Natural Revelation (Ben Roy, 04/20/24)

How many have had a good week? Anybody have a good week? Okay, anybody have a

week? Well, if you're here that means it's been a good week. Okay, we're thankful for

it. Welcome to the Wrinkled Church. There's a, if you look at the bulletin, I

could find mine, I'll look at it. It has something about the message, natural

revelation. What's a revelation? Is it a revealing? Alright, it's a

revealing. So we have Revelation, a book, Revelation the Bible, okay, and then we

have a couple other revelations that I want to talk to you about. And before we

really get into that, oh by the way, I'm not a preacher, I'm not a pastor, okay,

I'm a teacher, so bear with me and maybe we'll all learn together. But if you

have your Bibles, turn to John, turn to John chapter 1. I'm gonna be reading a

John 1 · chapter mention

few texts here and then we'll get into it. John 1, I'm gonna read all the way,

all the way to 12, okay. It says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God, and He was in the beginning with God. Who's the

Word here? It's Jesus, it's Jesus. Okay, all things were made through Him, and

without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was the life, and the life

was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness

did not comprehend it. Here the darkness is evil, it's representing evil. Therefore

was there was a man sent from God, his name was John. This man came for a

witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not

the light, but he was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true

light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Now that's

interesting, that's an interesting statement. I'll read that again. That was

the true light, light which gives light to every man coming into the

world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did

not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as

received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who

believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor

of the will of man, but of God. And then if you'll turn to Romans, okay, if you

turn to Romans, and we'll go to Romans 1 and 20, okay, that's the text of the day.

Romans 1, 20, and it says, For since the creation of the world, His invisible

attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,

even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because

although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,

but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools. That's interesting. So in the beginning

was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Interesting. Now we have,

I brought a little book with me right here. It looks like a Bible. It's not a

Bible. But let's see what's inside. Let's see what's got. Okay, I'm gonna open this

up. Oh, there's something in there. What do I have in there? Well, hope my wife

didn't mind. I did a little pruning. We got some life. We got a plant, okay? Maybe

some of you can identify that, okay? And these are pretty flowers that are growing

in my wife's garden at the moment. It's interesting. So I call this God's first

book, Nature. You could call it God's second book. It's up to you. But it's a

book. And what does nature reveal? What is it? That's right. So that's what we're

talking about today. That's part of the thing that we're talking about, natural

revelation. Okay, natural revelation is God's creation, is what God has created.

That's natural revelation. I brought some examples of some of that with me right

here. I've got this little, actually it's not little, it's a pretty big bird. This

is a raven. Of course, God created everything. Jesus created everything, and

the ravens are magnificent. And I have the life cycle of moths and butterflies

right here. Now this is interesting. The life cycle of moths and butterflies. Now

this was, this is really special because this was

done and all of those things were collected by my wife's uncle. Okay.

And we've had this for a number of years and it's like it's museum quality.

But after the service you can come up, or during the service it's fine, but you can

come up and check this thing out. Have you ever wondered, have you ever looked

at the egg that a moth or a butterfly would lay and put it on a particular

leaf? Well it's right there from the very first beginning of life and it goes all

the way through, okay, to the transformation. So you have this caterpillar and it

goes through what? A metamorphosis, which is amazing. It's probably one of the most

amazing, I think, things of nature because it goes through that metamorphosis and

then it comes out a butterfly or a moth, which is absolutely amazing. And some of

them travel for hundreds and thousands of miles on their migration, which is

like, wow, who directs them? How does that work? That's what's quite amazing. Now we

find some other texts that are interesting here in Colossians 1.16

says, for in him all things were created, all things were created, all things,

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. You know that Jesus

created invisible things? Have you ever seen invisible things? How many of you

seen invisible things? Well there are a lot of invisible things. In fact, look

around you. Look at your clothes. Look at the pew that you're sitting on.

Look at this podium. Look at the walls. Look at the light. Everything,

everything is made of mostly invisible things. We can't see them. We can't see

them. That's interesting, I think. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or

authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. So all these

things were created for him. Isn't that amazing? I think it is. Then in Psalms 91

we read this, 91 and verse 1, says, the heavens declare the what? The glory of

God and the firmament shows his his handiwork. Everyone can see this that has

ever lived. And it says, let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the

sea respond, and all that is in it, let the fields be jubilant. Have you

ever seen a field being jubilant? Wow. And everything in them, let all the trees of

the forest sing for joy. Have you seen or heard trees that sing for joy? I think

we're going to see that. In Psalms 96, 11, and 12 it talks about the psalmster knew

that God's rule and authority were so evident that even nature worshiped him.

Nature worships him. Amazing. So what is it called when God reveals himself in

nature? It's called natural revelation. It's also called general

revelation because everyone that has ever been born that has lived on this

earth has revelation of some sort. It's general revelation or natural

revelation. And what does that tell us? It gives us some characteristics

of God. That's what it does. That's what it's meant to do. Now I'm just wondering,

as some of you have experienced some of that, and we have a roving mic

wherever the roving mic went, okay? So if you have something, okay, of a natural

revelation experience you'd like to share with us, then I would like to hear. Oh,

here we go. Right. So over there, Cindy's got it behind Cindy. There you go.

We have two peony bushes beside our front door, our porch. One is white and

one is a brilliant, beautiful red. And I got down and looked right inside this

red peony and there was a crown. There was a round crown, golden crown, and it

just reminded me of God. And then I have some beautiful pansies that have been

really sustainable through the winter months and they're just, have just been

beautiful. And I just praise God every time I look at either the peonies or the

pansies and know that it's his handiwork. And I would say, God, how did you do this?

Yeah. Especially feeling the petals and how soft and velvety they are. God, how

did you do this? All right, thank you. It shows his handiwork. It shows some of his

characteristics, which is amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Cindy's got something.

One of my favorite things to do is stand on the top of the highest peak around.

Now, I'm not so fond of getting there, but I like that because when you stand on

the top, I'm thinking of Black Rock, close to Covalo, California. At the top of

that rock, you can see the Pacific Ocean, though it's more than 50 miles away. You

can see the valley, that's what we call it in California, the valley, the one that

runs in the middle. And you can see Malchasta hundreds of miles away. And it

just is awesome to see how vast God's creation is, even on planet Earth. Yes,

wonderful. Wow. Oh, Paul's got something here.

This morning before church, I was standing up on the driveway at Sabo Hill,

and I was looking at the beautiful trees. I mean, they're so huge. They're large

pine trees, and they're, you know, swaying in the wind. And I was looking at the

clouds coming by and everything, and I thought to myself, God is so wonderful.

He's made so many really neat things that renew themselves every year. Yeah,

yeah, good point. Amazing. Kevin? I always marvel at how the complex code for life

is embedded in the tiniest little parts of ourselves, or everything needed

for, like, some of those beautiful trees you were just describing can be packed

in just this tiniest of little, you know, seeds. How so much can come forth from so

little. I see God's power in that. How else can that all be

packed in the way it is, in such a complex, magnificent manner, all just in

the tiniest package sometimes. Yeah, amazing. Thank you. And every cell

carries a DNA. Wow, how does that work? Wow. Now, I remember being in

Arizona. Anybody been to Arizona? I remember they used to have a magazine. It's

called Arizona Highways. Anybody remember that magazine? No, okay. Y'all are younger

than I am, I guess. But in Arizona Highways, they always would have some

beautiful, beautiful pictures of sunsets. And I was at the right time, at the right

day, the right hour to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

It was so amazing. It was just such an awe moment, and it was incredible. It was

it was not only in front of me, it was beside me, and it was behind me, and the

whole sky was just brilliant reds and oranges, and it was absolutely out

of this world. It was absolutely out of this world. I just sat there. I couldn't

even move. It was so amazing. That's natural revelation that shows God's

splendor, shows his creative power. Anybody else? Yes, here we go. And I

forgot your name. Melanie. Thank you. It seems a little bit complicated, but I

don't know how many of y'all have heard that the Christian author Steve Russell

has talked about how Yahweh is coded into our DNA, that the Hebrew letters not

only have their individual meanings, but they also have a numeric value. And so

those numbers are 10 5 6 5, which make the Hebrew letters Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, and it's

in every, it's coded into our DNA. So it's complicated, but yeah. Yeah, that's

awesome to think about. Wow. Anybody else? Oh, Darren. It's not really, it's

domesticated nature, but Mika helps me quite a bit with balance. I didn't

realize how much until the other day I actually left her out at home because

she was nasty dirty, and she and my other dog Molly got to playing, and

she got nasty dirty, and I had to leave her behind, and I had to wall surf the

entire time I was out just because I didn't realize how much she was actually

helping with that. And then on top of that, when I get the sensory overload, she

will help get me out of the building, and she'll guide me right through

the crowd and out. So that's two ways that she helps me out. Yeah.

Yeah, our pets. Don't our pets remind us or some of the characteristics of God?

You know? I mean, I don't know about cats. I mean, I'm sure cats do. My

wife is a cat lover, and they're nice. I prefer dogs, and everybody

has their own preference, but they are so... I'm speaking about dogs. I'm sure cats

do this as well, but you know, aren't they forgiven? Forgiving?

Forgiving animals. They're caring animals. It's amazing, and it shows us some of

the characteristics of God. That's natural revelation. Anybody else? I don't

want to turn anybody down. You might have an experience of something to add to this.

Yes, Julie? Well, I mentioned it a little bit in Children's Story at the zoo

yesterday. This is the first time I'd seen baby tigers, and it was the first up

close. You know, you see them in pictures, you see them in films and stuff, but the

fact that they acted like house cats. You know, because when you have a litter of

kittens, they play around, they tussle, they did stalk each other, they

would bite their mother's tail, but the fact that this one, the mother tiger

and all the babies, she was showing each of her babies individually. She would

stalk each of them and grab them and throw them around and play with them and

everything, and then they in turn would stalk her, and it was just... we stayed the

longest in the tiger exhibit because it was so funny to watch something that you

take for granted with house cats, but you don't see that playful attitude in the

wild very much, because in the Atlanta Zoo, there's a tiger that has gone crazy

and all it does is pace. It doesn't play with the toys. It just paces, which is

one of the signs in tigers and wild cats that they're stressed and their

mind is affected, but this mother tiger and her cubs, they were racing

all over the place and just having... they were playing tug-of-war with bamboo.

It was just a blessing to watch because you don't say, oh tigers, they

play a lot, you know, and it also speaks that they were in a safe environment, so

they felt completely okay to play, you know, in the wild. They may not be able

to do that because it may not be safe, but this mother was comfortable with the

crowds. The babies were comfortable with the crowds and they just had a grand old

time and it was just a blessing to watch. Yeah, it must make God smile, makes us

smile. I think God has a sense of humor. I mean, he made these animals and the

monkeys and stuff. It's like, oh my, they just bring a smile to your face. Let me

ask you a question and if anybody can answer this question, these are hard

questions, okay, but what is electricity? Can anyone really tell us what

electricity is? Did you want to answer that? Okay. It's the flow of electrons. Okay, so we're

describing what electricity does, okay, okay, but we... and let's go a little bit

further. What is electricity? Power. Power. Power. Well, that's describing what

electricity does, but it... yeah, Paul has a... When electrons are forced, electrons are forced through a

wire or something that's least resistant. Okay, and that's what

electricity does. That's a characteristic of electricity, but really no

one really knows what electricity is. We can't. Isn't that amazing? So we all come up

with what electricity does, how it acts, okay. Another question, okay, now you're

going to be, you know, you're afraid to answer these questions now, but what

about gravity? What is gravity? Would we come up with the same thing? We could

give what? Examples of gravity, what it does, but nobody really knows what

gravity is. Does that bother your mind somehow? It's something to think about,

isn't it? So we have electricity, we have gravity, hmm, we could probably go on. Oh,

Cindy. Oh, no, oh, I thought you... okay, I saw your hand move. Gravity, electricity,

hmm. You know that you have gravity? Everything has gravity. It's interesting,

isn't it? And the... do you have a magnet on your refrigerator that

holds a note of some kind or a magnet someplace? You know that that little

magnet has more power than gravity, earth's gravity. Isn't that interesting?

It is quite interesting. Well, someday we're going to learn all of this, okay.

What about... oh, anybody else want to share something here because we're going

to close soon? Anybody else? Natural revelation? Yes, here we go.

Could I say one more thing about the peonies? I don't cut them and take them

into the house because the ants are the ones who open up the peony buds and get

the petals loose so that they can be free. But when you look at a peony bush,

there's ants crawling all over them. Wow. So I thought that was interesting. Yeah, I

wasn't aware of that. How many of you knew that? Well, thanks for teaching all

of us. Isn't that amazing? It is. Do you remember... and thank you for being a

roving mic. Thank you. You remember when Job was asking God some

questions? Did God ever answer Job's questions? He really didn't, okay. But what

did he do instead? He asked Job 77 questions, and you can read them in Job

and it's like, oh my, oh my. And all of those questions Job could not answer

them. There isn't anybody that I know of could answer those questions even today,

which is amazing, quite amazing. Now, everything is made out of invisible

things, right? Matter, okay. And Einstein, you remember Einstein? Okay. Now he was...

well anyways, I think I'd never met him, but anybody meet Einstein? Or seen him

in live person? No, okay. All right. Because he hasn't been gone that many

years ago, actually. But Einstein said this. He said that matter cannot be

destroyed. Isn't that amazing? Matter cannot be destroyed, and everything's made out of

matter. So if we can't destroy matter, then what happens to matter? What can we

do? Where does it go? Right. So matter, we can change... matter changes into other

forms of matter, okay. Well, we've got a little... I have a little experiment that

we could... we can do, okay. And I have a pair of safety glasses. You always should

carry those. And I have a piece of paper. Oh, here we go. I have a piece of paper.

This paper made out of matter? It is, because everything is made out of matter.

Even the air that we're breathing is made out of matter, okay. So can I destroy

the paper? Yes, I can. Okay. In fact, I could... I could cut... I could tear the

paper in half. Did that destroy it? No, I just have two pieces of paper now. Let me

put one of those in my pocket, okay. If I really want to destroy the paper, what

could I do to it? Burn it. You're a pyromaniac, no. But to burning things, I

mean, when we burn things, I mean, they really are destroyed. Well, I can burn the

paper, but what happens to... what happens to the energy that the paper has? Will the

energy be destroyed if I burn the paper? No, it won't be destroyed. In fact, I'm

not gonna burn it with a match. That would be too easy, okay. And so I'll put

that in my pocket. Let's see. I've got something else that we could use. Just

gotta find it. Hang on. Oh, here it is. It's a flashlight. Wow. Light. Is light

energy? Light is a form of energy, and this light is extremely bright, and I'm

gonna hold that light next to my paper. I'm not gonna touch the paper with the

light, and let's see if we can destroy that with the light from this paper. So

here we go. Let's turn this on. Well, there we go. You see my light? Okay. The Bible

says that you and I are supposed to be the light of the world, right? We're

supposed to be the light of the world. A lot of the world is in darkness, isn't it?

That means that a lot of the world don't know about Jesus' love for them, and of

course that's our job, isn't it, to share Jesus' love with them, okay. But this

light, this little flashlight, has three different brightnesses, okay. If I push

it again, oh, there we go. Is that a little bit brighter? I won't blind you with this

light. It goes one more. We got one more set of brightnesses, okay. It goes through

about 4,000 lumens. Really, really, really, really hot light. Let's do it one more

time. Okay, there we go. I think that's about it. Okay, so I'm going to take this

and let's see if we can destroy the paper with this very, very bright light.

Let's check this out.

Oh, what happened to the paper? Was it destroyed? Yes, the paper was destroyed.

What happened to the energy that the paper had? Einstein said that energy

cannot be destroyed. So some of that energy went where? Where? Into heat, that's

right. Did you feel it? I felt it. I was holding the paper. That was heat. Heat is

a form of energy. Where else did it go? Did you see the light? I mean, the

flames was light. Light is also a form of energy. Then we put some stuff

into the air, didn't we? Put some carbon, we put some probably some water molecules

into the air, and maybe even some hydrogen, okay. So we put some chemicals

into the air. But energy cannot be destroyed. I think that's interesting,

isn't it? Energy cannot be destroyed. Now what does that tell us? What does that

tell us about our Creator? What does it tell us about God? What does it tell us

about Jesus? Can somebody come up with a spiritual application there?

We might need our roving mic again. I'm sorry.

Okay, well let's put you on the mic. Oh, the mic's up here. Oh, I'm sorry.

All right. Yeah, yeah, Medina. There you go. He is immortal and everlasting. Yeah,

which is amazing, amazing, absolutely. Anybody else have something else before

we actually close and we'll read a couple couple of other texts? Oh, here we

go. Here we go. God gives us the energy to live. I'm sorry, say that again. God

gives us the energy to live. That's right, God gives us energy to live. Every

morning I thank God for energy, thank Him for life, health, and strength, and energy.

And it all comes from Him. Every moment comes from Him. Sometimes we forget about

that and it's something that we need to be reminded of. Okay, all right, let's see.

I've got a couple things here. All right, a couple things I wanted to to read and

we'll close. All right, see what we got. And then, Joe, I'm just going to read this

quickly. Joe 12, 7 to 10. It says, but ask the animals and they will teach you, or

the birds in the sky and they will tell you, or speak to the earth and it will

teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not

know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every

creature and the breath of all mankind. Amazing, absolutely amazing. And then the

actual text that we read, okay, and that comes from Romans, okay, Romans 1, 20,

says, for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly

seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and

Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So is anybody without excuse about

knowing about a creator God? It says no one is without excuse because although

they know God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became

futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing

to be wise, they became fools. Interesting. I don't want to become a fool.

Do you want to become a fool? I don't. All of these things that relate to natural

revelation, we see all of the things of nature, like all the people that

have ever lived. Some of the people that lived before Christ, okay, they had

natural revelation, okay, that they responded to, okay, but we have

natural revelation and we also have another. We have special revelation and

the special revelation comes from the Word of God. It comes from God and it

comes from the Word of God. Now Job had both, didn't he, because God spoke to him,

okay, that's interesting. Wow.