I want to introduce David Charles. As Pastor Barcelo said, he first met David in 95, probably 96 or 97 for me. And then what has blossomed and developed into a very excellent friendship, I find great affinity with my brother. We are like-minded in a lot of ways.
If I could grow my beard that long, I would probably not do it. But. But just a dear brother in the Lord, we have kindred spirits, we talk, I wouldn't say often, we talk regularly, and it's a blessing to know you, brother. I do want to read what is here.
David Charles has served as the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church for 27 years. He studied at the Reformed Baptist School of Theology under Dr. Sam Waldron, deepening his commitment to sound doctrine and Christ-centered ministry. David has been married to his beloved wife for 47 years.
Together they have raised five children and rejoice in the blessing of 12 grandchildren. His life and ministry reflect a steadfast devotion to the Word of God, the local church and the covenantal faithfulness of God across generations. One of the things that I've observed with David is that he really loves the people in his church. I think that's evident and obvious.
And he really, really loves his wife. That is evident and obvious. So brother, come and preach the word of God to us. Well, this has been a joyful day, and I appreciate all the folks who have been doing the organization.
It's been very pleasant. I appreciate the sweet spirit. And again, just being here and knowing that you're all here on a Friday night because you love the theology of the Reformed faith. because you love the Savior. And so it's a real joy to be here this evening.
Before I get started, my charge was different than Dr. Rinehan, Dr. Barcelos. I'm to preach a sermon.
Now, even as you heard Rich say, Dr. Rinehan has helped him understand the confession Have you ever seen this clip? I've seen it several times. I don't know where it was from.
R.C. Sproul and some other men and John MacArthur are like doing a Q&A. And I don't know what the original question was, but John MacArthur answered the question, and then they went to R.C. Sproul, and R.C.
Sproul clarified what MacArthur was saying. And MacArthur said, well, that's what I meant. And then R.C. Sproul said, John, why do I always have to tell you and explain to you what you believe?
Now, I'm certainly not John MacArthur. And R.C. Sproul is not a Dr. Rinnehan.
Dr. Renahan, you are really a great blessing to all of us. And he's been that guy for me that has to explain to me what exactly we believe. Now, I say that to say this.
If I say something and you're like, what is he talking about? Direct your questions to Dr. Renahan. He'll clear up what I meant to say but failed to say.
So open up. your Bible, the Hebrews chapter one. Now, here's my goal tonight. I want you to be able to look back specifically to listen to what you already heard in the two previous lectures, and then look forward to this coming Lord's day, and then even further to the great day of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in one sense, I want to leave you totally unsatisfied, longing for more from what you've heard already this evening.
In particular, when Dr. Renahan, as he's going through the confession, I've heard him do that before on other occasions. And every time, and I love our confession. I've been reading it since 85.
And every time he goes through like what he did, I'm like, I forgot that that was there, and it's always so wonderful. So please go back, because some of what I'm saying, it was there in his lecture. So Hebrews chapter one, we're going to look at this text real quick, and then we're going to go to chapter two. Then we're going to go to two other texts, and I'm just trying to weave something together.
One particular theme, but first look at Hebrews chapter one, verse one.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 1–2
God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers, in the prophets, in many portions, and in many ways." Now, in other words, he said the whole Old Covenant scripture, which is Christian scripture, before Christ came, "...in these last days has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. Mark that. It's a very important language. Verse three.
And he, that is Jesus, the eternal Son of God, is the radiance of his glory, mark that, and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he'd made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, Paul, in writing to Timothy, he mirrors this, but he says, after Jesus had accomplished redemption, preached on to the Gentiles, believed on the world, then he closes the whole thing out by saying Jesus was received up into glory. Now, here's what's wonderful.
Jesus is returning again, not to leave glory. He will bring glory with him. Now, over to chapter two, once again, I wish I had time to expand on all that's here, particularly when you get to chapter two, beginning verses six through eight, where I believe Hebrews was first a sermon, then committed to writing. And here we're getting a quote from, Psalm 8 about the glories of creation, what is man, and he applies this to Jesus himself.
So verse 7 talks about the man you have crowned him with glory and honor. Now verse 9, but we Well, let me go back to verse eight. And in putting all things in subjection under his feet, for in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subjected to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him, but we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, Jesus.
Now, if you're looking at a new American standard, The namely there is to help with the English, but the way it is is we see Jesus. Because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Here's the passage. For it was fitting for him, that is God, the antecedent back in verse nine, for it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
Now what I want your eyes to see here, and then I'm gonna pray, we'll look at the confession. What I want you to see right here, in verse nine, God, suffering of Christ for this purpose, to bring many sons to glory. Bringing many sons to glory. Let's join together in prayer.
Opening Prayer
Our gracious Father in heaven, we have heard great riches about you. that you've pulled back the veil, that we might see your greatness and your sovereignty. And that we, even when we go astray and we sin and we do great suffering to ourself and to others, even there, you're at work. And we see here in this passage that it's all that we might share in your glory. I would ask that you would help me, weak, fallible, foolish man that I be, to be faithful to your word so that your people would be edified.
Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, we thank you for our Bibles. We thank you for the inspiration and now the preservation right down to today, so that we might know as we hold our English Bibles in our laps, we have the very Word of God. So help us, we pray, in the name of our Savior, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, amen.
Confession Study
So if you take your confession, look at chapter two, paragraph two, Now, once again, I'm aiming, I'm really aiming at one thing, and I want you to leave here wanting more of what you've heard tonight. Paragraph two of chapter two, God having all life, glory, Goodness, blessedness in and of himself is alone in and unto himself all sufficient, not standing in the need of any creature which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them. God does not need you, but child of God, he loves you. So he's not standing in need of us, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, and unto, and upon them.
He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. Now chapter three, paragraph five. Those of mankind that are predestined to life, God before the foundation of the world was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his own will hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory. Paragraph six.
As God has appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath by the eternal and most free purpose of his will ordained all of the means thereunto. So God has decreed destinous for his praise for the display of his greatness that we would share with Christ in glory, unto everlasting glory. Paragraph six, as God hath appointed the elect unto glory. So you've heard wonderful things tonight, and it touches upon your life.
And if you listen to the tradition of Christianity, you are made ultimately through covenant and redemption to share with Christ in glory. That's how the decree. Now, there's a way we should talk about God's glory. There's the ultimate expression of that for God's glory.
But the penultimate is that we would share in that glory. Now, looking back at Hebrews chapter two, There's just four things. When I'm here, I'm leaning much on Owen. And Owen took 36 pages to get through verse 10.
And if you ever had the delight of reading Owen, you know he was pretty thorough. I'm not gonna take 36 pages worth of time.
Introduction
There's just four things I want you to see. The source and goal of everything. God our Father, for it's fitting for him It was appropriate, it was right. Now, what about him for whom are all things and through whom are all things?
The Source and Goal of All Things
God is the source and the goal of everything. Now, why do I say that? Well, I think if you just took some time and you were working with the first, you'd like, oh yeah, I get, I see it. I say that because it's all for him. all things and through him are all things.
It's just like when Paul writes Romans and he goes through all that's involved in our redemption and he gets to the end of verse, chapter 11, he pretty much says this, for from him and through him and to him to all things be the glory. So secondly,
God's Eternal Purpose: Many Sons to Glory
What is God's eternal purpose here? I mean, certainly, I've already said the ultimate purpose is his own glory that we would see. Not that we add to his glory, but we reflect it in our praise and our adoration, us and all the angels. I think, are we gonna hear about the angels at some point, Richard, you're gonna talk about?
No. But his eternal purpose is bringing many souls to glory. This is his eternal purpose. Now, John Owen, in looking at God's decree and predestination, wonderfully, he distinguishes, he talks about a double act of predestination.
That on the one hand, child of God, you are predestined, before all things, to grace. He said, they are gonna be the recipients of my grace and all that would be packed into that. We've heard some of it, calling, regeneration, justification, the death, the resurrection of Christ. And he says there's also in that same act of predestination, we were predestined not only to grace, but to glory.
And that's exactly what we got here at Hebrews. Now, we're told something about God's chosen author, if you have the New American Standard. Different translations are trying to get at this word. Some have captain.
The same word is used later in Hebrews where Most translations have author. It just means he's the one from where it came from, the one who leads us, directs us, that brings us. And this is what we're told. Look at your Bible, Hebrew 2.10.
It was fitting. Owen would argue, this is talking about the necessity of God's justice being displayed and satisfied. It was fitting for God, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory to perfect, to complete. Now, Owen will tell you that this has to do with how priests in the old covenant were ordained.
I'll let you conference with Owen on that. But either way,
The Necessity of Suffering for Glory
it was necessary in bringing us to glory that the author of their salvation, it would be accomplished through suffering. That's the necessary path for both Christ and for us is the suffering of Christ, the necessity of suffering to glory. And again, when you encounter these things, don't just like, yeah, oh yeah, I know Jesus suffered. Think about how Jesus suffered. all that he experienced.
Active and Passive Obedience of Christ
The Reformed faith, we wonderfully, again, make these distinctions that are helpful. So we'll talk about how Christ came and he was given a covenant that he had to keep from the father, going back to the covenant of redemption, but he kept the law. He actively obeyed God that we now might have his righteousness. given to us under justification, but he also allowed himself to be acted upon. So we call that his active and his passive obedience.
And all that's bound up in that, not just simply what happened leading up to the cross, but from the moment that he left the Virgin's womb, he's suffering the hatred and the hostility of his own kinsmen. Now, depending on how you read it, there's actually one point where Mary, and we do confess, rightly, the mother of God, at one point, her and the family are looking for Jesus because they think maybe something's wrong with him. And we know his brothers, and then his disciples, every time he's talking about how he's gonna have to suffer, and they're arguing about who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom. And I'm always like, I read my Bible, because when I read my Bible, I try to be there.
I want to see it. I want to feel it. And I'm always like, why don't you fire these guys? Because he's suffering.
And then he goes, and you know the story, the reality of the beatings, the brutality, the betrayal, and he suffered, and they nailed him to a cross. It's really interesting, we get more description about the suffering of Christ from Isaiah in the Old Testament, because the gospel writers, they'll just say, and they crucified him. It was so brutal and ugly. Check me out on this, I'm not really sure, but as I recall, the only reason we know that there were nails is because of what Jesus says to Judas.
Or no, Judas actually said, and thus I put my finger in his hands where the nails were at, because it was so brutal and so ugly. Remember darkness covered? In that darkness, we hear him. Why?
You know, where did he, where was the accent in that? Why have you forsaken me? Or is it, why have you forsaken me? And he doesn't say my father, my father.
He says my God, my God. He's there as the man. Why all that? Not to just like set us an example.
It's right here. It was fitting for God. For whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and bringing you, child of God, sitting here tonight, and bringing many sons to glory. It was good.
It was right. It was necessary. And if we get this again, it's one of those things when you are sensitive to scripture and you start looking and you realize this language is used repeatedly. Let me just read some passages to you.
Colossians three, when Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Revelation has much of it packed in there. And the book of Revelation is a revelation of what? Jesus.
And speaking about this glory of the way, they will hunger no longer. I love Rich, but he's always hungry. Nor thirst anymore. Nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat, for the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. I'm not going to lie. As I've gotten older, I cry a lot. I hear about the brutality, the suffering, and the sorrow.
I see it, I feel it, I hate it, the foolishness, God being dishonored. This is saying your tears in a way that is I don't know what it would look like, what it's gonna, but it wants us to think this way. God is gonna take his fingers and he's gonna wipe them across your cheek and the tears will be gone, which is saying no more sorrow. This word glory is really just a part for the whole of everything that awaits us.
No more sin, no more sorrow. I can't imagine no sin. I get up every morning and I got to get into a fight. Everywhere I turn, I got to fight and struggle with the sin that remains within me.
I can't imagine a sinless moment. How did Richard say it? There's coming a time we will sin no more. There'll be no tears.
In chapter 21 of Revelation, John, the revelator, he said, I saw the holy city coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. The church having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone as a stone of crystal clear Jasper. In chapter 22, there will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it.
And his bond servants will serve him and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. What they think. their whole soul, we will enjoy God to God, or face to face, without any kind of the mediation that we have now. There'll be no more sin, as the old preacher would say, and no more sermons about sin. But we're not in glory yet, so.
Again, just listen to this. Paul says, I, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. By the way, just so you get this, we're going to glory. Christ is gonna bring us to glory and all that that means, but Paul is saying, Christ had to suffer.
Don't we say it? The cross before the crown. And Christian, you will suffer. Philippians chapter 3.
Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. And when we see Him, we will be like Him. First John. So Peter, to the elders, he says, as your fellow elder and the witness of the sufferings of Christ and partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.
So the glory that's coming to us is life, it's joy, it's rest. As I said, we'll see God face to face and our mind will, just like if I were to hold this up, As soon as you saw this, you knew it was made of what? You just knew it. It's made of glass.
In the same way, you will apprehend God in every moment. You will enjoy God. Now, we're always going to be, right, Rich? We're always going to be temporal.
Maybe I should ask Daniel. Where's Daniel at? We're always going to be temporal creatures. We're always going to be conscious of one moment to the next.
We cannot be eternal like God, who exists now. Where's Daniel at? Because I want to know. Yeah, hi Daniel.
Can I say God has no future and God has no past? We do, and we always will. But for us, there, one great moment of joy, glory, gladness, contentment, would just give way to another moment. No sin, no sorrow, no struggle, no sense of bitterness and struggling with trying to forgive somebody who abused you.
The Weight of Coming Glory
Now, this is going back some time ago. I was talking to my wife. And it is true, I do love my wife. I just, I'm driving.
I say, hey, babe, I'm going to give you a bunch of words. I want you to just tell me your impression. She didn't know what I was, you know, she's a good wife. She submits to me.
So I said, bright light, like lightning, like the sun, and jasper. And glass that's like gold, you know, is going through. I go, what's your impression when you hear that? And she said to me, it's hard and it's harsh.
And that's what I was hoping she would say. Because if you really think about it, that doesn't sound really inviting. If I go out in the sun, I'm wearing a ball cap and sunglasses, but I love the sun. And here's what I hope to do.
Now, someday you'll have resurrected brain, eyes, whatever apparatus. So you'll have eyes that will be able to accommodate all that. But what's his name? Philip?
No, Leland Ryken. He works with language. He calls this language of the brightness, the jewels, lightning. He calls this enameled imagery.
And he says this combines a supernatural brilliance of light and hardness of texture to symbolize the glory of permanence and of a transcendent place, heaven, and a person, Christ. Now, here's what I hope to do. How long do I get to go? Another hour?
OK. So here's what I want. I want to increase the hunger, desire, and to take that bright light, as it were, and run it through a prism. So you see all this wonderful color that leaves you with a desire for more.
So with that, turn. We're going to go to two more texts and then we'll be done. 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
The Light of the Gospel: 2 Corinthians 4
Even though it's a glory that's yet outstanding, and we have this imagery that comes to us through scripture, the reality is greater You know, when you read your Bibles, you need to think. There is symbolic language in the scripture, but like, okay, I hope I don't, you can delete this or blank it out, right? So like, hell, is it literal fire? I don't know, but I wouldn't have a hard time believing darkness, gnashing of teeth, the worm not dying, fire, is symbolic.
But here's the thing. In Scripture, the reality is always greater than the symbol. So if fire is just a symbol, the reality is even greater. And that's true with glory and everything that we could read about glory in Scripture.
So there's more. No matter what we read, no matter what you John, he said, it has not yet appeared what we will be. So as much as we can discover from scripture and argue later from creation, the glory that's coming is even greater. I've often wondered when Paul says that in the body, out of the body, I don't know, caught up to the third heaven, hear heard things, remember what he said?
I don't get to tell you, it's not lawful. If that wasn't really for our benefit, if I tell you, it would make this life all the much more miserable, knowing what is waiting for us. So, you know, once again, 2 Corinthians chapter four after three, he's talking about the superiority of the new covenant as opposed to the old covenant. And the old covenant had glory, but the new covenant has more glory.
So he talks much about glory in the old covenant and how the unbelieving Jews then and now, when they read the old covenant scriptures, they don't see what they should see. And what should they see? They should see Jesus. Now look at verse three.
He said, even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now, this language of God of this age, it has an interesting history within the church, what do we mean by that? The Arians actually appealed to this text. See, there's other lowercase g gods that Jesus is just one of these.
And of course, the church rejected that. And I think it's just saying, the devil's not a god by nature. It's rather, he's the one who, and by the way, right now, everyone in here, you're either one or the other. You're either in Christ with the God, the true God, or you're being led by the God of this age.
There is no middle ground. Or I can say it like this, you're either in Adam the first or the last Adam. That's what he's saying. But notice what he's talking about, their eyes, they're blind.
Has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now in this language, light is very important. Those who've read your Bible, you just kind of instinctively think about the light here, not so much like the light that's in this room, but you know it's talking about something spiritual, right? You understand that?
This is where the next passage where I want you to, from now on, I want you to kind of slow down and don't immediately jump to that point, but to start looking at the light itself, the light that comes to these eyes, because God is using the creature to say something about him as creator, and that the creator creature language is very important right here in this passage. Look at verse six. Or verse five, for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bond servants for Jesus Christ's sake. Why are you saying this, Paul?
Verse six,
Creation Light and New Creation Light
for God who said, light shall shine out of darkness. Now let me stop right there. When did God say that? Genesis chapter one, when he created the world.
He's saying that God, in the act of creation, bringing light into darkness. So he's saying, he's telling us right now, the creation of the world helps us understand the creation, the new creation of Greece. For God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Now, remember that first chapter of Genesis?
And God created light, and what's he say at the end of each day of creation? And it was good. And when he gets done, he says, it's very good. So the good God, who doesn't possess goodness, but is goodness itself, creates the world, and it reflects.
His own goodness. And here, it's using the word glory. Again, when you go back, and I hope you do go back and you listen to Dr. Renahan's first lecture, you're going to hear him talk about the importance of creation, and God's decree, and God's glory.
And so for us who are children of God, seeing God in Christ, and then God in Christ healing our hearts, we now have eyes to see God's glory. And you have if you're a Christian. We sing that hymn. I think most Christian churches sing and love that hymn.
Did I disappear? No? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?
And how's it go? Amazing grace, how sweet to sound. I was once lost, but now I'm found. I was once blind, and now I, and what do you see in God's grace? you see the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Now what is the face of Christ? Paul could say to the Galatians, before whom very eyes Christ was portrayed as crucified. Now it's not because Paul's drawing pictures. He's saying we preach Christ as the reality of redemption.
And you saw it. Don't we say that sometimes you tell somebody a story? We have technical difficulties. Can you hear me?
So I was once lost. And we say to one another, we'll tell them something, and we'll ask them, do you see it? And sometimes we'll say to each other, I see what you mean. I perceive it.
I get it. It was working fine for Dr. Renahan. Is it back?
You can hear me? So when we encounter Christ in the scriptures in the gospel, And you think about all that took place in his life, the life that he lived, the kind of man that he, in his humiliation, was. The healings, the teaching, how he could, you know, technically Jesus didn't do exorcisms. Because exorcisms would involve some ritual and this and that and the other.
Jesus would just say, shut up and leave. And what would happen? It would leave. We see Christ as we've heard, I think we heard, one of you mentioned Hebrews 1, maybe I said it in my head, the threefold office of Christ, which is, why do we need a prophet?
Because I'm ignorant. Why do you need a priest? Because I'm sinful. Why do I need a king to rule over me and to protect me?
You know, Jesus exercised his kingship right now. If you believe in Jesus, if you've come to grace, it's because King Jesus conquered you. He bound the devil and he plundered. the strong man's goods. And when you heard the gospel, you saw the glory of God.
You got it. It's like, I've never seen this. I'm marvelous. How could I not seen this before?
And now, I told Pastor Butler, that I have to resist the temptation to, I go to conferences, I like conferences, this has been a wonderful, anytime I can see Dr. Renahan, it's a good conference, and I like Rich. This is nothing like what happens every single Lord's Day in the gathering of the assembly of the saints. When you gather, in two days, that gathering has a promise attached to it no other gathering has.
When they're gathered together in my name, he's there. I don't have time, but later on this chapter, quoting Psalm, I say I don't have any time, but here I go. Psalm 22, I'll sing my praises, sing praises. amongst my brethren. You know why singing can be so powerful?
When we're singing the word of God, we don't sing alone. Here's one of the things I love about our churches. I mean, here's the truth. We have some good preachers and whatever, but we don't have the personalities.
You know what I mean? We don't have the people that's going to gather a large crowd but we have men who are committed to preaching, and here's what we believe when the word of God is preached, Christ is there. We hear Christ's voice when the scriptures are read, and when you come to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or to baptism, Dr. Renahan has done some great work on baptism, and Hebrews talks about how we've had our bodies washed with pure water, and we're told, I love this, When somebody said in this, maybe it was Rich, does that mean we get to sin, right?
You're talking about God makes use of even our sin to our good, right? Well, the answer, Paul asked that question, can we sin that grace may increase? No. Now you might think he's gonna say, haven't you listened to Moses coming down with the law?
What does he do? When we see baptism, He, we're seeing the gospel. And that's exactly what Paul does in Romans six. Don't you know that you were baptized in the Christ?
Raised to walk in newness of life? You know, because the sacraments are just visual words saying the same thing that you hear in the gospel. So when you come, when you come to the bread, this is my body. Now not, of course it's foolishness to, to say that it's real flesh.
It doesn't need to be. It's there symbolically, but we hear the Savior say, take, eat, live. That's the glory of God coming to us in Christ, the cup. Your sins are forgiven.
Whether you put money in the plate or you've said your prayers enough this week, whether or not you stayed awake during the sermon because of Jesus. Oh, if I were your pastor, I plead with you, please never let those words be anything other than precious to you. The most important thing that you can hear from a holy God is your sins are forgiven. And every Lord's Day, through the sermon, if you have the supper that week, baptism, the means of grace, you're hearing God saying to you, I accept you in my son.
And we get something. Look at it. It's right there in your Bibles. Verse six, the same God that created, that same God has recreated, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The children's catechism, the one that we use, I think it's the third and fourth question. I wonder if you know the answer. Who made you? All right, good.
Now it's gonna get harder. Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory. In Christ, he's gonna, not in the way that he receives glory, but he's bringing you to that glory.
And if you listen to Christ, he says, blessed are the pure in heart. He pronounces there's happiness for those who's had their hearts cleansed of our idolatry. The glory of God in the face of Christ. And so what does Jesus say?
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And it's a scene that's taking place now. This is what Paul's saying. Now, we're gonna go to the last passage, but here's what's really important for you to understand before we get there.
We can... I was with... Stuff. And if you ever spend any time with James Dozol, just don't say anything, just listen to him.
Lectures at the church the next day, and I'm just sitting there at the end of the table, and he's typing, and he's just talking, talking, and every now and then he looks up and goes, David, I really need to finish this. I haven't said a word. And he's multitasking. I went to a baseball game, Mud Hens.
He wanted to go see the Toledo Mud Hens. He's doing philosophy about baseball. What's going on? But he said this, he said,
Creation as Theater of Divine Glory
Christians are the only ones who can enjoy creation without becoming an idolater. You understand what he's saying by that? Now that's not saying that we don't have to fight with our remaining sin, but we now can approach And that's why I say, go back to listen. Just listen closely when Dr.
Renahan's going through our confession, how important creation is. Here it says, he is all sufficient, the fountain, having all life, glory, goodness in himself. So now, here's what we're going to do.
Seeing God's Glory Through the Creature
Turn to Psalm 36. We're not gonna, I'm not gonna expound all this. But there's some things, now this is for the choir director of Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. Look at verse 1, how transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart.
Now again, I don't have the time, I don't have the expertise to unpack all that's there. Except now he's saying, look, our eyes have been healed. And we even see light differently. We see all the world differently.
We can enjoy the creature. We can find the light and trace it back up to God. You know, Psalm 19, again, one of the men quoted it. If you know it, finish this.
The heavens are declaring what? Go out and look at the stars, the moon. I've seen some pictures. Some of you went up further north to see the Aurora Borealis.
It's breathtaking. Did any of you catch the total of the eclipse? Was that two years ago? They're preaching a sermon to you.
Psalm 19 goes on to say, you don't hear their voice, but their lines going out. Listen, if you have ears to see, eyes, ears to hear, eyes to see, they're telling you about God's glory. How about this? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The whole earth is filled. The whole earth is filled with his glory. John Calvin. I have some quotes.
I know it's hard to listen to people reading quotes when it's Richard doing it. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. This is my chance.
I've never preached before you. This is my chance. Listen to this. God though dwelling in inaccessible light, makes his glory plainly visible by clothing himself in the splendor of the created world.
Therefore, we do not behold him by striving into his naked majesty, but by fixing our gaze upon the beautiful fabric in which he has willed to be seen. Romans 1, that which could be known about God, his invisible attributes is clearly seen in what he's created. The creature reveals the creator. Remember how Paul says that in Romans?
Again, get the language. Stop reading your Bibles too fast and slow down and say, what's going on here? He says, they worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is what? blessed, in and of himself, glorious. And for those who have eyes to see, even now, get to share in that beatitude.
Not in its fullness. Creation still groans. Can I quote a poet? I know it's kind of three points in a poem, I didn't do it that way on purpose, I promise.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning was her husband. She wrote a book, Aurora Lee. It's actually, it's a poetic book in the seventh chapter. Listen to what she says.
This is wonderful. Earth is crammed with heaven. And every common bush, a fire with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries." So we are meant to go to scripture as God uses things from scripture because the theological language, again, Dr. Bernahan will fix all this. All the creatures in some way, there's an analogy. gives being. And so that which has been, has been because of the plentitude of God and all creatures in a way that imitate God, participate in God, not as God, but always as creature.
That's why God can use this language analogically to talk about something about himself. And every good thing we just read, the pleasures, of this world are meant to bring us to greater love and appreciation for God now and to hunger for the glory yet to be seen. So like from Song of Solomon, my beloved, speaking of Christ, is like a gazelle and a young stag. Is he saying that we're supposed to study what's going on there in the animal life? and reason back from them to something true about God?
Yes. Goes on to say, may he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Is he saying that there's something in that kiss of our beloved that we're supposed to, as Calvin said, see God? Every kiss, every bush, He goes on to say, she goes on to say, his love is better than wine.
Or you could say grape juice if you're so inclined. You understand? You can't get to what's going on there unless you understand the delight of a kiss. The taste of the wine.
And since, like Dolezal would say, Our eyes have been healed. We can enjoy those things, but we don't stop at those things. I'm just going to start saying, Dr. Butler, we were talking about these things.
I can't say Dr. Butler. Come on. You know more than most PhDs.
We were talking and he brought up something, I hope I get this right, I didn't ask his permission, but he was talking about just seeing men and women who are skilled, even I think you said collecting trash, whatever it is. And it's there, seeing something of human ability. And God likens himself to a craftsman, as a creator. So David, are you saying you're supposed to watch the trash man and his skill and reason it up to how great God is?
Calvin is saying that. The psalmist is saying that. Isaiah, the angels are the ones who actually said, holy, holy, holy. That's what they're saying.
We're looking at God. Not really. And everything that we encounter with God, the conclusion is the same. Holy, when we look at the earth, His whole, the whole earth is cramped with the glory of God.
Why do we like seeing the war of Borealis? There's something of God in there, unless you're an idolater. Am I on time? Am I okay?
All right, listen to the reformer again. This is from his institutes. There was so much. One of the biggest challenges I had with this sermon is knowing what not to read, what to leave out.
Men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see God. Indeed, his essence is incomprehensible, hence his divinity far escapes all human perception, but upon his individual works, he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory. This is what Paul is saying back in 2 Corinthians. We've seen the light, the same God who created light out of darkness.
Think about what happened there. There's darkness, and out of the darkness is this blue ball crammed with life. that came from the living God. All right. Are you guys okay with the quotes?
There's one more that's really good. This is because of Dr. Rennie. I love Dr.
Rennie. If you knew Dr. Rennie, you would love Dr. Rennie too. and he pointed me in Bonaventure, and then I found, this is actually Bavinck in his second volume, quotes Bonaventure.
I added this a little bit to make it short. Listen to what he says. So that we may truly praise and glorify God, and actually grow in knowing him, we must take what belongs to the creatures and ascribe it to God. God's glory demands it. because he is supremely worthy of praise, and because our words are too few, scripture teaches us to borrow the countless names found in creation and apply them to him.
In this way, just as every creature glorifies God, so every creaturely name can be pressed into his praise. No single name can contain him. He surpasses them all because he is the uncaused cause. So, because they all surpass him, he is fittingly honored by them all.
We come to know the creator through His creatures, and since created things display real excellencies, and he gives examples, lions for strength, lamb for meekness, rock for firmness. He says it's right that we carry these names upward to God, using them as stepping stones for understanding the one for whom all such perfections flow. Why is it fun to kiss your beloved? There's something of God in that.
Why is wine good, unless you make it bad by abusing it, being an idolater? Why do we say it? You know, I'll torment my people sometimes. I'll ask them questions.
Are you saved by keeping the law? No, pastor. Now they know, by Christ keeping the law. And I'll ask my people, is God a rock?
They're like, I don't trust you to ask questions anymore. Just answer it. Well, of course God is not a rock. He's a spirit, eternal, infinite.
But is God our rock? He's our rock. He's solid. Rock of ages, cleft for me.
Let me hide myself, not from thee, but in thee. And so the psalmist, and I'll end with this. Psalm 27.
Beholding the Beauty of the Lord
One thing I've asked from the Lord that I shall seek. What is it? What would you say? If God said, you get what you want, all you got to do is name it and claim it.
What do you want? One thing I've asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Why? To behold the beauty of the Lord.
Now think about that. He's taking something that we use about creatures all the time, beauty. And so when you look at that thing that's beautiful, I like birds. I like other people's cats.
And I do, my wife and I, one of the things I say to my wife all the time, I say, honey, I like you. I certainly love her. And I like looking at her. She's on my computer, my laptop, my flip phone.
And I would be an idolater if I stopped there and didn't realize that the beauty is there to make me go, that's just a small drip on the tongue of the one whose beauty itself, even God. You were decreed child of God to that glory. And before you get there, you're going to suffer. Paul said, I do not consider the suffering in this world at this time of this age to be compared to the glory that will be ours.
And that's ultimately, penultimately, of what the decree is all about. Thank God. Amen. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
James, you want me to pray?
Closing Prayer
Almighty God and Heavenly Father, we would ask first that you would forgive our idolatrous hearts that too often just simply enjoy the creature without the gratitude of seeing the Creator, you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do thank you that you and Christ have accepted us, that Christ by the Spirit has healed our hearts, so that now we have eyes to see your glory, both in the works of creation and providence, even as these are just partial sights Let them awaken in us a great hunger for the day when we will see you directly in Christ face to face. Here as we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.
Scripture References
- Genesis 1:3
- Psalms 8; 19:1; 22:22; 27:4; 36:1
- Song of Solomon 1:2; 2:9
- Isaiah 6:3
- Matthew 5:8
- Romans 1:20; 1:25; 6:1; 6:3-4; 8:18; 11:36
- 2 Corinthians 4:3; 4:5; 4:6; 12:2-4
- Galatians 3:1
- Philippians 3:20-21
- Colossians 3:4
- Hebrews 1:1; 1:3; 2:6-8; 2:7; 2:8; 2:9; 2:10
- 1 Peter 5:1
- 1 John 3:2
- Revelation 7:16-17; 21:1; 21:10-11; 22:3