Systematic Theology (part 26)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our loving and gracious Father, we come before you this morning to open the Word and to reflect upon your work.

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And I pray, Father, that as we study your Word, as we engage with the text, that you would impress upon us your grandeur, your goodness, and your love toward all of your creation.

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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Good morning and welcome, welcome.

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We've been doing this Adventures in Theology. Am I a little too loud? So we've been covering a number of different subjects, but the last few weeks we've been focusing somewhat narrowly on the subject of love.

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We looked at why the truth that God is love is central to our understanding of who

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God is and how he relates to us. And then we looked at how the gospel is centered in love and how we as those who have been loved by God are called to love him and those around us.

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Today I was hoping to move into the next major subject from theology proper, which is the study of God, into the study of man or anthropology.

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But I realized I skipped a few things in the middle. So instead of diving deep like we've done in the last several weeks, we're going to do a broader engagement with not the person, nature, and attribute of God, but rather with the work of God, some of the things that God has done and is doing.

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And hopefully we'll engage with it at a broader, from a 10 ,000 feet view, and then that'll help us to put this in place before we move into the doctrine of man.

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So to begin with, just to give you an idea of what this work of God is going to cover, we're going to look at the creation,

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God creating, we're going to look at providence, how God provides for our needs, look briefly at miracles, what does

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God, what has God done, why miracles and what happened today, and then

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God's response to prayer, you know, how does God work in and through our prayers. And then finally we'll just take a quick review at the spiritual realm, the non -physical realm, especially with angels and demons.

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So let's look at creation first. So as I was driving in this morning,

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I just couldn't help but look at the fall colors. It's, you know, there are things that are just always around us, you know, when you move from winter to spring, the bright greens, and then from summer to fall, and then this explosion of colors.

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And it reminds us that our God is, he is quite an artist, isn't he?

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He is the source of creativity, and we as his image bearers have art and other things that try to reflect this creative nature of our

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God. But to go back all the way down, when I think of the term creation,

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I'd like you to think of it in two senses. The first one, think of it as a verb, an action.

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God creates, created, and the work of God in creation.

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And then the other aspect is the noun, which is, you know, creation, which is the created beings and the things that are created out of it.

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So just keep those things as we are looking at what God does.

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So let's, this should be fairly straightforward, which is why I thought we could cover a lot more ground.

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When you think of creation, and God as the creator, and the verb of creating, what are some of the things that come to your mind?

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What does God create, Stephen? You can't get past that.

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It's every single thing that we see around us, every physical object that we see, you know, whether, you know, right before us or through the telescopes out into the farthest reaches of the galaxy, every single object that we can think of, or observe, or even conceive of, all of those things have been made by God's word.

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And there is really no competition to that in the non -biblical realm, if you will.

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You know, everything else, it is hard to conceive of a being that is so powerful that just his words would create all that we see, and all its complexity, and all its diversity, and all its immensity, every single thing just came out of nothing.

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Now, do we have justification for creato ex nihilo, that everything came out of nothing?

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What would be some text that we would think of to say that everything came out of nothing?

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I think, Stephen, you already kind of talked about it. God said, and Genesis 1 would be a good place to go.

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Any other texts in addition to that? Psalm 90 verse 2, Psalm 33 has a couple of verses that talk about the fact that God made everything out of nothing.

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And why is this kind of important, the fact that everything was made out of nothing?

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Excellent. And even if we recognize that God is eternal, but if God did not make these things in time, as the

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Bible clearly says, then you have something else existing from eternity past along with God.

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And the Bible is very clear that God and God alone exists from eternity to eternity, and every other created thing subsists in time and space.

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So we have all of creation that comes to existence at one point in time, and when

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God creates, they come out of nothing. It is He who is the source of their existence.

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And normally when you think of creation, this is the aspect that we want to strongly remember, because there is another aspect where the word create is used, but it is used more in the sense of fashioning, taking something and making it into something else.

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And when in the early passage of Genesis, we are actually looking at something that is just making something out of nothing, purely by the creative power of God and the word of God.

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Excellent. Thank you. Any other thoughts on creation that come to your mind? That kind of covers a lot.

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Yes. And I think if you just step back one step to before the fall, when

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God saw creation, He called it good. And when He looked at everything,

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He said it was very good. So God's creation reflects His goodness in the way

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He made things. And like you rightly said, even after the fall, with the curse that the world is under,

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Romans 8 talks about the groaning that is happening here while we anticipate this universe being recreated.

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We still have the properties that God has made or invested in His creation that function.

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Like you said, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, these function as God has ordained them.

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And so we need to remember that there is a goodness in the creation that God has made.

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And can you think of some worldviews that would reject that, that this world that we see, the universe that we see is just either irrelevant or bad?

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Is there anything irrelevant or bad, inherent in matter?

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Okay. Gnosticism. So there are some who would value the spiritual so much that they would say that the matter doesn't have any consequence or that may actually be evil in terms of investing in it.

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And the Bible doesn't teach us that anywhere. We can get materialists and then make materials our idol, but the world around us is given by God to us to enjoy.

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And we can enjoy the goodness that God has given to us in the world that is created because He has created it as good and He has given it to us to enjoy.

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Just one, yes, was there a hand here? One more thing.

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What about the distinction between the creator and creation? What is the relationship?

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Do you see? Yes. So on the one hand, like Brother Stephen was saying, there is a, there is a order, there are laws that govern the physical universe that we can, we can kind of count on the sun rising up the next day unless the

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Lord returns. And the Lord can return because He is over all of nature.

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And so when we have some things like the storms that are passing by and the calamity that comes, we don't have to look at this like those without God have to, which is, you know, here is a force of nature and there's a quote unquote act of God without looking up to the

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God of this world under which this storm is actually functioning. So we can actually look up to the

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God of all of creation. And that's actually going to bring us, when we look at providence, the challenge between evil and suffering and pain that we see in this universe and the

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God who is still sovereign over all of those. But we'll table that for now. We'll just look at creation and the fact that God is over creation.

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God is distinct from creation. That's actually very good because when we think of the models of how we look at the creator and creation, there are some systems, some non -Christian worldviews that would conflate them.

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They would say, you know, creation and the universe and the creator and the creation are all part of one big thing.

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You know, the creation kind of moves along. Interestingly, you know, in a naturalistic universe, which is materialistic in most cases, like when we look at the system of evolution, it almost seems like they are implying that there is that something underneath, although they reject that there is any goal to the direction of evolution.

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So that's one of those things where you conflate God and the creator and the creation. We would call them as distinct, that God is separate from.

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And he is the one who is the source of this. He is the one who sustains this universe. And at the same time, he is able to intervene in it in time and space.

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And yet he has provided it with properties that can function in predictable ways.

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And he has made man in his image. So man can actually discover those laws that God has built into the fabric of the universe.

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So we can actually discover the mind of God, as it were, as we look at his hand. So when we look back at Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shouts forth his praise, we can actually say, oh, you know what?

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I can actually revel in it a whole lot more now as I can see the intricate ways in which

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God has fashioned this universe. Now the only thing I would caution against is, and I think this might have been,

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I don't believe this was the case during the time of Newton, maybe it was like a little bit past that time, where the mechanism of the universe, as the humans got more confidence in understanding how the universe operates, they basically said, well, we come from a theistic worldview, but we could probably just take

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God's action in the universe out because God's kind of wound the clock and let it go.

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And I think they had a lot of different reasons why they tried to kind of separate the hand of God actively in the universe.

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But I think we need to be very careful, while God has provided properties in this universe that actually function, we're going to be looking at it in the aspect of providence of God.

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And actually, if you just, let me just stop. This is a quiz. So can you think of a verse in the

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Bible, New Testament, which talks about the hand of God in making sure that the universe functions the way we see it on a daily basis?

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Okay, so that would be from Acts 17 or I think where he's talking to in Athens, there is a sense in which

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God is, we don't live apart from God. That's excellent. That is for talking about all of people, upholds all things by the word of his power is one verse.

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And then there's one more verse. I think I saw another hand. Did I see another hand? Colossians 1, okay.

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In him all things come. You know, he, actually, let's just turn that because I don't think I'll quote that verse properly either.

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So just so we, this again is moving into the domain of providence, but it's helpful for us to recognize that after God created it, he actually sustains it.

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Okay. Let's just read from verse 15. Actually, if someone can read this, let's read from verse 15 to 17.

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Who'd like to read that? Oh, sorry. Chapter one, Colossians 1, 15 to 17.

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Thank you, Carol. And we are looking at the last verse in him, all things hold together.

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He's kind of sustaining this universe by his power. And then if you look at the agents of creation, we have the

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Trinity involved. We looked at this earlier when you looked at the power of God, the God, the father is involved. He's the one who spoke.

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We have got the son involved. It says right here, by him, all things were created. John one also talks about that.

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We have the spirit involved, Genesis one, two, spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep.

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But here it talks about how through him and for him, all creation was done.

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And again, just a reminder that the universe with all the properties that it has been imbued with, it is still sustained by God.

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Now, there were some theologians who talked about an active creation moment by moment.

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Like, you know, you have some atoms here, the very next moment, there are new atoms that are created by God in the new location.

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And I don't think that's an accurate understanding of how God sustains this universe.

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But rather, I think the easiest way for us to understand this is God creates the universe and let's say

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God exits. The implication of Colossians 117 is that universe poofs, you know, there is no universe anymore without the active work of God and sustaining.

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And I think some of the theologians have defined it as God ensures that all of his creation, created with the properties that he has given them, continue to function the way that they have been made to exist.

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So it is because of the active sustenance of God that you have all of creation. So just to go back again to our models, so we have different ways in which people try to connect the creator and the creation.

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And we need to remember that creator and creation are distinct in the Christian worldview. Creation is sustained by the work of God.

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He has provided it certain properties which are good and they function the way they are intended to.

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And even in this fallen world, they operate and they provide benefit to man because God made it good to begin with.

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And then if we go back to what we talked about, science, I think one of the joys of the believer is to discover how

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God has made this and to recognize the beauty that is built into this universe in which we live.

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And we need to always remember there is no conflict between true science and the scriptures.

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And we need to be always willing to look at science for what it teaches us about the world.

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But also, when we look at science in the world today, we need to be able to look at some of the assumptions that science brings in to make sure that they are not anti -biblical or unbiblical to begin with.

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Can you think of some theories in science that we would take issue with because of their false assumptions?

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Okay, so we have, okay, that's, I have to use a little more data.

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You probably have the data. Can you give us, talk about it a little bit more? Excellent. Actually, that's an important subject for us to have a good handle on.

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So when we talk about creation, one of the big controversies now is about the age of the earth. You know, as biblical, if you hold

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Genesis 1 to 3 as literal, that this is not a poetic text as some other

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Christians would hold it, you cannot escape the conclusion that the earth is a young earth.

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It's not an old earth in the orders of millions or billions of years.

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If it was literal, Genesis 1 to 3, then you are, the conclusion is that the earth has to be in the order of thousands rather than millions and billions.

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Now just a little caveat before we get into this subject, believers disagree on this.

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So you have, you can have people who are Christians who, in my humble opinion, misunderstand

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Genesis 1 to 3 or reread, I think that's the better way to say it, reread

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Genesis 1 to 3 in the light of the age of the earth controversy and then say, okay, I could reread

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Genesis 1 to 3 differently and then align with an older earth understanding, you know, in millions or billions.

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I think it's what, four and a half billion years is the age of the earth. So that's basically how science comes along.

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And now there's many data points that we would talk with. One of them would be dating. So radiocarbon dating, that's meant for smaller periods of time.

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And you have other types of carbon dating like lead and so forth. And the interesting thing is, when you look at it in that textbook, it would look like there is a very coherent, cohesive, you know, here is the age for X, Y, and Z.

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And there is a very consistent result from science that this is what the age should be.

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But then when you start digging a little bit further, you start looking at the data of whether it's radiocarbon dating or actually it gets worse as you look at some of the other lead, strontium, and other dating methods, that their errors and the margins of errors are exponential.

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And statistically, they just kind of pick what they think is the closest to what it should, and then they just provide that.

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Now, the challenge is, I think, in a very simplistic form. You take one piece of data, send it to four different labs, and you would hope to get data that is different within a very small window.

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But you pretty much get exponentially different results. And really, that's what should cause us to say,

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OK, science has some great tools, but we are maybe seeing some anomalies in the way in which we are looking at the data that comes out of these types of tests.

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And so we want to be asking ourselves, why? Why are we seeing such radical differences when we look at certain dating methods?

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So I believe that radiocarbon dating has some value in specific ranges of time period.

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And when they extend that beyond, then they basically are starting, instead of seeing a nice curve, it starts to go out of whack.

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And so let's maybe use this as an example. Oh boy, it looks like creation is going to take a lot of our time today, which is good, which is good.

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So how would you, as a Christian, do two things?

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One, let's say you know nothing about radiocarbon dating. How would you respond to this thing? And if you are maybe a

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Christian scientist, what would be the way you approach this other view of the age of the

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Earth? So first, let's pick up the Christian who doesn't know anything about science. I cannot emphasize this big enough.

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I think that would probably be the one fundamental assumption that we need to look at it, both from a scientific perspective and from a biblical perspective.

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So for those of you who didn't hear it well, it's uniformitarianism.

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Is that right? Uniformitarianism. So the idea that right now, between now and, let's say, in the last 100 years, you've observed certain things.

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And so you extrapolate it all the way back and say, this is how things have been going, and that's how they must have been from eternity past.

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Now, that looks like a good kind of assumption. If this chair holds me up today, yesterday, the day before, it would have held me up 100 years before.

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But is there some data in the scriptures that would make you question that assumption?

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What kind of data in the Bible makes you say, ah, maybe the universe wasn't always like this?

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What would be some of the data of the scriptures that would tell you uniformitarianism may not be true?

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Excellent. The age of men. And again, if you think of looking at it from a scientific perspective, you have some data here in the scriptures that talk about how old people were.

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So there is a dividing line. Do you remember where the dividing line is when the age of man starts to change? The flood.

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There is something cataclysmic that happens in the flood. And so when you look at any Christian view on the age of the earth, the flood will play a very central role in looking at the data of science in a lot of different ways that it impacts us.

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So if you look pre -flood, you're looking at 1 ,000 years, 900, that range.

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And then post -flood, you're looking in the 100 and around that range. So you have nearly a 10 -time decrease in the age of the earth, age of the people who lived on the earth.

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And there was something that radically changed. So we want to say, OK, there is some lack of uniformity pre -NOAA and post -NOAA.

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So there is some step function rather than a gradual curve. And so we want to say, OK, there is some data

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I need to engage with. There is one other thing I'm looking for. Yes. No, please go ahead.

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No, that's a great example. And I didn't know about this particular experiment. But I just want to walk you through how a

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Christian with a Christian biblical world view deals with the data of science along these lines.

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So if you pick something up, you start with some data. And the data there was shark teeth up on the top and daisies in Antarctica.

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So here are some data that neither the non -Christian nor the

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Christian would dispute with. We've just gotten this data that we have observed. Now, the challenge is to fit this data into a theory that would fit how things have come from there to where they are today.

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And so the experiment that was done with introducing ozone talks to you about the connection between ozone and lifespan.

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So if it was possible for the temperature of the planet to be different and ozone has a

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So basically, you can start to put the pieces together and say, here is a theory that could better fit the data that we have and also be consistent with the data of scripture than something else that we might have to try to say, you know, a maybe uniformitarianism.

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That's a direct challenge of uniformitarianism in terms of how things have changed. Plus, you have scientific data that gives you how

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God probably did things during the flood. You know, there are some things that are given to us in the scriptures in terms of the fountains of the deep, you know, things that are changing and some things about the firmament before and after when you talked about being able to see the stars.

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So these are all data in the scriptures themselves. And then now you are able to put a much more coherent understanding of what could have happened.

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And the more data that fits with this theory, then it's a much more plausible that this could be it.

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And I think that's one central thing to think about science versus scripture. Scientists with certain assumptions try to be as consistent with the data they have, but it is only as reliable as the fit of the data to the fit of the evidence to the theory that they have.

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So tomorrow, something completely new could come along, data that we hadn't considered. And now the responsibility of the scientist is to reconcile that data with the existing theory.

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So, you know, when you go from geocentric to heliocentric, where the Earth is the center of the universe, solar system, right?

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Isn't that what geocentric? OK. And then the sun is the center. So there, you know, you suddenly start to look at data, things don't align, and then you need to change it and so forth.

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Science is continually changing. You cannot say science is the holder of truth, because at no point does do we have all the data to be able to say and put all the data together in a way that is fully consistent without any anomalies.

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Whereas, on the other hand, when you look at the data of scripture, I don't like to use data of scripture.

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When you look at scripture, this is God breathed, inspired. This is inherent, infallible.

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There is nothing wrong with what we are looking here. Could we misinterpret data? Definitely. You know, we need to be very cautious about saying, you know, every single thing that I, all my theology is 100 % right, and then go to heaven and say, oh,

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OK, I was wrong. But at the same time, when we look at the data of scripture, and I'm using data just to compare it with a scientific understanding of truth, we need to be very careful to say we cannot discount any data in the scripture, because this comes from God himself.

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He's the one who was there in the beginning of creation, and he has revealed things to us that we can, by no other way, understand.

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And so going back to uniformitarianism, so if you look at the universe now, expanding universe, and then you say, you know, you kind of shrink it all the way back, and then go down to, what is it, 13 and a half billion years back, the beginning of the universe, 13, you have a little spot called the

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Big Bang that actually, you know, causes everything that you see here. And then we would say, no, you know, this is not a uniformitarian universe that we exist in, because God says that there was a singularity in Genesis 1 -1, where he basically said, boom, and you have everything.

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You didn't have everything just kind of, you know, come out of a goo, you have God make a mature universe.

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Adam wasn't made as a, and that's actually the issue that I have with Christians who don't hold to a young earth, is you need to have a good way of reconciling

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Adam and Eve. Was Adam and Eve created by God as the first human beings, or did they somehow come out of something else?

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And I think if you don't lose the literal reading of Genesis 3, or Genesis 1, 2, and 3, then you don't have something that is fundamental to understanding anthropology, who man is, was man made in the image of God, is man distinct from all the other created beings?

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And we would say, no, there is a point in time in which the universe was already mature, and then it is continuing to move according to the laws that God has placed.

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So whether it is expanding, or all the other things that are changing, and now the question that we would ask a scientist to be thinking of when you look at the data of scripture, is not just, you know, like radiocarbon dating here and here.

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What would the radiocarbon dating look like on the first day of this universe? And there is nothing to observe the day before, because there was nothing that existed.

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And I think as a Christian, we need to be very careful to be able to, for ourselves, look at the data and say, how do

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I, first and foremost, I think the question I said was, you know, if you didn't know anything about science, you want to be always, you can trust in the word of God that has been given to you.

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So you don't need to be, you know, a scientist or a theory of science person to say, you know, here is why

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I disagree. You want to be open to hearing what they say, but like we've been talking about, always check the assumptions that are being made, but ultimately we rest on the foundation of God's word that is inherent.

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We kind of went on a very long rabbit trail there. Does it make sense? Any questions, thoughts, comments?

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Okay, and those things don't get publicized as much. Um, so for those of you who may not know, you know, as part of trying to sell the idea of evolution, and I actually, you know, um, it looks like this is generating a lot of thoughts.

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I'm not able to keep them all in order. But, um, uh, those on the side of evolution, uh, had actually made up some quote unquote data in order to make it look like evolution was true.

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You know, we talk about the missing link. We talk about a lot of different things. And there are these sensational finds that talk about, oh, you know, we finally found something great.

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And then, uh, later it is discovered that this were, um, artifacts that were manufactured in order to, uh, you know, either for materialistic reasons or ideological reasons.

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And then when they were exposed, normally they don't get the kind of publicity they got when they were actually, um, uh, first presented to the, uh, media and the public.

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So there seems to be a somewhat of a disconnect there between what's presented and then what's actually discredited.

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And really, when you look at the evolutionists today, there is a severe disagreements within the evolutionary camp in terms of what is actually a valid theory to propose.

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But when you go to our public schools today, they are given as a hard and solid facts.

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And so that's a danger. But just to be fair, there have been younger people who have also had very poor ideas of science, who have not always fit the data as coherently as they should with theories.

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And this has been in the several decades back. Now, the men who are doing them, they have,

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I think, learned their lessons from being careful scientists, not just, you know, I look some data, they look good, and this must be it.

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So you want to actually do science well and present that data as well. So I think, you know, that we need to be careful.

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We don't need to defend God's truth by a half -baked science. You know, if you don't have the answer, that's okay.

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God will watch over those things. But speaking of evolution, there are

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Christians who hold on to theistic evolution. So all they would do is they would take evolution and say, let's kind of put

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God under everything. And God is the one who's kind of moving evolution along. Because an evolutionist, strict evolutionist would be a naturalist who doesn't have any place for God.

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That's one of the assumptions. And you think of why did evolution come forth as a theory in the first place?

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It is a universe without God. Can I explain everything I see? Can I take the adaptations that happen in a micro level and make them a macro so that I can get

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God out of the picture? You know, that's basically what you have as evolution. There is no direction. There is no goal. Man just happened to be here.

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It could be anyone else or anything else. And it will be something else down the road. And the theistic evolutionist says, well, this looks like solid science evolution.

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Let me just kind of put God underneath it. And he's the one who's directing it from the Big Bang all the way until wherever we end up.

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And I think that is a very, very insidious danger to the

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Christian if they hold on to such a view. Because that just goes contrary to every single thing that the

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Bible talks about in terms of his creation, in terms of his providence, in terms of his special care for people and the data of Scripture in pretty much throughout the pages of Scripture.

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So theistic evolution is something that I would fight very strongly with. If I see a

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Christian who says I'm a theistic evolutionist, I'd say, OK, let's talk. Because you can't find

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Adam and Eve. You cannot find sin and redemption. You cannot find a way to reconcile the

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Scriptures with your theory. And you are basically going to have to jettison 90 % of the

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Scriptures in order for this theory. Or you need to say, I'm a created being. I do not understand.

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Maybe I like evolution, but I'm going to trust the Word of God and let that shape my thinking rather than cave in to what the world proposes and then reinterpret the

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Scriptures for this purpose. I think I'm OK with some of the old earth people because they have genuine challenges.

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We talked through those things. But if someone comes out and says I'm a theistic evolutionist, I would say that could...

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This is like that Pastor Mike's message on Hebrews, drifting away. You need to be very careful because you are now taking yourself from the solid foundation of God's Word and then you're putting yourself in the sifting sands of a naturalism that is underlying evolution, which you do not really fully understand.

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And you need to be very careful for your own salvation because you no longer trust the Word of God as you ought to.

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All right, that became a preaching moment right there. OK, I don't know how

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I got there, but let's step back. So creation, why did God have to create?

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I mean, this is a beautiful universe. We just talked about the colors coming in. What is the purpose of creation?

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Why did God create? For His glory. There is no other purpose except for His own good intent and will to showcase

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His excellence. So you and I today can bask in the magnificence of God, in His beauty of God and His power of God as we look at everything else.

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And He chooses to exercise His wisdom, His power,

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His goodness in the way in which He demonstrates it. The fact that God did not need to create the universe, does it mean that He does not delight in the universe

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He made? Is He like this? I'm kind of calm and composed.

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I just make it. Is that the kind of God who is our creator?

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Excellent. And actually, that is one of the best ways to look at any theological truth. There's always going to be two extremes.

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One extreme is God doesn't care. You know, He just kind of made it and it'll kind of showcase His glory, whether you like it or not.

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And the other one being, you know, I need to get my glory out of this thing.

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And then, you know, look at the world, evolution and everything else. How should this be rectified?

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And we don't have a God who is anxious, nor a God who is apathetic. He is a God who is involved, who is sovereign, who knows the end from the beginning.

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And He has made this explicitly, even with the fall, in order to showcase

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His glory and His excellence. Thank you. And He delights in His creation.

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And we talked about this too. We humans, no matter how much the world would say, have a unique place in creation because God made us as the only creatures in His image.

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He made us as the stewards of this universe that He has made on this planet.

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And we get to not just enjoy it, but we get to enjoy

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God as the giver of all of these things to us. And we get to glorify God in the universe that He has placed us in.

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So I think when we think of creation, both as the act of God in making it and the creation as we as part of creation, and the rest of the created beings that God has made, we want to remember that this is something that God did of His own free will.

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He has, under no bounds, He has showcased Himself through the general revelation that we now have surrounding us.

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All right. Any other thoughts? I don't think we'll move from here. We are almost out of time. Excellent.

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Actually, maybe we'll just take a few moments to talk about glory. I must confess,

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I have several times thought through that myself, even though I was not a pagan at that time.

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Because we know pagan gods, you know, when you think of propitiation, terms like that, they have this appeasing of this wrathful deity or this

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God who is just so vainglorious that, you know, you need to kind of lift Him and walk Him through the streets. We see that a lot in India.

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We were just talking about that yesterday. And there seems to be this, you know, me, the cosmic egomaniac, as Pastor Bob just said.

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Now, when we think of, and the right way to look at it is God does glorious things. And when we look at these, we just go, you know, we just take a deep breath.

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We are in awe of what God has done. And then when we recognize the God of the Bible in His character, in His goodness and His power, we just say, you know, you deserve glory.

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And that's the right response. That's what ought to happen in all of creation.

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And actually, I was reading one of the Psalms this week,

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Psalm, I think 147, where it talks about the storm and the hail and the lightning and everything that's even not animate, you know, giving glory to God.

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And so that's the right way to look at it. And I think an easier way for us as Christians to remember what

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God's glory is, is to say, if we look at John, for example, the

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Gospel of John, when Jesus talks about the glory that He is about to receive, glorify your son with the glory that He had before.

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And what were the events that would follow that would glorify the son? And that should provide us the starkest contrast between the pagan deities and their vainglorious nature of aggrandization to themselves, versus a

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God who would come down and die on the cross in order to accomplish

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His good purposes for the redemption of His people. And that is what brings glory to Him. So when we recognize that the

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God of the Bible is antithetical to the little gods that strive to compete among this

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God pool for recognition, we have a God who deserves it because He is good. We look at Him and we say, you deserve glory,

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Lord. We fall down and worship you. We give you praise because you deserve it. And it is the right thing to do. You are the one who died on our behalf.

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Yes, Pastor Harriton? Absolutely. And I think that the text that was just read supports that view, that the fact that God...

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Let me put it this way. If I don't give God the glory, I would be sinning. I would be in error. I would fail to do what

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I was meant to do. And God is rightly jealous of His glory, that He alone deserves the glory.

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And when we talk about arrogance, I think in a very simple way, we can understand it because we are image bearers. If God gave one of you an

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IQ of, I don't know, 500, right? And then you say, well, you know,

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I'm just a dumb kid. That would be contrary to the truth of what

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God has actually blessed you with. You want to be honest about who you are in terms of what you have received.

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And there is nothing sinful in recognizing that God has given you much wisdom and you want to use it in the right way.

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But if I generated my own 500 level IQ, that would be one thing. It's another thing that God gives me the 500 level

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IQ, so I can say God deserves the glory because He provided this for me. Now, the difference between us and God is nobody gave

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God all these things. God is a source of His own excellence, and He alone deserves the glory for who

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He is. So we cannot bring God down to our level and say, well, you know, no big deal in terms of power and majesty and everything else.

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No, because there is a huge gap. And when we recognize it, we give Him the glory. And I'm going to get pulled out.

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So, but I think the answer is yes. Let's close in prayer. Our loving and gracious Father, Lord, what a glorious God you are.

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You are a creator. You are a sustainer. You are a redeemer. Help us,

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O Father, even this morning to give you the glory that is rightly due you.