I know I've been gone for a little bit but we're going to try to jump in hopefully in the right spot and deal with creation today and then next week I believe Ben Castle will be picking up with the creation of angels in particular and then we'll go to man-made in the image of God. So today what I want to do is I want to begin with a few catechism questions, and then I'll read scripture texts, two scripture texts actually, and then jump into our larger catechism topic on creation. So let me go ahead and back up to what are the decrees of God. If you know them, you say them with me. If not, then I'll do a solo here. So what are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. And how does God execute His decrees? God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence. And what is the work of creation? God's work of creation is making all things of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six days and all very good. Amen. I've got allergy brain, so sorry for messing us up a bit there. All right. Before I pray then let me read a couple of passages of scripture and the bigger ones from Isaiah 40 and the smaller one is from Psalm 33. One dealing with God's character shown in creation and the other describing the manner of creation. And particularly in the latter one, hopefully you'll recognize an Old Testament allusion to all three persons in the Trinity. And we'll see that in Psalm 33. So I'll begin in Isaiah 40, verse 12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as small as the dust on the scales. Look. He lifts up the aisles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him as less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted. Scarcely shall they be sown. Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth. when he will also blow on them, and they will wither. And that's an allusion to the earlier part of the text that all flesh is as grass, and the grass withers because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. So now he's saying even the greatest of them, he'll blow upon them. They will wither and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. And we'll go ahead and stop there. Maybe just to highlight one thing, verse 28 refers to him as the everlasting God. the creator of the ends of the earth whose understanding is unsearchable. So you get here a variety of attributes, which you've already considered in some measure together. And you also see these attributes brought to bear on God's work of creation, as well as his work of providence, which will come almost next. There's a few other things to do first from the larger catechism. Then let me read simply one verse from Psalm 33. Again, talking about God's righteous character first and his goodness, then moving into his power and his work of creation puts his power on display as well as his wisdom and his goodness. So verse six, by the word of the Lord, The heavens are made, you need to hear John 1 here, by God's eternal word, His Son. And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. And you need to hear the Holy Spirit here. who is the one who often comes out in these passages that use the term Ruach in Hebrew, which can mean spirit, wind, or breath. And often this is why in the New Testament you have metaphors connecting the spirit to wind or to breath. So the scriptures are God breathed, for example. But you also have Jesus saying, the wind blows where it wishes, and you can't tell where it came from, where it's going, so are those who are born of the Spirit. Now He's saying, in creation, by the breath of God, by the Spirit of God, He created all things through His Word. We could say the Father created all things through His Son, by His Spirit, through His Word, by His Spirit. And so in the Old Testament, we have a hint of the Trinity creating. OK. It's always a bit of a long intro here with the catechism questions and reading, but let's pray. Almighty God, we do thank you for the opportunity to gather in the name of Christ this day. We thank you for blessing us with another Sabbath day to celebrate his finished work. We thank you for blessing the Presbytery meeting this past few days. And we thank you, O Lord, that now we have the opportunity to gather in your name and to enjoy fellowship in Jesus Christ. Grant that our love in the spirit would increase both to you as well as to one another. Grant us wisdom from on high as we consider your glorious work of creation. And we pray, Lord, that we would use what we study and learn to increase our devotion, our reverence, our awe, our dependence upon you in all things. Forgive us where we have not done these things and taken your work for granted. But we pray that this day you would stir up our hearts to fresh joy, zeal, and thanksgiving as we glorify you now in thought, word, and deed. In Christ's name, amen. All right. Hopefully, I'm in the right place. And I've been told that I basically am, that we should have gotten up to the decrees of God last week. Does that sound vaguely familiar? Okay, I have at least some nods here. Well now what we're looking at is what is the result of the decrees. So just as in some ways you and I might make a plan or there's at least one engineer here and you have plans and you have to move towards a product, you now have to execute the plan. and you have to put it in effect. Well, that's what we're talking about with the works of creation and providence. How does God bring to pass in time His eternal plan? The difference is, of course, you and I put the pieces together and think about the data and look ahead a little bit and try to think what the results might be and we make our best guess as we make our plans. Not so with the Lord. The Lord plans infallibly. The Lord plans only with respect to himself. In other words, who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor in any of his works? In the works of creation, in the works of providence, in whatever the Lord does. The Lord takes counsel with Himself alone. And He brings everything to pass according to His good purpose, according to His infallible will. So the decree is like the blueprint standing in the background. And God now executes the decrees in two special ways. In the works of creation, the works of providence. So obviously the first of those is going to be the work of creation. Now, as we think about the work of creation, before I even go into this, when I was driving home, or actually Dr. Curto was driving home yesterday, and I was along for the ride, we were right in the middle of a city area in Atlanta and saw a deer cross the road. And you immediately started thinking, something seems to be wrong here. Right in the middle of the city, here's wildlife running all over the place. And it reminded me of the fact that, in a sense, when we think about creation, we not only think about the glory of God, but it's amazing, isn't it, even after the fall, how well things often work. You know, you mess up one part of the creation, and it's interlocked with so many other things, and there's a ripple effect that goes down the path. What often happens, though, is the broken cog in the wheel is us. We can't fit. We displace animals. They harm us. And there's this conflict. There's this problem. And that shows that, in some sense, it's amazing how well things work after the fall. But it's also a reminder to us that there is always this tension. Things are not quite what they should be. Well, what I'm beginning with today is not the things are not what they should be side. That's going to come with sin. But I'm going to go to the other side. It's amazing how well things work. and how much we see of the glory of God in creation. So probably, this is the primary thing we need to focus on today. Is we need to see the glory of God put on display in His works of creation. In some sense, isn't that the purpose of redemption? Is to restore creation. to its original order, and even more gloriously in Christ. And to bring us back to the point where in Jesus Christ, by His Spirit working in us, we can truly behold the glory of God in the works of His hands. So this is why creation is important. It's really talking about how things should be. It's talking about our relationship to God and what we are meant to see, what we are meant to know, and how we are meant to glorify God in the works of His hands. And obviously, if there was no creation, there'd be no providence. And nothing else would happen after that. So we need to begin with the works of creation. So what I want to do is, first of all, in question 15 of the larger catechism. And if you have it, you can have it open. Because for the sake of time, I'm probably going to make passing references to it, pull out the words periodically. And I'll try to tell you verbally when I'm doing that, so you know what I'm doing. But for the sake of time, I'll try to condense it. But first of all, we have the question, how did God execute his decrees? Second, we have the question, what is the work of creation? Now, as you've had some other teachers, in a sense, I've made my job easier than theirs, because I have two short questions, and they often have pretty big ones. But this topic seemed to stand on its own and seemed to come to us. So in the first one, we see the scope of God's execution of His decrees, which I've already alluded to. But what I want to stress here is not just God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence, but the last part of the question, according to His infallible foreknowledge in the free and immutable counsel of His own will. So that's the part where I'm saying this puts His attributes on display before us. So that's what I'm trying to stress now. And then, specifically, the decree as it relates to creation. So in general, where does it go? And then specifically, how does it relate to creation? That is the decrees of God. So that's what we're looking at. So let's go ahead and begin. And then I will try to go from there. There are basically two ways we can understand the execution of God's decrees. And one is obvious if he tells us. God gives us a creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 and so we know that he created the earth and we know how he did it at least in some measure. The other one is we can look around and see the works of his hands and we see the outward effects of it. Well in a sense that's what the catechism is reflecting. Now when we talk about the execution of decrees in creation and providence, what it's saying is something like this. This encompasses the beginning, the middle, and the end of everything. So there was nothing. God spoke and said, let there be light. He created something. He also governs all of his creation. And he will bring everything to resolution at the return of Jesus Christ. and at the day of judgment. So this is pretty sweeping, isn't it? As we think about the execution of God's decrees. What it's reminding us of is that everything is happening according to plan. If we think about it that way. We'll deal with that in Providence more, but the decree is the plan. Everything is happening according to plan. So we ought to, for example, in our trials and in the difficulties we face, go back to the fact, first of all, that everything is happening according to plan. Now that may not help us that much if we just stop there. You could say, a Muslim could say Allah is bringing everything to pass according to plan. But what is Allah's character like? Well, some days he sends people to heaven, other days he sends people to hell. There's no guarantee that you'll actually earn his favor, that anything you go through in this life will actually be worthwhile. And this is different, isn't it? Because we're not detaching this from the character of God. He's not just powerful and governing over all things. but He is wise. He knows how to do things well. He knows how to work everything for His glory, and as you and I are Christians, for our good. and for our salvation in Christ. He takes our trials, for example, that would be simply adversities or tragedies introduced by sin, and transforms them by the suffering of Jesus Christ. You realize that it's not just the cross, but every trial he faced throughout life. And union with Christ transforms everything that comes to pass in your life, from chastening for sin to discipline of a loving Father, who is bringing forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now that's more of the application and what you do with it and where you go, but we need to think in these terms. How does the execution of God's decree, stretching to everything, creation, providence, and all the way to the consummation, affect how we think about everything. Well, first of all, we don't just say God is powerful. We say God is wise. We say God is good. God is loving to us in Christ. God has set up things in such a way that he can and he will work all things for our good. Now, you can start seeing that's going to overlap with providence quite a bit. But providence is an external mirror or reflection of the decree. Only God knows what's going to happen ahead of time. And what we're dealing with here is this is why. He knows the end from the beginning because his plan is working itself out. Now, when we think about God executing his decrees, the works of creation, and providence, I've listed a whole bunch of attributes. And I've talked about his goodness, his power, his love, his kindness, his compassion. all of these things that we can trust in as we think about God executing His decrees in our lives. If you had to summarize it and say, you know, when we think about God executing His decrees and you had to boil it down to one or two things that it puts something on display about God, what would it be if you had to narrow it down? And I'm asking this because I think this is a good exercise. I think it's good for us to simplify and try to tie things together at points. And your clue is that I'm thinking in terms of the catechism as well. If you had to narrow down what the execution of God's decree shows us about God, if you had to narrow down the declaration of God's glory to a couple of things, what would it be? What attributes? Okay? And that's good. Okay. OK, and that's a good way to tie into what Mr. Van Voorhis is saying. God, of course, exercises love among the persons of the Trinity, displays it in time. God is all powerful. That does certainly stand out. Go ahead, Kevin. OK, so wisdom I've already touched on. I think the Isaiah passage I read pushes that way, too. And a lot of those metaphors there have God's wisdom. I didn't read all of it, but it also talks about the Lord coming with his mighty arm and gathering up the lambs in his arms. So there's a tenderness and a love to the flock, that sort of thing. Go ahead, Joseph. Sure, so, you know, let's put that under God's wisdom and power because it's all-encompassing touching everything that comes to pass but it's always occurring in his plan and wisdom OK, so you go to Providence as an execution of the decrees, holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing. That shows certainly key aspects of this. I think the larger catechism touches on that, but summarizes it into two things, infinite knowledge and freedom. Isn't that interesting? Now, think about it this way. Everything everybody said is right and useful. But think about it in terms of why they give this as the summary. Infinite knowledge. Well, that can include things like God wants to put his goodness on display, his love on display, and he knows what to do with his knowledge. So in other words, that's wisdom. Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. But first, they say he has infinite foreknowledge. It's not simply that he makes educated guesses as far as what we're going to do. And I'm not going to go back into the attributes of God, and I'm going to assume that a little bit here. But he's not guessing. He's not saying that we're free, and so he adjusts his plans accordingly. But he has infinite knowledge, infinite wisdom accompanying the knowledge, by which he can exercise his love and his goodness. And all the other attributes he wants to put on display in creation. So I think there's wisdom here in putting infinite wisdom first. And then the execution shows holy, wise, powerful, et cetera. Well, not exactly. I mean, all the attributes relate, don't they? So is self-existence. I mean, it is related to the idea. I hate to use the technical terms, but this is what our forefathers called archetypal theology versus ectypal. Let me explain that, because I think it is kind of helpful. With archetypal theology, the idea is God knows everything. only in relation to himself. It's his omniscience, his self-knowledge. There's always a qualitative difference. If I spent billions of years adding information to everything I ever know, and I knew everything a creature could know, I'd never know it the way God knows it, because he's creator and I'm not. So there's always a quality difference, a qualitative difference between me and God. Ektyphel is talking about as far as I can get. thinking God's thoughts after him, understanding how he's revealed himself in his works, in his Word, and by the Holy Spirit. coming to a closer knowledge of God. It's a dim copy, as it were. And I think that's important here. So when you talk about his infallible knowledge, it is related to his self-existence or his acuity. But it's reminding us that there's always a difference between God's knowledge and ours. I can't understand what it means to be creative and to know everything all at once without a process of reasoning and gathering information. God does. I don't understand everything in relation to myself. Sometimes we act that way, as though the world revolves around us, but that's sinful, isn't it? And yet, the world does revolve around God. Everything comes out of God. That's why it's simple for us because we're not God and so with God How does it mean to understand things in that way? Well, I confess I can't really say the Bible tells me this and tells us this and explains that that God has this infinite knowledge His understanding is unsearchable His way is past finding out. That's the end of Romans 11. What I'm using in these theological terms is saying, why? So yes, he's separate. Yes, he's self-existent. But his omniscience, his knowledge of all things comes first. But notice freedom, the immutable counsel of his own will. Just think about it. This is where our brains get twisted up in knots. You know, the decree of God is eternal, right? The decree is eternal. So then the next question is, well, people say, well, if the decree is eternal, then isn't creation necessary as part of the decree? Well, the Bible answer is no. Could have created the world he was free not to create the world he chose in his infinite wisdom to create the world He he doesn't owe us our existence This is behind why the Bible says things like even if we did all of our duty We'd be unprofitable servants. I don't want to steal someone else's thunder with a covenant that works later, but but even there I Adam didn't deserve to go to hell, but he didn't deserve a promise of everlasting life either. He was an unprofitable servant. God was free to create. God's not going to treat creation wrongly or unjustly, but this reminds us there's this infinite gulf between us and God, and it should astonish us that we can know him at all. that we can enter into relationship with him, let alone as sinners. I mean, we can come as creatures because we're made in God's image, and we'll get to that later, but through Jesus Christ. We can't take this for granted. There's this great gulf. So it's important for us to recognize God's decree is omniscient, and it's executed in perfect knowledge and infinite knowledge. You didn't have to create. The only thing that's necessary in the entire universe is the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some older authors talk about the necessary acts of God and the free acts of God. Well, the only necessary acts of God are the Father beginning the Son and the Spirit proceeding from the Father and Son from all eternity. Because that's who God is. That's necessary. Everything else is free. He could have made the world differently than he did. Now, as we get to creation, this has far-reaching consequences. Why is homosexuality wrong, for example? Well, God could have created the world differently. He could have created the world without marriage. He could have made us like plants, sending out seeds, and some of them are neither male nor female. He could have done that. He chose to make things the way they did. There's freedom. And the reason why such activities are sinful is that they buck against the way God made things. Could it have been differently? Yes. Was it different? No. This is how it is, because God is free. So he's infinitely knowledgeable. He knows what to do. And he's free. So that's the groundwork. We've got a foundation. Anything else there before we go into creation itself? Go ahead, Tim. Yeah. Yeah, well. Perhaps. And the question there relates to middle knowledge. Let me ask the question. Does anybody know what middle knowledge is? There's a couple. There's probably two or three. I do. You are blessed if you don't know. It's a modern, not a modern debate, but it's become a modern one of an old question. But the issue is basically, how does God relate to his creatures? And if we're truly free in our actions, then God may know what he's going to do, and what he can do, and all the possible outcomes. But if we're to remain free, then this is sort of a crass summary, but it amounts to some sort of educated guessing. with the creatures. I know this will come to pass. I look down the corridor of time. I perceive that Bob's going to do this, and then Sally's going to respond this way, and then their children are going to do this. And therefore, I know that some of them will believe, some of them won't. And so I'll choose those. So it gets into that type of thing. And that's a crass way of putting it, but that's kind of what it comes down to without getting into all the philosophical underpinnings. A lot of these things are big philosophical questions, and when you start picking them apart, they're actually trying to address pretty simple things like this. You know, how do we deal with our free will is really the big crux of that. Well, I think without getting into that, I think the catechism is wise. in reflecting things like Ephesians 1, that God works all things according to the counsel of His will. Who has known the mind of the Lord, who's been His counselor. I mean, who's known the mind of the Lord, who's been His counselor, that's almost directly reflected in the catechism, isn't it? Knowledge, freedom. Knowledge, freedom. Who's known His mind, who's been His counselor. It's the same basic thought pattern, isn't it? Is this middle knowledge? No, it's just simply saying God can do all His holy will. God could create. God could not have created. Did God create the best conceivable world? God knows. Is the world good? Does it reflect the attributes of God? Yes. Could it have created a different world? I'd have to say yes. But again, that's beyond us, isn't it? The only point is that God is free. And God could do whatever he pleases. This is not God taking us into account, taking us and our will into account. Go ahead, Charlie. Yeah. Right. Yeah, so. Right. Right. And you're right, our freedom reflects God's freedom in some way. But there's still a qualitative difference. God does all his holy will. He sits in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. That's Psalm 115. Our freedom is knowing him and being subject to him. And so you're right. So good. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. The issue there is who are you to reply against God? Or I often quote Romans 3, let God be true and every man be a liar. And I think that's a good litmus test. Are we more eager to justify ourselves and our freedom? or God in his knowledge and his freedom. I mean I hope by asking it that way we're willing to say the latter. We start with God and I think that's what the catechism is doing. I think that's what Paul does. That's certainly what Isaiah did. And so we need to begin with God is perfectly knowledgeable. God is perfectly free. I do need to throw in the creation here. I don't need to say everything about it because There will be subsequent times in the next couple of weeks to talk about the creation of men and angels and the implications of all of that. So I at least need to give us enough groundwork to move forward. I think I can do that with the time we have remaining. So first, we're looking at the scope and execution of God's decrees. Second, now we're looking at one specific issue, the decrees of God executed in the work of creation. This stands out because it only happens once. God says, let there be light. God creates the heavens and the earth in the space of six days. So the question says, what is the work of creation? Most of it's similar to the shorter catechism, and it's not that long, but it does add a few things. The work of creation is that wherein God did in the beginning, by the word of his power, make of nothing, the world, and all things therein for himself within the space of six days, and all very good. Well, you've got the actor, God. You've got the material, nothing. You've got the time, the beginning. You've got the scope. the world and all things therein. You've got the end, the purpose, for himself, and you've got the manner, the space of six days. It's pretty orderly, isn't it, in terms of one little piece at a time. And I don't expect you to remember all those verbally, but you can look at a question and you can start seeing that each little clause in my version here, separated by commas, adds a different piece of this. Now the main thing we've been looking at so far is the axis. God. And it's been assumed, but let me just state it very clearly, the Father through the Son by the Spirit. That's why I read the Psalms text at the beginning as well. And that's why I alluded and connected it to other passages as we went through in some New Testament texts. So the Triune God is the Creator. The Triune God puts His glory on display in creation. Now the question is how does he create? Let me just pick one piece apart at a time. Notice it says God did in the beginning create the world. Well, before creation there was no beginning. There was the eternal God. Now we can't talk about these things in some ways because notice I'm using terms like was. Well, even that's improper, because there was no was. We're talking about God in eternity past. We think about doing things at a particular point, and place, and time. Not so with God. And all I can say here is this relates to God being eternal, and this is just beyond us. It's incomprehensible. When God created the world, that was the beginning. That was when time began and literally started its clock and has gone on ever since. And so sometimes in the history of the church, people have balked at this idea. And I may have mentioned this to you before. It may have been in class, and I can't remember where. So if I'm repeating it here, then forgive the repetition. But somebody asked Augustine, trying to put him in a logical conundrum, What was God doing before the creation of the world? And they're trying to argue about this whole idea of a beginning and eternity being absurd. And you know what his answer was? Anyone remember it? Creating hell for the overly curious? And that is true. That's maybe not a very pastoral answer, but it's true in the sense that we recognize that God has told us what he wants us to know. He hasn't told us everything. And maybe there are some things we couldn't know. Because of the qualitative difference between us and God And so we we have here to recognize the fact when God said let there be light Genesis 1 1 that was not only the beginning of the world that was the beginning of the beginning That was the beginning of time as we conceive of it and as we know it How does he do it? by the Word of His power. And you see that right in the text too, don't you? Let there be light. So far, so good. John explicitly links that to the Eternal Son. The beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and he tells us that nothing came into being except by Him. Or in Colossians 1, 16, 17, somewhere along those verses, he says all things are made through Him and for Him. Well, that even picks up two components of our catechism, because through Christ, as the means, by the word of his power, but also for him. So we see to the praise not only of the Father's glory, but together the Son. And we could add by inference, the Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna pull in that direction right now, but you get the idea. God has done all things by the word of his power, and then for his glory, for himself comes a little bit later. Notice, make of nothing. Ex nihilo is the Latin phrase that you should know here because it's so common. If you listen to R.C. Sproul, you've probably heard it a million times because he likes to appeal to this particular thing. And basically, this is not designed to say that nothing is something. In other words, it's not out of nothing as some sort of pre-existing concept or material. But it's nothing meaning only by the will, the word, the power of God with no pre-existing materials. This doesn't mean that in the process of creating the heavens and the earth, the Lord does not shape parts of the creation or make distinct parts on the days. And for example, when he makes man, he speaks and it comes to pass, just like all the other works. But he also forms his body out of the dust of the ground. So this is not denying that, but it is saying that in the beginning there was nothing, and unless God had said, let there be light, and had said, days one through six, what needed to come to pass by the word of His power, nothing would be. And sometimes in that work, like the creation of man's body or Eve from the rib of the man, he uses pre-existing materials. But there wouldn't be pre-existing materials unless God created them. That's the point. This is setting up an absolute distinction between the creator and the creation. This relates to John's question or comment about aseity earlier. God has self-existence, we don't. God is of none The triune God is infinite and eternal and unchangeable and all of his attributes and the eternal relations of the persons But we came to be and everything around us is made of God of nothing and The scope of this is that nothing escapes it He made the world of nothing, and nothing escapes His creative power. He made of nothing the world and all things therein for Himself. Now I know there's translation issues sometimes with the Proverbs, but the beginning of Proverbs 16 still resonates in my mind, in the translation I know, where it says that the Lord has made all things for Himself. even the wicked the day of destruction now if I said everything I do in life is for myself what would you think of me pretty selfish you know the only reason and selfish is an inherently sinful term and pejorative term the only reason that's true is that I don't exist for myself And I'm not my own chief end. That's not the same with God, is it? It's not selfish when God does all things for himself. It's necessary. It can't be otherwise. Let me put it as starkly as possible. If God sought the glory of anyone outside of the Trinity, God would be a sinner. Sin is ultimately not giving God the glory due to His name. And this is why this is really the heart and root of all sin, is the failure to glorify the true God as God and our God and now after sin as our Redeemer in Christ. And I just quoted the Catechism on the First Commandment. Because that's where we need to begin, don't we? God must do all things for himself and it's not hidden in the corner in the Bible. Pick up Isaiah 40 and start reading at random all the way through the subsequent chapters and just pick this up. How many times does God say, for my sake? For my glory? How shall my name be profaned? John even says in 1 John 2, little children, your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. And how could God say anything more powerful to comfort us? Did you realize what that's saying? God will sooner violate the glory of His own name than let your salvation fail. And what greater surety could you have in the name of God? You know, the author of Hebrews picks up on this, doesn't he? The Lord swore by himself because there was none greater. And you can't have a greater possible assurance that God will accept you in Christ beyond this. Well, even in creation, God made all things for himself. What redemption is doing is restoring nature. putting things back the way they should be, making our relationship to God proper rather than improper. So this is embedded here in doing all things for himself. Now the last part of this, and all very good, is maybe not that controversial, though it could be. I want to say one thing about it at least. What's the controversial part today? in the doctrine of creation. If I talked to you Thursday and said, I'm going to be teaching on creation on Sunday, what's the first thing that's going to come to your mind? Which Sunday? Yeah, well, that's a fair question, isn't it? Because I'm all over the place. Well, what about if somebody mentions creation, what comes to your mind? What, yeah, how many, what's the length of the days? I mean, that's the big thing that comes out. Now, I'm not trying to say that's unimportant. I am giving a mild warning, though, that sometimes in modern debates, we can lose the bigger picture. Because notice what I've been stressing here. I mean, the knowledge and the freedom of God in creating it all and exercising his decrees, we lose some of that, maybe. And all these other things we've been we've been looking at In terms of the beginning how he did it by the word of his power Making all things of nothing The scope includes everything for his own glory why that's important the goodness of creation We'll look at in a moment. We can't act as though the only thing to say is that The Lord revealed himself as creating in six days, and what do the days mean? On the other hand, we can't go the opposite extreme, can we? Because some people will say, yeah, you're right, and therefore it just doesn't matter. So we don't need to think about that. Well, I'm not going to get into all kinds of controversies today, and there's a bunch of different views on this. But let me simply say this. Make two basic comments. I'm convinced at least that in Genesis 1 and 2, Moses, under the inspiration of the Spirit, understood these to be ordinary days. And he understood his readers to read them as ordinary days. I mean, certainly when he gives the Ten Commandments, he thinks this way, doesn't he? Because what does he say? Six days you shall labor, on the seventh day you shall rest. Well, if he had in mind, well, day one is six billion years until you get past one period. And this is all metaphorical. And then day two is another something billion years. That's a long work week, isn't it? I mean, in order to say, six days you shall labor, the seventh you shall rest, the language is pretty simple. God rested on the seventh day. God created the heavens and the earth in six days, so that's why you're doing what you're doing. Now, I think, on the surface, there's a lot more to say. And a lot more that could be said and other views that could be presented, but a Hebrew child under Moses would undoubtedly understand that the way that I've just presented it. And I think that's the way we're meant to read the text. And the other thing there that Dabney said in the 19th century that I found helpful is the only reason people really question the length of days today is because of modern science. And science fluctuates, and theories change all the time. And we look at past scientific theory as almost barbaric. What are people going to say about us in 200 years? Probably something like that. We can't have the arrogance to say that's not going to be the case. So there has to be a certain humility in approaching scientific questions anyway. But he also says this, that all scripture is profitable. And if the proper meaning of Genesis 1 and 2 needed to wait for 19th and 20th century science, he's not 20th century, he's 19th, so I'm adding that. 19th, 20th, 21st century science to understand what it means, then it was not proper up to that point. It didn't communicate anything. We couldn't get the right meaning of the text without it. So what you see what he's doing is he's appealing to the sufficiency of scripture. This is here for a reason. I just said, God didn't tell us everything. He didn't answer every question. But he has given us certain things, and we do have to ask, why is this here? Well, one reason we could say, why the six days? Why resting on the seventh? Because I need to work six days, and I need to rest on the seventh. because God entered into His rest on the seventh day. And according to Hebrews 4, that's what I want to enter into at the return of Christ. That's why I keep the Sabbath, for example. I'm looking forward to an eternal rest. I'm looking forward to entering into Christ's rest with God in glory. So even our work week and our cycle of the Sabbath is meant to teach us to long for glory. and to be in the presence of God. But it's also meant to teach us to have a work week, isn't it? And to go through the cycle. We get to things like the Sabbath and the Fourth Commandment later, but it comes here first. So I think that on the surface of it, we should be biased in favor of a standard reading of days of ordinary length. I know this can be a hairy question, and I know I can get through all other things, and I'm not going to deny that there are big theological points being made in Genesis 1. But I think when we say in the space of six days, we have to be honest, 17th century men meeting at Westminster, writing these documents, understood the space of six days to be fairly clear. It was the space of six days, and that's what they meant. And I don't think that's all that complicated, regardless of what we do. Go ahead. Yeah. Dabney's argument on clarity. Yeah. Yeah, and nobody questions the term day. It can refer to a broader concept in scripture. But in the context, it seems unambiguous. I know I've given you the Cliff Notes version. I've jumped right to the conclusion. And we haven't had time to get into different views or anything like that. That's kind of the nature of this class, though, is just here's the digest. Here's the end result. And that's why I've just tried to go through the path least resistance and just give a couple of simple ideas. But I think that this is important. And maybe just one more illustration there. I have a friend who's a solar physicist with a postdoc from Cambridge. And he worked for NASA and Lockheed Martin and still does. And one time he was at a General Assembly. Somebody said we can't expect modern scientists to believe that Genesis 1 and 2 refers to six literal days and Somebody said well, mr. Lemon over there believes in six literal days, and he's a solar physicist with NASA and as a postdoc from Cambridge So apparently a scientist can say the Bible knows better than I do And he can still do good science and have a good job. So in other words, that shouldn't be the make or break issue. I think there are issues where we have to say, what does the scripture say? And we have to be honest with them. Let me just say at the end, and all very good. God, as you'll see later, is not the author of sin. He's not morally culpable for sin. And this is the first hint of this, isn't it? How did he create us? Good. Very good. Isn't that the commentary at the end of Genesis? How could God create anything else? Does he not create in such a way that shows his infinite knowledge and his freedom? And then puts all of his attributes, all the ones we've discussed and many others, on display. And so this last little comment, very good, really shows us how creation reflects the glory of God. So back to where I started with the deer running through the streets in Atlanta, of all places. Things are out of joint. Things are not what they should be. But the heavens still declare the glory of God, don't they? The firmament still shows his handiwork. Day in the day is still uttering speech. Night into night is still proclaiming knowledge. And it is remarkable, even in a sinful world, how well things work. And to look around us as Christians, we should say that we are able to see something of the glory of God around us. I still like Calvin's analogy. This is like putting on glasses. You take your glasses off. The world is blurry. You don't know who made it. You don't know if anyone made it. You don't know if it's telling you anything at all. Maybe you have some good ideas, but someone else has other ideas. How do you know who's right? How do you know who's wrong? Then the spirit changes your heart, drives the scriptures into you. You read your Bible. You put on your glasses. And now you see the sunset. You see the sunrise. You see the nice fall air, experience it that we have now. And you glorify God, because we have our glasses on. We see through the Word. We have the Spirit in our hearts. And through faith in Jesus Christ, we can begin to appreciate how God executed His decrees in the work of creation. And He's doing it in the work of providence all around us. So hopefully that's a good tone for us to end with, and something that not only leads us to worship God for creation, but especially redemption as we come in the name of Christ and worship today. Let me go ahead and stop us there. Let's pray. Almighty God, we thank you for blessing us this Lord's Day. We thank you for blessing our discussion today. We thank you for your work of creation. We bless you for your infinite knowledge. We bless you for your absolute freedom. And we thank You, O Lord, that all things You have done, You have done well, and You have displayed Your goodness in the works of Your hands. We pray that You would help us reflect Your glory back to You today, and help us to know You and worship You and serve You. In the name of Christ our Savior and Lord, in Jesus' name and for His sake, Amen.