Creation vs. evolution

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Verse 6, And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Verse 9, this is day three, And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. Verse 11, And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth.

And it was so. Now day four, verse 14, And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. Verse 20, day five, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

And down at verse 24, And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. This is day six, verse 26, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Verse 28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, or fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, and God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for me. Verse 1 of chapter 2, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth which, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. I am really thinking primarily of younger folks that are with us today, but I hope there will be value in what is said for all.

I have been along the road and also talked with some that are on the road through education, and without any question the statements of Genesis chapter 1 are given no credence in our schools. If you have a teacher that gives any credibility to them, you have a rarity. If that teacher were to be questioned by the authorities, they would have to stop what they are saying, because the laws of our land have been taken to rule out any recognition of divine authority.

We are living in a generation of young people. Our children are coming through a system that is telling them that it is not necessary to consider God when you are talking about the real world, and that things as they really are when they are addressed logically do not require any thought of a sovereign God. There is a way of explaining everything as it is, and it is coming to be without any thought of God.

Really, the attempt is made, and I am afraid that some of us may even succumb to it, to divide our thinking between Sunday and Monday to Friday, between our religion, our faith, and then really facts as they really are, to divide between the spiritual and the secular. Oftentimes it may be the case that even unknown and most are too courageous to allow such a thing ever to be known in their thinking, that what happens is this. Evolution and the natural sequence of things and the uniformity of matter as it is, is regarded as being probably true.

It is the basis upon which everything has got to be handled. And so we have to deal with that when we are dealing with factual things in school and education and real learning and logic and reason. But really, we prefer to think about God and to recognize that maybe God did make heaven and earth, and somehow or other there must be some way to reconcile what the Bible says and what really is.

But we never can really figure out how to put those two things together, so we live with two halves in our mind that are really at war, and we just never admit it. Now, I know that that's not the case for older Christians, and maybe that's not the case for anybody here. But I would be surprised if I could delve deep enough into some young minds and not find that something of that is really what is going on.

So I'm going to do what I'm not capable of doing. I'll tell you that before I start. I would like to have more capability to handle, but maybe I can use my own weakness in the subject as a strength, because I would like to say that my faith is not based upon what is observed.

What I believe is not based upon the accumulated findings of science or what makes sense and what a scientist will buy. I do not expect that I will be able to explain to the logical satisfaction of a person who is only interested in believing what they can see. I do not expect that they will accept my faith, but I do want to tell you that my faith is not blind faith.

I do not believe Genesis chapter 1 just because it's more comfortable for me to believe. I do not believe Genesis chapter 1 just because I prefer to believe it. Nor do I believe it because, first of all, it makes sense.

The basis, the foundation for all that I believe, and I'm looking at this from the standpoint of inquiring minds that must have a basis for belief. The basis for belief of every child of God who wants to explore that basis is not blind faith. It is not stated preference.

You recall, and of course it is often stated, that Hebrews chapter 11 says, by faith we understand that the things that are made did not come from the things that appear. In other words, that what is came from something that is invisible, something that is not, and by faith we understand that. Now, if you take that to mean that my faith simply says, by faith I understand, I believe, and therefore it is, that really is not a fair foundation for faith.

That is blind faith. That is not what the writer in Hebrews chapter 11 is saying. Faith must always have a basis.

Did Abraham have faith? Yes. And we will look, perhaps, if the Lord will, at many of the expressions of that faith, but let me ask you a question. Did his faith have a basis? Was he simply believing because he chose to believe? No, Stephen says, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, whilst as he dwelt in Mesopotamia, and all that Abraham trusted had as its foundation a fact.

God had appeared to him. The God that was had given him something upon which to base all that would follow in Abraham's life. And Paul says, and I want you to see that what I'm saying is firmly based on Scripture, Paul says, if Christ be not risen from the dead, your faith is vain, our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain, and we are found false witnesses.

You'll note twice in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that Paul says, faith is vain. Your faith and our faith is vain. But there are two different words that he uses.

Your faith is vain because it has absolutely no effect. You are yet in your sins if Christ be not raised from the dead. But before that, he says, our faith is void.

Our preaching is void. It's empty. It has no meaning if Christ be not raised from the dead.

The gospel we preach is empty, and the whole body of faith that we hold is empty if Christ be not risen from the dead. So that we are standing just at the moment with the great apostle in saying that the resurrection of Christ is the basis of all our faith. Our faith is based in fact.

And the most verifiable fact of history, as it has been called, is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. On the basis of that, and there is so much more that could be taken up, on the basis of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, an undeniable historic fact, there lies the affirmation of all that the Lord Jesus said he was, and of all that he claimed. Now, I'm making a very, very quick trip through what I think is the most important journey.

But based upon that, I am going to go immediately to the words of the Lord Jesus, John chapter 10. The scriptures cannot be broken. So that based upon the fact that he is son of God, declared to be so with power by the Spirit of God through resurrection, based upon the unalterable fact of resurrection, he is what he claims to be.

He substantiates the scriptures that have been given. So that I would tell you very unashamedly that I believe in creation because the Lord Jesus believed in creation and declared it to be truth. From the beginning, said the Lord Jesus, he made them male and female, so that the unalterable truth spoken by the Son of God, he is God incarnate.

His resurrection verifies that. The words of the Lord Jesus are these. Genesis chapter 1 is fact.

That is not blind faith. It would be unreasonable. It would be blind stupidity.

Strong way to put it. It would be blind stupidity to question and dismiss the words of God incarnate. If he did not rise from the dead, he is not God.

If he did not rise from the dead, his word is not to be considered. If he did not rise from the dead, then all that we believe as Christians has no basis in fact. There is no foundation for faith.

I am taking everything back to this one great event. I am basing all that we will say from Genesis chapter 1 on the unassailable foundation of truth, that Christ is risen from the dead. Having said that, that is step 1. Step 2 is what does Genesis chapter 1 say? I want to look not so much at a foundation for our faith, but I want to consider just a little explanation of what Genesis 1 says.

It is furthest from my intention to introduce anything of controversy today, because that would disappoint me to do that. It would weaken what I want to confirm. But I suppose I am going to have to say that not everybody may agree with what I say today, but I am doing my best to just take what I find from the word of God.

I take Genesis chapter 1, to answer the question when, to be a unit. I know that it may be commonly taught that there is a tremendous gap between verses 2 and 3 of Genesis chapter 1, so that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void somehow or other, because Isaiah chapter 34 says he made it not without form and void. Genesis chapter 1 therefore tells us that something happened between verse 1 and verse 2, that God made everything in its perfection.

There are seven words in Genesis 1, and seven times four Hebrew letters in Genesis 1 and verse 1. Very interesting. There is a perfection that is bespoken all the way down through the chapter. There are seven days involved.

There is a perfection that is involved in that. But somehow or other, God made it all perfect, and then it was without form and void. There was some kind of judgment that came upon it, and then God says, I am going to start all over again.

Therefore, all the ages that men's series require may very well fit between verses 1 and 2 and verse 3 of Genesis chapter 1. Now that's interesting. That would save you from a lot of intellectual problems, maybe, although I don't know that that really would help, because you'd have to start working from Genesis 1 verse 3, and you wouldn't fit what men have described to you anyway as creation or evolution or the development of origins. So really I don't think that the gap theory is any help, and I don't think the gap theory is scripture.

Now, I know that it has been taught from scripture, but from the very best that I can understand, you'd need people with a lot more expertise than I to decide whether the world or earth became without form and void, or whether it is a statement that the earth was without form and void. The best authorities that I can find simply say that the grammar demands that it is an additional statement to verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and now that being the case, the earth was without form and void. And so someone will say, well, now, when you read without form and void, it was waste and barren or empty.

Certainly God did not make it that way. That's what Isaiah says. What Isaiah says is that God did not make creation to be without form and void.

That is to say, he did not make it with a design that it should be waste and empty. And when God brings judgment in upon the world in a day that is coming, and things will then be empty, you may decide that that's not what God intended. God has something more in view than judgment that will yet come upon man when the earth will be brought back to a condition that will remind you of Genesis 1 and 1 when the earth came from God's hand in creation.

The book of Isaiah and the book of Jeremiah speaking about without form and void is saying that's not God's intention. And so Genesis 1 and verse 2 is not God's intention. God simply works step by step.

He works in a sequence that we may be able to follow his work and learn something of his personality. But God begins with matter out of nothing. In the beginning, God created out of nothing.

What appears from what does not appear. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And at that point, there was no life in it.

It was empty. It was without habitation. But that's not what God intended.

He has just moved to the first phase. And from that, he is going to develop further and further along. I would say that the words of the Lord Jesus are a help to me on this matter of whether there's a gap involved or not.

I quoted them already. I don't know whether you see the same significance in them that I do. The Lord Jesus said from the beginning.

Am I building too much into it to say that when John begins his writing in John chapter 1, he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And he says all things were made by him and without him was not anything made. What beginning is John talking about? Before there was time and space, there was no beginning.

Because everything was in the unchangeable state of the eternal. So that if you were to begin going back in time and you arrived at Genesis 1 and verse 1, wherever that is for the moment, you arrived at Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 for the first time there was a beginning. Before that there was no change of anything.

Nothing was begun. So that John chapter 1 and verse 1 is saying in the beginning when time and space began to be, when matter came into existence, in the beginning was. He existed at that point and if anything existed at that point, it had an eternal existence.

There was no change in it. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Now I'm using the same word from the lips of the Lord Jesus and he says from the beginning or at the beginning.

In the beginning he made them male and female. So that I take it that the Lord Jesus is saying that when you come to day six of Genesis chapter 1, you're still in the same flowing of history as verse 1 of chapter 1 as well. In the beginning God created and from the beginning he made them male and female.

All that flows right down through Genesis chapter 1 is one narrative of a progressive work. God began in the beginning. I take to be day one.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void. It was not yet what God intended it to be. God produces matter and now God begins to to arrange matter.

It would be very difficult to see that God's purpose through all of this is to bring everything into subjection to Adam. If there were creatures before Adam that were not brought in subjection to him, it would be very difficult for God to see that God looks over his work of six days and says it's very good. But if you could just see underneath the crust of it all there are fossil remains and there's corruption and there's death that's already come in.

There is no explanation for death in God's fair creation apart from one thing. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all for that all have sin. That is in connection with all of creation.

There is no death as far as physical creature death there is no death until Genesis chapter 3 until the fall until sin has come in. Therefore I find it very difficult to think that scripture is teaching that there's a long period between Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2 and Genesis chapter 3 the six days of creation. I take it that day one begins at verse 1 of Genesis chapter 1. But that raises another question and that is this is this really days.

Surely one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. Now without getting too involved I think it's fair to say it doesn't say that one day is a thousand years to the Lord. God does not operate on a different time schedule than you and I do.

I think it simply means this that the time as far as God is concerned God's concept of time transcends ours and if you put the two things side by side to us one day in a thousand years are vastly different but put them on the same scale with God and God says my as far as I am concerned with the infinitude of measurement there's no difference between a day and a thousand years. That is a statement of the greatness of God no impatience with God to reach the end of a thousand years because a day is with God of a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. So if you try to fit a thousand years into every day in Genesis chapter 1 that the evolutionists will be no more happy with you than if you just make it 24 hours and if you try to make it a million years you'll be no better off than if you just take it to be a day if God says a day generally speaking God means what he says.

Now I don't want to be over simple but I but I am saying that when God says evening and morning was first day an evening and a morning is a 24-hour period and when God speaks about a day he is speaking about a 24-hour period in Genesis chapter 1. I remember reading a book all about the Bible by Sidney Colette that was given to my brother when he was in Sunday school and I stole it from him and he hasn't gotten it back yet. I mean don't don't tell him don't tell him but one of the things in that book very interesting one of the things was that he points out that there is a four-day difference between now let me see if I get my things straight here between the summer solstice and the equinox. All right you scientists would you isn't that right now that is when the earth is at the widest point of its orbit there is a four-day difference between that widest point of its orbit and the longest day of the year that is the summer solstice and I wouldn't want to base anything scientific on that but just simply say isn't it a coincidence.

I take it that the earth began its orbit on day one. I take it that the sun was set to control that orbit on day four there's a four-day difference. How significant that is I'll leave you to judge but it is a matter of measurement that science has made.

I take it that we are talking about 24-hour days in Genesis chapter one but when you look at these six days primarily six days of creation the seventh day of rest you'll notice that these six days do divide into three very interesting two very interesting parts of three a piece. I read just as a matter of interest because I didn't want to take the time to read each of the verses down through the beginning of chapter two. I read what could be very well called the ten commandments of creation.

Ten times over you read and God said and so the truth of the 34th psalm is it no the uh 30 whoops I've got the wrong number in my mind it's one of the 30 psalms I just looked it up this morning to be sure but he spoke and it was done he commanded and it stood fast there it is the heavens were formed by the word of God that is the word of the psalmist there's no process involved God could have easily have spoken the end of day six into existence at the very moment of Genesis one verse one in the beginning God chose to move step by step but he did not move step by step in order to allow time for a process to take place he spoke and God said let there be light and men begin to measure light now you know that light travels at 186 000 miles per second fantastic God says let there be light now this past week in the news men uh have discovered it's a more an amazing thing now give them credit but but men have discovered uh a developing galaxy how many trillion light years away not not million or billion trillion light years away and not years away but light years away now they've discovered all that therefore of course the creation must be a trillion years old in order for the light to reach from that place to here and they're watching that light to see how uh how a solar system develops so they'll know how our solar system came to be God said let there be light and I assume that light from whatever corner of the universe God would establish it in day four because earth is the center of God's creation the light didn't begin traveling from there to reach here the light was shining here because it was all set with a purpose of earth as the center so that it did not take a trillion years for light to get here something a trillion light years away the light was here when the stars were made in day four God said let there be light and there was light so you see day four and day one come side by side that is in day one God says let there be light there's light and there's darkness and God separates light from darkness people say in Genesis chapter one verse two that there was darkness on the face of the deep that's an evidence of something evil and that is an evidence of something that is wrong so therefore a judgment must have fallen God separated the light from the darkness there's nothing wrong in darkness darkness is an absence of light and of course it is of tremendous spiritual significance that God is light and darkness is the absence of God but light essentially and darkness essentially have no properties of rightness or wrongness there is darkness and God calls that night there is day and light and God calls that day but in day four God sets now the sun and the moon to govern to rule the day and the night and he establishes them for signs and evidence of the handiwork of God no doubt and for seasons so the calendar is all going to be regulated by sun and moon are the moon regulating our monthly schedule and the sun our annual schedule there it all is for signs and for seasons it is all set up by God it is all established light is related to day one and to day four but then when you come to to day two you'll notice the parallel between the heavens that are given to us in day two and the fowls in the heavens in day three so you're coming now to the firmament which is to be filled by God with the animal creation the birds and then in day two you have a distinction that God makes between the waters on the earth and the waters above the earth the firmament i take to be a simple statement we would call it the atmosphere that is the the heavens the atmosphere around our earth and uh just question whether i had to digress a moment i remember in a in a class in my last year in school a symposium in which uh outer space was a topic and and uh so a lot of minds uh working from various fields of study my field of study was mathematics so uh we all had to do a kind of a paper at the end of this relative to outer space and all that so i decided to try working out uh probabilities just on one thing now before i get all the way off the track just on one thing uh if you were to find a planet not all planets will have an atmosphere around them not all bodies of of matter in the universe will have an atmosphere around them but then if you find those that do have an atmosphere around them there has never been discovered in all the billions of matter entities in the universe there has never been discovered one that has an atmosphere suited to support life the atmosphere around this earth is unique if you begin to start calculating probabilities even on one thing like that you're looking at a tremendously staggering improbability that there would be anywhere else even in the natural thinking that there would be anywhere else that would support life as we know it to be but i get off the subject on that but what you have in day two is god established an arrangement in day two and i'm going to say it's an arrangement that is different from the arrangement of things as we know it today now i'm not going to get time just to question very much of what the evolutionist teaches but one of the basic presuppositions of the scientist today is this first or second peter chapter three all things continue as they were from the creation so that the scientist and he won't tell you this but one of the basic axioms on which he is operating is this that there are uniform laws of nature and everything has been operating indefinitely into the past and will operate indefinitely into the future by the very same laws now that's outside of the realm of science altogether science is only logically able to say this is as things are now and we expect that if these laws continue to operate this is how they will be in the future but science has no business to say and cannot logically say that because it is this way now it was this way 10 years ago unless they can observe that it was that way 10 years ago science is only able to observe and to make the to make its deductions on the basis of observation but they can't go back logically to the beginning and say this is the way it was because they have no observation of how it was they can say assuming that things remain the same this is how it was but that's an assumption it's not fact it's an assumption and according to our bible the earth as it came from god in creation was stored not as it is today the geological arrangement was different it was stored with water today it is stored with fire and when judgment falls it will fall as fire today when judgment fell in the days of noah it fell in water because the arrangement of earth at that time was different from what it is today day two in genesis chapter one tells us this that god had arranged a canopy that covered the whole earth not clouds as we know them today because there was no rain genesis chapter two but there was a mist that watered the earth there was a vapor canopy that covered the whole earth and that was established on day two waters on earth they covered the face of the earth in day two and there were waters in the heavens a vapor canopy that caused an arrangement by the time god had creation finished it established an arrangement in which there was a moisture a hothouse here upon earth and when the flood came not only did the great fountains of the deep break up but the vapor canopy the waters that were above the firmament descended as well and caused the great flood that we know from the days of noah but day three as well there's a parallel because in day three you have dry land appearing as well as in day six day six you have the animal creation on dry land and then in day six you have the human creation coming on dry land now i might just point out one thing and just take one illustration for it and uh express a thought or two relative to an evaluation of what really is being taught if you notice in genesis chapter one god says that really the order in which things came was complexity down the first thing that is mentioned relative to creatures is the great fish or the whale the most complex of all the creatures and then god speaks coming down the scale and if you look at the thought of the the grass coming forth and the the trees bearing seeds it is actually given in opposite order to what you have seen in every history book or science book that deals with this subject there is universally propagated the idea of trees not not not literal trees but you know the drawing of a tree of origins and so it starts with one cell and it branches out and it branches out and it branches up and all the branches on that tree express the way in which things were developed strange as it may seem if you were to really talk to people in science they will tell you that there is absolutely no evidence that it took place that way the succession from one stage to another is not there there is no evidence in all that is seen the uh well the simplest way to tell you what i'm saying is to tell you a little incident i was out in uh on the west coast uh a year ago through circumstances i went to the uh library the uh bookstore of the university of british columbia so i i had time i don't like time to kill but i had time to kill so i i was wandering around through those books and i came across the reduced table well that was more interesting to me than all the other tables on the reduced table there was another a book a little incident giving a paperback and was half right so i thought good i wonder what it said and it was darwin retry so i thought i wonder what this is and i picked it up and discerned the best i could what it was by a man by the name of norman mcbeth a lawyer and um so i wondered what's he what's he saying well he the front cover advertised that the theories of darwin were inadequate so i thought well i'll read this who is this man what kind of a christian is he so i read to find out what kind of a christian he was he's not a christian in fact he believes in evolution and he makes it very clear that he wants to do nothing to take away from the the uh theory of evolution except to point out that all that darwin taught is invalid as far as scientists today are concerned and that all the evidences that to the public they express as facts in 1960 sir julian huxley on a television program announced to the public that the theory of evolution is not a theory it is a fact the theory of darwin is not a theory it is a fact but if you read the writings of scientists and that's what this lawyer began to do he read the writings of scientists in which they really have come to the point of recognizing that it is at best a postulate it's a suggestion to try to explain some things that they can see but there really is after 100 and almost 20 years after 120 years they have not found anything that will support what darwin said and in fact the more the geneticists in their laboratory look at what is really happening the more they have discovered in their own words goldsmith is one of the leading geneticists of a past generation and an advocate of evolution but his statement is this we will have to find some other way to explain it because forms have not come from the less specialized to the more but from the more to the less specialized everything is backwards and nothing has worked as darwin's theory demands that it does and all that evolution is based upon is based upon a theory that has found no support there are adaptations of creatures but always within the boundaries of kind that the word of god has given us there is and i know some of the folks have objected to this there is only micro evolution that is within that kind there is adaptation to the various uh needs and circumstances of nature but what is called macro evolution that is a change that goes beyond the boundary of kinds that are specified has not been found and the idea that the scientists have they deal with um with two principles primarily behind this one is if you get enough cumulative changes they're all very small but if you get enough very small changes someday you're going to find you have a big one so for 120 years they have looked for a big one and they have found a lot of little changes but the evidence is not there that the sum of all the little ones is a big one the sum of all the micros is a macro it just is not there but beyond that going in the reverse they have the idea that actually if you have enough time you can have anything happen and so that all this process because it does not happen in 120 years because there cannot be anything made to happen that will cross that invariable boundary in all the work and design of scientists and all the rest because there is nothing that has been made to make that happen well it would happen if you just had enough time now i know that i'm not a scientist but that's a cop-out that's circular reasoning we can't make it happen but it would happen if you just had enough time there's no demonstration of that that's not scientific that's just blind faith and when you really come down to it men believe in evolution because they choose to believe in evolution because they want a natural way to explain all that is and they do not want to allow that there was some master design and power that brought it all into being and so really uh while there is much more that could be said on that and there's much written that would be of value to read for those that have questions on that basically speaking the theory of evolution the postulate of evolution is simply an attempt to explain observable things and there has been absolutely nothing to support that explanation the more men have studied the greater their questions have become so that while on the outside they are saying to the uninitiated public evolution is unquestionable evolution is fact their own writings among themselves simply state we have more questions than we do answers in fact that sad tendency is that most men that speak so uh authoritatively about evolution just simply accept it and work on that basis in their laboratory or else having never observed it themselves they believe that there is somewhere else in the vast field of science it has happened but not in their specialty and they are all united on that they do not have the evidence simply in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth that is not a way to just simply choose that i would like to explain facts that are difficult i don't have all the explanation of facts i haven't even attempted to go decently through genesis chapter one i don't have all the answers to things as they are but i do have this very very firmly established that god created and god arranged so that things are today from nothing arranged by a hand of infinite wisdom i do want to apply that just a little bit and uh three aspects i think there is a value while we appreciate the work of god in creation in redemption rather and that is the theme of our worship and praise i think we would make a mistake not to appreciate the work of god in creation now without question god's greatest work is not creation god's greatest work is redemption but god's great work is seen in creation and david says the heavens declare the glory of god and uh in psalm 8 david says again oh lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth there is a declaration of the glory of god and of his excellence in the creation that is around us and i would suppose that our in our busy day that if it's the same with you as it is with me we are all too much given to being so busy that the little simple things of nature and the grandness of nature does not cause in our hearts the awe that about to cause just to go back to day four because in psalm 8 david goes to day four when i consider the heavens the work of thy fingers can't you see god with his needle point an area if you put one star over there the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained thou has placed each one of those stars in their in their orbit there is an intricacy that each one is in its proper place the work of thy fingers and there is in that a working of absolute accuracy god has ordained the the orbit of the moon and the orbit of the stars and the solar system it is all working by the hand of sovereign wisdom and control by grand design david says when i think of day four i marvel at day six when i consider the heavens the work of thy hands the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him why did god ever pick up on day six and make man in his own image and after his own likeness why did god place adam with the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field why did god place adam with all things in subjection under him my not only is there an appreciation of nature but david says there's an admiration of the ways of god that god has ever taken notice of man the god of the infinite is the god of the particular the god who is controlling the universe in all its immeasurable space as far as man is concerned that god takes care of man my that makes you and me marvel i hope it does by our son i remember learning when i was in some grade eighth grade 93 million miles away 93 million is a lot bigger than you grasp now i think that's really fair to say and it takes all the time of eight minutes for the sun to reach earth the light from the sun to reach earth eight minutes long time eight minutes ago the sun started the particular beam right here now started at the sun the nearest star is four light years away and men are talking this week in the news about trillions of light years away god put every one of those specs in its proper place and ordained its orbit he spoke and david says what a marvel what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him why was it ever the purpose of god to place man in dominion over all of that adoration but god brings job to creation remember in the book of job there's a lot said and job has a lot to say and his friends have got all kinds of answers most of them spurious until finally god speaks and if you begin in genesis chapter 38 you'll find that god takes joe right down through day one when that the uh sons of god shuddered for joy at the creation and day two day three and day four and day five and he didn't give a long time in day five on the animal create on the creation the fowls and the fishes and he comes to day six at the beginning of chapter 39 and he speaks of the great creatures he says job listen i'm the god that designed the whole thing and there's a wisdom behind the whole thing job you can trust me for your life you don't need to question job that there's a wisdom behind your life too i'm a god of order i'm a god of purpose i move all things to my designed end he have heard of the patience of job but you have seen the end of the lord job you don't have to worry now job didn't have what we have for revelation now i would say simply you know god didn't have much to work with that's a poor way to put it but god didn't have the whole word of god he didn't have the revelation of christ to take him back to as he does to take us back to but god says listen creations are all i need to point out to you job but i've always got an end to what i'm doing that there's an infinite wisdom behind all that i'm doing job just rest you might not understand it but creation is enough to tell you that there's a wisdom behind it now if you and i had nothing more than that could we not trust god for our lives oh brother we've got ten thousand times better than that but that's enough the infinite wisdom and arranging and power of god as it is seen in the physical creation god help us to appreciate it god help us to adore the god of creation and god help us afresh to submit to him let us pray