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[0:00] Oh, we're beginning a new study in our class this morning, and the book is God's Words Studies in Key Bible Themes by J.I. Packer.

[0:13] Ed, what is the title of the new reprint? Eighteen words. Eighteen words, all right. God's words, the reprint is eighteen words. J.I. Packer is no stranger to us.

[0:24] We've studied in this class his book, Knowing God. And Packer himself introduces us to his book in this way. He says, keys open doors.

[0:37] Key words open minds and through minds, hearts. This book takes key words from the Bible, terms we may truly say from God's own vocabulary, and spells out in a practical way some of the main thoughts linked with them.

[0:55] The goal is understanding, faith, and wisdom. So, he gives a chapter each to a word of God, one of his own words.

[1:09] And these become summary statements, summary studies of key words that we find in the Bible, key doctrines, key teachings. And I don't know that we'll just go beginning to end right through the 17 chapters, but we'll perhaps be a bit selective in our study.

[1:30] The first chapter, then, is on the biblical word revelation. Revelation. The shorter word reveal.

[1:43] What does that mean? To reveal something. To make known. To make known.

[1:55] The idea is to uncover something that was not known, that was hidden. Picture a sculpture, a sculptor who has worked for years on some sculpture to be donated to the town square.

[2:16] And he's had it in his workshop at home, and it's finished now. And so he throws a blanket over it, a veil over it, and it's transported then to the town square.

[2:26] And on the day appointed, there is an unveiling. And all gather, and then the sheet is pulled off, and everyone now sees this sculpture.

[2:40] What was hidden is now made known. It's revealed. That's the idea behind the work, or this word, revelation.

[2:50] In revelation, God is unveiling something. He's pulling back the curtain and bringing into the open things which before were out of our sight.

[3:03] He's causing us and enabling us to see what up to that point we could not see. So it's a wonderful thing to think that the creator God actually reveals himself to us.

[3:18] That he takes us into his confidence and shares his thoughts, his secrets with us. Things that no one else would know. We ourselves would not know unless he had told us.

[3:30] He finds us ignorant, and he gives us knowledge. He finds us in the dark, and he gives us light. So, revelation.

[3:44] What does God reveal? Well, in a word, himself. His revelation is primarily self-disclosure.

[3:57] He's going to open up and share with us things about himself that we wouldn't otherwise know. And all that we might know him and have a personal relationship with him.

[4:12] To know God. This is eternal life. To know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So, that's his purpose in revealing himself to us. That we might know him.

[4:23] Now, how does he make himself known to us? If you're a stranger to me, how do you make yourself known to me? Well, you talk to me.

[4:35] And you speak words. And so does God. And I only know as much about you as you reveal, as you uncover to me, as you tell me about yourself.

[4:47] The more you talk, the more I know about you. And so God unveils himself by talking to us and telling us about his past works.

[4:59] He tells us how this world got here. He tells us about creation. We never would have known that had he not spoken. He tells us about how he rules over all things. And how he's bringing his plan to fulfillment.

[5:11] He tells us he's got a plan. He's telling us about his future work. The climax of history. Where's this world going? Where's history going?

[5:23] It's not just cycling round and round forever. No, there's a climax. Jesus Christ will return. And a whole new age will begin.

[5:33] He's sharing these things with us that we otherwise would never know. He shares his values. He teaches us the things he loves. He hates. What he's promised. What he's warned us about.

[5:45] And the more he speaks, the more we know. Now, God's revelation is personal then. It's about himself. Some think that men, by grasping after God, can come to understand God.

[6:05] That, indeed, the Bible is just man's thoughts about this God. And so, the directional arrow in their minds of the Bible is upward.

[6:17] The Bible is man's thought about what God is like. But the Bible says that's not true at all. Rather, the Bible tells us that man, by his wisdom, did not know God.

[6:28] So, man couldn't reach up and find God out. So, God revealed himself to man. It must be that way if we cannot know him by ourselves.

[6:38] So, the directional arrow on revelation is downward. God is revealing himself and talking about himself to man. So, it's personal. God reveals himself.

[6:50] It's propositional. It comes in the form of truth statements, words of human language. Hence, the study of God's words is something worth giving ourselves to because God has revealed himself in words to us.

[7:07] The emergent church that is growing in popularity today has this idea that God is so transcendent. He's so far beyond us that words really aren't sufficient to even reveal anything about him.

[7:22] So, we really don't know much about this God. I mean, who are you to say that you think you understand what these words mean? So, God is beyond us so much that we can't even really know anything about him definitively.

[7:37] No, no. He has chosen to reveal himself in human language. He's given us his words. And so, we can know him. So, Packer takes us through this study of revelation in terms of couplets.

[7:51] It's two joined together. And the first couplet then is that revelation is personal and propositional. It's about himself and its propositional statements, truth statements that we find in Scripture.

[8:08] Then he takes us to the Old and New Testament. That's the next couplet. Think about revelation in terms of Old and New Testament. The Bible follows the trail of God speaking to men.

[8:24] In the Old Testament, we find him talking directly to Adam, don't we? And Eve, and then to Cain, and to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, and the prophets.

[8:36] God is revealing himself. And the Bible tracks that revelation of God to man. God is someone who speaks to men. Now, we might draw the wrong conclusion from that and think that God spoke to everyone in the Old Testament directly.

[8:54] No, in fact, it was a very select group. It was usually those who had some important role to fill in the unfolding drama of God's plan of redemption. But most of the people of God in the Old Testament never heard God's voice directly to them like the prophets did.

[9:12] So, rather, God committed his words to the prophets. That's important for us to understand. There's two Hebrew words for prophets. One means seer.

[9:25] The other means spokesman. And together they give us the double role of the prophet. He is, first of all, a seer. He's someone who sees something, who receives revelation from God.

[9:36] Hears it or sees it. Sometimes God not only spoke to men, but sometimes he gave them visions in which they saw things that God was revealing. Hence, a seer.

[9:48] But they are ones who received revelation from God. Amos 3.7. Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.

[9:59] There's that word. Revealing, without disclosing his plan to his servants, the prophets. Jeremiah 23 warns against the false prophets.

[10:12] Which of them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? The problem was they were saying to Israel, this is what the Lord says.

[10:25] And then what tumbled out of their lips was nothing at all what the Lord had said. Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord truly and has seen or heard his word?

[10:37] Well, the true prophets to whom God revealed himself. So a prophet is a seer. They receive revelation from God. But then they are also a spokesman.

[10:49] Because his role was to tell to God's people what God had said. So first to see it, to receive it, and then to tell it.

[11:02] Jeremiah 1.9. God says to his prophet, Jeremiah, I have put my words in your mouth. Why in the mouth? Because a prophet is to be a spokesman for God. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.

[11:19] Jeremiah 1.7. Say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. Ezekiel 2.4. You must speak my words to them whether they listen or not.

[11:30] Ezekiel 2.7. So the fact that God's revelation came through a prophet made it no less the revelation of God than if he spoke audibly as he did at Mount Sinai.

[11:46] You find Moses and Aaron coming before Pharaoh in Egypt. And what do they say to Pharaoh? They say, this is what the Lord says. This is what the Lord says. You see, they were prophets.

[11:57] They were spokesmen. God had spoken to them. Now they spoke to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh learned that it was no less the word of the Lord. simply because it passed through the mouth of Moses and Aaron, his spokesmen.

[12:11] So the purpose of receiving revelation was in order to proclaim it to others. 359 times in the Old Testament, we have those words, Thus saith the Lord.

[12:24] This is what the Lord says. That would introduce the revelation. In other words, the message is loud and clear. These words didn't originate with me.

[12:36] I have received them. And I'm simply passing them on to you. 2 Peter 1.20 and 21 tells us the same thing. That no prophecy came from the mind of the prophet himself.

[12:52] That the message of the prophet didn't originate with his own thoughts. I think God is like this. Now let me tell you about him. No, it didn't originate with him. Rather, it originated in God, who is revealing himself to man through the prophets.

[13:07] And so the prophets and writers of scripture were carried along in what they said by the Holy Spirit who spoke to them. So this is the Old Testament revelation. God spoke through his prophets.

[13:20] Now turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1, where we have a statement concerning Old Testament and New Testament revelation placed right alongside each other.

[13:33] Hebrews chapter 1. Notice the contrast then between Old Testament and New Testament revelation.

[13:46] Hebrews 1.1 and 2. In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe.

[14:07] You see it? Old Testament. God revealed himself through the prophets in many times and many ways. In these last days, in the New Testament, he's revealed himself to us by his Son.

[14:22] So God's revelation climaxes in the coming and preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, Moses had spoken in Deuteronomy 18 about a prophet like him who would come.

[14:34] And Jesus is that prophet who teaches us the will of God. And when he comes, we find him making statements like this. John 7.16. My teaching is not my own.

[14:48] It comes from him who sent me. That sounds a lot like the Old Testament prophets, doesn't it? Precisely. He is the great prophet. His teaching is not his own.

[14:59] It comes from him who sent me. John 8.28. I do nothing on my own, but speak what the Father has taught me. John 12.49 and 50.

[15:12] For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his command leads to eternal life.

[15:23] So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. That is a prophet. Jesus is the last and the great and final prophet.

[15:37] But Revelation reaches its climax in Jesus Christ, not only because of what he said, he brings to us the message from God, but also because of who he is and what he did. Remember, now we have God as the prophet.

[15:52] God himself is here. As Hebrews 1 goes on to say in verse 3, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

[16:07] This is God in the flesh. He is the image of the invisible God. So in seeing Christ, we are seeing the invisible God. That's revelation. God is revealing himself to us by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

[16:25] So that again, this Jesus can say in John 12 or John 14 and verse 9, he who has seen me has seen.

[16:36] The father. No one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only who is at the father's side has made him known. No one's ever seen God, but but his son, his eternal son, the one and only he who is at the father's side has made him known.

[16:56] And it's the word for exegesis. It's exegesis. It's he's expounded him. He's preached him just by his very being here. In seeing him, we have seen the father.

[17:07] So you see the progress in revelation. God speaks through his prophets. Now he speaks through his son. Who is himself God on display, revealing himself to man.

[17:21] And always we watch Jesus and we listen to Jesus. What do we learn about God? Things that we otherwise would never have known. But the revelation through the son does not stop when he ascends back into heaven.

[17:36] Christ promised his apostles that the Holy Spirit. Would reveal to them the full truth concerning himself and would empower them to proclaim it.

[17:51] And this, too, is regarded as Christ. God revealing himself through Christ, through his spirit.

[18:03] This is what Jesus said to his apostles. John 14, 26. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things and he will remind you of everything I have said to you.

[18:14] You see, the revelation goes on. It doesn't stop as soon as Christ returns into glory. Anyway, we have our New Testament. Written by the apostles.

[18:25] Who were promised that the Holy Spirit would bring to their minds everything that Christ had said to them. Chapter 15 and verse 26. He, the Holy Spirit, will testify about me.

[18:38] He will talk to you about me. Chapter 16, verses 12 to 15. He will guide you, you apostles, into all truth. He will not speak on his own.

[18:50] He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. And then you are to go and to preach to all the world.

[19:04] You see, Christ assigns a prophetic role to his apostles. You are to receive from me and from my Holy Spirit all the revelation about me. And then you are to be my spokesman and to go into the ends of the earth.

[19:18] And that's exactly what we see happening after the day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they receive revelation through the Spirit.

[19:29] The gift of the Ascended Son. Ephesians 3 speaks of the mystery made known to me, Paul says. The mystery has been made known to me by revelation.

[19:40] There's our word. As it's now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. So God continued to reveal his word through the Holy Spirit to the apostles.

[19:53] The revelation of Christ. And they went boldly proclaiming what God had revealed to them. Teaching not in words of human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit.

[20:08] 1 Corinthians 2. Not as the word of men, but as it is in truth. The word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. So, the apostles carry on.

[20:21] The prophetic work of Jesus Christ. In these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son. And the apostles' work is all part of that work of revealing himself through his Son.

[20:37] They come as Christ's ambassadors. As though God were making his appeal through them. They stand and say, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

[20:48] So they speak for Christ. They are his ambassadors, his sent ones. And so their revelation is all part of what Hebrews 1.2 says. In these last days, he's spoken to us about his Son.

[21:01] So, we have this one revelational unity. The teachings of Christ in the Gospels.

[21:13] And also, the teachings of his apostles throughout the epistles. The rest of the New Testament. In the Gospels, we have much of what happened. And in the epistles, we have God's inspired commentary on what happened.

[21:28] We read about the events of the crucifixion and the resurrection in the Gospels. And then the epistles. We have the apostles coming with the mind of God given to them to explain.

[21:39] You want to know what was happening there? And they explained to us the works of Christ. So, revelation in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

[21:51] Any questions or comments before we go on to the next couplet? All right. The next couplet is past and present revelation.

[22:03] God's revealing himself to man. In the past and in the present. He began speaking in Eden. And he ended with the apostolic age. All the New Testament books of our Bible were completed before the end of the first century.

[22:20] Now, Packer asked, does this mean that for 20 centuries now, God has not been speaking to man? No, not at all. It does mean that since the apostolic age, God has said nothing new to man.

[22:37] For he has, in fact, no more to say to us than he has said then. What more can he say to you than what he has said? The hymn writer puts it.

[22:48] But it's also true that God has continued to say to mankind all the things that he said then. Abe Lincoln is not still saying to mankind and to our nation what he said 150 years ago.

[23:07] Because he's dead. But the living God is still speaking to man. And he's still saying to man what he said in and through his son 20 centuries ago.

[23:20] And the implication of this is profound. As Packer writes, This means that when we read or hear read or expounded the biblical record of what God said in the Old or New Testament times, We are as truly confronted by a word of revelation addressed by God to us and demanding a response from us as were the Jewish congregations who listened to Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Peter or Christ or Gentile congregations who listened to the sermons of the apostle Paul.

[23:56] So God continues to speak to man. He's not saying anything new that he had not already said through his son and his apostles, but he keeps saying it to men.

[24:10] And that's the present tense reality of revelation. And you find it throughout the New Testament. God is speaking to men. He's speaking to men today. Past revelation.

[24:21] Present revelation. Any questions, comments before we go to the next couplet? All right. General and special revelation.

[24:34] Again, Packer's just combining in these couplets the teaching of Scripture on this topic of revelation. Revelation. Now, the Bible is God's special revelation.

[24:48] This is his special revelation because it came to special, specific men in specific times and places. Now, it is the fullest revelation of God, but it only comes to those who hear or read the Bible.

[25:03] But the Bible itself also teaches us that God reveals himself to men apart from the Bible.

[25:15] We call it general revelation because it's given everywhere and at all times to all men just by the fact that they are living in God's creation.

[25:29] Three aspects of this general revelation. First, it's given through all created things. Psalm 19, 1 to 4 says that the heavens, just by virtue of what they are, are proclaiming the majesty and the finger work, their maker's glory.

[25:50] Speech is going out to the ends of the earth. Every language can understand the speech of creation. That God is a mighty creator. And so that goes to all men everywhere.

[26:01] It's general revelation. Romans 1 is Paul's explanation of that fact that through the things that have been made, men have a knowledge of God's almighty power and his deity.

[26:17] They know that he's almighty. They know that he ought to be thanked. They know that he ought to be worshipped and glorified just by virtue of the created things around them.

[26:28] So clear is this revelation of God in creation that Paul says if they fail to give thanks to him and give glory to him, that they are without excuse. If you lived in my world, you don't have a leg to stand on.

[26:44] Because every day, you breathed my air, you saw my sun, my moon, the stars, and you didn't give me thanks. You ate my food, and in all of this, you missed me.

[26:56] You're without excuse. So on the basis of general revelation, men will be condemned who have never had the special revelation.

[27:09] You say, well, is it fair that people can live and die without ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes, it's fair, because God has revealed himself to them in his creation.

[27:21] And they've not lived up to the light that was theirs. They instead have suppressed the truth, Romans 1.18 says. They push it down. They don't consider it worthwhile. They trade off the truth for lies.

[27:36] So they are without excuse. So this general revelation comes through all created things. It comes secondly through God's ordinary providence, his control of all things.

[27:50] Acts 14, 16 and 17. Though in the past God permitted apostate Gentile nations to walk in their own ways, he did not leave himself without testimony.

[28:02] God spoke to those Old Testament Gentile nations. He witnessed. He didn't leave himself without testimony. What was the testimony? He's shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.

[28:16] He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. His ordinary daily control of the weather, causing the sun to shine, the rain to fall.

[28:27] It all gives abundant revelation of the goodness of God that men ought to thank him. And therefore, reminding them of the great debt that they owe to him.

[28:38] So the very ordering of creation's actions, the providence of God reveals God. And then lastly, general revelation comes through the voice of conscience.

[28:50] God's monitor within the heart of every man that reveals something. Now that conscience has fallen, but there is still something of a sense of what's right and wrong recorded in the conscience of men.

[29:04] Romans 2, 14 and 15. Assuring even the most hardened of judgment to come and of condemnation to follow. Romans 1, 32. So all mankind have received revelation from God.

[29:19] General revelation. In creation, in the ordering of providence, and from conscience, God's voice within. But as it's often been said, that's not enough light to be saved.

[29:33] It's enough light to be damned, but it's not enough light to be saved. Because you can look at the stars all night and never figure out that this great God of infinite majesty would be reconciled to us.

[29:47] That he would have mercy and save our souls. You'll never figure out that even he will be propitious and save us.

[29:59] Much less how he will save us. Will he save us? In what way must we be saved? You'll never learn that apart from special revelation.

[30:11] God must speak and tell guilty sinners of his plan for reconciling guilty sinners to himself through the life and death and resurrection of his own son.

[30:25] So, revelation. General. Special. Specific. Any questions, comments then on those two ideas of revelation?

[30:38] All right? You're an easy audience this morning. Objective and subjective revelation. Don't let the titles throw you.

[30:52] The object of revelation. The subject upon whom the revelation is coming. Do you ever wonder why the most intelligent people in the world, the people with the highest IQs, why don't they all become Christians?

[31:08] I mean, Christianity is rational, right? It's reasonable. Why wouldn't the most intelligent of men then read the revelation and come to Christ?

[31:29] What's the Bible's answer to that question, Raj? It's a question not of the mind, but of the most hearts. Okay. Good. Mark?

[31:41] I was going to say that the fall of man is affected by his intellect as well as his emotions. Okay. Man's understanding is darkened for the things that are right in front of his eyes.

[31:54] Excellent. Ephesians 4, 17 and 18. The understanding is darkened. Jim? Well, even if he just told the disciples that there was their things hidden. Hmm. That it was revealed to them and it was hidden from others.

[32:06] Okay. Again, we see the sovereignty of God and who he reveals truth to. All right? Mike? Reliance on him. The life of man is foolish.

[32:17] All right. The wisest thought of man is foolish. The foolishness of God. Paul even says, and the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest thought of man.

[32:29] So if you're relying on your wisdom, you'll never get there. And that's man, isn't it? We lean on our own understanding. And so we never come to know God, even though the revelation is here.

[32:43] Think of it like radio communication. There's two aspects to revelation. Just as there's two aspects to radio communication. And I'm not much of a radio communicator, but they tell me that in order to hear a message over the radio, there's got to be a transmitter somewhere sending the information out.

[33:08] And then there needs to be a receiver somewhere receiving that information, those sound waves, and converting it so that we hear the song or the news that we're listening to.

[33:23] Two parts to radio transmission. And so it is with revelation. There are two parts. There's the sending of God. And there's the reception of that revelation by men.

[33:36] And what these brothers have been telling us is that the sensitive equipment that discerns the revelation of God, the spiritual antenna of men have been so destroyed that though the information is coming loud and clear, we can't pick up on it.

[33:54] We don't understand it. We don't grasp it. Our antennae have been ruined, darkened in our understanding. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.14, which is Paul's answer to why the wise of this world don't become Christians all at once.

[34:11] 1 Corinthians 2.14. It's a passage in which he's talking about the revelation of God.

[34:23] Verse 10, God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. And then we come down to verse 14. The man without the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit of God, the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God.

[34:38] That would be the Scriptures, the revelation. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

[34:50] The message that the Holy Spirit sends out, and this is his revelation, the message is coming to us, but it can only be discerned spiritually.

[35:03] And we are dead spiritually. All of our antennae to pick up on spiritual realities have been damaged in the fall. And so when we look at the revelation, when we listen to the revelation, it all sounds like a lot of nonsense.

[35:20] It's foolishness. You're telling me that that guy that grew up in Nazareth, and then was crucified on a cross 2,000 years ago, and supposedly rose from the dead, that by believing on him, that that'll change my destiny forever?

[35:40] That's nonsense. What kind of a Savior dies? It doesn't sound very glorious to me. And we just dismiss it. Why?

[35:50] Because we don't have the Spirit that is necessary to discern the revelation of God. The Bible calls man blind, that we all come into the world stone deaf and stone blind.

[36:03] In other words, unable to pick up and receive the revelation that's all around us. 2 Corinthians.

[36:15] If you're in Corinthians, look over at chapter 4, 2 Corinthians. And verse 4. The God of this age, that is the devil, has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

[36:31] Let me back up to verse 3. That speaks of our gospel being veiled. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

[36:51] And so they can have Christ presented before them, preached before them, placarded before them in the gospel, and they see no reason to follow him, to love him, to believe in him.

[37:03] They see no glory in him. Nothing to attract them to him. It's all there, but they don't see it. They're blind. Their minds are veiled.

[37:15] It's like a veil has been placed over their hearts. Isn't that interesting? We've talked about revelation being an unveiling. And now we're seeing that there's two veils.

[37:26] And they match both aspects of revelation. There's a veil over God. And we'll never know him unless he unveils himself. And that's what he does in revelation.

[37:38] So there, revelation is God unveiling himself in creation, in his word. He's pulling the veil off so that information is flowing to us now about who he is.

[37:50] But now we find out that there's another veil. That the gospel is veiled to us who are perishing. And we're blind then because we have this veil over our hearts and our minds.

[38:03] We can't see all this information that God is unveiling to us. A blind man cannot see even though the sun is shining.

[38:15] What he needs is not more information. A second sun would do him no more good than the first one. He needs his eyes opened.

[38:26] And so the gospel speaks about, I once was blind, but now I see. A person is saved. They get new eyes.

[38:36] Their eyes are open so that they can now perceive. And we're told that that veil that was once over our hearts is removed by Jesus Christ.

[38:49] Second Corinthians 3. So the problem isn't with the transmitter. Information's coming loud and clear. The problem is rather with ourselves.

[38:59] In our reception of that revelation. So there must be a double revelation. God must reveal himself, uncover himself to us. But he also must uncover our own eyes so that we can see and perceive the revelation that he's made.

[39:17] The Old Testament scriptures revealed God plainly enough. But Paul says the Jews of his day could not understand the Old Testament because there was a veil over their minds. Second Corinthians 3.15.

[39:28] And that's true of every one of us. As we were born into this world, we could hear sermons till we were bored to tears and we saw no glory in Jesus.

[39:40] No reason to give our lives over to him. We were blind. We didn't see it. And then one day by his spirit, he came and pulled the blind back.

[39:51] And we saw him. And we wondered why we didn't worship him. Why we didn't love him. Why we didn't spend all of our life trusting him.

[40:02] And now we look at others and we, why don't they trust in the Savior? Why don't they love him? Why don't they obey him? Why don't they live for him? Because they're blind and they do not see.

[40:16] Paul says, when God was pleased to reveal his son in me. He not only made the revelation in scripture, but Paul says there came a day when God was pleased to reveal, to uncover his son to Paul himself, Galatians 1.15.

[40:33] Remember that day when Jesus says, who do people say I am? And they told him, you're one of the prophets, Isaiah, John the Baptist. Well, what about you? Who do you say that I am?

[40:46] And Peter answered for the rest. You are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of John.

[40:57] You are smarter than most men to have figured this out on your own. For this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

[41:10] There is a revelation of Christ to the soul that must be done that no man can do. No preacher so good. No Sunday school teacher so good. No parent is so good as to be able to reveal Christ to the soul.

[41:23] It must be done by the Father who is in heaven. And that's why Jesus says, you're blessed. It's not something you've achieved. No, you've been blessed.

[41:35] God's opened your eyes. And so those two veils must be lifted if we're to know God. The veil that hides God's mind and that which clouds our mind.

[41:46] And God's the only one who can do either one. So our knowing him through his revelation is always a gracious gift. From first to last.

[41:58] Any comments, questions on revelation then being objective and subjective? Lest we think that the cloud of the mind and inability within ourselves due to God just didn't create us with a fair-dump trance or a receiver.

[42:18] Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as a Gentile. It's due in the futility of your thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the heartening of their hearts.

[42:39] So the veil is there because we're rebels. Amen. None so blind as they who will not see. And in our sin we put out our own eyes. And we put our fingers in our ears so that we will not hear.

[42:52] It's a moral inability. It's our fault that we're blind, that we're deaf and cannot receive good. The hardness of our heart. The last couplet, and I can just mention it, is present and future revelation.

[43:06] In one sense, revelation is ended. As we said, God has nothing more to say, nothing new to say in this age that he didn't say through his apostles and through the scriptures. But in another sense, the clearest and fullest revelation is yet to come.

[43:20] When Jesus returns and every eye shall see him. And Packer says this will be an uncovering and unveiling, a revealing of God, surpassing anything that we have been shown of him to date.

[43:35] So when Peter would talk about the return of Christ, he says when Christ will be revealed. John says the same thing. When he appears, there's our word, when he is unveiled, when he is made known, we shall see him as he is.

[43:51] We now see through a poor reflection in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. And what a revelation that will be. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, what will it be?

[44:04]  When with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ, who died for me, who rose for me. Amen. Amen.