A Study in Psalms - Psalm 19, Part 1

Bruce MacLean
Transcript
Good evening and welcome back to our summer of Psalms. You'd turn your Bibles to Psalm 19. I know if Psalm 119 is the Mount Everest of the Psalms, Psalm 19 is K2. I think it's the second greatest Psalm maybe.
They're all great, but we have covered in the last four years, five years, almost 40 Psalms. But I've been waiting four years to tackle this one. It's so great and so grand. So let's look at Psalm 19.
Psalm 19, verse one says, "'The heavens declare the glory of God "'and the sky above proclaim his handiwork. "'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. "'Their voice goes out through all the earth "'and their words to the end of the world. "'In them 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. "'Its rising is from the end of the heavens "'and its circuit is to the end of them "'and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
"'The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. "'The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise is 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. "'Who can discern his errors, "'declare me innocent from hidden faults? "'Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. "'Let them not have dominion over me, "'that I shall be blameless and innocent "'of great transgression. "'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart "'be acceptable in your sight. "'O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.'" Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can open the word of God tonight. May you teach us from this psalm.
May we give you praise and glory. And Father, we just wanna uplift one of our members here, Juan Duran, who's gonna have open-heart surgery tomorrow, that you would be with him and the family, that it'd be a successful operation and that they could be back with us soon. So Father, as we study this word, may we leave here tonight knowing more of you and giving you the glory that only you deserve. In Jesus' name, amen. When we were children, I'm sure you remember the B-I-B-L-E, right? The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me.
I stand alone in the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. Now that I'm an old man and not a young boy, I have a new acronym for B-I-B-L-E. B-I-B-L-E stands for basic instructions before leaving earth. You got that? Basic instructions before leaving earth. It's very simple, right? Follow the basic instructions. When you leave earth, you'll go to heaven. But if you reject the basic instructions, you'll leave earth and spend eternity in hell. It's such a simple message, isn't it? At least it is for me. God is holy and man is sinful.
And God will not allow any sin into heaven, but God had a plan so that I would not die in my sins, that God would send his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for my sins. And that if I believe in him and put my faith and trust in him, I would have a way to go to heaven. It's such a simple message. But then I realized it's simple because God chose me. God elected me, he predestined me, he also gave me godly parents and godly pastors to show me the way, the truth, and life. But there's a group of people called atheists and they're increasing in numbers.
And the number of atheists is increasing alarmingly and I think it has something to do with social media. I try to follow a few pastors, some of them street preachers, some of them going to college campuses and debate. And there are a lot of videos out there attacking the Bible, attacking Christianity. And same thing, I was watching one this week, it was a Muslim man saying that Jesus never claimed to be God and that is such a lie. They were to stone him quite a few times because he claimed to be God.
But so much of it is just lies. But these young generation of millennials, college kids, believe the lies and they love their sin and they won't read the Bible, they won't look at the Bible.
So I thought I'd read a story today. It's called Swimming with a Shark about an atheist. I don't think it's true, but it could be. There was an atheist swimming in the ocean and suddenly he saw a shark in the water. The atheist started swimming towards the boat. As he looked back, the atheist saw the shark turn its head toward him. The atheist started swimming faster and faster and he was scared to death. Just then he turned his head to see the jaws of the great white beast open up, revealing its teeth.
In horror, the atheist screamed, oh God, save me. In an instant, time was frozen and a bright light shone down from heaven. The man was motionless in the water and he heard the voice of God say, you are an atheist. Why do you call upon me when you do not believe in me? Aghast with confusion and knowing he couldn't lie, the man replied, well, that's true. I don't believe in you, but how about the shark? Can you make the shark believe in you? The Lord replied, as you wish. And the light retracted back into the heavens.
The man could feel the water begin to move once again. He looked back to see the jaws of the shark start to close down on him when all of a sudden the shark stopped and pulled back. Shocked, the man looked at the shark as the huge beast closed its eyes and bowed its head and said, thank you, Lord, for this food for which I am about to receive. Now, if God can make a donkey talk into Balaam, I'm sure he can make a shark pray, right? Atheism denies the truth that God exists. They actually know the truth, but they suppress it.
Psalms 14.1, you know that, says the fool, the fool in his heart says there is no God. Psalms 10.4, we'll look at Psalms 10 in a couple of weeks.
In his pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. Our Psalm tonight, along with other scriptures, clearly shows us that so-called atheists are without excuse, but so are agnostics and everyone who rejects the gospel. Even those who have not heard the gospel, God has given them two revelations, natural revelation, which we'll look at tonight, and special revelation, which we'll look at next week.
It is Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, who said Psalm 19 is the greatest poem and one of the greatest lyrics in the world, as it contains the clearest summary of the doctrine of revelation to be found in the Old Testament, namely that God has made himself known to all mankind as his creator. Several things about this Psalm. It clearly impacted the Apostle Paul. We'll look at Romans 1 later, and it's clear that when Paul is writing Romans 1, he has Psalms 19 in mind.
In fact, Paul will quote Psalms 19, verse 4 in Romans 10, verse 18. There's two sections. Verse 1 to 6 speaks about God speaking through his created world, and verses 7 to 14, which we'll look at next week, God speaks through his written word.
Some people call it natural revelation and special revelation. Other people call it the world book and the word book. Other people call it the skies and the scriptures, or the big book, the universe, and the little book, the Bible. It's interesting, in verses 1 to 6, you notice the name of God was only mentioned once, and that's the name Elohim.
Yet next week, when we look at verses 7 to 14, the name of God will be mentioned seven times, and that name will be Yahweh, and we'll talk more about that.
It's also interesting, if you look at it, it won't take a lot of time tonight, but verses 1 to 6, notice that most of the verses have three lines, longer lines, right?
But verses 7 to 14, they're very short, just simple two sentence lines. There is a superscription in this Psalm. Talked briefly about it two weeks ago. When you read the Psalm, look for the superscription, 116 of the 150 Psalms have them, and you may not have cared much about them, but they're important because they tell us who the author is, and most important, if there's a historical setting. Like, we'll look at Psalm 4 in a couple weeks, and it tells us, and I believe that's when Absalom rebelled and David was fleeing.
So a lot of them have to do with musical instruments. So we don't get a lot of information about the superscription tonight. It just says the choir master, a Psalm of David. So we know David wrote it. This Psalm, the placement of this Psalm is in Book 1. Book 1 is Psalm 1 to 41, and David wrote 37 of the 41 Psalms in Book 1, including the one tonight we'll look at.
And Book 1 of Psalms emphasizes worshiping God as the creator, and that's important for our Psalm tonight. It's a praise Psalm, or a thanksgiving Psalm. So let's get into it. I hope you have an outline. We're gonna look at six things tonight about God's glory.
So tonight, we're gonna look at God's glory in His world, verses one to six, six points. Let's look at number one.
His glory in creation is unmistakable. We have this great verse here. "'The heavens declare the glory of God, "'and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.'" The God of the universe says there is a declaration and a proclamation. A declaration that the heavens, that would be the sun, moon, and stars, and a proclamation that the skies, that would be the clouds, the weather, the atmosphere, proclaim His handiwork. It says that they declare the glory of God. The Gospel Coalition defines the glory of God as His magnificence, His worth, His loveliness, and grandeur of His many perfections, which He displays in His creative and redemptive acts in order to make His glory known to those in His presence.
The heavens publish a very noticeable revelation that's not hidden. God's glory is unmistakable. The psalmist is David, and you could think of David sitting out watching the sheep in the fields night after night, looking at the stars, looking at the constellations, looking at the sun by day. They witnessed the existence of their creator. Moreover, they witnessed His glory. Every man and woman, child in the world, no matter where they are, what country, north to south, east to west, can see the glory of God in its full majesty displayed throughout the world and universe, wherever they live.
Atheists can deny the existence of God, but God wants people to know first, in fact, that He's a creator God.
From the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1, God wants everyone to know He's a creator God. Genesis 1, 1 says, in the beginning, God, that's Elohim, created the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 1, 1 to Genesis 2, 4, this is the name of God used 32 times, Elohim. So that's the same name for God we have in Psalms 19, verse one. Psalm 33, six says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth, all their host. Psalms 95, six says, oh, come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Psalm 121 says, I will lift mine eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth. Few weeks ago, John Aker was here, and he mentioned Psalm 104. Psalm 104 is just an entire psalm about creation. Psalm 134, three says, may the Lord bless you from Zion. He who made the heaven and the earth. There's so many in the psalms. I'll go to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 10, 12 says, it is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding, stretched out the heavens.
Isaiah 40, 28 says, have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. Isaiah 45, 18 says, for thus says the Lord who created the heavens. He is God who formed the earth and made it. He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited. So the Bible is very clear that God is first known as Elohim, the creator God.
And the existence of creation implies that it has a creator. God's glory is unmistakable. His handiwork is on display. Think about where you have seen God's glory in its most magnificence. My wife and I, we love to go to national parks when we can, and our favorite park is Death Valley. When I talk to a lot of you people here about have you been to Death Valley, you know what y'all say? We drove through it. That's what everybody says, like it's a race, or you think you're gonna die. You know, I know it's 110 today, but just because a bunch of pioneers died a long time ago, they called it Death Valley.
And a lot of the places you go have like devil stockpile, or Dante's have these devil names, but it's majestic. Next time you drive through it, stop at the Mesquite Sand Dunes, and you can literally surf the sand dunes. It's just beautiful. Then you can go up to Dante's viewpoint, about 4,000 to 5,000 feet, and look over the incredible valley for hundreds of miles. Then you can go to Badwater, which I think is the lowest point in the United States and the hottest place on Earth, and it has salt flats there.
And then there's a neat place called the Devil's Golf Course. It's not a golf course, but it looks like the moon landscape. And then there's a place called the Golden Canyon. But if there's only one place you go to in Death Valley, go to the Artist's Pallet. It's about 20-minute drive, and the mountains are red, orange, yellow, white, just magnificent. God's glory is unmistakable. God's glory is on display in Death Valley, but it's also in the oceans. We sang about, Psalm 148, the rivers, the streams, the brooks, the mountains, the hills, the valleys, the deserts, the skies, the clouds, the lightning.
To the remotest part of the universe, it's unmistakable. So look at verse two. His glory and creation is unceasing. Not only is it unmistakable, it's unceasing. It says, day to day pours out speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. From the beginning in Genesis 1, when God said he created the heavens and the earth, God's glory is unceasing. It never stops. God's glory is unceasing and continuous, not just a little bit, but the image here, that metaphor, pours out speech, is a picture of a gushing spring that continuously pours out God's glory.
If you believe in a literal new earth, maybe 6,000 years old, maybe up to 10,000 years, there's never been a moment in the history of the earth or in the history of the human race when the heavens were not testifying to us about the glory of God. Every individual part of nature testifies to its creator. If you look at the stars, they testify to a God of great power who made them.
If you study the human body, you'll find that the body testifies to an all-wise creator. The more one looks at the heavens, the more one looks at the earth, the more one looks at the human body or the animals, they gush forth in knowledge. It's unceasing. Number three, his glory in creation is unspoken.
Verse three says, there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. The message here is not conveyed through actual words, which can be heard. It's a nonverbal communication. God's glory is like a soundless sermon, one pastor said. The universe may not have a language of lip, but it's not speechless. Though it's voiceless, it's silent eloquently. And the testimony of the silent witness is heard day and night continually, one author said. The entire universe is covered in the handiwork of God.
Turn with me to Psalm 29. We looked at this Psalm, I think in 2002, but Psalm 29 talks about the glory of God too. And it says ascribed, Psalm 29 says, ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, those are the angels, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. And in seven times now, it's gonna say the voice. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Suriyan like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. At his temple, all cry glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace. When you look at the voice of the Lord, it causes us to be overwhelmed by the power of his presence that we literally, the psalmist says, should shout out glory.
One author said creation is a wordless book that everybody can read because it needs no translation. God speaks through creation day after day, night after night. His speech pours out silently, abundantly, and universally. His glory is unmistaken. His glory is unceasing, and his glory is unspoken. And number four, his glory in creation is universal. It says that verse four, first part of verse four, their voice goes throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
I'm sure some of you have a different translation. If you have an NASB or a New King James or an LSB, it says instead of the voice goes out, it says their line has gone out. Probably a better translation because when you see that it says their line has gone out, it reminds you of Jeremiah 31, 39, which says the measuring line shall go out farther. So God has measured out the earth. His voice has measured out the entire earth. There's nowhere it doesn't go. From the east to the west, north to the south, every corner of the earth, there's no language or culture where God isn't speaking.
This is the verse that the apostle Paul quotes in Romans 10, verse 18. And I'll just read Romans 10, 18. Romans 10, 18 says, "'But I ask, have they not heard?' Paul's talking about the Jews. Have they heard? And he says, indeed they have. And then he quotes Psalm 19, verse four. Their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the end of the world. So what Paul uses Psalms 19, four is to prove that the nation of Israel could not say they had never heard God's message because God says the whole world has heard my message.
So both Jews and Gentiles are guilty before God and they need to be saved through faith in Christ. You remember when Paul preached the gospel to the pagan nations? If you have time, turn with me to Acts 14.
Acts 14. When we share the gospel in India, Thailand, we don't have a common story of creation. So we do what Paul did when he was in Lystra. And you know the story in Acts 14, verse eight, there was a man sitting and he was crippled from birth and he couldn't walk and Paul's speaking and he notices the man is listening intently. So Paul says in verse 10 in a loud voice, stand up on your feet. And the man sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what they'd done, these are not Jews now, they're Gentiles, they're pagans.
They don't know anything about the Old Testament, right? So these people say the gods have come down and they wanna give sacrifices to Barnabas who they called Zeus and Paul Hermes. So when you get to verse 14, Paul and Barnabas, they tear their garments, they rushed out in the crowd and listen to what they say. Verse 15, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of nature like you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that's in them.
In past generations, he's allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them. So Paul is very clear there that they have no excuse. They need to turn from vain things, idols, turn to the living God who created the heavens and the earth. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, doth not all nature around me praise God?
If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Does not the thunder praise him as it rolls like drums in the march of God's armies? Do not the mountains praise him when the woods upon the summits wave in adoration? Doth not the lightning write his name in the letters of fire? Hath not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I be silent? Behind the universe, we see a designer, we see a planner, a great and wise, infinite God of power and might. So his glory in creation is universal.
Number five, his glory in creation is undiminished, is undiminished. In a couple of minutes, we will look at three metaphors for the sun.
The sun has been called the crowning achievement in God's creation. Henry Morris, who said, the greatest works of God in the physical universe, as far as the earth is concerned, is the sun. So what does a man say about the sun? Man says the sun is the largest object in our solar system. Its diameter is about 865,000 miles. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the bigger planets to the smallest bits of debris in orbit around it. The sun is about 100 times wider than the earth and about 10 times wider than Jupiter, the biggest planet.
The sun is the only star, now I'll come back to that, in our solar system. It's the center of our solar system and its gravity holds the solar system together. Everything in our solar system revolves around the sun, the planets, the asteroids, the comets, even space debris. The sun is made of super hot, electrically charged gas called plasma. The plasma rotates at different speeds on different parts of the sun. At its equator, the sun completes one rotation in 25 earth days. At its poles, the sun rotates once on its axis every 36 days.
The part of the sun we see from earth, the part we call the surface, is called the photosphere. The sun actually doesn't have a solid surface because it's a ball of plasma. The temperature in the sun core is about 27 million degrees, hot enough to sustain nuclear fission. From our vantage point on earth, the sun may appear like an unchanging source of light and heat in the sky, but the sun is a dynamic star, constantly changing and sending energy out into space. The science and study of the sun and its influence throughout the solar system is called heliophysics.
So that's what man says about the sun, and maybe they're right in some things, but what does the Bible say about the sun? The Bible never calls the sun a star. In fact, it's quite clear, and let me give you some verses, that show that God has the sun and the stars segregated into different places.
In Genesis 1, it says, verse 16, God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. And then in Deuteronomy 4.19, it says, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun, the moon, and the stars. Second Kings 23.5 says, talking about they were burning incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, and to the constellations would be the stars.
Psalm 148, we just sang the song. Praise him, sun, moon, praise him, all stars of light. Ecclesiastes 12.2 says, before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened. Joel 2.10 says, the sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. Jesus said in Matthew 24, but immediately after the tribulation in those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky. In Luke 21, he says, and there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.
First Corinthians 15.41 says, there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.
And there's others, a lot of them, I won't keep reading them, there's so many of them, but let's look at the three metaphors now.
It says, if David here, we have metaphors of a tent, a bridegroom, and a strong champion. It says, if David is describing the sun as God's crowning achievement in creation, and he's gonna paint an unforgettable scene on the horizon, exploding in vigorous, radiant sunrise. So first off, he says, like a tent.
Now, commentators debate exactly what this means, but it probably means that the sun, when it's, at the end of the day, like now, it's going back into the tent, where it hides. And then in the morning, when the sun comes up, it comes out of the tent. I think that's the best explanation. Then he says, it's like a bridegroom. You know, David was a shepherd boy, and he must have watched the sunrise, the sunset, many, many days. And it reminds him now, as an older man, of a groom, excited to leave his house, or marriage pavilion, to go claim his bride.
It speaks of glory as a groom, and that groom would be richly undressed, like when the sun comes over the sunset. And lastly, he says, like a strong champion, runs its course with joy. David compares the sun to a strong athlete, running his race, it speaks of power and determination. So all three of these metaphors convey the idea of strength, energy, and physical joy. You know, we just had the eclipse a few months ago, and the sun is so powerful, you can't look at it.
You had to have those special glasses, right? And I'm sure most of you have gotten up early, one time in your life, to see the sunset, right? I think for me, the most exciting one was on my honeymoon to Maui. We went up to that volcano, and you got up at like 1.45 in the morning, and I actually froze my tonsils, and came back sick from my honeymoon. But when that sun comes up over that volcano, it's so spectacular. You can't wait, and there's 500 cameras clicking. It's just, you know, you ought to shout glory.
It speaks of his glory, and you can imagine the bridegroom, the strong man, excited with love and anticipation. God's glory in creation is undiminished. You know, it's amazing to think that someday, the sun is gonna be gone. In Revelation 21 to 22 and 23, it says, and I saw no temple in the city. This is a new heaven and the new earth. For its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And then Revelation 21, 23 says, and the city has no need of the sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
So someday, there's not gonna be a sun. Because the now-veiled glory of God, we see glory is God now, but someday, it's gonna be put on full display. I think we get a glimpse of this when you read the story of the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus took three of his disciples up to the mountain. It says, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, his brother, and he led them up to the high mountain. I'm reading from Matthew 17. And it says, and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun.
His clothes became white as light. He was still speaking to them. Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son, and who I'm well-pleased, listen to him. So Jesus, in his humanity, unveiled his flesh, and the disciples got a glimpse of that glory. And it says, it was bright like the sun. His clothes became white. So when you think about that, now think about God the Father someday. He doesn't even need the sun. He's gonna avail his glory in all might, and there won't be any need for the sun, and that's gonna be a great day.
And number six, God's glory in creation is unresting. It says it rises from one end of the heavens, and it's circuit to the end of them. The sun always obeys its creator. The sun is always rising and setting. You know, science says, how long can the sun continue to exist? They say the sun is a star, I disagree, but it says stars like our sun burn for about nine or 10 billion years. So our sun is about halfway through its life, but don't worry, it still has about five billion more years to go, but I don't believe that.
Ecclesiastes 1.5 says the sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. Psalm 113.3 says from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. All the talk about climate control and change, and the end of the world is gonna come in 12 years is just plain garbage. God is in control. The sun will rise and fall as it has for six to 10,000 years, and it will continue until that great day when our creator God makes a new heaven and a new earth without the sun.
Nothing is hidden from its heat, it says, in verse six. Nothing can escape the heat of the sun, and nothing can hide from our creator. In the writer's study Bible, there's a note that says, even a blind man can feel the heat of the sun. I was thinking about this. Tom Mason tells the story, when we went to Uganda, the mission trips, you don't go house to house, you go hut to hut, and when they come out in the morning, we would go out and all the men would be like facing the sun, standing like this, and what are you doing?
And we'd ask them, we're warming up. That's how they warm up in the morning. They just sit there for 15 to 20 minutes and let the sun warm their body before they go off to work. But verse six is a very interesting way to finish when it says there's nothing hidden from its heat. Heat is the last word that we have tonight in our message, and it's an interesting way to end because the sentence there, there's nothing hidden from the heat, links the witness of physical creation, verses one to six, to the witness of the word of God, verses seven to 14, which we'll look at next week.
For the scriptures are likewise full of heat. They're penetrating, they're warming, and life-giving while also searching, testifying, and purifying. You know the verse, Hebrews 4, 12 to 13, says for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of whom to whom we must give an account.
This is the meaning of glory in Psalm 19, a revelation of God's existence and power, so great that it should lead every human being on earth to seek God out, to worship him, but we do not do so, do we? Apart from God's special revelation, which we'll look at next week, there would be no hope.
Human nature in its sinfulness actually suppresses the truth of God's natural revelation by denying his existence altogether. As a result of this, the wrath of God has been revealed for us suppressing the truth. So just a few applications tonight. One, God has made himself known to mankind in two ways, natural revelation and special revelation. You could say the world and the world. Natural revelation we see in creation. Creation testifies to God's existence and to his power. There's no conflict between natural revelation and special revelation.
We'll talk more about that next week. As some scientists, some atheists would say there is. Spurgeon wrote, he who is wisest, who reads both the world book and the word book as two volumes of the same work and feels concerning them, my father wrote them both. What does natural revelation teach us? It teaches us that God exists, that God is eternal, that God is all powerful. God will judge those who reject him. Nature, like scripture, points us to God, but it's not itself God. Nature is the bearer of the message.
And then secondly, turn to Romans chapter one. We turn to this quite often, Pastor Lance does, because it's such an important passage and it speaks to our times and our culture today. But when you read Psalm 19, you can't help but read Romans 1, 18 to 22, can you? Because I think Romans 1, 18 to 22 is the commentary and the results of Psalm 19 when you reject it. So when the Apostle Paul wrote Romans 1, 18 to 23, he probably had Psalm 19 in mind. And it says in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Very important. They know there's a truth, they know there's a God, but they suppress the truth living in their sin and they suppress it. Verse 19 says, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his internal power, divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since creation of the world in the things that have been made. And what are the next five words? So they are without excuse. Verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, nor give thanks to him.
But becoming futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God, the glory of the mortal God, for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. You know, I can't help but think of that. I spent six, seven years in India and they worship the cow there. When you get your eyes off the creator, you start worshiping the creation. They not only worship the cow, they worship 300 or 30 million different gods.
They would just say Jesus is another God, but they worship the cow as a God because they refuse to look at creation and its beauty.
Number three, a question was put to John MacArthur recently and the question was at one of his question and answer sessions if you watch them.
It said, someone came up and asked John MacArthur, are all Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Catholics who live a good life condemned to hell? And he answered it this way. The answer to that question is from the word of God is that they will all perish in hell. The only way to heaven is through salvation through Jesus Christ. Acts 4.12 says, and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus said, you will die in your sins to the Jewish leaders because you do not believe in me.
John 3.16 says, whosoever believes in him shall not perish. There's only one heaven and only one way into heaven and that is through faith in Jesus Christ and all who perish without the knowledge of Christ die in their sins and go everlastingly into hell. Now the degree of punishment in hell will vary but what makes it vary is not the goodness of the person because no person is good before God. Only God is good. Jesus said, no personal work is good enough to earn heaven. The only difference in hell will be that people who heard about Jesus Christ and rejected him will have a greater punishment than the people who never heard about him.
They will all be punished but those who knew about Christ and did not receive Christ will have a greater punishment. So are people lost who've never heard about Jesus? Two questions to that answer. One, yes, they are lost because God speaks to them all day long and they refuse to listen.
If you're an unbeliever, you are responsible for what God shows you in the skies have been telling you since the day you were born. You ought to worship God. We read Romans 1.20 that says his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that they are without excuse. Creation cries out for his creator but the Hindus in India, they don't look at the creator.
They look at creatures and worship them. Other religions worship idols, stones and sticks and things. And I'm convinced that if you, now I'll talk more about it next week but natural revelation cannot lead you to salvation. It can only point you to the direction. But if you look at natural revelation and know there's a creator and you seek him, I believe you'll be found I am.
Proverbs 8.35 verse 36 says, for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who fails to find me injures himself and all who hate me love death. And Isaiah 55, six and seven says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. So number one, yes, they will perish in hell.
Number two, what are you or we doing about it? Well, I'm honored to be a former missionary of Christ Community Church and Christ Community Church is all about missions. In exactly 30 days from now, we'll send 17 people down to Ecuador. And Saturdays, the first Saturday, third Saturday, we go into parks.
We have women who do prison ministry. We have some who go into the Azusa schools to do release time. We have the Spanish ministry here in West Covina. We support pastors in Argentina, Ecuador, Russia, Uganda, and we're training pastors in Myanmar. So Christ Community Church is doing something about getting the message across to the people. And lastly, I thought I'd just make a point and not go off on a tangent about it, but, and I'll mention more about this next week, the attack on Christianity in the Bible continues.
In 1 Corinthians 1.19, Paul quotes Isaiah 29.14, and he says, God says, "'It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise "'and the discernment of the discerning.
"'I will thwart. "'Where is the one who is wise? "'Where is the scribe? "'Where is the debater of this age? "'Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? "'For since the wisdom of God, "'the world did not know God through wisdom. "'It pleased God through the folly of what we preach "'to save those who believe.'" So today, you turn on the TV, and maybe it's Al Gore, maybe it's Gavin Newsom, maybe it's John Kerry, maybe it's that Greta girl over in Europe, and they talk about climate change, they talk about global warming, and then it's all part of the worship of nature, people worshiping nature.
So when you see that, I want you to remember Psalms 19, verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of his hands, and they will continue to display that glory until that great day when God makes a new heaven and a new earth. We Christians should glory in God's natural revelation, and even more in his special revelation, which we'll look at next week.
Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can begin to look at the first six verses of Psalm 19. And we, as people who live in the United States, are especially blessed with over 400 national parks. We have beauty here in Southern California, unlike many places in the United States. The mountains, the ocean's so close, Death Valley's so close, Joshua Tree's so close. Father, your glory is in nature, your glory is in creation, your glory is in the human body. It's displayed everywhere, and men are without excuse.
So, Father, we thank you for displaying your glory, and we long for that day when we're in heaven and we'll see the full glory, the full majesty of the glory of God in heaven. But until that day, give us chances to share Christ using creation evangelism, going from the beginning, that God created the heaven and the earth perfect, but man chose to sin, but God had a plan to send his son. Give us chances to share Christ with people, knowing that if they reject the gospel, they'll be held in a higher degree of punishment in hell, and give us chances to go throughout the world that people who haven't heard.
We praise you because people in the most part of the world have the internet now, and they can read about the Bible. We praise you that the New Testament is in 95% of the languages of the world that people can read. We praise you that the gospel has gone, I think, every country in the world. So, Father, your glory is on display through natural revelation, and may there be preachers, missionaries, teachers, evangelists, and us, as we leave here today, tell people about the special revelation, and see people come to saving faith.
Thank you for allowing us to look at your word tonight. May you take us all safely home and bring us back this Sunday. In Jesus' name, amen.