Seeking the help of God, as I
speak to you this morning, I'd like to draw your attention to
the psalm that we read together, Psalm 8, and the text you'll
find in verses 3 and 4. When I consider the heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou
hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and
the son of man that thou visitest him. The psalm gives us a degree
really or an ascension or descension of the order of God's creation. In verse one it begins with God
that God has set his glory above the heavens And then it speaks
of man, what is man that thou are mindful of him. Verse five,
thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned
him with glory and honour. Thou hast made him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under
his feet. And so the order that God created
things is obviously he himself is over all. He is the author
of creation. He is the creator of heaven and
earth. He is the creator of man and
he's the creator of the spiritual beings, the angels. So there
is that order, God, angels, man, and then creation. And as Adam was created in the
image of God, he was made the ruler over all of the things
of this world. He was given dominion. He was
able to rule over God's creation and he was the, as it were, the
caretaker of all that God has created. And yet he sinned, he
fell into sin, he rebelled against God by being disobedient and
he lost that image bearer, that capacity that he had, that image
that was so clear when he was created because he sinned, he
lost it. And instead of ruling over the
creation in an orderly manner, he has rebelled against his creator. And the scripture tells us that
he is sinned. He sins daily. We sin daily against
our creator. But we are told that God's creation
still glorifies him. God's creation that he has made
points to God as the greater. The one who made all the things
is greater than all of the things that he made. Those of you who
saw the news or even you may have seen it yourself in the
sky the other night with the northern lights that appeared
over the south coast and over England. with some very amazing
pictures, especially over Eastbourne as people stood on the downs.
They were able to witness this beautiful display of light. And as you looked at those pictures,
you saw the glory of God and you saw the wonder of how God
is enabled to do all of these things and to produce such beauty. and there's such greatness. And
yet as you look at those pictures you can see how tiny man is. Those lights streaming into the
sky and then you see little Eastbourne just nestled there at the bottom
of the picture and this great light that shines above. And it puts everything into perspective. Like the psalmist saw, he says,
when I considered the heavens and the works of thy fingers,
the moons and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man
that thou art mindful of him? And as the psalmist looked at
God's creation, And he sees the moon and the stars and all of
their glory and all of their greatness, their size. He says, the one who made this, how is he able then to look down
upon puny man in his sinful nature and to visit him? Confused his mind. caused him
to wonder that the great Creator would stoop down to have any
dealings with the man upon the earth. Psalm 19 tells us in verse
1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament or the
sky and the degrees of the heavens declare the glory of God and
that shows his handiwork. Day to day utter his 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. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices
as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end
of the heavens, and his circuit unto the end of it, and there
is nothing that is hid from the heat thereof. And so God's creation
declare the glory of God. And there is no place on earth
that is hid from the glory of God. God's creation is evident
for all to see. The sun goes on its circuit or
the earth, as we know, it goes around the sun day by day. The sun arises in the morning,
sets in the evening on every place on earth. There is no one who is able to
hide from it or not see it. They declare the glory of God. And the creator is always greater
than his creation. For what he creates comes out
from himself. And therefore he must be greater
than the things that he has created. Even the inventors that we know
of, they are greater than their creation. They create something
from their own minds and they build it. Those who've discovered
things throughout the history. We know them as the inventors. They are the ones that have invented
something and then we see the thing that they have invented
and so they are lifted up above their invention as great men
and great women. Well God is greater than his
creation. He is far above all the things
that he has created. In verse 1 of our psalm it says,
he has set who has set thy glory above the heavens. His glory. What is glory? Glory is something that is seen. God's creation is what is seen of God. It brings
glory to him. which is what is seen of him.
In trying to get an illustration of this,
I think the best one is what Jesus says in Matthew 5 when
he speaks about his creation and Solomon. Sorry, Matthew 6,
verses 28 and 29. It says, and why take ye thoughtful
raiment or clothes? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they toil, neither do they spin. And so Jesus takes
them, he says, why are you worrying about your clothes? Consider
the creation of God, the lilies of the field, the grass of the
field, how they grow and neither do they spin. They have a glory
in themselves, as the hand of the Creator has created them. Then he says, I say to you that
even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And so Solomon, we know, was
a king in the Old Testament, the son of David, an extremely
wealthy man and no doubt clothed with the finest clothes. And
yet Jesus says that Solomon in all of his glory, everything
that you could see in Solomon, his clothes, his temple, his
palace, sorry, and all of those things, the glory that shined
forth from him was nothing compared to the flowers of the field. And so God is more glorious than
Solomon. And God then is more glorious
than his creation. If you remember Moses, when Moses
was talking with God, he said, Lord, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. And he wasn't
able to see it. God says no person has seen my
face. and lived. He says I'll put you
into the cleft of the rock and I will pass by you and I will
declare something to you. Exodus 33 verse 18 he says I
beseech thee show me thy glory and he says I will make all of
my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said thou canst not see
my face for there shall no man see my face and live. So he was
not able to see the visible glory of God. But God directed him
to his glorious attributes, his very character. He says, I will
make my goodness pass before you. I will proclaim the name
of the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. He says, I will declare to you
what my glory is. My glory is seen in creation. but my glorious attributes I
will present before you.' And he hid him in the cleft of
the rock and he passed by. He's hid then from the visible
glory of God. No one can see that visible glory
of God because of our corrupt nature, our sinful nature and
God who is holy I did read that there are times in people's lives
when they are presented before somebody who is far superior
than them. And they almost faint at the
sight of the revelation of the one that they admire so much. And sometimes you see that in
those people who are starstruck. They have an idol of maybe a
football player or a pop star and they idolise them. They have
pictures of them on the wall and they think about them all
the time. And then when they come face to face with them They
collapse, they are overcome with their idol, with their greatness.
And so how much more then would someone be overcome by entering
into the very presence of a holy God? And we see that at times
with the Lord Jesus Christ when he revealed himself to different
people that they collapsed on the floor. Unable to stand in
the very presence of Christ when they see him as he is. I beseech
thee show me thy glory. And he says you can't see my
glory. My visible glory. So I'm going
to put you in the cleft of the rock. I'm going to hide you from
my glory. And I will declare what you can
see. My wonderful character. my attributes that are glorious
attributes. In Romans chapter 1 verses 19 and 20 it says, For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifested unto them, for God has shown it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. And so he says that these, the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen. And so the clearly seen things
are his creation. We know that Moses, or that God
is the invisible God. We are unable to see him. is
hid from us yet we are able to see his creation the things that
he has made and those visible things point to a greater creator
they bring glory to the creator so that his creation his people
those who walk the earth are without excuse Verse 21 says,
because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations
and in their foolish heart, darkened. This is what we see today. There
is that rejection of God and that people's imaginations, they
are darkened and they do not glorify God as God. So as those
people see the northern lights that are beautiful, that point
to a creator, they view them with a hardened heart and a darkened
mind, and they say, oh, mother nature. Or they say, oh, evolution,
no creator. And yet when they walk around
and they see buildings and cars, they say, oh, it must have had
a builder. It must have had a creator. they
see a Tesla they say oh Elon Musk he he made these and if
you were to say to them no it evolved by itself they would
call you a fool yet when it comes to the greater the living planet
ordered and structured and created by God they say mother nature
or evolution so they look at things with a darkened mind and
a foolish heart and thinking themselves to be wise they reveal
that they are foolish. Psalm 19 tells us there again, the heavens
declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork. And so when we see those pictures
on the news, or if you were able to be up in the night and to
witness them, it declared the glory of God, his handiwork,
not the work of chance or luck or evolution, but the very fingers
of God. He says, when I consider the
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him?
And so the creation reveals to us the greatness of God. And
then when we witness all that is taking place over the earth,
look at the news and we see the destruction in Ukraine and we
see the war in Israel. And you think this great God
that created all of these wonderful and amazing things And you look
at the news and you see this wicked men, all this destruction,
all this hatred, all this lust. What is man that God is even
mindful in to consider him? It came to me really in this way.
God and man at the weekend, presented the things that they think as
glorious. God put into the sky these northern
lights for many to see. And yesterday evening the European
Union put together the concert of their best singers And they presented who they thought
was the greatest in their land to go and compete for their nation
and to sing. And you know what? A freak show,
really. Those whom the world think are
great are just foolish, completely lost in sin and yet they are
lifted up as glorious, lifted up as great representatives of
England and Ireland and France and Europe. And God does one glorious Northern
Lights. This is the work of my fingers. You can see the contrast of the
greatness of God and the foolishness of men wasting their time singing
and presenting their ideology, their fallen mindset, promoting
their their agenda of homosexuality and transism and all of that
stuff that they're pushing at the moment. And then God puts
his glorious creation on display and we come to that conclusion,
what is man? That he even considers dealing
with us and we are so vile and so foolish that we reject the
very one who created us and change the truth of God into
a lie. But we as believers, when we
look at the creation, we go beyond the creation to the creator,
that the heavens declare his glory. and we wonder and marvel
at his grace, why he continues in such a long-suffering way
in dealing with us. Why would this great God want
anything to do with us when all we do is rebel and kick against
him? But the reason is, is that man was once the pinnacle of God's
creation. Adam was God's masterpiece, created
with his own hands, in his image, made out of the dust of the ground.
And his wife, taken from the side of Adam, be fruitful and
multiply, rule over my creation, look after it, take care of it.
have fellowship with me. But he rebelled. God did not
leave him in that rebellious state. He said, I'm going to
make a way of salvation for you, to reverse that great curse which
has been laid upon you. And he was going to come himself. to us. Hebrews 2, that we read together, tells us here, verses 7 and 8,
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest
him with glory and honor and did set him over the works of
thy hand. Thou put all things in subjection under his feet.
For in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left
nothing that is not put under him. so that was the the realm
of Adam and Eve before they fell. They were put over, given all
authority in this world but now we see not yet all things put
under him. He lost that privilege because
of his sin because of his sin God says all of your ancestors,
all of your seed are going to go forth from the womb speaking
lies. All of your ancestors, your offspring
are going to come forth corrupt, corrupted with a tendency to
evil rather than to do good. But he said I'm going to bring
about a way of salvation but we see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with
glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death
for every man and so here we have the the rescue mission of
the Lord Jesus Christ and so as Christ was at the highest
level of the ladder with the Father. Under him was the angels,
under the angels is man and under man is the creation. So Christ
descends from the highest, makes himself lower than the angels
and puts on human flesh so that he might be enabled to die, to
pay the penalty for his people. Hebrews 1 says, but God who at
various times and in various manners spake in times past unto
the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds. And being in the brightness of
his glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high. And there it is Christ. All things were made by him he
is the brightness of the glory of God the expressed image of
his person upholding all things by the word of his power came
down the ladder to earth to set up a ladder. We know by our nature humility
is something which we don't like. We don't like stepping down.
let alone stepping down from heaven to earth, yet Christ for
his people came from heaven to earth to bring about the salvation
of his people. He came to seek and to save those
who were lost, those who were in complete rejection to God,
walking in the darkness and as sinners in the sight of a holy
God. And he came to save, save his
people. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? And so even though man was in
such a rebellious condition yet Christ came and visited him. that God had dealings with man. Even though man rejected God
as creator, yet he sent his beloved son into the world to bring about
the salvation of his people. And that speaks to us of an even
greater glory of God, that Christ, the expressed image of his person,
came to save, to seek and to save those who were lost. As we look at God's creation
on a lovely sunny day, don't think that this creation will
last. The Bible tells us that this
creation that God has made in his sight is not perfect. It is contaminated by sin. It
is being corrupted because of the sin of man. And the Bible
tells us that this world in which we see is going to be rolled
up, it is going to be dealt with. In the book of Revelation chapter
six, There was a seal that was opened, the sixth seal, and lo,
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of the
heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely
figs, when she is shaken in a mighty wind, and the heavens departed
as a scroll, and it is rolled together, and every mountain
and island were moved out of their place, And it goes on that
those who are on the earth at that time will go into the caves
and call for the mountains to fall on them and to hide them
from the wrath of the Lamb for that great day of his wrath is
come and who shall be able to stand. And so that creation as
we look up into the sky One day it is all going to be folded
up. One day it is all going to be
done away with and a new heaven and a new earth created. It's what we see ourselves as
glorious. God's wonderful creation will
one day be done away with and a new one will be created. And
so as God's creation brings glory to himself, as it points to a
creator, and his dealings with us point to his glorious character, what about our lives? As we are to look at creation
and be immediately projected to a creator, what about our
lives? people look at us are they immediately
projected to our creator? Do they see Christ in us? The words of Jesus in Matthew
chapter 5 verse 16 he says verse 15 or, You are the light
of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick
that it may give light unto all that are in the house. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your father which is in heaven. So let your light
shine that light which is Christ in you he says you are the light
of the world not you can be if you want to be or that you should
be he says that you are you're either shining as a light as
a believer or you're hiding your light underneath the table and
he says that the light that you shine should be the way that
you live way that you deal with other people and that light should
point people to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the creation
should point people to the creator. So the light of the life of a
Christian should point people to the Lord that your life should
glorify the Father which is in heaven as the creation glorifies
the Creator. So the life of the believer glorifies
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not necessarily like Solomon. Solomon had glorious clothes
and lived in a glorious house and people no doubt said, oh
a blessed man. Look at the big house that he
has. Look at the beautiful clothes that he wears. And people can focus upon that
but that is not necessarily what is being spoken about. It's not
how we look but how we live, how we walk, how we talk and
things like that. Our light it says that they may see
your good works. The light of Christ as he shines
through in all that we say and all that we do and how we live
and how we conduct ourselves points people away from ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And does the creation then, when
I consider the heavens and the earth, the works of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man
that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou
visited him? And so then the creation points
to God. The Lord Jesus Christ the Son
of Man who came to earth to die for his people points to God
again, points to God's glorious grace, his glorious love towards
his people. and the Holy Spirit how he begins
that work in the lives of people. It's the light shining into their
heart to reveal to them their sin and their need of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then that desire that they have to follow him
and to walk worthy of their calling. Their lives point to the glory
of God. in salvation. So creation points
to the glory of God, his power, his ability, his attributes and
his love. mankind. Christ points to God's
love. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. May our lives as believers
in Christ not cause people to stumble, to walk away from God
but draw people to him. Let your light so shine they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
May the Lord add his blessing. Amen. Our final hymn here this morning
is from Gadsby's hymn number 984. 984, Hark! How the gospel
trumpet sounds, Christ and free grace therein abounds. Free grace
to such as sinners be, and if free grace, why not for me? Gadsby's hymn number 984, tune
423. Look how the gospel trumpet sounds
Christ and free grace therein abounds Free grace to such as
sinners be Victory, grace, why not for me? The Saviour died, and by his
blood brought rare those sinners near to God. He died to set the captives free. And why, my soul, why not for
thee? The blood of Christ, how sweet
it sounds! To cleanse and heal the sinner's
wounds. The streams thereof, how rich
and free! ? And why my soul, why not for
Thee? ? ? Does Jesus claim them all
to bless? ? ? To clothe them with His righteousness? ? ? To be spotless, full, and free
? ? And why, my soul, why not for Thee? ? ? Eternal life, I cry to Thee
? ? And ruin rebels praise to him
? ? Then sing of grace so rich and free ? ? And say my soul
why not holy ? Almighty God, we do thank Thee
for the wonder of creation and we pray that we may be granted
faith to see beyond the creation to the Creator. We thank Thee,
Lord, for the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray that
we may be enabled to view him by faith and to lay our sin at
his feet and to believe upon him and be saved and to live
a life that is honouring and glorifying unto thee as a light
shining in a dark place. We pray that thy people may be
enabled to remove the light from underneath the table and to shine
brightly, to bring glory unto thy name. We pray, Lord, that
thou forgive us of our sin where we have failed and do make up,
we pray, to take us home in peace and in safety and do enable us
to meet together this evening according to thy will. and now
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father,
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit to be with
us all now and for evermore. Amen.