The Bible As a Divine Revelation
Hal Molloy · Aug 4, 2002
Major Bible Themes (2002-03), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262245436722

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, for those who are visitors here this morning, we're using a book, which is major Bible themes, written by Dr. Lewis Berry Chaffer, and he has 52 chapters in that book. And it turns out to be excellent because we're having semi-school classes by the quarter, 13 weeks each quarter, and 4 times 13 is 52, so it works out perfect. So we are going through a chapter each week, with the exception of the first week we went through an introduction. So we are in chapter 4, the Bible as a divine revelation. Here is a homework assignment over on the right hand side, and don't forget to do that because we are going to check now.

In chapter 4, Dr. Chaffer goes through three things. He goes through the forms of divine revelation, and when he goes through the forms of divine revelation, he talks about three things. Revelation of God in creation, revelation in Christ, revelation in a written word. And then his next major paragraph, he talks about special revelation, and in the last paragraph he talks about interpretation.

As I went through that chapter, I felt it was just picking little pieces out and not putting them in the big picture. So what we're going to try and do this morning is try to put what he has in chapter 4 into just a bigger picture so that I think we can see what Chapter 4 is all about. So, there's always technical difficulties. So I want to show you a premise and ask you a question. Here's the premise. And this is a premise that Dr. Schaeffer puts forth in the first few paragraphs of this chapter.

If God created the universe and man for a purpose, is it reasonable to assume that God would reveal his purpose and his will to man? Is that a reasonable assumption? So if God created the entire universe, created you and me, Is it reasonable to assume that he tries to reveal to us something? Would that be reasonable?

You know, I think of parents who have children and for whatever reason there's a separation at a very young age. And what happens when a child grows up, finds out he or she is adopted? What is the thing that they search for and look for? They're birth parents. They want to know kind of like where they came from, right? So isn't it reasonable to assume that God would tell us and answer the basic three questions that man has? Who we are. Where did we come from, and where are we going? Wouldn't that be a reasonable assumption? I think so. So let's take a look. So the question is this. Three questions. The way I like to summarize this book, or this whole chapter.

What has God revealed? How has He revealed it? And how can we know His revelation? Now, I just want you to think of the first question. So I'm going to ask you the question. What has God revealed? Himself? Okay. His plan? You're doing great. The truth of the Word? His entire creation? Don't lick your notes. Okay, I thought I was going to get a jillion responses. I didn't. But I was going to ask you to boil those responses down to two, in terms of how would you summarize everything that God has revealed, and the first two of you did it.

And we're going to see that in a minute. We're going to ask the question, how did he reveal that? And how can we know his revelation? So, as we look at what has Doug revealed, Doug said, the knowledge, or himself, or the knowledge of God. Sue indicated his plan, or I'd like to put it, his eternal purpose. And all the other two answers fall in, in terms of the truth, falls into both of these categories. So each of the answers fall into those two categories, and you can summarize it that way. Now the question is, as we look at What has God revealed?

That is, the knowledge of Himself and His eternal purpose. Let me ask you a quick question. Can an unbeliever understand these two things, the knowledge of God and His eternal purpose? So, you meet a friend for lunch who's an unbeliever. It's like I'm meeting two guys every other week for lunch who are unbelievers. And they want to know. And what can they know? Has God revealed to them his eternal purpose? Can they know his eternal purpose? Can they know Can they know God?

Somebody comes up to you and says, there's no way in the world that I can never know God. And someone says to you, you know, if I go to hell, it's not because of me, but it's because God hasn't told me anything. He hasn't revealed himself to me. What would you say? Okay, everybody agree to that? So, the question is, how has God revealed it? Was it Joe? Huh? Robert?

God has revealed it two ways, general revelation and special revelation. So when we talk about the knowledge of God, He revealed it via general revelation and special revelation, and in a minute we'll get into the difference between the two. And God's eternal purpose, He does not reveal through general revelation. The only way we can know God's eternal purpose is through special revelation, and we'll look at that in a minute. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 19. And we're going to look at the knowledge of God, how can man know God, the knowledge of God, via general revelation.

By the way, I forgot to mention, in your handouts this morning, there was this top page. This top page does not go with this lesson this morning. It goes back with the very first lesson in the first week. I misspelled a word which is in the middle of these blocks and I had indentification instead of identification. Somebody pointed that out to me and so I corrected it. When you have a chance, just replace that sheet. Okay, thank you.

Psalm 19, it says this, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day, or day by day, uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world in them as you set a tabernacle for the sun." What's he talking about here? In terms of general revelation? What is the general revelation? Creation.

So the heavens declare the glory of God. And everything that you see during the day declares the glory of God. So the trees and the flowers and the grass and everything you see at night declares the glory of God. And what you see at night is you see the stars, and if you're lucky to live out in Parker, where there are no lights, it's dark out there, and you can see the heavens. And when you look up at the heavens, they speak to man.

And notice that it says that they utter speech. And everybody hears it. Everybody in the entire world hears it. So there's a universal language. Creation is a universal language. Everybody understands it. Everybody understands something from creation.

Now, on every second Friday night of the month, we have speakers here who are scientists, and we talk about creation versus evolution. And there are people that come that don't believe that creation can speak to them. Some people don't believe that there is a God. But this is God's Word, and it says something different. It says there's a universal language.

And what happens is that their line has gone out. And this word line in the Hebrew means a measuring line. And it's a measuring line to show the... A measuring line is used to show the preciseness of something. So if you're working around the house and you want to put in cabinets like I'm doing now, and you want to get them square, you use a carpenter's square, which is your measuring line. Perfectly square, right angles, perfectly straight. And that's what creation is. It's a measuring line to show the glory, the glory of God. That's what it does. And it's a universal language. And what is interesting, keep your finger in Psalm 19, I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I want to show you how the Apostle Paul uses verse 4 in Psalm 19 in Romans chapter 10. In verse 14 he says, How shall they call upon him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.

But what it says in verse 16, but have not all, excuse me, but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith the Lord who hath believed on, who hath believed on our report. So in verse 17, this is what you've memorized by heart, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God or the word of Christ depending upon what translation you have. And then 18, but I say, And here's where he repeats Psalm 19 verse 4, but I say, have they not all heard?

What's the answer? Now, in the context, it's talking about those who are going out preaching the gospel and the feet of them. But he goes back and he quotes Psalm 19 verse 4, which talks about creation, and he says, Have they not all heard? And the answer is what?

The answer is, yes, they've all heard. They have all heard the good news about God through creation. There's some good news that they've heard. It may not be the gospel of Christ, and it is not the gospel of Christ, but there's good news. There's good news to every man. And then he goes on to say, yes, really, their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world.

Now, I just want you to notice something. The word sound there is a Greek word which is Which is interesting. It's a sound that comes from an inanimate object. Can an inanimate object like a rock make a sound? Can inanimate things like stars and the moon and the sun and trees make a sound? Well, back in Psalm 91, it says their voice is like a voice. their line has gone out. And it's a universal language, everybody understands it, so it's like a sound. It's like a sound from an inanimate object.

So God speaks to man via the inanimate objects that he's made, which is creation. Okay, keep your finger in Romans 1 and also in Psalm 19. Now it's hard for me to do this up here, I've got a piece of paper. So, creation declares the glory of God, and the word declare means to announce, to announce the glory of God. So here's the next question.

When a person looks at creation, what aspects of God's glory can he or she see? You know what I mean. Can that person see God's love, and God's grace, and God's mercy, and God's kindness, His goodness, His gentleness, His compassion? Can a person look at the creation and see any of those aspects of God's glory? Say it with me. No. Okay. No. Cannot. But what can they see?

And Bob and Paul and this guy over here set it in terms of verse 20 in chapter 1 in Romans, right? So you're in Romans, but now I want you to flip back to chapter 1 from chapter 10 to chapter 1. And look at verse 20. For the invisible things of him, talking about God, and talking about the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world are clearly what? Seen. Hold it. How can you possibly see something that's invisible? I mean, so many people attack the Bible, and so many people say that it is not the Word of God. And by the way, let me just show you a mistake. How can people see invisible things? It says right here. The word see here. There's different words in the Greek for see. This particular word means to see by perception. You see something visibly, and then you perceive. You perceive something.

So mankind sees visibly the creation, and then he perceives something, and what he perceives He tells us in verse 20, not only does he perceive it, but it is clearly understood, being understood by the things that are made, everything creation. Even his eternal power in Godhead. So what are the two things that man can perceive? First he sees creation, then he perceives something. What does he perceive? What are the invisible things about God that he can perceive? He comes to a conclusion. His power, eternal power, his omnipotence, and what else? His divine nature. So those are the two things. Notice what the end of verse 20 says. So that man is what?

Without excuse. No man will ever come before the great white throne judgment and say, God, I didn't know. Or if you would have told me. Or he would have revealed that no man can ever say, I didn't know. Isn't that interesting? So, creation declares the glory of God. Now, here's the other thing in terms of why no man can say, I didn't know.

Look at verse 19 in Romans chapter 1. It says, because that which may be known of God, and the word there in the Greek is to emphatically know, is manifest in them. The word manifest means to make known or to make clear, to make perfectly clear, is manifest in them for God has shown it unto them. And what this is saying is this, that every single person on planet earth that was ever born has the knowledge of God within him or herself. Every single person knows God has made it known in every single person that there is a God.

So that when you look at archaeology, and on second Friday nights here there are archaeologists that come and speak, scientists, and one interesting observation is this, that they have never found a tribe anywhere in the world when they've excavated and dug up that didn't worship something or someone. Isn't that interesting? In every animal that they've ever dug up, they've never found any animal ever to worship anything. So I find that to be interesting. And why is that?

Because every man knows there is a God. Now they may have a wrong perception of who God is, and worship things that they shouldn't be worshipping, but if that person says in his or her heart, I know, I know there's a God, I know that there's an all-powerful God. Guess what? It's God's responsibility to get the message to that person, and He'll do it. Wherever they are. Middle of Africa, middle of wherever. Mark was down in Ecuador. Down in the middle of Ecuador. They have jungles down there, Mark? So whether there's tribes down there in the middle of Ecuador. Okay.

How about the knowledge of God? We're talking about the knowledge of God via general revelation. General revelation comes in two ways. It comes through creation. It comes through God imparting the personal knowledge of Himself within every single man. Now, we're talking about the knowledge of God via special revelation. And what do we mean by special revelation? Dr. Louis Barry Schaeffer, in that chapter, said something like this, that special revelation was given to a lot of men. God spoke to men in dreams, He spoke to men personally, etc. etc. And the Bible contains some of that special revelation.

I'd like to put it a little differently. We don't know. We don't know who God spoke to, when he spoke to them, unless it's recorded here. The only thing we know. So, special revelation other than his word. This is special revelation. So that's the definition I'd like to make, or maybe change a little, in terms of special revelation.

Now, keep your finger in Romans, and look at Psalm 19. When you get down to verse 7 in Psalm 19, and Roger went through this in a quick overview the first week, and he talked about, in verse 7, And he asks the question, what's another name for the Word of God?

And in verse 7, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, and notice the words here, the law, talking about the Word, is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony, another word for the Word of God. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes, another word for the word of God. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments, another word for the word of God. The commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. So you see, starting at verse 7, it talks about special revelation. So verses 1-6 talk about general revelation through the creation. verse 7 on talks about special creation.

So, we have it through the written word, and I've got 2 Timothy 3.16 down that all scripture is given by how? Inspiration of God, and it's profitable for what? I'm getting old, I can't hear you. It's proper for what? For doctrine, teaching, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.

So through special revelation, we get what God wants to reveal to us in terms of His purpose and His will. Okay, the other means of special revelation is the Living Lord. the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I don't want to go through all these scriptures, but if you'll turn to 1 John 5, verse 20. So forget about Romans 1 now, and just turn to 1 John 5, verse 20. Would someone read that for me? Okay, I'm going to read it. And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him.

That is true. And we are in Him, that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Equating God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the way that we come to know God, the way we come to know God is through the eternal time. passage in scripture which says that he exegetes, he reads out the Father, he reads out exactly who the Father is in terms of his essential essence, his holiness, his righteousness, the fact that he's just, the fact that he's omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and love and and compassion and grace and mercy and all the rest. The Lord Jesus Christ reads that out.

So we talked about, just to go back where we are, we're talking about what has God revealed? He's revealed the knowledge of God and He also reveals His eternal purpose. And when we take a look at the knowledge of God, how He's done it, He's done it through general revelation, He's done it through special revelation. Now we're going to take a look at God's eternal purpose. First of all, what is God's eternal purpose? Number two, how has He revealed it?

I think we said up front, that the way he has revealed his eternal purpose is not through general revelation, not through creation, but he's revealed it through special revelation, the written word, the living word. That's how he's revealed his eternal purpose. So now the question is, what is his eternal purpose? I'd like to summarize it in four ways. We take a look at His eternal purpose.

One is to declare His glory, as we saw in Psalm 19, to announce His glory to every living creature, and He does it via creation. And the other thing is, part of His eternal purpose, is to share that glory, so that when you go back to Genesis chapter 1, and God created the heavens and the earth in the first six days. On the sixth day, he created man. And what did he do with man? And what did the Godhead say? So you go back to Genesis 1 chapter, excuse me, verse 26 and 27, and God says, what?

What? Us? What? create man, how? In our image. And notice the plurality there, let us, plurality, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, let us create man in our, plural, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in our image and in our likeness. And so man has a likeness to God, a likeness image to God. He's not the exact image, he's not the exact representation of God, there is only one that is the exact image, and over in Colossians it tells us that the word Jesus Christ is the exact image, or the exact representation of God. So we are in likeness, so we have the capacity to love, we have the capacity to think. He's given us an intellect and a mind, and so he's given us many of those attributes that God has himself. So he shared his glory with Adam, and his very likeness with Adam. And why did God do that?

I want you, in your mind, to go back. By the way, you're not going to have any questions to answer this morning, so relax. I want you to go back before the creation of the world. What existed? The silence is deafening. Help me. What existed before the creation of the world?

God. He's eternal. And so you had the Godhead, you had the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? Fellowshiping in love for all eternity. And they declared back in eternity to create man, to bring man into that circle of love, and share their very glory with us, so that we can enter in. We can enter into that wonderful fellowship with the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. Isn't that incredible? I think that's incredible.

But then what happens? Who blew it? Adam blew it. And there was no more fellowship. There was separation. Total separation between Adam and Eve and the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Before that, they were walking in the cool of the day with the Lord. And I believe that when it says that, that it was the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ walking with them in the garden in the cool of the day. So they blew it. Now, question.

Did God's purpose get changed? Was God sitting on the edge of heaven saying, uh-oh, what do I do now? Was he biting his fingernails because The purpose that he designed Adam and Eve for now was thwarted in a way. So, was his eternal purpose... I mean, did anything change his eternal purpose? Nothing. His eternal purpose was still to share his glory with mankind.

But now, he had to do it a different way. Because now he had a different kind of creation, a different kind of creature. So what he had to do was make us a new creation. We had to make us a new creation. So then we find out that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? A new creation. His purpose didn't change.

And as a new creation, we can now have fellowship with and come into that circle of love with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not only that, you know what it says? That we are seated in the heavenlies with Him, at the right hand, at His right hand. That's where we are positionally, and we're blessed with every spiritual blessing. There's nothing more to add. it's been accomplished positionally. So his purpose didn't change, and he's doing that today, and he's sharing his glory. But the thing is this, we don't have a clue. We don't have a clue what that glory is.

So then he tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18, that that as we behold him as in a mirror, it goes, let me just quote it, all we, believers in Christ, all we, with unveiled face, no veil on our face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, are transformed into that very same image. from glory to glory, even by the Spirit."

So what that's saying is this, and the preceding verses is talking about Moses who put a veil on his face when he came down from the mount, his face was shining, right? And everybody seems to think that he put the veil on his face to cover up that glory. Uh-uh. When he put the veil on his face, He put the veil on his face because the glory was diminishing, and he didn't want anybody to see that glory diminishing. And then he went back into the tent, as you go back in the Old Testament, and he got recharged, and he came out, and the glory shone, took off the veil, and then as the glory faded, he put on the veil.

We, as believers in Christ, have no veil. And what God is saying, that he transforms us into that very same image, and as he does, that people see the person of Christ living his life through us. And he doesn't want any veil on his face, he wants the world to see the very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ through us. So, he shares his glory, he reveals his glory through the word of God, Old Testament, New And there is no other response that man can make but to glorify Him. That's the only response. When we understand what He's doing in His plan, there is no other response to say, Wow, Father, I honor You, I glorify You. Okay. In your handout, There are other things that I never got to, but you can look them over.

And the third question that I wanted to tackle was, okay, so now how do we know this? And the way we can know this, as I've indicated, is by is by studying the scripture, studying the word of God, and the word there, study, in the Greek means to be diligent. We are to be diligent in the word of God. As we are diligent in the word of God, then God is going to reveal who we are in Christ in His very glory. Let's pray.

Father, we are so thankful for your eternal purpose. Father, in terms of your patience with mankind, that you have revealed yourself to every man on the face of this planet. You've told us that when they knew God, when they knew you, they glorified you not as God, but became vain and empty in their imaginations and went off and worshipped other things, four-footed beasts, and other men. Father, how we thank you that you convicted us of that and that we have accepted your purpose and your plan for our lives that you have. Father, how we do thank you for bringing us into your very presence. through the Lord Jesus Christ, in his name we pray. Amen.