Systematic Theology (part 45)

Or they have certain luminosity, or something that makes them possible for us to see with just the bare eyes. Lots. Take a guess. 3 ,000. 3 ,000, good guess. It's a little higher than that. I heard in some place where they said around 5 ,000, and actually this morning I googled it and they said 9 ,000.

Google is often not too far off if it's taking you to the right source. So 5 ,000 to 9 ,000 stars to the plain eye. Now, when you think of the universe, all of this coming out of nothing, we would just want to remember the immensity of God making this.

So let me just expand our thoughts a little bit more. So we see about 5 ,000 to 9 ,000 stars in the night sky. And we all know this galaxy that we belong to called the Milky Way. Can you take a rough guesstimate how many stars are there in our galaxy?

I mean, we have one star in our solar system, the sun. Now, how many stars are there in the galaxy? Just throw it a guess. 2 trillion. Wow, that's a good guess. It's a little lower than that, but you're getting in the zone.

Okay, it's a little lower than that too. It's 100 billion stars. These are approximations, not like an exact number. 100 billion stars in our Milky Way. 100 billion. Now, that's our galaxy. Now, the next question is, how many such galaxies do we think exist in this universe?

We have Milky Way. I don't remember the name of the other galaxies. Just take a guess now. How many galaxies do you think exist? Five. Okay. A little more than that. I would have guessed the same thing, but I Googled it, so I have the cheat sheet here.

1 .3 trillion. Just take a guess. How many do you guess it could be? So, 100 billion stars in our Milky Way. How many galaxies exist on average? 10, 5, 10, 1 .3 trillion. It's actually 10 trillion galaxies.

10 trillion galaxies. I mean, for me to just think of the size of the Milky Way is hard enough. And, of course, you know, you go into these planetariums. They would kind of zoom you out and out and out.

And then you're like, where on Earth is Earth? You know, it's like so huge. So, think about it. 10 trillion galaxies and 100 billion stars in each galaxy. And so, how many stars overall approximately?

It's 10 power 24 stars. I mean, 1 followed by 24 zeros is what the number of stars that exist. So, now when we go back and look at, in the beginning, God created. And then you let your mind kind of settle in on the immensity of creation.

All of this ex nihilo, you know, he just said. And actually, you know, let's look at that. This is the funny part of the verse. So, if you open up to Genesis 1, you have verse 14. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.

And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the Earth. So, that's what God spoke at the end of verse 15. And it was so.

God said, and they came to be. And then verse 16 describes it. It says, God made the two great lights, the greater light, which is the sun, to rule the day. And the lesser light to rule the night, which is the moon.

And then what do you have at the end of verse 16? And the stars. How many stars? 10 power 24 stars. You know, it's like, not a big deal for God to create. So, when we think of creation, Spurgeon was telling his students in the lectures to my students.

You know, the natural world is such a, it's filled with illustration of God's handiwork. You know, just use them when you preach, when you take God's word and expound upon it. You know, this world and the universe should fill us with awe and wonder.

Now, there are some who would look at the immensity in almost any planetarium except, I think, Anses and Genesis. If you go, they would say, oh, look at all of this. You can't even find Earth when you look at the expanse of the universe.

What's that? No big deal. It shouldn't be. It's just one among, I mean, these are stars, 10 power 24. You add all the non-luminescent objects, heavenly bodies on the expanse of the universe. Earth is like nothing.

Now, is Earth really nothing? Does Earth have a significance, this planet Earth and the beings on this Earth, man in particular? Is man like just a cosmic dust in the grand scheme of things and irrelevant?

Or is there a specific role that this planet and this, that mankind have in this vast expanse of all of creation? So to answer that question, I have a few other trivial data to throw out at you. If you take a cubic centimeter of space, so, you know, take one centimeter in a cube form, can you guess how many atoms exist in here on sea level?

Just the number of atoms on a cubic centimeter. That's a good answer, but it's not accurate. The answer is, it's actually much higher than that. It's 2 .5 into 10 power 19. That many atoms in one cubic centimeter here on Earth.

And if you were in interstellar space, you know, I think there was a movie called Interstellar. But assume you're between the galaxies, you're in interstellar space. The number of atoms, and these are on average, between, in one cubic centimeter is one.

One atom per cubic centimeter. And it can be less than that or more than that, but on average. And there is something that is unique about this one planet that you find it very, not present in pretty much everything that we've discovered up until this point.

Can you think of some things that are unique about this Earth? And then we'll dive into our material. What are some of the things that the Earth has that we haven't found other planets to have? I think that's the biggest thing, life.

So we have something that is very, very unique. You know, when we look at the expanse of heavens, we see all these great, beautiful and marvelous things that we are getting to discover and understand.

And then when we look at this here on Earth, we have something that is amazing, even more amazing, because it is the ability of these created beings to function on their own. And if you take like a cell in the human body, it is like a vastly complex machine.

You look at any of living things, whether it's a plant life or animal life, they are able to function on their own. It's not just a robot that just does its own thing. It is able to produce its own energy.

It's able to reproduce. It is able to do a whole lot more things that just again boggle our mind. Again, we can go to the microscopic level or the macroscopic level. When we think of creation of God, we should say, wow, God, there's life.

The Earth is placed in such a unique location, temperature, its atmosphere, even the location of the Moon and Jupiter, setting it up in such a way that it can be stable and sustain life. I heard a bunch of different things, like tectonics, liquid water, and the list goes on and on and on.

If you take God out of the picture, as sometimes secular science tries to do, and then there is no premise upon which to evaluate this. It's like you're looking at this wonderful grand universe, and creation is something that man would like to exclude out of.

Because these things are meant to point back to the one who made them. When we exclude God out of the picture, we now try to find other reasons for why these exist. One of the ways they do that is to lose sight of why this creation was given.

What is the role of man on this creation? Today, when we're looking at the Word of God, I want us to be thinking of all these various ways in which we marvel at creation, and then be able to look back at our Creator.

With that preamble, let's look at your notes. Again, if you do not have notes, there's a handout. I think there's some near either side of the door, and you can pick one up. We are on the end of page one, where we are talking about the relationship between God and creation.

Last time we saw this, Cornelius Vantle would like to do this. He'd draw two circles, one for God, one for creation. These are distinct from one another, and yet creation is made by God, and it is sustained by God.

It is related to God as the source of its being, as well as the source of its sustenance. Now, the first two points we saw, transcendent and imminent, God is far above. Everything is greater than creation, because He's the cause of all that is created.

But at the same time, He's not a God that is just out there and unconcerned with the world that He made. He is also imminent, which means He's very involved in all of creation. We saw briefly how this is distinct from materialism, where you take the circle that is God out of the picture, and all you look at is this material universe.

It's grand and beautiful and wonderful, and yet it is without a reason, without God who made it. So those who live on the basis of this material universe alone do not understand the purpose of this world as it exists.

On the other hand, you have pantheism. Pan-theism, all is God. God, whether it is matter or spiritual, they believe that there is no distinction between the creator and creature, that creator is infused in all of the objects that we see around us.

Now, when we look at dualism, who can tell me what dualism is? Dual means two, and what might that mean? Dualism. I have the definition there. Why don't I read that? Dualism indicates an eternal conflict with God and the material universe.

It denies God's ultimate lordship over creation. Now, there are various forms in which we look at dualism. One of those things is that there are two eternally coexisting forces or powers. In some religious systems, you have good and evil.

So the example there of Star Wars, you need each other to balance one another, maybe like yin and yang. Or here, we are talking about material and the spiritual. So there are two things that are in parallel with one another and maybe co-equal, but you need them both.

But the Bible does not talk about anything like that. There is only one God who is sovereign over all. He is all good. He is all powerful. And evil is not something that is outside. It is under the sovereign rule of God, as it were.

The next one I have there is deism. And this became a very tempting worldview after people got more confidence in understanding how the planets and everything else work. God has set in motion our universe.

Things seem to be functioning on their own. You know, like we talked about whether it's the stars in their courses or we look at the animals and the plant life and the way in which they are built as machinery in themselves.

They function on their own. So do you even need God to be involved in this wonderful creation? So you could actually take God out of the picture. God is transcendent, but not imminent and involved in creation.

So they would take God out and say this universe is able to function on its own. God is not involved. And that would be contrary to the data of Scripture. Now, last week we looked at a few ways in which Christians can act like one of these.

As a worldview, almost everyone here would reject that. We would say, you know, deism is false. Let me ask you the question. Why would you say deism is false? And how do we know that God is involved in this creation?

The incarnation. So we have the central point of the whole Bible being God became man. He cares about the state of man and he came to rescue man out of his dilemma and his predicament that he cannot escape the condemnation that hangs over his head.

So we have God becoming man. I think that's probably the greatest example. And each of us here can, I mean, let me maybe just make it myself. I can sometimes be tempted to mentally ascent to the incarnation of Christ and the hope of my eternal salvation.

But the next day when I go to live my life in my work, live as if, you know, there is just a mechanical universe where I need to do A, B, C and D in order to get to E. Fully sometimes forgetting that my God is actively involved in my life today as he was involved in procuring salvation 2 ,000 years ago.

And I think that's one of the things we need to be very conscious of. And going back to our previous series on confessing the truth, in my flesh I am very capable of forgetting the core truths of who God is and what he does and then trying to live an autonomous life.

Deism is one of those that I can be tempted to. Any of these other relationships between the universe and God that we as Christians need to watch out for that they don't infiltrate the way we think and the way we live?

Dualism, pantheism, materialism, anything that comes to mind? All right. With that, let's go to the next section. God created the universe to show his glory. So these are very famous verses, but I want us to read them.

If someone can read Isaiah 43, 7, can I get a volunteer? Isaiah 43, 7. Thank you, George. Psalm 19, 1 and 2. Thank you. And Revelation 4, 11. Thank you, Becky. All right. So the first point is God's creation is intended to testify of his greatness.

Now, what is the purpose of creation and looking at it from a human perspective? Here we are. We are in a very unique place. We get to see all of this, the grandness of the universe. We get to see the marvel of the world in which we have been placed.

And what is this intended to showcase? And in our minds, it should evoke, wow, God is great. Did I say wow? OK, I said wow. They made vows and we say wow. All right. So let's begin with Isaiah 43, 7. I need to open this because if I remember the context, it's here is Isaiah talking about God speaking through Isaiah regarding the idols.

Right. I think if you look at the previous two verses, people who are worshipping. Oh, no. I'm sorry. This is a different context. So here it is. This is God redeeming his people. He's going to bring back the Israelites whom he has taken them out in judgment and he's going to bring them back.

And when he's called, he's talking about his descendants or his inheritance, Israel coming back. He says, whom I created for what purpose, for my glory, whom I formed and made. He is the he's talking about his role in active creation in the people that he is actually bringing back.

Let's look at the next two verses and then this will fill out our meaning. So Psalm 19. And again, the heavens declare the glory of God. They are shouting forth day to day. They pour forth speech. They are intended to proclaim the greatness of God as our creator.

Becky, because of your will, they exist because of your will. They were created and they point back to the creator. So when we think of the things that humans create, we say, wow, that was created by Van Gogh.

We're like, well, what a great artist he is. And we look at all of the universe. We say, wow, what a great God he is. Let's look at the next one. Jeremiah 10. If someone can read Jeremiah 10, verse 12 and 16.

Who would like to read that? Thank you Scott. When we look at creation, we look at the grandness of God, the glory that is due to God. And then there are two specific attributes that we want to look at.

In fact, Romans 1 talks about this in detail. We're not looking at Romans 1 today. When the world sees, when humans see this world and this universe, there should be something that screams out. And one of those attributes is the power of God, the great power of God, that he can make all these things.

Like we said, 10 power, 24 stars by just saying, let them be. And that's the power of God. And then you have the wisdom of God. If you remember in Job, God asked Job, who takes Orion and the bear and makes them, you know, dance across the skies and not lose one of them?

Who names them all? I mean, I just discovered Orion is in our Milky Way. I didn't even know that till this morning. But, you know, God makes these things and it and parades them, as it were, as a showcase of his wisdom.

And it's power. So let's listen to Jeremiah 10, 12 and 16. Thank you. And this is the passage where between verse 12 and 16, you talk about Jeremiah talks about the idols, the kind of other gods that we tend to humans tend to create for ourselves.

And those gods neither have power nor have wisdom. They are created by man. But the God of heaven and earth is the one who made all of these things. And once again, the question we need to be reminding ourselves is, who is the one who has all power, all wisdom, and the one who is worthy of all of our worship and our trust?

And then we have was the third point here. God did not need to create the universe. It was a totally free act of God. We actually had that read to us by Becky. Let's let's dwell on this for a moment. Is there a problem if God needed to create the universe?

What would it what would the problem be if God had to create the universe? So there is something outside of God that creates a necessity for God to follow. And actually, you know, when you talk about a whole number of things, whether it is the moral law, does God have to keep the law?

Is there a law that is above God that forces him to comply to it? Is there something that God needs that he has to provide for, create in order to to fill a lack? All of these language that I'm using is the kind of language that we use of created objects.

You know, humans, we need things. We have to comply to laws. And very easily, because we look at the personality of God, it's easy for us to transfer this and say, oh, maybe there is in some similar sense God needs to.

And we need to be very careful looking at the text of Scripture, because God is this is the sense in which he's transcendent. He is self-sufficient. Yes. Act 17. Powerful passage. You know, here is, you know, you worship the unknown God.

And here I am to proclaim them. He is the one who gives you rain. And he in him, we live and move and have our being. He needs nothing. And and so we need to be very careful that God creates the universe for his own good pleasure.

It is not because he needs anything out of us. And then was the fourth point. God created the universe to take delight in his creation, especially to the extent that it shows for the various aspects of his character.

And actually the. In the next section, we're going to be talking about this more, you know, the universe that God made was very good. It it when we look at the physical universe, we get to see the power and majesty of God.

This is something that God made. That's very good. God created it because it reflects a lot of who he is, his character, his power, his his creativity, his ability to do things that just amaze us. And it also he makes man.

To reflect himself, the image of God, he creates us in order that we would showcase his excellencies. There is a purpose that he has and he takes delight in executing his will in creation. So he actually enjoys the creation that he has actually made.

And the last point there is it explains human creativity. So why do we have the ability to make and enjoy art, music, write with imagination and bring forth beings? Like if you like fiction, you know, how do you come up with all these grand stories that reflect upon meta themes?

And in fact, when you look at the Bible, you get to see this this grand narrative that God is the author of. You know, Genesis one begins it. And in Revelation, this is going to end. And here is God, the author of all of these grand scheme of history.

As it were, if you want to think of, I don't know which books you like to read. I used to like Lot of the Rings. It's been a while since I've read it. You read some of these themes and, you know, these great heroism and these challenges that you face.

And you're like, wow. And then and then you look at the Bible. You get to see, you know, the greatest depths to which man falls and the greatest of all, you know, the cross where you have Jesus Christ showing forth to you.

The love of God demonstrates the power of God. And you get you get to see the greatest of narratives, as it were, as God lays out for us in in history, in time and space. What it means to enjoy this, this this tapestry that God has woven for us.

So those are some of the elements in which God we look at seeing how God created the universe to show his glory. Any thoughts on this section before we move to the next? I think we have a handout. Catherine, if you don't mind.

So the next section is the universe created by God was very good. We kind of touched upon this a little bit and we need to be careful to balance what this means today. So the first one here is if God created the universe to show his glory, we would expect that the universe would fulfill its purpose.

What does that mean? If the purpose of the universe is to showcase God's glory, can it fail to do so? Can the universe say, you know, you made me to show your glory, but I refuse to. I'm this stubborn three year old child that I say no.

You know, we have when when you look at Genesis one, you know, it was good, good, good, very good. And then now after the fall, you have a world that is in chaos. And last week we saw it is groaning. It is looking for the redemption.

But can the universe refuse to proclaim God's glory? So Psalm 19, one and two. Is that still valid? Romans one. When we look at the universe, what is it talking about? Does it fail? Can it fail to showcase the glory of God?

No. The universe that God made continues to shout forth God's glory even today. Let's actually read this very quickly. So in if you turn to Genesis chapter one, at the end of each stage of creation, God saw that what he had done was good.

I'm just going to read each of those verses. So it just. And I believe Genesis one is written this way to impress upon our mind this very fact. None of us were there when the universe was created. Genesis written by Moses.

Two thousand years later, he is told by God to write down what actually happened on the first in the dawn of creation as it were. And the language that is used, the poetic force with which this is articulated.

Let me be careful when I say poetic. This is a literary account. It actually communicates what happened. But the style with which it is written is intended to kind of hammer something down in our heads.

When we listen to this, there is something that is happening each of these days. So look at verse. Let me read the verses from here. Verse four. God saw that the light was good. He spoke it. It came to be and he saw that it was good.

Verse 10. God created the earth and the waters together as seas and God saw that it was good. And then we look at verse 12. We have vegetation plants again. You know, this is just amazing plants yielding seed according to their own kinds.

These were like built in such a way that they would just continue to function and produce more of their own kind. Each according to its kind on the earth. God saw that it was good. And then we have verse 18.

He creates the sun and the moon and the stars. And God saw that it was good. And then we have verse 21. The great sea creatures, all the living creatures that move with which the water swarm according to their kinds.

And every winged bird according to its kind. So these are again what would populate the earth. And God saw that it was good. And then we have verse 25. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and livestock and everything that creeps.

And God saw that it was good. And then when we conclude in Genesis 131, we see God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. So this is the universe that God made. It is a good universe.

And this is a very important thing to nail firmly in our mind. Because when you go and talk to an unbeliever, they get to see the universe in its fallen state. And they're like, what kind of a God would make this kind of a universe?

Can there be a God when you have a universe with so much evil and catastrophe and problems? And if you don't see the grand tapestry of God's creation, the nature of the God, the powerful and wise God who made this, the good universe that God created out of his own power and wisdom.

And then you start to piece together what it is that has happened in time and space that only God could reveal because we weren't there. And when we understand this grand narrative, then you can get to see what the purpose of God is in this fallen world at this point in time.

When I'm going through that specific suffering and then I can I can explain the glory of God, the love of God in the midst of those calamities and those trials in which we live and be able to help others see what it is that God has truly made.

So let me stop at the fourth point here. Even though sin is now in the world, the material creation is still good in God's sight and should be seen as good by us as well. First Timothy four talks about food.

Do you accept what is given to us with Thanksgiving? Now, let's maybe just take a few moments to talk about that. So what should be the Christians view of this creation? And maybe I'll combine the next few points together and we'll talk about it.

One of the aspects is the material creation is still good. And the consequence of that point five is it freezes from false asceticism that sees the use and enjoyment of the material creation as wrong.

So in first Timothy four, one to three, you have these people who say, you know, you should need these things. You can get married. You know, the material world has a lot of problems and probably does.

If you eat a lot of McDonald's, what is that series that they made, you know, eat one every day, you might get in trouble. If you marry a lot of you have more than one spouse, you might get in trouble.

You know, there are certain things that you need to watch out for. But asceticism is kind of withdrawing from everything else and saying, oh, you know, because there are some issues here, I'm just going to give it all up.

I just want to live a spiritual life, not engage in the material universe that has been made. And that that's the that's the wrong view of this physical universe that Paul is correcting. And then the last point there, though, the material creation can be misused.

We must not let the danger of abusing God's creation from keeping keep us from a positive, thankful and joyful use of it. Of course, you look outside in the world and I come from India. You could get to see a lot more pollution and complete disregard for the world that God has made us stewards of.

And that's abuse. And at the same time, you can go to the other extreme and say, well, this if I don't have God as the creator, then all I see is this wonderful grand universe, this planet that is here.

And I end up bowing to this to this creation as if that was the source of me and who I am, rather than recognizing that this this world was created with man on the sixth day that it might fulfill, it might provide for the needs of man and that man ought to be a steward as someone who is under God with authority over this creation to populate it, to guard over it and watch over it and enjoy it.

This was given for us. We are not servants of this earth as it were. And so these are all the conflict of worldviews that we see. So with those four, five and six as points, material universe still good.

Watch out for false asceticism and careful about abuse. At the same time, enjoy the world God has given us. Any thoughts or comments on this? Some challenges maybe that you face with people that you meet with regards to this, either as unbelievers or as even believers.

Do you like the universe God has made for you? How do you enjoy it? How do you intend to enjoy it? I like what you said, Pastor Bob. I think I think that's something that we need to keep in the back of mind, even as we look at this topic of how you began this.

This fallen world is still beautiful. It is still good that we can enjoy it. When we look at the universe, the purpose is to glorify God, is it not? Fallen or unfallen, when we look at it, we are supposed to look up to God.

So as Christians, especially when we enjoy everything that we have, we want to be looking at the grander purpose of God. And I think that's what Pastor Bob just laid out. You know, you have the universe in Genesis, the planet universe, but specifically the planet for us in Genesis 1, that was made good, very good after the fall, groaning and catastrophes and evil that is permeating this world.

And then we look forward to a hope that one day God will restore and we will inhabit new heaven and new earth where there will be no more sin, no more suffering, no more sorrow, where things are restored.

So we, like with Abraham and the patriarchs in Hebrews 11 with faith, we look at these things, we enjoy these things, but we know that this is not our final destination. So much to enjoy here, and yet there is something that is eternal that awaits us, and that's our final hope.

So we need to be always looking at the way in which we enjoy this world in the context of the grand scheme of God's redemption. And while we are here, we want to remember that this is good, but we need to be careful of watching out for withdrawing from this world as if, you know, there is, I think the Gnostics would tend to say that.

You know, there is this physical, there is something evil in the material universe. You touch it and then, you know, your inner spirit might get tainted. And I remember when I was a young Christian, I was very tempted.

I come from an Eastern religious background, and there is always that mindset to think, oh, you know, there is something in the matter that if I get too involved in, it will draw me down, it will pull me to the base things of the earth.

And we need to remember that God created, whether it was the angels and whether it is the physical things, he made everything good, and they are given to us to enjoy. Any thoughts on this section? Any additional thoughts?

All right, so let's go to the next one. And this is one, depending on how much questions we have, we may spend more time on it. The relationship between scripture and the findings of modern science, especially as you go out into the world and you speak, you look at Genesis 1 to 3, and then everybody else asks you, do you actually believe that today, 21st century?

So there is this strong conflict when it comes to this universe, its source, and its origins. How did these come to be? When did they come to be? So those are the two questions, how and when. And for the unbeliever, Romans 1 says that they look at this, they can recognize the power of God, but they suppress that in unrighteousness.

There is something that goes on in the fallen man that would refuse. It's like the universe would give the glory of God, but the man made in God's image, unredeemed, would fold his hands like a three-year-old and say, no, I refuse to acknowledge the God of the universe who made this beautiful creation.

And so there comes this problem where you have alternate explanations for something that should be clearly, there is a God in heaven and earth who has made it. And so today, in our culture, we face a whole bunch of alternative explanations for the cause of life to the cause of the entire universe.