The Curriculum of Creation

I meditate on all your doings. I muse on the work of your hands. And that leads him to praise God. The word for muse, by the way, is the same word translated meditate in Joshua chapter 1, where he's committed to meditating on the Word. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not equating nature with Scripture, but he's certainly letting us know that the handiwork of God should not be ignored.

Maybe the best thing for you in your brokenness is go out there and take a hug. Welcome to Wisdom for the Hearts. Today, we begin a series entitled, In Living Color. It's a series about God's creation. Creation displays the power of God. It reveals the truth of an amazing Creator. As Christians, it's imperative that we notice the majesty of God's handiwork. Not just glancing at it, but really seeing what God has done. What can we learn about God by looking at his creation? That's the theme of this series. As we get started today, Stephen's calling this first lesson, The Curriculum of Creation.

Stay with us as we get started right now. Well, as we begin a new series, I came across the writings of one biographer, Leonardo da Vinci, who's of course famous for his paintings of Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, which he got terribly wrong. But at any rate, he spent his life trained in the art of curiosity. He was committed to thinking, inventing.

He once wrote this, and I think this was convicting. He said that the average human being looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, inhales without awareness of fragrance, and talks without thinking. Well, if the average human being, if this is true of us, and encouraged by da Vinci to not only look but see, not only hear but listen, not only taste but savor, certainly for the believer it ought to go way beyond that, because ultimately we give glory to our Creator. Creation ought to be observed because it reveals what God did. The Bible, as you accompany what you see in creation with the truth of God's revealed scripture, it reveals why God did it. Creation displays the power of God.

The Bible describes the person of God. In fact, it informs us of Creator God. So what we're going to do is we're going to, over the next few weeks, take our Bibles and our binoculars, and we're going to go for a hike. We're going to do more than look around.

We're going to see. We're going to sit out on the back deck and not just stare into space but take notes of what we observe. In fact, it's time for you to travel a bit, maybe within the pages of a book, where you explore some aspect of God's creative handiwork and do it with sheer delight. What I want to do today is just sort of lay the groundwork and set the stage and do that by answering the question, why? In other words, why do this? Why pause in our study of the books of the Bible and take passages from a book of the Bible and learn from them as it relates to creation? Why would we want to focus on God's creative handiwork?

Let me give you several reasons. Number one, because creation is the undeniable announcement of the reality of God. I've got a lot of scripture.

I'll try to throw most of it up on the screen. Psalm 19, 1 is where David writes, The heavens are telling the glory of God. Their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrased it this way. God's glory is on tour in the skies. God craft is on exhibit across the horizon.

Madame Day holds classes every morning and Professor Knight lectures every evening. When you look around, what do you see? Howard Hendricks, one of my favorite professors, used to tell us to drive home from seminary or from work a different way as often as we could. So we would see things a little differently and observe things we haven't noticed before. What do you see? Job tells us in chapter 26 that the moon and the stars and the clouds and the earth, which hangs upon nothing along with the boundaries of light and darkness, Job says these are the fringes of his ways.

I love that. We're just catching a glimpse of the fringes of his garment when we study creation. The Puritans used to say it this way that God has left large footprints throughout the universe. So let's track his footprint. Let's take note of his signature.

Like Picasso, he used to roll his thumb in the oil to paint and then roll it on the canvas to sign it. So this universe, as it were, has the fingerprint of God's signature. It is his creation.

Let's track down his fingerprints and the fringes of his ways. He is the conductor in this divinely created production. By the way, he's given you and me front row seats if we'll not just look but see, not just listen but hear, not just touch but feel, not just taste but savor. With that in mind, let me give you another lesson to consider. Secondly, the study of creation provides a curriculum for wise living. Solomon records in Proverbs 6, go to the ant, you sluggard.

That was my parents' favorite verse when I was a teenager. Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways. In other words, study the way they work and be wise. Imagine studying the organization, the determination, the work ethic of that tiny little ant and by application of what you observe, you will be wiser in your life.

David writes in Psalm 111, but great are the works of the Lord. They are studied. That verb to study means to research. Have you ever researched, apart from when you had to research, something of God's creation?

I mean apart from the term papers you had to write. What are you learning now? The works of the Lord are to be studied. The works, by the way, in that Psalm relate not just to redemption but creation. They are studied, now notice, by all who delight in them.

Sounds like it's okay to delight in creation without being a liberal. Delight in it. Splendid and majestic is his work. He's made his wonders to be remembered, remembered. So how are you going to remember? Paint a picture.

Take a photograph. Write in your journal what you observe when you hike through the woods or you study the flower or that waterfall or that sunset. Spurgeon wrote of Psalm 111, God's works are worthy of our research. Those who do not look below the surface miss the best part of what he would teach us.

His works are intended to yield to us instruction and pleasure, wonderfully blended together. Maybe for you it isn't chasing birds around. Maybe it's going to the Outer Banks or fishing or sailing on a boat. The psalmist would encourage you to not just go sit out there, but to look, to think, to connect what you see with what God has said.

Make application of your observation. By the way, for those of you who love to sail or go out to the beach, here's a theme verse for you that's been in there all along. So every time you go, Monday through Saturday, here's your theme verse. For those who go down to the sea and ships, who do business on great waters, they have seen the works of the Lord.

I thought they were just going down to the water. No, they've seen the works of the Lord and they have seen his wonders in the deep. Who is wise? The upright see it and are glad. You've got to give heed to these things and consider the faithfulness of the Lord.

So in other words, you ought to leave that beach trip or that boat or that seaside or that hike in the mountains or that photograph session of wildlife or wildflowers or whatever it might be and you come away and what do you do? You're upright and hard. You know the Creator and you end up saying, is God faithful or what? It's what he said you'd do. God is so creative. He's so dependable.

He's so gracious. You can't imagine what I saw today and what that told me about him. Number three, the immensity of the universe exposes the chasm between God's mind and ours. It's true, isn't it? Isaiah put it this way.

You'll just have to listen here. He contemplated the immensity of the world and wrote who, referring to God, who but God has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. All the water on the planet, he can just fit it in the hollow of his hand. Who marked off the heavens by the span.

The span is from the tip of your thumb to your little finger, on average, seven inches. To God, the universe is seven inches wide at this point. Who calculated the dust of the earth? You have dust in your house?

I'm sure you don't because you're special. But if you did, he'd know exactly how much. He knows the dust at any given time in the universe. He just knows everything. Who weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales. Now he makes his point. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?

Who has been his counselor to inform him? See, the immensity of creation highlights the eternal capacity of the mind of God and the finite capacity of ours. So you look and you say, is God great or what? Isaac Newton was the 18th century founder of classical theoretical physics. I don't know about you, but I didn't take any theoretical physics classes.

I took an extra study hall when I went through school. But at any rate, he wrote this man with this amazing intellect. And Christian, by the way, Isaac Newton wrote, The arrangement and harmony of the universe could only have come from the plan of an omniscient, all-knowing, and omnipotent, all-powerful being. In other words, the more I study of creation, the greater God becomes. Even though, however, we are puny compared to God, there is another important lesson to learn from God's narrative of creation. Fourthly, creation confirms the surpassing value of human beings to all other creatures.

Now that's stunning news to our generation. The Holy Spirit describes your value through the psalmist who writes, You, God, made him, mankind, a little lower than God. You crowned him with glory and majesty. In other words, the creation of mankind is the apex. It is the magnum opus of creative acts.

You're it. You, God, make him rule over the works of your hands. You've put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea.

Psalm 8, 5 to 8. Does that really mean we're more valuable than every other creature? I mean, who are we to say that? I mean, David wrote that.

Wasn't David the guy running around in the ancient days with a slingshot living in a cave? I mean, he doesn't know what we know by now. We're much more aware, right? We've developed in our understanding. We now know, as one evolutionist once wrote, that we're just another fruit-eating primate. We know that now. Who are we to say we have more value?

Well, actually, we didn't say it. God did. Listen to God the Son speaking, recorded in Matthew 6. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Jesus said that. Your value, when compared to all of the other created beings, the creatures of earth, is not just a little more valuable, in fact. This expression communicates that you are much more than you can measure valuable than they are, as image bearers, eternally redeemed and designed for His purposes. And look at them. They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your Father cares about them. But aren't you much more valuable than they are? Let me give you another lesson in living color. Number five, the universe leads us to surprise at God's attention toward us.

It should. David writes in Psalm 8, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have appointed, what is man that you take thought of him and the Son of Man that you care about him? See, people who are involved with big things usually don't have time for little things.

People who are famous, who are involved with important people, usually don't have time for unimportant people unless we want their signature, right? Here's God, whose fame is beyond measure, who has created all there is. And David looks at it and he observes it. He comes to this conclusion, rightly so. Why would a Creator God, having created something so vast as the universe, care about me?

His point is that he does. That's what brings him to great joy. By the way, this is the despair built into evolution, who have no reassurance for any purpose in life. The evolutionist looks at the immensity of the universe and gets lost in despairing over his own insignificance and purposelessness.

Life has no meaning disassociated from our Creator. Carl Sagan passed away some time ago. The popular television host who taught a generation of the cosmos was all there was and is and ever will be.

In his statement, it was popular. He came to the logical conclusion, which is the logical conclusion of his worldview, where he wrote, Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. We are alone in our obscurity in all this vastness. He also once said, whatever you see around you is simply an example of what hydrogen atoms can do given 15 billion years to evolve. That's all you are, just a bunch of atoms just happen to show up like this. So what's our purpose? One evolutionist put it this way, we're like booster rockets, designed to send the genetic payload into the next level of orbit and then we drop off into the sea.

By the way, he used the word designed, if you caught it. This is the difference between an evolutionist and a creationist going to visit the ocean. An evolutionist will look at the immensity of it and say, I am meaningless. And we go and look at it and we say, is God amazing or what?

Another lesson we can learn. Number six, animals provide us with a divine antitoxin for crippling anxiety. We go back to that text in Matthew 6, we may spend the session just on birds, but I do want to point this out.

Do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you'll drink or for your body as to what you will put on. Here's the illustration. Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow nor reap nor gather in the barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. That doesn't mean that the birds just lay around and God the Father shows them and puts food in their mouths. What this means is that God has created within them the instinctive capacity to find whatever is necessary to live. That's his caring and his creation, designing them for life. He created them that way because he cares about them and since he cares about them, to build into them that kind of instinctive ability, how much more does he care about you? That's the Lord's point. No animal was ever created in the image of God. No bird, dog, cat, turtle, cow was ever designed to be a joint heir, an image bearer of God, destined for eternity and the coming kingdom and between here and there God has promised. He has built into our world, into our lives, far beyond what we even think, his care and he'll guide us according to his purposes until we make it home.

Number seven, exploring the natural world provides healing for a broken spirit. You ever thought about this? Psalm 143, for the enemy has persecuted my soul. He's just talking about life in general. He's crushed my life to the ground. I'm crushed to the ground. I dwell in dark places, therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. Have you ever felt like that? Maybe you walked in this morning feeling exactly like that.

Crushed, laid out bare on the ground. Here's the solution. I remember the days of old. He's referring to the days of creation. I meditate on all your doings. I muse on the work of your hands. And that leads him to praise God. The word for muse, by the way, is the same word translated meditate in Joshua chapter one where he's told he's committed to meditating on the word. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not equating nature with scripture, but he's certainly letting us know that the handiwork of God has incredible value to the broken spirit and should not be ignored. Maybe the best thing for you in your brokenness is go out there and take a hike.

Go to the ocean, go to the mountains, start studying some creature. Notice the incredible design of God. If God does that for them, imagine he's in control of your life. Number eight, the order of the universe provides an antidote for insecurity. I came across this some time ago about our security and our creator, God.

I need to hurry, but it goes like this. You might feel right now that you're sitting still, but it's just an illusion of miraculous proportions. There's so many things we depend upon our creator, God, and we never give him a moment's thought. Here's your security. You can't even begin to understand what it means to be in the hand of God to be in the universe, to be under the divine providence and purposes of God.

The songwriter put it this way. This is my Father's world. You've been given delegated authority, but it's not yours, it's His. This isn't your planet to save, it's His. We're to take care of it, manage it, rule it, but it's His.

In fact, one day He is going to destroy it and create a new one. But this is my Father's world. And to my listening ears, if I'm listening, all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.

We now know planets emit a tone. We can't imagine the harmony of the universe. This is my Father's world. Listen, I rest me in the thought of rocks and hills, trees and seas, His hand, these wonders wrought.

Let me give you a ninth quickly. Creation will serve as the evidence in the courtroom of God's eternal judgment of unbelievers. The world that worships nature will one day be condemned by nature.

Let me explain. Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. What's the truth they are suppressing? That which is known about God, it's evident within them. They know it in their heart.

They know it. But God made it evident to them how? For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.

It's obvious there is a powerful Creator out there. So that they are without excuse. For even though they knew about God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.

They dove into their alpo and never thought to thank God. One time, like an animal, they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was dark and professing to be wise. They became fools.

Frightening consideration that on that day at the Great White Throne, Revelation records for us when all of unbelieving mankind, of all human history stand before Christ upon that throne, who to Him has been given the judgment of the world. They will be without excuse. Not because they heard the gospel of Christ and denied it.

Half the world will never hear it. Not because they didn't understand the gospel of conscience. They knew that and refused it, disobeyed it. But because they refused to see and taste and hear the gospel of creation.

And they suppressed it. It can't be. It can't be true. We will come up with a speculation. By the 1900s there have been 80 theories of origins.

We just happen to be surrounded by one of them. Creation will serve as that final and undeniable evidence of the unbeliever's ungrateful heart that chose to suppress the obvious truth of a Creator rather than bow their knee to Him. My friend, if you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, we know from Colossians that it was actually Jesus that is God the Son who was speaking the world into existence. When you read and God said, Paul wrote in Colossians, it was Christ who was speaking. Second person of the triune, God was the creative agent.

If you've received Him as your Savior you will be delivered from that eternal verdict and from that horrifying verdict where creation announces as the jury would that they are guilty and without excuse. Let me tell you what creation was intended to do. This is my final lesson for today, number 10. This sets the stage then for what we'll do in the future. Creation leads us to continual amazement and joyful praise. Creation leads us to continual amazement and joyful praise of our Creator God.

That's where it needs to take us, it will take us. Nicholas Copernicus wrote in the 16th century, who could live in close contact with the most consummate order and wisdom and not adore the architect of all these things. With that we start this series called In Living Color. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey.

Stephen is the president of Wisdom International. I want you to know that this entire series has been turned into a book. It's a beautifully bound hardback book that would make a wonderful addition to your resource library. It also makes a great gift. The book is called In Living Color. There's information about this resource on our website wisdomonline.org. Join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart. In Living Color.