기도회 [찬송: 기다려요 주 음성 들어요, 감사해요 주님의 사랑] 벨직 신앙 고백서 강해 2 "하나님을 아는 두 가지 방편" [연...

기다려요 주 음성 들어요 주를 기다리는 자는 새 힘 얻으리 기다려요 성령께 맡겨요 주의 영이 계신 곳엔 평안 있으리 감사해요 주님의 사랑 감사해요 주님의 은혜 목소리 높여 주님을 영원히 찬양해요 나의 전부이신 나의 주님 Article 2: About the Knowledge of God Moreover, we know God by two means, first, by the creation, preservation, and government of this whole world. For it is before our eyes as a most beautiful Book in which all creatures, from the least to the greatest, are as certain letters and marks through which the invisible things of God can be examined and understood, certainly His eternal power and His divinity as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. This knowledge is sufficient for convicting any given people and rendering them inexcusable. But He also bears His very self to us, much more clearly and openly, in His holy and divine Word; indeed, as much as is expedient in this life for His glory and for the salvation of His own people. Psalm 19; Ephes. 4:6; 2 Cor. 2:6. ARTICLE 2 HOW GOD MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO US In Article 1, deBres confessed that there is only one God who is eternal, almighty, etc. How did deBres know this? He could not have arrived at this conviction by means of philosophising about it, or through examining his emotions, or life experiences. Thought, emotions, experience, etc, could equally well have led him to the conclusion that there is no God at all. How then did deBres come to confess that there is a God? Because God, by His sovereign decision, by His good pleasure, was pleased that people, sinners at that, can know something of God. God was sovereignly please to reveal Himself to people, so that people could know God. Knowledge of God begins with God; God reveals Himself. But is anyone able to understand what God has to say? Can persons dead in sin understand holy God? No, that is impossible, for what is dead does not, and cannot, tune in to God. The only way for man, dead in sin, to be able to understand God is if God first regenerates him. Concerning the means by which man knows God, Article 2 confesses the following: in order for man to know of God, God must take the initiative and reveal Himself to man, and man must be regenerated. God reveals Himself by two means: 1) by nature, which includes its creation, preservation, and government, and 2) by His Word. GOD MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN BY NATURE "We know Him ... first, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe." In Genesis 1 we read that God created: He made out of nothing. God spoke and it was there. All that God created is something we so easily take for granted. However, David was once overcome with awe by it all, and this moved him to say "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). By creating, by what He did and by the way He did it, God revealed something of Who He is. Read what God tells us of Himself by means of His work of creation in Isaiah 40:12. The waters of the earth He measured in the hollow of His hand, He measured infinite distance, He calculated the dust of the earth, and He weighed the mountains and the hills in scales. By the creation of the world God tells us something of Himself, and we can see it even today. It all speaks, and continues to speak, of His glory. He only had to speak and it was all there. What a God! Not only did God create; He also preserves His creation. God lets all that He created continue to exist. God allows reproduction among living organisms. God is not remote from anything that occurs. He is actively in control of all that happens in His creation. It was God who let the plates below the earth shake in the earthquake that devastated Kobe in Japan last year. It is God who makes the easterlies blow night after night. Man cannot stir up the wind, nor can man stop it. But God preserves His world, and therein demonstrates something of Who He is. God governs the world He once made too so that nothing happens apart from Him. All circumstances of life, including crime, homelessness, poverty, famine, come with the involvement of God's power, and demonstrates something of His mercy, power and justice. See Romans 1:18-32. This is dealt with more extensively in Article 13. God reveals Himself in nature, but who is able to read this book of nature? Romans 1: 20 speaks of creation displaying God's eternal power and Godhead, so that any ignorance concerning God's existence is inexcusable. Every single person in the world is able to sense something of the created world and its preservation and government. Everyone can know about God because all live in this creation which speaks of His deity. But is everyone capable of concluding from it that there is a God? No, not everyone can, because although nature speaks so clearly of God, mankind is blinded to it by sin, and therefore cannot conclude from it that there is a God. To be able to understand what nature is really about, man needs to be regenerated, man needs faith. Calvin aptly stated, "man must put on the glasses of Scripture" to be able to read the book of natur