How God Reveals Himself

Psalm 8:1-4, Job 38:1-7,33-37

The word "revelation" means revealing, God has revealed himself.    Something that you wouldn't have found out by your own methods, that is what revelation means.  The doctrine of revelation is the doctrine that tells us that God reveals himself.   This revelation of God is absolutely essential for without God revealing himself to us we would never come to know him.  Man by his own abilities can never find out God.  By our own mind or intellect, we could never know or discover God because God is not subject to our tests and our methods.  God does not put himself under our microscope to be investigated.  He is not an object to be inspected by great men, he is above and beyond us.   By nature an object to be inspected must be lower than the one inspecting it.  That is why you can inspect an ant but the ant can't inspect you.   Without God revealing himself to us in two main ways, we would be completely in the dark about God.  But Praise the Lord, he has condescended to reveal himself to humanity.   It is general revelation and special revelation.  Let us not forget that for God to reveal himself is needed  Isaiah 40:28 "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding."  Man cannot come to understand God without revelation.  Job was asked in Job 11:7 "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfections?"  No.  Humans are completely shut in to what God reveals.  Everything we know about God we know because he has revealed it to us.

General Revelation:  God reveals himself generally, in a general way to everybody, to all mankind.  Externally and internally.  External revelation is this:  God has seen fit to leave his fingerprints upon the creation, like we do if we are making something of wood or metal.  The creation of the world, the planets, God has left his fingerprints in the creation.  The detail and complexity of the universe is amazing.  So complicated, man could not make a leaf because these things call for a designer.  God tells us that from the creation, the outward creation,  people can see that there is a God.  This is external revelation. Psalm 8:3-4 "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?....."   When the psalmist studied the sun and the moon, it made him think naturally about God, when, not if.  It is taken for granted that God's people would be interested in his creation.  The heavens declare the glory of God, the earth shows his handiwork.  There is a creator, there is a designer.  There is no human being that has any excuse for not believing in God.  Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.."  Created beings fully and clearly see and understand that there is a God, and so they are without excuse. 

Internal revelation: man has built in religion, he is God conscious by nature, God has placed eternity in the heart of man.  Everybody knows that there is a God.   But it's not enough to lead us to a saving knowledge of the true God, because even man with his intellectual capacity cannot find the true God.  They need special revelation.  When Paul was preaching on Mar's hill (Acts 17:19-31) he spoke of the unknown God, the true God.  Human knowledge admits that there is a God, but true knowledge of God, has to be specially revealed.    


Special Revelation or direct revelation: not only has God left his fingerprints in his creation and in our conscience, but God has revealed himself to his prophets and apostles in old and new testament.  He revealed himself to them though audible words, through theophany, through miracles, dreams and visions.  The Hebrew word for revelation means utterance or declaration.  God has specially revealed himself to his people.  He came to us, he communicated with people.  This revelation of God was of course culminated in Jesus Christ because it says Hebrews 1:1-2 "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom  he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"   Jesus reveals God.  He is the peak of direct revelation.  God's special revelation is now contained in the bible.  This is how we know about the Lord Jesus.  The scriptures of the old and new testaments are God's special revelation of himself to us, we come to know Christ through the scripture, the inspired written records which are now complete, written by God's prophets and apostles.  God has preserved his word through all the years.  2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:.."  Scripture is God's words, God's special revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is now complete.  Jesus is now in  heaven and the next revelation of God will be when Jesus returns.  The only way that God continues to reveal himself is in the scriptures, anything else is your own opinion.  Not one word is to be added or taken away from the scriptures, all God wants us to know about him has been revealed.  Concerning those who feel that in the area of special revelation, God still directly speaks to people,  if private revelations agree with scripture, they are needless.  If they disagree with scripture, they are false.  It's not complicated, there is no such thing as God directly speaking with you.

What is God's purpose in general revelation:  why has God bothered to reveal himself to us generally and directly?  This is the totally amazing and staggering bit and yet it is so simple.  Almighty God decided to reveal himself to man because God wants us to know him.  That is it.  He reveals himself that we can know God.  Sinners can know God.  Paul said "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.:"  Do you know him?  Really?  Not just about him.  Even when we consider God's greatness, it is even more amazing then to know that such a God wants us to know him.  To know a thing is easy, to know a mountain you climb it, to know a book you read it.  Normally our knowledge of things comes by inspection and exploration but we cannot inspect God nor master God.   To know God, the infinite, unchanging God, can you think of anybody more complex?  Father,Son and Holy Spirit, it is complicated.  Knowing God, therefore is totally dependent upon how much he reveals himself to us.  How do we look at what he has revealed?  It shows us that God became flesh and dwelt among men.  Why?  what is the purpose of the incarnation?  Why did God become flesh?  John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."   The purpose of direct revelation at its epiphany in Jesus Christ is that we might know God.  God wants us to know him.  How do we know him?

Listen to God's word and receive it as the Holy Spirit interprets it.

Note as you are reading God's word, the character and nature of God as he reveals himself in his word and works.

Accept his invitation and do what he commands

Recognize and rejoice in his love shown to us in approaching us and drawing us into fellowship.

Do you know him?  do you know God?  if you don't know God you have missed the whole purpose of Jesus Christ coming to earth.  We must trust in Christ therefore that we might know God.
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The notes above were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1029128474210