How God Reveals Himself

[0:00] Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 19. This morning we are continuing our summer in the Psalms sermon series.

[0:13] ! Last week Brother Lyndon did a great job addressing us from Psalm 10. The Lord is King forever. He is King over all of those circumstances.

[0:36] As you can see I've changed the title for the sermon to how God reveals Himself. Psalm 19 beginning in verse 1.

[0:52] The heavens declare the glory of God. And the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

[1:04] Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

[1:16] Their voice goes throughout all the earth. And their words to the end of the world.

[1:30] And then He has set a tent for the sun. Which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber. And like a strong man runs its course with joy.

[1:44] Its rising is from the end of the heavens. And its circuit to the end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

[1:57] 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.

[2:11] Rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure. Enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean. Enduring forever.

[2:23] The rules of the Lord are true. And righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold. Even much fine gold.

[2:36] Sweeter also than honey. And the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant worn. In keeping them there is great reward.

[2:50] Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

[3:04] Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless. And innocent of great transgression.

[3:15] Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

[3:28] Let's pause and pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for your word. Lord, we thank you for the privilege we have at this moment to sit under its instruction.

[3:42] Lord, once again, we ask that you would prepare our hearts to hear your word. Lord, grant us the ability to be undistracted in this moment and to engage with you, listening.

[4:00] Even as Samuel said, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Lord, let that be our posture this morning.

[4:13] And I ask for grace, Lord, to proclaim your word, knowing that no one is sufficient for the task of bringing your word to your people. Help me to be faithful, to only proclaim that which you will have me to speak this morning.

[4:32] So Lord, grant us all grace during this time of the preaching of your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There's a website called everystudent.com.

[4:45] And it describes itself as a safe place to explore questions about life and God. And one of the questions submitted by a participant on this website reads as follows.

[5:00] Why are there no clearly visible miracles today that shout without a shadow of doubt to everyone in the world, there is a God?

[5:14] Questions very similar to that one are asked by many self-proclaimed atheists. Some ask, if God does exist, why doesn't he just reveal himself so people can believe in him?

[5:30] And the main assumption behind these kinds of questions is that God has not revealed himself. They believe God has not revealed himself.

[5:44] And so they say, God, reveal yourself. But the witness of scripture is that God has indeed revealed himself. And that is what Psalm 19 tells us.

[5:59] Psalm 19 is one of the places in scripture where we are told that God has revealed himself. And what we'll see this morning in Psalm 19 is that God has generally revealed himself to all people, contrary to what atheists believe.

[6:19] And again, Psalm 19 is not alone. So what does this mean that God has already revealed himself in all creation?

[6:37] What it means is that God has done what they are asking him to do. And so I want us in our remaining time to consider Psalm 19.

[6:47] And I want to answer this question. How does God reveal himself? How does God reveal himself?

[6:58] And from Psalm 19, I want to consider three ways in which God reveals himself. First, God reveals himself in creation. God reveals himself in creation.

[7:10] The psalmist tells us this in verses 1 through 6. Look at what he says in verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God. And the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

[7:24] The psalmist is saying to us that when we look up, the sky speaks. He says the sky speaks in a loud voice that it is God's glorious creation.

[7:37] It is God's handiwork. When we look up, the heavens declare to us the glory of God.

[7:49] The heavens declare to us that it is God's handiwork. It's interesting that of all of God's creation that the psalmist could have appealed to, the psalmist chooses the heavens above, the sky and the sun and the moon and the stars that speak about the glory of God and thus reveal the existence of God.

[8:15] The point is to prove that God's creation proves God's existence.

[8:25] Now, again, the psalmist chooses of all of God's creation. He chooses the sky to make this point to us about God's existence.

[8:38] He doesn't choose the rivers and the seas. He doesn't choose flowers and bees as beautiful as they are. And I believe the reason the psalmist chooses the sky is that depending on where you live in God's creation, you may not see some parts of his creation.

[9:01] We live in the Bahamas, so we are surrounded by beaches. There are parts of the world where you can live. You will see no beaches. There are parts of the world where you will see mountains.

[9:14] And there are parts of the world where you will not see mountains. There are some parts of the world with huge amounts of lush vegetation.

[9:24] And then there are desert places with no vegetation. But the one part of God's creation that all people see, no matter where they are, is the sky.

[9:37] When we live on the surface of the earth, the canopy over all of us is the sky. And so the psalmist appeals to the sky, which is the part of God's creation that we all have in common.

[9:52] And what we read in the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 1, when God created the heavens and the earth, we see that God created the heavens and he placed the sun and the moon and the stars there.

[10:14] And we can all see it. And I believe this is why the psalmist would appeal to the heavens as the aspect of God's creation to prove God's existence.

[10:28] Notice what he says in verse 2. He tells us that every day pours out speech. This is a poetic expression of the fact that this is something that happens every single day.

[10:57] It continually happens. And this is not just speaking, but it's pouring out speech. It's pouring out speech day by day.

[11:12] And notice what the psalmist says in verse 3. He says, What he's saying is, The speech of the heavens are pouring out.

[11:27] The message of the heavens are pouring out. He says there is no part of it, there is no word of it that isn't heard. It doesn't go unheard.

[11:37] Every single part of it. There is no speech. There are no words whose voice is not heard. Whose voice of what is being poured out day by day.

[11:49] The psalmist says day by day, God is revealing knowledge. The heavens are speaking to us. In the day, there are parts of the heavens that will speak to us.

[12:00] In the night, there are parts of the heavens that will speak to us. And they are speaking about the existence of the one who created them. Verse 4 makes this even clearer.

[12:15] Verse 4 says, Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. No part of God's creation, God's human creation living on the earth from the time of Adam and Eve up until the time that the Lord will return.

[12:37] Who can say this is not true for me? No, the psalmist says their voice goes out. This speech is being poured out throughout all the earth.

[12:49] Their words to the end of the world. The psalmist says that this message about the handiwork of God in the heavens, it sounds out to the ends of the earth.

[13:06] In other words, it sounds out to all people. At the end of verse 4 and through verse 6, the psalmist zeroes in on the sun.

[13:16] The sun is the most dominant part of God's creation. That's visible to us with our naked eyes.

[13:29] And we read about the creation of the sun in Genesis 1, 14 through 18, where it says that the Lord created two lights, two great lights.

[13:41] One light to rule the day and one light to rule the night. And the light that rules the day, God called it the greater light. Didn't call it the sun, but called it the greater light.

[13:52] And when we consider the sun from a human point of view, we would agree with what the psalmist says.

[14:03] The psalmist says in the latter part of verse 4 that God has set a tent for the sun. In other words, he is talking about how the sun, we would call it, rises and sets.

[14:14] So the sun sets and we would say it went into the tent and then it rises and we would say it comes out of the tent. And that's the way we would see it from the visible, from the naked human eye.

[14:30] And the psalmist again uses poetic language. He says the sun, verse 5, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber.

[14:40] And the idea is this eagerly anticipating bridegroom who is decked in his best and who radiates with joy.

[14:54] And his joy is infectious to all who are around him. He is resplendent as best as he can be as he comes. And he says the sun is like that.

[15:04] He also likens him to an athlete, to a strong man who runs his course. And the whole idea is that the sun will make this circuit.

[15:16] It's going to do it with strength. It's going to do it with consistency. It's not going to lag. It's not going to sag in its radiance in any way.

[15:27] He says the sun runs its course, as we would say, from rising to setting with strength. And so we human beings who are rational, we're the only part of God's creation who could really interact with this and really think about it.

[15:49] The animals can't do it. The vegetation can't do it. We who are rational creatures are able to observe the sun, observe its power, its majesty, its consistency, its beauty.

[16:03] And more than any other creature, we know its benefit. The sun is at the heart of God's creation in the heavens. And together with the heavens, it declares to us on earth the glory and the existence of God.

[16:25] What the psalmist is addressing in verses 1 through 6 is what theologians call general revelation. General revelation simply means that God has revealed himself in this general way to all people at all times over the entirety of human history.

[16:50] It is general revelation. It's quite interesting that when Jesus was speaking in the Sermon on the Mount, and he called his followers to love their enemies and to forgive those who persecute them, Jesus said to them, If you do this, you will be like your father who is in heaven.

[17:19] You will be sons of your father who is in heaven. And when Jesus wanted to communicate the goodness of God to all people, when Jesus wanted to show us that the reason we should love all people, including our enemies, and including those who persecute us, the way God does it.

[17:41] When Jesus wanted to illustrate that, Jesus said in verse 45 of Matthew 5, he says, For he makes his son to rise on the evil and good, evil people and good people, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

[18:03] Jesus appealed to God's creation to teach God's goodness. He says the sun is an expression of God's goodness. God doesn't say you're evil, so I'm going to withhold the sun from you.

[18:15] You're good, so I'm going to allow the sun to shine on you. Without the light and the heat of the sun, we would all die. As a matter of fact, without the light and the heat of the sun, the entirety of God's living creation would die.

[18:33] And even though Jesus in this illustration mentions the rain, the rain is dependent on the sun. As all the students who are here this morning, the BJC students, and the rest of us who are old enough to remember it, the way we get rain is the sun evaporates water out of the seas and out of the rivers, and that water, because it's hot air, it rises, and it gets to a point where it cools, and then it condensates, and then it comes back down in the form of rain.

[19:14] Without the sun, none of that would be possible. And so Jesus appeals to the sun to teach us about the goodness of God.

[19:29] So God has generally revealed himself in creation. And so since God has generally revealed himself in creation, it begs the question, why then does the atheist not see God in creation?

[19:52] Why then does the atheist still demand evidence of God's existence? But the Apostle Paul gives us the reason.

[20:03] Let's turn there in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Feel free to use the index if you need to, to find it.

[20:15] Romans chapter 1, over in the New Testament. I want to begin with verse 18. Verse 18. Paul writes Romans chapter 1, verse 18.

[20:42] But prior to this, Paul has just been talking about the gospel. He says that the gospel is the power of God to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

[20:56] And then he says this, verse 18, Now when it talks about God's wrath, that is God's resolute and appropriate anger against sin.

[21:19] That's what wrath means. God, because he is holy, because he is a holy God, the only right response to sin is anger and wrath.

[21:31] And what Paul tells us is God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[21:44] There is a suppression of the truth on the part of those who refuse to see God as he has revealed himself in creation.

[22:01] And notice what Paul goes on to say in verse 19. He says, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

[22:14] And there are two things at work here. God is the creator. He's the creator of every single thing. He's the creator of human beings. He's the creator of his world. And not only has God built his world in such a way that his world will pour out speech about his glory and his obvious existence, God has also made human beings receptors.

[22:38] He's given them this ability ability to perceive what he has put into his creation to reveal himself in a general way.

[22:51] We refer to it oftentimes as conscience. So this is not a matter of God just revealing his glory and existence in creation where someone can just come and say, well, you know, I really didn't see it.

[23:06] No, God created and enabled human beings to be able to see his revealed glory and the evidence of his existence in creation.

[23:19] And this is what Paul says in verse 19. He says, for what can be known about God? And obviously, that would be what is naturally known about God. What is generally revealed about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

[23:38] And he tells us in verse 20 that his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature. Those, Paul points out for us, are the two aspects of God's divine nature that he has chosen to reveal to the world.

[23:59] These, we'll be called these invisible attributes. attributes of God that we wouldn't see otherwise unless he reveals them. But he says, his eternal power and his divine nature.

[24:11] In many ways, the sun reveals that. The power of the sun. And this, we can say, without all of the scientific knowledge that we have that can measure the heat of the sun and know so many things about the sun, away from all of that stuff.

[24:31] We don't need to know that stuff to be able to see the power of the sun and to understand our dependence upon the sun and to understand that we can do nothing without the sun.

[24:43] And the sun is the center of our solar system. We can see these things and understand these things just by naked eye observation.

[24:54] we're able to see the power of the sun and we can tell. I mean, generation after generation will tell you, I mean, the sun is a given.

[25:05] It's here. We met it here. We leave it here. The sun is there. The sun is consistent. There is no record of the sun slunking one day and not working one day and something breaking down the next day.

[25:18] No record of that. The sun is saying that God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

[25:40] Ever since Adam and Eve. There is no one who has ever lived on this earth who can say otherwise. And it matters not what someone may reason about this or say about this.

[25:52] We take the word of God to be true that there is no person who would have been at a disadvantage for this perception of God's invisible attributes.

[26:16] Paul tells us He says, so they are without excuse. Very last sentence in verse 20. So they are without excuse.

[26:31] I read verse 20 again. 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 they are without excuse.

[26:48] The atheists are without excuse. The agnostics who would say, I wouldn't say God doesn't exist, but I don't believe He exists because I'm not sure if He does exist.

[27:01] They too are without excuse. Jesus. And what Paul does is he goes on to describe for us what happens when people suppress the truth, when people refuse to have an awareness and an acknowledgement of God in their hearts.

[27:27] He tells us in verse 21, for though they knew God, this isn't know in a saving way, but this is to know in a general way, 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 darkened.

[27:53] Their foolish hearts suppressing the truth, was darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things.

[28:12] And Paul goes on to help us to see what this suppression of the truth and this rebellion of God looks like. And he points to the most graphic expression of rebellion against God and it comes in the form of sexual rebellion.

[28:35] And it is not rebelling against what God has revealed in His Word in terms of sexual conduct within the context of marriage.

[28:48] It's not that. The issue is not that God was disobeyed in adultery, but the issue is that rebellious man has rebelled against God in a very fundamental and radical way to say that the sexuality that God has revealed, they will go against.

[29:08] The sexuality that God has revealed is male and female. And this rebellion that suppresses the truth, this rebellion that refuses to submit to God and to His revealed knowledge in the universe, it results in a distortion and a deviant defiance against the sexual order.

[29:38] And so what we see is men having passions for men and women having passions for women. And Paul says in verse 26, says God gave them over to these dishonorable passions.

[29:54] And the implication is that God could have restrained it, but God says, I will let you go where your suppression of the truth is going to take you.

[30:07] I will let the logical outworking of the world that you want to live in, the ideas you want to hold, I will let them work out to where they will logically go, because you refuse to acknowledge my power, my existence, and submit to me.

[30:30] God's word in Psalm 19 and here in Romans 1 that's telling us that God has sufficiently and God has plainly revealed himself to everyone, including those who say God doesn't exist or I don't know if God exists.

[30:56] Creation doesn't tell us everything we need to know about God, but it tells us that God in a very basic and general way of the existence of God.

[31:11] You know, it's interesting when we think about the way that atheists would interact with the world, they would come across certain things that human beings have done, and they would never for one moment think that it just happened without anyone creating it.

[31:38] But when it comes to God's creation, they have doubts about that. Carol recently posted a very interesting cartoon on his Facebook page that my mind reflected on as I was preparing the sermon, so I asked him to send it to me.

[31:56] So this is the atheist logic. I hope you can see it. You may not be able to see it, but if we can kill the lights, I think you can see it. Oh, you can't read it.

[32:07] But anyway, you can put the lights back on then. the first scene is this guy, he sees this wonderful building, and he remarks, this building is a marvel of architectural design.

[32:24] And then he sees a painting, and he says, this painting shows mastery of technique. And then he sees this car, he's looking at the engine, and he says, this engine is a real piece of sophisticated engineering.

[32:39] Implication, somebody did it. And then he is out in God's creation of streams and trees and planes and animals and flowers and trees, and he says, clearly no one made any of this.

[32:59] That's the atheist logic. Because they suppressed the truth. Because they suppressed the truth.

[33:11] The reason that fallen men suppressed the truth of the existence of God is because they would be subject to him. No God, in my mind, I'm subject to no one.

[33:24] I'm the master of my own fate. When I'm dead, I'm done. There's nothing else to look forward to. They suppressed the truth to believe that.

[33:35] I remember talking with a particular self-proclaimed atheist, and I said to him, let me ask you, if God did exist, would you want to know him? You know what he said?

[33:46] No. The issue is not, for this one at least, whether God really exists or not. The issue is, I don't want to God.

[33:58] And therefore, such a person will suppress the truth of God because such a person doesn't want a God. If you're honest, and your struggle is, I just don't believe that God exists.

[34:13] That's very different from saying, okay, if he did exist, would you want to know him? And the person would shout, no. Clearly, that is someone who is suppressing the truth.

[34:33] Paul's point is that God has revealed himself sufficiently so all people are without excuse.

[34:46] Let's go back to Psalm 19. Now, a logical question that arises is this.

[35:03] Can the general revelation of God in creation lead us to know God in a saving way? God has revealed himself in creation.

[35:15] Day by day, his creation, the heavens in particular, is pouring forth speech and telling us this every single day and every single night. Can that knowledge bring us to know God in a saving way?

[35:30] In other words, if a person accepts the intelligent design of the universe and that some being, some divine being, bigger than it all, would have created it, would that be the kind of knowledge that would bring a person to saving faith?

[35:48] The obvious answer is no. one of the reasons we can say no is that if it could have, it would have, and God would have to do nothing else.

[36:00] But God in fact did more, and that's proof to us that general revelation is not enough to bring us to saving faith.

[36:10] This brings you to my second point. Not only does God reveal himself in creation, God reveals himself in scripture. This is what we see in verses 7 through 11.

[36:26] In these five verses, the psalmist is extolling and praising God's law, his testimonies, his precepts, his commandment and rules, and together these are different expressions for the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which the Jews would call the Torah, and Greeks would call the Pentateuch.

[36:49] the first five books of the Bible, which we would say also constitutes the Mosaic covenant. Theologians call this revelation of God special revelation.

[37:03] Special revelation because this is not to all people, this is to specific people. God gave this revelation of himself in the five books of the Bible, in the Torah, in the Pentateuch, he gave it to the nation of Israel.

[37:21] And other nations, people from other nations who would want to know God in that time, they had to become a part of the nation of Israel. They became proselytes.

[37:32] God's God Now, today, we would acknowledge that we have more than these five books of the Bible. We have the whole Bible.

[37:43] We have the whole 66 books. But what the psalmist says of verses of the five books of the Mosaic covenant in verses 7 through 11 is true about all of God's word.

[37:55] All of God's word can rightly be described in the same way that the psalmist describes the Mosaic law, the Torah, in verses 5 through 11.

[38:11] I want to run through it quickly. what we see is the psalmist has a poetic pattern in lauding and celebrating God's word.

[38:24] This pattern of praising a virtue of God's word and then stating the benefit. He praises the virtue, then he states the benefit. In verse 7, he says God's word is perfect, which really is a reflection of God himself.

[38:39] it revives or refreshes the soul. Again, in verse 7, he says God's word is sure. It is trustworthy.

[38:49] It is certain. It makes the simple wise. And in the wisdom literature, the simple person is the person who is immature, the person who is easily led astray.

[39:03] the psalmist says God's word is trustworthy. God's word is sure. He says to the simple, you can trust it and it will make you wise.

[39:20] In verse 8, not only does he tell us God's word is perfect and sure, but he says that what is contained in God's word is right.

[39:30] And it rejoices our hearts. Following what is in God's word will always cause our hearts to rejoice because it is right.

[39:45] It is when we disobey that we lament. It is when we disobey that we have great sorrow. For when we follow God's word, the rightness of God's word, it will bring great rejoicing in our hearts.

[39:59] And it doesn't mean that following God's word and doing what is right sometimes will not cost us. That there is not a price to be paid.

[40:10] There is a price to be paid. And even as we gather here this morning, there are some of our brothers and sisters around the world who are paying a great price to do what is right by God.

[40:20] But their hearts rejoice. Their hearts rejoice in the rightness of God's word. And history records many who have even gone to their death rejoicing in their hearts because they know that what they were dying for was right.

[40:43] The psalmist tells us that the word of God is pure. This speaks about its perfection from another angle. the content of it.

[40:54] There is no evil in it. It is unmixed. It is pure. He goes on to tell us that it enlightens our eyes. It is purity.

[41:06] We are able to see as we ought to see. God's word provides light for our eyes. In the light of his word we see light. God's word is And then in verse 9 the psalmist does not directly reference God's word.

[41:20] Instead he indirectly references the word by saying that when he refers to the fear of the Lord. He says the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever.

[41:35] It is only through the word of God that we know the fear of the Lord. We learn to fear God from how he has revealed himself in his word.

[41:48] And the psalmist says it is clean and it endures forever. He further says in verse 9 the rules of the Lord are right and righteous all together.

[42:01] They are true and they are right. And then for those whose hearts have been revived and whose hearts have been made wise and who have rejoiced over the rightness of God's word whose eyes have been enlightened and who recognize the fear of the Lord and the righteousness of his word.

[42:25] They will see the worth and the desirability of God's word. Look at what he says in verses 10 and 11.

[42:37] He says more desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honey home. The psalmist says that God's word is to be desired more than the best gold and the sweetest honey.

[42:58] And we must appreciate that this is not a poor man talking. God's word is more valuable than God's word.

[43:15] And you realize that this was not someone talking from ignorance. This is someone who had what we would say. He had it all. And the face of it, he would say God's word is more valuable than the finest gold.

[43:29] an expression to know that David even understood not just gold, but the finest of gold. And he says it's better than the sweetest honey.

[43:46] The psalmist in verse 11 makes a statement about the effect of God's word in his own life.

[43:58] But he also makes the statement for us who would submit to God's word in a similar way. God's word warns us and there's great reward when we heed it.

[44:12] God's word warns us and there's great reward when we heed its warnings and we keep it. And I think many of us have lived long enough to know the opposite is also true.

[44:27] that when we reject the warnings of God's word instead of receiving reward we receive punishment. We receive difficulty.

[44:41] Now I know this morning that the overwhelming majority of us in this room profess to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And this means that we have experienced the special revelation of God that has brought us to salvation.

[44:55] my question to you my question to us this morning is what's your attitude what's our attitude and approach to God's word.

[45:12] Can you identify with the psalmist when he praises God's word and its effect on his people? Can you identify with the psalmist when he says God's world is better than all the money you can possibly have?

[45:27] More valuable than that. It is sweeter to the soul than the sweetest food that you could find. Is there some measure of witness and amen and yes as we read what the psalmist says about God's word that resonates in your own heart?

[45:47] You who profess to know Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord? If it is so, may it continue, may it grow.

[45:57] May we increasingly see the value of God's word. May we increasingly experience the sweetness of God's word in our lives. May we increasingly experience times and seasons when we desire God's word more than food.

[46:19] when we value God's word more than money. Brothers and sisters, this will not happen automatically.

[46:36] This would not just drop out in our lives. There has to be intentional effort to cause God's word to take this place in our lives.

[46:53] Yes, God will be at work causing us to see as we should see and have affections for his word as we should, but we must plan time daily to be in God's word.

[47:09] And as we do that, may God open our eyes to help us to see how much we need his word and the many benefits it brings. If you hear this morning as an unbeliever, I encourage you to read God's word.

[47:28] This is where God in a very special way has revealed himself. And the way that God has revealed himself in the pages of scripture when we hold it as one big story is he has revealed himself as a great redeemer, as one who rescues sinners from sin, as one who gives mercy to those who don't deserve mercy.

[47:53] And I encourage you to start in the gospel of John and learn about how God has revealed himself in scripture.

[48:04] scripture. So the psalmist helps us to see that God reveals himself in creation. He helps us to see that God reveals himself in scripture.

[48:16] And third, he helps us to see that God reveals himself through conviction. God reveals himself through conviction.

[48:27] salvation. You see, we think about the world as it exists, general revelation, and we realize that's not enough.

[48:41] And God brings special revelation in his word. But you realize that even withholding God's word, even having God's word, if God does not act, if God does not work, and do the work that only he can do, having this special revelation of his word will still not be of saving benefit to our lives.

[49:10] And quite interesting, today you can watch over social media, many people as they try to appeal to different audiences and they appeal to religious audience, how they will take God's word with no salvation intent, whatsoever, and they will take what they will call nuggets and principles, and they will throw them out there for people to grab onto.

[49:32] But it has no saving effect on their lives. It has an emotional effect on their hearts, but no saving effect at all.

[49:44] And so unless God reveals himself through conviction, even the special revelation that he's given to us, in his word, will be of no effect.

[49:56] And so what we see the psalmist now doing, starting in verse 12, is the psalmist in a very personal way, he's asking this question, who can discern his errors? It's a very important question, but it's a rhetorical question.

[50:11] It's not designed to be answered. It's really, the answer is so obvious. That's what a rhetorical question does. It's just a way of communicating to make a point.

[50:22] The answer is so obvious. When the psalmist says, who can discern his errors? And it's clear that the errors that the psalmist is referring to are hidden sins.

[50:39] He goes on to say that, declare me innocent from hidden faults, or hidden sins. So who can discern hidden sins? It should be pretty obvious.

[50:51] If they're hidden, we don't know them. The answer is no one. The answer is no one. No one can discern or know his or her hidden sins.

[51:09] And without knowing his hidden sins, here's the psalmist asking God to forgive him of them. He's asking God to declare him innocent of hidden faults.

[51:24] See, this is what the conviction of God will do in our lives. And even as it relates to sins that we don't know of, it awakens conviction in our hearts.

[51:35] I've even desired to confess to him and say, Lord, I know I have sins I have not been aware of. Things I've done wrong and not been aware of them.

[51:47] Things I've omitted to do. He says, O Lord, would you declare me innocent of hidden sins? The psalmist is asking for forgiveness from those sins which he is not aware of.

[52:03] Brothers and sisters, only God can bring about this conviction of sin that makes us desire to even deal with sins that we are not aware of.

[52:14] It stands to reason, as the psalmist will point out in the very next verse, that if hidden sins will be a concern for us, the sins we are aware of, the ones we commit, the active sins that we commit, even more so.

[52:36] And that's what he says in verse 13. keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. The NIV says willful sins. Let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgressions.

[52:58] believe. You know, the era of the atheist is believing that if God clearly reveals himself, he would believe.

[53:19] That's the era of the atheists, and that's why they ask for evidence. Give me evidence and then I will believe, as if they have the ability to believe. And with the atheists, don't realize, or some just reject outright, is the witness of scripture that Jesus walked the earth for three years.

[53:37] And Jesus performed miracle after miracle after miracle, including raising the dead. When Jesus died and went back to heaven, only 120 could be found in the upper room, obeying the instruction that he gave to those who followed him to wait in Jerusalem, to be clothed with power from one high.

[54:00] There's a story in Luke 16 about the rich man and Lazarus. And the rich man felt that he's in hell, and he's having this conversation with Abraham, and he felt that if someone would go back and talk to his brothers and tell them not to come to this place, that somehow they would live differently than he did and they would escape hell.

[54:35] Lazarus told them, no, they have Moses and the prophets, let them believe them. It says, because if one were to come from the dead, they still would not believe. Brothers and sisters, miracles cannot do this convicting work that only God can do.

[55:00] And that's what we see the psalmist expressing in this latter part of the psalm. Again, in verse 13, his prayer that God will keep him back from presumptuous or willful sins and let them not have dominion over him.

[55:24] This reveals that God is the one against whom we ultimately sin. It reveals to us that we not only sin against him, but we also need to be forgiven from him and we are seeing in this God revealing himself also as our redeemer.

[55:44] God is the psalmist then asked for something or he states that when God would keep him back from presumptuous sins, not let them have dominion over him, he says, then I will be blameless.

[56:06] An innocent of great transgression. How can a sinner be innocent and blameless in the sight of a holy God? how can someone, even the best saint that we know in all of scripture, how can that person be innocent before a holy God?

[56:28] Think of your most holy Bible character. Joseph comes to mind. There's no expression that we see of him in some negative kind of way. Daniel also comes to mind.

[56:42] And friends, none of them in and of themselves can be blameless in the sight of the Lord.

[56:57] So how can the psalmist or anyone else be blameless before God? Well, the witness of scripture tells us it's one way, one word, and that word is grace.

[57:12] here's what we read in John chapter 1, the gospel of John chapter 1 verses 14 through 17.

[57:24] Listen. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son of the father, full of grace and truth.

[57:37] John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.

[57:49] And this is the verse that I in particular want us to zero in on. and from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

[58:00] And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace for the law, for the Torah, for the law was given through Moses.

[58:18] Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is the only way that we are able to be blameless before a holy Lord.

[58:33] Tried and proven over hundreds of years, thousands of years in the nation of Israel who had been given the law and God said to them keep it.

[58:46] They could not keep it blameless before the Lord. How much more those of us who were never given that law. But there is a way to be considered blameless in the sight of a holy God and it is through Jesus Christ, the one who has broad grace, that from his fullness we can all receive grace upon grace.

[59:15] Because grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And in this way we will know God not only as creator but we will also know him as father.

[59:29] Psalm 19 ends with a prayer in verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

[59:39] We say this and we pray it quite often. And let's think about what we're asking God to do. I pray without asking God in a vacuum to let our words and our meditations be acceptable in his sight, away from Jesus Christ.

[60:01] It is only through Jesus Christ that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable in God's sight.

[60:12] God because the truth is what God credits to us and what God considers about us is not our very own words, not our very own meditations.

[60:27] He considers the words of his son, the meditations of his son that were perfect in his sight. That's what he credits to our account. And so when we pray these words, let us be mindful and let us express our faith in God through Jesus Christ, that it is through Jesus Christ, that God can accept the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts and that they will be acceptable in his sight.

[61:00] The Lord, our rock and our redeemer. May this be true for all of us who put our faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.