Faith - Lesson 5 week 2

Alright, let's jump in. We're on lesson five. We've got the last five questions of lesson five to deal with. Who wasn't here two weeks ago when I taught? Just raise a hand real quick. And did you guys have a chance to listen to some of the lessons? And it's okay if you didn't. I sometimes run behind that way as well. Sometimes I never catch up, so it's okay.

The reason I ask is that last week we did kind of a level set And for those of you that were here two weeks ago rather This will be a somewhat of a little a little review for you But I want those of you that didn't get the chance to make it Just to catch back up with us in terms of where we are and so what I mean by level set is let's get eye-to-eye on where we're at what class you're in and I jokingly said last week if you're here for the biblical faith class you're in the right place and Sometimes when we get carried away with the topic of faith, which is such a huge topic, it's easy to get caught up in rabbit trails, and it's easy to start taking that topic and making it personal to us. And so what I wanted to do is just kind of review what we had on the board here, and then we'll get running back into those last five questions.

So we're looking at the four major aspects of faith. The first one is the essence of faith, and this is where we are. You are here. If you've got the mall diagram and you're trying to figure out where the store is you're looking for, and you want to know the little star, you are here. We're on number one still. So that means that we still have an opportunity to cover in future lessons number two, which is THE faith. The Definite Article. What does that mean? We're going to talk about that.

We're also going to go and travel through number three, which is personal faith. And I can honestly say that as we've sat through the number of classes so far, we have hit on a lot of topics about personal faith, and that's okay. However, what I'm going to try to do, and I think we as teachers are going to try to do, is focus on, you are here, and we will get there soon. And so, not to say that we don't have questions or thoughts around personal faith, but we're going to try to gear us back towards where we stand in the class right now, and that is the essence of faith. And then finally, we'll look at faith as a principle. So, the law of faith, figure out what that means.

We've got a lot to cover, and there's a lot going on. This is a big topic, and so if you felt overwhelmed in previous classes, you're not alone. And the reason is, this is a big, big subject, and it covers a large span of content in the entire scripture. So, it's okay to feel overwhelmed. Our goal here is to try to reduce some of that overwhelmed feeling and get us focused back on what we need to learn in order to build on these four aspects.

So, the very first one, essence, and we talked about the essence of faith is that faith is reality. Whether you're here or not, faith is reality. And from that reality, we said that Hebrews 11.1 is the verse that really establishes an understanding of the essence of faith.

So let's read Hebrews 11.1. If someone can grab that for me. We'll read that verse and we'll review a little bit further before we jump in.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Okay, so things hoped for and things not seen. So we set out on yet another huge endeavor to talk about what are the things of God? What are the things hoped for and what are the things not seen?

And that led us to a study in these different areas. So we talked about God's essence. We looked at that. We talked about how He's holy, how He's infinite, how He's self-existent, how He is love, He's immutable, He is spirit, and He is sovereign. big topics. You're talking about the essence of God. It needs its own class. So again, if you felt like we didn't do justice to those things, there's a reason. We're just touching on it, just the very tip-top points. But we talked about the essence, and we looked at that briefly.

Then we started talking about God's ways. We talked about His thoughts, His wisdom, So we've worked our way through these different areas. We talked about God's knowledge and God's mind. So last week we looked at Isaiah 55 8. Let's say last week, the week before last. Last class, we looked at Isaiah 55 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, said the Lord. We said, you know what?

Is that verse meant to discourage you? Or is it meant to comfort you? Well, I guess it kind of depends, doesn't it? Why would it discourage you? Because you may never understand. Okay, so as a believer you may never understand, so that can be discouraging at times, if you don't have a full biblical perspective on that. What if you're an unbeliever? That pretty discouraging?

In fact... It does, it separates you for sure, but isn't that the thing that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with at the very, very beginning? I mean, that was the frustration. This verse covers the very thing that Satan used to work his way into the mind of Adam and Eve and say, his thoughts are not your thoughts, that's not the thing. He doesn't want you to be like him.

You know, I think it's even deeper than that, because I think if you're an unbeliever, you don't really care what God's thoughts are, because you don't even think there's a God, so you think you are yourself. So, you know what I mean? So, do you think, and I'm just going to put your question out there to the class, do you think that the unbeliever doesn't care? Right? Is that what you said? Does the unbeliever not care? Most don't.

Care about what? God. They don't care about God? If they don't care about God, or aren't curious about Him, they don't realize what their relationship could be, or anything, or what He did for them. Or you could say some. Some unbelievers don't care. Some maybe do care, but resist caring. You know, I guess to throw everybody in one, we can always add exceptions. So do they not care out of a place of understanding, or do they not care out of a place of ignorance? Could be both. Well, some people have been hurt by the churches. Because I know this person. He's gone now, but anyway. You just couldn't, he just would not accept anything but he'd go to church with me so I don't know it's very confusing.

Mike? I think Romans chapter 1 and 2 is very clear about what is knowable of God to every man and it specifically says man you're without excuse because you know that I exist you know that I am God and I expect some things from you I expect you to acknowledge Him as God and be thankful. So let's take what Mike's saying, and I'm building on this so I might erase this here in a little bit.

Let's look up Romans 1.18 together. This is not a verse that is a part of the Course per se. But when we think about the mind of the believer and the mind of the unbeliever, it is very, very important for you to understand that you were in this place at some point before you became a believer. And when you're talking to unbelievers, you need to know where they are, because Christians make the mistake of believing that unbelievers are in a place of neutrality. They're neutral. They're in the gray zone. They're not the black. They're not the white. They're in the gray zone. They just don't know, and so they don't care.

That is not what the scripture teaches us and we've got to pound this into our brains because this helps us understand how to love an unbeliever. When I say love, you can't love an unbeliever in truth without knowing where they actually are in their mind. It's very hard to just say, hey brother or neighbor, I'm just going to love you to the Lord. Well, if you're going to love them to the Lord, that involves sharing truth with them. and that truth has to be built on an understanding of where they really are in their mind, and what God has said about them, and taking that by faith, and we'll talk about that later.

But Romans 1.18, this has got to be kind of a background verse to looking at the contrast of believers and unbelievers.

It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. That's the ticket. They suppress the truth. in unrighteousness. Now, we know what righteousness is. We know that's a quality of God. We talked about that. His holiness. His righteousness.

Well, they have the opposite essence, because it's out of their sin nature, and so they suppress. Do you know what it's like to suppress something? Anyone ever suppressed a truth in their mind? No. So, the unbeliever, your friend, whoever that is, Whoever it is in your life, you previously, in your unbelieving life, suppressed the truth and unrighteousness.

Because, verse 19, that which is known about God is evident within them. We're not even talking about creation, we're talking about them as a creation and what's evident within them. for God made it evident to them." And then he goes on to talk about the creation, verse 20. So not only did God create them with no neutrality, He created them with a knowledge that they were designed and they are owned by an all-powerful, all-knowing, creative God. It's self-evident to them. He created them that way. So we can never say about an unbeliever that they're neutral or that they don't understand.

Now we can say that they don't care, But this verse tells us why they don't care, because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So now I ask you, Isaiah 55a says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Is that a comfort or a discomfort to the unbeliever? Now maybe he doesn't care about that, but the reason he doesn't care about it is because he's already swept the truth of God in suppression under the rug, and now they are numbing themselves with coping mechanisms, right?

And we've got a lot of different types of coping mechanisms. You've got substances, you've got mental, you've got all different types of ways to suppress the truth and the righteousness so that you can pretend you don't care. We don't need to say this to an unbeliever point blank because loving in truth or truthing in love doesn't necessarily go for the juggler right away. Maybe sometimes it does.

But you need to realize that you don't care because you're numbing yourself to the truth that's been revealed within you and through the creation. And that's really where they stand. They are not neutral. God has revealed it to them. Well, it seems like I don't care is too passive in some respects for a non-believer. Yeah, like I'm outside of this concern. I can get outside of it.

I guess I'm thinking about, I don't know the scripture, but where it says they desired the darkness over the light. It goes beyond them suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. Then they start desiring the unrighteousness that actually caused the suppression. And they become at enmity with God, don't they? So it's not that they don't care. They have taken up arms against God. And they are a lover of darkness and a hater of the light. And they have found themselves trading the truth of God for the lie of the creature.

And that's what this set of verses goes on to talk about, which kind of brings us into this creator-creature distinction that I'll talk about in a moment. But in looking at Isaiah 55a, when we look at this verse, we see great comfort because we understand something. And this has not been clear to a lot of the Christian world. Even though the very first verse of the book of Genesis talks about it, it's still not clear in the mind.

We have a Biblical worldview and we have what I'm calling a Pagan worldview. So Pagan is everything that stands against Biblical views. So I don't care if you're Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, it's Pagan. And the way that I understand apologetics or defending the faith is really looking at things from two perspectives only. It doesn't matter what camp you fit into, if it's not Biblical, the Bible refers to it as a Pagan mindset. or a worldly view.

Yeah. What would you say then, like, say different religions that have a Christian base, but some of the rituals and things like that aren't really biblical? Would that be called, then, pagan? It would depend on which rituals and traditions you're talking about.

And so we could go through each of those and actually, you know, Vern's class is talking about a lot of that. However, There are two basic principles to these worldviews, so let's get those down first, and then you should be able to actually pick that apart yourself in a lot of ways.

I always use the example that when you study how to detect a counterfeit, you could spend the rest of your life studying counterfeit bills, and guess what's going to come out next week, and the next week, and the next week, and the next week? More counterfeits. So what are you going to be doing? You're going to be scrambling to detect more counterfeits, and you could be an expert in counterfeits. But if you really want to detect any counterfeit, if you study the one true bill, then you'll always know when you match them up, they don't line up. So your best efforts are going to be spent understanding the one true worldview, that is the biblical worldview, and then when you look at it in light of any pagan perception, you can see the differences.

And the very first difference that I always go to, and I challenge my class to go to over the years, is this issue of the creator-creature distinction. In the scripture, Isaiah 55-8, and we talked about this last week, points to this reality that in the beginning, God, not you. Alan, you shared a... tell me what your teacher shared with you at one point in time about the image of God in those verses. Well, that God created man in his own image. and then man eventually returned the favor, which means we would create God as we believe. Okay, and that's exactly what happens down here, and I'll talk about that in a moment.

But God did create us in His image, but we are not equal to, this is a not equal sign, we are not equal to our Creator. So in a biblical worldview you have God, who is distinct and separate from His creature, His creation. Now He created us, specifically, in his image, but that does not equal a creator. So we are not many creators running around that are eventually going to be the creator of our own universe, like some cults believe.

Eventually you're going to be a god of your own universe if you behave properly and do the right things on this earth. He says, no, that's never going to be the case. You will always be distinct from me. You are my creation. I own you. I designed you for my purposes.

And if you don't understand that, then you're going to eventually gravitate to this pagan worldview that says, okay, we've got a creator, or a number of creators, or some kind of impersonal force of a creator, and then we've got greater degrees of that. So you've got a super-creator, and then a sub-super-creator, and then a junior creator, and you've got these degrees. Think Greek mythology. There are these different powers are always fighting for some impersonal force.

And once they have it, they are in control of the entire universe. But guess what can happen? You've got a weakness in, say, your heel? I'm going to shoot your heel. I'm going to take that, whatever impersonal force that is, and once it's in my possession, now I'm in control.

And the Lord says, no, I never lose control. I'm sovereign. I'm omnipotent. I'm omnipresent. I'm omnipresent. Not omnipresident. Omnipresent. Although our president might at times think that he's omnipresent. The creator-creature distinction is something that is almost a daily thought.

Because when you start to challenge your mind with Isaiah 55.8, you have to accept this reality. Did you know that when you became a believer, whether you acknowledged it outright or not, it was a part of what you believed in?

I can't solve my own problem. I'm a creature. I have a sin nature. I've got a sin problem. And God's got a problem with my sin. And the only way that he can solve it is to solve it in a creature solution. I'm sorry, a creator solution. And the way that he did that was what we talked about last week is wisdom to those that believe and foolish to those that are perishing. Because God's solution to our problem is a creator solution.

It's unlike, it's distinct, it is separate. It's something that we could have never come up with or designed, created on our own. We are limited, finite human beings. But yet, in a pagan worldview, we aspire, no matter if it's evolution or Hinduism, we aspire to be at that highest level of oneness. Or that highest level of survival of the fittest. It's a desire to get to the top. Okay? But these verses that we talked about last week were designed by the Lord to explain the fact that His thoughts are not our thoughts. And then He says there's a wisdom thing that goes on here. And we looked at 1 Corinthians 1, 18-21.

And this is talking about the preaching of the cross and the effects that it has on man. Remember the biblical view in the biblical worldview or in the pagan worldview. Notice the two differences here in what the preaching of the cross produces in those different worldviews. It says, for the preaching of the cross, it's them that perishes, foolishness. So what happens when I tell the pagan about the cross, what does he instantly say that is? Now does that mean he doesn't care? He does care. In fact, he thinks it's foolish. He cares in a way that is negative. Now whether he says it or not, in his mind, her mind, the interpretation is foolishness.

We know that because of 1 Corinthians 1, 18. There's no doubt in my mind that when I preach the cross to an unbeliever, it initially produces foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. So when you hear it, You see this creator who is distinct and separate from us but loves us and has shared himself with us so much that he became a man and showed himself to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and dealt with our sin problem. And to that we see the power, the omnipotence of a creator. And it produces a whole different effect on the mind. And we're talking about faith is reality. These are the things of God. Now whether or not you see yourself making these decisions or not, God has communicated his essence, his ways, his thoughts, his wisdom, his knowledge, and his mind. We'll talk about his glory in a minute.

But these are all components that Hebrews 11.1 is talking about. These are the things that are hoped for. These are a huge comfort for us that believe because we see the power of God and not the foolishness. So it's something quite different.

Verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 1 says, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. So guess where that wisdom of the wise is headed? That not caring, that kind of pretending not to care, guess where that's headed? And we know where the destination of that attitude is going as well. It says that I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I'll bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

So you claim wisdom, you claim prudence in your foolishness of how you respond to the message of the cross. I'm going to take that and reduce it down to nothing. you will have all the books that were created and written. Library of Congress, how many of those have we read? Maybe .5% if that. But if you were able to read them all and accomplish all that wisdom and knowledge in your mind, if it's not built on a biblical worldview, it's going to be reduced to nothing. There's no value in God's world in a long-term view.

That's what he's saying. He says, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the disputer of the world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And it goes on to talk about the Jews require a sign, and that Greeks seek after wisdom. There's different aspects of what the pagan worldview seeks after, but at the end of the day, everything's kind of connected.

There's no major distinction between the creator and the creature. And so when we talk about the things of God, we're talking about a God that is distinct and separate from us. But there's more. He doesn't just create us and leave us. He actually desires to share with us in many ways. And as believers, we get to share in understanding God's essence. I should almost call these privileges of God. These are the things of God, but they're the privileges of an unbeliever. Some of them. Some of those privileges include you get to glance into the essence, the core of who the Lord is. You get to understand some of His ways, not all of them. but you get to understand some of them. His thoughts, not all of them, but many of them, all that you need.

God's not, He did not create us, reveal Himself in the ways that He did so that we would be left saying, you didn't give us enough God. You've got just the amount that you need as a believer. He gave us aspects of His wisdom, His knowledge, and mind.

We've got the mind of Christ? Now we're talking about something that's a whole other class. But these things of God are not only separate, we have the privilege of insight into them, and there's a personal relationship with Him that is produced in us. We're transformed into... We have the mind of God because of being transformed into the image of Christ, right?

These are just things that are spiritually unrecognizable to anyone who does not understand the scripture. It's a different reality. It's a new creature. It's a new creature, and because you're new, you get to understand, not an alter reality, you get to understand the way things really are. You think about the unbeliever, and it's like, oh yeah, this is really how things are.

Why don't you get your heads out of the clouds, unbeliever, and come back down to the real world. What the Bible says is that's not the real world. The spiritual understanding that we gain from the essence of faith is explaining the real world. And guess how you get to see the real world?

That's what we get to when we get to number three here. Personal faith is seeing reality as it really is. So we're going to talk about that. Well, I was just thinking that the faith is reality. That reality is a finished work. I mean, in our daily lives, we're in process. Things of the world are in process, but from God's reality, it's a finished work, so... So are you a work in progress? I hear a lot of believers say that. I'm a work in progress, don't worry.

Not really. As far as the conforming to the image of Christ, it is. This is one of Mike's trick questions. Uh-oh. Actually, it's my trick question, but I learned it from him. Are we a work in progress? Think hard. You can't answer. We have everything we need. We have everything already, but we're not conformed. Right there in that chair. In that chair, do you have everything you need?

Yes. The answer is yes and no. And no. Yes, positionally, no, conditionally. Thank you. Did you guys hear that? No. Okay. The answer is, are you a work in progress, is the question. And Alan's answer was, it's a yes and no answer. Yes, positionally, I'm sorry, no, positionally, you are complete, positionally. Are you a work in progress, conditionally?

That's what the scripture says. Now what happens when you are no longer bound by this earthly flesh? What joining happens? Conditional. And the same thing. And then are you ever a work in progress? Is there any kind of position and condition differentiation? No. There's not anything different at that point? Well, how can we have the mind of Christ. I really don't understand. Right here, which we're not going to talk about today. You can wait. Awesome. It's a great question, it's just not where we're at yet.

We're talking about reality, and the reality of God's mind, his thoughts, his wisdom, his knowledge, etc. is that we have access to them, but we're not talking about what that produces in us just yet. I wanted to clear up that whole work in progress, the difference between position and condition, because I think it was a good exercise of going back to where we've been in this class and in other classes. But let's move on. Let's talk about the eternal purpose, God's eternal purpose.

So, we're still covering the things of God, The other things that we can add up here is what God has done, will do, and is doing. It should be in the middle. Is doing. Are these things that God has done, is doing, and will do, are they wrapped up into this term, things of God? Absolutely. Right? This is history. Some of it is future history, but it's planned and it will come to pass.

And that's only possible if we understand God's essence and the fact that He's sovereign. So now when we talk about, well God's sovereign, but that doesn't mean He's doing anything yet. When He tells us what He's doing, He's going to do it in a sovereign way. Both the past has been, that past history is under the essence of God's sovereignty. What he is doing right this moment falls under the essence of God's sovereignty. What he will do falls under the essence of God's sovereignty.

And so we talked about that a little bit in Romans 11.33. We said, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways, past finding out. for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things." All things. His reality. All things. To whom be glory forever.

So, these things produce something. all of these things. So we're talking about what he's done, what he's doing, and what he will do. So we're looking at this. And that's according to our perception, because according to God, like Donna said, everything's already done. That's a good point. It's according to the creature perception. And that creature perception, it's not a perception, it's a creature It's a creature known truth because God has revealed it to us. So the Creator said, look, I'm going to give you, as a creature, certain insight and understanding into me. And you can know that it is true.

You're not going to know all things, Isaiah 55a. You can't search me out, Romans 11.33. You can't know me to the degree that I could be known. So, you can't know me fully, but you can know me personally. And you can know me as far as I want to reveal myself.

And guess what's going to happen when we spend eternity with the Lord? Are you going to learn about who He is further? You're going to continue to learn. This isn't going to be some twiddle-my-thumbs type of thing. You're going to get greater insights into our Creator for eternity.

And it's a personal Creator, and that's a Creator of love, Omnipotent, and we talked about all of his different attributes. So, those are the things that we're going to be spending eternity celebrating and worshiping about our Creator, who has made Himself personally known to us, and will continue to make Himself personally known over eternity. Does that make sense? So, one last thing about the things of God has to do with God's eternal purpose. Is that something we hope for? I just mentioned some of the eternal learning that will take place, but we've got God's eternal purpose. We say that that breaks down into four ways, and I'm losing space on the board.

So I'm going to remove this creator-creature distinction, pagan worldview, and Romans 1.18 stuff, just to make room. So we're talking about his eternal purpose. Does his eternal purpose require us?

Apparently. What does the rest of the class think? No thoughts? Somebody's got to answer. I would think yes. Does it require us or does it include us? That's a good distinction. Because I would say it doesn't require us, but he's by his will included us. But how he shows too how it's going to play out, we're there, so I guess we're part of it, included, and maybe we didn't have to be required because God could do whatever he wants, but we're shown that we are, right? Is the question worth answering? Not the way I answer it. That's one of the parts about debate and conversation. Some questions don't fit into what we know.

It goes back to Isaiah 55a. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. So when you start to think about questions like that, you start to get into the mind of the Creator, and you start to look at things that may have not been revealed. And you start to systematize those things, and you come up with a great system, and all of a sudden you've got a whole new brand of Christianity. So what I would say is be careful to answer some of the questions that you're asked. If it is not distinctly revealed in the Scripture, it's not a question that can be answered.

And that's okay. You know why? because we're creatures, and we're finite, and we don't have access to his entire mind. Who can search out? How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways? But we're talking about this eternal purpose, and we get to this next question, number seven. And let's see.

Sorry, no, number eight. Psalm 19, one through four. So let's turn to Psalm 19, one through four. Someone read that when you've got it. The heavens declare the glory of God. Am I in the right place? And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. That's good. Thank you.

So verse 1, what do we see there? What do we see in relationship to God's eternal purpose? What's going on? He wants to be revealed? So now we know something about maybe where we fit in there. Could God have revealed His glory to, say, the angelic realm, and been satisfied? That's another one of those questions. Yeah, right. Well, he probably could have, but we're here. Well, it depends on why He created the angels and why He created us. So part of God's eternal purpose is to declare His glory. Does He do that to the angelic realm? Can we read about that?

Do we read about them celebrating His creation He's talking about in this song? Yeah, they celebrate at the end of the thing. They throw a huge ooh and ahh at the work of the Lord. Okay? Now where that happens is not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is the fact that they see His glory. And guess what? They had access to it in a way that we haven't quite had yet. They were before his throne. Right?

Certain ones, especially. Which is what's so confusing about the decision made by Lucifer. Part of God's eternal purpose was declared to Lucifer in a very, very intimate and real way. How are we How do we take part in God's declaration of His glory? Number one. What does this verse say? How is He declaring His glory? The firmament displays it. What's the firmament? The heavens. The firmament is heaven? Well, my Bible says heaven. The heavens are telling the glory of God. And they're expansive declaring the work of His hands.

That's all I'm talking about. It's creative. Alright. So what's your question again? I'm just working things through. Be gentle and pass that around and take a look at it. There's a couple in here so be careful. Is it alive? It's not alive in the way that you would... Have any of you ever seen a seed like that? It's called a fillery seed. No one's ever seen a seed like that? I have. You have? How do you spell it? F-I-L-R-E-E? F-I-L-A-R-E-E? Fillery. This little seed, when it is When it's separated from its life source, in a sense, it winds itself up into what we all recognize in the creation as this golden ratio. Have you ever heard of the Fibonacci sequence or the golden ratio?

Okay, that's a study for another day. It's a beautiful way. Just hang on to this. This is the world that God revealed to you. And maybe you don't look at it in this way, but it's available to you. The golden ratio is seen in a conch shell. Have you seen a shell? You know, the ones you put up to your ear to listen to the ocean? It's seen in the way that your body is balanced. It's seen in the DNA structure inside your cells. It's seen in the construction of the universe. He really likes it.

The mathematical world has called it, because they don't want to call it the divine ratio, they call it the golden ratio. This little seed has that exact ratio and what it does is it falls on the ground and once it gets wet it starts to unwind itself. In fact if I was to put a little water on it today you'd see it unwind itself. And what it does is it starts to screw itself into the ground And it plants itself to germinate itself. But it does it in that exact ratio.

The same thing that you see in a pine cone. That same exact mathematical sequence that you see in almost every area of creation. It's phenomenal. And that seed was used a long time ago by a scientist, a teaching scientist, that explained to me that God's creation declares His glory, and it's seen in the smallest of things, like the DNA to these seeds, to the entire universe. These are things that can be observed.

And the end was not to produce this understanding of, oh my gosh, there's an intelligent creator out there. It's not just intelligence, it's personal. And it goes beyond just the personal creation, but the personal creation of God is designed to declare His glory.

So, I asked my little guy this morning, and he laughed. He got too bored. He should have waited for this eve. I asked him, I said, what does this tell you? He's like, it's cool. This is cool. I was like, well, you know what else it tells you? It tells you a lot about the glory of God. It doesn't tell you enough. It doesn't tell you near enough. But it tells you something about him.

We started driving to work today, and the kids were like, I just saw this most beautiful bird! It was black and white, and it was against the snow, and I was like, why do you think that that's beautiful? It was Imran. You know, the three-year-old. So pretty! That's bell number one. I forget.

Does that tell them that the Lord loves them in a personal way? No. But it starts what becomes a realization of God's eternal purpose. He is declaring himself through his creation to his creatures. And you guys have got your own stories. And whether or not you're impressed by this particular seed or not, you have aspects of God's creation that have set you in absolute awe.

And this verse, Psalm 19, 1 says that it is not only that the heavens declare the glory of God, but how far does that go? Look at the end of verse 4. How far does this declaration of His glory through the creation go? To the end of the earth. So is there anywhere on the earth that is not going to experience God's eternal purpose and His declaration of His glory through His creation anywhere.

Not according to this scripture. So we have this first part of God's eternal purpose, and that is to declare His glory. Now, again, what are we talking about? We're talking about reality. We're talking about the things of God, the things that are hoped for, the essence of faith. Part of that is God's eternal purpose. So he does it by his creation.

Let's look at John 1.1. You know, I'm just going to add this because it was a little confusing to me at first. He does it by his creation and also he places within us that ability to recognize that it is through his creation. Good point. What are you? Huh? What are you? What do you mean? You are his creation.

Yeah. So, I have it in me to recognize that. I can not only look at the world around me, I can look at you and say... True. You. Human beings. Human beings, that's right. We could study a fingernail and be amazed. A lot of times people say, study the eye.

There's no way it could have ever evolved. There's all these different arguments from creation. I don't think that those are substantial enough to actually bring a believer to a place of understanding. There's more to God's eternal purpose that we have access to that should be shared.

But the way that God's creation works in the mind of both the unbeliever and the believer is a part of declaring His glory. Now you can suppress that in unrighteousness, and you can say, hey look, this is phenomenal, this is amazing, and you can hear an unbeliever get to that point where they're saying, The human body is unexplainable, it's phenomenal, it's amazing, but I don't believe that it happened by an intelligent God designing for his purpose. I believe it's an accident, and so therefore it's amazing, and I find it absolutely marvelous, but you're still a problem because you're just, you know, by chance. And it's even like with signs, and with the Jewish people, it's like, here's a person cured from leprosy or whatever, that isn't enough. You say, oh, he's faking, or he would have been cured anyways, or whatever. Nothing, unless the Holy Spirit and God's plan and all that.

We'll talk about how it impacts us a little bit more. I'm hinting at it just so that we can get context for it. I mean really, reality, we cannot study reality if we don't come at it from our own mind. We have to execute. our thinking in order to understand it. So it involves us, but we're not talking about how it affects us in a personal faith-based way.

We're talking about, let's look at this as if we were an unbeliever or a believer and how it would affect us. When we get to the believing understanding of how that personal faith gets triggered and believed, I guess, which is a synonym for faith, but when we look at the personal side of it, we're going to get much deeper into what it means to you But right now we're just saying that no matter who you are, believer or unbeliever, the heavens declare the glory of God, which is part of His eternal purpose.

John 1.1. What does it say? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then look down at verse 14. What does it say? The Word became flesh. And it dwelt among us. I got three bells, right? And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And guess what happened? We did what? We saw His glory. We saw His glory.

So does God reveal or declare His glory through creation only? How else does he declare his glory? The person of Christ, right? Would God's declaration be complete without the creation? Would it be complete without Christ? So we've got this declaring. What does declare mean? Tell forth? Is it communication? Is it clear? Scriptures say it's clear to the ends of the earth. We've got this other aspect.

Let's look at 2 Corinthians 3.3 and we'll stop here today. The second aspect of God's eternal purpose is to reveal. Someone read that when you've got it. Did you say 3-3? Second Corinthians 3-3. Quick, a bell's coming. Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

So let's go back to that question. Did God's eternal purpose require us? I thought we're not answering this one. I said you don't have to answer every question. I just put it back out there. Can we be required by God in a way that He remains sovereign with or without us? Can we be required by God's eternal purpose and He still remains sovereign without us? Required? Yeah.

So, if God said, you know, my eternal purpose is XYZ, and it included revealing Himself to His creatures, and not only revealing Himself through creation and through the person of Christ, but actually revealing it through believers. This is what this says. He made it manifest through us. It was ministered to us. Tables, not tables of stone, but fleshly tables of the heart. So God's eternal purpose, His glory is revealed through believers.

To reveal His glory, and that 2 Corinthians 3.3 says, through believers. So maybe that's the place where we stop and pick up next week because it's a mind bender. But guess what you are as a believer? We're not talking about your personal faith, we're talking about faith as a reality. God's reality included the declaration of His eternal purpose and the revelation of His glory through you. You're a component of that.

Have you ever heard that? That way? Don't pick up there. Ooh, I like that look. That means you're going to come back next week. You know this, I've always said, I've always... Unless there's a blizzard. Unless there's a blizzard, you'll still make it. You're going to be so interested. I'm just kidding.

But I think one thing that brings to my mind is that something is working in here. Something is. They showed crows. How it's unbelievable how, you know, talking about the stingy pastoral, which crows, They can tie things, they can... I mean, all these things they can do.

So that's the way of God. I didn't think of it in that way, but that's the way of God revealing Himself. Is that what you're saying? His creatures? Yep, it's not personal, but it shows parts of His essence. It definitely shows parts of it. We could talk about what some of those things show. But it's not personal to the point of salvation. You can't come to know the Lord through that. Yeah, you could probably do like a cherry stem. Alright, let's pray. I'm always over. Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for just the fact that you have chosen to declare yourself and that you have an eternal purpose and that Lord, as a sovereign creator, you chose to execute that eternal purpose to our benefit and that we can gain insight and understanding into what it is And then not only can we understand it, we can actually be a part of it.

That you've chosen to reveal your glory through us as believers. That you've got a plan to do amazing things as we have that wonderful position of being in Christ. We know that it's not of ourselves that display your glory, but it's in Christ. And it is through Him doing the living in us that that glory gets revealed to the rest of the world. We thank you for that and just the wonderful, magnificent way that we participate in it. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.