That is good singing this morning. The last time that we sang, I
thought about our Lord's words when he said, I am the light
of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but have the light of life. What a blessed
privilege it is to know him who is the light and to walk in the
light. Now, if you turn back with me
this morning to Psalm 139, I want to reread verses 14 through
18. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How
great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with
thee. title of my message this morning
is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, taken from those words
in verse 14. As I began looking at this passage
of scripture for several weeks now, I've thought there's three
ways that we could consider it. First, We could consider these
verses as applying to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus when the word
was made flesh. He was fearfully and wonderfully
made so that he is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in
the flesh. How he was fearfully and wonderfully
made, the seed of the woman, No other person in all of history
has ever been like him, the seed of the woman. That seed that
had been promised immediately in the Garden of Eden after Adam
disobeyed God, brought sin into this world, judgment into this
world, condemnation into this world, death into this world,
God promised. the seed of the woman who would
come and crush the serpent, bruise his head. So we could look at
these verses and consider them as concerning the incarnation
of our savior. And then secondly, I believe
we could look at these verses concerning The spiritual body
of Christ, that is the church. He's the head. He has a body. The mystical body of the Lord
Jesus Christ is fearfully and wonderfully made as God saves,
as God calls and saves his people. Members, which we see here, were
all written in the book. from the foundation of the world,
the Lamb's Book of Life. God doesn't write a person's
name in the Lamb's Book of Life when he walks down some church
aisle and shakes the preacher's hand and prays a prayer. The
Book of Life contains the names of all of God's chosen people,
chosen from before the foundation of the world. Listen, as we think about that
body, that spiritual body, that the church, the church, all of
the same, from all time, from the Old Testament saints to New
Testament saints, he only has one body, Christ. He only has one spiritual body. He doesn't have two bodies, one
body made up of national Israel and another body made up of both
national Israel and Gentiles. He has one body. and that body
is Christ, he's the head. Listen to what the Apostle Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians 12. For by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one
spirit. All of the saved, all of God's
chosen people that God calls and baptizes into this spiritual
body, we all drink of Christ. We all eat his flesh and drink
his blood because there's no other way that man may have life
other than by faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only substitute
that God set forth to be the savior of his people. And then
a third way, and this is the way I want us to consider these
verses this morning, David as a man speaking for all men, speaking
for you and speaking for me and for all men who have ever walked
upon the face of God's earth. And I want to make five observations. The first observation is all
men have the same maker. All men have the same maker.
We see that in verse 14. I will praise thee for I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made. You understand that when I say
all men, I'm speaking of all men and women. We all have the
same maker. No man is his own maker. And such a thing as cause and
effect. And you cannot be both. Man cannot
be the cause of his existence and the effect of that cause. All men, that's very simple,
we all have a maker, the same maker. In fact, in Psalm 100
in verse three, David said, it is he that hath made us and not
we ourselves. God made us. We all have the
same maker. You notice in verse 14, David
said, I will praise thee. Who is our maker? God is our
maker. I will praise thee. David uses
two names of the Lord in this psalm. The first name, O Lord,
you see each letter is capitalized. I believe that's in the first
verse. That of course is Jehovah, Yahweh. the name of God which
conveys unto us his eternality. God is eternal. He has no beginning. And it also reminds us this name
Jehovah, that he is a covenant God. That he is a covenant God
who is faithful to his covenant that he made with himself before
the foundation of the world. And then the other name that
David uses here in this psalm of God is the word El, E-L, translated
God, which speaks especially of his great power, the power
of God. And when we read this psalm,
as we did just a few minutes ago, it's one of my favorite
psalms. And I would imagine for most
people it would be in the top five of the psalms because It
praises God, it lifts up God in such a wonderful way, speaking
first of all of His omniscience, His all knowledge, that He knows
everything. You cannot have a thought, you
cannot have a word on your tongue tomorrow that God doesn't already
know and has known from old eternity. God never learns anything. God
knows all things, and He works all things after the counsel
of His own will. This is the God of the Bible,
not the God that's being preached today in so many places, but
the true and living God, all-powerful and all-knowing, and everywhere
present, everywhere present. If you make your bed in Sheol
or the grave or hell, He's there. If you take the wings of the
morning and go to the uttermost parts of the earth, He's there.
He's been there. He's always there. You see, this God who is our
Maker is a great God, mighty God, a marvelous God. He has
all power. God who created us, our maker,
all men have the same maker, who is a God of all power. He created the world and all
things in it, and he made all things for his own glory. This
is what the word of God declares. So that's my first observation.
All men have the same maker. There's only one race, the human
race. God is the maker of all men,
and all men have descended from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Second, all men are fearfully
and wonderfully made. According to Robert Barnes, the
word which is translated fearfully Properly means fearful things,
fearful things. And wonderfully made means to
distinguish. The idea is that man is distinguished
from all of his creation. He's distinguished by his creation
so above and so different among all the works of God's creation. It's so different that it should
fill our minds with awe, with worship when we think about our
Maker, who He is. He's not some wannabe God. He's a great God. Man, our Maker,
is different from, or man is different from inanimate objects. He's different from the animal
creation. He's so different that man is. Him making us, our being made
is so different from everyone else, everything else, that it
should fill us with amazement, with wonder when we consider
our bodies, when we consider how God has made us. Fearfully and wonderfully made. In a sense, we are made up of
two parts. One part, of course, is earthly,
the body, but the other part is spiritual, the heavenly being. Man is fearfully and wonderfully
made. Angels are just spirits. They
don't have a physical body. Animals have a body, but they
don't have a spirit in their soul. Man! Man is so different,
fearfully and wonderfully made when we consider these things.
It should cause us to bow down and worship and praise God Almighty,
our Maker. To be amazed and stand in awe
of Him. My third Observation is, all
men are made of substance. You say, that sounds strange.
I know it does. All men are made of substance.
But look in verse 15 and verse 16. My substance was not hid
from thee. Verse 16, thine eyes did see
my substance. All men are made of substance. If you have a Bible with a marginal
reading, you notice there in verse 15, the first time we see
the word substance, my substance was not hid from thee. You look
in your margin and the first meaning, alternate meaning, maybe
a better meaning is the word strength. Strength. The word means strong. And some
translations of the scripture actually translate this my bone. I think that's the way Martin
Luther translated it into German, my bone. When we think of our substance,
our frame, our skeleton, all men are made of substance. And in these verses, we see that
the womb is called the lowest parts of the earth. See that
in verse 15. My substance was not hid from
thee when I was made in secret, secret place, a dark place, no
light. Sometimes you're working on a
project and you say, well, I've got to have more light on this.
I've got to go get another light bulb or another lamp or something
so I can see this better. The thought is that God, to whom
there's no difference, light or darkness, look at that in
verse 13. Yea, the darkness hath not from
thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the
light are both alike to thee. And in the womb, which is called
the lowest parts of the earth, a place of darkness, a secret
place, if you will, God made us, fashioned us, But he can
work in the dark. He can work in the dark because
there's no difference to him, darkness or light. He saw our substance and made
us. Now Solomon we know was great
in wisdom. God gave him wisdom. He asked for wisdom when he became
king and God Anointed him or gave him such wisdom most people
remember this about Solomon and his wisdom would when those two
women Came to him and both of them had babies, but one night
one of the mothers slept rolled over on her baby and her baby
Suffocated in the next morning the other she got the live baby
rather and came to Solomon both mothers both claiming this baby's
mine and Well, how could Solomon know? He said, he called for
a sword, didn't he? He said, just split the baby
in two. Give half to this one, half to that one. And one mother,
the mother rather, I should say, she, oh no, no. Why? Because
of her love for the child, she would not have that. The other
mother, who's, the baby wasn't, she was willing to have the baby
halved. He was known for great wisdom.
But in the book of Ecclesiastes, he said this, speaking to men. Thou knowest not how the bones
do grow in the womb of her that is with child. You don't know
how that happened. I realize we live in a day of
much greater advancement, but I still say there's a lot of
mystery. There's a lot hidden. Only God knows. Solomon said,
Thou knowest not how the bones do grow in the womb of her that
is with child. Even so, thou knowest not the
works of God, who maketh all. Who maketh all. The words in
verse 15 here, curiously wrought. Those words literally mean that,
like a curious piece of needlework, embroidery work. And I think
of the veil in the temple, or in the tabernacle rather, that
had the beautiful embroidery work, that veil that separated
the holy place from the most holy place. That's the picture
here, that God has made us. Our maker, he, our making rather
has, it exceeds the finest work, embroidery work of men. The hands
of men, they've never made, never been able to make something so
detailed, so beautiful as God has made us. And the words in verse 16, notice
it says, Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect.
I was blessed by one of the writers who made this comment on that.
He said, think of it like a roll of yarn. See these rolls of yarn? Now the knitter looks at that
roll of yarn and sees a beautiful sweater. A stitch has not been
weaved yet, but the knitter sees a beautiful sweater. God looking
upon us, our substance, in our maker's eternal mind, all our
parts, all our members were already designed. In his eyes, they were
already, though nothing had been put together as of yet. And this
also tells us that the time Then in the time that our maker designed,
he made us. Most of us, I assume, were made
in the 20th century, some in the 21st century now. Why weren't
you made in the 15th century or the 1st century or 300 BC? Why? Because God made you and
he made you at your particular time. the particular time that
God had designed for you to be born in this world. The doctors
may have had one idea, God had another. And God's time is the
time. My fourth observation is all
men are made as the maker intends. I want you to turn back with
me to Genesis chapter five. All men are made as the maker
intends. Genesis chapter five and reading
the first three verses. This is a book of the generations
of Adam. In the day that God created man,
In the likeness of God made he him, male and female, created
he them and blessed them and called their name Adam. That's
a generic word. It's like the word homo, Latin
word homo, Adam, man, man and woman. And Adam. Verse three, lived
in 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his
image called his name Seth. You notice that the first man
was made in the likeness of God. We all are familiar with that,
that man was made in the likeness of God. What was that likeness? Well, it consisted in righteousness. God is righteous. Man was made
in the likeness of God. It consists in holiness. God
is holy. I believe it also consisted in
knowledge. God is all-knowing. And it also
consisted in the fact that God gave Adam dominion over everything,
over the animals, over all creation, really, as God has dominion over
all. Now we know that when Adam disobeyed
God, that moral image in which he was created, in the image
of God, it was defaced. It was marred. That's a word
that the old writers used to use. It was marred. I like to
think of it like this, suppose there's a statue men make of
some great American hero, let's say George Washington, and the
statue, the likeness is so great to George Washington, and then
one night some bandits come in and they mar it. They throw paint on it or they
take a hammer and knock off a nose or something like that. They
mar the image. It was created in the very image
of this man, but it's been marred now. Adam was created in the
image of God, that moral image of God, but when he disobeyed
God, that image was marred. And that's the reason here in
verse 3 we read that he had a son in his image. Adam lived 130
years and begat a son in his own likeness. He could not transfer
that image of God in which he was created because it had been
marred to his sons and daughters. But he did. translate or yes,
give to his sons and daughters that fallen image, that marred
image because of his disobedience. It says he lived 130 years. and
begat a son in his own likeness. That was a son named Seth. That
doesn't mean he was 130 years old when he had his first son.
We know his first son was named Cain. And isn't it amazing that
when he was born, his mother Eve says, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. I've gotten a man from the Lord
as though this was that promised one, the seed of the woman. who
would bruise the head of the serpent. I've gotten a man from
the Lord." And what a mistake that was. Cain turned out to
be a murderer. Murdered his own brother. In the womb, in that dark, secret
place, our Maker makes us He makes some males and some females. Babies are not assigned their
gender at birth. Over the years, there's been
pretty much a equal amount of boys and girls born into this
world. That's God's design. So that
a man might have a wife, a wife might have a husband. That's the work and the design
of God who is our maker. Solomon, in that beautiful passage
in Ecclesiastes 3, when he speaks about there's a time for everything,
you know, a time to laugh and a time to cry, time to rejoice
and so forth and so on. And then he comes down to the
end and he says, He, that is God, hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Both male and female are beautiful
in their respective roles as God has created us, has made
us. But when men think and deny that
God is our creator, when evolution begins to be taught as it has
been now for so many years, teaching that man has somehow evolved,
that God is not our maker, then we see that this has opened the
door for all kinds of wickedness and evil in our world and in
our country. If evolution had never been taught,
if man had continued to be taught as we should be, that God is
our maker, God is our creator, I don't think men would have
ever come to accept abortion like so many people are today,
or homosexuality, or same-sex marriages, or gender assignment. This is a direct result, as far
as I'm concerned, from the denial that God is our maker, that he
has made us and not we ourselves. We are his creatures. Now the fifth observation, men
should consider David's praise in verses 17 and 18. Turn back
with me to verses 17 and 18. After David speaks about How
he was fearfully and wonderfully made, he says, how precious also
are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. Now realize that David is writing
or speaking as one who knew that the Lord was his shepherd. But
all men, all men, saved and lost, should consider God's thoughts. David acknowledged that God's
thoughts toward him as a believer are both precious and they are
innumerable. His thoughts are precious. We began to think of God's thoughts
toward us if we are his children today, his everlasting love. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Think on that a while. his thoughts,
his eternal election, his election, which was based not on his foresight
of what man would do, not upon our desert, but his
unconditional election. How he has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings and heavenly places before the world began.
His thoughts are so precious to a child of God. His redemption,
His redemption, the thought of His redemption, He's sending
His Son into this world to shed His blood that He might redeem
us from our iniquities. His non-imputation of sin, David
said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. If he doesn't impute sin to us,
to whom then does he impute that sin? To our Savior, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The sins of his elect were charged
to his account as our surety. All his thoughts are precious. His thoughts unto me as I thought
about this and providing for my greatest need. What is my
greatest need? What is your greatest need? I'll
tell you what it is. I'll tell you what mine is. We
all have the same. We need a Savior. We need a Savior. We need a fountain in which we
may be cleansed from our filth, the filth of our sin. We need
a righteousness in which we may be clothed and justified before
God. I need a savior. You know, I
received a Christmas card several years ago, and it had these words,
and I have tried to remember them. I liked them a great deal. It went something like this.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent
us a scientist. If our greatest need had been
money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest
need was forgiveness, God sent us a savior. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And the psalmist says also, not
only are his thoughts precious, but they are innumerable. In
Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11, I know this was especially
to the nation of Israel, but it applies to all of God's children. God says, for I know the thoughts
that I think toward you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you an expected end. And what's the expected
end? To be with God forever. To enjoy
Him forever. To be like Him. That's our expected
end. The thought here, when David
says, If I should count them, they are more in number than
the sand. When I awake, I am still with
thee. The thought is, if we were to
begin right now, and we began to think of those precious thoughts
that God has for you, that God has for each one of his children,
we would start counting, start counting, and before long, it
would be dark, we'd fall asleep, but when we wake up in the morning,
we could just start again counting. And never count the same thought
twice. They're more than the sand of
the sea. The thoughts that God has for
his people. I pray that the Lord will bless
these words to each one of us.