That's what that means. Which in turn makes us clean for his use. And it is through the word of God that the gospel is preached.

That people can respond in faith and repent and believe because we have the word of God given to us. We have the commandment of God given to us.

John 15.3, when he's speaking to his disciples, he says, Jesus says, already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. The words of Christ in the life of the disciples cleanse them for his use.

So the word of God, it cleanses us. It changes us from being enemies of God to being his children. And being conformed into the image of his son, which is his purpose for all those who put their faith in Christ.

And this is a lasting change in our lives. They endure forever. It's not temporary. It's not accidental. In fact, Jesus tells us that we know people by the fruit that they bear.

And those who belong to Christ are going to live lives that show that it is so. Matthew 7.16-20, you will recognize them by their fruits, Jesus says.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. You know somebody who is saved and in Christ by the life they live.

It is not about them just saying, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus. It's not about them going to church on Sunday, sitting in a pew, listening to a man talk. It's not about putting money on the plate.

That doesn't save you. That doesn't mean anything about you being a Christian. Unbelievers can walk in this room. Guess what? Anytime there's a funeral and it's here, there are a lot of unbelievers here.

They don't believe in Christ. They don't believe the Bible. They don't fear the Lord. But they're sitting in those pews. And sometimes the family is full of unbelievers and they write a check to the church.

They're checking all the boxes. But that's not how they're saved. They're not changed. Right? So going through the motions doesn't make you a Christian.

But responding in faith to the word of God does. When you repent and believe in Jesus. And as you turn from your ways and you seek to live in obedience to him, your life is going to change.

It's not because of anything you yourself are doing in your own effort, but because the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life and starts cleaning house. And when he does that, it hurts.

It's painful. The changes that take place in our lives when the Holy Spirit of God is dwelling in us. It's unique to each individual.

For those of you who are in Christ, you've experienced it. It's hard. But he's working. He's cleaning. And that cleansing endures forever and plays out in your life and the fruit that you bear.

Well, we're running really low on time. And it just hit 80 degrees at some point. So it's warming up. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

This is the sixth and final statement that we're going to look at before we move on to the next verses next week. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Another term for rules is judgments.

So ultimately, David is talking about what the Lord has determined related to the truthfulness of a matter. They are true.

In society today, there's much debate and opinionating on many matters. The ones that are blatant, big out there. Homosexual relationships and transgenderism.

If you haven't been following anything in the news, good for you. But there's a big deal with the WNBA where people in the WNBA are taking a stand saying, no, men should not be playing in our league.

And there are other people who say, well, we don't know what a woman is. It's fascinating right from the lips of women themselves. But it just shows the depravity of man on full display.

And so now there are former NBA players, their first-round picks, who are like, well, you know, I, for the sake of athletics, identify as a woman and I'm going to enter the WNBA draft.

Well, guess what? Now the league's going back to the drawing table. Well, wait a minute. Can we hold our stance on this? So anyway. But this is one of those matters, right? Homosexual relationships, long time. Transgenderism probably lasts 10 years or so.

And people as a whole are all about, well, just let people do whatever they want to do. Whatever makes them happy, whatever they feel like doing, whoever they want to have a relationship with, however many people they want to have a relationship with, it doesn't matter.

The thing now coming down the pipe is going to be here before you know it is the age won't matter either. What we refer to as pedophiles are now being rebranded as minor attracted persons.

It's just a way to justify sin even more. The depravity is great. It's amazing. So people are just, hey, let people do whatever they want to do. But as believers, our allegiance is to the word of God and what he has set as the standard of truth.

Right? And based on his word, homosexual relationships and transgenderism are sinful desires of man contrary to his creative order. He has said it.

His judgment, his rules are true. And we're told in Romans 3, 4, let God be true in every liar. In John 8, 26, Jesus saying, I have much to say about you and much to judge, speaking to religious leaders, but he who sent me is true.

And I declare to the world what I have heard from him. What was Jesus' purpose? It was to preach the word of God and make his truth known to all people.

So God's word is true and righteous all together. I want to give you a couple quotes and then wrap it up.

R.C. Sproul has said, I agree with Mr. Sproul.

Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ. Very well-known apologist. In his book, The Case for Faith, made the statement, he said, To be honest, I didn't want to believe that Christianity could radically transform someone's character and values.

It was much easier to raise doubts and manufacture outrageous objections than to consider the possibility that God actually could trigger a revolutionary turnaround in such a depraved and degenerate life.

Think about that. That statement that he made. It was easier to raise doubts and manufacture outrageous objections than to consider that God could actually turn around in a depraved and degenerate life.

Folks, Psalm 19 leaves us with no room for neutrality. The heavens declare that God exists.

His word declares who he is. Creation reveals his power. Scripture reveals his character. Scripture reveals his commands, his holiness, his plan of redemption.

Scripture reveals your own sinfulness, your depravity, your need for him. The God who made us has not remained silent, but he has spoken.

And what he has spoken is perfect. It's sure. It's right. It's pure. It's clean. It's true. His word revives the soul. It makes wise the simple.

It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eyes. It cleanses his people. And it establishes the standard by which every person will ultimately be judged. The question is not whether God has revealed himself because he has.

The question is what will we do with what he has revealed? Will we suppress the truth and live as though God does not exist? Or will we bow before him and receive his word and repent of our sin and believe the gospel?

The same God who speaks through creation and scripture has ultimately spoken through his son, Jesus Christ. He commands us to repent and believe. And for those whom he saves, he does not merely give new information.

He gives new life. He gives a new life, a new purpose. He gives new desires. So let's not merely admire God's word. Let's submit to it.

Let's not merely hear his commands. Let's obey them. Let's not merely acknowledge that he exists. But let's worship him. Let's fear him. Let's trust him. Let's live in obedience to him.

The undeniable existence of God in his natural order, now in his life-changing word. Father, we're grateful and thankful for your word and your spirit.

Lord, thank you for each one here who has endured this uncomfortable heat to hear your word for your spirit to work in their lives.

Lord, give them clarity and direction. Lord, I pray that they could repent and believe in you and seek to live obediently to your word.

Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.