Sermon Tone Analysis

We are continuing in General Revelation this morning.

General revelation, if we remember, is that which is God revealing Himself to all people everywhere.

Last time it was God revealing Himself through creation.

Another way God reveals Himself to us is through human beings.

There is something within us that says that there must be a God.

This is because we are made in the image of God.

And there is an inner sense that He exists.

In other words He has put within us a sense that there is something grander than us, a God-shaped hole as someone once put it.

That is not the only sense within us - we also have a moral sense in the shape of our consciences.

It is what gives us an awareness of right and wrong.

Our conscience became active after the fall with the knowledge of good and evil and caused there to be shame which is why Adam and Eve hid in the garden.

This innate awareness is written of by Paul:

Our consciences are not perfect and can let us down because sin has corrupted it, defiled it and even seared it.

But where did this sense of right and wrong come from?

We can learn what is right and wrong from others but it is already present in us.

Even if we were taught that something that was wrong was alright all along there is something telling us that it is not.

It reveals to people that there is a lawgiver.

But, of course, our consciences does not give us a full picture of God but it does reveal that there must be One who will hold us to account.

Another way God reveals Himself to us is through history itself.

His hand is seen in the rise and fall of nations controlling and guiding the scenes of history.

And anyone who knows history can see that this is the case.

Throughout Scripture we can see the way God has dealt with certain nations such as Egypt with the judgements on Pharaoh.

The book of Daniel is absolutely full of the fact that God controls history.

I think that you know the story of the fall of Babylon.

A city that was thought to be impregnable, invincible and unconquerable which is why Belshazzar was having such a party despite the fact that the army of the Medes were outside the front door.

And they were right – the city could not be overcome through the city walls – they were so wide that you could have a two-lane dual carriageway on top.

However the Medes were clever: they redirected the flow of the Euphrates River so that they could pass under the water gate and take the City, and they did so without a fight.

This is something God ordained to happen – one ruler brought down, another took his place.

Further on in Daniel we are told about four kingdoms: the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.

And so Daniel predicted them before they were.

And then Daniel goes on to speak of further history to come including the Antichrist.

Of course, all these Kingdoms were ordained by God, allowed by Him even if they were not godly.

It is the same today when we look at the Kingdoms of this world.

One is raised up and another is put down.

All this is in God’s hands.

We can even speak of British History and the miraculous sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588 or in WW2 how we were saved from an invasion because of a series of mistakes made by Hitler and by the Captain of a German Ship called the Bismarck which was sent to destroy the food convoys which without Britain could not survive.

If the ship had not been sunk by the British in revenge for its attack against the British Flag Ship the HMS Hood America would not have joined the war and then with the British liberate Europe – so crucial was this event in 1941 that it can be seen only after the war that this was the pivotal moment which changed the outcome of the war in Europe.

God did not allow Spain or Germany to take over Britain partly because we put our trust in God and in prayer to Him.

And we can find similar stories in even British defeats with other nations with interventions that could only be God raising and putting down those in authority.

And this is similar throughout the nations of the world.

God is in control.

God ordained them to their positions.

And one day another will replace them.

Note that the world cannot depose someone like Robert Mugabe though they dearly want to – he is there until God says he shouldn’t be.

A nation can only take over another Kingdom if God allows it otherwise we have our boundaries set by Him and nothing we can do can change it.

Remember we are talking about the way God has revealed Himself to all people:

I have not yet mentioned Israel – a nation that should not exist since the Roman Empire and its armies destroyed the Jews finally in the year 135.

Then in May 1948 it became a nation again fulfilling many Scriptures such as:

And nothing the surrounding nations or the UN can do about it.

Though on the day of its independence six nations attacked Israel but God miraculously helped Israel to defeat them.

History proves time and time again that there is a power at work in the lives of people that cannot be put down to mere chance who directs the ways of people raising up unknown persons to be people of power and putting down those in power to be nobodies.

The evidence is plain that there is a God at work.

History is one of the ways God reveals Himself to the world.

Again, this is not enough to know God personally or to save someone but in recognising these things people should seek to find out about God.

Atheists have no excuse.

It is only in the preaching of the Gospel will people come to faith in Christ.

God has revealed Himself through the wonder of creation, the inner sense within human beings, and in the course of history…and next time we’ll see how God has specially revealed Himself so that we can truly know Him.