The Wondrous Creation

We appreciate all that have taken time to be with us now I'm going to ask you to turn if you will first of all to the book of Job and we'll read together in Job chapter 37 this is the conclusion of the argument of Elihu to Job and we'll break in at verse number 16 Job 37 and 16 Thus thou know the balancing of the clouds the wondrous works of him Which is perfecting knowledge how thy garments are warm when he quieted the earth by the south wind Has thou with him spread out the sky? Which is strong and as a molten looking-glass Teach us what we shall say unto him for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness and so on Book of the Psalms Psalm 136 Psalm 136 and verse number 4 Psalm 136 and verse number 4 To him who alone doeth great wonders for his mercy endureth forever to him that by wisdom Made the heavens for his mercy endureth forever to him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth forever To him that made great lights for his mercy endureth forever The Sun to rule by day for his mercy endureth forever and the moon to rule the moon moon and stars to rule by night For his mercy endureth forever Those who like trivia facts will just mention this trivia fact that you can lodge away in your mind The most common sentence in the Bible Occurring perhaps 48 times throughout Scripture his mercy endureth forever That's a tremendous thing to think that's the the most common sentence in our Bible His mercy endureth forever Now it's here in this chapter a number of 20 some times just in this chapter alone But over 48 times in our Bible mainly in the Psalms that expression his mercy endures forever Now one other verse Before we get into our subject and if you were here early enough our dear brother actually quoted it for us through his cell phone Genesis 1 and verse number 1 Genesis 1 and verse number 1 you hardly need turn to it in the beginning God created the heavens and The earth we trust God will add his blessing. We'll be reading other scriptures as we move along But just for now as an introduction It is almost 95 years ago November 26 1922 Howard Carter was a British subject and he was excavating in the land of Egypt and he was intent on Finding a treasure that he felt must exist on that particular day He made his way down a 26 foot long passageway to a sealed door Made a small opening in the door put a candle in it just to make sure there were no foul gases coming from it and Gradually enlarged it So that he could peer into that chamber as he placed his candle into that room gold glittered everywhere and Behind him stood one of the men who had financed this expedition Lord Carnarvon and he just anxiously was awaiting What he saw and he finally said can you see anything? to which Howard Carter responded with his now famous words Yes wonderful things Wonderful things he had come upon what we now know as King Tut's tremendous Burial place with all of its incredible riches and he said I have seen wonderful things We're not looking in a tomb We're gonna be looking at the Word of God Be looking at some of the wondrous works of God that are given to us in the Word of God perhaps in our Old Testament 69 times there's a word translated and an Unfortunately, sometimes it's spoken of as being wondrous Sometimes it's translated marvelous. Sometimes it's translated a wonder, but we have read together of the wonderful the wondrous works of God in Creation so tonight with God's help.

We want to consider the wondrous work of God in creation now there about seven or eight of them that you could find in the Word of God that are referred to as God's wondrous or marvelous works You do the arithmetic there are five nights So we'll just be dealing with five of them and I'll just give you them now so you'll know where we're going this week Tonight we're going to be looking at creation Tomorrow night. We'll be looking at the wondrous work the marvelous work of formation that is How God has formed man Psalm 139 we'll be looking at the marvelous work of God then Wednesday night in the will of Lord will be looking at the Marvelous work the wonderful work of incarnation Thursday night in the will of God. We'll look at the wonderful the wondrous work of inspiration and Friday night This is the Lord's doing it's marvelous in our eyes the stone which the builders rejected The same is made the head of the corner.

This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes We'll consider the great subject of Christ's exaltation So those five subjects will occupy us We'll be considering Creation formation incarnation inspiration and exaltation and You can do your homework and find several others in the Word of God to to consider and to appreciate Now undoubtedly whenever anyone says they're going to be speaking about creation People begin wondering Does he believe in an early earth or is he a gap theory person? Does he think the world is really Billions of years old or just six thousand years old. Where does he stand in this in this argument? That's even sometimes held among those who are very very definite in their belief in a creation account of our world well, I do have my my thinking on that matter, but Let me just put it another way. I think all of us have seen occasions where All of you that have children grandchildren, you know what it's like you you buy them a very nice present and you wrap it and their birthday comes or Christmas morning comes and they tear open a package and they they get their gift and an hour later you come back and They're playing with the box They're not the gift well, I think to get occupied with the the science of Genesis chapter 1 is sort of like playing with the box now the box can have value but I think the great reason it was Genesis 1 is given to us is not for us to be able to scientifically answer all the issues of creation Genesis 1 was given us given to us to worship the God of creation to be able to appreciate the greatness of the God of creation and the incredible truth of the God that made this world and some of the Features of that God that are revealed to us just in Genesis chapter 1 and 2 That's what we're looking at then together and considering something of the of the greatness Actually, if you go through the Word of God, it is interesting to see the different places that God introduces Creation as an answer for different issues.

For example, we read Well, we didn't really read it in its entirety, but Were we to go back to the book of Job and begin in the very next chapter from where we read in chapter number 37 from chapter 38 to 42 God peppers This is what I can use. He peppers Job with 70 questions many of them having to do with creation as though to tell Job Job If I could handle all of this If I can bring all this into being and you don't have the slightest idea how I did it Job, can't you just trust me? And just leave everything with me so he gives us the account of creation to comfort those who are being tried a Comfort in in trial it certainly is a confirmation of God's greatness It's actually a cause for worship Now you just turn over to and when you have time to Revelation chapter 4 and you recall how that chapter ends with the beast and the four and twenty elders worshiping God for thy pleasure All things were and made and All things were created and made by thee. So they're worshiping God for creation We should be able to worship God for the creation all around us nothing wrong with that to just actually you have never actually done it where you've Just been lost in wonder at the beauty of creation at the marvel of it Well, we worshiping God for creation as well as for redemption God uses creation as well to silence and to challenge all the idols of the world many times in the in the prophecy of Isaiah He is the Creator God and they are just the the idols that men have to carry on their own backs and make for themselves We'll be seeing if time allows that Creation is used as an absolute guarantee of God's covenants I think that's vital to see and I I hope we'll have time to notice something of that and we'll be noticing as well that God uses creation to prove the deity of Christ four great chapters in your Bible That deal with deity of Christ and it's easy to remember them because they're all chapter ones John chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1 Hebrews chapter 1 Revelation chapter 1 four chapter ones that Build upon the great doctrine of the deity of Christ and in three of those chapters Creation is brought in as part of the proof of his deity John chapter 1 without him was not anything made That was made Why must his deity be established in the gospel of John? Because our salvation rests upon it Why must his deity be established in Colossians chapter 1 head over all things firstborn of all creation by him We're all things made that were made in Colossians it's not our salvation, but it's our sufficiency He's absolutely sufficient for the Christian life.

We need nothing angels can add nothing to us Philosophy can add nothing to us all the things of chapter 2 that are brought in speculation and law-keeping None of that is necessary. You have everything in Christ. He is sufficient Hebrews chapter 1 Again, we're reminded of this one the heir of all things by whom everything is made and consistent is being held together In chapter Hebrews chapter 1 his deity is necessary if he is going to be the sovereign So salvation rests upon deity Sufficiency rests upon deity Sovereignty rests upon deity and what about Revelation 1? If he is going to be able to secure every purpose of God for the ages he must be deity and so God will use creation as from the hand of Christ to Substantiate the great truth of the the deity of Christ but come now if you will just to where we are and we'll Try to deal with some of these things just so you know where we're going and tonight Just a couple of headings to keep in mind and if nothing else you'll have an idea when I'm almost done.

I want to talk about the creation and its greatness the creation and its greatness the creator and his glory and finally the creature and God's goodness the creation and its greatness the creator and his glory and then lastly the creature and God's goodness God's kindness to to all of us in in this great great Creation don't know if you've ever thought about the size the size of Creation some people think that the universe is infinite it is so vast let me just give you an idea of something of the vastness of creation if you were To try to travel to the nearest star now forget the Sun for just a moment That is actually the nearest star but aside from the Sun the nearest star Alpha Centauri, which is 4.28 light-years away now that doesn't mean much to anyone right, but let me put it in more Realistic terms you You get into your spaceship and your spaceship is able to travel 60,000 miles an hour pretty good and You Stock up so you don't have to stop along the Along the galaxy anywhere you're gonna make a non-stop trip to the closest star Alpha Centauri Flying at 60,000 miles an hour and you don't want to stop It's gonna take you 46,000 years to get there 46 that's the closest star and If you decide I think I'd like to get to the edge of our solar system and get to the next closest galaxy and remedial and You're a little bit more modest here you just get into your Boeing 747 and you just limit your speed to 600 miles an hour and You stock up again enough fuel to keep going Guess what 650 million Years to get there the voice of the vastness of our solar system now That's just our galaxy. That's just the Milky Way galaxy one galaxy and Now on top of that there are probably 100 million Galaxies the vastness of the creation You may say why did God have to make? I mean if everything is concerned with with the earth and with Christ reigning over the earth and Christ Redeeming a people from the earth. Why did God have to make such a vast? Solar system.

I mean wouldn't just one galaxy have been enough. Why such a vast I Think we'll see a couple of reasons, but could I suggest just one at this moment in time? The Creator must always be greater than his creation and if we cannot measure if we cannot comprehend the greatness of the creation How much greater the Creator himself must be He has given us a vast creation. I have called it the voice of the vastness It's shouting to us something of the of the tremendous Character of the God whom we have come to know that he has given us such a vast universe one of your I Think he was a Midwest man.

I think he was from Chicago Frank Lloyd Wright an architect of the previous century and some of his works. I think there's one of his Houses out here in Wisconsin somewhere falling falling waters or something. It's out here in Wisconsin He said water can never rise higher than its source Whatever man builds could never reflect more than he is himself in other words Whatever a man creates can hardly begin to describe how how intricate how great his mind is It's always got to be less than he is So that our creation with all of its vastness with all of its greatness is only a faint reflection of how great The God whom we have come to know is in himself the size then of the creation the immensity of it How many stars in our Milky Way how many stars just in our galaxy? 200 million and There are over a hundred million galaxies Now here is a fact and I you know, it's amazing that it should startle us But when you think of what God told Abraham It sort of just falls into place Astronomers estimate that there are as many stars in the universe You ready? As sands upon the seashore Now if you know anything of math 10 to the 24th power, okay 10 to the 24th power and if a computer could count three stars a second Non-stop non-stop Was able to do that after a hundred years of counting It would only have counted about 5% of the stars That are in our universe You say well, what's? What's that mean? Let me just take you for just a moment to Isaiah chapter 40 Israel has been a failure Their track record has been one of deplorable failure they have spent years in captivity and Jacob says My way is hid from God my judgment has passed over from in other words what Jacob is saying is God has forgotten all about me God doesn't know what's going on in my life.

God doesn't really have any interest in me. You know what God says God says I know the names of every star and when I do roll call, they're all there She says if I know billions upon trillions of stars He says do you think that I don't know what's going on in your life? So let me just apply that for a moment to all of us here the God that knows the names of every star 10 to the 24 More than we could ever account none of us could ever ever begin to a computer can't do it For a hundred years three a second non-stop. How much less we? But the God that is able to do what do you think he somehow doesn't know what's going on in your life? That somehow my way has passed over by God God, you know, I'm just some insignificant I'm you know, all of us feel at least if you don't you're a strange bird, you know We're one of seven billion people treading planet Earth and you sometimes think How can God know what's going on with me? seven billion that's That's kids play for God, right? I mean he's taking care of trillions upon trillions of stars and God knows exactly what is going on in every life He knows the grief.

He knows the sorrows. He knows the pain. He knows the heartache.

He knows the disappointments And he says that Jacob whose life was a failure Now I'm not speaking of Jacob individually the nation speaks to the nation That's that lovely portion that says they that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength Exchange their strength for his strength and they'll mount up with wings as Eagles now Those are lovely words in themselves, but applied understood in the context relative to to the nation I think what God is saying is they will soar above all their failures in the past They'll rise above them and life will be something even greater for them because there is strength in the God of Creation he's also the God of redemption for us But we're looking at his mighty power here as far as the God who has brought creation into being Able to rise above it. They'll walk They had failed in their walk they had failed in running as servants God says I can enable you to mount up with wings as Eagles to run and not be weary to walk and not faint This God is our God and this God of creation. This God who has done this wondrous Marvelous thing we call creation is the God who was able to Care for and meet the need of all of his people the size of it the immensity of it The intricacy of it the intricacy of it everything working in absolute harmony the perfect balance of everything, of course the skeptic the agnostic the atheist would say if it weren't we wouldn't be here and There's tremendous truth to that if it weren't we would not be here Any little thing were different just that that slight change in axis of the earth That's slight movement closer to or further from the Sun an orbit.

That would be just like earth life would not be possible one of the militant atheists of the 20th-century Stephen Hawking he wrote a book called a brief history of time in it he said Why does the universe Go to all the trouble of existing Why does the universe go to all the trouble of of Existing almost like nothing makes sense. We are just some some cosmic accidents some some strange happening in the movement of planets and here we are and Life has no meaning We have no value. We're just accidents that have somehow occurred in their thinking and Carl Sagan who's who's now dead.

He said our planet is only a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic darkness In our obscurity and all this vastness. There's no hint that any help will ever come to save us from ourselves Someone I think he was the same one who coined the term cosmic orphans We're just out there just on our own What a what an empty tragic life an outlook that is when the Word of God reminds us of a God with Tremendous interest and care in every single one of us the tremendous intricacy of our universe But also Not just its size, but it's its suitability as mentioned already Perfect atmosphere Perfect tilt perfect rotation perfect distance from the Sun everything just absolutely, perfect and of course the Skeptic says well, that's the way it has to be or life wouldn't exist and yet in this vast solar system Not even a hint Not even a hint That any other planet has been so blessed to be able to have life And to have all the conditions needed for for the life that we enjoy the tremendous security Let me you'll have to just take my word for this and look it up when you have a chance if you are looking at Noah and you consider when Noah went in the ark and when Noah came out of the ark if you calculate the days it comes out to about a year and Depending on your counting 12 13 days, but that was probably a Lunar year now. There's two ways.

You can calculate years lunar time or solar time a Lunar year is about 350 days give or take a Solar year is what week three hundred sixty five point three three three something like that If you take it as a solar year It is very likely that when Noah came out of the ark The stars were exactly the same place they were when he went in and The Sun was going in the same circuit it went when he went in Everything was just and so while everything around him changed the whole landscape of the world changed with the flood When he looked up He realized there's something that never changes God doesn't change. He's the same and Everything around may change the whole universe the whole world has changed But God is unchanging in all of his ways What what a tremendous sense of security and we have that as well The seasons as they come and go everything moving in its proper sequence a Rhythm that God has established in our universe the movement of the stars the movement of the Sun or really not the Sun we move not the Sun, but the sequence of weeks the sequence of seasons all of those things are To remind us of the stability and security that God has placed in our universe But I want to come especially if I can There are four covenants Four Bible covenants that are still in force now you may say what doesn't Hebrews talk about the old covenant and the new and the first covenant passing away and The second covenant. Yes, it does.

The first covenant was a covenant of law that has been Superseded by the covenant that we'll look at in a moment, but four covenants number one the covenant he made with Noah Number two the covenant he made with Abraham Number three the covenant he made with David and number four the covenant That we testify to when we take the cup of the New Covenant and drink it on a Lord's Day morning It's called a new covenant It's called the second covenant It's called a better covenant and it's called an eternal and everlasting Covenant nothing will ever Succeed it and nothing will ever supersede it now What did he give to Noah as a sign of the Covenant a bow? in the heavens What about his covenant to the nation through Abraham? well, I'm going to ask you to do some reading here turn to the book of Jeremiah and Ask you to turn to Jeremiah 31 down the chapter look at verse number 35 Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day the ordinance of the moon and the stars for a light by Night, which divides the sea when the waves are of roar the Lord of hosts is his name if these ordinances Should depart from before me saith the Lord then shall the seed of Abraham also cease from being a nation before me forever Thus saith the Lord of heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord So God says there If you want me to cancel my covenant with Abraham As far as the nation is concerned Then he says you're gonna have to cancel the ordinances the ordinances that control the moon and the stars for a light So God says I am putting in my creation. I am putting Into the heavens above not just a bow as a reminder of my promise to Noah Never again to destroy the earth by water But I am putting in my creation the ordinances of the moon and the stars as a guarantee That my promise to the nation of Israel will never never be canceled. What about his covenant with David? Well, just turn over one chapter if you will and look at chapter number 30 or rather two chapters chapter 33 and Look down the chapter verse number 20 Thus saith the Lord if he can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night That there should not be day and night in their season Then also then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne and with the Levites the priests my Ministers as the host of heaven cannot be numbered neither the sand of the sea measured So while I multiply the seed of David my servant and the Levites that minister unto So will God break his covenant with David? God has said I have made a covenant with the day and with the night And if you could somehow cancel that covenant Then you'll cancel my covenant with David now Of course that covenant with David is going to mean Christ reigning upon a throne in this world one day But God has put into creation something to guarantee the bow for Abraham for Noah the moon and the stars for the nation the Covenant with day and the covenant of night for David.

What about the new covenant? Any sign in the sky any sign in his creation? When that new covenant was being established at Calvary God turned off the lights and there was darkness Sign in the sky the sign in the heavens the sign in God's creation That God was establishing a new covenant And the covenant that we enjoy and as I've said it is new it is better it is Everlasting and God has given us guarantees in his creation and you could take as well. I think it's lovely In Malachi the very last virtually the very last words God speaks before 400 years of silence the nation What does he say? Unto you that fear my name shall what the Son of Righteousness arise I Can't help but think what it will be like for Someone a godly Jew part of that remnant that spoke often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard They would wonder, you know, will the day ever come? When the Son of Righteousness will arise And God was saying just as that Sun rises every morning in the East and No power on earth can hinder it All the forces of men could not slow it down All of the armies of earth could never impede it all of the machinations of Satan can never stop it He says just as sure as that happens just as unstoppable as that is So a day will come when my son will come and rain and bring healing in his wings to the nation Every morning every sunrise would remind the nation or remind those who wanted to be reminded in the nation God's promise will be fulfilled just as that Sun is rising Of course, he's given to us the bright and the morning star. So there are signs in God's creation God graciously Kindly has put into his creation these visible tokens to remind us of his faithfulness of his promises of his guarantees the Signs that are all around us in the sky.

I was going to speak about the simplicity of it But let me just mention one thing. I Think the greatest understatement You know what I mean by an understatement the greatest understatement that has ever been made is what we have in Genesis chapter 1 and He made the stars also when we just said Trillions upon trillions of stars and all it says is and he made the stars also That's all it says It's like it was I don't want to say an afterthought but You know, it's as though God is saying, you know, look the big thing is is earth The big thing is earth. That's where I've got to bring my son one day.

That's the big thing the stars Yeah trillions of stars. I can take care of in just a moment's time The simplicity of it the work of his fingers Just his fingers now, of course you remember his arm brought salvation his fingers made the earth A far greater work Redemption was a far greater work far more costly to God than creation But I want to speak if I can About the Creator and his glory. What is Genesis 1 revealed to us? We already touched on some of it.

Let me just mention a few other things Genesis 1 reveals to us some of the attributes of God and They're worthy of our worship and worthy of our consideration First of all, it reveals to us his eternality. He is eternal in the beginning God created heavens and the earth So three things were created in Genesis chapter 1 time now don't ask me to explain a fact if you want to get into a Wonderful sphere of philosophic arguments and Philosophic reasoning just Google what men think about time what philosophers think about time in fact some think there is no such thing as time it's just a construct of our own making but God is outside of time. It's another dimension altogether He's outside.

He made it in the beginning God created so God made time He made space and he made matter Now if you can explain all that to me The Lord bless you, and I'll be happy to listen. It really is Something we can't we have no Nothing no frame of reference to understand what it means to create time But that's what God did He is eternal he is outside of all of this he is over and above it outside of it altogether and he is Self-existent he is self-sufficient. Why did God make us? Why did God create human beings I Mean don't please never think that God needed us That somehow God needed people in heaven to enjoy his heaven For God to need anything means he's not God He is absolutely Self-sufficient so it was really all for our blessing.

It was really all for our joy Really all for for us that this huge Solar systems exists that into it came a Savior and that as a result of his work at Calvary we have been redeemed It was all for us We can add nothing to God Because he is God totally complete in himself You may say well, it doesn't our worship add anything to him. What we're doing is confessing. What's true of him already? We're not we're not adding anything to him And we're we're only telling him what's already true about him at the very best When we've said the very best we can say and the very best way we can say it Really it's very very feeble and very very Limited and we're only beginning to touch the hem of the garment really as we think it so we learned something of his eternality We learned something as well about his his majesty don't we majestic I mean, I'm sure some of you here have trekked the Rockies both in the US and Canada and You've been to the Grand Canyon and you've been to other places that revealed something of the majesty of just our little world and the God who made it all the God who formed it all Majestic beyond compare we sang those words.

Holy. Holy. Holy Lord God Almighty the God of absolute unrivaled majesty His majesty is seen in his Creation, you know something I'm sure I know when we were younger we did this more as a married couple you would drive around neighborhoods and look at some of the especially when you're living in a little three-room apartment with hardly enough room to breathe and you drive around some of the nicest states and see some of the huge houses and where we are there some areas there were people with quite a bit of money live and You would get a you get an idea of how wealthy the person was By the house they lived in right? I mean, you know, you didn't find Bill Gates living in a little tiny two-room bungalow, right? So the house in its grandeur and in its size Gives you some concept of how important and how wealthy the person is Do you know where God lives You know the only house big enough for God Let's say at the high and lofty one who inhabits Eternity That's the only place big enough for God Eternity That's something that gives you some concept of the majesty of the greatness of this God He inhabits eternity his his majesty his sovereignty Not just his eternality not just his majesty, but his sovereignty that just means he has absolute rights This world belongs to him.

He has absolute rights over it. He has absolute sway over what occurs who he gives it to what he does with it how he moves nations and So Paul will take up that tremendous truth won't he in Acts chapter 17? He's preaching there to Philosophers the Stoics and the Epicureans and he's preaching there and he tells them God that made the worlds he determines the times beforehand of nations and How long they exist? Their measure of prosperity their measure of influence and he moves them like pieces on it on a chessboard All to accomplish his purposes And he says God is above our concepts. He's not like those idols you've made He's above our contributions.

He needs nothing He's above all of our counsel. We can't give him advice He's above our confines. We can't keep him in a little temple made with hands.

This God is so great He's the God of the nations. He controls every he is sovereign in all of his ways He's a God who's marked by by sufficiency. We've mentioned that already self-existent self-sufficient Something also about his creativity the tremendous creativity of the God actually one of the things we could talk about is the some of the traits that God has given to human beings as Sharing in a sense I say that carefully sharing.

We are also marked by creativity human beings are marked by creativity But think of the creativity of God in creation I'm not a fisherman. You wouldn't want to go fishing with me but 22,000 different kind of fish There are over at least at this point in time known 9,000 species of birds and no two birds have the same song Now there's actually I can give you a reference book if you want on songs of birds and How unique they are to each particular species 9,000 different birds with 9,000 different songs they sing And some of them are quite complex God of absolute of a wonderful creativity and he's given that to men as well to human beings to be creative the rest of the the rest of the creation works by instinct, right and Maybe a little bit of adaptation but as far as creativity, I mean, that's a that's a human being thing, right? The tremendous ability of men and all we're doing is, you know, all our creativity is we're a poor replica of the original God is the original in all of his creativity and we're poor replicas But part of God's tremendous character seen in Genesis chapter 1 the variety of things that he makes he is seen in his Eternality in his majesty in his sovereignty in his sufficiency in his creativity All of that is revealed to us in Genesis and that in much much more the God of goodness Why did God say? Now you'll challenge me this one day and you can tell me why later on one day God did not say it was good But in all the other days God said it is good. It is good.

It is good. It is very good Was God just I say this reverently just complimenting himself Or was God giving us an insight in Genesis chapter 1 as To What is good if he is what is good? Good is what carries out the word and will of God God spoke and it was done and when it was done. God says that's good That has that has fulfilled my will that has fulfilled my word Therefore it's good Now God said what was good before ever there was an Ethics Committee before ever there was a philosopher Forever there were any debates about what was good and what was not good Long before the Greek philosophers began their long tedious arguments over the ultimate good and the good life God said here is what is good so absolutes were established in Genesis chapter 1 God says what is good is what conforms to my will and What conforms to my word that is what makes something good that which is contrary to my will That which disobeys my word is not good evil and God called things in Genesis 1 God put names on things Very very clearly he called it day.

He called it night And it's interesting because when you come to Genesis chapter 2 Another one of those responsibilities that God shares now with his creatures God allowed Adam to give names to things that was God's prerogative in chapter 1 God now he says I'm gonna make I'm gonna make you responsible and have you name things So that'll be a an easy way to move into just this very last point Now we don't have time we'll deal more more than probably tomorrow night and that is the creature and God's goodness What what separates us as human beings from the rest of creation? Number one We are rational At least most of us there might be a few exceptions, but most of us are rational that means we can think Cognitive ability animals have memory by Training but as far as reasoning and and deducing and no human beings are rational Human beings are relational In relationships we thrive Without relationships we shrivel we are relational now I Have to be careful here because you can get in trouble saying these things If you love your cat or you love your dog Forgive me, but really human beings were made for relationship with each other and If you you know if you want to have a relationship with your cat or dog or your parakeet You have to act like they act right I mean you got to get down on the floor and bark You know you've got a you've got a meow with them, and you know but to have a relationship on A human level and of course not only can we have a relationship on human levels But we were made relational as far as the vertical with God himself the ultimate relationship That we actually can look up and have a relationship with God so we were made rational. We were made relational There is a very strange thing and you may not have ever thought of it. We were made reflective now what that means is just this You can stand outside yourself and see yourself right what you know you can monitor yourself like you know when you're up here You're monitoring yourself.

You know am I keeping people awake anybody going to am I putting people to sleep tonight? You're you're monitoring yourself. You're looking at yourself It can be a help it can also be a huge problem But whatever it is, but we're made to be reflective animals can't do that animals just act on instinct and One of the greatest blessings, but also one of the greatest greatest dangers we were made responsible Responsible We have consciences We have been given free will and as a result of free will we are responsible that set us apart Genesis chapter 1 let us make man in our own image man as being rational Being able to think and being able to reason come to conclusions Man as being relational having a relationship with each other having relationship with God man as being reflective being able to look upon himself and analyze himself and and assess himself and Man as being responsible In that sphere of responsibility there is a great potential for growth for blessing for usefulness but of course there's also and When God made man he realized the tremendous risk Giving men free will What we would do with it? This then is that is the God that? has accomplished this wondrous work of creation its vastness Its voice to us What it reveals to us are the virtues of God himself All of that revealed here the wondrous works of God one of the significant poets of a past century Actually she and her husband both were poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning was probably a better poet than her husband and In one of her poems she was speaking about the creation And here's what she wrote earth is crammed with heaven you get that earth is crammed with heaven and every common bush a fire with God But only those who see Take off their shoes the rest sit round and pluck blackberries Get the message eyes to see eyes to see the universe as filled with the glory of God May God help us to appreciate the God of creation that this God is our God a God who can care for us a God of power a God of wisdom a God of love a God of goodness and This God is our God and he can see to our welfare And we can trust him both for luck eternity as well as for time now. We'll speak to God in prayer Our father we bow together.

We thank thee once more for the tremendous truths we have looked at the The God of who has made this vast universe galaxy upon galaxy stars without number we marvel to think that The God who is able to name every star and keep every star in its proper place is The God who holds us in his hand and the God who holds us in his heart as well We bow in worship to thank thee again forever ever considering us ever loving us ever Planning for us an eternity of bliss and an eternity of unfolding revelation of the riches of thy grace We bow to thank thee once more for the gift of thy son and thank thee again for all he accomplished upon the cross of Calvary we Thank you for those who have come tonight to hear thy word. We pray that there will be encouragement and strengthening in light of what we have looked at and as well that we might be much more conscious of the Thanksgiving we owe to thee even for thy creation and The wonders of it and the beauty of it and all that it reveals to us of thyself We look to thee to give us safety in our travels as we return. Thanks again in our Lord.

Jesus worthy name. Amen