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Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you for showing up four and a half hours early. Got to fix the clock then. Let's start by singing hymn 252. world, and to my listening ears. All nature sings and round me rings the music. This is my father's world. I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas. His hand the wonders brought. This is my father's world. The birds and heralds raise. The morning light, the lily white. to declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world.

He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass I hear Him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. Oh, let me never forget that though the wrong seems all so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one. Amen. Let's go to God in prayer. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day. We rejoice in your goodness towards us. We thank you that we can behold the glory of your creation. We draw a breath in our lungs that you have empowered us to do those things which are the condescended blessings of a triune God who is good to his people. And we pray that you would help us to reflect with great joy on that blessed gift gospel of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation by the perfection of his work. We thank you that you have called us from out of darkness to marvelous light to behold the triune God and to rejoice in and rest in Jesus Christ, our precious Savior. Do bless us now as we study your word, study your truth, help us to know you more, to know the truth more, and might we be well equipped to go into worship, to worship you, our blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

You can turn in your confessions to chapter four. Does anybody need a confession of faith? Grant, could someone avail of the blue basket of dogmatic truth and bring it to our friend Grant? And Roger. There we go. So chapter four, we're in the chapter with regards to the doctrine of creation. Three relatively short paragraphs, no doubt packed though with rich biblical truth. So this is chapter four, all three paragraphs.

In the beginning, it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good. After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, rendering them fit unto that life to God for which they were created, being made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it, and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. Besides the law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which, whilst they kept, they were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures. So like I said, three short paragraphs, but certainly replete with rich biblical truth. regarding creation, generally speaking, and then regarding creation specifically as it pertains to man.

And this chapter is, like every other chapter, there is a deliberate position to this chapter relative to the other chapters. Fittingly, this comes after the chapter on the decree of God. What are, you know, how does God execute his decrees, I believe, is the shorter catechism question. God executes his decrees by the works of creation and providence, and so creation and providence follow, rightly, the decree of God, which follows, rightly, the doctrine of God, which follows, rightly, the doctrine of the scriptures, which declare to us, pointedly, the triune God who saves us by virtue of the perfection of the work of Christ. And this, so not only does this follow rightly, the three chapters that precede it, but it also sets up the story that follows as we move forward into the following chapters.

We see Providence. we see the fall of man into sin, we see God who redeems and who architects or who establishes this covenant, this reality of redemption by virtue of condescending by way of covenant, and then the Christ comes and saves His people according to the covenant of grace and the covenant of redemption. And so it's a fitting position for this particular chapter on creation. we see the movement in the confession from the ad intra, the intrinsic act of God, or the to the inside reality of God, who he is in himself, to the ad extra work, the extrinsic production, the to the outside works of God in creation, providence, and ultimately redemption. the execution of the decrees outside of himself, so creation, providence, and redemption, these are normally divided into two categories.

One, the works of nature, and two, the works of grace. So, the works of nature, would be creation and providence. So chapters four and five, the conservation of nature governed and directed by God. And then I think we would know what the blessed works of grace are. These refer to men only and their particular supernatural ends.

Gregory of Nazianzus, just to set us up for now diving into the content of the confession, It's an extended quote, but hopefully it frames our minds and our hearts with regards to a study of creation and how it exalts the creator and places man in a particular position relative to that creator. Gregory wrote, for what is it which ordered things in heaven and things in earth? and those which pass through the air and those which live in the water? Or rather the things which were before these, heaven and earth, air and water?

Who mingled these and who distributed them? What is it that each has in common with the other and their mutual dependence and agreement? For I commend the man, though he was a heathen, who said, what gave movement to these and drives their ceaseless and unhindered motion? Is it not the artificer of them who implanted reason in them all, in accordance with which the universe is moved and controlled? Is it not he who made them and brought them into being?

For we cannot attribute such a power to the accidental. For suppose that its existence is accidental. To what will you let us ascribe its order? And if you like, we will grant you this. To what then will you ascribe its preservation and protection in accordance with the terms of its first creation? Do these belong to the accidental or to something else? Surely not to the accidental, and what can this something else be but God?

Thus reason that proceeds from God, that is implanted in all from the beginning, and is the first law in us, and is bound up in all, leads us up to God through visible things. So to summarize, in a sense, when we come to the doctrine of creation, the topic of creation, very often in certain dialogues it's set in opposition to a rejection of creation, to a naturalistic, humanistic, atheistic view of all things and the origin of those all things. Gregory is saying, as we certainly know as Christians and the Bible discloses, that the effects of creation, the effects of the divine act, which we lay our eyes upon, which our hands handle, those things are, of course, the result of the infinite one who is the first cause of all things.

An ordered universe cannot be accidental. An ordered and a governed and a universe where we see not chaos but order, and where we see reasonable and intelligent men cannot be the result of accidental things. It is not the case that nothing exploded and created everything in order and in governance. So getting to the chapter content, we're going to do four things, if time allows, and if I'm able to handle time, which I normally am not able to do.

These four things. First off, what is creation? Secondly, God and creation. Thirdly, man and creation. And then fourthly, man, creation, and covenant. So first off, what is creation? And first, under this, catechetically, what is the definition? In the Shorter Catechism, we read, what is the work of creation?

The answer, the work of creation is God's making all things of nothing by the word of his power in the space of six days in all very good. Now, we won't get to an expansion upon in the space of six days, but suffice it to say, those are six days. These six days aren't, it's not poetic flourish, it's not some sort of literary convention or some sort of representation of larger epochs or, you know, massive spaces of time, but rather six days. So we take the traditional and the historical approach to the creation God created properly in six days, all things from nothing, and all very good. So with regards to this definition, what is the work of creation, this shorter catechism answer comports very well with what we have in paragraph one. We see that it is the work of God. There's a particular purpose that is given, which we'll note later. It's for the manifestation of his divine majesty.

And then the actual act of creation itself, God creates the world and all things therein in the space of six days, and all very good. There is a and rightly so, because the Bible lays it out this way, there is a historical theological honing in on the purpose of creation itself. And while there are places and arenas wherein to wax biblical and to wax scientific on the creation as it pertains to creatures, that aren't man, elephants and snow leopards, that's my favorite animal, and beetles and albatross eye, and those sorts of things, and the history of the development of creatures with regards to the divine intent based upon the genetic potential put into them by the creator, and all of these different things, but creation, biblically speaking, finds a honing in upon the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ as it respects man unto the glory of the triune God. And that's why we see this general introduction with regards to creation, but then with paragraphs two and three, we see this zeroing in on the purpose for creation.

And the confession will ultimately bring us to an even greater honing in. What is the purpose of creation and providence? Those two things serve the redemptive end that the glory of God would be magnified and gloried in by his creatures who are brought from darkness to light by virtue of the perfection of the saving work of Jesus Christ. In other words, the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation of Jesus Christ is the point of creation and providence, and that he would, by that perfect work, bring many sons and daughters to glory.

That is the purpose of creation, ultimately speaking. All creation serves Christ upon the cross, working out the salvation of men. So getting back, so the catechetical answer, and if we were to provide a simple answer, not that the catechetical answer isn't simple, but creation simply, is everything not God? So time, space, matter, all things, Richard Barcelos captures it this way, we know Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the spirit hovered over the waters, God speaks creation into existence by the word of his power, the Trinity present in Genesis 1 and 2, of course the rest of Genesis, but in that creation account.

Richard Barcello says, a theological paraphrase of Genesis 1.1 could read as follows. In the beginning, all that is in God brought forth that which is not God. All that is in God brought forth that which is not God. When we distinguish God and the creation, we're distinguishing the creator from the creature, the one who is God from all that is not God. So secondly then, God and creation.

Notice. In the beginning, it pleased God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the triune God who creates. It's not, you know, the Father that creates, and then, you know, the Son in the Historia Salutis, the history of salvation comes, and he does the redemptive part of divine work, and then he's finished, and then the Holy Spirit sort of takes up the mantle and engages in the application of that perfect redemption. No, it's the triune God in all works to the outside that is engaged in all of those works. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit doing all that God does.

First off, one thing that we ought to note here, because this question often comes up in a discussion of creation, and specifically as we're noting now, God and creation, is divine or temporal eternity relative to creation? Because some people will say that in order to create, God, in order to create all things not God, God had to create time, enter into time, and then create. So that he, in essence, changes. He was eternal, but takes on temporality, takes on time-boundness. in order to create all things. Or some would say that God is already bound by time, eternally, so that he does actually engage in a forever-lasting succession of moments, and that just makes sense because he creates all things, being essentially a time-bound being.

We would want to say to that that the Bible and our confessional tradition, our confessional heritage, upholds that it is an eternal God, a timelessly eternal God, who does not change, yet affects creation by an eternal act of his will. So God did not move, if we can put it this way, God did not move from having not created to having now created. In other words, there wasn't a movement in God from some sort of state of non-action to a state of action where beforehand he had not created and then he had created.

We'll have a look at some things and note some persons in the history of Christian articulation that speak to this very important truth, but just turn with me for a moment in your Bibles to Psalm 90. We want to, in a discussion of creation, we uphold the doctrine of divine eternity, while we also uphold the fact that creation is itself bound in time. So notice in Psalm 90, with respect to divine eternality, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. reminder of the stuff that we heard at the recent conference.

Man, I'm struggling for the word. It's the concussion. Struggling for words. I'll just blame the concussion, really. It's just my human ignorance. So at the conference, we heard about this language of the Bible where God is condescending to our finite capacities and using time-bound language to actually articulate God's eternity. before the mountains were brought forth.

There was truly no before, in a sense, with regards to creation, because God himself is not bound by time, but in order to magnify the eternity of God, God condescends to use this language so that we might, as finite creatures, understand. Or, ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. If you were to If you're to look at treatments of the doctrine of God, specifically at divine eternity, timeless eternity, this is one of the passages that theologians would go to in order to emphasize his eternality. The creator of all things is not bound by time. You can turn to Isaiah 57 for a moment. Isaiah 57. Notice in Isaiah 57 at verse 15. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. It's a wonderful statement.

I mean, it goes on, of course, but what a wonderful description of God. For thus says the High and Lofty One. This is how we ought to frame our hearts with regards to our reflections upon our blessed God. He's the High and Lofty One. It's not just a greater being a little bit lifted above man or angels. He's the high and lofty one. And this is in contradistinction to us who are the lowly ones, who are to have humble and contrite spirits because of the one who is himself high and lofty, and notice, who inhabits eternity.

He is the eternal one who is not bound by time. And it's interesting language here. Does God actually inhabit a place that is eternal or a place called eternity? No, he doesn't. Because there is no, you know, nothing not God can be that wherein God dwells. And so it's, again, language, condescended language, in order to magnify the glory of God. God simply is perfect being, eternal, unchangeable, and glorious in all of his perfections.

So with regards to this, What does it mean, then, when we read this language, the very first three words of Chapter 1, or Chapter 4, Paragraph 1, in the beginning? If God is not creating in time, then how can we say that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? So doesn't that mean, then, that God somehow had to create time, therefore the beginning, and then had to enter time and then create based upon the reality of the temporal. This doesn't mean that God entered into time, created time, and then entered it to create, but rather, as Ames notes, he's speaking with regards to the Creator and the creation with regards to the act of creating all things.

Properly, he says, act of power does not agree to God. That is, we can't ascribe it to God in this sense, as if in respect to himself, he were first idle, and afterwards he put himself forth to act, for God is a most pure act. Or a little bit easier to understand, perhaps, Francis Turretin, there is no change made in God by creation, nor is any new perfection added to him, because it is an external and transient act, which is from God, but not in him. It is made without any motion, and new determination. No new will enters into him, but only a new external work proceeds from his eternal, efficacious, and omnipotent will. Nor ought any perfection to be added to him on that account.

Hence, whatever change was made by the creation was made in the creatures passing from non-existence to being, and not in God himself creating. So God, the blessed doctrine of the immutability of God, that he himself communicates to us, I, the Lord, do not change. That blessed doctrine is upheld when we uphold the fact that God does not change in his creation. And this is important as well here. No perfection is to be added to him on the account of his creating all things.

You might hear it and it's, you know, It's not to put any VBS teachers in hell. That's not what we're saying. But if someone is trying to teach creation, and they say, a child asks, why did God create all things? Well, he was lonely, and so he wanted companions. to mitigate his loneliness.

That's not why creation. God wasn't lonely. His eternal blessedness precludes that creation adds anything to him And if creation was taken away, that reduces any blessedness in the one who is divine perfection itself. And so the world and all things were not created because God was lonely. It also isn't, why creation? Well, because God is so overflowing with love that that love overflowed and was the purpose for the creation. I think we have the reason for creation stated here, which we'll get to shortly.

So God and time, just to wrap that up, our friend who was here, Dr. James Dolezal, wrote this in an article, The Eternal Creator of Time. And he said, God's immensity, which is his infinity considered in regard to space. When we think of infinity, God is infinite. There are some entailments that are connected to that. So his immensity, is infinity as it pertains to space. His all-temporal eternity is his infinity as it applies to time. So Dolezal says God's immensity, which is his infinity considered in regard to space, can serve as a helpful parallel in thinking about God's eternity. For as he is not bounded by space, so neither by time. Just as God is not spatial in his presence to space, so he is not temporal in his presence to time.

And then the wonderful definition of eternity from Boethius, eternity then is the whole simultaneous and perfect possession of boundless life. Isn't that a good, sorry about that, a good descriptor with regards to God? Eternity then is the whole simultaneous and perfect possession of boundless life. When we go into worship later this morning, we're to reflect upon our God as the one who is boundless in his life. He is perfect and has the perfect and simultaneous possession of boundless life, not bounded by space, not bounded by time, not bounded by anything.

Next, creation as the work of the undivided Trinity. So under the head God and creation, just a reminder again that creation is the work of the undivided Trinity. It is that in the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. to create or make the world and all things therein. And so creation is the work of the undivided Trinity. All the external works of the triune God are indivisibly the works of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are not three who will, and there are not three all mighties. I think it's the Athanasian Creed that says something like, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, and the Spirit is almighty, yet not three almighties, but one almighty.

And so when we look at creation, we see that it's God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit creating, but according to the one will, according to the one power, according to the one divine perfection. So creation is the work of the undivided trinity. And then we see the purpose of creation stated. And this is still in paragraph one. Notice the four clause.

So creation is for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. And we'll see this further developed with regards to those things, power, wisdom, and goodness, as it pertains to the redemption of the elect, to the praise of God's glorious grace. But we ought to first generally note What creation is to preach, largely and gloriously speaking, it is to preach the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. It does preach the power, the wisdom, and the glory of God. When we lay our eyes upon creation, when we, with our rational, reasonable, and intelligent minds, contemplate the creation, rightly, we're drawn to the eternal power and wisdom and goodness of God.

The light of nature discloses these things, as we see more than once in the confession of faith. The light of nature discloses that there is a God who is to be worshiped, who is to be feared, who is to be obeyed. The light of nature discloses the eternal power, wisdom, and goodness of God.

And as we move along, not only in this chapter, but in the confession, this serves as the foundation to consider that creation The purpose of creation is to manifest those things and specifically to angels, to the church, and to the judged unbelievers with respect to the glory of God in the salvation of the elect by virtue of the perfect work of Jesus Christ. As we've noted, ultimately creation serves the redemptive end which serves the end of glorifying God eternally. And so it is the case that creation, or the purpose of creation, is as we see here, the manifestation of the glory of God, the manifestation of eternal power, wisdom, and goodness.

And this is a threefold formulation. This language, power, wisdom, and goodness, is repeated throughout the tradition of Christianity from the early church all the way through to our modern era. It's a three-fold almost formula that from the earliest Christians to today has been maintained to highlight the glory of God, this power, wisdom, goodness. So if anybody asks you, what is the purpose of creation? You can say it is that God would manifest the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, and ultimately, in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ.

Thomas Manton wrote this. He wrote, nay, look upward, downward, within thee, without thee. What dost thou see, hear, and feel but the products and effects of an eternal power, wisdom, and goodness? Thou canst not open thine eyes, but the heavens are ready to say to thy conscience, man, there is a God, an infinite, eternal being who made us and all things else. Isn't that wonderful?

Man is to cast his eyes upon creation. And not to entertain the childish fairy tale that nothing exploded and created everything, because that is folly and madness. Even a six-year-old can look upon creation and know in his six-year-old mind that there is a cause behind these things. Man looks upon creation and in his heart of hearts knows that there is a divine being who has created these things, yet he engages in the full-time vocation of opposing that God and the reality of his revelation through creation and providence.

The manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. And notice the act of creation then at the end of the paragraph. the act of creation. So the purpose we see there stated, in the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now just moving on, to create or make the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible.

So what does this statement mean? To create or make the world? Is it simply the confessionalists here, the divines, you know, providing a synonym for create? You know, like create or, you know, also what we mean by that is make the world. There's actually a distinction here and a biblical distinction that's being made here. Is it true that God created all things of nothing in the space of six days and all very good? Yes. But is it absolutely true that God created all things of nothing? No. What do we mean by that?

Well, the create or make, helps us to move from beyond that and to discover what that actually means. Turretin, for example, wrote on this created and made, creation may be either first and immediate, which is simply ex nihilo, or secondary and immediate, which is made indeed from some matter, creation ex materia. Now, of course it's the case that God is the creator of all things, but there are two things, or two categories of creation, we can say. Creation, properly speaking, and then the making things from those things that God has already created. You can turn with me, for example, in your Bibles first to Genesis 1. And then just keep in mind that we'll then be going to Hebrews 11, so you can prepare your minds and fingers to go to Hebrews 11. So with regards to create, so we have create or made.

Of course, Genesis 1.1 and 2, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, then God said. So we have creation.

Now turn to Hebrews 11.3, also on the topic of created as nuancically distinguished from made, Hebrews 11. Beginning in verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of the Lord, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. So these things speak to creation.

Creation ex nihilo, or out of nothing, and when we say that, we want to make sure that we qualify what we're saying. Because it's not the case that before the creation of the world, there was God and there was nothing. as if nothing is a thing. It's in the name, no thing. So, we don't have at the beginning, or in the beginning, God and nothing, and then from that nothing, God created. Because nothing can come from nothing, or something can't come from nothing. It just means that God didn't borrow from anything to create all things. There was God, and he brought not God into existence.

The reason this is important is, I think, one of the reasons is when we're discussing creation versus evolution or naturalistic origin of things with atheists, one of the things that we rightly target them for is the madness and the idiocy and the folly of saying that everything came from nothing. And so the atheist, if he's smart, and some have done this, can say, well, you Christians say the same thing, that everything came from nothing. You believe that God brought everything from out of nothing. We're just saying the same thing, except that there was no intelligent cause. And so I think it's important that we understand what out of nothing or ex nihilo means. It doesn't mean that God from this thing called nothing made everything. It just means that God brought everything that was not God into existence. So that's creation. God creates, Genesis 1, God creates from nothing.

Hebrews 11.3, all the things that are visible are made by that which are not visible. And now made, you can turn to Genesis 2 for a moment. What do the divines mean when they're distinguishing here? Not providing a synonym for create necessarily, but distinguishing between create or make.

Notice in Genesis 2 at verse 7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. So, can we say that God created man ex nihilo? In one sense, we can, because God is the first and only cause of being. But if we're to be theologically precise, we would want to say that God created man ex materia. God created man from the dust of the ground. He made man from the dust of the ground.

Notice as well, Genesis 2.22. Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. So God made Eve, not properly and absolutely speaking ex nihilo, but ex materia, from the rib of the man that he brought up from the dust of the earth.

If we just back up then to Genesis 2.19, out of the ground, The Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

So is it an absolutely vital distinction? No. God still, we can say, created everything out of nothing because as the blessed first cause of all things, God brought everything not God into existence. But as we consider creation and the bringing into being of all things, there is this twofold distinction. God creates. things from out of nothing, again qualified, but then makes things from the things he created. So ex nihilo and ex materia. We would want to, and it's important, when we say ex nihilo, I think it's targeted against pagan theology, the notion that creation is coextensive or coeternal with God, that there already existed alongside a creator, material, from which he created all things. That's not Christianity, of course.

So when we say God made things of previously existing things as Christians, we're just referring to first the fact that out of nothing God made, and then from those things that God had made, he made. like Adam out of the dust of the ground, like Eve from the rib of Adam, like the creatures of the earth from out of the ground, and so forth.

Another note would be John 2 with regards to immediate creation. Theologians would note the turning of miracles such as the turning of water into wine as an example of of made, but a subcategory that you can explore when you have more time. But all this to come back to the reality that it is absolutely true that God created or made the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days in all very good. And then just briefly, the scope of creation before we move on to man.

Notice the scope of creation is, of course, all things therein. God made all things. There is this blessed scope, and then the blessed timing and quality with regards to the things made. He makes all things. He makes them in the space of six days, and these things are all very good.

And then we get to man. So man and creation. And the first thing we ought to note here is, the simple reality of the binary nature of man's creation in our present landscape of absolute gender madness and confusion and just absolute stupidity and wickedness, we should be refreshed by the real and biblical and proper creation which identifies that man or that God created man, male and female. Notice the simplicity, but the proper reason with respect to the creation of man. After God, paragraph two, had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female. The creation account, of course, upholds this. We just read it in a couple snippets.

God creates man, Adam, from the dust of the earth. God creates woman from the rib that he took from Adam. So Adam and Eve as the first male and female created, and subsequent to that, that's what we see in God's creation. Christ himself upholds this in Matthew 19, going back, reaching back to the Genesis account and saying that God made man male and female in the context of debating with the scribes and Pharisees over marriage and divorce. In the beginning, God made man male and female, and he said that man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two should be one flesh. So the blessed reality of the binary nature of man's creation, God made man male and female.

And then man's distinction from and dignity relative to all other creatures. Notice the language here of paragraph two. After God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female. Now notice the, just before we move on, notice the time and attention given to all other creatures.

Is it, wonderful, the all-other-creatures aspect of creation? Absolutely it is. You know, the wonder of the animals that we can observe, that we can research, that we can, you know, look at and learn of and learn from, it's an amazing thing, God's creation, and the all-other-creatures that we have in this creation. But theologically speaking, the concerns in the doctrine of creation land upon male and female, and the plan of God with regards to redeeming fallen sinners by virtue of the perfection of the work of the mediator.

And so we see this brief reference to all other creatures, and then we see the distinction that man holds, that man has, relative to these all other creatures. Notice, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, rendering them fit unto that life to God for which they were created.

Animals, all other creatures, do not have reasonable and immortal souls. They do not have reason and intelligence, and I qualify intelligence because Man, dolphins and crows, they sure seem intelligent. There are animals that seem to bear an intelligence, but I think there's a distinction between intelligence, properly speaking, being part and parcel to the image of God in man, and the natural, responsive, instinctive realities that animals have. And this comes against the theology of Steve and Leslie probably know this, there's an Anglican church right not too far from your house that annually has animal baptisms, which I don't know if it betrays some theology where people actually think that their precious little spot, their dog has an immortal soul and that dog will be with them in heaven. Exactly. Yeah. This goes beyond the lawful objects of recipients of baptism. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, it's a blessing? Oh, OK. I thought it was baptism of animal. OK, my whole argument falls apart then.

But getting back to the point, there's this elevation of animals beyond what God intended theologically and just with regards to reality. Should we treat animals with a measure of respect and honor and kindness? Absolutely. But we should not elevate animals to some point where even, you know, in some, you know, in some, you know, mad hippie circles, you know, animals are given really, are elevated to the same position as man in their ontic worth and moral worth in a sense.

So anyway, let's get back to this. the distinction and the honor and the dignity that man has above all other creatures because we have been endowed with reasonable and immortal souls, which renders us fit to worship God, the one who has created us. And then notice, it captures this distinction and this reality a little bit more by noting that man has been made after the image of God. And it gives a three-fold definition of what the image of God is. Or we could say that what it initially was. Following the fall, there are some things that obtain, obviously, with regards to man and the image of God.

But notice, being made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. If we're asked the question, you know, wherein does the image of God consist? It consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. The knowledge touches upon the reason and rationality, the reasonable and immortal souls.

You know, I think it was I think it was Gordon Clark that said something like, if we want to know the distinction between animals and men, we can say that the albatross cannot engage in Aristotelian syllogisms. In other words, you know, and it's an argument against atheism and naturalistic humanism.

You know, the house cat can't articulate a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. A house cat can't reflect on history. A house cat can't look to the future and make plans. A house cat can't, you know, grab a pen and write his autobiography and create, you know, narrative fiction and narrative nonfiction. There's a blessed and an elevated difference with regards to man and all other creatures. And now notice as we move forward in the Confessions language, we have man, creation, and covenant.

First in paragraph two, we see the law of God written on the hearts of men. Having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it, and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. Now this is man pre-Fall. When we get to chapter 9, we'll see the four states of man as it reflects pre-Fall, post-Fall, the state of grace, and the state of glory. Here we see that man has the law written on their hearts.

And there's an important distinction here to be made with regards to this writing upon the heart and the Jeremiah 31 writing upon the heart. Because there we read that a characteristic blessing of the New Covenant is that all New Covenant members will have the law of God written upon their hearts.

So here we see this in the context of creation, having the law of God written in their hearts. And I think it's an important distinction to be made with regards to the old creation and the new creation. The old creation, the law, is written upon the hearts by virtue of the image of God. It's written creatively, we could say, upon the hearts of men. giving them no excuse when they look with their eyes upon the creation and behold the power, glory, wisdom, and goodness of God. So there is this creative writing of the law upon the heart. In the New Covenant, it's a redemptive writing upon the heart. Old Creation, a creative writing upon the heart. Man's conscience bears witness to the wickedness that he does against the God who created him.

And then in the New Creation, there's this redemptive writing upon the heart of the law of God. We, instead of disobeying, instead of raising our fists to God, instead of opposing the will of God and His law, we, by virtue of redemption through the perfect work of Christ and the application and abiding presence of the Spirit, we continually and joyously obey the law of God that He has written upon our hearts. We don't do it perfectly, We stumble, we fall. The good that we will to do, we find ourselves not doing. Those things we do not wish to do, we find ourselves doing. We praise God for Jesus Christ, who continually conforms us unto his image by the abiding spirit.

And so this law was written creatively upon the hearts of man. This will come up again in chapter, not only, but in chapter 19, where it speaks about the moral law of God written upon the heart of Adam at creation, Adam and Eve by virtue of their creation, and then articulated on Mount Sinai in those 10 words. So the law of God is written creatively upon the hearts of men. And then notice what we see here. We see something besides the law of God written upon the hearts of men creatively, we see something given by revelatory condescension. Notice what we see here in paragraph three.

Besides the law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which whilst they kept, They were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures. And so there's this law of God creatively written, but then God condescends revelationally and gives them the covenant of works. This is essentially what is being conveyed, not with the language, but in concept, this positive law connected to the giving of the covenant of works, blessings for obedience, cursings for disobedience in respect to not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And this sets up, theologically, everything else that follows.

This paragraph three, paragraphs two and three, but paragraph three, with the law of God written upon the heart, With this covenant of works, with this positive law, this positive precept giving to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this sets us up for the redemptive story that will follow as we next move to Providence and as we move to the fall, to covenant, and to redemption by virtue of covenant. We'll see how this is foundational. plunges humanity into sin and depravity. All of his posterity by ordinary generation inherit the curse and so there must be a curse bearer who comes inaugurating the new creation where those male and female elect in Jesus Christ, receive the blessings of everlasting life.

When we think of creation, we ought to think of the glory of God, the glory of his eternal wisdom, power, and goodness, and we ought to think that that is the arena within which He brings to bear His glorious plan of redemption where a multitude of sinners from every tribe and tongue and people and nation are saved by the blessed perfection of Jesus Christ, His person and work. Well, let's pray, and if there's any questions, we can ask those. Heavenly Father, we thank You for what we're able to learn from Your Word and according to the doctrine You have revealed. Help us as we go into worship to honor You to glory in you, to reflect upon the glory of your eternal wisdom, power, and goodness, to reflect upon the majesty of creation, that that might bring us to reflections upon the majesty of the Creator, the one who brought all things into being. and might we continue on to that blessed purpose of creation, that you would bring a multitude of sinners to salvation by Jesus Christ, unto the praise of your glory. Go with us now, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Any questions on creation? Any, yes? Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the idea there is just simply that God, in his divine perfections, and God as identified as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, brings forth everything that is not God. So all that is in God there, bringing forth all that is not God, I think is a reference to the divine simplicity. All that is in God is God, so his divine power, his will, and his act, is God himself, so everything that is God, the perfection of being, brings forth that which is not God. So that basically, you know, the divine perfection, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit alone, without there being anything else, brings forth all that is. Yeah, I think it touches upon, you know, that all that is in God bringing forth all that is not God touches upon, I think, first the divine perfections. So, you know, that by which God creates, if we can speak that way, God in the perfection of his divine power brings forth all that is not God. A first cause brings forth all things that are caused or the effects of that first powerful cause. Yeah, call Dozal, he'll tell you. Yeah, go ahead.

Not a question, but just an observation on procreation. It's probably Father, Son, Spirit, Power, Wisdom, Goodness. Ah, nice, yeah. Procreation, yeah. Ah, very cool. And you see the Trident of God, the Power of God, the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, the Goodness of the Spirit. I like that. No, yeah, very good. Yeah, Wisdom, like in Proverbs, referring to the Son.

Yeah, very cool. Yeah, thanks, Jim. Oh, yeah. Roger, Doug, then Wim. Just quickly, and I don't know how to say this properly, but hearing you speak about the creation, the immensity, the eternality of God condescending, my heart is just so grateful and thankful and so full of admiration for that great God. What a God we have. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, Doug.

Yeah, what colossal madness, as Romans 1 brings out, that man can behold the creation and instead of glorying in the Creator, they worship the creature rather than the Creator. Yeah, it sure speaks to the severity of sin and the necessity of a Savior to bring us the new creation. Yeah. Wim.

Was God creator before he started creating? I think our naming of God as creator comes in time, but it reflects what God is by virtue of the perfection of his nature. So us calling God creator speaks of something that God is, but since creation is not coextensive with God, we wouldn't say that the name of creator originates eternally in God, but yes, he is the eternal creator. So can we call God creator before he creates? Yes, but it's by virtue of the perfection of his being, his pure act, and the ability to create all things that are not God.

There's an important distinction I think that's made between the names applied to God and the actual divine perfections that those names that God reveals himself reflect. So yeah, I think the simple answer is yes, but a qualification because creation is not co-eternal with God. Oh, I thought you had something there. Your hand up? Yeah? I would just add, so there's a distinction between names that are, I'm agreeing, names that are predicated of God in relation to creation.

So there's things that we predicate of God that are eternally true of God. in himself, so God is good, right? That's like, God is good. Eternally, God is father, right? Always the case, God is son, God is Holy Spirit. God is love, but there's, as he's saying, there's certain predicates that are specifically with reference to creation, so God is a rock. And that's a predicate related to something in us. However, his rockness, as far as God is a rock, is referring to his strength, or his power, or his endurance.

That's not eternal. But God, yeah, is God's creator, properly speaking, that is only with reference to us. Not in relation to within God himself, eternally. Otherwise, there would be an eternal creation. We can't have an eternal creation. You don't just figure, like, the origin of Alexandria in the early church? He was wrestling with this, and he kind of ended up having an eternal creation. He didn't really want to, but he was struggling to try and reverse this out.

So, yeah, distinguishing between things that are eternal and true of God by virtue of his divine essence, and then those things that we speak of God in respect to us as creatures. Yeah, no, that's good. Yeah, thanks, Grant. And just to close up, I think that's a good comparison with regards to a name and with regards to something that is said of God, like his rockness or his eyes or his wings. We're using language that truly say something about God, but are not properly true of God in a particular sense. God doesn't have wings. He doesn't have eyes. He's not a rock. But there are things true of God to which those things speak and reflect.

But he is, we can say, Dozel's article is the eternal creator of time, which is a good article that I'll commend to you, and I think in there he has a distinguishing between names applied and the divine perfections that those names reflect ontically in God.

Well, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your time. Oh, we already did close in prayer, but I'll keep praying because I started praying. God, we thank you for this time. Go with us now into worship. We rejoice in you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do be with us as we worship. Lift our hearts to a proper worship of you, our glorious creator. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen.