So we've been looking in our summer of Psalms, we are back in book one where the Psalms,
the entirety of the book of Psalms is written in five kind of groups of Psalms that mimic
that of the Torah. Genesis, Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We're
in Psalm 19 and we've been looking at God's faithfulness and an interesting point of view
we're going to look at today is God's faithfulness revealed to us not only in creation but also
in covenant. So this understanding of covenant. So I want to start, how many people have been
to a place around the world, United States Midwest world, we'll go global with it, where
you've been to a point of creation or you've seen something in creation that really just
took your breath away. If you're new, maybe it's your first time at Monster Church, I
like to get some interaction going, it keeps me from falling asleep and so understanding
that we like to have this, it kind of brings about new perspectives, there have been some
times that some of you have given an answer so awesome that it's actually changed part
of the sermon. Let's not shoot for that every time but God uses all sorts of people in all
sorts of ways but what in creation have you experienced where you're just like in awe
or maybe some of you maybe been prone to worship for some of that, I mean creation does that,
it all points to the glory of God anyway but go ahead, yeah up in the top, Yosemite, alright,
any specific part of that, the whole thing, okay, yeah, yeah. A Sunset in the Dominican
Republic, okay, very good, yeah over here Randy, the Grand Canyon, I've already used
that example a couple times but that's a great one, yeah Doug, Lake Tahoe, absolutely, don't
go in April, though it's cheap, don't go in April, there's nothing to do, Karen and I,
that was a great anniversary trip, others, yeah right here, the what hot, all hot springs,
okay, alright, yeah Barb, Niagara Falls, sure, in the back, you just want to keep going,
just name other states, Denali, Alaska, Canada, said no one ever but anywhere else, no, others,
in the back, yeah, yes, yeah, of course, yeah you'd have to bring up your trip to the Holy
Land, yeah, yeah, all of your answers good, hers is best, right, yeah, yeah, the place
where Jesus walked, absolutely, yeah, any others, try to go against Israel, go ahead,
try ahead Larry, what, Yellowstone, it's not Jerusalem but yep, Yellowstone, good, okay,
Lisa, Rocky Mountains, so it's interesting, I say creation and you guys all go to places
which is totally fine, right, and notice how none of you said Beecher, right, none of you
said Munster, I-80, no, we go to these beautiful, beautiful places because it is kind of out
of our ordinary because we all live, most of us, we live in the Midwest, right, now
I know Doug Verlander, you live over, or used to live over in the Lake Tahoe, Reno area
where there's beauty all over the place and you come to here and you're just kind of like,
and you know, and so there's something about it, what about the creation that you all talked
about, Diane pretty much everything above the boundary waters, but why do those come
up, why does those levels of creation, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mount Everest, why do those,
why did those come to your mind, what, they're mystical, interesting, yeah, absolutely, yet
you didn't say, Evie's eyes, when we asked you didn't say that, like, but because there
are things that, and experiences that we have that one of the creations I am most thankful
of is my wife, funny how that perspective shifts, right, we'll keep it appropriate,
but understand that God created everything, yet we go to these destinations, what if you
were the greatest creation that someone has experienced in life, let that hang there for
a second, for some of us you're like, oh, that causes me anxiety, that I am the greatest
creation for somebody else, now I don't even know if Kerry would say that, right, because
I don't know if we would, if we think that way, but if the kingdom, and here's the interesting
about kind of revelation, covenant creation, that general revelation, you all described
it, nature is a wonderful way that we can get, look at this and go, thank God, I've
used it many times about the Grand Canyon, I don't know anybody that goes to that and
just goes, cool, right, because it's just so vast, and again, if you want to think that
this is just millions of years of rock formation, I'd like to think that God just kind of did
one of these with his fingers, right, and you go, oh Jim, that's childish, I don't
care, that if God is the creator and sustainer of all, I'm going to give it to him regardless,
I'm not going to try to find the science of it all when I can just give thanks to God
for that because science can never and will never give me salvation, so I'm not going
to give science props or whatever, I'm just going to look at God and say, way to go God,
it's kind of the same I feel about my wife, way to go God, that is a gift to me, that
creation that you had in mind from the beginning of the world, I am thankful for that, that
drives me to praise him, now that makes some people uncomfortable, what in the world would
someone look at me and go, oh I'm going to praise God for him, or I'm going to praise
God for her, but shouldn't we?
We're not praising them, we're saying God thank you, I know for a lot of the guys in
the room, you are thankful for your spouse, and hopefully vice versa, that there's a lot
of women in the room that are thankful for their spouse, but that is how God has designed
it, this general revelation down to more specific or special revelation are the things geared
for his people, God's word, those moments when the Holy Spirit comes and just impacts
your life, and I could ask for all kinds of testimony and you all would give it because
I know a lot of you have felt or engaged or experienced the Spirit in that way, so that's
where the creation, this wide kind of big thing comes very specific for each and every
one of us, and that is how God has designed it, so let's start by reading the first four
verses of Psalm 19, where the Psalmist writes, the heavens declare the glory of God and the
sky above proclaims his handiwork, day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals
knowledge, there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard, their voice
goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world, so understanding
that creation speaks to the glory of God yet uses zero actual language, and God can do
that, I think that's one of the real, real cool things about God is how he has created,
this grandiose creator has created things in such a specific way, in such a beautiful
way, even the things of light and dark, as we talked about a couple years ago when we
looked through the beginning of Genesis, the heavens declare the glory of God, their voice
goes out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world, these verses
illustrate how creation itself testifies to God's glory and God's faithfulness, the consistent
order and beauty of the universe reflect the reliability and the steadfastness of its creator,
that is a, to me that's an important point in life, for the life of the believer is understanding
that God is not only creator, check, that he is a sustainer, check, that he is a God
of order, check, and that he has created all of this for a reason and for a purpose, check.
So what can we draw from this?
What do we draw from these first four verses?
I think an application that we can, kind of a point for us to take with us today is that
as we observe the natural world, we are reminded daily of God's faithfulness, but here's the
thing, we have to be disciplined to look at it that way, because I don't get too many
phone calls, text messages, or stop by's in my office where someone comes in just to give
glory about the Grand Canyon, or give glory for, you get my father-in-law talking about
Banff, they went a couple years ago and did a train and icebergs and all that stuff, I
mean he was blown away by the beauty of that.
And sometimes people come in and tell me about their trips, but rarely do I get people that
experience creation and nature to the glory of God, to the sustaining of their faith.
Every once in a while I'll get someone that maybe goes for a walk and has a spiritual
experience and they want to come and give testimony, and I love that, it reminds me,
it was beginning of August 2019, and we were all journeying through my sister's cancer
journey and I remember I went on a long bike ride, and I was going up through Cal City
and kind of on one of the trails that go through Lansing and all of that, and I was listening
to some hymns, and I remember As the Deer, one of my favorite, favorite hymns, As the
Deer, was playing, no joke, as I'm going through this kind of wooded area of the trail, three
deer come out, and they just kind of hang out, and so I just stop, I have a moment,
I just completely break down, and it was just like God in that moment, God was just reminding
me that he was there.
Now some of you may have just rolled your eyes, and that's okay, I'm not hating on you,
then you go, it's just a deer, it's just three deer, some of you, the hunters are like, they
look delicious, or whatever it is, but that was meant for me, it wasn't meant for you,
you weren't there, Jim, were you where I now, I probably couldn't keep up if we were on
bikes with you anyway, you would have flown right past the deer, but he wasn't there,
it was for this Jim.
I think we need to start looking at creation that way, and I bring up Jim for kind of,
kind of for a reason, you have a really good eye for taking pictures in nature, I've seen
some of it, and only half of them are pictures of Jill, but understand that I think if you
talk to Jim about the journeys they've had, he's probably had moments like that, but that
moment wasn't for my sister Lynn, it wasn't for my mom, it wasn't for my brother, it wasn't
for any of you, that was God's moment with me, and what's the problem with giving God
the credit for that?
Nothing, because that got me through a moment, that got me through a beautiful, hard time
where God reminded me, Jim no matter how this goes, I am with you, that as a deer pants
for the water, so my soul, regardless if my sister was going to stay on this earth, my
soul needs to long after him.
How dare God say that to me?
Oh wait, because he can, because he's reminding me in that moment, Jim I've got Lynn, I didn't
know if she was going to go with him at the end of that month, and she did, but in that
moment, that specific moment, that special revelation, that was gift wrap for a Jim Holland
owner, and I will give testimony to that and testify to that all day, because those little
moments are moments that God is coming alongside us in life and using deer to point to him.
So if the heavens can declare the glory of the Lord, God's going to use that in your
life and in my life to remind you of one, maybe two simple truths.
I've got you and keep going.
I think we need to start looking at nature more that way.
Now I don't need you guys to come and tell me like, oh but I-80 just points me to the
way of, no I-80 probably doesn't, okay let's call it spade to spade, but if God's going
to meet you in that moment, and maybe it's in the traffic trying to go to Michigan starting
on Wednesdays in the summer and you're sitting there and you have not made it to Klein and
it's been a half an hour, maybe God's meeting you in that and going, you need to have patience,
or maybe you need to go a different way.
However God's going to meet with us, we need to be open to having that happen.
But I think for some of us we shut some of that out.
We may get afraid to be that vulnerable with God.
So let me ask why.
Why are we afraid to be vulnerable with God in those moments?
This is a God that knows you, that sees you, counts the hairs on your head, that understands
everything about you, yet we struggle to reciprocate that, would say search me and know me, oh
God, and you'd kind of be like, already did, but we struggle with that.
Consider a hiker embarking on a journey through a dense forest.
As they navigate the trails they marvel at the intricate ecosystem.
Warren Worsby gave me this kind of this practical example when I was reading his commentary.
The towering trees, the chirping birds, and the gentle flow of a nearby stream, each element
of nature reflects God's faithfulness in sustaining life and providing beauty.
Despite the challenges of the terrain, the hiker finds assurance of God's consistent
care and provisions through the natural world.
Yet some of us in this room are going to go, those are trees, great, those are birds, they're
annoying, I hear the stream and now I need to pee.
Why do we do that?
Why do we want to lessen something that God's obviously taking care in creating?
One of my favorite things about my wife is her dimples.
From the first time I met her when I was a sophomore in high school, she had dimples
deeper than the moon's craters, and I was entranced by him.
And those are things that I give thanks to God for.
And I will remind her of that, to the point where she'll tell me to stop, and that's
fine, I just keep going, I don't listen.
But even those little things, can we develop eyes and ears to see and hear God's creation
in a way that he reminds us those two truths?
I got you, keep going.
Or are we just going to kind of take them for granted?
I think we need to grow in that as people.
Because Lord's Day 10, question and answer 28 reminds us of a simple truth, how does
the knowledge of God's creation and his providence help us?
Great question Heideberg, what is the answer?
We can be patient when things go against us, and thankful when things go well.
And for the future, we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing
in creation will separate us from his love.
For all creatures are so completely in God's hands that without his will, they can neither
move nor be moved.
Boom, it's right there.
That's how we should be engaging nature, that's how we should be engaging creation.
Things do not come to us by chance, but by God's fatherly hand.
That explains that we can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and confident in the
future because of God's faithful providence.
But here's the struggle, when we think we need to do it all ourselves, God's providence
is not in our purview.
When we're trying to make it ourselves, when it's all about what we can do, what we can
provide, our need for God's providence kind of takes a back seat.
Let's not do that, let's put that first and foremost, because I think it's going to allow
for the successes to be fuller and for those emptinesses to not last as long.
So what's a specific way that he does this outside of creation?
Well, I think we all got the assurance of something important this morning.
The assurance of God's providential care in every aspect of our lives reinforces not only
the truth of his faithfulness, but his love for us.
In the Lord's Supper, we experience a tangible reminder of his care and provision, of his
renewing our confidence in his promises.
So that's creation.
Let's start looking at it a little bit differently.
What does that mean?
Maybe we've got to go outside more.
Maybe we've got to start taking some more trips.
Maybe we've got to start seeking God in nature knowing that he will be found.
We sang about that, that is rooted in God's word, which is that second understanding of
his relationship with us.
We have creation, we have covenant.
Where do we find that?
We find that in God's word, starting with verse 7.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
I think that's it.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
We don't get to use that word in our lives because we're not, we're far from it.
But the covenant of God in our lives is the perfect way for him to not only engage us,
but to highlight us that we are loved and protected by God.
These verses highlight the reliability and perfection of God's word in the midst of a
culture that wants to completely destroy this.
They want to look at it in such a way where different translations and all of these other
things that we do a really good job of trying to deconstruct this when the truth of this
is regardless when it comes to anything but the Greek and the Hebrew.
That we can get so caught up in how we decipher these things and what these words mean, we
make it extremely complicated when I believe it's actually very easy.
If the law of the Lord is perfect and it's reviving our soul, then that is its modus
operandi.
That is the thing that the scriptures are supposed to do in our life.
Timothy tells us it's used to lift us up, it's used to correct us.
When someone is in error, we use this.
When someone is downtrodden, we use this.
If me and one of our elders get to go see Debbie this week, I'm going to bring this
and I'm going to read this to her.
Because what would that look like if I go and sit down with Debbie the day before surgery
on her brain and read her All the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss?
She's going to wonder what in the world?
And on the way home, the elder is going to yell at me.
No, I'm going to bring the truth of God's word because though All the Places You'll
Go, great book, got me through a lot of hard times, this book is perfect.
This book should be reviving my soul.
Why?
Because the testimony of the Lord is sure.
I think for a lot of us when we get up there, I think God's going to remind us or maybe
Jesus or somebody, Peter.
I know he's going to say to me, he's going to say, Jim, I didn't mean it to be that
hard.
You made that way more complicated than it had to be.
Love God, love people, follow his word.
And that should be enough.
So how do we do that?
We have to immerse ourselves in scripture, the power of God's faithful word.
If I sat down with each and every one of you, first I'll be looking in the mirror asking
me, when is the last time?
You dove into God's word.
When's the last time you sat with the Lord and allowed him to speak to you?
Well, pastor, I don't really know how to do that.
Well, shut your mouth and read his word.
That's him talking to you because you can easily read the verse seven in my notes where
it says to me, he could be, Jim, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving your soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making you wise.
My precepts are right and they should be rejoiced in your heart.
Make it personal.
Read it like God's writing it to you because he is.
So what do we do with this?
How do we do this?
Well, it's getting comfortable with God's word by reading it.
Well, pastor, I need more of a devotion to help me.
That's fine as long as God's word's in it.
We need to dive into this.
39 years on this earth, almost 18 years in the past, the best way that I have found to
immerse myself in God's word, and some of you are going to hate this, is by memorizing
it.
Oh, pastor, I don't know.
I don't know if I can memorize it.
I, you know, I, yes, it's okay.
Start with Jesus wept.
It's the shortest verse in the Bible, right?
Let's all say it together.
One, two, three, Jesus wept.
Look at you.
You just memorized the Bible.
You don't have to get it up to where you're doing the entire Ten Commandments or whatever
it is.
To me, one of the greatest, quote unquote, Bible studies, it wasn't really even a Bible
study.
I was a sophomore at Central College and me and six, I was living in a house with six
guys, two more guys joined us.
We tried our best for 16 weeks that semester to memorize the entire book of Colossians.
And at the end of it, we went to a coffee house up in the, kind of in their upper room,
so to speak, and we just dove into it.
And yes, none of us did it perfectly because that's a lot, four chapters worth.
But I guarantee you that God will bring a part of Colossians to me when I need it.
Why?
Because I've been, it's been immersed in me.
God has set it in my heart.
His proverb says He's tied it around my neck.
What is that for you?
Maybe it's Psalm 23.
A beautiful Psalm that can get you through almost anything if you believe it.
Because we can say it, well, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
It's all about attitude.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
I don't want to lie down in green pastures.
He leaves me beside still waters.
I don't like still waters.
He restores my soul.
I don't want that, said no one ever.
See what we can do when our cynicism comes into our reading of God's word?
Though it's not about us, He wrote it for us.
He's making us understand what His word and His will is for our life.
We see it in the Old Testament.
We see it in the New Testament.
And we see it in what we did this morning.
I want to close with that.
Eid-Ur-Kadakism, Lord's Day 29, question and answer 79 is all about communion.
And I want to end with this.
Why then does Christ call the bread His body and the cup His blood or the new covenant
in His blood?
And Paul used the words a sharing in Christ's body and blood.
Answer, Christ has good reason for these words.
He wants to teach us that just as bread and wine nourish the temporal life, so too His
crucified body to pour out blood are the true food and drink of our souls for eternal life.
But more important, He wants to assure us that by this visible sign and pledge that
we through the Holy Spirit's work share in His true body and blood as surely as our mouths
receive these holy signs in remembrance.
And that all of His suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally
had suffered and made a satisfaction for our sins.
Now, you sit down with someone that doesn't really know church or Reformed theology and
you read them that, they're going to look at you as a crazy person.
Or you're going to say, wow, that sounds kind of Catholic.
No.
The reason why I wanted to end with this is because when I, I just need the Lord to show
me something.
I just need Him to remind me that He's there.
Friends, we do it every month.
But my fear is some of you are doing it habitually.
It's the first Sunday of every month.
Now, I've got to make sure we've got to get that bread and that juice.
If we look at it transactionally, it doesn't work.
If we look at it as covenant, as sustainability for our lives, this doesn't mean we go down
Ridge Road and we weren't in the parade on 4th of July throwing out grape juice and bread,
right?
That would be so strange.
Oh, it would probably bring about some pretty cool conversations.
It would be very strange.
We're given this to sustain us to do life the best way we can in Christ.
So friends, as we walk through this life, understand that God has given us His word.
He's given us creation to strengthen our faith in God's promises.
He gives us these tangible reminders of these two truths.
I'll add a third one.
First one is, I love you.
I've got this.
Keep going with me.
Please stand if you're able and we're going to pray together our closing prayer.
It's supposed to say Heavenly Father first, but that's okay.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the reminder of your faithfulness in creation, history,
and through the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
We are in awe of how your handiwork in the heavens declare your glory and how your covenant
promises assure us of your constant care and presence.
Help us to live each day in the confidence that we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus
Christ who has fully paid for all of our sins and watches over us with tender care.
Strengthen our faith, guide our steps, and let your word be a light to our path.
May we continually find our comfort and hope in your steadfast promises in Jesus Christ.