The Gospel Project

1. TheGospel Project Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding

2. Session 1 - Recap Main Idea: God as Speaker • The God who speaks has authority • The God who speaks is merciful to reveal Himself • The God who speaks gives us tasks

3. Session 1 - Recap Key Terms • General Revelation • God revealing himself to all people everywhere, such as through creation • Special Revelation • God revealing himself to specific people at specific times and in specific places.

4. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Introduction • The Truman Show & Clues to Reality • The World Testifies to a Creator

5. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding God reveals His existence through creation (Psalm 19:1-6) • God through his creation is saying something about himself • Features of this creational revelation (General Rev.) • Continual (vv.1-2) • Ignored OR “Indirectly” Communicated (v.3) • Pervasive and Inescapable (v.4)

6. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding God reveals His attributes through creation (Romans 1:20) • The Effects & The Person • General revelation tells us about God’s… • Eternal Power • Divine Nature

7. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding God reveals His intentions through creation (Acts 14:15-17) • Creation & Common Grace • Common Grace – In the midst of a broken world, God continues to bless both the evil and good (Matthew 5:45) • The gifts are intended to point us to Him • When we are thankful, who are we thankful to? • Gospel echoes in creation

8. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Conclusion • The world as theater for the divine drama of redemption • God does communicate through general revelation, but he wants to be much clearer

9. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Summary Main Idea: God reveals Himself through creation • Existence • Attributes • Intentions

10. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Key Terms General Revelation “[T]he disclosure of God in nature, in providential history, and in the moral law within the heart, whereby all persons at all times and places gain a rudimentary understanding of the Creator and his moral demands.” - Bruce Demarest & Gordon Lewis

11. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Key Terms Common Grace “The Lord's common grace consists of every expression of his good will and favor, of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation from sin, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world receives from the hand of God; but it is primarily expressed by the perpetuation and abundant multiplication of human life, by the restraint of his curse upon the earth, by his provision for the sustenance, protection and enjoyment of life, by his restraint of sin through government, conscience and providence, and by his postponement of the final judgment; and its ultimate expression is his sincere and benevolent offer of mercy and salvation from sin through Jesus Christ, made to sinners indiscriminately, to elect and reprobate sinners alike, through the Gospel.” – Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

12. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Key Terms Common Grace “[Common grace] curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art, and showers untold blessings upon the children of men.” – Louis Berkhof

13. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Issues (What?!) & Implications (So What?) Issue #1 - Universal Guilt through General Revelation • Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable (Rm. 2:14-15, 1:19-20); yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation (1 Cor. 1:21, 2:13-14). – WCF 1.1 • The problem is not God’s lack of clarity, but our rejection of him. It is our sinful nature that leads us to reject. • No one can plead not guilty - not even those who have not heard the Gospel.

14. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Issues (What?!) & Implications (So What?) Implication #1 - People have a sense of God in their hearts • Evangelism & Apologetics – We can appeal this sense of God and know that there are no “true” atheists. No one is “neutral” or “objective”, but there is common ground. • “You’ve never felt more alive, you’ve never felt more insignificant” – Nature Valley Granola Bars

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17. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Issues (What?!) & Implications (So What?) Implication #1 - People have a sense of God in their hearts Case Study • 18th century English Romantic poets and the “sublime” - "realm of experience beyond the measurable" that is beyond rational thought, that arises chiefly from the terrors and awe-inspiring natural phenomena” • Terror and ecstasy

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19. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Caspar David Friedrich – Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)

20. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Issues (What?!) & Implications (So What?) Implication #2 – Understanding common grace allows us to engage rightly with the world • Tendency to either wholly accept or reject • Common Grace & Antithesis • The blind men and the elephant

21. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Issues (What?!) & Implications (So What?) Implication #3 – General revelation makes us thankful for special revelation and Christ God did not leave us with only enough to condemn…he reveals how we can be reconciled to him, climatically through His Son.

22. Session 2 – God Is Not Hiding Q&A Time!